Ana stands behind the chair, just far enough back that her shadow, cast from the ceiling light, fits neatly between the chair’s back legs. This is important for the process to work correctly. David sits in the chair looking forward, arms to his sides though he’s unsure of what to do with them. Ana seems to have a whole ritual but for David this is proving awkward, and more so by the minute.

“Try not to move OK,” says Ana.

Her eyes are now tightly shut. She reaches forward with her arms, out stretching her fingers trying to touch the backs of David’s ears without losing her position in the light, or her balance. The tips of her fingers just reach.

“Hey!” David shivers at the touch.

“Hold still!” comes the command.

Although David cannot see it, Ana’s face is crumpled with tension and concentration, like someone trying to look into a freezing wind.

The two remain like this for what seems to David like several minutes. The tiny points of contact where Ana’s fingertips meet his hears are becoming hot and tacky, and an errant itch has surfaced on the inside of his right calf, demanding attention. Finally he speaks, restricting himself to a whisper though he’s not entirely sure why.

“Is it working? Do you see anything?”

Ana’s breathing becomes slow and deliberate, David can feel it now on the back of his neck, but she is still silent and David begins to wonder if she heard him.

After a long moment, Ana speaks. “I . . .” she stops, and another hot breath washes over the hairs on the back of David’s neck. “There’s something, it’s hard to see.

Readjusting her stance slightly Ana leans forward, running her fingers along the curve of David’s ears. Suddenly she grasps both earlobes and pinches down with a violent twist.

David screams. It’s a high pitched scream that his mind instantly registers as girly. He tries to pull forward out of Ana’s reach but her grip is strong and instead she’s pulled along with him. Dislodged from her careful shadow balance Ana stumbles forward, her grip on his ears released, collapsing over the back of the chair. In a last ditch effort to keep from falling her arms ring his neck.

David’s shouts become a choked gurgle as Ana’s arms press against his throat. He pulls her arms forward to relieve the pressure and she quickly regains her balance. Whirling around he shouts in fits and starts.

“What . . . what was that? What are you doing?” His face is red.

Ana wrestles her arm from David’s grip and stands, adjusting herself into a broad smile, her hands on her hips.

“Seventeen,” she says, looking at David from a rakish angle. “The number you are thinking of is seventeen.”

David’s angry scowl loses it’s structure and melts, leaving a sort of slack confusion that only broadens Ana’s smile. He blinks once, then twice, and slowly nods his head. A smile slowly creeps across his face.

“Teach me how!” shouts David, and the two switch places.

It’s test render day! *hurray*

I’m nearly finished roughing out all of the details on my half-a-Ada and once they are finished I can sew her up, as it were, and start in on the non-symmetrical stuff that gives her character and style and panache and stick-to-it-ivness and good breath and an interest in puzzles and all that.

This also gave me a chance to play with some of the rendering features of Maya. For those who don’t know, rendering is the process of turning the model into a 2D image, sort of like taking it’s picture. In the modeling environment the model is very simple so that the computer can work with it quickly, but in a render we turn on all the bells and whistles like textures, materials, smoothing, lighting, shadows, et cetera.

Here’s the render, the white side is the model and the green is just a direct mirroring to give you an idea of what things will look like (you can tell the seam needs some tweaking).

We’re still not quite ready for all the fancy settings yet, but I turned on a few. First, subdivision surfaces. This algorithm takes the polygons I’ve defined explicitly and subdivides them, averaging the new in-between faces to make the model look a whole lot smoother with far less work from me. 3D animation uses this technique all the time, and in fact one of it’s developers was Edwin Catmull, current president of Pixar and Disney Animation no less. It’s not a fun algorithm to program, but luckily I don’t have to because Maya has a checkbox ^____^

The second one is called Ambient Occlusion and it’s what is giving the surface that posh diffused shadow look. The algorithm for this one is a bit complicated, but the basic result is that areas that are under, crowded, folded, creased or cramped show up dark while large smooth areas are lighter. This approximates the way diffuse light bounces off of non-reflective surfaces.

Hopefully up next, Ada Post-Op.

One of possibly several tests posts. Please ignore.

I’ve just about roughed out my model, but in the process I had to do some major surgery. This seems to be a theme with these Ada projects . . .

In this case I cut my model in half down the center. Apparenlty this is a pretty common technique when modeling a character in 3D because you focus all your attention on one side and then just mirror it to the other side when you’re done. When I started out I thought this sounded foolish and I would have no part of it, but, well, here we are.

Turns out not giving the model a cleave down the middle just makes for headache after headache, and better she have the headache than me (get it, because she cut in half, and her head . . . and it would hurt because . . . ahh, never mind).

Here’s a few views of the carnage:

In the process of learning Maya I’ve been frantically searching the Internet for some sort of basic tutorial on creating a UV map for a model in Maya, unfortunately with little success. With some help from colleagues I’ve managed to work out the basics, but I thought it might be nice to record what I’ve learned. Maybe it will help you.

As an example I will be creating a UV map of this rock. Hopefully this is a good exemplar because it’s simple, but not so simple that describing the process will be unhelpful. Here’s my model:

The first step is to apply a material to the object. It doesn’t matter what, so I’ll use a basic Lambert. We (by which I mean me, and you if you’re similarly following along) select the model and under the rendering tab, click the lambert icon (the dull sphere).

Next we’ll add a stock texture so we can see the UV mapping as we work. I’ll use a checkerboard pattern. To apply the texture, in the Attribute Editor click the small checkerboard icon next to the color property of the Lambert material you just created. In the box that pops up, select the check pattern. To see the applied texture in the editor window, press 6 on the keyboard to show textures.

The initial mapping is, well, awful. You can see where the checkerboard is stretched and contorted. Ideally the checkerboard should cover the object evenly. The UV mapping we’re creating will correct this. To get started, open the UV texture editor window:

In the window you’ll see the default UV mapping. We’ll be replacing this with our mapping.

We’ll be using a number of planner mappings to piece things together. A planner mapping is just what it sounds like, the vertices of the model are flattened against a plane and become the UV’s of the map.

When you choose the menu item for planner mapping, open the options box so you can adjust some settings. Set “Projection From” to “Camera”. This will use whatever angle the camera is looking as the plane that is projected (hence the name ^_^ ). You’ll also want to choose “Keep image width/height ratio”. If you don’t then the UV arrangement will be distorted to fill the UV plane rather than maintain their relative distances.

Hit the project button and the result will be something like this:

Notice how the checkerboard looks all neat and tidy now? That’s what we’re looking for.

Before we move on, there is a very important setting we need to adjust. This was one of the things that I didn’t find in other tutorials. In the Channel Box, find the settings for the planner projection you just made and edit the Projection Width and Height properties to some easy to remember number, it doesn’t matter what. I use “100″. You’ll notice when you do this that the scale of your UV’s in the UV editor will change, which is fine.

We do this because we’re going to be making a number of planner projections. When Maya makes a projection it does all it can to maximize it’s size within the UV plane. This means that each time the UV’s you get are at a different scale. If you then went and tried to texture this object with a repeating pattern then some parts would magnify the pattern and some would shrink it.

If instead we set these values to some common number each time we make a projection then they will all have the same scale.

Now we’re going to start dividing things up. For some reason, (and you may have already noticed this) when you don’t have any UV’s selected Maya likes to show nothing in the UV editor, which can make finding the points to adjust very difficult. You can make this easer by turning on UV shading in the tool palette of the UV Texture Editor.

This setting will also help you see if you have overlapping areas (which are to be avoided). You might also want to toggle the texture image on or off, or dim it if it’s getting in the way. You can do that with the other set of highlighted controls in the same window.

OK, well if you start moving your model around you’ll notice that from the projection direction the mapping looks pretty good, but along the edges things get stretched out and distorted. To address this, we’re going to make several more planner projections from different angles to get a good mapping all the way around. However, before we do that, we want to keep the mapping we have in the areas where it’s working.

To do this, in the modeling view select the faces you were looking at when we did the planner mapping. As you do, you’ll see them highlighted in the UV Texture Editor as well. We’re going to separate them from the others. When you have them all selected, in the UV Texture Editor click the “Separate Selected UV’s” button. You can then move this grouping off to the side somewhere.

Time for another projection. Move the model so you can see it from another angle where the mapping is poor, then select the faces you want to remap. Then, just as last time, perform a planner projection. Don’t forget to adjust the width and height properties of the projection to whatever number you are using.

When you do this you’ll see another set of UV’s show up in your UV Texture Editor. You’ll also notice that the corresponding UV’s in what’s left of that original projection have been removed. That’s because you’ve replaced them. This is a good way to make sure as you progress that you have a mapping for every face on the model.

Move the new projected part off to the side somewhere and continue on making projections until you’ve got the model covered. For this model I ended up with 4 pieces.

The next thing you’ll notices is that where the surface of the model has been cut into different UV pieces the checkerboard pattern is discontinuous. You can think of this mapping process as taking the peal off of a piece of fruit and then pinning it down to a piece of paper. You have to cut the peal so that it can lie flat without overlapping. When you stretch the peal back over the fruit, it leaves seams where it was cut.

For most models it’s unavoidable to have some seams like this, so the goal is to place them in places where they will be less obtrusive. Here, because I’m making a rock, I can make my seams fall along the edges of the rock where the surface texture would naturally be discontinuous. You can also work to hide the seams when you create the images that will form your textures. The point is, put some forethought into where your seams should be.

There are also times when it’s advantageous to make 2 projections of an area, but then to stitch them back together in the UV Texture Editor to remove a seam. Here for example I have 2 projections that I would like to join together.

By highlighting the associated faces on the model I can find the corresponding edges of my projections. Next I’ll position them as close to each other as possible, and then move the individual UV’s so that they are nearly coincident.

As you move the individual UV’s, watch the model. You’ll see the texture swim along the surface. As you move them, do your best to maintain a regular pattern.

Once the UV points are nearly on top of each other, select the two UV’s and click the sew button in the toolbar to combine them.

You may also find that along some of the faces that were not quite parallel to your projections the texture has been slightly stretched or distorted. You could perform another projection and then try and sew the pieces together, bit sometimes for small areas it’s easier to just adjust the UV’s by hand.

Here for example the top face looks a but stretched out, so I’ll move the corresponding UV point in the UV Texture Editor.

Much better. Here’s my finished mapping:

Next we need to fit these pieces into the upper right quadrant of the UV plane. We want the pieces to be as large as possible so they are easy to paint, so we’re going to rearrange them to be in a roughly square area.

If this were a character model or some other complex object with some areas of low detail and others of high detail, we might scale areas like the face or hands to be much larger, and the other areas smaller to make painting in all that detail easier. In this case however we want the projections to keep their relative sizes so that a rocky texture of a single scale can be applied to the whole thing.

You can translate the pieces and spin them all you want, but don’t scale them individually or they will get out of proportion.

When you have them arranged, select all of the UV’s and shrink them so they fit into the upper right quadrant.

Hey guess what. You”re done! At this point you can export your mapping to Photoshop or whatever image editor you prefer and apply whatever colors or images you’re object requires.

I hope this has been helpful. I should point out that I just learned how to do this myself, so some of what I’ve described above my not be the best approach (or even completely wrong). At the very least, it may be much faster to use some of the other projection methods rather than sticking with planner projections. For this object for example, because of it’s roughly columnar shape, a cylindrical projection might have been a better starting point. No matter the projection you use, the basic techniques and principles are the same.

Good luck!

Progress on my clay maquette of Ada continues, but we creative types need a little variety in our schedules. As I mentioned previously, I am assiduously studying computer modeling in Maya. In my last update I was working on a crab model, as you may remember. I still have that fellow around here somewhere, but he’s mostly modeled out and ready for rigging and animation while I still need some more complex modeling practice.

Well Ada to the rescue!

I’ve just started in on this one, so I don’t have much done yet, but it’s starting to take shape.

Just like the clay model I started out with a front and side view of Ada to guide my construction. The nice thing about the computer is that I can just stick the pictures on two intersecting planes and then build Ada right over top. That way I know everything lines up and is exactly the right size. Aren’t computers grand? (No, I don’t think so either, but this bit is nice.)

Here’s a few different views of what I’ve got to this point:

Continuing to add details. Check out those handsome pockets. Very posh.

As I alluded to in the last post, the arms were not quite right. I spent a little time thinning them down, but I began to run into the armature wire, so some drastic action was required to reposition her “arm bones”.

I’m also starting to smooth down the surface and get it as even as possible. You’ll notice too that, now that I have the pigtails at a size and shape I like I’ve clipped the loose ends of the hair wires away and covered up the ends.  I’ll be doing the same thing with the arms when I have them right and proper.

Because I’m also trying to learn some computer-based 3D modeling, I will be starting in on a 3D model Ada in Maya in a little while. (Ada and Maya, it makes them sounds like little friends ^_^) I’ll try and post some of my progress on that front as well in the near future.

Until then, intrepid Internet reader. Up next, arms of course.

With the major body shapes in place I’ve begun adding some details. This includes the beginning of her lab coat, and of course her glorious pigtails. Have a look:

Incidentally, there were a few steps in here that I left out (sorry). After working up the initial body shapes I found that I had bulked up the armature a little too much. The foil and wires were right up the the surface of of the layer of clay, so some surgery was required. I stripped away most of the clay from the body and head and then with a pair of pliers I crushed the foil and wire of the armature so it was about 10% smaller. Then built the clay layers back up.

Sometimes it’s a little disheartening to take such drastic measure. At first I kept sculpting hoping I could make things work, but I think I lost a lot of time doing this. No worries it was worth it. Everything is dandy-swell and peachy-fine now.

The other bit I should probably mention is the wire I added to the back of Ada’s giant mellon to give some structure to the pigtails. You can just barely see the ends of the wire peeking out from the ends of each lock. Just as before I used a section of of heavy gage wire wrapped with thinner wire, but this time the wire isn’t really attached to the head armature at all. It’s just held in place by the thick clay at the back of her head.

Coming up, a face.

Starting to add some clay now. I’m using Super Sculpey to make this model. However, the Sculpey that comes out of the box is a sickly semi-transparent flesh tone that I am particularly averse to, so I mixed the straight stuff with 1 white and 1 black square package of colored Sculpey III to get this neutral opaque grey color ( or is it gray colour? ). If you’re planning on trying this, get yourself one of those little pasta machines to help you mix the clay. Otherwise it will likely take you an entire day of kneading and rolling to get them mixed (that was my experience anyway).

So far I’m just generally building up the mass of the major shapes.

If you compare this version with the armature in the last post you’ll also notice that there is an extra support coming from Ada’s back. I was hoping to get away with only the 2 leg wires running through the base but after a little work with the clay that proved to be unstable. With Ada’s new appendage things are much easier.

More to come, including pig-tails!

I’ve started a new sculpture project and I’ve committed this time to try and take some exciting in-progress pictures.

One of the last things I made before leaving school was a maquette of an animal character I created as part of my final semester project. I had no idea what I was doing at the time so inevitably the whole process was loads of fun. And you know what? It turned out brilliantly.

This time around I decided to make something a little more ambitious, a standing figure model of Ada, the little pig-tailed scientist girl from my animation project.

I’ve started with an armature, basically a loose skeleton of wire that can be affixed to a base and will give the model a bit of support. Here’s my initial armature.

The base is made from a blank wood round I bought at the craft store. I simply drilled 2 small holes and ran my leg wires through them. On the bottom I took a chisel and made some channels for the loose ends of wire to sit in so that the base could sit flat.

I used 2 sizes of wire. One heavier gauge for the main shapes and one much lighter to tie things together. If you look close you can see that in places like the arms and legs I’ve wrapped bits of the smaller wire around the larger structural wire. Becuase the large wire is smooth it can be hard for the clay to stick to it in places like this. Wrapping the bare wire like this gives the clay something to hold on to.

You’ll also notice that I’ve added in some balls of aluminum foil to form the major masses. By using the foil I don’t have to use so much clay, so the final model is lighter and less expensive. I use foil because it can be baked in the oven right along with the clay.

More progress shots to come so stay tuned.

Well the day is drawing near and the invitations for the wedding are out so I think it’s safe to post the final illustrations I did for my good friend’s up coming wedding in the woods.

First things first, this is the invitation image:

Cute, right?

Another idea that we all loved was the notion that the wedding should be attended by some of the forest creatures. I worked up a few woodland couples:

 

 

 

 

Don’t they look dashing?

For big design projects I like to make some small elements that can be reused over and over wherever the design might need a little picture or accent. It’s a good way to make the whole thing feel unified without making tons of custom illustrations. Even though I didn’t do the graphic design for this project (the couple did it themselves and did a fantastic job!) I wanted to give them stuff to work with, so I made up some small silhouette icons to use here and there.

Finally I ended up doing a larger version of one of my original drawings that didn’t quite fit the invitation. Instead this one ended up on the wedding website. I like the way it turned out.

Everyone asks which person is the bird and which is the squirrel.