Calendar January 2, 2016 01:19

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2048 Clone in Python

Let me start by saying Happy New Year to anyone that may be reading my blog!

So after I came back from my short vacation, I got sick and didn't have the energy to do anything. But I did have a chance to think for a while and I decided that I needed to get back into coding and brush up on my Python. The new semester starts in a bout a week or so and I need to get back into coding, even if I will be using Java in that class instead of Python. 

I decided that I should use Pygame (like I did a year ago in CS 1410 class) and create a simple game, and I decided to create a clone of the popular game 2048. I only started the other day and I have been working on getting a skeleton up and running and start planning on how I'm actually going to do this.

So far I have a simple screen with a "game board" displayed on the screen and I have started to work on the logic of the game before I do more "graphic" work. You can see my work on Github at the following link:


That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 21, 2015 17:21

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Female 3D Model - Low Polygon Model Done

 
So today is the due date for my project that I've been blogging about for a few months. As you can see on the screenshot above, I have the low polygon model of both the dress and shawl on the body of my character.

As I said before, I tried to finish the model before so I could make a texture for it, but I ran out of time. I will be going on vacation in a few days, and won't be able to touch my project for about a week. When I come back, I will start working on laying out the UVs and eventually I will texture the model. I still don't know how I want to make the character look, but I think I will go for a stylized look.

My plan is to eventually: texture, bake maps, rig, and make a shader in Unity. I don't know how long it will take me to get all this done, but I think that its a good goal for early 2016.

That's all for now, and have a happy new year (in case I don't post again this year). I don't know how many people (if any) actually read this blog, but thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 20, 2015 13:47

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Female 3D Model - Shawl Retopology in Topogun


So I did more work on the shawl in ZBrush to get the folds looking the way I want. This time it was really simple since I used my work on the dress to guide my work on the shawl.

I then took the high polygon model into Topogun just like I did with the dress before. This time it was much quicker to get this done, specially since its just one really long rectangle. Now that I am more familiar with the tools, I was able to just start putting points on the model and quickly worked my way around it. Tomorrow is the due date for this assignment, so I don't think that I will have a texture for it by tomorrow. While the texture is not required for the assignment, it was just a personal goal I had.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 17, 2015 13:58

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Female 3D Model - Dress Detail Rework


So a couple days ago I thought I was done with the dress for my model, but after showing it to my professor he gave me some feedback on the folds. I decided to go back and do more work on it and I think this looks a lot better.

I went back and tried to add a few more folds, but I wanted to keep it light. I didn't have to worry about doing the retopology again since I didn't change the overall shape of the dress. I don't know if I will get to baking out the normal maps before I turn the assignment in, but since I will continue to work on this project I don't think of this as wasted work. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 15, 2015 21:52

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Female 3D Model - Dress Retopology in Topogun


So last week I was talking to a fellow classmate in my class and the subject of retopology came up. I told him that I would do the retopology for my dress in ZBrush. He told me that he would use Topogun and that its super easy to learn.

So today I decided to buy a license, its only $100 so I decided that it was worth it if it was even slightly easier than ZBrush. Well, I can say that it really is super easy. I didn't even watch a tutorial on Topogun and I figured out how to use it. I'm probably not using it to its maximum potential, but I managed to do the retopology for the dress in a couple hours while I learned the software. From here I can just export my work as an Obj and done.

I will work a little more on the shawl and I will also do the retopology in Topogun. Anyways, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 11, 2015 00:45

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Female 3D Model - nCloth for Dress & Shawl


So after trying for a bit to make my dress in Marvelous Designer, I failed. I got a really good basic dress, but it just wasn't turning out how I wanted it. So I have now decided to go back to Maya and do more work with the nCloth system and get a good base dress and shawl that I like.

The above picture is of where I am right now after subdividing the dress a few times and playing with the settings for the simulation on the dress. I had to pin/anchor most of the dress from the hips up, which is why it looks really flat/unchanged on the top and with folds on the bottom.

From here I will take both pieces of cloth into ZBrush and try to do as much as possible there. I also don't have any experience making cloth in ZBrush, but I think that I have more control in ZBrush than I did in Marvelous Designer.

This project is due on December 20th, so I have to hustle and try to finish everything as soon as possible with the sculpt so I can get a texture started. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 8, 2015 00:31

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Cloth in Marvelous Designer

Front View
So here is my first attempt at making cloth in another software package called Marvelous Designer. I've honestly never used software like this before, but the gist is that its a tool used for making cloth and getting it to drape on your model in a natural way and its super easy to use. Now, this doesn't mean that I am now an expert at this, but this was my first crack at trying to make my dress in MD (short for Marvelous Designer). 

3/4 View
What I really like about this tool is that it works just like sewing in real life, you have to know where to make your cuts and what not. This is probably what gave me the hardest time, and still does. I know nothing about sewing or fashion, so I am having a hard time knowing where to put my cuts on the "cloth". I have been looking at how other people doe in real dresses, and I think I'm getting closer but I still have a long way to go.

Side View
Anyway, I will give it a few more attempts at making the dress in MD but I don't want to spend a lot of time learning a new software package when I need to get this textured within the next two weeks. If I give up in trying to make the dress in MD, I will make sure to come back and visit it since I am super impressed with this tool. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 3, 2015 23:24

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Female 3D Model - Version 1.0 Model Almost Finished


So I was a little lazy over thanksgiving break, and now I am mad at myself because I feel like I wasted a week. Now that I'm back, I'm done with the model that I've been working on for a couple months now. I know that it has been a really slow process, but this is the first time that I pushed myself this hard to do a character model.


Once I was done with the dress, I felt like she was still missing something, so I decided to create a shawl using the NCloth simulation. I'm not too familiar with it, but I think I will have to go back and rework it since the shawl drapes really weird on her shoulders. Once I'm done with that, I will have to reduce the polygon count on it, but I think I will do that part in ZBrush. 


I also worked on her shoes this week. At first I didn't want to give her high heels because I think its really quiche, but since she is wearing an evening-like dress, she has to wear heels.

Next I will finish the shawl and move on to doing the UV layouts for the model. For this assignment its not required that I texture her, but I do want to turn this into a portfolio piece. I will post progress on that as well, and over winter break I plan on working on a shader and on a rig for her. 

The reason for the shader and rig is that I was talking to my professor and he though that I should know the whole process a character goes through while in development for a game. And since I am now learning how to code, I think I'm starting to lean on becoming a Technical Artist. That's all for now, thanks for reading. 


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Calendar November 20, 2015 01:32

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Female 3D Model - Hair Finished



So I finally managed to finish the hair. I will mention that this was my first true attempt at making hair in Maya, before I never really got this far with a character that I need to do hair. While I learned a lot in the process of making the hair, it took for ever to finish it. I did 4 layers of hair to give it some volume, and it still doesn't quite look the way I thought it would. But for now this is good enough and I won't touch it again.

I also did some work on the dress, but its also not finished yet. Also, earlier today I started to block out a gun holster that she will have on her exposed thigh. I still don't know how I will make it but I know that I will think of something.

For next week I hope to have the holster done and I hope to have started to work on the shoes. While I do know that having female spies in high heels is very cliche, I really like that look and I'm going for it anyways. I will make sure that they are not as ridiculous as stilettos, but my character will be wearing high heels.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar November 13, 2015 01:37

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Female 3D Model - Work on Ears and Hair



So since last time I managed to finish the head by attaching the ear to it (see top render). It took me some time to make sure that all the edges would match up.

I have also started to work on the hair, which turns out takes a ton of time to do. What I have been doing is create a curve and then extrude along that curve. This allows me to control how the hair falls, but I also have to do multiple layers to make it have some substance. So far I finished the first layer and I'm about half way done on the send layer.

Hopefully by next week I will finish the hair and start working on the rest of the body. I want to finish the dress and start on the gun holster. Anyways, that's all for now and thanks for reading!

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Calendar November 6, 2015 00:39

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Female 3D Model - More Work on the Face/Dress



So since last week I have been working on the face, but I only managed to finish the mouth and the eye balls. I tried to start working on the ears, but I just couldn't bring myself to keep working on the head.

I did keep working a bit on the dress. I decided to make it a full length dress, but I don't know if I'm going to leave that way. I want to break up the shape of the dress a bit, but I still don't know how to do that. I will probably experiment a bit with the shape but for now this is what I have.

By next week, I will try to work on the dress a bit more and maybe even the shoes. I'm thinking of giving my character high heels, but I think that may be a bit of a cliche. Anyways, thanks for reading!

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Calendar October 29, 2015 23:08

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Female 3D Model - Face


So since last time I have been working on the face of my character. I have mostly the face done, but the mouth has been giving me a lot of problems. I have the general outline done, but I still have to do some tweaking to get it just right.

Hopefully by next time I will have all the face done and maybe even the ears. Anyways, thanks for reading!

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Calendar October 22, 2015 23:24

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Female 3D Model - Hands & Dress



So since last time I was able to finish the hands and I even started working on the clothes. I completely forgot about making the knuckles for the hands, but since I'm probably going to have her wear gloves, I don't know if I need to make them.

I made a very simple dress, but I still have some work to do on it since there are random triangles all over the place. I also don't know if I want to have a long dress like my concept drawing, or if I should leave it like the short skirt its right now.

For next week I plan to redo the head since the eyes are all wrong and I am having trouble making the lips. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar October 16, 2015 22:33

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New Software QA Job

So after about a month an a half of looking for work, I am happy to say that yesterday I started my new job as a QA Specialist at Towers Watson. That's just a fancy title for a QA tester, unfortunately this time around it won't be testing games or even at a game studio.

So Towers Watson is a big firm that does a bunch of financial stuff, but specifically I am working on testing software that they use for their health care side of their business. I am not sure how much I can or can't say, but essentially I will be testing software and hopefully I will be here for a while and hopefully learn more about software development in general.

My dream of working for a game studio hasn't died, its just in the back burner for a bit. This year I decided to go back to school to learn software development for games, and so far I have taken a Python class last semester. This semester I couldn't take a programming class since there wasn't one at a time I could work with.

Anyways, my first day at my new job was good. Basically I followed someone around all day and learned what they do there and how to test some of the software. Anyways, thanks for reading!

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Calendar October 15, 2015 02:07

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Female 3D Model - Arms & Head


So I finally finished the arms and the head, although I think I may have added a bit too many polygons to the lower half of the head. At the moment I haven't added any lips since my character is going to be wearing a half mask.

I tried to start working on the hands, and I was thinking of just using the hand I made a few weeks ago. But that hand has too many polygons and its more of a man's hand. I will try to make the hand and mirror it over this week.

I hope that I will also have time to start working on the clothes for my character. Nothing fancy, but at least get in the basic mesh for a dress and maybe even the hair.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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