Nevercenter, the guys behind the 3D package Silo have just posted an interview I did for them early this week.

There is a great link on their homepage www.nevercenter.com but you can go directly to the interview here - Silo Interview

Managed to get some time in to work on her recently.  I have been adding hair, tweaking her skin etc. and this is as far as I have got…

Still needs lots of work, and I havn`t even touched the wolves yet

I havn`t had much time to work on my female pose recently but here is a minor update anyway.  I have playing around with flesh tones and also working on the face and hair.

When I am happy with her main body I will move onto her clothing.

I have had a few people asking where my Real Time Character tutorial lives these days. Well, you can find it under the links section or directly here Tutorial Link.

If you like it please leave a comment below.

I just uploaded a new animation.

This is something I worked on a while ago but has just been completed by Finger Industries. I created and animated the main character while Finger Industries worked their magic with the rest, including a nice render job

You can view it here - VIEW - or just download it directly here - DOWNLOAD.

Enjoy!

I have been concentrating on the final piece, giving the modeling a break for a while to focus on some basic shaders.

Here is an early render -

Its in no way finished yet. Once I am happy with the base shaders I have decided to brush the dust off my graphics tablet and hand paint alot of the smaller details in.

Oh, I decided to merge the two projects so you can now see the eraly wolfman in here too

I thought I would update you on a couple of projects I have on the go. The first some of you may know about, its the posed female I have been working on in my spare time, you can see a ZBrush render of her below.

She started out as a base model, one I could store and use on future projects but I thought I would pose her and place her in a scene. She isn`t finished yet, I still need to dress her and add some more scenery.

The second project is less human. I fancied working on a werewolf and here is where I am up to now -

For both these projects I have created “Work in Progress” threads on various forums so if you want to follow their progress please go to the links below, or under my Links menu. I will however post key stages here

Female Work in Progress

Wolf Work in Progress

Feel free to post any comments here too…

3. Model Testing

When you are happy with your model import the high resolution version. Its important to have the full version of this car and not just half or, when you come to generate a normal map, it will have a line down the centre.

What you need to do now is test the topology, making sure the surface will look as good as it can when a normal map is applied.

If using Maya apply quick and dirty UV`s to the optimized model using the Automatic Mapping tool. Now you can generate a quick normal map to fully test the model.

To generate the normal map use the Transfer Maps tool found under the Lighting/Shading menu.
Under “Target Meshes” add the low polygon game model.
Under “Source Meshes” add the high resolution model.
Under “Maya Common Output” set the “Sampling Quality” to preview while you are working to generate quicker maps.

Remember to keep both models in the same world space!

What you should have now is the low resolution model with the normal map applied, looking smooth and detailed! Its at this stage you can rework areas of the model, optimize further or tweak the topology. This will effect the normal map but when you want to test the surface again just apply Automatic Mapping again and throw out another preview normal map.

Continue on like this for as long as you like.

NOTE: If working on a hard surface which will have elements that will be seperate, car doors for example, you can use the normal map to guide you as you cut around the seams. It is important to keep these edge normals hard though so the normal map will look the same when they are detached.

2. The Game Model

When you are happy with your model, and it has been approved, export the low resolution version and take it into Maya, or an equivelant package.

This will give you a good, low poly base to work up into your game model, so its now time to chop out all the extra polygons you don`t actually need. These will include geometry added to give detail which the normal map will cover, so are now redundant.

You can also use this time to optimize the model, removing any polygons which don`t actually add to the models silhouette or topology.

NOTE: Its generally easier to work on half the model at this stage, so long as your model is symetrical.

With the help of Robin at Solarise Design I am proud to launch my new and very much improved site. It has a loads of new features including an integrated blog, so feel free to look around and even leave a comment or two