Let's talk turkey...

Okay, so I had to model and texture a Tom turkey for a game demo. So, not knowing a tremendous amount about turkeys (other than they're tasty), I downloaded approximately 20 pictures, watched several YouTube videos, and, heck even learned some anatomy. Hey, did you know that floppy thing drooping over their beaks is called a "snood?" ...and that big flap o' skin under their chin is called a "dewlap?" ...and, and that big honkin', um, ball-sacky thing at the base of their neck is called "major caruncles?" Geez, if I had a big, ball-sacky thing attached to my neck, I'd say that was major caruncles! Anyhoo, gobblers are also capable of some serious shape-changing, too. In their normal form, they vaguely resemble a pheasant (i.e., elongated neck, tapering body and trailing tail feathers). However, when they get upset or court hens, they ruffle their body feathers (appearing to double in size!), extend their wings down, tuck their heads back and fan out their lovely tail feathers like a peacock. It's like some kind of Gundam-esque Hyper Mode or something (insert Transformers sound effect here). I really wanted to create a mechanism for my model to be able to easily change shape like this. So, I create the body in two pieces and all the feathers as individual planes. I then created two new attributes for the body called "ruffle" and wings," and used Set Driven Key to allow the user to easily animate the turkey between each of these forms by simply dragging a slider bar. I actually completed the model in about two days (i.e., building the model, unwrapping the UVs and creating the textures)--that's pretty fast for me! No fancy Normal or Specular maps here, just Diffuse texture maps and Alpha/Transparency maps for the feathers. The final model came out to be 1,280 polys, which may be a bit high for a simple turkey. However, if I removed the shape changing stuff, I could easily reduce that number quite a bit. Here's the mesh...



...and here's the model with textures in the first form. That wierd tuft of hair coming out of his chest is called a "beard" (i.e., yeah, um, kinda gross).

I know, I know... he has a double fan. The thing is, the feathers are paper thin (i.e., being simply textured planes), so I needed to do something to make them a bit "fuller" and look better from a variety of angles. I don't know, I may end up deleting one of them in the end.

Here's the second form. I actually had to manually adjust the mesh to pose the neck and head, but after the model is rigged for animation, the same effect could easily be achieved. Looks like a big ball on stilts!

The back is probably the least accurate part of the model, but it kinda works.

"Hi there!" I tried to make the textures hold up to closeups.

Man, all this talk of turkeys makes me want to run over to the Renaissance Fair, grab one o' those giant turkey legs and start gnawing away. Hey, speaking of "legs," er, well "limbs," I had to model an arm for a group project that I'm working on. The final model will be imported into Unreal Tournament 3 for the First Person perspective (e.g., holding, firing and reloaded the weapons in the game). In our level, the player's character is part of a science experiment. His name, Adam, is tattooed on his arm as well as a bar code and number. As an easter egg, I used the numbers from Lost (4 8 15 16 23 42). I actually completed modeling the arm, unwrapping the UVs, digitally sculpting the arm (to create the Normal map) and creating the Diffuse and Specular maps in only a couple of days. Again, this is super fast for me! The more I do this, the faster I'll get! The final model was a respectable 806 polys. I feel like I've come full circle--the first model I created using ZBrush way back in January 2008 was a female arm... and, looking back on it, it seems far more crude and disproportionate. I just might be getting better at this modeling stuff!

http://aaronrault.blogspot.com/2008/01/boy-what-difference-z-brush-makes.html

"Deadeye" - Unreal Tournament 3 character

Okay, so after modeling a few game characters, I decided it was time to actually model a character that can be imported into the Unreal Tournament 3 game engine. It turns out this is a bit more complicated than simply modeling a low poly character. First, as always, the process begins with concept art. Instead of the usual UT3/Gears of War character, which is covered in a thick layer of plate armor akin to football pads on steroids, I opted to design a lightly armored character that actually wears more cloth than armor. The idea was to create a reconnaissance/sniper character suitable for desert, jungle or forest environments wearing: a simple pauldron, cloth wrappings, a light backpack and utility kilt. His equipment includes: an advanced thermo/night vision/sonar combo goggles system, an electromagnetic gauntlet calibrated to steady his aim, and hydraulic boots that enhance his speed and leaping! Basically it's a cross between a Tuskan Raider and an elite Cobra unit. (insert "Coooobraaaa!!!" scream now) Oh, and the head is based on my favorite Lost character: John Locke (a seasoned tracker and survivor).

Here is my initial finalized concept sketch...

To model the character, I had to use an existing Male IronGuard UT3 skeleton as a template and model around the skeleton. To aid in this, I created orthographic sketches of the front and side views of the character, drawn over screenshots of the UT3 skeletons to ensure that my concept art utilized the exact proportions of the UT3 skeleton. In addition, I divided the parts of my character as the UT3 models were created: boots, thighs, torso, arms, head, helmet, facemask and goggles (i.e., so these parts could be interchanged within the UT3 Customize Character screen). After ensuring that all parts of my model were "capped off" and unwrapping the UVs according to the rigid zones that UT3 demands, I was able to begin the ZBrush work to create my Normal maps, Photoshop work to create my Diffuse maps and Crazybump work to create my Specular maps. Here is a screenshot of the basic low-poly model with wireframe displayed...

...and here's a shot of the same model with Diffuse maps, Normal maps and Specular maps! These really enhance the look of the model and make it look like it contains a much higher polycount!

Creating alpha maps for use in ZBrush, allow you to create some nice texture detail, like: scratches, stubble, pores and fabric patterns. This allows the model detail to hold up even under close inspection...

...even for extreme closeups! "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille!"

After the model was completed, the model was bound to the UT3 skeleton. Painting of weights was used to fix any errors in mesh deformation during joint bends--well, I tried at any rate. The upper cloak and utility kilt continued to plague me by clipping through the arms and legs (respectively) during extreme bends. I eventually gave up when it was "close enough." The Actor X plug-in tool for Maya was utilized to export each of the parts of the model for UT3 (generating the associated .psk and .txt files). After some scripting and importing, the character was ready to play in UT3. Here's Deadeye at the UT3 Customize Character screen...

Here he is without his helmet, facemask and goggles...

Here's a UT3 screenshot in which I am playing as Deadeye in third person view...

Here I am fighting Deadeye in first person view...

...and again...

...and again!