I finally got some time over to pick up where I left of with this piece. So I’ve been working with unwrapping and texturing for now. Texturing is something I really need to improve on. But I found some nice tutorials on the net that should give me some tips and tricks 
Check out my collection of Photoshop links here.
I also tried out TexTools 2.9 and it’s a really nice tool. It adds a lot of new features for unwrapping in max. They don’t always work or perhaps I just haven’t figured them out yet, but I still like it alot. Try it out, now!
Here’s the new update:
The Back Alley
Comments and critique is always welcomed!
Cheers mates!
This will be a short post, but I’m done with the sculpting in Mudbox. So without further ado here are some screen captures of the different Sculpting Levels.
Xellyr Spider Level 0 (2040 quads)
Xellyr Spider Level 1 (8160 quads)
Xellyr Spider Level 2 (32640 quads)
Xellyr Spider Level 3 (130560 quads)
Xellyr Spider Level 4 (522240 quads)
Xellyr Spider Level 5 (2 088 960 quads)
I got it up to about 2 million quads (4 million triangles) and then my laptop was down on it’s knees 
Here is a quick test of the generated Normal Map in 3ds max.
Xellyr Spider with Normal Bump
Next step will be to do some texture painting in Mudbox, will be fun to see result of that - stay tuned!
Cheers mates!
I got a sudden urge to do some modelling. So I decided to go for some game creature modelling in 3ds Max and then do some sculpting of details in Mudbox and generate a normal map and also try out texture painting in Mudbox, that’s new to me.
So I decided to go for a giant spider, it is a classical fantasy creature, and I came up with the name Xellyr Spider – just for the heck off it
Here are some images of the low-poly, 3ds Max version. It’s 100% quads made up by 4080 triangles. Not very low-poly so let’s call it a next-gen game creature, or a boss creature
Xellyr Giant Spider - Shaded
Xellyr Giant Spider - Wireframe
So all modelling and unwrapping was done in 3ds Max – got to love pelt mapping 
Next step will be to put it in the mudbox and sculpt away – it sure will be fun
See you soon for updates, cheers!
The blog is going strong, I have TWO confirmed readers! So this post is dedicated to them.
My project is moving along nicely and so far every thing is going according to plan. For the last few days I’ve been working on the Extremes in the animation and I’ve refined some of the key poses to what I believe to be better ones By the way, the Extremes are poses that defines direction and changes in direction in the animation. Here is the result with the Extremes added and all tangents in the Curve Editor set to Linear instead of Stepped, allowing me to preview the transitions between Key Poses and Extremes. This makes the animation much smoother and gives a good overview on where I need to create my Breakdowns (os Passing Positions) later on.
Next step will be to add the Breakdowns, refine the Inbetweens and add Follow Through and Secondary Action. And that is lots of fun I’ve printed out a paper with the 12 Principles of Animation worked out by Walt Disney and his animators back in the 1930′s and I have it beside me as a reminder of what to work with. It helps alot to keep track on what to do and improve the animation
Here is the time schedule
Thursday – Basic Idea and Storyboarding
Friday – Animatic, Key Poses and Rough Animation in FlipBook
Saturday – Key Poses in Maya
Sunday – Key Poses in Maya
Monday – Extremes and refining Key Poses
Tuesday - Extremes and refining Key Poses
Wednesday - Extremes and refining Key Poses
Thursday - Breakdowns and Inbetweens, Secondary Animation
Friday - Breakdowns and Inbetweens, Secondary Animation
Monday - Modelling Props (Alien, Knife and Room), PowerPoint Presentation
Tuesday - Facial Animation
Wednesday – Facial Animation
Thursday – Facial Animation, Final Tweaking, PowerPoint Presentation
Friday – Presentation!
Hope you enjoyed this, see you in a couple of days for more updates.
Cheers Mates!
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This was Part 2, don’t miss:
Part 1
Part 3 – Finished Work
We’ve started a new project in school that will be running for two weeks. The goal of this project is to animate in Maya and I’m going for character animation
I’ve downloaded the audio file for last month competition from 11secondclub.com and I’m going to animate a free, pre-made character rig called Max for Maya. So I will spend all my time on animation and don’t bother with character modelling, texturing and rigging.
Here is my time schedule for this project.
Thursday – Basic Idea and Storyboarding
Friday – Animatic, Key Poses and Rough Animation in FlipBook
Saturday – Key Poses in Maya
Sunday – Key Poses in Maya
Monday – Extremes and refining Key Poses
Tuesday - Extremes and refining Key Poses
Wednesday - Extremes and refining Key Poses
Thursday - Breakdowns and Inbetweens, Secondary Animation
Friday - Breakdowns and Inbetweens, Secondary Animation
Monday - Modelling Props (Alien, Knife and Room), PowerPoint Presentation
Tuesday - Facial Animation
Wednesday – Facial Animation
Thursday – Facial Animation, Final Tweaking, PowerPoint Presentation
Friday – Presentation!
So far I’ve defined the Key Poses (the storytelling poses) in FlipBook and made an Animatic/Rough Animation that I use in Maya as a guide for posing my character. Very nice workflow, thanks goes to Jason Ryan for introducing this method to me, check out his webinars here. As well as Richard Williams for his work on The Animator’s Survival Kit, very handy book for animator wannabes 
It is also available as DVDs: The Animator’s Survival Kit Animated.
Here is the FlipBook Rough Animation.
Here is the first blocking of Key Poses in Maya.
Stay tuned for updates, there’s still eleven days to go!
Cheers mates!
—————
This was Part 1, don’t miss:
Part 2
Part 3 – Finished Work
I’ve been doing some 3d work during summer holidays. But laziness got the better of me and my productivity hasn’t exactly been through the roof. However here is a piece I’ve been working on from time to time.
I felt an urge to create a back alley in a Mediterranean like environment. So I spent some time on google and searched for reference images and when I found my inspiration I got to work. This is what I’ve achieved so far:
The Back Alley
I spent a lot of time trying different light rigs, materials and render setting to optimize my render time and final resault. The Images above is 600×800 pixles (click on it to enlarge) and the render time was 5 minutes and 52 seconds. I’m pretty satisfied with the lighting by now so from here on I will focus on texturing the rest of the buildings and modelling more destruction to get a more gritty, dirty, “wear-and-tear” kind of look. Old stuffs makes really nice art