Off-Topic #1

Is it a good idea for this blog to start hosting off-topic posts? James, please chime in with your thoughts on the matter. I see a number of reasons why it's no big deal if we drift into non-CG posts but I also see a few reasons why it's maybe not the best idea.

Maybe it's a question more easily answered with a concrete example. In that light, I present two tidbits in our first (and maybe only) "Off-Topic" segment:

• How to "solo" layers in Photoshop.

Option-click the "eye" in the layers palette. On a daily basis I use Maya, After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator. Each is a brilliant application in one regard or and a complete pile of c#$p in another regard. You sometimes wonder if the application developers even know that there are other applications out there with things that might be worth "borrowing."

On that note, one great tool in After Effects is the "solo layer" command. There's a small radio button in the AE composition window that, when you click it, turns off every other layer. It's a nice, simple thing that quickly becomes part of your workflow. It's great for troubleshooting and overall very nice at helping you figure out complex compositions. Well, why the hell doesn't Photoshop have this option? I mean, they're made the same company, you'd think that some smarts would flow between the two development teams, right? I've pined for a long time for this simple thing...

Turns out it's been in Photoshop since, like, version 4 or something. And it's just that simple, option-click (mac) on the eye in the layers palette to solo your layer, option-click again to un-solo. It remembers your initial state as well, meaning that if you have some layers turned off already when you solo a layer, when you un-solo that layer, the already-off layers remain off. Nice job.

• Evo and Proud

I've just started reading a new blog called "Evo and Proud." It bills itself as "Peter Frost's anthropology blog, with special reference to sexual selection and the evolution of skin, hair, and eye pigmentation." I suppose it is all that. To me, it's just interesting.

One of my best friends is anthropologist at Emory U and I'm kind of a pop-science nerd. Give me some Pinker, Pollan or Carl Sagan and I'm a happy guy.

Well, that's it for now. The weekend kicked my butt with MEL class and my re-cutting my reel so I've nothing at all good to show, project-wise.

Cheers.

Maya Tip of the Day #3

Or maybe this is "MEL Tip of the Day #1." You be the judge.

So, I'm starting up a MEL scripting class through CGSociety. I'm pretty excited, though it will definitely take a small chunk out of my free time and slow down my work on this project. My hope, however, is that at the end of the class I've have a few more tools at my disposal that will speed up my work on the project as I come out the other side.

From time to time I'll try and post some MEL goodies and here is the first:

JEdit.

JEdit is a text editor, Java-based so it's platform agnostic and highly customizable. I played with it a little bit and liked it but I didn't love it. There was something about the Java feel that didn't sit right with me. I played with a couple others, namely TextMate and TextWrangler and found them decent enough but uninspiring (this is on OSX, so the biggies like Crimson Editor and MEL Studio Pro aren't in the running).

And then I kept crashing Maya. I'd type some code into TextWrangler, copy it, command-tab to Maya, paste it, run it, command-tab back into TextWrangler, type some code...rinse and repeat until Maya said "ENOUGH!" Maya does not like rapid-fire application switching.

...sigh...There's gotta be a way to execute code in Maya right from within a text editor, right? Right. And the right choice for that is JEdit. Remember how I said it was way customizable? I wasn't kidding. Following a blog post on Sean Nolan's site, I found a tutorial on highend3d written by a guy named Ron Bublitz, who is way, way too smart for me to really get a handle on. He wrote up a couple macros and a tutorial on how to configure JEdit to send your script into Maya and have it executed there. Seriously.

I even did it. I typed "polyCube" in JEdit, clicked a button in my toolbar and there was a little wireframe box in Maya. Magic. Will wonders never cease? Not at this rate.

Tip of the hat to Mr. Bublitz and JEdit and keep yer eyes peeled for more insane scripting action coming your way. I may even write some MEL that would make TWO little boxes appear in Maya! That would be something...

Same Bird, Different Shader

Just for fun, here is the same model as in the previous post, with a blinn shader, using Final Gather and an IBL Node. (Nothing fancy, but it shows the look of the model a bit more polish to it.)
*Disclaimer: This is just to get a sense of how things are coming along. The final Model will most likely not be a solid blob of metal..

Bird Number One WIP 7

Well, I am happy to say that the first phase of modeling on the bird is complete. All of the basic shapes are in place, and in a good relationship to each other. Next is to refine these basic shapes, and add details such as seams and bolts.

I had to redesign the legs and feet so that they would be able to grasp things, as well as function on uneven surfaces. To do this I used a skeleton from a raven (Don't worry, a picture). I chose a raven, because I had a run in with one Thursday afternoon on my way through a small park in San Francisco's Financial District. He was huge, and totally un-phased by humans!

The raven run-in led me to Google ravens once I was in front of the computer. After reading a few articles and seeing some cool video, I was sold. I plan to use raven footage for reference once I get into rigging and animation.


You may also notice that the beak has been redesigned. After modifying the original design so heavily, it just didn't work to hang on to the original beak. This one too is (loosely) based on a raven's beak.

Comparing this to the original artwork is a real shocker. Nigel came through for us with a cool drawing - And I will admit this is not exactly the same bird. Many aspects of the design had to be modified to allow for certain types of motion to even be possible. As one element was changed, others followed to compensate - In an attempt to keep the look interesting. In the end I think this design is also successful - And I have tried to pull inspiration from Nigel's work.

Before I continue to develop this model, I will be taking some time to clean up my file. Things can get quite messy with this many individual pieces.. And so I want to make sure my Naming, Groupings, Pivots, and UVs are making sense before continuing on.

As a result I may not have anything to look at for a while. But have no fear - I will be working hard - and will post some new pics when I can.

My UV Layout Post

So, James has been ruling the roost (pun completely intended) here with all of his awesome bird posts and I've been largely silent lately. Mostly I've not been able to work on the project as much as I'd like and also I've been doing the utterly unglamorous job of laying out UV's on the three buildings.

But it is time for me to post again. Here are some pictures of UV's.

The base building UV's.

The top railing. This could easily be a part of the main building but as birds are known for hanging out at the top of buildings, this seemed like a place for its own texture.

The pipes & lantern. The lantern is very low-rez at the moment and if it has any prominence in our shots will surely be art directed with more care than its gotten so far. This works for now though.

The first pic shows building two with a UV layout texture applied to it. The texture is hella ugly by most standards, but it's designed to make laying out UV's easier. The grid pattern & color cycle work as a visual guide, showing you how your UV's look on the model, where there's stretching, relative scale, etc.

I've broken this building up into 6 texture groups. One texture for the main building, one for the three lower doors & steps, one for the top railing, one for the windows, one for the pipes & lantern and one for the signs. This texture assignment is somewhat arbitrary as our shots aren't blocked out yet. I wouldn't be surprised if, on a shot-by-shot basis, the texture sizes & assignments change pretty dramatically. For background shots, for example, this whole building could be taken care of with one camera projection. On a close-up, any one door or window might actually need multiple textures.

I only screengrabbed pics of three textures but they're all there, on all three buildings. Laying all of these out like this was pretty tedious but it gives us the flexibility we'll need later on.

Cheers.

Bird Number One WIP 6

I have finished the wing modifications - Now the wing has mechanisms to control all of different movements it will need. Also I have started on the upper thighs - refining their general shape and tying them into the sub frame of the bird.

Next is to add the lower legs and then adjust the tail feathers as they meet the sub frame of this creature. I have included renders without the wings or body plates to show some of the underlying structure.

As the bird will be in flight, it is important that it be able to withstand scrutiny from many angles.

I do want to refine the head - Especially the eyes, but that can be addressed in the next stage of tweaking and refinement.

Almost done with this phase of modeling!

Bird Number One WIP 5

This post is just for fun. I decided to render a couple frames with Occlusion instead of just doing screen grabs. It a great way for me to see just how much (or how little) detail is needed in certain areas.




As you can see I am a little further along with the wings, and the shoulder integration is in a good place. The last thing I need to do (at this level of detail) to the wings is to add a small indentation for the tabs on the wing sections so they can slot into each other when the wing folds.

Then its onto the legs. They will need some additional development & design.

After that I have a boiler to add into body of the bird, and some details to work out regarding how the tail section is structured. I have built a sub frame through much of the birds extremities to help with this, but I have not finalized certain aspects of how the tail integrates into this frame. Also I would like to add some tiny actuators for the top two tail pieces.

After that I will give a good once over to model - and maybe revisit the eyes. Then I should be finished with this stage of modeling.

I may begin to layout some of the UVs before continuing to model - As I may be jumping into Mudbox to add a bit more of an organic line to the design overall. (Yet to be decided.)

In the following stage I will be refining the profiles of each shape, as well as adding all of the nuts, screws, washers, seams, etc that make something like this really fun to work on. I got the idea today to add some sludge around some of the moving parts - Fun!

I feel like I am past the most challenging parts of modeling this creature - Now that the design is in a good place it has started to flow.