Every day is a school day.

Today I learned how to do alphas.  Exciting stuff.

I'm getting a better grasp of what to do when I'm modeling and texturing, but there's still a way to go.  I coloured the other day's monster - the body and everything are very basic because I wasn't really focusing on them.  I'm really happy with the antennae - that's where I applied the alpha - a layer that tells the model which parts to show and which to hide.

Here's the monster:

If you remember the last post I put up here - maybe even go back to it - you'll see that the antennae are just four squares.  Here, they have rougher edges and the one on the left is damaged and bent.  All seen through the magic of alphas.

That's my best description.

Today I found out that this blog is going to be looked at as my 'reflective journal'.  This means that I'll be putting things up here that I'm looking at in relation to my course.  Things that show me what sort of thing to research so that I can show you and you can show your friends.

I'm tired.  It's Dan-day today - the 12th of the month.  Melissa-day is the 23rd of the month.  Because they're the days our birthdays are on, we do something to celebrate every month.  Nothing big, like.  It's nice though.  I got breakfast in bed this morning.  Which was lovely.

Peace.

A little better.

My tutor, Josh, showed me a much easier way of modeling.  Different strokes for different folks - not everyone models the same way.  I enjoy this way.

The picture of the creature I'm trying to make here isn't on this computer, so I'll have to upload it next time.  For now, here's the model of it:

It's an Ant-Headed monkey.  Of sorts.  I was really pleased with the drawing so I thought I'd try and do something with it.  I know the thing is blocky and I've left the legs out of the image for a reason.  I've still got a long way to go but I'm really happy to have done this today  :D

Now all I need to do is learn how to do textures and get this thing coloured.

I may use this as a test for my model-map-print-draw-scan line of working.  Or I may use something smaller and a bit more simple...

:UPDATE:
Here's the picture:

In hindsight I see I got the antennae mixed up with another character I drew a while ago, but that's fine. I'll use the damaged antennae on the model I have.

Peace.

Three times in one day.

Here's a quick example of what I'm doing.  It's also a super-quick, scrappily coloured example of another model  :D

So.

From the top left - I draw something.  Going to the right; I put that something onto a card.  Bottom;  when the card is viewed through the Augmented Reality app., the robot from the card appears over the image.

THIS IS WHY I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT MY MASTERS.

It's also why I'm trying very hard to learn Maya and get half decent with it.

Peace.

Small day.

Not as pleased with this one as with the cigs before, but here's a hammer.

I was trying to use as small a colour map as possible, but I had to go with 1024 in the end.  64x64 frustrated me so much that I nearly gave up.  You know when nothing goes the way you want?  Yea.  That's 3D for me.  All the time.

Peace.

Starting small.

I figured that I'd do well to start out making and trying to texture extremely basic things before I try and create people and buildings and monsters and aliens.

I wanted to keep the feel of my pen work on my 3D stuff, so - even though I went about it the wrong way - I scanned in my drawn textures and stuck them onto my model.

I say the wrong way - I thought that the easiest thing to do would be to model a pack of cigarettes and texture it.  To do this, I should have modeled the thing, mapped out the UVs so I could see which parts of the model I was going to be drawing on, drawn the textures and then put those textures onto the map to be seen on the model.

What I did instead was to draw out what I thought would be an accurate texture map and scan that in, proceeded by making the model and then mapping it out.  But I was wrong.  My drawings were less than accurate, so I had to do all sorts of shifting and skewing and rotating to get the textures to where I wanted them.  Lesson learnt.  I have another idea for doing this in the future.

Anyway.  Here's today's result:

I'm pretty happy with it.  Next time, I think I'll model the object, map out the UVs and then print out those maps.  With the printout under another sheet of paper on a light box, I'll then draw the textures on, scan it back in and then sit back as the textures all line up nice-like.

Something like that.

My tutor just informed me that a good idea for a next step is to do this again but using a smaller texture map.  I think I used 1024x1024 and I need to aim for 64x64, apparently...

Peace.

Another attempt at low-poly things.

Well...

Here's my first attempt at texturing my second attempt at making a low-poly character:

 

Yep.

Big thanks to my friend Mike this time - taking the time to show me the first steps of unwrapping this thing and getting some colour on it.

He's also got a few scars and fingernails and things.

I know it's not the best thing that's ever been modeled - far from it.  But it's a start and I'm happy to know that I will get better.

Peace.

Masters. Oh, Masters.

Last week saw the start of my Games Design Masters course at UCLan and I'm well excited.

I've got a good few side projects that I've been setting myself over the past few months, so I'm going to be happy to get those underway.  One of the side projects has actually opened up a little and become my focus for the next couple of months, at least.

My good friend Broady has been super patient with me and has been re-teaching me the little I thought I knew about Maya.  Although this is not the best thing I'm going to make, it's a start and I'm happy with that.  There's nothing to boast about or shout about yet, but here's my first low-poly model this year.

It's a tadpole with arms.  Of course.

Once the thing is mapped out and coloured in I'll be even happier than now.  I can only imagine my elation when I give this thing a skeleton and get it moving a bit.

I think that's how it works, anyway.

I'll have to ask Broady...

Peace.