Finished Sandraker

I posted a finished render of this model on the Simply Maya challenge thread, but I never got around to posting a render here, so here it is. I might try and render out a turntable and upload it to Vimeo too.

I'm going to start learning Maya from a couple of books I have, so I might not be posting as frequently with my own projects, but hopefully I'll have WIPs and photos and sketches every now and again.

Later,
Stuart

Sandraker modelling done

Well I guess I'll call the modelling more or less done now. I've got to smooth certain areas so it doesn't look all blocky, but hopefully that shouldn't take too long. I think I forgot to add lights and stuff. Might as well incorporate that into the "backstory". This thing drives through the desert, so obviously night driving is a no-no. Yeah, that'll do.

Later,
Stuart

More sandraker

Finally had some time to do more modelling on the sandraker vehicle. Might be able to "finish" it by Monday night (at least with a basic level of work and detailing).
AmbOccWIPs:

Cockpit

Back

Hope you like it so far.
Later,
Stuart

Sandraker Blocking

Hey, I'm on a roll this week! Lotsa posting ;P

Blocked out the vehicle using primitives and rough geometry. Next I'll refine the shapes and make sure the main body has the right sort of topology. I tend to get a good ways into shaping things and realize I don't like where the edges are... so it'll be interesting to see how this goes. I'm pretty noobish at topology in general. But I'm looking forward to adding more detail on this one; I'm kinda liking where it's going so far.

Let me know what you like/don't like about the design so far. It's early enough to change.
Stuart

Vehicle sketch

Here's the photoshop sketch of my fast sand-vehicle:

I should be able to get going on the modelling tomorrow, so hopefully more updates in the next few days. February is a short month, so I need to get a move on. :)

In case you were curious how orthographic reference images get used in Maya to help with modelling, here's my image plane setup after breaking apart the top and side references, applying them to planes, and making them slightly transparent so I can see what the model looks like too. They're also on an unselectable layer, which I can hide easily too.

Stuart

Lightroom and fast vehicles

Small (pictureless) update... I bought Lightroom 3 today, so I'm now trying to get a handle on a good workflow for organizing and processing photos. I was going to try to post an Africa photo, but I haven't gotten to the importing stage yet, let alone exporting with watermarks, resizing, and sharpening.

I've also started another challenge at SimplyMaya, the topic of which is Fast-looking vehicles. I've sketched out my concepts, and I'm trying to get a photoshop version sketched out so I can take orthographic drawings into Maya to model off.

I'll certainly have images next time I post, so stay tuned.

In other news, I haven't been reading much... I need to get a February book going.

Later,
Stuart