PPP Maya Model Building part 2

This was the second part of me modelling myself on Maya, were I feel like it took me shorter to do than the batarang but it still took me a long time.
Whilst modelling myself I realised that it would be easier to model me if I only had shorts on so that I would be able to se my muscles and body shape better.

I think the hardest thing for me to do to this model will be to connect the arms and legs to the body and then creating the head. To me the head might be the hardest thing to model because its got loads of features on it, but I suppose I could simplify me features on my head.

PPP Maya Model Building part 1

Building this in Maya took me about 4 hours just because I was just getting use to the software and I as getting stressed out because the guy doing the tutorial online was going to fast for me. However, I feel like the outcome is pretty good, but it's not exactly like the guys in the tutorial I watched. The one thing I do like about my model of the batarang is that it looks like it has sharp edges on the top because I used an aluminium texture on it, and I also like how the batarang doesn't come to a point at the ends of the wings because it makes me think thats where you'd hold it if you had to throw the batarang.

PPP The Animated Self: Idea

For the PPP task 'The Animated Self' I wanted to animate in Maya to increase my skills and give myself a bit of a challenge. The thing that I'm going to be doing in Maya is modelling myself, but then have me dodging a batarang (a weapon used by Batman) that I will also model in Maya. I can up with this idea when I was looking at tutorials online on how to model in Maya and saw that someone had modelled a batarang. I feel that it will be hard to model myself in Maya because there is so many parts of my body to animate, but hopefully the outcome of the animation will be pleasing to me.      

PlayStation All-Star Battle Royal

This PS Vita game is kind of like Smash Bros where all the stars from the PlayStation games come together and fight, however All-Stars is different because instead of health bars you have power bars and when that fills up you do your super move and thats how you kill someone.

Its different to most combat games because when the characters are battling the backgrounds start to change into different backgrounds from the games where the characters come from. For example you will start off in the little big planet arena and then finish up having the god of war monsters trying to attack the players.

Also with each character you can level them up to have better abilities and face other opponents with similar stats as you and see which one of you is better. you can also change their theme music, taunts, costumes, and movements to make your character unique to you.

     

Mike Hermes and James Taylor Maya Tutorials

Throughout the past couple of weeks I've been practicing my Maya skills because that's what 'm most interested in, in animation. So to do this I've been watching tutorials by Mike Hermes and James Taylor on youtube to help me understand more about modelling in Maya, and to help me to place texture on the models I've made. Some of the tutorials I've watched have been about how to model a person in Maya and on how to get the proportions right when modelling a character.

This is on of the videos I've watched while trying to model in Maya:

At the minute I'm working on modelling me in Maya and I've realised that it's easier to model someone with their arms stretched out rather than by their side, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of the software because other people in my class are asking me about the software Maya and how to do things on it.      

This is another video I've been looking at because for my PPP animation I'm wanting to do a 3D animation about slow motion and having a character move round an object. I will tell you more about this animation in another blog post because thats where I'll show you some modelling I've been doing as well.   

Lego Marvel Superheros

The Lego Marvel Superheros game has nearly every superhero from the marvel universe including loads of cameos from the one and only Stan Lee. In the game all the characters have their very own unique powers and another great thing about this game is that most of the characters also have different costumes so you don't get board looking at them.

I also like how if you're playing as a characters who has different personalities like The Hulk, Spiderman and Iron Man, you can actually change mid game into their opposite identities like Bruce banner, Peter Parker, and Tony Stark. Also the game mode is different from the other Lego games because in the superhero game it's an open world game where as Lego Batman for example is a level by level game. So if you're playing as Iron Man you get to fly around the city and do what you want.

Dying Light: Good Night Good Luck

Now I haven't actually played this game but I want to because it's parkouring and killing zombies at the same time. I've watched people play it on youtube and it looks so fun to play and the environment looks so pretty. Dying Light is  a first person point of view game and is set in a vast and dangerous open word, during day light to roam an urban environment devastated by mysterious epidemic, scavenging for supplies and crafting weapons to help defend yourself against the zombies. However, at night the zombies become stronger and more powerful so the hunter becomes the pray, and the inhuman predator will build a nest to grow in numbers and leave at night to feed on you.

Outlast Whistleblower

Outlast Whistleblower is an amazing game that I've played over the past couple of weeks with me friend Molly. In the game you walk around an insane asylum but you can't fight any og the peasants off all you can do is run, and to me this is scarier that fighting them because you know if you get near them they'll just kill you straight away.

Another thing I like about this game is that the only way you can see is if you hold up your camera and use the light, but the camera will run out of battery if you use the light for too long. if you do run out of battery you still can use night vision mode bit you can only see something if it is right in your face.

Not only is the game scary it's so dark and interesting, the story involves the government and experimentation and the human body, and how the government are trying to make a weapon out of a human but the subject turned into the 'Walrider'. The Walrider is actually a swarm of nanites, small, nanoscopic machines who possess great strength and power. It took possession of William "Billy" Hope, as shown in a document Billy was undergoing Morphogenic Engine Therapy. He learnt to self direct the lucid dream states, he was then capable of controlling the Walrider.

Another character I really like is in the DLC and is called Eddie Gluskin, who is a man trying to make other men into women so that he can have a family and raise children differently to how he was raised. When you encounter Eddie for the first time he calls you darling and tries to get you and turn you into a woman so you can have his children. In the game you get to see one of Eddies experimentations on turning a man into a woman and its very disturbing to see because it's imitating child birth.

 
     

Hotel Transylvania

The animated film 'Hotel Transylvania' has some great animation in it, however the story isn't that great. In my opinion the animation of the movement is the best part about the whole film because of the fast but smooth pace of Dracula and the way he runs through the corridor is cool because his whole upper body is still but his legs are just flailing around. I also like how each character has there own way of moving around, so like Frankenstein is big so his movements are heavy, loud and big. My favourite character has to be Murray the Mummy just because of his big movements and the way he acts, plus the person who voices him is CeeLo Green.

   

Brave

Brave is a great animated film and shows a wide range of amazing characters because each character has their own appeal and personality (except the three little boys). Out off all the characters my favourite has to be Merida's father Fergus just because he doesn't act like an adult but can be a total bad ass when needed to be, also the best part of the film is when Fergus impersonates Merida for Elinor the mother. Besides Fergus I also love the characters of the three little boys Harris, Hubert and Hamish because even though they don't speak they are very entertaining to watch and I love how cheeky they can be towards the maid, and even as little bears they still are really cute.

 












As well as the characters in the film I also like the environment especially when Merida and Elinor are in the woods together because of the way the light hits the trees which makes it look so realistic, I also like the way the water looks because of how it effects the characters when they go in it to get the fish, I say this because in some animations water looks horrible and doesn't flow the way its suppose to do.

Portal 2

Portal 2 is another favourite game of mine and not just because you can throw yourself around with the portals you create. I love this game because of the physics behind it and how you can feel weird after going through so many portals and you don't know were you are or what way up you are. I also love the characters in this game especially Glados the main robot character, because she has amazing sarcasm towards the character that your playing as.

Glados also has a good back story that you learn about when you fall right to the bottom of the testing chambers laboratory, where you fine out that Glados was once human, I'll leave it at that so I don't spoil it for you if you wan't to play it for yourself.

Another thing that I love about this game is its environment and how different testing chambers are unique in their own way. Not just that, I love how the developers have incorporated mother earth with in the game by adding vines and leaves everywhere when the chambers got destroyed because Glados was murdered in the first game so she couldn't keep the place clean. I also like how in some of the chambers early on in the game are still getting fixed by Glados, and also how she teases you at one point by destroying a cube before you can finish the test.

       

A Fox Tale

The animation 'A Fox Tale' has a great environment and good characters to help tell an okay story about a fox that can transform into a woman in water while two men are fighting over the woman not knowing that she is actually a fox. I really like the animation of the two men fighting because you can really get the feel of how heavy the big guy is in his movements and how he used his weight as an advantage. Also the little guy used his size as an advantage because he can move very fast to dodge the big guy and then used the big guys weight against him by throwing him around, and at one point the little guy gets thrown up into the sky and gets at ability to manipulate lightning which increases his speed and agility. Another thing that I like about this animation is that the characters use the environment around them to help in the fight, for example chucking rocks at one another and using the rock as punching gloves.

The Chase

In this short animation there are a couple of things that I like about it. One of those things is the environment because it's amazingly beautiful, and the way they've captured the nature in the city is so realistic. However, the one thing that did not amaze me was the characters because of the movements and how they looked robotic and they did not really show much emotion when they were fighting each other. The fight scene was enjoyable to watch though because of how the animators used different perspectives like first person view to show how the boy felt after he got punched in the face, and how they used slow motion to show off a cool looking punch because thats what most films do in our days. All in all this animation has a great environmental aspect but not great character movement, but has a good fight scene.  

Lego Iron Man's New Suit

What I like about this piece of animation is that it's done with ready made characters i.e. the lego man, and how it's stop motion but it looks so smooth you can't tell. Throughout the short video the lego man/iron man it testing out his new suit like ing the actual film, but there's a twist because as the suit is flown on it hurts the guy and starts breaking his arms and legs. This is entertaining because it's very realistic of what would happen if a full metal suit flew on to him at high speed. The movements in this animation are quite limitless but when the character does move he looks very smooth and I like how the animator has manipulated the characters body to make it look like the character did break their arm/leg.