Head Mapping

I attempted to model the ear, neck, etc. but couldn't achieve the results i wanted, so i decided to just map my face.

I began by applying a planer UVW map to my face, then applying the UVW Unwrap modifier. this gave me an unwrapped mesh of my face, which i could then easily scale and position over the head texture.

Lighting

i lit my face using a single omni light with a Skylight using Light Tracer.

Final Render

Head Modelling Continued

After exporting my head as a .3Ds file within Max9 on the university computers, Ive been able to import my progress into Max8.

The modelling was achieved by tracing over the the guidelines i created in Photoshop, using the 'Line' tool. After all the individual shapes were created, I converted one of them to an 'EditablePoly', then attached the rest of the shapes to it creating one single shape. I then started the process off pulling forward the vertices's in the left viewport. If i found there was enough shapes to create the desired shape, for example the nose and lips, I cut additional shapes/edges using the 'Cut' tool.

After Ive finishing the modelling, I'll move onto the texture stage.

Smoke Test

The smoke was made using the SuperSpray particle system, with the following material.



Checking Face Map means the material will be applied to every individual particle face, instead of the particle system as a whole.



Gradient map settings


The Phase on the gradient noise was animated, so its shape will change throughout the animation.

Water/Boat Motion

As I don’t have Max9 at home, Ive been unable to continue with modeling my head, or take screenshots to show my progress. So Ive been doing some tests on how to achieve certain effects that might come in handy when we begin the actual animation.

Water motion and material



The above video was achieved by applying animated Noise and Wave modifiers to a plane object.



Below is an image of how the water material was constructed.



The motion of the ship was achieved by inserting a Noise controller into the boats position and rotation list, within the Motion tab.

Character Rigging

Instead of using bones to rig and animate my character, I used a Biped. I created a biped the same size as my character and chose Male from the body type. I then scaled and rotated the arms, legs, etc. so they filled the character mesh.

After I had positioned and scaled the biped I applied the Physique modifier to the character mesh. I clicked the ‘Attach to node’ button then clicked the biped’s pelvis, finally i clicked ‘Initialized’ from the ‘Physique Initialization’ window.



After I moved some of the biped limbs to check how the mesh had applied to the biped, I discovered some of the vertices on the left thigh were applied to the right thigh bone, and vice verse. To fix this, I selected the vertex option from the Physique modifier, and began removing vertices from bones and applying them to the correct bones.



To test how my character mesh animated, I found an example biped animation of a wild west gun slinger on the Internet, which I loaded into my biped.

Character Modelling

Before I started modeling the character within 3DS Max, I searched Google Images for an image of a front and side view of a person, which I used to help model the correct proportions.

Link to above image and character modelling site.

After placing the image in the background in the front and right viewports, I created a 6 sided cylinder with 6 segments. I converted the cylinder to an Editable Poly and used the Move/Scale tool to position the vertices of the cylinder so it began to resemble a leg. I also extruded the top polygon of the cylinder to begin the torso.

I continued extruding polygons and moving/scaling vertices into positions based on the background image, to build up the character.

I used the mirror tool to create an Instance clone of the right side of the model. This allowed me to only position the vertices on the right side, as all my actions are replicated on the left (cloned) side.

Head Modelling

To help develop the skills required for creating the Battle of Trafalgar, we were given the task of creating a 3D model of our head, using video tutorials on cg-india.com.

The first process in creating my head was to take photos of the front and side of my head, then import them into photoshop to draw topology lines on them, as a guide when its time to create the polygons within 3DS Max.



The lines were create by creating a new layer, then simply using the brush tool to paint on the topology of my face.