Conceptualising Ideas & Forming 3D Objects

Having found my influence and taken reference photos, i began to again look over the tutorials i wanted to work from. Again, the Medieval Character tutorial used image planes to create the basic shape of the character. Although my body shape is not exactly the same as that i  anted to create, i thought having this as a base to be able to align an anatomy to would help me moving forward.

Taking the photos i had of myself, i began to align the anatomy in Photoshop in order for me to efficiently work from them. Lining up shoulder with shoulder, head with head, chin with chin etc, i was left with 2 new images that were now aligned as best as they could be. As the images were taken from slightly different distance and angles, they do not line up exactly, but they are good enough for me to be able to begin to work from

As seen in both the image above and below, the left foot doesn't quite sit on the same plane in both images. Either way, i can move the 3D object to fit within the perspective i'm after in Maya.

Using the images i had exported, i am able to scale up and align these within Maya, allowing for an easy switch between front, side and perspective view. This in itself will not only help me with aligning the points from the front view, but creating the depth i would need in the side view.

The views separately allow me to only focus on the one picture i am working on. Although i can work with 2 side by side, i think having the separation of front and side into separate windows will allow me to focus on one thing at a time instead of trying to refine something that may not necessarily ned refining straight away.

With these orthographic views i am able to place a polygonal cube and align the vertices between them. As seen in the image below i was able to manipulate a simple 4 sided cube to fit the basic shape of the body and 2 other cubes to create the basic shape of the legs/

Having the side view allows for the proper amount of depth to be established. With the two separate i have been able to not refine any of it too much, allowing for the same amount of detail to be put into each section of the anatomy without applying too much too quickly.

The addition of depth can be properly seen in the basic shapes in perspective view. Blocking out the head, a basic body shape can be seen. Although this doesn't yet look like a troll, you can really see the basic shapes beginning to form.

With the addition of cubing out the legs, feet and arms the basic of the anatomy can be stablished. Through following this tutorial i have really seen the importance of the polygonal mesh to base the character on. This in itself, although following a tutorial for a character, has allowed me to transfer these skill to my own work instantly, coming out of it with something unique.

Rotating around the objects, one can really see the necessity of using the front and side views in order to create realistic depth to the character.

With the body shape created, the tutorial now moved onto the creation of the face. However, i wanted to include a weapon in my creation. With that, i began to use the techniques i had begun to work on with the first tutorial involving the Mechanical Robot, using basic shapes and Nurbs objects to create a basic mesh to work upon.

Wanting to create something resembling a club, i looked again at reference images to work out exactly what style i wanted to work with. Many of the images i saw seemed to be based heavily around sharp, refined blades and hammers. With the image i wanted to create, i wanted it to be a lot more raw, something with a lot less detail, but still as threatening. Something that would squash instead of slice. Through incorporating a few of the elements seen in these photos below;

I began working on something that combined many of these things whilst stills sticking to my original idea.

Using a sphere as my base i was able to manipulate it into a shape i thought i could work with, moving it to look rather top heavy and very unrefined.

Through working this way i came across more issues, in that i could not extrude the elements as i had hoped. From here i started again, looking at a different way to create the basic shape i could sculpt on.

Using a sphere with a shaft to create the base, i began to manipulate the entire shape instead of just smaller elements. Elongating the shaft allowed me more edge loops to work with. After the Mechanical Robot tutorial i followed previously, i had already worked with extruding faces to create an interesting pattern, but i thought in this case i would be able to use it to make some kind of metal dug into the club itself.

With the shaft established i was able to use the same technique on the hilt, extruding the face until it resembled more of a handle and pummel.

I again manipulated the sphere at the top to make the head of the club and added a cap to the end.

Smoothing it out in Maya gave me a nice base to work with as i would move onto ZBrush.

With the club established alongside the body, it allowed me to further establish the basic body shape. Creating the hand came from the inspiration i had looking through the troll reference images. Many of them had an odd number of fingers, allowing for that kind of Neanderthal type personality to be placed upon it whilst also looking very interesting. Having the hand grip the club was rather easy in that i had a very simple hand shape already created from the image base, and using cubes to flesh it all out became easier after more experience working in Maya.

The final structure ended up looking like this picture below. From here i can continue to refine the base mesh in order to give more detail when moving into ZBrush. Although at this point the model does not look very convincing, moving onto the face, refining the body contours and feet will add to the base i will need before i sculpt.

Extruding parts of the body allowed for a neck to be created. Although it doesn't necessarily look too refined, the base is something i can work on later. With the addition of edge loops i can further manipulate these shapes to fit my intended purpose.

Moving onto the limbs, the addition of edge loops allows for different contours to be established, such as the base for muscle groupings and folds in the skin. Adding 2 distinct edge loops to the arms allows for the fleshing out of the overall shape. Doing this on both sides keeps the workflow even and manageable.

At this point i felt everything was a little too finessed with not weighting being given to the cloth i wanted to introduce that would surround the characters groin. As previously mentioned, modelling the gentiles would have required far too much work, and for a character that is primarily going to be seen in print form, the necessity seemed very low. With this i began by duplicating the body and cutting faces to fit the contours of the already established shape. Extruding the faces further to fit helped get the base shape down.

At this point i feel happy moving onto the face. Meshing the face will take the most time in Maya and i think will be one of the more difficult things i have to do in the project. But thus far, my structure stands like this.