Updates

Some photoshop textures I've been trying:

Working on those teeth, trying to get the texture and bump right:
Occlusion tests:
without occlusion
With occlusion: a bit deeper, but by no means a dramatic change.
Playing around with a chest image as color/bump/specular color map

Trying to apply the Zbrush model as displacement map for the body:Trying to apply a photoshopped image of the body onto zbrush, here looking a bit like a holocaust survivor:
I had to learn about UV sets in order to apply the body texture properly:
Again, playing around with textures:


I've tried taking big screen grabs of the Zbrush model and try and apply those to my psd texture:



Unfortunately this just wasn't working and I had to abandon this idea eventually.
Applying a displacement map, went well:
Dramatic posing, some lighting tests:

I think I've reached a stage where the team project is frustrating me. I think a public blog isn't the place to air one's personal grievances so I'm going to withhold from doing so, but suffice to say that I'm running low on enthusiasm or patience when it comes to our movie.

I've been working quite intensely over the last couple of months, waking up early and going to sleep late. If there was an issue with the rig I would think about it at night and than wake up early to try and fix it. I suppose it's a pretty good experience - keeping on working despite being low on motivation; I imagine that'd often have to happen in the commercial world and proving myself I can do that is good.

Part of me wonders whether I should function the way other people seem to, now that the end is in sight and the grade is getting nearer: worry about what I need for my folder and not what the film needs, but I just find that way of thinking too selfish and small-minded.

Anyway, these last few weeks have been a lot or re-tinkering and problem solving. I've had to re-UV the chest as I wasn't happy with the original result, and that was a bit of a long process. Afterwards I've spent a good couple of days in Zbrush and Photoshop trying to create realistic muscle definition through bump-mapping. Didn't go too well and I had to give it up. The character had some massive Weighting issues so I had to go back again quite a few steps, change the geometry, reassign the blendshapes, reconnect the GUI, and now luckily it all seems to work. I'm quite proud of myself for my problem-solving skills. Without any assistant I've managed to overcome quite big obstacles in terms of the rig. Next time I do it I'll know what pitfalls to be aware of, but it was helpful going through them nonetheless.

I've also had a sneaking suspicion I'm going to end up being the one doing the painting of weights, so I've practiced a bit in an area I considered myself fairly weak before. I now think I 'get it' and am hoping to finish this process today.

I've experimented with Ncloth, but it seems like a big pain in the ass, and one that is possibly not worth it. I might give it another go but there are more important things to focus on at the moment.

What still needs to be fixed - the body texture still has some seams - because I've been playing with it all for a good 3 days I'm a bit frustrated with it, but I nonetheless have to solve that issue. Nate changed my head texture quite a bit in some of the tests I've seen, which made me think that the same is going to happen with the body texture, so I'm doing something that looks decent, knowing it will be changed anyway.

Meanwhile, I saw the rig for the film Wacked (or Whacked, I can never remember) - they were having a lot of issues with it. I thought I could do a rig that was more functional and easier in a fairly short amount of time. So I've spent a good 6 hours yesterday on doing that and yesterday around 00:30 I finally finished, sent them the rig and waiting to see what they think of it. I was quite pleased with it myself.