I was asked to create a high and low-poly game prop to use within Unreal Engine.
To concept this piece, I drew on my love for magic and fairy folk to find inspiration for this sweet little stump home. I then modeled the low-poly stump in Maya and moved it to MudBox to finish the sculpting and painting process. Throughout this project, I utilized wireframes, digital painting techniques, and texture maps. Finally, I exported the individual pieces and reassembled them in Unreal Engine. This image is taken from that final rendering.
I am a sucker for gothic candle props - I adored the 1986 Amiancan Girl candle toy I played with as a child. So, when asked to model an inanimate game prop, a candle and holder were the first things that came to mind. Having never used Maya before this project, the structure of the candle handle was a bit of a stretch, but after watching a myriad of Maya tutorial videos, I was able to successfully mold this gothic candle holder.
Once I finished my model, I utilized Maya's internal lighting system and positioned three spotlights to light the candle from every angle evenly. Then, I gave the model some interest by animating frame by frame using the animation workspace in Maya.
Once I had learned the modeling, lighting, and sculpting processes with Maya and MudBox, it was time to give my models life through the process of rigging and animation.
For this project, I started with a dummy model, created a bone structure, and then built a rig to easily move the dummy as if it were naturally equipped with human attributes. Once I had the rig in place, I began the animation process using keyframes. To create this lifelike leap, I watched countless hours of human movement through ballet tutorials that I found on YouTube.
Why is the alien doing ballet? When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time at the community theater watching the ballerinas. The art of ballet spoke to my soul, but sadly, I did not start ballet young enough to have any chance to be a ballerina. Lucky for me, in animation, there are no age restrictions, and characters are rigged properly; they can be the ballerina I wish I were. I took great care to perfect the point of the toes and tilts of the head. This alien has clearly been practicing!
It's easier for me to dance than to walk. I may not be a trained dancer, but there is something about the curve of my feet and the bounce of my frame that makes my walk more of a dance. I attempted to capture that walk when animating this walk cycle. My model swings his arms in a carefree manner and moves to the beat of his own drum, much like myself!