Raynor Bugayong: 3D Character Artist

Better Late...

2012-02-29T12:44:00.002-05:00

I can't believe I forgot to post something on Monday! Ah, it's no big deal I don't have many followers ha ha ha! In any case, I'll keep this short, since it's spur the moment. The only reason I'm still doing it is because I believe I should have some sort of recorded progress 'somewhat' on schedule.

As I mentioned last week, I"m creating models for my freelance gig, and it's going well. Nearly done with all the models and I'll start unwrapping to prepare for texturing sometime this weekend. I've created a library scene that will be rendered out, hopefully, in the next week. Once I've got something to show for it, I'll put up pics and in the meantime, I should probably get the renders of the other two games I've done too...

Well, that's about it.

Portfolio Holdup

2012-02-20T21:21:00.002-05:00

It seems that I've half-forgotten my post for today. Only half because I reminded myself to write it earlier this morning.

Anyway, here's the scoop. I finished retopologizing the female and male models so they're ready to be covered up and not naked anymore. I'm still having a time trying to figure out the correct design I want to give them even though I already have pictures and references. Then... there's still the problem about how I want to model the clothing. Maybe if I write it I'll figure it out.

Option 1: Low Poly Modeling

For this I can take my references with static wrinkles, ones that are when a person is standing straight or just held in one position, and use that to model my hi poly details. I'm probably going to do this since I'm aiming for video games and not... video games.

I've been following this procedure since I've started ZBrush and I might continue to do so. If I plan on animating them, which would be pretty sweet, then this would work out for the better!

Option 2: Hi Poly Modeling

In doing this, I'll have to prepare the low poly models in the final poses that I would show them off in. From there I can model the clothing around that. The models will look really dynamic rather than just being still models. I'm half prepared to do this because I want a nice high poly sculpt to show off.

Specifically, it's probably just this model that I'd like to do a high poly of because they're breakdancers. Everything about this is highly dynamic and I'd like to show that off if possible. If I decided to, I'll probably end up doing both. I'm not in any hurry to finish the models of course. I just want to do it properly and make it look awesome.

Here is a shot of the models:

...and some stats:

Male: 1822 polys

Female: 1806 polys

In any case, since I'm also doing freelance work, I've received another assignment and will be taking some time away from my portfolio to finish it.

I'm currently freelancing for Giant Fox Games in New York. My work deals largely with creating assets/interior environments for "Room Escape" games, where you click around an area to find objects that help you escape the room/area. I create everything out in 3D and render it out to look pretty. That's the end of my part.

I'm given a two week deadline for each project so that's most likely when I'll resume my portfolio work. I'll still update though, so stay tuned!

Female Update

2012-02-13T10:45:00.001-05:00

Despite having done the work, I'm pretty sure I'm getting lazier and lazier. Reason being is that I decided that I would watch One Piece, you know, the really long anime that's almost 15 years old. It's subbed in Japanese, and while I can understand some of what they say based on context, I forgot some of the storyline and have to keep looking at my other screen a few times. I'll try do a better job at staying vigilant and on task but it's too good to see it animated rather than reading it every week!

Anyway, it didn't take me long to finish the girl and even though I was slacking on the hands/feet a bit it still turned out pretty good I suppose.

The biggest thing I had to worry about was keeping her overall form. Since I was doing the musculature based on a male as outlined in my anatomy book she looked really big and... gross almost. I know that the muscles are all the same but there are certain features on the female body I had to watch out for. She's been dubbed down a whole lot, not much muscle showing as I did the guy of course. I might change things a bit if I feel they need to but she's going to be clothed in the end.

I wanted to get both of the high poly sculpts out of the way and work on the models in tandem, since they are going to be a pair. Now, after I get the retopology all set later this evening I can adjust the lo poly models and start working on the clothes, which is a hassle all it's own honestly.

I'm just debating on how to do the clothing. The way that I typically do it is to have them pose as they are, and do the wrinkles based on how the clothes are when in that position. That way, when they're moving around or put in the final pose, the wrinkles seem to make sense since they're in typical places; where the body bends. The other way is to pose them and do the clothes that way. Since they're breakdancers, the clothing wrinkles are going to be pretty dynamic. I don't have plans to put them into motion... but I did make lo poly meshes for them...

I JUST DON'T KNOW.

I'll figure it out eventually. Maybe I'll take a look around and see how it was done. I mean, I am a game character modeler after all. Lo poly makes a bit more sense than hi-poly. We'll just have to see! I plan on starting the clothing this week and, hopefully, I can get in a better technique than what I practiced before.

Slow and Steady

2012-02-06T10:12:00.000-05:00

As the title says, progress has been pretty slow. I would've been done with the entire model halfway through the week but I was just a bit sluggish. Between organizing my apt, prepping for an interview and just plain being tired, it wasn't until Thursday/Friday that I managed to get it all done.

Top left: The finished model with the inclusion of fat/skin and some asymmetrical features. Slight, but it's there.
Top right: I was tooling around with polypaint in order to layout the polygons in order to remesh it. The red areas are just places where my topology isn't entirely quads. I will try to fix it since I'm going for all quads like I should.
Bottom: The backside of the model with all the muscular definitions under the skin.

I've actually taken a look at all of the models I've done before this point and can see a huge difference, which made my happy and excited. Most of what I saw was a lack of understanding of anatomy as well as a failure to identify certain bodily landmarks on the body. Starting from the muscles and then going over it afterward makes it look and feel a lot better honestly. I should've been doing this from the beginning, but there's nothing I can do about the past.

Anyway, I'll be repeating the process for the two other characters as well. I might just end up using the same muscular figure for Alan since he's a pretty beefy guy but maybe not since he has an entirely different facial structure. The girl, obviously, I'm going to have to do some major readjustments.

Anyway, that's that. Over the week I'll have this guy remeshed using the retopology tools in ZBrush and hopefully the girl done or have the clothing started by then.

Project Details

2012-01-30T09:25:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about writing these entries on Sunday, you know, to cap out the week but I thought it would be better to do it on Monday. For one, I'm at work with some serious downtime doing this and I feel like I really capped the week by writing at the beginning of it, not the end. In any case, here is what I have laid out for myself over the next few weeks or perhaps months... hopefully not months.

breakdancer duo; black male, korean female
Alan from the manga/anime M.A.R
Robert Downey Jr bust
Pangolin and capybara animal sculpts

Now that I actually have it all in writing this does seem like a lot... but I'm doing all this in the hopes of having new portfolio pieces like I might've already mentioned. I also what to use this as an opportunity to just get better on my modeling, texturing, and sculpting as a whole. I definitely need to step it up and this will keep me motivated to do so.

As far as progress, I've decided to work from a base mesh using the human characters and working from there, instead of making different models for each individual like I've done in the past. I've already created a base mesh for both of the animals and I'm in the process of sculpting the muscular features for the male breakdancer as you can see below:

I know that there are still some problems with proportions and I'll address it when I continue working on it today. I'm taking a look at the ZBrush: Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy book and taking some of it's teachings out on my work. Somewhere in the next few days, the male model will be done and I hope to have the female done before the weekend so that I can concentrate on getting some of the clothing started. I haven't quite gotten the clothing design down yet but I will work on that today.

Projects!

2012-01-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

I did a bit of thinking all last week, and finally decided what I wanted to do for my next series of projects. Mainly, this is to keep me busy but I need other things to show off on my website because a lot of those pieces are... dated, to say the least. Anyway, here's what in store:

- 3 full body models
- 1 or 2 busts
- 1 or 2 animals

I decided on these things so that I could -hopefully- make a professional reel and show these models off to push aside my old portfolio shown on my website.

For all the models, I don't fully intend on using them in-game and as a result they might all just be high-poly models. I'll surely figure out how I want everything to end up over the week when I get my references together and solidify what I want to make, but in the meantime these are all the details I've figured out so far.

My overall intentions is to build on what I've already learned, and since I haven't done a full model from start to finish in quite some time, this'll be interesting to see how far I've progressed from small projects and discontinued models. As always, this is a learning experience and hopefully the models I make will be good enough to use on my site.

So that's it! If I get started building models, it'll be up in the next update so stay tuned!

New Year, New Project

2012-01-16T08:16:00.000-05:00

Well, Happy New Years to anyone who is following my blog, hope you had a good holiday, whichever one you celebrate. Now onto business.

Since it's a new year, I wanted to try to try and update this blog more. I know I've said it countless times before, but now, I'm busy. Now, I have things to write about and now, I can actually catalog my progress more than before. So, as a result, I'll be updating the blog weekly, hopefully each weekend, about things that I've done over the past week and just jot it down here.

To start, a friend of mine all the way in Colorado is going to help program a small game that I've had in mind for about... a month; codename 'Project Digging.' I've got to finish fleshing out all the details on it such as gameplay mechanics, and I also have to define the art style a bit more. I've already decided that we're going to be using the Unity Game Engine since I'm more familiar with it than anything else. I'm also shooting to have the prototype finished at the end of the month, if not sooner. When it gets to completion, I might just show it off, but in the meantime, await further development and a recap next week.

- Ray

Unity Production Update

2011-09-27T10:16:00.000-04:00

Been working with Unity for a great long while now and I think it's best to record some of my progress here.

Textures

The boxes have a diffuse and a normal map. The contrast in light shows the effects of both in the editor. They look much better in game.

Environment

For the small project I'm working on, we decided to have a warehouse set as our first stage. This is just the gray boxing phase, so everything is just modeled out of primitives and given a mesh collider so we can walk on it in game and test the scale... which is almost there.

Here are two in-game shots showing the upper level:

And the lower one.

One major thing we're going to work on is having the camera detect walls so it won't go past it and block out the view.

Misc Models

This is just an old sniper rifle model I was working on before. I wanted to do something from Sucker Punch and started this. Here are a few views:

Anyway, that's the update I have so far. Next time I hope to knock off a few things off my list since we're starting to pick up speed.

- Ray

Unity Development Notes: Take 1

2011-09-05T13:55:00.000-04:00

Just some helpful notes that I'm making about Unity to help me eliminate any potential problems along the way in future developments. I'm a fan of taking less time to do more work, although in game development I know that's not necessarily the case, it doesn't hurt to hope!

Animation

When making animations in 3DS Max you only really have two options.

using a biped to make your animations then using a Phys --> Skin plugin to change the mesh for exporting
create it using bones and exporting it

Export settings are important. The most important being scale factor and axis orientation.

Scale Factor must be 1 (I believe Unity measures in meters, so keep that in mind, but SF:1 trumps everything else)
Axis Conversion must be Z-Up (choosing Y-Up will give you world of hurt when dealing with the Character Controller and the mesh with be bumps outside its capsule)
If anything else, keep the default settings since they're already preset. But on using another pc, only the top two really need to be changed.

Make sure the animations work using code, the Animation Window, etc.

Control+6 opens up the Animation Window which can play your animations in the scene. If it plays there, you know it works. If it doesn't find it, something's wrong and you may need to re-import it from Max, add it again to the Hierarchy from the Project folder, re-define the frames for animation in the inspector or any number of things.
Using code, is the only real way to know if something works, so take a script and use it to test all the animations.

Coding

Shit will tend to not work for no reason. (actually that's a lie, it gives the reason[s])

Check the error and if it really is something you haven't seen before, don't panic! Just use the forum to search it.
Most times it'll just be a parsing error or something to deal with a class that doesn't have a specific function you're trying to call
Also be sure that scripts are calling the right things and attached to the right objects.

Since you don't yet know how to do things on your own, look around!

The Internet truly does work, and most of the progress done thus far couldn't have been done without the countless examples and tutorials online.

Updated Unity Project Stuff

2011-09-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

So it has been a while since my last update... again, but this time I've at least got something to show for it.

While just one screenshot, it culminates what I've been working on since my last update in teh span of about 2 or so weeks. I was out during the summer working with iD Tech Camps and didn't have much time for other things...

Anyway, I'll explain:

Synopsis

This is simply a prototype for a game that I - hopefully - will get to making with one of my coworkers. It's a 3rd person shooter, at the core, but upon testing our limitations and seeing the scope it'll of course become more than that.

Features

Player/enemy health system (that works!)
Player animations (walk, run and idle work but for some reason the firing/jumping ones just stopped working)
Active 3rd person camera (will rotate to always try and stay behind character and can 'snap' quickly to default position)

That's really it for now. I'm by no means a coder, so this has been a learning experience for me. There's no substantial progress on the art side since I just want everything to work at the moment. When there are more updates I'll post but these are what I'm trying to accomplish to go forward:

Enemy AI/Pathfinding
getting all the code/animations to work

My thanks for this goes out to the robust Unity community, for which I never would've been able to make the scripts myself and who have helped me understand how to actually make something in Unity.

- Ray

New Items on the Table

2011-03-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

Ok, so learning how to work the camera system in Unity is terribly difficult, especially since I don't know much about coding. It's a bit difficult and I don't think I can do it without assistance. Plus, I've got so much going on right now that I don't know what I should be doing:

- I started an Animation project with an old roommate. Currently we're nailing down concepts and ideas before going onto modeling.

- Project Shadowstalk might have to be put on hold b/c I don't know enough programming to get anywhere without having to copy tutorials and stuff.

- Personal projects... not much in that department but I should be doing stuff shouldn't I? I'm also working on getting my website up and running... soon.

I just wanted to update on what's going on. Hopefully I'll figure out what I want to do.

And do it.

Ray

Internal Drive/iD Tech Camps

2011-01-24T23:34:00.000-05:00

If you're from Internal Drive/iD Tech Camps and you're seeing this, I hope that what you find is to your liking and fits the position(s) I've applied for. Below is a comprehensive showing some of my work with some details to spare:

A head study where I try to get a reasonable low-poly model with features still in tact.

A zombie model that I worked on for a college project.

Model worked on as a part of my free=time studies trying to get textures done right and a good low-poly model.

A fun project I did borrowing a reference from Deviant art. Model is high-quality rendered in mental ray.

Another model done with the help of a Deviant art reference.

A shot at working anthropomorphic characters from a Deviantart reference.

Another head study with low poly results.

There are other, numerous models I have to show but they are all done in ZBrush. Most of the models here have been imported into ZBrush and worked on further, notably the head models. Upon request, I would be more than happy to show them.

There are also a few other models with my work process in earlier posts. This blog is not very old so please feel free to look further at my other work as well!

- Raynor Bugayong

Success with Unity

2011-01-17T23:24:00.000-05:00

Alas, a weekend of torment animating key frame by key frame, trying to find good references for walk/run/jump cycles and figuring out what the hell the animating tools do in 3DS Max have worked. I was able to animate an idle, walk, jump and run animation for the model that I showed previously. Again no video, but just take my word on it. I'll figure out how to render one again...

Now, the model on the left is the correctly imported model with a skin modifier and a biped. The one on the right is... well, slightly off because there was a physique modifier. I think Unity has problems handling that as you can see, but there was a work around that I found on the forums, thank God.

Anyway, now I have to actually get the character to move the way I want her to. When I manage to get the script, camera, controls and everything done, I'll find a way to embed the prototype into Unity and post it here with links to my references, forum post on the fix etc, etc.

- Ray

Walk Cycle: Part 1

2011-01-12T00:26:00.000-05:00

Truth be told, it's actually Part 2. or 1.5 depending...

Anyway here's a screen grab of what the model looks like during the animation because I forgot how to render videos.

Think of it like this link: "Haters gonna hate" but much, MUCH worse. Anyway, since it's done, I'm probably going to figure out a running/jumping animation and then import it into Unity to test it out. ...Or I'll forgo the former and just do the latter. We'll see.

- Ray

Weekend Work

2011-01-10T00:36:00.000-05:00

I spent a little too much time on JUST this, but here's what I had done.

I had meant to finish the body yesterday and do a biped and/or bone rig to prepare for Unity but I'll do the rig tomorrow and see what I can accomplish with it. Later on there are plans for a bone rig, just to see what flexibility there is in between the two.

There's also the matter of animating an idle/walk/run/jump animation which I'm sure will take some work as well but there's time, especially for testing. Anyway, more to come as I progress. It's a slow start but the most I've done so far since a few months ago.

- Ray

New Years... Agenda

2011-01-07T23:56:00.000-05:00

Alright, New Year means new things. And new things means I should keep track of my progress here. I want to see how development of my game, tentatively named "Project ShadowStalk" will go from here on out.

I suppose here's a review of what I've done thus far since the idea was first thought up:

- drafted, created and gotten closer to a better Game Design Document

- requested help from friends with Level Design and Concept Art... but only receiving one piece of art so far

- gray boxed all levels in game

- researched code samples as well as took a class in C#

- done multiple tutorials, read PDFs and watched videos on how to operate Unity

I'm now in the process of creating a prototype for the game. Specifically I'm learning how to create a custom character and import it into Unity using A) a biped or B) a bone system. Once I get that done, I can play around with some inherent/custom 3rd Person Character scripts and/or camera scripts.

That's my little project for tomorrow so I'll leave it at that and post what will be the first little project this year.

- Ray

Unnamed Puzzle Game 01 - City Layout

2010-11-08T17:38:00.000-05:00

It's been nearly two months since my last post but I've been dabbling in a few things.

Game Idea

Yes, the puzzle game I'm solely (as of right now) working on still has no name. It's not something I'm worried about so that'll come later. I took the liberty of nailing down a few key puzzles and game design ideas as well as some level design pictured below.

It's just a prototype so far, but scale and accessibility related to the real world are pretty close. I also tested it out in Unity just to get a good feel and it feels fine actually.

Nothing yet for characters, nothing ready anyway, but once I can get it I'll definitely show it

- Ray

Haven't Quite Forgotten...

2010-09-19T23:43:00.000-04:00

Well, it most certainly has been a while so here's a comprehensive list on what has happened so far (just so I don't forget):

- I've thought up, talked to people about and started the planning stages of a game that I want to create. A puzzle adventure game for the PC. The documents and everything are still being prepared so I'll update again once I get a better gist of things, especially all of the technical things.

- I've done quite a bit of modeling since the last time I posted. Well, after a break anyway. Learned a few things, took a few tutorial lessons, tome studying here and there. It's all stuff I'm not too keen on showing but I'll throw it up later on, as well as a few things for the game on the art side.

As far as that goes, there's really nothing else. Pics next time!
- Ray

Random Update 01

2010-02-26T23:08:00.000-05:00

Well, it sure has been a while since I've posted anything...

Anyway, here's the scoop:
- I've compiled a list of models that I want to-and will eventually-model
- I've also started drawing again
- I've come up with a game idea

Taking on the last bullet my idea is a Puzzle/Adventure with some platforming involved. I'm planning it out for the Unity engine so it'll be in 3D with certain parts played in 2D. I've got a handle down for the puzzles, ideas on city/dungeon layout as well as an asset/character/animation list. Everything keeps expanding but I want this to be my pet project so I'm trying to keep the scope down while manageable.

Bear with me, more details when I have them.

Ray

Nandin: Complete

2009-11-27T00:17:00.000-05:00

Alright, it's been a while but here's Nandin complete with everything.

The first is a beauty shot, not as beautiful but I thought it was the best one, and I like the pose better. The second and third are the turn around shots of him in full color and wire. The last is the texture sheet.

Final Specs:

Poly Count: 5040
Texture Size: 2048 x 2048
Textures: Diffuse, Normal, Spec

Afterword:

I had fun. think I spent too much time trying to sculpt him fully, when his head and hands are the only ones showing... Texturing I'm starting to get a hang of and I really enjoyed using Polyboost for the retopo, so I'll have to buy it someday.
Posing was pretty fun, not as bad as I thought, but I have to make it better next time... and I wanted to do a face morph but I think I might just play with the head by itself later on.
I especially like how the renders turned out, so that makes me happy that my stuff is looking better and better.

What's next though? I'm not sure. Trying to come up with more original concepts myself but it's pretty hard... until next time though!

- Ray

Nandin:Update

2009-10-13T00:35:00.000-04:00

Alright, just a quick update of things:
- changed around a few things to the anatomy to better fit the end reference
- did some clothing

Will continue to work on it until completion, but I think I'm nearing the end with the clothes... highly possible with some major tweaks to it all in the end, but we'll see how it turns out this time.

-Ray

Nandin

2009-10-09T01:46:00.000-04:00

Been a while... well ok not really. But in lieu of the project that I started below, here's what I have so far:

So far, I'm calling it done, but I still have a few gripes about the feet, hands and the face... Probably going to make changes once I get the clothing all settled.

Oh and I did his staff, but that wasn't hard, just tedious. ALso need to do the hair, but I'll figure that out later on as well.

- Ray

Nandin

2009-09-23T17:45:00.000-04:00

Ok, so that new thing I'm doing, it's going to be this guy:

No, I didn't draw the concept, sadly enough... But I got it from DA, the artist is still on the image, and can be traced back with the automatic save file name.

Anyway, I'm going to take this guy from a new approach, and from that I mean I'm doing things a bit differently than what I would usually do. As you can see the images aren't as helpful to start modeling right away and it's missing a side for the body. I'm just gonna start boxing out the figure and take it directly into ZBrush for the body, figuring it out all on my own. Then, I'm going to do that for the clothes and everything else.

Knowing all of that, this should probably take a while. I've wanted to try modeling from a box base for a while. so I'm probably going to be a while on this. Anyway, wish me luck! Updates when they arrive, so look out!

- Ray

Swimsuit Woman

2009-09-23T15:02:00.001-04:00

Alright, just a bit bored... wanted to do another woman piece focusing on a few things, like hair, a bit on the face and more hands/feet.

But what I really SHOULD do is focus on my low poly and texturing... Hey, guess what I'm gonna do next? ;P

- Ray

Frog update:Final

2009-08-21T01:24:00.000-04:00

Been a few days since I've updated but I was playing around a lot with lighting and texturing... I decided to keep it as a show model so it's all hi-poly and stuff, keeping to my original plans. maybe someday I'll go back and low poly him.

Some stuff that I do want to change though...
- lily pad texture and material... as well as the model itself
- the posing... don't think it's as 'natural' as it should be
- lighting... but the first time I really did anything this in-depth
- small tweaks to the anatomy of the frog itself

And that's about it for this project! I had fun working on it... which is more than I can say for a bunch of other things I've done in the past, but we'll see what comes next :)

*** Oh almost forgot some post production stuff... I might go in and add in some lens effects maye touch it up in Photoshop, but I'm debating it... so we'll see by the weekend.

Decided to attach this to the post instead of making a new one. I just added a filter copied the original image and desaturated it as a darken layer and played with the colors a bit. I'm not really sure what to do about post-production other than making it look good but here's a shot :P

- Ray