CuChulainn

Was very nervous before starting it. Body and face of CuChulainn so different from Joan of Arch. 

BODY

It was more difficult and slow going that Joan of Arch. No tutorial to follow also different shapes. Totally on my own therefore took me a 1 whole day to complete it.

HEAD

Took nearly 2 days to complete. Done a couple of variations with the mouth and teeth. Decided to change from 4 teeth to a full row on the upper and lower jaw.  Looks better like this in my opinion. Glad to be done as it was really slow going. Pleased with result considering before starting I was worried I won't be able to complete it at all. :)

HAND

Easy to make. Took only about an hour and a half.

JOINED

Again fitting ear was a bit of a pain, but in general easy.

MATERIALS

So far the most difficult part. Struggled to UV unwrap it. Definitely need to learn how to unfold it properly. I could not draw any tattoo detail (Photoshop) on some of the limbs because the UV map was still very distorted. Attempt to create and apply bump map also didn't work. :(

Conclusion. Quite pleased with the actual model. Made it to look very much like in reference images, however  texturing is a total let down.

Joan of Arc

I have done little 3D modeling and my previous models didn't have much detail therefore I've decided to follow a Joan of Arch tutorial. I needed to learn the  basics of character modelling.

First step -Body

Time consuming but went well, did not experience any major problems or setbacks. Really enjoyed it.

Second step - Head

Wow. Face area was really tough. Had to concentrate on what exactly I was doing to make sure I'm following tutorial as closely as possible but I did make little changes to make it look better (nose & cheeks)

Took me 1 whole day to finish it. I think it looks reasonably close to the one from tutorial images. Made a few mistakes and had to go back a few steps back. remembering to save often very important. :)

Really enjoying the process and especially the end results.

Third step - Ear

Not too difficult. Took me only a few hours to complete it.

Fourth step - joining it all together

Joining ear to the head was most difficult part. Making it fit in to a square hole in the head properly was a bit of a challenge. Everything else went well. This has been my most complicated 3D model ever made. I was expecting it to be much more difficult and end result to look much worse but so far I'm pleased with the final result.

 

Caustics

Rendering scene using the mental ray for Maya renderer without using Caustics.

Rendering scene using the mental ray for Maya renderer with default Caustics.

• Emit Photons: On
• Photon Intensity: 8000
• Caustic Photons: 10000

Rendering scene using the mental ray for Maya renderer with Caustics.

Increased refractions levels:

• Refractions: 6
• Max trace depth: 
• Max Photon Depth: 6  
• Photon Refractions: 6 
• Photon Intensity 36000

Photons Map

Increasing caustics quality:

• Accuracy: 900 
• Radius: 1.5
• Caustic Photons: 50000 

Global Illumination

Fruit bowl rendered using mental ray for Maya without Global Illumination

Fruit bowl rendered using mental ray for Maya with Global Illumination

Fruit bowl rendered using mental ray for Maya with Global Illumination and Photon Intensity 120000

Photon Intensity Displayed using Photons Map

Fruit bowl rendered using mental ray for Maya with Global Illumination, Photon Intensity and Accuracy 900, Radius 2.5

Fruit bowl rendered using mental ray for Maya with Global Illumination, Photon Intensity, Accuracy 900, Radius 2.5 and Anti-Aliasing.

Lights Shadows and Cameras

LIGHTS

Directional Light:

• Rotate X: -40
• Rotate Y: 25
• Rotate Z: -20 

White Colour, Intensity  1.2

Spotlight positioned within the desk lamp with the look-at point on top of the table.  Use Depth Map Shadows Turned on.

Editing light attributes:
 Cone Angle 60, No Decay,Penumbra Angle to 10 (softness around the edge) and a Fog Light On

Shadows:
Cone angle 105,
Sharper the shadow edges - Resolution to 1024 (in the Depth Map Shadow Attributes section)

CAMERAS:
To see render region border:  Attribute Editor, Display Options, turn on Display Resolution.

Animated Camera

Rendering - Shading surfaces

 

Rendering - Rendering a scene

Lesson went well, but made me aware how old my PC is and I might have to upgrade it for the next year since I'll be doing animation.