Hi all, about time I posted an update

I have started to work on the dog, you can see the process bellow. He starts life as a simple cube which is then extruded, and extended upon to create the basic shape.

As with Mandy, we are concentrating on making the model symetrical to start off with, so we only need to work up one half. When we are happy we can then go in and pose him, and add further details.

Once we have the basic shape we can start to mould in some details.

When I was happy with the pose I added soem colour then had a look at the scene as a whole.

I am hoping I can add this tomorrow, and do any final tweaks so next week we can move onto rendering

I just want to add a note about the hair and fur. In May there is a chance I will be working on my third book, meaning spare time will be a thing of the past. It because of this we may need to skip the Maya hair and fur parts, I simply won`t have time to experiment.

We will see how things go though, if I don`t do the hair in Maya I will certainly paint it on, so i will share that process

Pretty much finished with the cliff now, will come back to it later in the final review.

The grass is made from simple polygon planes, duplicated and positioned…

We just have one more bit of modeling now and thats her dog…

My current contract is due to end in May, which leaves me available for hire from June. I am free for full time game related artwork, as well as high resolution modeling for print and advertising.

So please get in touch so we can discuss how I can help you.

I decided to scrap the photo reference I found earlier in the thread. In the end it was too busy, and I don`t want Mandy to be lost in a complicated enviroment.

What I decided to do was give Silo`s sculpting tools a try, and to my suprise they are quite good…basic, but good

1. As you can see below, I started out by blocking in the basic cliff shape.
2. When I had the main form in place I removed Mandy and startet to tweak the shape to make it a little more interesting.

Next came the fun part. I just started sculpting.

Now, the cliff isn`t complete but I think this is going to give me the results I am after. I can`t go into too much detail as my machine will start to cry, but all I want is a nice, simple rock surface to fit with the style of the scene.

Looking now, the second to last image is much nicer so I will im for something more like that…

The cliff needs a little bit more definition, but after that I will add some grass to the top…

Pretty much finished with the cliff now, will come back to it later in the final review.

The grass is made from simple polygon planes, duplicated and positioned…

Small update today…Worked a little more on Mandy.

Just a quick update on creating the branch Mandy is holding desperatly onto.

Start with a simple cylider and use extrusions to generate the main branch, and then the smaller branches.

Finish it off with a few leaves

Now we add it into the scene, and adjust her hands, and the shape of the branch to fit.

I decided a few days ago that trousers were the way to go, and after adding them in I can happily say i think I, and all you who pointed it out, were right.

So lets add them…

1. The first step is to extent the current shorts, extruding the edges and moving the new geometry over the legs.
2. When we have our basic shape you can then go in and delete the legs from the model to stop them popping throuhg, and save processor power
3. With everything ready now work on those folds and creases.

When your happy with the general shape you can next add in the seam down the outside of her leg.

1. We already have a nice poly strip running down where the seam should be, so select and duplicate this geometry.
2. No insert an edge loop down the center, then bevel this so you have a slimmer row of polys running down the leg. At present the original ones are far too wide to generate the seam from.
3. Now select the central strip and extrude the polys to create the seam.
4. Finally delete the outer edges, and tweak the shape to make sure it flows along the surface of her jeans.

So there we have her trousers…any better?

Onto the gloves…

So, I am a big believer in recycling, there is no point, (other than for enhancing your own skills) for rebuilding something you already have. We already have a hand model, it was attached to the base mesh so we will use that to help start our gloves.

What we first need to do is remove all the details, in particular the finger nails, so the fingers look more like sausages

Next fatten them up. You can do this easily in Silo by using the Local Move tool, which will scale the verts along their normals.

Now we can start posing…

If it helps place a cylinder in her palm so you have something for her to grab…

Now we can build in her cuff…

Finally rework the shape to add in some wrinkles before tidying up the model a little…

With one glove complete we just need to import it into our main scene and position it, mirroring it for the other hand.

What you will find is that the arms will need repositioning, but using the Soft Selection tool makes this easy peasy lemon squeezy.

You may also notice I shortened her back in this image too

Thats all for this week…Next week I will look at refining and twekaing Mandy before we sign her off and move onto either the dog, or the enviroment.

Time to tackle the boots

As always, if your not comfortable building one without reference please look around for some first.

To start us off we need to block out the basic shape of her boot, so start with a cube and extrude down, and then out to create the L shape we need.

If you delete the polys from the top and undernieth when its smoothed you will have a nice hard edge.

Add more divisions in and start to work on the overall shape, also adding an extrusion to create the soul.

Next start to work in some more details including the creases around the back of the ankle.

Now lets build in the tread detail. First fill in the hole under the boot, making sure the edge is beveled to make it appear rigid.

If we look at the concept image the tread on her soul is quite basic, so using prisms, scale and position them across the base of the boot.

When your happy with the overall shape we can move on to create the pads over the toes and the heels.

For this, duplicate the existing toe and extrude it out, making sure to tweak the shape to fit.

Now repeat the process for the heel…

Now we have one boot we can mirror it to create the other, saving us loads of work

Import this into your scene and position it over Mandy`s feet, sort of like this…

So, next up…gloves

I managed to revisit the head today and decided to go back and rework the original model, rather than struggle with the posed one.

As you can see I finaly added the eyelashes and also reshaped her lips to give them a bit more style.
Here it is back on the body…