Nicolette Badal - Blogs

 Hello Hello! It's been a hot minute but I'm back with another "big" project. For this assignment, my instructor gave us the parameters that our character must be someone existing within the fortnight universe, and that we gotta match their distinct style!  so...I've chosen the one and only, as well as one of my favorite X-men, ROGUE!!!     This page will go over my process around week one of work, starting on the weekend before because, to be honest, I'm too excited to wait until class starts.    That brings me to the first stage of any project...compiling a reference board.   I used PureRef to store my reference images in, and basically put what I thought I'd need for the initial blocking out stage, I'll add anything I might need later on in the process.  This part of the process took me around 30 minutes to complete.     Now...It's time to open up Zbrush and get to blocking, or what I like to dub, the "Monster Stage"  Here's...

   Welp. Here it is, the finished piece. Although I'm proud with how it turned out, there's quite a bit of things I'd change.   First thing I'd redo is my process. I spent way too long trying to make things perfect in the first stage, and that really messed up with my time management towards the end of the assignment. Although it was tricky with all the tiny details, the trims, and figuring out how to separate pieces realistically, it taught me a lot with the modeling process. I had to work through figuring out getting rid of n-gons, not building everything if it's not needed, just what is going to be seen. It was also my first time building something of this magnitude. I had done simple assets before, swords and buildings, exterior and interior, but never a car. Never something with details that are going to be seen.  If it wasn't for a grade, I would have liked to spend more time on it to refine everything, but it was a good experience to see how ...

  Classic Car: Week 3  Week 3. It's here. This one was hard because I had barely enough time to actually work on anything outside of class. I haven't fixed any N-gons yet, but I have fleshed out the entirety of the car. Next, it's adding parts that are attachable, such as windows, the rims, and prestige.  as for challenges, it's all time related this week. Because of attending Lightbox during the weekend, it meant I had to finish all assignments due in that week, and that left me with very little time for my car. On a more positive note, I did manage to figure out how to fix my n-gon problems, I just haven't fixed it in model yet.   For next week, I'm going to mainly focus on modeling this car and finishing it by Sunday night, when I'll be posting my final blog. All I have left is separating pieces, fixing a bit of the topology, UVing, and putting everything into Toolbag!  That's a wrap for this week, and I'll be slaving myself away for ...

   Classic Car: Week 2  Another week into modeling my 1958 Plymouth Fury. I’ve ran into a few issues. Namely, n-gons. When working on the wheel’s I figured out how to solve the issue with the back half, but when I got to the front half, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. So I decided to leave it, and work on the rest to come back at a later date. Now when it comes to references, PureRef is saving my life. I’ve pulled up a bunch of different angles to work from, thankfully there’s a lot of photos out there. Modeling straight from the curve tools is a bit of a challenge since some of them aren’t aligned as I had initially thought, but that’s what my references outline is for.  Another modeling challenge I’ve ran into is the bumper. I have it outlined but it’s still a bit confusing trying to figure out the actual depth, where one-part ends and another begins. This is mostly due to the car being very rounded in those areas so it’s harder than it would be wi...

  Week 1: Classic Car  To start off, this is my first week modeling my Classic Car, a 1958 Plymouth Fury, for CAGD 330. I started by setting up my reference pictures in Maya, making sure they're all scaled correctly, and then outlining my car with a "CV curve tool". It was my first time actually using this method to model, and I actually like it. I've found it to help my understanding of how the car parts will connect, and the general shape I should go for, instead of just trying to match it to a 2D outline. Here's the outline reference image I used.    Now with my curves built, I was beginning to have an idea of how much time I would have to put into this project. This car by all means, is not going to be easy. It has a few unique details that I'll have to add in once done, specifically the hood emblem, and "tails" ex.    Thankfully there are a lot of reference photos of this car surfing the internet, so the amount of angles I have to ...

     Hello hello readers! This bust was mainly just about practicing hair 'cause it's my worst enemy, using a character I've developed for a story I'm working on. Although, I did learn some awesome stuff about clothing and subdivision levels  (as a sole dynamesh user)! Now when it came to hair, I found this awesome brush that makes strands, and you can adjust them into whatever shape you want, which I used HEAVILY. Even though It made things a lot easier, the majority of my time was spent styling it and giving it a bit of texture to make it more hair-like.       I made a mistake early on which I only realized late stage, that I should have kept the parts that I wanted to be animated separate from the rest of the hair, instead it was all combined into one object. Whoops. I was going to go back and redo it, but I figured this is only a practice run, so I don't actually have to nit-pick everything, I just need to focus on making the product better, a...