Originally this hut was modelled by dean in our group but when I got got round to using his it so that I could start putting the sets together I had a few issue. the first was that it had a 9 sided polygon and we have always been told to have no more then a 4 sided in a model although this was fairly simple to fix, after letting dean know that I was going make some adjustments to the model. I started to fix it by using the split polygon tool, which divides the polygon between 2 selected points. This was all simple and I very quickly had a tidy looking model, all it needed now was some small adjustments to the vertexes to make it look tidier. Once I moved the first vertex it turned out there was another under it, from this I also found out there was a polygon under another and it appeared this happened all over the model. After talking to the director and dean it turned out it was going to be quicker for me to rebuild the model.
I started the modelling of the hut by creating a cylinder and scaling it on the X and Z axis but not the Y until the cylinder looked the right dimension. In the picture above you can see where began extruding sections of the cylinder until I got the right look for the hut. I finished the hut in about half an hour but unfortunately the director wasn't to happy with the design so I ended up remaking the model although this didn't bother me as I enjoy modeling anyway.
You can see above see one of the huts that I made but the director want it to feel more like it was a tent and the material was hanging over a frame.
Here you can see the 3 iterations of the hut (from left to right) Deans original, My First attempt and then the final which made the film.
Above you can see a ambient occlusion render of the final model used in the film
Originally the Character of the mongol was going to be modeled by another student on the course not a member of my team but the modelling of he character was so hi-res that our rigger was having issue when it came to the rigging it. The character was also modeled with no legs under the coat that created a lot of issues once the rigging began. it was at this point that i said to the rigger did she want me to create a character model over the weekend to see if the rigging would be easier. After showing the model to the rigger she decided it would be easier to use my model but I had to get the director to okay it first. The director loved the model it was beginning to look more like the original concept.
Here you can see the characters development stages, this is an images just showing the beginning stages of the body before the head was added and the director gave me his input on the model. I know that at this stage there was a lot to be adjusted such as proportions of the body and making him more stylised.
At this point I had been given a fair amount of input
Test
Here is a test for the eagle model which I did just so I could look at the model and think about the flow of the edges and which way would be easiest to model. One of the things I realised was that the hardest part of the eagle to model was going to be the face at which point my group reminded me that its only in the animation for less the five seconds and one of the thing about animation is that there is no point making something that isn't going to be seen.
The Body and Face
The way that I set up the model was by creating a box deleting one side of it and using the other as the master, I would then create an instance of this so that I get a symmetrical model throughout the whole modelling process. Below is a image of the eagle in the early stages where you can see was just blocking it out, I started with a simple box and started extruding each section one at a time getting each looking good before moving on to the next section .
Here you can see a smoothed version of the eagle model above which gave me more of an idea as to how the finished model was going to look.
The beak was hardest bit I had to model I had trouble getting the hooked look at first but after playing with the vertices's for quite a while I started to get the look you can see below.
Wings and Changes
Here you can see the eagle is nearly finished, it was at this point I went to get some feedback from the director as I was at a good point to make any changes that were needed. I was told that although the eagle matched the concept art it needed to have a more angular and streamlined look compared the stylised look which he found wasn't working. Firstly I started by widening the neck out so that eagle was more of a point shape, I also shrunk the head a bit and reduced he hook on the beak all to add to the streamlined look. For the wings I looked at eagle reference and tried to mix it with the stylised wings of the original model, I then gave this to the director at which point I was given the go ahead to continue with the model. Below you can see the results of my changes I made at this stage
Old Version
New Version
Feet
The feet were quite difficult to model as getting the claw shape looking right was hard but its was very similar to the beak I just had to spend a while playing with the vertices's.
Finished Model
Once I had the model looking how I wanted I created 2 version one Hi-Res and one Low-Res. Creating these was fairly simple I started by deleting the the instance and creating a copy of the master side of the model and inverting it on the X Axis so that a had a model that looked complete. The next thing I had to do was combine the 2 halves and then select any of the vertices's that were touching another vertices from the other half and merge them so that I had a complete model.
Now that I had the model at this stage I started by softening the edges which created my Low-Res version but I wasn't sure if it would be easier to rig for Tara if she had a higher res model so i also created a Hi-Res version. The way I created the Hi-Res version was by pressing 3 for the smooth mesh preview and the going Modify-Convert-SmoothPreview to Polygons the reason I did it this way is because when I was doing work experience at the Mill and got some training I was told as long as the topology is looking good this gives a quick but efficient Hi-Res model.
