Rat

Forest Guardian

This video shows the Basic mesh sculpting process for The Forest Guardian within my Character animation. For further information on the forest Guardian please see sketchbook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqbwrwYfIqY&feature=youtu.be

Baby dragons body creation process

Using Sculptris, baby dragon was created by manipulating spheres. To begin with I created a 'bean shape' for the body, as planned initially in the sketchbook.

With an attempt to add the tail by grabbing and pulling the bodies shape, I felt that it looked too undefined. by pressing Ctrl + Z the change was undone. 

starting with a new sphere shape, using grab I pulled the sphere into a tail shape.

Using the 'pinch' tool, I clicked on the end of the shape to create the tip of the tail.

the tail was clicks and dragged over using the grab tool with universal checked, universal moves the entire shape; rather than a part of the shape. Which would cause manipulation. 

The body so far.

Next, the frontal limbs were to be created. Making two new separate spheres; symmetry allows both limbs to be created at once. This took a series of pinching and creasing to get the correct shape for the arm. I aimed to create a 'peanut' shape, to keep the shape of the arm much like a babies. 

fingers were added by grabbing and pulling the palm shape in five individual spaces, I then pushed in between each finger; to create a Chris Sanders' styled hand. 

through adjusting the arms it was taken under consideration to add more shoulder to the arm to create more shape. 

adding the shoulder created more definition to the arm, this was grabbed and pulled up from the upper arm. 

Much like the similar process to the arms, a sphere shape was created, as grab and pull was used to create the basic shape. the toes were added by extruding from the heel, and using the 'smooth' tool to refine the shapes of the toes. 'crease' was then used to draw in the lines between each toe.

Using the 'draw' tool, the ankle was added in.

small toes on either side on the inner foot was also created, using the 'grab' tool and pulling.

the legs were placed int he desired area using the 'grab' tool with the 'universal' option checked. 

the 'flatten' tool was applied to underneath the dragons hands and paws.

3/4 view of the model.

The head which was previously created in sculptris had been placed in zbrush, ready for decimating; this allowed the head to be placed back into sculptris with the body. This prevented sculptris from crashing like it was previously with the head, this being caused by the high poly count.

The head model within Maya's software

importing the lesser polygon counted head, I adjusted with the size using the 'scale' tool, so the proportions of the head matched the body; whilst keeping in mind the head was intended to look larger to keep a baby like appearance. 

Once the decision was made for the heads placement, a new sphere was added and sculpted into a neck; created using the grab tool.

placement of the sphere before sculpting neck.

neck muscles were defined using the smooth and draw tool.

The model was then placed into Zbrush; ready for decimating and importing into Maya.

side view of Dragon model. Model was consisted of tri's and is noticeable with this material.

experimentation with Zbrush's materials.

The model was placed in Mudbox; here I attempted to add the colour and textures of the model. However due to low subdivision, Mudbox created high manipulation onto the model.

Experimentation of colouring and stenciling textures in colour onto the model. painting was sporadic and therefore couldn't be painted correctly within mudbox. This could be due to the model consisting of tri's rather than quads. small shards of triangles are noticeably shaded in where they shouldn't have been. 

Model has now been converted into Mayas interface; ready for rigging.

Decreasing the size of Maya's pre-made human skeleton, I attempted to rig the model. 

though placement was specific to dragons anatomy, maya continued to show warning that the joints were not assigned in the correct place (as I was using a human skeleton)

Orange signifies the rig would create and issue. Rather than using a premade human skeleton, I will be creating my own skeletons for quadruped animals within Maya.

frontal limb is too stretched, no extra joint is placed on the back leg as it should be.

incorrect placement and shape to the arm and leg, knee's and shoulders to far back and pushed up. 

upper arm and leg joints too elongated for Baby dragons short limbs, hip joint is also far too elongated. No tail or neck and head rig is included; as is no lower jaw rig.

Baby dragons head model

After experimenting with softwares, I have found one which I will be making all my main models with from now on for the animation. Sculptris is a better alternative for me to create base models, before adding detail and texture in Zbrush. Zbrush also allows me to reduce the polygon count in later times when Sculptris crashes from too high a polygon count. These models are also able to be later put into Maya for animating; though I am considering my animation to take place in Zbrush - if I can get used to this software as well as I've been able to with maya.

thought here is an unfortunate lack shown regarding the process of the Baby dragons head being created; This is the complete model. Baby dragons head consists of five items in total. Sculptris allows you to create a model whilst being mirrored - making the model asymmetrical. 

Firstly, Baby dragons head was created. this started out as a simple raindrop shape, and later a snout and eye sockets were formed. Two Large spheres were then scaled and fit into place. 

The next item to be created were the horns, there were created by manipulating the sphere shape by grabbing and pulling, then pinching the top to create the tip of the horns smaller and sharper. The horns were then placed into the head, and the edge of  the head was drawn on to create the protrusion of the horns from the skull and head,

The ears were created next, here I created a flat shape by stretching a small sphere by grabbing the shape. I then refined the shape by smoothing, and later grabbing the outside to create a hollow area for the inner ear. I then creased the inside more to create a better shape for the inner ear,

Thee spikes were then added, this was created by pulling a very small sphere, smoothing it and then copying and pasting this shape and scaling and rotating the shape to fit on the head.

Detail of the roof f the mouth were added by drawing lines, and pushing in shapes using drawing inverted int he gum line for the teeth to be added later.

Baby dragons lower jaw was also added. This was created by stretching the sphere to a primitive shape, and hollowing out the inside using flatten and smooth. Details of the lip were then added using Draw, and the jaw was rotated and scaled to fit.

Example of how Baby dragons mouth will appear when opened in animation

3/4 view of Baby dragons head with mouth closed.

Playing with the materials on Sculptris.