So I lost some files, but luckily still have something to show for Claire's progress...
Sadly I saved over my work files, so I lost what I had for her messenger bag, but I managed to get back to where I was with her skirt. I'm rendering off my laptop, so it might take me a little bit to post a full motion render. Here is a still in the meantime...
Here is a quick update on the Clydesdale project...
I finally got an alembic cache working with the nHair systems I'm using. More tests have to be done to make it more efficient, but at this point I can finally render a more accurate version of the final result I was going for.
Here is a test render of what it is looking like...
The final motion render might take some time due to how long these take to come out, but it is on it's way. I need to fix the sheen issue and the colors in the texture need some tweaking, as well as the dynamic properties of the feathers and their integration with the rest of the horse.
So, It's been a pretty hectic week. I managed to get some progress on both Claire and the Clydesdale, although not nearly as much as I would have liked to...
For my Clydesdale it has been a constant battle with the dynamics. It was mostly an issue with properly caching out the simulation once the motion was right. I finally found a work-around to the issue by caching out the hair system's output curves to an alembic cache, then importing it back in and attaching the hair system to it. It took a while to figure out how to do this properly, but it is finally working. Now I will be able to get proper renders out when everything is simulated. Here is a still render in the meantime..
Claire also saw slow progress this week. She is properly working with her walk cycle animation, nut the nCloth that I have been trying to set up for her has provided more of a challenge than expected. I don't have a working motion test for it yet, but both the skirt and the messenger bag are ready and currently being worked on for dynamics. Here is what the hair looks like on her so far...
So it's been a while... Sadly I still haven't finalized the Clydesdale project but work on it still goes. After a lot of testing and fighting with it, I decided to start back from the beginning and apply the changes that I learned would make the process easier and the result better. Currently he is fully furred and work on the hair has started once more. I will post an update once the motion tests for the hair are done.
The reason progress on him has gone so slow is because I've had to dedicate more of my time to the next official asset for my demo-reel, which is Claire, a rig from Long Winter Studios.
My goal for her is to create various sets of dynamic hair and experiment with clothing. So far I have managed to create and simulate one style of hair that tries to replicate the one she comes with by default and here is a motion test render...
A really cool friend of mine, Elise, animated a walk cycle for me to apply the hair and she also let me use her skater animation for the same purpose. Here are the most recent versions for both of them...
And lastly here is a little preview of the process followed to setup this particular hairstyle...
This was done with Maya nHair and rendered with mentalray.
With this project I want to create a nice asset to show possible employers, but I aslo want to learn how to use different tools and software to create these styles. I will be playing around with the new Xgen hair and fur tools for maya 2015, as well as Qualoth and Marvelous Designer for the cloth.
