Hair Blogpost

Lately, rather than trying to get rigify to work on my skeleton model during my free time, I have been experimenting and have been making stuff like this:




I have been taking pictures from online to do this but I have been think of making more realistic models and using those instead of having to learn photography and find people to photograph. This has lead me to create a semi-realistic head base that I then altered to fit the scene I am imagining.






Now at this point, I need to learn how to create realistic hair as the detail is something I especially enjoy in the photographs.
Styling Hair

1Create a “scalp” as a separate object

2. Create a particle system and do the following boxed in red

3. Go into particle edit and do the following

this kind of sets the poly for the hair

4. Add hair using “add” and adjust hair using “comb”, you can also right click on vertices to only maneuver that specific one

Things I learned while doing this:
 I would really say what I have right now is very good and styling hair definitely takes some time. I think I should put my plan on paper so that could help me style the hair, but I feel that it is definitely best if you take it one part at a time and work with separate parts of the hair so you do not interfere with other parts. Also, while modeling also stay away from small details at first and just focus on the general shape. Lastly, the creator uses materials to help distinguish various parts from the hair from one another so he can see better, which I believe is very helpful for me when testing this out.

The hair plan I will follow from here on out:


Work Log:
Monday:No School
Tuesday:Fixing vertices
Wednesday:No School
Thursday:Fixing Vertices
Friday:Thought I fixed all the vertices but rigify still did not work so will probably just follow a tutorial that will help me manually rig skeleton myself

Rigging

This week I finished modeling my skeleton for my artwork, so for this blogpost I will discuss rigging and hopefully kill two birds with one stone and rig my skeleton as well. After looking through some videos on YouTube I found this one video that basically sets up a mesh and uses something by the name of rigify to do the rigging for them.

A Step-by-Step Process of Rigging Using Rigify:

1.To start off the creator puts the model in the classic t-pose.


2. Then they use one of the armatures presets and lines it up to work with model


3. Hit “Generate” at the bottom of the armature tab and after a few seconds the rig will be created



Currently, a rig is created for my model but the model does not move with it nor is the rig appropriately sized so I am currently trying to work that out. But, once I do get that to work I will then make sure the rig works the way I want to and then I will be able to actually create some pieces.

UPDATE 2/18: By resetting the location, rotation, and scale of the rig and model the rig will then line up with the model. From there you would connect the model to the rig using control + p and click "with automatic weights". However, I still have not been able to get it to work at this point as an error shows up once I connect the two parts together. After searching some forums, I have found that the whole mesh needs to be joined together, doubles need to be removed, and the separate meshes cannot be intersecting one another(this is what I believe is my problem and I am currently working on it) in order to get the automatic weights to work.


Rigging a Face:

Throughout this week I have been seeing videos in which characters faces are also rigged and while looking through videos I found one where this creator creates a rig that they have found to work on all types of faces and I just wanted to include that in case of me wanting to try that on any other models I create in the future.



1.Create a main head bone and connect it to the head


2.Create tinier bones at the areas where you want the mesh to move(eyebrows, lips, eyes, jaw)


3.Connect these newly created bones and connect them to to the main head bone


4.Connect the mesh to the armature


5.Use weight paint to fix any errors


Work Log #1:
Monday:modeled foot
Tuesday:color theory
Wednesday:modeled foot
Thursday:color theory
Friday:finished foot and began texturing

Work Log #2:
Monday:No School
Tuesday:No School
Wednesday:Fixing the mesh
Thursday:Fixing the mesh
Friday:Fixing the mesh

Reflection Post

David:
For the school year, David originally wanted to create a full-on game, but this marking period he realized that this may be too much to complete in one school year and instead he decided to complete only one level of this game. This is something I personally feel like I do often with my works personally and seeing David set lower goals but still in the end actually create something makes me feel comfortable to bring my expectations down to a level that I can achieve with the time I have. David has also created character sprites and uses gifs to make them move. Using gifs to make art was something I originally wanted to do with my art and seeing David’s sprites move around really motivates me to try to make gifs maybe for even my current project too.

Sofia:
 This marking period, Sofia realized that making a documentary on punk and hardcore would be difficult because of all the different parts to it. Instead, she made a youtube channel with Caden that would be able to cover all these parts of punk and hardcore music in a better way than a documentary would. Along with this, Sofia has also experienced that she has all these ideas in her head which causes her to give up on projects for new ideas in her head. This is definitely something I feel from time to time and watching her break through this clutter of ideas and create a way that would help her make these ideas into films and not let them die really motivates me to organize my ideas and work on them rather than just leaving them as thoughts and lose them. Also, Sofia created random videos that were just supposed to be fun and random. This is something I should try to do myself as I feel that I am really worried about reaching a theme rather than having fun making work.

Vivian:
This marking period, Vivian finished her animation Tummy Ache. She created a storyboard and a drawing to help her visualize this animation and her next animation/gif. This is something I kind of does but is something I should be putting more effort into so I have something I can reference back to rather so I can reference back to it like Vivian did this marking period with her animation. Vivian’s next animation is going to reuse the same model from this animation which lets her spend more time on the animation rather than making another model. This is something that I am working on myself so I can be more efficient myself.

Mark:
Mark made two films and edited a part of his interview this marking period. For his two films, Mark made comedies and worked off of simple ideas on the spot. Personally, I don’t do well in working on a project over a long period of time so I feel like working on a project in one sitting or a shorter period of time would also be helpful for me although I will be planning out my ideas beforehand as I feel that would help me better than just going on an idea in my head. Mark also focused on having fun with his films and was not looking to make something serious, depressing or meaningful. This is something I should do myself in the sense of me trying to make something I like without trying to suffocate the meaning in it by focusing on it throughout the entire process of making it.

Shriya:
This marking period, Shriya continued working on her mythical creatures animation. She initially wanted to finish her animation this marking period but ended up spending a good majority of the marking period on the wolf. I personally set time goals like this for myself and tend to rush my works in order to just get it done. However, seeing how nicely Shriya’s wolf turned out because she focused on the quality rather than getting it done and moving on to the next part motivates me to slow down and make sure that things turn out the way I want them to. With this time, Shriya was also able to plan out her animation by creating a storyboard and better understanding exactly what she wanted in her animation.