Technical Slop

Pui Pui Entry 2

Finally got a bit of work done and some time to myself. :whew: Ready for a few pics and things?

The first thing is Pui Pui. What does he look like? Here are the pics that I'm using, all nice and consolidated for your viewing pleasure:

Now that you can see what he looks like, I'll mention mapping/skinning him. Looks pretty easy. Planning on a multi-sub material with two slots. One for the armour and one for his black tights. The armour (along with glove and boots and most of his head) will be given a texure. I think the hardest part about this will be doing a lot of line work for the wireframe. Using Auto Edge won't exactly work, so I'll have to get into the nitty gritty of it. The rest, his black tights, will be a simple procedural material. Basically black with blue specular. To help with the shading, I'll have to exaggerate his muscles a bit.

Time to get busy with setting up the workspace with the reference pics. Well, since the reference pics aren't ideal, I decided on a 3d reference deal. Started with a capsule object, did some basic operations on it, then painted the breaks in Pui Pui's armour on it. Then I added a quick Biped figure to help with getting the rest of him in proportion. Sounds weird, but it works.

That white square with the lines is the texture for his armour. I also tossed in guides on the armour texture to show what is what: Front, Back, and Shoulder. When I mapped the capsule, I mirrored it. I did this for two reasons: convenience and so I can use the 2d texture for making the armour. Pretty snazzy trick. Let me show you what I mean:

1) This is the armour texture on a plane. I changed the colours a bit so I could see better in Max. I also added some red dots for where I want the verts to go.

2) This is the wireframe of the flat armour using the texture as a guide. Started a Poly, then I did some Create Poly over the armour texture by clicking on the red dots. I'm showing this in wireframe because Show Edge just wasn't working too well.

3) Then I went to each Poly, Extruded each the same amount, then eyeballed Outline (aka Bevel). Are you starting to see it?

4) Then I give it a Bend modifier of 180 degrees. Had to tweak various parameters in the Bend to get it right -- no big deal. I also gave it a touch of NU-Scale.

See? Snazzy.

Alright. Export the armour mesh, go back to my other workspace, Import the armour mesh, and Rotate/NU-Scale into place.

Too bad it looks crappy. The geometry needs some work. Nothing some Turn Edge can't fix.

There you have it, before and after Turn Edge. I did want to show the edges, but it was just too messy.

As you can see, the armour is a bit whacky. That means I'll have to get nitty gritty with the verts, which is something I don't mind one bit and wouldn't have any other way.

I did say that I want to model the armour geodesic, but that is just plain too much right now. I will do some - a lot of - vert/line tweaking, but I'm not going to get totally hardcore.

That's about it for now.

Back to the grind.