Headup

Soooo busy doing the head, I made a new head and spend a lot of time creating it and making it look like the original one.
So that being done I enhanced the model and made some eyelids, these are part of the mesh and will eventually be rigged.
When that was done I took some time to look at subsurface scattering and tried to find a look to match his skin.
That worked out really well so I am stoked with that.
And at last but not the least I was thinking about the hair, I first made it as a whole in 1 mesh but
since I am upgrading it all I found a way to use the hair module and get away with a good look.
It is not final but I am almost getting the look I wanted.

I call it quits for the weekend, I have made some nice progress and I am happy with where it is going.
More to come soon!!!

The weighting game

I've took some serious time to fix my base figure with some nice topology.
And after that I used the autorigger in c4d to build that puppet some bones.
It is a handy tool and I will dive into it more cuz I need to setup some preferences of my own here.
I decided to cut my character up into a head, the jacket, the mittens, jeans and boots.
This way I have more flexibility over the painting etc I guess, well I will find out if this is the way to go, but I think it is..

And after this was all setup except the painting the weighting of the character was next.
I don't know what it is with weighting but it takes some serious time, most of the time the examples are thin but my character has a thick jacket so that will not cut it for this.
After spending a whole day or so on weighting it is almost where I want it to be.
It works quite nice so the works has paid off.

The head is something that I wanna rebuild to make it all tidy.

I will post some progress tomorrow to keep the juices flowing.

Cheers.

Timeeee

Weekend, well yeah but still struggling to make time for my project.
Our new dog is claiming much time and she is a bit sick so poor poor doggy.

Back to the project.
I am getting the hang of uv layout slowly but surely.
It is quite elaborate so it takes some time to get used to.
But I get the idea and find my way through the interface quite well.

I am rebuilding the main character and taking care the edge loops and topology are ace.
That will take some time and comments from friends before I take that to the next level.

So I was playing with the new sculpting tools in C4d, they are very awesome and just what I need to
carve in the fine detail after the modeling.
But still I have some problems when I tested it from C4d to uvlayout, got some nice uv's and
started sculpting from there.
It was especially at the edges where the mesh got a bit to deformed.
So that will take some research to solve.

Still loving them sculpting options, it is not super slick if you have a high polycount but hey,
it aint zbrush, but 3 yeahs for the ease of use.
Exactly what I need for this project.

I will post some detailed imagery if I solved the problem of the edges.

Till then, be afraid..
There are monsters under the bed.......

Uv man!

Well I am getting into another piece of software to generate clean
uvmaps for my character etc.
For y'all who do not know what I am talking about I'll explain it a bit.
A 3d model is built out of polygons, if you want to paint on the model we
need to have a flat 2d representation of  the model.
This is called a uvmap.
In the process of making a model the uv's can get mixed up like crazy.
To lay them out perfectly so you can understand what it is you need a uv layout
kind of program.
In this program you can flatten out these mixed up uv's and get a clean representation
of the 3d model in 2d.

I've had the program on the shelve for some time
but was freaked out by the brilliantly hideous interface.
I know it is probably the best piece of software to get the job done so
tomorrow I'll dive into it to get sh!t done!

More to come!

Cinema4d v 14

I've got my c4d 14 last week so after installing it and setting up my preferences/shortcuts/interface/plugins I am ready to roll.
I've decided to buy this version cuz of a couple of reasons.

1st sculpting, I love zbrush but hate the interface/workflow and since I am not doing major character design this will suffice for me.
I just love the c4d sculpting interface, it is very easy and self explanatory.
This tool will definitely be something I will be using on the project to make some nice folds, clothes, dirt and details etc.
What the catch is with this nice technique is that it has to have good uv coördinates, and that is also a thing I have to wrap my head around.

2nd
Integration with Nuke, since this is a long project I wanted to fix the post in nuke, I love the program, it looks so cool and I love node based workflows.

Anyhoo, c4d has new integration with nuke...well noooo, not really, the thing I am craving for since a year or 3 is correct camera exchange from c4d to nuke, it goes via fbx format.
This format contains keyframed animation of obj's and camera's.
For some reason c4d camera's always flip in nuke, it is a known problem and I find this very sad.
They boast with the nuke exchange but when push comes to shove it doesn't work quite yet.
I hope they pull some code strings in the near future so that I can do my compositing in nuke.

This weekend I will do some character work I guess.
It is time to invest major hours into the correct setup of my character, not really looking forward to the shitload of hurdles but it has to be done.
And it will be done!!!

Dynamics

In the bedroom hangs a toy plane on some strings.
I was figuring out how to move it a bit like the draft is playing with it.
After some playing around I found a workflow which works quite nice for this type of animation.
Also I had to figure out how to connect it to four strings which was kind of a challenge for me.

It is not physically correct but it works.
I used a spring to attach my plane and use some wind to influence the dynamics tag.
Then I added 4 nulls to the plane and another 4 to the ceiling.
I traced them and sweept them.
It is still in the works but for now it will do, its a subtle effect, nothing more nothing less.
https://vimeo.com/49075008

On to the next one, the character from the ground up.

Below

Good news, I have always used Cinema4d for my animations but never had the chance to purchase it.
Well, I have bought it now with a little help from a sponsor.
Back in the days I had a 2 day course C4d at Enyacad(Rotterdam)
Nicoline, the women who taught me a thing or 2 also is a reseller of C4d, so we came to an understanding which means I get a phat discount :D
Love it, so make sure to check her site at:
http://cinema4dtrainingen.nl/
http://www.enyacad.nl/

So if you are looking for some personal or group courses go to the site and get the info you need!

I always want to pay for software and I think that if you can you should!
So yeay, that one is in the pocket.

And now back to the project, after making the hall the entrance is next.
It took some time to set it up, but I am close to a satisfying result.
I have used some stock models and some free ones from the net to complete my room so thats that.
Without my intentions I am feeling the Anton Pieck vibe I was talking about earlier.

So here it is, it is still in progress but I wanted to share this with y'all!

If it is done I'll post the final!