Joe Caleno's Blog

  In Mudbox, the model was up to level 6. It had a lot of detail and looked exactly how I wanted it to look. It now had a lot of faces and so I needed to make a displacement map to transfer the model back over to Maya. When exporting the displacement map, it kept hanging on either 79% or 98%. I tried exporting it many times, but each time it got stuck. I looked it up, and some people said it could be the version of Mudbox. I uninstalled 2023 and installed 2020. However, when I tried exporting the map, it got stuck again. I then began removing programs I didn't use to free up some space on my computer. That also did not work. I then deleted layers off of my model to see if there was a mesh issue. This also didn't change anything. I then decided to lower the image size. I was able to export the lower quality map. In Maya, after plugging all of the textures in, it turned out better than I thought it would. 

 In the render I am fairly happy with the outcome of Sangu. I enjoyed remodelling his head. Whilst remodelling, I realised how far I have come. This version of Sangu looks a lot better than the previous version. The topology is much neater and easier to work with and I found that I ran into less problems. My favourite part of the whole process was texturing his face. I find it really satisfying working on the details. You can turn a basic matte model into something that looks realistic in such a short amount of time. 

  Texturing Sangu's head was a lot of fun. He was easy to work with since the topology was much neater than it was before. Sangu's face colour varies quite a bit. He is older than Yobi and so his skin has gone through more. He has very leathery skin, like Yobi does. Only his looks much thicker.  I also focused on his horns. His horns are larger than Yobi's and also slightly weathered.  When sculpting his face I also needed to make sure his face was much bulkier than Yobi's. His is the muscular and more manly brother and that is made apparent in his facial structure. His face is robust and bigger than Yobi's. 

Sangu rendered before face texturing  

 Rendered In the viewport In the render I decided to go for a slightly different design when I textured Yobi's body. I thought that the plain orange suit would be too simple and boring. I am happy with the outcome. The dark colour accents make the suit look much more interesting.

  Rendered Progress Texturing Yobi was a lot of fun. I really enjoy using Mudbox. I feel like it is an easy program to use and you can get a lot of work done very quickly. It was really satisfying watching a grey, texture less model, turn into something that looks realistic and characterful. I used a wide range of textures and colours. I didn’t want to just paint him brown. I wanted his skin to look life-like and have a lot of depth to it. It was also important that his skin looked leathery and thick, as that is a distinctive feature of a Tutoan. For things like bumps and scratches I used a displacement map. This allowed me to work with a very high amount of faces in Mudbox and then when it was time to move it over to Maya, the map with the details can be applied to the basic mesh. This lets you get the same level of detail with a low poly mesh.

 Like Yobi's Pre-Viz model, I had some problems when trying to texture The Dekilios Monster. I decided to remodel him using the Quad Draw tool. I also added some new details and changed his design a little bit. I scrapped his claw hands and swapped them out for suckers. The monster is one giant air bag that hoovers up everything in it's path. His is also now covered in vents that filter out air he doesn't use so he doesn't inhale too much and explode. He also has holes on his neck he breathes out of. 

 My previous Yobi model was used for my Pre-Viz animation. I tried texturing this model in Mudbox however I noticed that the topology was very messy and I was running into a lot of problems. Instead of attempting to texture on a poorly made model, I went back into Maya and remodelled him using the Quad draw tool.  This model looks much cleaner and is therefore easier to work with. I was also able to experiment more with this model since the topology was easier to move around.