Vehicle

This exercise was also in Chapter 1 and the files were given via a link found in the book, I was tasked with the outliner  and attribute editor to create complex node structures  assets the image above shows the hypergraph for this exercise and the image below shows the asset editor window.

the next task I completed from Chapter 1 was file referencing and importing, in this task I open one of the files I got from the link in the book called street next I went into the outliner and added a reference here I open the vehicle I then added a locator and parented the vehicle to this and added a constraint, after I did this I reopened the vehicle file however this time I changed a few settings and changed the colour of the vehicle to red then saved it and readded the reference with the new name for the vehicle as if I had simple saved the new vehicle with the same name the street file would have simply updated the vehicle inside.

Below is the final outcome of this task

 

ChannelBox

The video below shows the final output for this exercise,

Once again this tasks was created following instructions provided from Chapter 1 of Mastering Autodesk Maya 2013. In this exercise the first thing I created a NURBS sphere from here I then entered various values for the translate, scale and rotate fields in the channel box, i learnt how to change the visibility simply by entering either 0 or 1 in the visibility field. After resetting all of the translate,scale and rotate filed back to 0, I entered 90 in the fields under INPUTS. Then making sure that I was frame 1 I entered a key frame moving to frame 24 I changed some settings to make the shape appear differently, then adding another key frame here when I scroll through the frames the shape changes shape.

See video above

Hypershader Input Output

This task is about working with the Shader Nodes in the Hypershade window, first after creating a NURBS cone, I was instructed by the book to open the hypershade window. I then added a new Blinn texture and then opened the Graph>Input And Output Connections, to display all of the nodes connected to the Blinn texture I then set the new texture to the cone I had made previously, then in the attribute editor following the instructions I added a checked grid which was applied to the colour channel for the cone.

By selecting the blinn texture which I recently changed to coneShader from within the hypershade I opened the graph network by right clicking the coneShader texture, I noticed that it now had the grid texture I added along with place 2D texture I added before. I changed the coverage of the 2D texture by selecting this node and then from the attribute editor I 0.5 in the coverage field, after changing the colour balance to red and adding a ramp node and connecting it to the coneShader by dragging the node to the fill color field in the attribute editor by once again open the input output connections for the coneShader and then selecting the blin1SG node that was shown I was presented with the following as shown in the screenshot below.

 

The purpose of this exercise was to build complex networks quickly.

 

miniGun

The purpose of this task was to get used to Maya’s Outliner feature, by opening the mini gun file provided by a link in the book I was able to view all of nodes for the mini gun model, here I was able to parent the different nodes accordingly by following the instructions provided by the book.

 

I also duplicated the mount node to create mount node 1, I then grouped these two nodes together to form one parent I renamed the group guns, next I changed the names for both mounts to allow for hierarchy using the prefix hierarchy. After centring the pivot, for the group. I now using the outline have the option to either move both guns together using the group or  separately using each individual mount, this allows me to create complex animations I also can move each individual section of the guns from within the outliner, due to each sections of the guns having a parent child relationship.

Node Editor

The next task in the first Chapter of Mastering Autodesk Maya 2013 was to familiarise myself with the Node Editor, in this task I used the node editor to connect different nodes together, below is a screenshot the node editor window for a locator along with a wire frame polygon a sphere which has been attached to the locator.

I first created a locator by choosing Create>Locator, then after moving it out of the way I created a second locator, having moved both locators out of the way I then created a NURBS sphere I then open the nodes editor and choose input and output connection button as shown in the Chapter. Then following the instructions I connected the locators to the sphere, this allowed move the sphere simply by moving the appropriate locator e.g. one locator set to translate and one locator set to rotate.

Hypergraph

Now that I have read through chapter 1 of the Mastering Autodesk Maya 2013 book, I have started to complete the tasks set within this Chapter. Below are two images which show the hypergraph in maya being used to show all of the nodes for a specific polygon shape using the nodes network graph and how when smoothed when polygons nodes change.

Mudbox lizard (Sculpting Basics) – Tutorial

The purpose of this tutorial was to reacquaint myself with all the tools inside Mudbox.

The first thing I did was load the reptile mesh from inside Mudbox. I then turned on the mirror tool to make sure whatever I created would be symmetrical, using the sculpt tool I started to sculpt out the basic shape for the reptile, mainly the horns of the top of its head and down it back, next I decided to use the wax tool to flatten the legs and the body making for a more grotesque appearance. I also used the grab tool to make the spikes and horns more noticeable, having created the basic outline for the reptile I created a new sub division.

In this new sub division I started by using the imprint to create the eyes, and then using the bulge tool on the body, I also used this tool to make the spikes along the body bigger.  Using both the sculpt tool and grab tool and I inverted the tool to create grooves on the underside of the reptile to give the appearance of scales. I once again created another subdivision making the total number of subdivisions being two, in this layer I used the bulge tool to make the eye lids stand out more and used the create joint tool on the tail I also used the scale tool to scale the joints and the translate as well as the rotate tool to move the tail slightly. Once I was happy with the end result I used the paint brush wheel tool to add some colour to the reptile, first I added a base colour of brown while using a stamp, next I used different stamps and shades of green more detail. I used the stencil with the colour yellow for fine details, using the airbrush and the colour blue I increased the fall off to make the colour stand out on the underside of the lizard.

Below is the final image of the reptile after using multiple tools in Mudbox.

I was not completely happy with the end result so I decided to redo the reptile this time however instead of using two subdivisions I used four I know that the more subdivisions I have the higher the polygon count, however I required this number of subdivisions to achieve the level of detail I was happy with.

I used mainly the same tools as before however this time I used the knife tool for the eyes and mouth and developed these features throughout all the subdivisions. I either increased or decreased the brush tool by using the short cut B and and increase or decrease the strength by using the short cut M. Below is my end result which I am far more happy with than my first attempt.

If I was to do this task again I would probably take more time on each subdivision to achieve the same results I as shown above I would also use layers to arrange my work more efficiently.

Year 3 Work Starts Here – Creative Innovation and Design

Creative Innovation and Design beyond this point: