I've not updated this section in sometime, and its not cos I haven't moved along, its just that right now, I'm working full steam on completing a new reel and that requires that I jump between projects. I think once I have my reel done, I'll start this up again, working on one project at a time.

Keep checking back in the next few months. :P

This stuff really needs to be seen in higher res, but I'm definitely back on track with the style and level of realism that I originally wanted. The only hair element will be the head haircut now.

The highlight on the eyebrows is done via a bump paint map.

First stop is taking another look at the textures.. I wasn't using enough information from my photo references. I think this might have been because I shot the photos at 1600 iso and this created a lot of noise in the photos. I setup my tripod, used my remote and snapped away at 400 iso in broad daylight. The results are immediately better and I am able to grab lots more info from the new ref material. Here's a first attempt at putting the texture on the model.

Note: I use a Canon D400 with the standard lens to take my photos.

Hey folks and Happy New Year.

Ok having taken a break from this project for a while - I wasn't happy with how it was coming together! I will now start to look at making some updates... because I have everything setup in its own pipeline, I can make changes to pretty much any part without worrying about effecting anything else i.e. lighting, the textures etc, which makes refining much more productive.

That said, I haven't decided if I will continue to blog about this project or change this section into a making of section - specifically as this project has been a lot about finding a comfortable workflow for developing my characters from sketch to final render. So it might make more sense if I just show the final process.

Ok, coming to the end of the road with this still. I've already started modeling a new model I want done for some Christmas e-cards.. so I will put this on hold until the new year.

I've attached a sneak peek, so far, the beard and eyebrows are bugging me the most! Opinions please. Will be re-working the hair elements over the weekend. Also think there's a tad too much contrast in there.

It's been an interesting journey doing this piece, because I've really explored a lot of new tools and techniques inside and out of maya, not forgeting to mention the hurdles along the way. The great thing with this project though, is that I now have a much deeper understanding as to what it takes to produce high quality, detailed characters.

Right, finally I'm all engines a blazing on this piece.. I've completed the skin shader, and all the face details, the seats are finished, the lighting is done, the volumetric fog is done, the shirt is complete and so are all the hair elements. Just to keep in fashion with inc an image whenever I can, I've attached the final hair style with all lights in the scene - after numerous trials and tests, I feel confident enough to tackle hair in 3D... I'm really happy with the final result now!

So, what's left? Well I'm currently working on a rendering pipeline - I need to get all my render passes into layers and then the post-editing begins! This could be a challenging week ahead!

TIP: When rendering out shave hair on its own, make sure you render with a black background otherwise you'll get nasty colour bleeding in the alpha that ruins the edges of the hair style.

As I previously posted, I've been a little pre-occupied with freelancing, but I should have some more free time leading up to Christmas now to concentrate my efforts on my 3D work. I've spent the last week re-working the skin texture after getting some supportive feedback. The detail level in the texture maps has been heavily increased and I have gone back over the render settings, the displacement map and the lighting taking more of a cue from real lighting scenarios. Hopefully the new skin render (opposite) is evidence of these improvements.

I haven't disappeared or stopped working on this project.. Like I mentioned when I started the project, its all about getting up to speed with a working pipeline for creating realistic characters, so inevitably there will be stages which I feel need re-visiting. I'm currently re-developing some of the lighting and taking another look at the shader to try and bring out more detail and reduce the hard surface look that the model currently has. I will update soon with some more images.

I'm pretty satisified with the hair now. The hardest thing has been matching my own hairstyle, and whilst this one still looks a little cleaner and smoother, I'm pretty sure it'll hold up. The shading is also pretty much there. What I've learnt from using shave on this project, is that to get really nice results, you HAVE to use a number of shave nodes and style each one according to one area of hair i.e. side burns, the fringe etc. Then adjust each hair node thickness accordingly so that thinner hairs appear toward the front where the hair blends with the skin and thicker hair strands sit at the back to create the required volume. I will post my settings for all to see once the image is complete. P.S. The head in the render is just a stand-in.

I've also completed the shirt, it was modelled in maya detailed in mudbox, and brought back into maya. I created the textures in photoshop and used a similar method to max to create the shader - in max we would use falloff, but in maya we create the cloth highlights using the samplerinfo node with a ramp applied. I'll supply the shading tree in my next post.

I hate using this as an excuse, but progress has been slow again due to work commitments. It's so fustrating trying to create personal work which 9/10 I have more inspiration to complete when I have clients waiting and bills to be paid. Looks like more late nights ahead cos I want to get this done and move on to my next project - Atomic Robo!

Ok, so I've gone back and forward between Mudbox and Maya a dozen times making very minute changes to the facial structure, changing the mouth, the eyelids and the cheekbones. I've made a small comparison animation you can check out on the right (1st image). I've also completed the beard which was achieved with a black and white cut/density map and 24,000 hairs although it looks a lot less! The head mesh is just a stand in as I intend on creating the hair elements as layers for the final comp. More power to me!

Next stop is the shirt, and the hair.