Working on the Otter Model in Maya First

Seeing as I'm still having a bit of trouble with grasping the tutorials, I started roughing out my model in Maya first.  I'll just move it into ZBrush when I get to class on Tuesday.  Until then, I will spend Sunday afternoon watching the tutorials.  Also, on Monday, when I get back to the Mac Lab, I'll try to get the rest of my research loaded onto the blog.  Cheers!

ZBrush Model

Seeing as we can do any animal, I would like to model a river otter.  All the pics I'm posting were found on a google search.  It's a pretty simple animal, so I hope that's ok.

ZBrush vids on YouTube

The music is a bit much on a few of them, but I was watching some YouTube vids on what you can do with ZBrush.  It looks awesome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pmwDizsHqU

To be honest, the final product, the actual model shown in this second vid is what I want to do (work with the hands-on modeling)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WK8DOq91rw&feature=related

I would advise checking out the user page for ZBRUSHatPIXOLOGIC (the ones who made both of these vids).

Final Render

So, I just finished working on the lights and renders.  The Lynda vids helped.  I still have a bit of a hard time with the Digital Tutors ones, keeping up with what they're saying.  But, now that this is done, and my book should be in soon, they should start making more sense. :)

New Look and Fixed Problem

I fixed the problem with error messages! I just had to delete all the layers that came in when I imported each piece.  There are still a ton of individual phongs, but that's ok this time.  At least all the extra junk is gone.
Now that I see the pieces on the new board, I much prefer this look.  Yep yep. I like this better.  If I had done this before, maybe tonight could have been spent putting some gilding on it like you see in a lot of nouveau pieces... I might still add it in the future.

New Chess Board

Since my first board didn't really match the Art Nouveau style, I looked around a bit and found a picture to put behind/on my squares.  When it renders it makes a complete picture of flowers and leaves.  Also, I took away the staggered spaces and added a wood base. A lot of the stuff I saw while researching employed nature, so I figured this should have a bit of wood.
Now I'll just have to switch the boards.

Finished My Pieces!!

Now all I need to work on is lighting and rendering.  Although, if you look at the tops of my bishops in Mental Ray renderer, there is an issue with the texture map.  Will ask about it in class.
As for the Digital Tutors vids, I was planning on watching those in class today so I can use both computer screens.  Also, I went ahead and bought the book "Mastering Autodesk Maya 2011" so that I can try to keep up with everyone.  I'll make sure to post images of what I'm going through in the book too!

Problem

Whenever I go into edge mode to add an offset edge loop, so I can actually finish my last three pieces, something in Maya won't let me add them.  And, I can't find a way to change my number of divisions on the base object, it just won't let me.  I'm going to need a bit of help.  I went back and watched the Lynda vid on adding edge loops, and I'm doing everything right.  It will let me add offset edge loops on the top of my model, but not the middle where I need them.  I can only make vertical loops in the middle, and I need horizontal ones.
Also, I still haven't caught up on the Digital Tutorials because I'm spending just about every waking moment on these chess pieces, trying to figure out what the problems are.  As soon as I get the project done I will devote every waking moment to the vids. Promise.
As for an update on my chess model, I have a corrected board (Daniel informed me that I had it checkered backwards), the pieces in the right places, the kings, the queens, and the pawns all on the board in the right place.  I still have to put the sash on the knight and the rook, and I need to make the top piece for the bishop + it's sash.

More Pieces and a Knight

I've put more pieces on my chess board and started making my knight (the helmet took a while, but it was fun).  I'm still working on the rook too.  I'm having a bit of difficulty with making an offset edge loop like I did for the king and queen.  Maybe I'm doing it wrong, or there's something wrong with my Maya.  I'm not sure.

Putting Parts Together Now

I'm starting to put pieces on the board.  I have the pawns, kings, and queens finished.  I'm working on my rooks, knights, and bishops now.  The sash gets a bit difficult, but I'll figure it out. :)  I also forgot to take a screen shot of the board with the pawns, so the one posted isn't all that I have done.

FINISHED LYNDA VIDS

I finally finished all the Lynda Tutorials.  I still have to get caught up with the Digital Tutors, but I have done little else besides Lynda since Tuesday.  I still need help on my chess pieces.  And, again, these images are not in order of learning.

Adding Cameras

Adding Depth of Field

Adding Lights

Batch Rendering

Bokeh using Mental Ray

Depth Map Shadows

IPR Rendering

Light Shelf Rendering

Mental Ray Motion

Motion Blur (3D)

Ray Tracing Shadows

Reflections, Refractions, and Transparencies

Starting to work on the middle of the chess pieces

I'm working on making the middle part now.  I just can't figure out how to make the middle all wrinkly like cloth.  It doesn't need to BE cloth, just a representation of it.  And it needs to be red (or on the white piece, blue).  I know I can make it from another model, I'm still just not quite sure how to.

finished Lesson 10. Lesson 11 has problems with rendering shelf.

I might end up going over to the Digital Tutors vids before I do lesson 11 in Lynda.  There seems to be a problem with my rendering shelf.  Also, one of the lessons in exercise 10 was broken on my computer, the one on set-driven keys.  And, these images are not in the order that I watched the lessons, the blog just organized them like this.

Animating along a curve

Animation cycles

Breakdown Key

Constraints 

Dope sheet

Editing keys

Finishing the animation

Graph editor (Broken vid)

Importing sound

Keyframes 

Playblast

Timeline 

Finished Lesson 9

Working on the Tutorials Again

Sorry I complained so much at the end of class.  I was a pain.  :(  Sorry.

So, I'm working again on the Lynda vids.  I'll post a picture or two for each one this time.
These aren't particularly in order...