UV mapping

This is the proper method to create a UV map. First unwrap the map and then take in to Photoshop or something similar and create a map that is in accordance to the unwrapped map.




Add this to your model and this is what you get.

Unfortunately for me I had low resolution images of my face and also rushed the process of creating the map but if enough time and care is taken then it is more than possible to create photo realistic 3d models.

mapping to face

This is the stage where I noticed that a lot of people were cheating as instead of creating a proper UV map of their face what they did instead, was use the UV map gizmo to place the map over the correct part of the face.


Even though the front of the face looks fine, look at what happens to the side of the head and ears.

Also another negative in using this technique is that when animating the mouth for speech the map moves away from the model so making this technique pointless.

Neck

Here I extruded out the neck

creating the ears

Next I created the ears this was very fiddly as ear shapes are small and close together.

defining face shape

As simple as this next bit is, it is one that needs to constantly be adjusted until perfect as the jaw shape and cheek bones set the main shape of a face and if this is done incorrectly, no matter how realistic a texture map is the face will not look right.

creating the lips

Here I created the lips this stage can be tricky but is important that time is spent on it in the early shaping as later on during animation the lips will crossover if done incorrectly.

shaping nose

I add more detail to the nose until it is the perfect shape and size to my nose. This is a very critical stage as it is very important to get the shape and size right as the nose is a defining characteristic to a persons face.

nose region

This stage, involves moving down the face, and slowly shaping and bring out the nose.

creating eye region

Using the photo of my self I shaped my eyes and then cut them out. Also I defined the eye brows a little more and shaped them to my face.

Indenting sections

The next stage involves adding a little more detail by indicating the sections for the eyes and nose.

Getting started

I think that I have put this off for long enough so here it goes. My next couple of blog entries will show the different stages that I went through to model my head. As you will probably notice the way that I created my head is a little different to the rest of you guys. Basically I spent my holiday learning a certain order and method of modelling a head from a book and so no video off YouTube was going to change my style. Plus that man had a very annoying voice and I couldn’t stand him.

Using the front and side photo of my face as a reference guide I first started to get the basic shape of a human head at this point it wasn’t particularly the shape of my head but will develop through the process.

theme songs

like iv said before i think that the halo soundtrack is all we need for our theme song needs it has exactly what we need to create the atmosphere for a classical battle. halo 2 sound track volume 2 will be perfect as it ranges from hard classical to soft and depressing. PERFECT. just in case you need to understand how they could blend well, here is some thing off youtube but with the complete soundtrack we can make it better.


copy and paste this link


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tLh8Rf9DX2I

storyboard

To help make this project easier for the team i thought that i would make the storyboards so that everyone can get a good understanding of the story line. I will post the full finalised storybroad soon for all to see but for now i have posted just the one scene which is the first scene where vice admiral Horatio Nelson is drawing out his battle strategy.

ranking

thanks for the heads up Lara it is true that Horatio nelson was indeed a vice admiral and not a captain.

i have made the correct changes to my blog post

first steps

Friday 26th October the group started to come together and we started to plan our structure and rolls which we will play in the project.

The group got divided up to play different roles including some people to model and others to animate however because this is a very big project and the time is very short we will all have to play more than one role.

Modellers:

Ali
Tim
Richard
Ben
Marc

Animation:

Sam
Leah
James
Marc
James

Mapmaker:

Tim
Pannos
Kieron
Ben

Finishers:

Ali
Leah
Richard
Lara

After we sorted out the roles myself and Richard went up to the front board and we started as a class to plan the story board the class gave their thoughts and I drew out some crude story boards and slowly we developed ideas and by 5pm we had finished the storyline to the animation.

As I drew up my ideas on the board and gave my thoughts to the story my class mates Leah and Lara both copied down my drawing for the storyboard and jotted down my thoughts so that we have a reference of what happed.

Below is a copy of the minutes and their annotations copied from Leah’s blog.

Afternoon Meeting Minutes
Friday 26th 1pm - 5pmThis blog shows the minutes take from the afternoon lecture.Final Groups & Their Jobs

Modellers
- AliJobs –Small British ship, Nelson
- TimJobs - French ship, Spanish ship, Riffles, Seagulls
- RichardJobs –The victory ship outside hull
- BenJobs – Ammunition, Gunpowder sacks/barrels, barrels, driftwood
- MarcJobs – Nelson’s office
- James TJobs – Cannons, Uniforms British & French
- James SJobs – Cannon Deck

Ships include rigging, flags, ropes, cannon holes/port holes.Other items to be modelled are dead people, the sniper, powder monkey, crows nest and driftwood.Cannonballs need to be modelled in several forms, normal, chain cannonballs and grape shot.AnimationSam, Leah, James W, Marc, Lara- Effects Needed – Smoke, Fog, Blood, Splinters,Animation Sequence- Scene1 the drawing of the plan by Nelsons hand on parchment.- Scene 2 Fade into an overview of the battlefield and how the ships are positioned in the plan.- Scene 3 shows the bow of the French ship close up to the camera with British ship line up in the distance.- Scene 4 a shot of the look out in the crows nest looking at on coming ships. Camera pans round to the front to show the reflection in the telescope.- Scene 5 shows telescope point of view (POV) shot of enemy ship with a flag raising. The raising flag show it is time to fight.- Scene6 The lookout shouts down to the people on deck who prepare for battle.- Scene 7 Panning shot of the side of the ship showing the wooden cannon holes. As the pan continues the port holes open and the cannons emerge. The camera swings round to show all the cannons.- Scene 8 A shot of the powder monkey filling the cannons and lighting the fuse.- Scene 9 A shot of cannonballs firing between ships and bursting through a ship sail creating rips and hole, lots of wreckage.- Scene 10 Front view shot of the bow of the ship sailing towards the enemy. Sows waves crashing against the ship.- Scene 11 Panning shot of two ships passing each and firing at each other. The front of the British ship crashes into each other breaking off the bow of the other ship.- Scene 12 POV shot from the powder monkey through the cannon hole. An enemy ship passes and the cannon fire and the cannonball goes through the ship showing the insides.- Scene 13 POV shout from behind the fired cannonball as it hits the ship.- Scene 14 Nelson is show pacing up and down the deck.- Scene 15 A man is shown being shot of the rigging by a musket and falls out of shot.- Scene 16 A ship being shown under cannon fire. As the ship is hit there is a huge explosion and it begins to sink. There is lots of wreckage and driftwood from the ship in the water.- Scene 17 Nelson is shown pacing the deck again but from a different angle.- Scene 18 Panning shot as seaman are shot and fall overboard off their ship.- Scene 19 As the battle get more intense this scene show the cannons firing and showing the detail of the jerking motion as they fire on passing ships.- Scene 20 Reaction shot of the cannon fire breaking the mast of the enemy ship.- Scene 21 An angled shot of sails ripping by a grape shot cannonball.- Scene 22 Nelson final pacing shot, Pan round Nelson into a POV from his right hand man Hardy.- Scene 23 Zoomed out shot of the sniper ready to shout Nelson. Zoom into shoulder view then the sniper fires.- Scene 24 Slow motion shot of nelson being shot and falling to the deck onto his knees. As this happens the gunshot echoes and all other sound fades out.- Scene 25 POV shot as looks at his hand which is now covered in his own blood.- Scene 26 French ships sailing away with an audio over the top ‘we won the war, we won the war’.- Scene 27 POV of nelson’s eyes blurring and slowly shut.- Scene 28 Scene fades out and writing is shown explain who won the war and other facts about the end of the battle.- Final Credits of everyone involved in the sequence.Map MakersTim, Panos, Kieron, Ben, James T, James WJobs- Ship Mapping– Flags, canvas, French flags, British flags, beginning fight flag– Rigging – Ropes, hooks– Wood – Hull, masts– Anchor – Iron/metal– Ropes- People– Skin– Hair– Eyes– Uniforms – French, British, Nelson’s Medals, shoes, crew uniform- Weapons– Swords – blade, handle– Cannons, Muskets – metal, wood- Surrounding Environments– Sea, sky– Wreckage, driftwood– Dead people– BirdsFinishersLeah, Richard, Ali, LaraJobs- Render out animations- Find sound effects- Find music- Order animation in Premier Pro- Edit animation length- Add transitions- Edit music- Bring Audio and video together- Add final creditsResearchThe flag to begin the battle.Detailed facts about the battle.Look at the uniforms work by officers and the crew.Look at the detail of the ships used by both sides.Needs to be decidedLighting to be completed by modellers or animators?

reference setup

For my battle scene I plan to have a lot of realism. So to help create atmosphere I will need to create characters such as the soldiers and their vice admiral Horatio Nelson.
As this is the first time I will create a character using 3d studio max I will first need to build some practice models.

What better to start off with than modelling my own face.

First I started off by taking a photo of the side and front view of my face and after a bit of photo manipulation using adobe Photoshop I managed to get the photo to be perfectly aligned and compensated for my terrible photo taking skills.

Using the front view I could finally start adding some typology lines across the face these line will be the guides which I will follow during the modelling stage it is very tricky to get these prefect but at the same time is essential to get right as it is better in the long run to have smooth flowing line on a 3d model.

The image attached is up to the stage where I have finished the typology and added them to a plane in 3d studio max as a reference point so now I can start modelling using these guides.

my intro to blogging for project battle of trafalgar

For one of my third year modules called virtual environments I will be doing a project which will involve me to create a scene from the battle of Trafalgar. The re-enactment of the scene will be done using 3D animation using a piece of software called 3D Studio max.

I intend to recreate the environment and characters as realistically as possible in the time frame given and also want to make the scene gritty and believable and show what it might have been like to be involved in such a battle.