Size matters a lot

So, in the animation, there will be a cardboard plane. It needs to be as small as possible, while Ben is still able to step in. (For now, his name is Ben.) Up next: rigging the plane. It doesn't need that much, but the propellors need to rotate. Also, I want the wings to be able to bend a bit.

While posing Ben in the plane, I found out that my rig does not always have the smartest linking.  I guess that won't be too much of a problem. Also, there is some serious skin-fixing coming up. (Not the most enjoyable part.)

First Skin test

It's been quite busy, but I did manage to skin little Ben. He needs a bit more attention at the legs and at some other places. Still, I'm happy to see this is getting somewhere.

I've got a scenario ready for a (about) 90 second animation. My half-way-the-year-wish is to finish it before 2012. Then, find someone to do the audio. 

I found / made some time

The face is fully rigged already. The body is not. And, clearly, I still need to do the hands. But this is getting to be more and more fun. I can't wait to make some nice animation with him. He still needs a name. I think I'll refine the hair a bit as well. Oh, and texturing the body. Simple and subtle.

Good topology

So, I wanted to explain good topology to my students. I created this face as an example. It has little over 2000 polygons and they are all quads.

The wireframe shows all the loops and stuff. The ears were though to connect to the head, without using tri's or creating too long poly's.

I'm quite happy with the result. It will do great as an example. Just for fun, I hope to create the body too. Maybe even rig and animate it all. (But looking at my previous projects, I'm not sure I will actually find the time to do this.)

I'm starting my own eco-system

This is just the start. I have some ideas for a unformiliar eco-system. These are some of the plants. They collect raindrops.

It's all very low-poly. The magic is in the textures. It should all go to UDK one day. A complete eco-system.

(By now, I'm starting to love my Mudbox.)

Ode to Fairytale Fights

Playlogic gave me the opportunity to walk with the pro's for a couple of weeks. They realy took their time to teach me their best tricks and process. (Thanxs Jeroen Backx.) Unfortunately, these weeks were the last weeks of Playlogic. I've seen so much potential there, which makes the bankruptcy extra sore.
Anyway, during those days they taught me the "Fairytale Fights" style and tricks. The last week I made a design for a box where the player could buy weapons. In the FF style, of course. This is it.

It is fully animated in UDK, with 2 idle-state animations, a pop-open and a slow-close animation. When you press E, it pops open with some nice particle effect.

The mesh has a bit less than 1800 tri's. The normal map is painted in Photoshop.

Character Mudbox practice

I've been playing with Mudbox a bit. It was time for a little practice project. First, I made a sketch in Mudbox. (2,5 hours) Then, I made a clean wireframe in Max. (5 hours) Up next were the details in Mudbox, again, for the normal map. (3 hours) And so far the last step was the diffuse map, in Mudbox, with a little tweaking in Photoshop. (1,5 hours)

The scene has a total of about 1500 tri's. The textures are 2k.

I guess I should make a specular map now.