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.
Don't you just love murphy's law. You fix something just to have two more issues pop up.
I know this seems like a giant leap back more than a step forward, but I have learned. I managed to find out what was wrong with my textures and it had nothing to do with the baked maps. It was an issue with the gamma correct node on the ambient tip and base color in my fur descriptions, something I completely overlooked. You might also notice the flickering on the fur, which was caused by me not turning off smooth uv's when smoothing out the geometry
Many mistakes I have made during this project, but the one I regret most is leaving the hair motion last. It seemed to be working at first, but the more hair descriptions I added to the scene, the more the simulation messed up. It is something I have been troubleshooting for a while and I will continue to do tests to figure out the best way to get this scene working. I will update with my findings as they come, but currently I'm not able to correctly simulate the feather movement.
I also had troubles caching out the hair simulation. At first the workstations I used would crash a few frames into the cache. I went ahead and manually optimized the scene because the automatic would delete very needed nodes, and this let me carry out the cache, but as soon as it played back, you could definitely tell something was wrong:
Many paint effect strands would freak out and bunch up in the origin, as well as shoot out into infinite space. Moving around the scene in this state you could tell there were more strands all over not immediately visible in the viewport because they would flash by. The paint effects still following the motion would stand up and be pulled in other directions. It was impossible to find any information on this issue online so cache was not an option at this point until an answer was found. Any input on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
I did manage to get a nice still render of the more accurate texture with all the hair in it's initial state, it had to be done in an earlier version due to file corruption, so there are s few changes still missing.
And here is the reference I have been trying to match... If you zoom in you can see what the individual image is reference for;
There is still a lot to do here before I can truly say I am done, but I am happy with my progress so far and mostly with what I have learned.
Sadly, Renamon has to be put on hold while I solve the issues with my first scene. I am committed to have the horse up and running by next week, but in the meantime, here is a small update on Renamon's texture and animation.
I have been battling fur maps for most of this week and continue to do so, but at least I have some progress to show for it. I managed to add in the hair an tail to the horse and am currently working on the feathers("leg hairs"). I fell like I am very close to completing this effect if I manage to solve the issue that I am having with the baked textures on the fur. I have tried several ways to replace them with newer textures, but it has become nearly impossible to get rid of the previously baked versions. I have tried re-baking, deleting the color maps, manually re-applying the texture maps, rebuilding the networks, among other different possible solutions.
Something else I need to work on is the lighting of the scene. Right now I have a very simple two light setup and an IBL. I want to put a card down to catch the horse's shadow
I got this test render done a couple days ago, but continued to play with the motion of the hair. This playblast shows the most recent version.
At this point simulation and baking take up quite a bit of time on the Clydesdale model, so during that time I am taking the opportunity to advance on my next project which is to fur this Renamon...
The animation is ready and I and just started on getting the mesh ready for the fur by dividing it up into more appropriate pieces than the Clydesdale. It might seem like common sense but I wasn't really thinking of this at the beginning of that project. So here is the first bit of useful information that will come out of this blog
Fur tips
1) Divide the mesh into sections that make sense and avoid leaving seams in very noticeable places just like you would when cutting up UVs. This way it will be easier to conceal the seams left by the patches.
2) Leave some overlapping polygons when cutting the patches to avoid getting gaps between the geometry. You can easily compensate for the overlapping fur by fading in with painted baldness maps around the edges.
3) If you need to smooth the geometry after cutting the patches, make sure the edges don't end up standing out of the mesh too much. This will make for very noticeable and sharp creases or dents in the fur and the geometry.
4) Keep the patches as even in size and density as possible, and the easier it is to lay out the UV's the better.
5) If you are furring a finalized animation as opposed to a rig or something still being edited, you might want to cache out the animated geometry. This will save you loads of time because Maya won't have to calculate the skin cluster anymore.
6) Pressing the "3" button to smooth preview the mesh will not get rid of the geometry faceting when it comes to rendering fur. You are actually required to go in and run a smooth operation on the geometry to get this result.
Note: All the tips mentioned above are meant for the default Maya 2014 and below, with no plugins or scripts. The new tools for hair and fur in Maya 2015 work in a very different manner and don't require many of the steps I had to take.
These tips are also solely based on my experience and research, and, as confident as I may be in them, they can still be wrong. Please do your own research before putting them into practice, and feel free to comment on whatever your findings are.
So this is my first Demo Reel Project... I am working on completely furring and simulating hair for this animated clydesdale. Eventually it will have a full coat, mane, tail, and feathers (hair on legs). For this project I am proceeding the old school way... I created patches out of the geometry that follow the deformation of the model and then attached the fur to the patches and painted fur maps to help them blend seamlessly. The seamless part is still a little off, but it shouldn't take too long to finish touching up the maps that need help. Currently this test represents a bit over a week's worth of work onto the fur or coat of the model and still have a ways to go, but I started blocking out the mane earlier today. I have played with several versions of the fur texture and I think I'm close to the final one. In this test render there are still some issues with missing details due to lack of contrast, and the markings on the back are a little out of place and need more work. I had been checking my progress with stills and didn't notice some of the issues with the geometry protruding at certain frames that became evident in the full sequence, which is an easy fix through editing the patch geometry. Another issue that is noticeable is the clear lines in the geometry in certain areas like the neck and torso, which can be removed by subdividing the mesh in these areas one more time. Here are just a few of the renders taken throughout the process...
