Update on giraffe

I'm writing a post about my memorial day weekend and part of my weekend was finishing up the paint and texture of my giraffe and I thought it would be fun to show you the "finished" product.

I put finished in parenthesis because I still have to rig the little guy and make a 15-30 second animation of the guy. Oh...maybe you can help... 

Isn't he just way way way too cute? 

 

...This is what I have to do for my project. Since I am a film major I have to incorporate film into the project. meaning I can't just animate a world for the giraffe to walk around it. I have to film the background and then place the animated character in the movie. For instance if I want to start with the little guy sitting on the bed I have to film and imaginary character sitting on the bed with my camera then place the animated character into the film or if I want to track him walking down a hall, I have to film an imaginary object walking down the hall and then placing the giraffe in the hall. Is that making sense?

I have to make a cause and effect movie. like the giraffe steps on a rack and it comes and hits him in the face. Do any of my 5 faithful readers have an idea of something cute and fun?

What I have been doing

I know I said that I would be able to post more often now that the bulk of school is finished. Apparently I LIED.

Like I said before I have to take a 3D modeling and animation class. and this class is kicking my trash.

First we learned the program MAYA in like 2 days. I think maya is the program Pixar and Disney use. Don't quote me on that. anyway we needed to build like 7 models over night in order to learn the tools and skills. We really didn't have much choice so these were my first few maya models.

a boat

A toaster

a sword

the "Eiffel Tower"

a hammer - my first model

a space ship

an airplane - this one is not very good at all.

Then we learned how to build a character. This was our first character we built. it was a little pink pig. I never finished the pig, I don't think anyone has. and I can't do a screen shot of the model because the program won't open. somehow the file got corrupted. I hate that. Maya is awesome but can be so fickle too.

The guy behind the pig is my teacher. He's pretty cool.

 After the pig we had to buy 2 stuffed animals. One to keep and one to "kill".

This was the stuffed animal I chose. Such a cute little thing. It was heart breaking to destroy the little guy.

This is the lucky one. CUTE!

this is the unlucky one. sad :(

the purpose was to teach UV mapping. I'll get to that later.

and this is my final model of the giraffe. It took 4 different "from scratch" attempts. This one was titled "giraffe four take 4." It took many many tries but I finally figured it out. 

I finished that little guy last week and I got a 94% on it. Not too shabby. My teacher said it was great when he saw it.

Currently we are working on UV mapping and painting the giraffe. So this is my uv map of the giraffe.  (we needed to turn the 3D model "2D" in order to paint it in photoshop. ) My teacher said my mapping and my grid placement - we have to have the whole animals map placed in this small square - were excellent. I used my space well.

It totally looks like the ripped up doll.

This picture gives you an idea of all the seams that I created by doing the UV map. Plus the color makes it look more impressive than the other images.

I think he's cute. Not bad for 2 and a half weeks of 3D modeling.

It's official ....

...I am done...actually it was official yesterday but I forgot to post anything. I worked my rear off, sacrificed my family, my friends, my insanity, the cleanliness of my house, practically everything for the most HELLISH semester of my life. Someday I will post the video that I've been working 9 grueling months on but not today. I need to step back and take a break. BUT I am done! (except that I have 2 easy classes to finish) and it feels great!

That is all.

Michelle did so I should too

Just like the title of the post I figure it's my turn to write something about our new blog.



We've been working hard on it and are really excited to start this. Like Michelle said in her blog post this venture is totally free. We really enjoy doing it. Check it out at www.lovinglifedesigns.blogspot.com