Production Pipeline: Texturing Workflow

Last week I was able to unwrap the Tiki-man model's UVs. Once the UVs were laid out to the best of my ability, I decided that I would generate normal maps using Autodesk's Mudbox. In Mudbox I created an extremely high poly version of the model and was able to sculpt in the details that I want seen on the simple version.

High-poly model within Mudbox.

One I had finished the detailed version of the mask, I attempted to export the normal map from the high poly model for the low poly version. Time and time again, Mudbox is unable to correctly export a good quality and clean normal map for me. As I often am forced to do, I had to bring the high poly mesh into Maya and pray that the program doesn't crash. With the model in Maya, I used Maya's texturing tools to calculate a normal map. And here is the result.

The Low-poly model with the normal map applied

I was able to generate a relatively clean normal map within Maya. The normal map needs some cleaning in Photoshop but this process should save me a great deal of time when texturing. With normals, I am able to get the detail I would like to see in a high poly model using only 160 or so polygons. This normal texture will also serve as a map for when I create the diffuse texture for the model. Although the Engine the game will be played in is unable to support normal maps, I will attempt to bake the shadows of the normal map to give a greater depth to the simple model. With the mask done, I will be using the same kind of technique for the remainder of the body.

Production Pipeline: Tiki-Man Model

I have just about finished the Tiki-man model. He is currently 760 polygons and can be cut down some more if needed. I plan to unwrap his UVs and begin texturing as soon as I can.

Digital Studio: Reference Images 2

Because my work for the arm model is currently as far along as it can be, I will be getting a head start on the second model needed. The model will be a full body that will eventually match the silhouette of the body within the film. The body will then be passed off to the programmers and texture artists who will be making the body shatter properly.

The images were taken last Friday at the filming. The film team we are working with did an excellent job preparing lighting, stage, and camera movements. The shots are looking great and are being edited together into a finalized form of the film without any special effects or additional editing. Once the editing is done my job will be to get back to the arm model to make it match with the arm in the film.

Production Pipeline: Progress

I have been gradually working on the Tiki-man model for the Blocks mobile game. One of the major struggles I have faced when working on the model is keeping to the extremely low poly-count. Because the game is being made for cell phones and other mobile devices in the unity engine, the character model must use as little polygons as possible. Working on the face, a major part of the model I initially was going to indent the mouth and eyes where they need to be. By removing the mouth and eyes and instead planning to use textures to color them and create the illusion of depth, I was able to significantly reduce the poly-count.

New reduced model compared to original plan.

This is the first time I have had to model with such strict poly limits. Hopefully I am able to keep the remainder of the Tiki-mans body simple enough to work for the game but still look good. I think using the textures for mouth and eyes will help optimize the model and also look better removing jagged edges.

Digital Studio: Progress

I had a lot of time to work today on the arm and hand model for the project. Using the images that I had gathered last weekend, I was able to construct a hand that matched the hand of the actor reasonably well. I planned to model the hand first and then use some basic rigging and a little weight painting to make the hand close into the first.

I am leaving the wrist and arm separate for now and will combine them once I have the final pose of the arm from the film. Once I had the arm and hand modeled to match the images as best I could, I began to rig the hand to close into a fist.

Once the hand was clenched, I painted joint weights to make the fingers look as accurate as possible. From there I deleted the history, separating the hand from the joints, and used the "Sculpt Geometry Tool" to fix any stretching from using the joints as well as fill in the closed fist to get a better realistic feeling of the soft tissues in the hand and fingers.

Here is the resulting model. The hand and arm look good enough for this point in time and may need to be changed later to match the models hand in the film.

-Doody

"Dreamworks" : Photoshoot

Last Friday the team from the project met with the martial artists that we will be working with for the project. The meeting was set up for two reasons, first to collect reference images of the actors arms and bodies that need to be modeled and secondly to work out the choreography of the fight. My job here as the modeler was to collect any initial reference images that I would need to work this week constructing the arm model. I took images of the hand open and closed in case the fingers would need to be completely present within the closed fist for when the arm shatters.

Here are a few of the images I took. They are not perfect but will serve the purpose they need for the beginning model. I will be collecting more images this upcoming week at the actual filming. The images collected there will be used to fine tune the model to perfectly silhouette the arm in the film.

After seeing the actors in action I am excited to see how the project will turn out.
-Doody

Tiki-man

Drawing By Daniel Farruggia