Horse - Maya UV mapping

Ok... Maya UV mapping is pretty old school.  No pelt mapping, No quick way to do an organic object.  It isn't hard, but it goes back to the initial Unwrap techniques of using cylinders, spheres and planar mapping.  In 3dsmax I could have unwrapped this horse in about 20 minutes easy.   In Maya, it took me about 2 hours... and I mostly knew what I was doing.

I have yet to come to something that in my opinion is easier to do in Maya than Max.

Horse - in Maya

So I continue to work in Maya as well.
I decided to create a new horse for the western scene.  So I did this low poly one in Maya  Took about 6 hours... getting faster and more comfortable with the tools.

Note to self.... don't use Maya's Mirror Tool.. just duplicate.

window updates

Adding some light and models to the interior of the saloon.

First image:   pure comp, no adjustment to lighting.

Second image:  basic comp with some adjustment to saloon lighting.

Maya - Modeling

I have finished my first complete model with Maya.
This is the Digital Tutors Maya 2012 modeling project.

I feel like I am pretty comfortable, though not fast, with modeling in Maya.

Sunset - New Lighting.

Here is an updated scene. Adjusted the light as per suggested. Added a few objects in foreground and messed up fence more.

This shot is without any post work.

Composition in Photoshop

Today was a bit slow.   Lots of waiting for rendering because I put all the settings up to high quality.

I ended up modifying a couple of models:  the ground plane, fixed some issues in saloon windows and grain store windows  [NOTE:  the windows that come with max have a lot of flipped faces]

I have decided to work with 2 different scenes:  a sunset and a noon-day one.

Tried my hand at compositing in Photoshop today and worked on the sunset.  This is were I am so far.  I need some critique for this part.  I am sort of waffling on the sunset scene now that I see it.

Lots of color adjustment, background composite, Photo-filter for warmth.  Some Depth of Field and Haze.

Background Changes

changed the rocks some... added a few more. modified the textures for variation.
Adjusted the cactus height.

Updates - Dirt & Horse

The last day and a half have been productive.  The render shows the following updates:

• Background hills have gotten an overall.  Added rocks, roughed up the terrain, and added a lot more shrubs.  Moved around the cacti some.
• Adjusted the texture of the dirt road some to make the grooves more obvious.  
• Unwrapped, textured (in Mudbox), and posed the horse.  I ended up converting the horse to editable poly instead of skinning forever.  Much faster that way.  This could be a problem if I need to animate it, but for now I am aiming for a still.
• Also added bridle and saddle to the horse.  The models for these are simple and only meant to be seen from afar.

I think my next step is to start playing with the light direction.

Back from Vacation.

I was away the beginning of this week so did not get anything posted or done.

I am going to work a bit on the background today.

Buildings Textured.

Ok.  I think all the buildings are textured.  The hotel and building behind it are meant to be newer buildings and thus, the cleaner wood.

I still have the horse to do, though I am going to also rig it a bit and pose the horse with it's head down.  I probably also need to put something on it.  I may try to get away with a blanket, but may need to model a saddle and simple bridle for it.

There are probably other things that I have missed texturing, so will have to look around.
I also want to add a couple of larger rocks.  I am planning on putting one near the water trough near the saloon.

I also have a stagecoach that I could put in the scene, but I am not sure where I should put it yet.

Just a little change...

Updated the wagon, moved tree around.

Last update for the day.

Some more work this evening.

• Aged some of the buildings a bit more.
• Modified the texture and model of the foreground wagon.
• Moved around tree a bit

Roof Adjustments and Model Manipulation

I worked on Maya some today.  Not bad.  I feel like I am getting a hang of the tools.  It is just a matter of finding them.

I fixed the roofs.   I couldn't let them go.

I also adjusted some of the positions of the buildings on the right side of the street.

And I dropped the camera a little lower so it is more of a point of view shot.

Texturing and Modeling Update

Added Texture to Church, Post Office, and Barber. Also added a few extra models to those 3 buildings. I still need to adjust the roofs.  The church has some gaps on it's upper edge.  The textures for the post office and barber, I just don't like once it was in the scene.  I will have to change those.

Over on cgtalk.com, it was suggested to add the extra wagon in the foreground.  I like what it does for the foreground, but I am not sure of it's placement.

I have 2 more buildings to texture and then I am going to start working on the lighting.

Texture WIP

Texture WIP update

Added texture to some buildings in the back and middle ground.
Swapped out tree with Mesquite tree
Added Cactus

Texture WIP

New Trees!

So I came out the weekend with some great ideas.   I really liked the Mesquite Tree.

I found that the Mesquite was a native Arizona desert tree and that it often served as a nursey for new cactus, protecting them from the sun:

http://lowenddslr.com/photos/sabino-canyon-nursery-tree.php

I had also found some free script plugins that helped create the base tree shape.  One of them did not work well with 3dsmax 2012 and I had to adjust the script some.

Using the script, I was able to get the basic shape and branches of the tree complete very quickly.  The resulting mesh was a bit messy so I ended up doing a lot of editing and cleaning up.   Soon I had my mesquite tree, modeled and textured.  3 Hours!

I was on a roll, so I added some cacti and this is what I ended up with:

Cactus and Mesquite

Trees ... A tragedy

At first I wasn't going to work any more on the tree that I had in the scene.  But after some unwrapping and texturing difficulties in Mudbox, I decided to take the tree further and add leaves.

I had done some research and looked up Arizona Trees and had chosen a Black Walnut.  Using reference, I made my tree a black walnut.

This was the result of about 5-6 hours work.  A good portion of the branches were hand created and placed.   I placed about 80% of the leaves manually, with the last 20% I used particles to fill in the tree.  This was a crazy amount of work that was fairly tedious.  

I posted this tree on CGtalk and got some comments back:   'Wrong kind of tree!  Doesn't look like a desert."  It was suggested to make the tree look more scraggled and thin, less leaves and shorter.  Maybe swap out for cactus.

This was great criticism.  I can't believe I had missed it, but my heart dropped.... that was 6 hours of work!  I went into the weekend and did some research.... 

Texture Progress

Alright, here is a Texture WIP.

The Saloon (my hero building) took about 2 days to texture.

The ground plane was textured in about a day.  This was actually done prior to the sabbatical.  I used it to become more familiar with Vertex Painting in 3ds max.  I then demonstrated it in class.

All the little stuff - barrels, net, buckets, etc are containers and took about a day to texture.

Each building in the front third of the scene is taking about a day to completely UV Map and texture.

Right now, I am working on the tree. It is taking longer than I expected as I am painting it in Mudbox. I have discovered minor modeling and uv mapping issues that have set me back.

Texture WIP

--- Side note: The red building in the back was just a quick color assignment but gives me the flash of the old Clint Eastwood movie "High Plains Drifter" when the entire town is painted red.

Starting Point for Sabbatical

This the level of modeling I had complete as I started.

Modeling WIP

Concept

The image of the Old West environment is based around the 1840's and is located in the Arizona desert.

I am not completely sure what type of lighting I am going to use.  Currently I am thinking dusk, with the sun shining toward the camera through some of the roof tops of the buildings.  Although today, I thought I may also try to mimic an old sepia photograph.  We shall see...

The image will be a still but I have the possibility of drifting the camera a bit - although that will mean animating some of the objects in the scene:  tumbleweeds, cloth, etc.

Next post I'll show the progress that I started with 2 weeks ago when I started the sabbatical.

Starting My Sabbatical

I am about 2.5 weeks into a sabbatical.  I have a lot I want to do during this time.  My focus will be on two main areas:

• Completing my old west town 
• Learning Maya

I have worked on my old west town for about a year.  Prior to starting the sabbatical, I had about 90% of the modeling complete.  None of the texturing or lighting was started.  

I original started working on this scene for several reasons.  I often teach an Advanced Texturing & Lighting class and expect my students to build an elaborate environment to demonstrate texturing and lighting techniques using mental ray.  Second, I found I was demonstrating how to use some tools in 3ds max for modeling and texturing and some of the buildings in this scene just sort of grew out of those demonstrations.   Lastly, I have always loved western stories, environments and ambiance of that period.  

I am learning Maya mainly to expand my knowledge, to make myself more rounded as a teacher and 3D artist.  I am finding it a very interesting experience.   As some one who has used 3dsmax since it was in it's DOS days, switching to another 3D package has its challenges.  I know what I want to do often times, but the vocabulary and tools are a little different.  I am spending most of my time finding what tools are called and their locations.  I already have the actual skills.

Anyway, that is a quick summary.  I will be posting WIP here often.  I am also posting these on cgtalk.com as well.