I began my final full-body digital model for the Soucouyant in Mudbox, beginning with the default human body template. I started by sculpting the front face, creating the basic shapes for the eyes, nose and mouth. I added more details onto the skin, such as the expressive snarling lines of the brow and mouth, as well as the cheek bone area. I then created more shaped eyelids which helped to create a stronger sense of expression. I increased the polygon count to make sharper teeth, grabbing and pinching the vertices to make the fangs of the Soucouyant. The next part gave me some trouble- I did not know whether to grab and pull the chin downwards to make the jagged hanging skin of the face, or to pull it outwards from the neck. I tried the first method, but this resulted in me being unable to sculpt on the surface as there were not enough polygons. Therefore I loaded an old save and tried my second method, which took longer but was more successful as I was able to sculpt onto the surface. I then took the opportunity to compare my progress so far to my original Soucouyant sculpt test from the start of the project. I could see how much my techniques had improved and that I was now achieving a higher level of detail to make the models seem more realistic, which is what I wanted to achieve. I continued with the head by sculpting the head shape outwards on the sides and back in preparation for the extra faces. I used a local x mirror to create both sides of the head at the same time, occasionally turning this setting off to alter the shapes and details of the eyelids, nose and mouth for slight variation. Once I finished the faces I then started to sculpt the rest of the body, beginning with the basic shape of the stomach and the sternum. I continued by sculpting the ribs, collar bones and sinewy lines whilst slimming the arms, legs and torso.
I tried a test render in Unity, but I soon found that Mudbox and Unity were incompatible and so it did not reflect the details or the material that I was using to sculpt in well. I did like the lighting options and the fire effects that were available in Unity however.
I continued to sculpt the legs, arms, the clawed hands and the feet. I found the feet difficult to sculpt as I could not initially get the anatomy correct. However, by using a different sculpt tool (bulge instead of grab) I was able to better make the shapes. The final sculpting details were for the hanging skin around the body, the lines of sinewy muscle along the arms and legs, and finally a mottled rough skin texture and raised scratch effects, which really helped to define the beast-like appearance of the Soucouyant.
The painting portion was next. I started by changing the base material to one that I felt had a better underglow. I wanted it to show the fiery powers of the Soucouyant, even without fire being visible. I then added a base coat of paint and started the next layer, which was darker patches around the skin and the bloody red around the mouth. I added dramatically darker patches to show the burnt areas of skin, and experimented with the blur tool so that some areas blended in seamlessly with the with the base skin colour. I really liked this effect as it made the skin appear more naturally flawed alongside the obvious burnt areas. On the next layer I added black paint to the all-seeing eyes of the Soucouyant around the head, as well as colouring the teeth, mouth and tongue. I used the stamp tool to create painted textures on the tongue, which was effective as it looked more realistic than the plain block of colour that was there previously. Finally I added a few more textured paint details around the body, similar to Dan Roarty's effects on Lara Croft's sculpt- adding mud splatters near the leg and more blood around the faces.
The final two steps of the making process were to pose the model and to render it with the fire. I used the Mudbox posing system to individually move the limbs and the head to suit the pose I wanted, which is the one I used in my full body development drawing. I liked this pose best as it was predatory and animalistic, like the Soucouyant prowling through the forest at night. I then exported the final file to Maya as an FBX. file and experimented with some fire.
Problem solving: I encountered many problems with Maya, such as a low-quality renderer, technical render issues, problems with creating a fluid particle (fire effect) and size issues. I tried exporting the model from Maya to Unity but there was still an issue with my paint layers from Mudbox, which were incompatible. If I wanted to render the model in Unity I would have had to re-paint the entire sculpt in a compatible programme, which I did not want to do as I liked the current painting. I therefore stuck to Maya and decided to fix my rendering problems by hand. I found a straight-forward way of creating fire by adding it to a surface. I therefore created some basic polygon shapes, added fire and melded the shapes inside my Soucouyant model. I then fixed my render errors by looking online at tutorials and forums, and found out how to fix the settings. The result was a good render that was not too bright, and that I could save with a good resolution. I also experimented by adding more fire to see how the Soucouyant would look if they were more enraged (as requested to experiment with in my peer feedback). I really liked the results of this test as it showed more in-game variations of the Soucouyant character.
Evaluation
The final Soucouyant model was very successful and I am very happy with the outcome. I have renders of the Soucouyant from the front, rear and side, as well as with and without fire to show all the full extent of the model. I definitely feel as if the character could be used in a horror game, especially due to the dark background and the dramatic lighting from the fire, highlighting all of the horrific features of the faces and body. I also think that this design staunchly brings my interpretation of the Soucouyant to life as it is fully coloured and rendered in 3D on my screen. Although I encountered some errors which resulted in a slight change in timetable (spending 5 extra hours to fix the render settings and identifying problems), the end result was a high-quality dramatic 3D character render. My regrets are that I could not import the model into Unity due to incompatibilities, but I now have knowledge of programmes that are compatible with this engine so that I could possibly use it in the future. I also learnt a lot about the two main programmes I used, Maya and Mudbox, and my modelling skills have improved much since the original 3D modelling test. Next time I will take into account that I will encounter errors along the way and use a better incremental saving system incase I need to go back and redo a section of the model. I will also leave more time for fixing technical problems and be more prepared so that I don't feel as panicked when things go wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment