Progression of a Cowboy
This is really more to keep myself motivated than anything else... but if anyone's curious, here's a little insight to the evolution of one of my cowboys for my 3D Maya project this year.
First, I started with a sketch:
Then I started learning Maya. From square one. This got a bit ugly, as I was new to the whole 3D modelling deal:
I was trying to basically copy my sketch, but jeez was it messy... definitely not how I envisioned my first-ever Maya project. Red looks like some kinda lanky ALIEN!
... so I adjusted the model and it grew a bit:
I fixed the head and body a bit, and started adding general incomplete shapes for the background, but it still seemed a bit too.... bleh.
... so after a while, I tried fucking with it one more time:
and got more of what I had been striving for. Mind you, I'm still not thrilled with it, but I'm at a point of no return since my film's due in 3 weeks and the character's already rigged with a skeleton to animate. (He's cracking his knuckle in this shot) Plus, I made about 6 old western houses/saloons for the background, although there's only one visible in this shot.
It's been a very interesting experience, despite the learning curves I've come across along the way... but I'm hoping that I'll continue to get better with Maya so I can work in a cool animation company someday.
.... oh, and did I mention I had to do this whole process with ANOTHER cowboy too? This is just Red; there is also a Blue. But that, my friends, is a story for another day.... @_@;
First, I started with a sketch:
Then I started learning Maya. From square one. This got a bit ugly, as I was new to the whole 3D modelling deal:
I was trying to basically copy my sketch, but jeez was it messy... definitely not how I envisioned my first-ever Maya project. Red looks like some kinda lanky ALIEN!
... so I adjusted the model and it grew a bit:
I fixed the head and body a bit, and started adding general incomplete shapes for the background, but it still seemed a bit too.... bleh.
... so after a while, I tried fucking with it one more time:
and got more of what I had been striving for. Mind you, I'm still not thrilled with it, but I'm at a point of no return since my film's due in 3 weeks and the character's already rigged with a skeleton to animate. (He's cracking his knuckle in this shot) Plus, I made about 6 old western houses/saloons for the background, although there's only one visible in this shot.
It's been a very interesting experience, despite the learning curves I've come across along the way... but I'm hoping that I'll continue to get better with Maya so I can work in a cool animation company someday.
.... oh, and did I mention I had to do this whole process with ANOTHER cowboy too? This is just Red; there is also a Blue. But that, my friends, is a story for another day.... @_@;