Lets get this thing moving!

Might as well start this off by adding some stuff I had started over the summer.

As I am interested in 3D character modelling, I started with a high-poly hard surface modelling project of some sort of robotic leg. Quite happy with the final design. I may work it into a full character in the future.



There were problems when the leg tried to bend past 45 degrees and resulted in huge gaps in the knee section. This was a problem that I should have noticed when initially drawing it up but I was in a hurry to get started. I wanted the leg to be flexible so it had to be slightly modified to allow it to turn further.

Similar to armor in the middle ages, I ended up adding two metal sections that folded into the thigh and calves to help keep the shape when the leg bends without having the sections deform.


If I find time in future, I may try to bake it onto a low poly mesh, texture and rig it.

A little bit of Engineering

Accidentally deleted the post so I'm just adding it onto this one...

Another project I was working on was a female sci-fi mechanical engineer. I had wanted to get the entire thing finished over the holidays, which included sculpting, baking normals, texturing and rigging. Unfortunately I had only got a fraction of it finished as I had started again and had been travelling a lot. After my initial sculpt, feedback I had gotten online was fairly good, however my anatomy and cloth folds on the clothing needed improving. They recommended that I start again by sculpting a body underneath and then using it as reference for sculpting on top. They also pointed me to some good references on cloth folds.

Sculpt of the body for reference

After I went and redone it with the proper references and body, there was a notable improvement.
I had only worked on the trousers for a while and the rest was not even started but the overall quality was better than that of the earlier version. 

Sculpting the trousers with proper cloth references

The design was to contain a rather baggy set of trousers which tightened towards the end of the limbs, with a large jacket that did the same. I didn't manage to start the jacket. 

Some useful resources

From Polycount wiki :

http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryCharacterModeling
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryReferenceAnatomy

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61079
(a good thread for deformation in low poly objects)

http://wiki.polycount.com/BodyTopology

Figure Drawing :

http://www.drawsh.com/