Lightsaber Finale

I finished the lightsaber! The rendering was pretty easy, and I am proud of the way that it turned out. I really like the handle. I think that that's my favorite part. I also like the chrome on the handle.

The Handle

The Blade

Lightsaber 4

Today I worked on the lightsaber some more. I didn't end up getting very far because I started doing the coloring wrong, but I hope to get caught up soon. It hasn't been too hard thus far.

Lightsaber 3

Today I finished modeling the lightsaber in Maya. I still need to render it, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out. It was pretty easy, just a bit tedious.

Lightsaber Part 2

Today is the second day that I've been working on the lightsaber. It saved! I finished the handle with minimal difficulty and then began working on the nubs at the bottom. Nothing has been too difficult so far. It should be finished soon enough.

Lightsaber Project Day 1

Today I started modeling a lightsaber in Maya using a blueprint. So far, it's going pretty well. I've had no major troubles, and I expect to finish it pretty quickly. I need to go back and make sure that I've beveled everything properly, however. I actually don't believe it saved, but I can easily redo it.

Blog Day

Today I was working on my other blog. It is documenting the production of my digital painting more closely. I got a lot done, and I added a lot of new content. I like how it's coming along and I'm almost caught up with the blogging. I'm liking my progress. Here's a link to the blog: http://bigproject101.blogspot.com/

Final Lighting

Today I finished the lighting project from a few days ago. I had to add a rim light and adjust the positioning of the first spotlight. I also fixed the camera positioning. I tried to make the shadow more prominent, but I can't say that I was successful, but I'm satisfied with the results.

More Lighting

Today I worked on lighting in Maya. It went fine, though I would rather work on my big project. Basically I just filled in some shadows. No major difficulties.

Lighting

Today I owrked on lighting and rendering in Maya. I don't really like the way it turned out. It was pretty difficult. I couldn't get my object to cast a proper shadow because of its bulkiness, but I tried my best. The positioning of the camera and lights was pretty easy. I'm not sure what I did icorrectly, but I know that I messed up somewhere. Even with my mistakes, I believe it turned out alright.

Color!

Today I started to color my digital painting piece. It's going pretty well so far, as I'm starting with the less detailed bits. I'm quite excited to see what it's going to look like when it's finished.

Research

Today I've decided to revamp my idea for my big project. I'm focusing more on digital painting, and I have a lot of work to do. High hopes for the future.

Sparkiling Grape Juice Glass

Today I made a glass of sparkling grape juice in Maya. It wasn't too hard, although I had a bit of trouble with the axis point moving, and I think it came out pretty well. I like how it turned out quite a bit. It was fun to make.

Glass Vase Design/ Big Project Progress

Today I designed a vase in Maya. It was pretty easy, and I like the way it looks. The tool used to make it is quite simple, and I look forward to putting it to further use in the future. I also worked on my big project and made a lot of progress there. I'm in the painting stage and it's nearly finished.

The Bust

The Vase

Boolean Designs 2

Today, I did more experimentation with the boolean tool in Maya. It was very easy, and I'm satisfied with how it turned out. I had no difficulties.

Boolean Designs

Today I worked with Boolean designs. They were pretty easy, but quite repetitive. I think I did pretty well with this one. The biggest problem I had was beveling errors, but nothing too extreme.

App Development

Today I worked on developing an app idea for a competition. It's going really well, and I'm liking my team. We have a few great ideas so far, and I'm excited to see where they go. The hardest part will be choosing just one idea to work with. We are planning to target either the educational or the entertainment markets.

Here's the google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E5ggLtcPpU79y9YE9WVL_Conz2kPRdG6MfYDIjy-bEc/edit

Spaceship Mini Project Part 3

Today I owrked on rendering the spaceship with nearly no success. The bottom bit was supposed to be wood by now, but that didn't really work out. I also didn't work on the top bit very much. I hope to add/ fix a bit more before animation.

Spaceship Mini Project Part 2

Today I started building the spaceship. So far, it's going quite well. I'm happy with my progress. I'll work on it more soon, and I'm very pleased with how it's going so far. I did have a bit of trouble with the bottom bit, though, and the top isn't very well blended. I can fix these parts after I finish the basic shape.

Spaceship Mini Project Part 1

Today I started on a new project, which is to make a spaceship. I was required to choose two themes, for which I picked futuristic sci fi and steampunk. I'm not sure that those were smart themes to mix together, but I like the concepts involved. I will probably change it. The hardest part so far is figuring out which elements to retain from each theme, because the two are total opposites in many aspects. I created a virtual corkboard to organize my ideas, which helped quite a bit. However, I still have quite a bit of work to do before reaching the final sketch of the spaceship design.

The Spaceship Idea Board

New Beginnings

I have begun the next head that I'm going to be working on. It's got a lot of curly hair, which I have absolutely no experience sculpting, but I'm trying my best. It's also not nearly as angular, which is proving to be a bit harder to sculpt than I was thinking it would be. This will probably end up being a rough draft. I am pretty happy with it so far, though. It has given me a much needed break from working on the other bust.

Reflections and Refinery

Today I wrote a reflection on my progress on my large project thus far (viewable on http://bigproject101.blogspot.com/), and I worked some more on my current head in Mudbox. So far it's coming along nicely, but the mouth and hair still need a lot of work. I can't seem to get those right recently, but I know that I will get the hang of it eventually.

Mudbox

Today I worked on better familiarizing myself with Mudbox and I worked on one of the heads that I started a few days ago. It isn't the best, and my painting skills are nowhere near as good as they need to be, but I'm making some good progress. Hopefully the general sculpting bit will be closer to finished soon so I can start adding smaller details.

Various Progress

Today I really hopped aroung regarding what I worked on. I started adding detail to a mudbox head, I worked on my virtual corkboard, and I did some research on how to better sculpt faces. It was a busy day, generally speaking, and I didn't really finish anything. I did, however, take some major steps as far as the design process itself goes.I have a much better idea of what I plan to do with my project now.

http://padlet.com/aayjah101/i6qdqanqrq59

Deforming!

Wave and Twist

Bend and Sine

Wave

Sine

Bend

Squash

Twist

Today, I experimented with the deforming tools in Maya. I layered a few of them, and othrs I left on their own. I'm happy with how these came out, and I ran into no major difficulties.

Catch-up Post

A while ago I did some other digital sculpting, and I completely forgot to post it. It was the first bust I had completed that had eyes, so that was significant. I think it turned out alright.

Big Project

Today I worked on sculpting heads in Mudbox. I've been trying to improve my skills at this by watching tutorials. The best product I've got so far is this bust. It's still a work in progress, but I'm getting better at adding muscule detail and hair details.

Designs Using Duplicate

Today I was tasked with creating three designs using the duplicate special tool. These are what I came up with. Looking back at them, I do realize that I could have used more variety with the curves of the designs, but I did try to use a variety of shapes and color schemes. I tried to use an assortment of numbers as well.

Holes

Today I learned how to make a hole in a cube using Maya. This was overall a pretty easy thing to do, although when I first attempted it, Maya crashed. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and the procedure was easy to understand. This was a simple project.

Beveling

Today I learned how to bevel using the Maya program. It wasn't very difficult, and the settings are easy to use. Remembering to set the offset correctly is going to be something I'll have trouble with in the future I feel. However, for now, beveling is the easiest skill I've learned thus far.

Extruding a Curve Along a Path

Today I learned how to extrude a curve along a path using Maya. This project was relatively easy and pretty fun. The first one I did didn't turn out well at all, so I had to restart. However, after that first hiccup, the rest was just smooth sailing. My finished product turned out really nicely, and I love how artistic it looks.

Extrusion Test

Today I learned how to extrude a face along a curve. It was pretty fun, and I liked the challenge of fixing the curves. Sometimes they inverted and crossed between each other, which was a bit confusing, but it was easily fixable. I liked the way my project turned out. It looks pretty cool. I also experimented with different materials to give it a metallic look, which I like. Overall, I'm pretty proud of this.

I Made a Temple!

This temple took me quite some time to build. I had some difficulty with the more ornamental elements, but it turned out pretty nicely. The biggest challenge for me personally was getting the scaling and positioning of the steps correct. I also had a little trouble positioning the spire on the top so that it wasn't just floating in space. The easiest piece to make was the dome and the mini dome on top of it. However, despite the challenges, I think it looks pretty good. It was worth the slight difficulty.

This Is My First Post

   This is my first post.