My final module for my university degree is a self managed project for which we will produce a high quality piece that demonstrates our skills to the best of our ability. We are allowed to choose the piece to work from and the media in which to create it, with regular feedback from our tutors to monitor our progress.
Current Progress:
In my last entry I explained how I explored the progress I had made with my sculpt and the some of the technical elements I used to create the clothes.
ZSphere Rig
This was my first attempt at posing a character and I decided to try both the ZBrush and Maya method. Using ZSphere's was more complex than Maya autorig because you are unable to assign weight to the bones which can cause the mesh to stretch when moved. One method to fix this is to add more spheres to the joints and create a rib cage which will provide more control as to which area of the torso will move.
I found Zsphere's to be better at moving individual elements such as the fingers because you were able to create a bone structure for each of the joints, enabling you to create an intricate pose. However the drawbacks of posing the character like this is that it would only be for a standalone design rather than a game ready asset that can be animated.
Maya Autorig
Maya Autorig is an easy to use, quick method to rig and pose your model and is best done when the character is in a T pose shape. The software allows you to place significant points on the mesh such as the joints, which it will then use to create the bone structure of the rig. With this done, it is very easy to rotate the joints and create the desired pose. I found autorig to be easier to use but I would need to practise the weighting and joint for the shoulder and wrist as these are the areas that rotate the most.
2nd stage modelling
I have also been working on increasing the level of detail on my model by doing an overall pass and adding the smaller items including the many straps that bind the clothing and bones together and adding the buckles for the belts. The head is always the main area of focus for a character so I want to make sure that this area has the highest level of detail which is why the head is separate from the body, allowing to create more depth to the character without slowing down the software.
Next Stage:
With the items now in the model, my next stage is to move onto secondary detail, adding the folds in the cloth and the chips in the bone which will all start bringing the character to life.
