Maya Tutorials | Pipeline 1 | Rigging | Part 1-4

Part 1 - Feet and Legs

Part 2 - IK/FK Spines

Part 3 - Arms & Fingers

Part 4 - Colours & Restrictions

Maya Tutorials | Pipeline 1 | Skinning | Parts 3-7

Part 3 - Binding & Weight Grouping the Mesh

Part 4 - Blending The Upper Body

Part 5 - Blending the Lower Body

Part 6 - Adding Pose Space Deformers (Corrective Blend Shapes) Upper Body

Part 7 - Adding Pose Space Deformers (Corrective Blend Shapes) Lower Body

Maya Tutorial | Games Assets | Maps 1-11

Part 1 - Base Normal Maps

45 Angle Rope Normal Map

90 Angle Rope Normal Map

Combined Rope Normal Maps

Rope Normals Attached to Bridge

Hypershade for Rope Normals

I feel the rope normal map tutorial was a success. I think learning how to overlay normal maps using different blending options was interesting. I certainly think that the final combined outcome doesn't look too bad.

Part 3 - Ambient Occlusion Maps

The ambient occlusion tutorial took longer than i expected at my own error. This is because I didn't freeze the transformations before I export out the .OBJ files. Thus leaving me with a white Occlusion map. This has since been fixed and can be seen in the GIFs Above. 

Part 4 - Base Diffuse Maps

Part 5 - Stone Base Maps

Part 6 - Pillar Maps

Part 7 -Rope Maps

Part 8 - Wood & Metal Maps

Part 9 - Diffuse Maps - Fabric Flag

Part 10 - Normal Maps Using Xnormal & Photoshop - Shield

Part 11 - Using Viewport 2.0 for Look Development & Rendering

@Alan X-Normal Troubles | Games Asset Tutorial

I've recently started adding Occlusion Maps to the bridge model within Maya. The unfortunate problem is that when I bake the maps in XNormal, it becomes a white map with hardly anything that is needed on it. The example is below.

I've tried many different settings to try make the maps appear as they should. Nothing seems to be working. Should I bake out the occlusion maps in Maya or am i missing something in X Normal?

CG Artist's Toolkit Submission | 19/05/2017

Jetpack Jones 

Uv Layout 

Building a Ribbon Spine 

Building a Skeleton

Binding and Weight Grouping the Mesh

Games Assets 

Low-Poly 

UV-Layout

High-Res

Film Reviews

Spirited Away

Sita Sings the Blues

Waltz with Bashir

Ethel and Ernest

Maya Tutorial | Game Assets | High-Res

World Animation | Film Review | Waltz with Bashir

"This extraordinary animated documentary by Israeli film-maker Ari Folman - a kind of fictionalised docu-autobiography - suggests that Israelis have indeed forgotten, in a kind of huge, willed amnesia" (Bradshaw, 2008) Not only that but Waltz with Bashir , focuses on the journey of a ex-fighter who has amnesia and PTSD and he is trying to find clues as to why he has the same nightmare over and over. The nightmare that he constantly has is that he can hear screaming, he can see people in despair but doesn't know why. The real reason that Ari is feeling like this is because 300 Christian militia was responsible for Mutilating about 3000 refugees from Beirut.

As the story progresses we start to see the story from many different people's perspectives. With each story the overall film becomes more grittier and real to the audience. Although as an audience it feels hard to 100% connect with the animation the characters, "they are still, "cut-outs" in which one limb might move while the rest remains static. The effect should be flat, but the low-tech style somehow conveys an emotional depth that catches you by surprise. The characters appear in two dimensions, yet are intensely human." (Bradshaw, 2008)

Combined together this animation makes for uneasy viewing. It is still amazing in it's own right and does provoke, although the film does catch it's audience unaware and really hits home the message when we are presented with the real life deaths of refugees at the end of them film. That made the film real, and in everyones minds; that bit more tragic.

Bibliography


Fig 1. Bradshaw, P (2008) Waltz with Bashir At https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/nov/21/waltz-with-bashir-folman Accessed 18/05/2017


Image Sources


Fig 1. Waltz with Bashir [Film Still] At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/waltz-with-bashir-2009 Accessed 18/05/2017


Fig 2. Water Walk [Film Still] At: http://www.filmwalrus.com/2014/03/film-atlas-israel-waltz-with-bashir.html Accessed 18/05/2017