3D Week 9-10 – Assignment 3 Final

Here’s a visual update of my final assignment 3 model.

My 3D-model of the character Vinda in UDK.

It wasn’t easy to model an organic character, though it wasn’t as crazily hard as I expected it to be. I’ve made some mistakes, but I’m still learning, and each mistake that I make and acknowledge is a step towards making it right. I had some trouble with distortion in my textures and though I know how it works I’m still having a hard time getting my Specular and Normal maps right. But I’m practicing, and I’m learning.

The model and UV map in 3Ds Max.

My texture set. Diffuse – Specular – Normal.

And that’s it for the 3D1 course! It’s been a hectic period, with a lot of work in the course as well as in the Advanced Game Design course that’s been running parallel to this one. I’ve learned a lot more than I thought I would, and I’m looking forward to beginning on the 3D2 and Motion Capture courses next!

Cheers!

/MPh

3D Week 8 – Assignment 3 update

Here’s a visual update on how my character model of Vinda is coming along. You can read more about my work with the character in my previous Assignment 3 related posts, and read more about the character herself in my post “About Vinda”.

I was supposed to have made this visual update last week, but due to a large amount of other work I hadn’t been able to finish the model by then.

3D Week 7 – Assignment 3 update

Here’s an update on how I’m doing on the third assignment in the 3D1 course. For the third assignment we’re modelling characters based on another students’ character concept. I’m modelling the character Vinda, who you can read about in my post about her over here: “About Vinda”

I should have made an update on how far I’d gotten with my work on this character last week, but as I didn’t post anything about it then I’ll be updating with what I’ve done today as well. Last week we talked about anatomy in class, and begun working on our character models. I finished the basic shape of the torso, shoulders, hips, legs and arms last week, and today I’ve been working on the hands and feet, as well as learning about how to model faces, though I haven’t modelled any head on Vinda yet. We practiced with other faces, and I’ll be writing another post about that later.

This is how far I’ve come with my work on Vinda. Hopefully I’ll have her head and face finished before next week as well as fixing some things with the body.

That’s it for now. Cheers!

/MPh

 

3D Week 6 – Assignment 3 – Character Description

As mentioned in my last blogpost we’ve been creating character concepts for the 3D1 course which we’ll be modeling. This post will describe the character that was assigned to me. I’m going to work with the character Vinda, created by Rebecka.

Image of Vinda and Gegga – by Rebecka

About Vinda:

Vinda is a young adult female terragrottian, which is a humanoid dog/cat-like race that lives underground in caves that are lit by glowing crystals. She’s a crystal collector and an explorer, and knows a lot about the different crystals and minerals that can be found in the underground. She’s also interested in the animals and ecosystem of the caves, which isn’t that common of an interest among her kind, and she has a pet axolotl-creature called Gegga that likes to follow her around.

Vinda lives in a village in the underground together with her family and the other terragrottians villagers. Her parents work in their home village, taking care of everyday tasks such as cooking food, collecting water and taking care of the villages’ elderly and children.

History:

Vinda had a peaceful childhood in a small terragrottian village, and already at a young age she decided that she wanted to become a crystal collector and explorer. Being a crystal collector is one of the more dangerous occupations for a terragrottian to have, due to the hazards of exploring dark tunnels in the underground, and her parents was skeptical to her choice. However, because of the fact that the crystals are very important to the terragrottian society, being considered holy and used as sacrifices to the aboveground gods in their religion, her parents are now proud.

She always works very hard to serve the village by collecting rare crystals to offer to their gods, and up until recently she’d never questioned anything in her life or surroundings. She had an unexpected meeting in the underground tunnels when she was out searching for crystals, with what could only have been one of the aboveground gods. The creature was cloaked in thick cloth and with a hood that hid the face in shadows, except for a pair of gleaming green eyes. It ran away when it noticed her presence, and in its haste it dropped a glowing crystal piece with the symbol of the aboveground gods on it. The meeting has made Vinda doubt some of her beliefs, and she wants to learn the truth.

Religion:

Like other terragrottians, Vinda believe in the “aboveground” gods, which are said to live in a world above the caves that the terragrottians dwell in. No one has, however, ever seen or visited this aboveground world. A big part of the religion is the practice of sacrificing crystals and other minerals to the aboveground gods. A sacrifice is made every day, and it’s the crystal collectors’ jobs to provide crystals for the sacrifice each day.

Every village has a “holy room”, which generally have walls covered in glowing minerals, in which there’s an altar where the crystals are placed each evening for the daily sacrifice. The doors to the holy room are closed and locked every night, with one priest staying in the room overnight, speaking to the gods through prayer, asking them to satisfy the village’s current needs, such as food, cloth, tools or medicines. When the morning comes the doors are opened to the public again, and the sacrificial crystals on the altar have been replaced with the necessities that the priest asked for.

No one knows what would happen if a village left an altar completely empty during night, and no one really wants to find out in fear of the gods’ potential wrath. So every day there’s a certain pressure on the crystal collectors to at least find and offer a few crystals to the gods.

Physical health and hygiene:

Vinda is physically fit, slender and agile. She travels a lot when searching for crystals, so it’s important that she has the strength and energy to make her way through the cave systems. She’s a good climber and used to crawling and digging, and knows how to swim. She’s a bit near-sighted, but that’s very common among terragrottians as they have never needed to see over long distances, as the caves and tunnels in the underground don’t generally open up in any wide spaces.

The terragrottians have the possibility to wash themselves due to underground water sources, but they don’t do it more than necessary. As Vinda works as a crystal collector she’s often exposed to a lot of dirt and dust.

Personality and behavior:

Vinda is in general a pretty calm and down to earth person, though she can become pretty energetic when she gets excited. She’s emotionally stable however, and mood swings are rare. She likes to plan ahead when it comes to work and things in general, but can become impulsive in stressful situations. It is however very difficult to upset her or make her angry. If faces with any of her biggest fears though she would probably freak out, and depending on the situation it might take time for her to get back on track if faced with one of her big fears.

Fears:

Her biggest fear is to be unable to move, either due to injury, illness or by being trapped. She’s sensitive to seeing others injured as it reminds her of her own fragility. She’s also scared of very big, open spaces and bright lights, as she’s grown up in the underground where the confined spaces of the caves, and the dim light of the glowing crystals have been her home and safe place all of her life. Uncertainty is also something that makes her nervous.

About the game:

The game is mainly focused on exploring the underground whilst collecting crystals and unravelling the mystery of the aboveground and the gods.

Platform: 3DS

Target audience: Players of the ages between 13-30, who likes adventure games and games focusing on exploration.

Direct competition: The legend of Zelda: Windwaker, Final Fantasy: Chrystal Chronicles, SteamWorld Dig

Personal notes and possible risks: The model’s supposed to be in a simplified realistic style, as that of for example Starfox Adventures. I’m determined to try and alter the original concept as little as possible when modelling this character, though I’m a bit nervous to actually be modelling a character and I hope that I’ll be able to do her justice. I’ve gotten the choice from my client to either make Vindas gloves so that they show her fingers, or so that they cover the fingers as well, and I’ll probably go for the latter option. I think that my biggest risks with modelling this character will be especially in creating the hands with all of the fingers, and joining the arms and legs with the torso and hips in a natural way. As the character is very symmetrical I hopefully won’t need to model more than half of the character and then mirror it to create a whole model. If I just take the time to sit down and break up the character in simple shapes I think it all will become easier, though I won’t expect it to be anywhere near easy.

And that’s it for now. Cheers!

/MPh

3D Week 6 – Assignment 3 – Character world

This week we began preparing for our third assignment in the 3D1 course. The first thing that we were to do was to create a character each, that another student then will be modelling. I designed the character Sam, a young adult humanoid sphynx cat, that Christoffer will be modelling.

To begin with I only created the images for Sam, with a turnaround and an action pose, without any thought on what kind of game he could be placed in. During a lecture I got to flesh him out with a backstory, personality and a world in which he lives. I’ll be describing the gameworld here.

This is a world that basically resembles our world, with most of today’s comforts and technology, as far as is necessary in a world inhabited by humanoid cats. The cats walk upright with a slightly human-esque anatomy, though they still mostly resemble cats, with triangular ears on top of their heads, a short snout, big eyes, digitigrade legs and a tail. They talk and reason like humans, and to some extent even dress like humans, though clothes are optional as their fur protects them in the same way as clothes would have, and beautiful fur is something to be proud of. They live averagely as long as you’d expect a human to live, and their typical height is somewhere around 1.3meters.

It’s a relatively modern world, with large cities as well as small country villages, with class differences between wealthy and poor very much like our world and political squabbles just like ours. It has a vast variety of different kinds of cats inhabiting it. Most of the world’s inhabitants believe in something commonly known as “the Great Spirit”, which isn’t a single deity in itself, but rather a name for the magical essence that flows through all life. The Great Spirit is also known as the world’s “Life Energy”, and it’s said that all living beings contain some of this energy, which is why they live. This energy could be compared to a soul, and when someone dies their energy is said to be reunited with the Great Spirit, becoming part of the energy of the world. There are cats that can come in contact with this energy, and that are able to control the energy through magic.

The ability to control and use magic however isn’t something that all cats can do. It’s something that you’re born with, and it doesn’t seem to be something that is inherited, but rather something that just happens, though no one knows how or why. It is believed that the magic is created by drawing energy from the Great Spirit, shaping it to ones will by the use of symbols, words and movement. Many cats see this as something that violates the Great Spirit, and as something that should be forbidden, whilst some claim that it isn’t violating the Great Spirit, but rather the Great Spirit that has given the cats these abilities and that is helping them. In most of the world however it’s prohibited for common people to use the magic as it’s deemed dangerous. Most of the world’s inhabitants are afraid of the magic as it is possible to use it to create much destruction. Earlier in the worlds history there’s been many wars, many fought with magic as well as “ordinary” weapons. This might be the reason that so many fear magic, as they all know how dangerous it can be. Magic isn’t just destructive however, and can be used to mend and heal as well as creating things instead of destroying.

This is the world that Sam lives in, a world that shuns him for his lack of fur and that fears him for his ability to use magic. He comes from a shattered family where he was moved around a lot among relatives that never really liked him, until the day that they found out that he could use magic and threw him out altogether. He was however found by an elderly cat named Mundu, who was also a magician and who took Sam in. Sam became one of Mundus apprentices, and finally found the family that he’d never had. Mundu died a couple of years later under uncertain circumstances, and one of his associates, Liana, took care of his apprentices. There was something suspicious about her though, and Sam sets out together with his best friend Melinda to search for the truth about what happened to Mundu and what Liana really wants.

And that’s it for now. If you want to know more about Sam, and follow the progress of him being modelled, you can find that over on Christoffer’s blog, as he’s the one that will be modelling this character.

Cheers! /MPh