Final Art Test - Rendering Fun

Hey guys, just played with some depth of field settings in Maya, then took that into Photoshop to try and tell a little story with my piece.  Hope you enjoy.

Final Art Test - FINAL

A ton of work was put into this piece.  I encountered a ton of Maya bugs along the way but worked around and through them.  Hope you guys enjoy.  It's definitely not perfect and as a matter of fact if I re-did it, it would be 10x better, but I'm going to have to call it done - for now.

Final Art Test - Spetsnaz WIP

Lions and Tigers and Baking Maps - Oh my!

I'm encountering a ton of really strange things.  An issue I've run into in the past has reared its ugly head once again.  "Maya has encountered a fatal error attempting to save in..."  After some research, I can only hope that Maya 2011 hotfix downloads will resolve this issue.  For the time being I am working in 2010.

I've been using Maya Transfer Maps to generate ambient occlusion and normal maps, however I've noticed that sometimes the two don't line up properly.  Exampe:

This seems very strange considering both maps were baked simultaneously (and without touching the UVs.)

My teacher, Mr.Gardner, has increased my poly count by the way.  Instead of 10,000 tris I have been upgraded to 15,000 due to the poly-expensive treads this tank has.

Most of my high poly is finished or soon to be tweaked.  It's just a matter of baking all that information into texture maps and compiling it all in Photoshop.  I plan on using a combination of Photoshop and Mudbox (my new favorite 3d painting program) to generate some seemless diffuse and spec maps!

Game Modeling - Final Art Test WIP - Low Poly

Finished up my low poly.  After finishing things up I realized that I was able to push a little more detail based on my polycount.  I ended up subdividing the treads for a deformation animation (plus I opened up Battlefield Bad Company 2 and it appears that that's what they did with their Abrams.)

Game Modeling - Final Art Test WIP

I'm having a ton of fun with this model.  It's been very challenging so far, especially the treads.  I did a bit of research on different methods for creating these.  I found out that if you're not careful you can easily bust your poly count on JUST the treads.  With that said, I found that one of the more efficient ways to model these bad boys is to keep it as low poly as possible and have the texture animated instead of the mesh itself.  An animated mesh would require them to be evenly subdivided (more polygons.)

I'm approaching 50% poly count in this screen shot.

Game Texturing - Face Hugger WIP

I started using Mudbox for the first time and I've been able to pick up on it pretty quicky.  I've been surprised at the simplicity and ease of use of the program.  I started sculpting on a pre-made base mesh in order to generate a normal map as well as a base ambient occlusion map to begin texturing.

WIP

Game Modeling - FINAL ART TEST

Game Modeling - Art Test 2!!!

This art test really tested me.  I had a lot of Maya issues as well as general computer issues.  Thankfully I was able to work through most of my problems with 5 minutes to spare!