Josh Morgan Next Gen Blog

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...

Modeling Challenge We had a modeling challenge set by our new lecture which was to just model something to see our skills and how he can help develop our skills in modeling. I set out thinking of something to create and a fire axe is just what came to my head so opened 3ds Max which to be fair I was a bit out of touch on but I still got the hang of it after about ten minutes and this is what I ended up with. I am still not very good at UV unwrapping which is why I have not textured the fire axe at all unfortunately I did forget to take screenshots of the axe during the modeling phase.

Project Titan Concept Art NexGen Year 2 For my Year 2 I am wanting to focus a lot onto character concept design and concept art for characters. To do this I will need to improve as well as learn some new ways of drawing in different styles. I really like the cartoonist style that Overwatch has in its game as well as Blizzards Project Titan(which was rumored to be remade into what Overwatch is today). I will need to adapt my skills to become more comfortable with the cartoon design and look as I am used to drawing semi-realistic. By the end of the second year I would like to get very strong at doing character concept art and I would like to dabble a bit into character modeling. Doing this NextGen course is one of the best parts as it helps me develop further into the job field that I want to be in.

Specialist skills Team work - Being good at teamwork in either the Games, Animation & VFX industry will help a lot for group projects within the companies as depending on the job that you are, if you were to be lead designing a project then you will need to be reliant on your work and the work of your colleagues. Creativity and Efficiency - Being creative and efficient is needed in these industries as being able to be efficient at getting your work done on time and being able to out your future projects is key to these industries. Being creative will get you far as it means you will have a lot of ideas for e.g. characters in games, visual effects on a movie and some animation sequences for a TV show these are key to these industries to keep you coming up with new ideas. The ability to think about the big picture - This will be useful as this skill means you will always keep in mind how the overall project should be like if it is a horror movie the overall movie should be dark and s...