Josh Morgan Next Gen Blog

So we have hit the stage in which the synoptic is into its final few stages where we need to get a preview of the project done so it can be examined before we have the final deadline in which we will present the work to examiners and lectures. So at this stage now the group has come together as we have needed to fix some of the walls in the level and build up the new version of the level with as many of the objects in so we can then work on the mechanics in the level as well as working on audio for the preview demo. After that we get approximately three weeks to work on it some more before we have the showcase event and that will be it. Screenshots so far:

So today I managed to fix one side of the dagger when it is baked as before it used to get these thick black lines when the Hi-Poly would get baked onto the low-poly which would show on the normal map as well as errors. As you can see on the normal map above it leaves weird colours on certain polys when it is baked down which create these black lines. To fix the issues I had on one side of the dagger I just deleted the poly and then bridged the hole in which when i baked it down again it had no black lines on it anymore. However I still don't understand these errors when it comes to it because I have checked to see if it has overlaying polys or if it has some hidden vertices. After looking around the model using the wire-frame mode I couldn't find any hidden vertices, so I have no idea why it is creating these errors but I will hopefully be able to fix the rest of the model and then be able to texture it.

Since the last post the group has managed to fix the communication issues we had by coming together and having a group meeting in which we discussed the issues we have been having as a group and making sure we sorted them as soon as possible because we are not that far away from the deadline for this project so this is the time where we can't really have anyone doing just nothing as we need to get the environment done. We made sure everyone has a job to do. My personal update is that after we had the team meeting I have managed to figure out what is needing to be done and what I personally have to do in this project, so now that I know what I need to do I have sorted the issue of me feeling like I was getting left behind as some of the group continued to just do the project themselves instead of communicating with the rest of us to get this fixed. I have still been modeling a few models to go into the environment in which yesterday and today I have been working on some machiner...

So today I have been trying to get the High to low poly bake to work but so far my normal map that comes out of it doesn't look right, the first was using surface normals and the second was using geometry normals. This is the first two attempts of normal maps that I attempted myself using the powerpoint slide Matt gave us to help us in learning how to create normal maps. Surface Normal Map: Geometry Normal Map: For my first two attempts it wasn't too bad but I need to find out why it comes out so weird in the normal map with the colour. After last week it seemed that I was still getting black mars appear on the model when trying to bake the high poly onto the low poly which I still couldn't figure out. I don't know if it has anything to do with the UV itself or an error between the models when they try and bake.

We are a few months into the project and I am still enjoying it I like the concept of the project and how we want it to look in the end of the project. So from my last update on the synoptic project not a lot of things have changed as far as communication goes it still seems like only two people are working on the project primarily and the rest of us are being pretty much left behind as far as updates on the project goes. I am still continuing to make models but trying to keep the models so they look similar to the others. As far as my personal development goes I believe I go do with trying a lot more to UV unwrap as it will help when another member of our group is texturing the objects however I would I also need to help in texturing if it is going to help in my development in modeling skills as I am still not that good at texturing.

So I have both my high poly and my low poly models finished and today I spent my morning UV unwrapping the sword in which I have had a few issues especially with some of the poly because they are in awkward on the model so trying to stitch them up so it comes out right has taken more time than expected. This is the UV mid way through unwrapping the model:   This is the UV finished: Next week I need to have the high poly baked onto the low poly and hopefully will move onto texturing the model. Next part I did was to UV unwrap the sheathe for the dagger which was a lot more simple and a lot easier to do after finishing the dagger UV.

So today I have finished my low poly model and have been trying to make the high poly model in Mudbox but after I retopologize the model it leaves some very weird polys especially on the blade of the dagger itself. So what I am going to do is just make the high poly in Maya and then when it comes to next week I am going to ask Matt for help in learning how to bake the high poly onto the low poly because so far I haven't really looked into high-low poly baking. So my plan for this week is just to get the high poly done and then when it comes to the next session next week I will hopefully get the high-low poly bake done and then if I can I will try and get the UV finished and hopefully textured. So this week I managed to finish off my low poly and then I have also UV unwrapped the model so when I get to creating the high poly it will already be unwrapped so I can attempt to texture it later down the line. This is the UV for the dagger so far: Over the holidays I am planning...

So today I have been continuing my nine week modeling project as I had a few more ideas I wanted to put into the low poly before I start making the high poly version of the model. So the new additions to the model was to create the sheathe for the dagger and then I started modeling stand for the dagger so it would look nicer when it has been rendered out rather than the model just floating there.  As you can see from the screenshots above I have the sheathe modeled and is just needing to be UV unwrapped and then textured. I will also have to create the high poly model. I like how the dagger has come out so far we only have a few week left on the project and I believe I can get the dagger finished in time. I think that for improvements for the dagger is that I could put some more design into the low poly and especially when it comes to modeling the high poly. 

So this post is just an update on the Synoptic Project so far as of right now we are onto week three of the synoptic project and so far the project that I am working is one of the ones I voted for when we were choosing which of the projects we were going to do. So for my job role in the project I am a 3d Modeler and so far I have been working on models that can be placed around the environment to fill up the environment so that it doesn't look empty when you are walking around the environment. So far I am enjoying the project and so far I am getting on pretty well with the task I have been given however it doesn't really have that much to it as I was just told to make some models to place in the environment so even though I know how the project needs to look and the theme of the project it is still quite hard to get the right type of models to go inside the environment. I have managed the work pretty efficiently so I am never left with nothing to do I have made sure that I ...

So a few weeks after we started the nine week modeling task I decided I wanted to change what I was modeling as at first my idea was to do vases but after looking at it for a while and thinking on it I decided that it would be better for me to do something that would actually show of my skills that I have learnt over the past year and a half almost. So instead of the vases I was doing I am now modeling a weapon from a game I am playing at the moment and that being Genji's dagger from Overwatch however I am not modeling it one to one I am going to be putting my own twist on the dagger itself so it isn't just an exact or as close as I can exact copy of what it would be. So for the dagger itself I did use genji's dagger as a general shape so I could get a feel for what I would want it to look like. To do this I used some of the concept art for genji and his weapons. I was going to model all three of his weapons but I thought by doing all three with my own twist on them wou...

So I am also doing a personal modeling project as something I can put it in my portfolio for when I am looking for jobs etc.. The model its self is a concept art piece I drew last year of Loki's cinematic helmet which at the time I thought was too complicated for me to do as I was still quite new to modeling at that point and had little experience with programs that would help model it. -Concept Art Sketches- So here in these sketches you can see I made a side and front view of the helmet itself and I didn't make a rear view as the rear part of the helmet is quite simple and at the time I didn't think it was worth drawing the rear of the helmet. As you can also see I have drawn a stand for the helmet to sit on as if it was part of a showcase that you would be in a museum. This is a project in which its something that I want to make on the side of the projects I am already doing with the 9 Week Modeling Project and the Synoptic Project. This is one where I am not ...

This week we have been learning how to sculpt a head from a sphere in mudbox, starting with just the basic head shape then moving onto sculpting out the eyes, nose mouth and ears. We then would sculpt out the neck from the head keeping it all one object. We also had a look at a presentation by Blizzard Entertainment showing how they did their modeling using Zbrush. Video from Pixologic

So this is the second week of our 9 week modeling challenge in which I have started modeling my collection of vases and managed to get one finished modeling and ready to be UV unwrapped.  The vase I have modeled so far is based a lot on an already existing vase in which I have used the shape of the vase for my model but for the actual texture I want to be different from the actual vases but I want to add an imprint on each of my vases as like a company logo sort of thing. So far I think I am keeping up with the task and keeping on time with the task considering I have time at home I can continue on with these vases. I do think that I need to get a bit faster when I am modeling but I am enjoying it and I believe I should be able to get it done on time.

So today we learnt to do some image stabilization with a video as well as some motion tracking using the effects part of after effects. I believe it came out pretty good we also had an image of a fish imported onto the video that we use as the as the main point of the motion tracking. The next composition we did was to add a fish image onto the side of the college and do some two point motion tracking.

Today I we were given a task of creating one of the best models we can make, we have a total of 9 in college weeks to finish these models. So our first lesson we have spent on research and planning and for the rest of the first week I am looking to get some concept sketches and planning of how I am going to go through the process of creating these models. So my idea for this is do recreate some modern surface vases which have a very angular look to them and for this I want an engraving put onto it of a logo however as of this moment I don't exactly have the logo set out yet as I don't know if I am creating my own logo yet or not. I would like to do multiple vases as part of an environment so I am looking t make a nice glass tabletop and have these vases put on top with some lighting pointing at an angle for them to cast a shadow of the back of the table. Programs I will be using for this will be Maya/3DS Max, Photoshop & Mudbox Examples of the Vases:

So today I have been using Mudbox to sculpt a character. The character itself is a turtle with its shell on. So to start off I decided to work on his skin first and within this I was using two main tools the first being the imprint tool and the second being the smooth tool. I started off with a stamp that comes with Mudbox and I would just stamp the area I needed to give it a bumpy area on the skin. I would then smooth off the more harsh areas so it doesn't have any major jagged lines on it. After doing this for a while I started to notice that it was giving off quite a stone texture to the skin which I started to like after a while. However when it came to the feet I changed it up a little as I smoothed the toes a lot more than the other parts of the body which makes them stand out more and when it comes to texturing this guy I can add more detail to it by changing some of the colours around. Next I started on sculpting on the shell which I made look very unique as I made some v...

Bump Maps A Bump map is an older type of map that create fake detail by giving an illusion of depth on the surface of a model using a very simple lighting trick. You don't get any additional resolution added to a model as a result of bump mapping. Bump maps are typically greyscale images that are limited to 8-bits of colour information. This tells the 3D software whether it is up or down. Bump maps are great for creating tiny details on a model such as wrinkles on skin and because the detail they create is fake the silhouette of the geometry that the bump map is applied to will always be unaffected by the map. Normal Maps Normal maps can be referred to as a newer better type of bump map, as with bump maps what you need to know is that the detail they create is fake and there is no additional resolution added to the geometry. A normal map creates the illusion of depth detail on the surface like a bump map however it does it differently. A normal map uses RGB information that ...

So today I did my first attempt at UV unwrapping a character model in Maya. Usually before today I hate UV unwrapping anything I could never get the hang of it at all however now it seems I quite enjoy it the ways that Matt has shown us to UV unwrap has made a lot more sense to me and allowed me to have some sort of fun in UV unwrapping and to be honest its kind of brought my confidence up in UV unwrapping and texturing as when I was learning to UV unwrap in 3DS Max I found it way too confusing and complicated where as when I have learnt to UV unwrap in Maya today it has stuck in my head a lot more and it feels a lot simpler compared to 3ds Max. I am happy to say that I think I might move over to Maya rather than 3ds Max as a lot of the tools and just general use of Maya is simpler and stuck to my head more than 3ds Max.

Day 1 - Maya Character Modeling  So today I had my first attempts at modeling a character from reference images alone which for my reference images they are from an artist known as Josh Addessi and the image is his Golem Keeper. I chose this reference as it seemed like an interesting way to start off modeling characters as a lot of the shapes are still quite cube like with the golem being made of rock and it having a lot of sharp edges on it. I believe I did okay just starting I seemed to start off strong and got a hang of until I came up to the shoulders however the tutorials that Matt gave us helped a lot in that respective area as he showed us a nice and easy way to do it by using an edge loop. I made some mistakes in my character as there was a point when I went to mirror one side of the golem it had six faces on top of each other which I did fix just by deleting any extra faces that were on there. The only part I have to do next is to model the basic shape for the head as Ma...

My first day using Maya for 3d modeling and learning the new tools. My first honest opinion was I didn't like how it is set out at first but after time it turns out Maya is set out more simpler than 3DS Max and when it comes to modeling in Maya its actually quite nice once I got the hang of it as I do like the layout as all the tools are not really thrown in all one place they are quite nicely set out. It did take me until the last 40 minutes of lesson to get used to using Maya in the most simplest of modeling but in the end I do like it but I have a lot more experience with 3DS Max so I am more swayed to one rather than the other however with time I will learn to use it to make models with the best of my ability. This was my first proper model in Maya as I did mess around with some stuff but the models I started was just to get used to the software. This is a pretty basic spaceship I haven't finished it just yet the photos included are just a front and back view of the space...