I’m still not completely happy with it. but it’s getting there.

I know there are still caustics / global illumination rendering problems.

It’s still a work in progress.

Stay tuned for another update.

I’m not completely happy with it but I think some of the previous issues of liquid volume have gone away. However others have arisen like the inconsistencies in the liquid at the end of the animation causing it to almost curdle and ‘glop’ or congeal into mounds.

I also noticed that the farther the particles get away from the can, they almost appear to float as the shadows are not directly under but just a bit off.

I will definitely be working on another version of this.

Side note - there seems to be something that happens from my 3d (maya) to realflow to compositing (after effects) that causing my can to appear squished. It has to be frame stretching or something. I need to look into that because the model of the can looks great. For the next version anyway.

Lots of new edits. *sigh

Enjoy.

Enjoy the show.

Video Link

Anyway, I’ve started to work on water arm concepts for its left arm within RealFlow. I must say, that is quite a piece of simulation software, I am amazed at the control and detail that you can acquire. I think I’ll be utilizing this in the future for sure.

This is my first ‘real’ work in RealFlow, besides just mucking around and getting something cool to appear. I actually went in there with a purpose this time and I am actually quite happy with the results, albeit they need revisions (doesn’t EVERYTHING in 3D though?) moving on. The water is a little thin and it doesn’t seem to hold together as well as I’d like, but I am really starting to get the idea of the Attractor Daemon, which is what causes it to congeal into a ball at the end, there is actually another Attractor Daemon just as the water jumps off of the ramp and flies into the air - you can just barely see it attract some water upwards and then it falls.

I found a very nice water shader for maya online - highend3d I think. I did quite a bit of tweaking in order to make it work for my scene though. I am very impressed at how streamlined this process is, I thought it was going to be quite chunky and time consuming, the longest part of course was generating the particles in RF (Simulation) but after that you export as a scene data sequence (.sd) you can import that directly into Maya and everything shows up. It’s really quite fluid in that manner. Then of course you have your normal 3D pipeline - texture / light / render / etc etc.

Well, here is the link for the video, I’m quite happy and I’ll definitely be doing revisions but for a first stab at it, I’m happy with it.

Video Link (Opens in a new window)

This week, F3 has the original geometry that I was working through the divide levels as normal - as I’m coming to understand how everything works, then F4 happens… Play particular attention to what appears to be the random triangulation on the upper ridge and lower ridges of the helmet - where the armor edges are going to go… What is happening? I have no idea. The largest frustration that I found with this software is that this happens randomly, I reopened the file this morning and everything divided just fine…. *Scratches head

I’ve learned a long time ago that computer software will do what IT WANTS, however I had no idea that something as simple (in the loosest terms) as dividing a poly would produce such unwanted results. Now I know, I should have tried to reopen the file and try again, but I thought the geometry did something weird or it was something that I did, so I spent most of my time trying to figure out what I did wrong - If only I knew what was really happening sometimes… haha.

Last week, F1 has my original geometry before the divide and F2 has the geometry unzipping… just like a zipper. - This happened last week the largest problem is that it is cumulative meaning that the geometry gets further and further away every time I divide, I thought it would be interesting to show you.

Well, I’ve learned to UNCHECK the SMT divide option… I won’t be making that mistake again.

I’ve noticed that I am running out of time in order to adequately model the realflow water arm, so I am planning on producing test / texture samples for what I am intending the arm to look like. I do however have complete intentions on finishing my samurai to the best quality that I can - minus the water arm (samples excluded).

Now that classes are wrapping up, I’m excited to be able to spend more time on this piece. I’ve found myself being intrigued with the process and thinking about working on this character while working on other final projects, I guess this is good.

I checked out the link that for the iShowU, It looks like it’s going to work. Hopefully I’ll get it working for the next time around.

I like the concept of using a poem, or sentence for the name. I’ll work on that - when I’m not playing with the model.

In the animation that I plan on working with, I plan to have this samurai meeting up with another model that I created similar to that of the Kamino character of star wars, where the samurai has received these elemental arms and immortal status.

Perhaps he will have his own name, and then the alien ‘Kamino’ like character will bestow upon a new name? - I feel a storyline coming together.

These are early in the detailing process, I’m just blocking in the detail areas right now. I’m finding it very easy to lose myself in this process, a little tweak here, another there, I look up and it’s midnight. I’m like I need to get this posted and get to bed. - This is the fun part.

I’m still working on the back story, it’s coming along. FYI Shinto is a very interesting religion (more of a set of ideas / guidelines than a religion though).

My next step will be bringing out the details more and defining the texture and quality of what I want in this character so stay tuned.

I’m still trying to come up with a good name, something like guardian of the elements (in japanese of course), I am also toying around with using the name of the most famous samurai however I think that would be too cliche, but it would help me develop the back story and the reason why he has elements on his arms, and the animation I plan to use.  Any ideas? - Anyone?

I updated the UV’s, I wish that I would’ve just done them once, it’s kind of a pain to go back and edit them, although it saved me a lot of time to go through and edit just those areas that I modified and not start right from scratch. Anyways, I’m going to start in on Zbrush next time, so stay tuned for the update.

I’ve updated my project gallery below. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

I’m just about to start using Zbrush to build my character and add the elements that will define his characteristics.

I am looking for a nice japanese ‘guardian’ like name, I’ve not found anything that strikes me, Any ideas?

Stay tuned for further updates.