Nassa the Gnome, Painted Textures

Finally getting around to finishing her up (again).  You may think that Nassa has become my excuse to try new programs and workflows; and you'd be spot on.  I'm now working on her in 3DS Max to get used to Max's Slate Material Editor.  I'm also thinkin' about using 3DS Max's rigging and animation tool, but there is a good chance I'll go back to Maya for that, and do a new character in Max later on.

I added and changed a few things here, especially her two obsidian-like daggers and oversized pirate hat (stolen from a pirate.)  If you were playing the D&D campaign with me it would make more sense.  This is also the point at which I should link to our campaign log, but I'm so far behind on it, that it wouldn't explain it either.

Funny thing, I have been digging Paint Tool Sai recently, for how their blending brushes behave.

The good news is that I can deal with layered Photoshop files in SAI.  The bad news is I can't export tiff files, nor does Mudbox play nice with SAI's psd exported files.  I like using SAI more than I like texturing in Mudbox; though I am still using both programs back and forth.  Mudbox's Export to PSD features is great for getting all of the zones and shapes down, and then I can work with the flat textures for most of the detail, then take it back into Mudbox for cleaning seams.

The downside to working on this while playing the character is that she develops (and changes) on a regular basis.

I'm not modeling the panther cloak.

Trumpet model - Final

I've been sitting on this for several weeks now.  I originally planned on UV'ing and normal mapping this, but I think I'm ready to call it done so I can move on.  Especially with me working 40 hrs a week modeling/texturing/UVing, I don't really want to come home to the same style of work; I'm ready to work on my character model for this summer.

I merged most of the pipes.  Then, I just applied a blinn shader to the parts, and added it to my archives.  Now its time to move on to bigger and brighter things!

Trumpet model - WIP Part Two

I am getting close to the finish line.  Now I'm working on marrying all of the parts together.  I'm running into a lot of trouble with the pipes, because they're hollow, and weld doesn't like getting as close as they are thin.  More to come...

I must say, I do like Max's object coloring; it makes organization rather easy.

 

Trumpet model WIP

This is another project to familiarize myself with 3DS Max's controls.  I got a job for this summer (and perhaps longer), so I want to get practice in.  It's doing hard-edge modeling, and it is important that I work on internals as well as the overall look.

I've been working on this for a few days now.

High Heel Boot with Textures and Maya camera in 3DS Max

I finished up texturing the boot and call this model complete!  It's just textured directly from the orthos I had; it looks okay, but more importantly, it was quick.  And with that, I'd say I have a good grasp at modeling in 3DS Max.  I'm ready to move onto the next project.

Another great step, I found a free maya-style camera for Max script.  If anyone else has this problem, check it out here: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/plugins/mems-max2maya-maya-viewport-navigation-in-3ds-max

I believe that one should learn the controls of a program, rather than try to replace them with another.  However, since I've been going back and forth between Maya and Max so often, this became a godsend.  Really, I'm comfortable with both styles, but it's good to be able to stick with one, just so there isn't that minute of mental lag when trying to get back into a project.

High Heel Boot

This is just a low poly model I threw together in 3DS Max, as a way to familiarize myself with how the program works.  I used box modeling, and a photographs of a boot as reference.

The transition between Maya and Max isn't too bad, but there are some things I'm used to that may be hard to replace.  The biggest thing is camera controls; camera has to be second nature, and I keep second guessing myself now.  Also, it feels harder to do planar modeling in Max, but that may be because I don't have experience in it yet.  Next step, texturing!