All made in good fun! I wish I had more time to work on the animation since I think it's such a powerful tool to create stories with self built assets.
This class was extremely rewarding to me. Although the process is long and arduous, I always felt a great sense of achievement whenever something came out well. Thanks for the great class Matt!
I cleaned up the stormtrooper model that I created from PhotoScan using a modeling tool called Zbrush. The process was a bit rocky at first due to the application's user interface and navigation, but it got easier as I kept using it. I eventually ended up with a nicer model.
I then created a new UVMap by first setting the UVMap guidelines along my model's back.
After exporting the now cleaned up stormtrooper, I imported it back into PhotoScan. It looks so nice and clean. I then exported it one final time after building the texture.
Lookin' GOOD. Still needs a paint job though.
model before... lumpy and deterioating
model after! smooth and sexy
UVMap before... what a mess
UVMap after! what a yes!
Everything looks much better! The model is much better after filling in the parts of the body that the photogrammetry process was unable to scan. The UV map also makes more sense, albeit a bit creepier. There's still some green coloring leftover from the green screen, so I will eventually have to clean that up.
I finally uploaded the new model onto Mixamo and rigged a body to it.
Success!
I noticed that during some animations, the area in between the stormtrooper's arms and body (the armpit area) was too connected, causing some weird body movements. I went back to Zbrush to try to disconnect the arms a bit more. I then edited the UV map in Photoshop. I got rid of the green and thought that it would be cool to invert the colors of the storm trooper. This is the result:
I honestly loved this entire process. Although some of the tools were a bit unconventional to use, I got used to them quickly and it became addicting trying to create the perfect model.
In preparation for the next Star Wars movie coming out in December, I've decided to 3D scan a stormtrooper.
I first had to drill a hole in the stormtrooper's butt and impale it with a stick. Sorry bud!
The setup for the photoshoot can be seen below.
After numerous retakes, I was finally able to get a photo align that surrounded my stormtrooper.
After applying the dense point cloud, the mesh, and the texture, my stormtrooper was finally modeled.
Although the results were not perfect, I was happy that I was able to get to this point. I tried to get clean up the model by deleting the green, the pole, and separating the arms from the waist.
Hopefully, I will be able to edit the model to fix all the imperfections and get rid of the green from the green screen.
I also like how the sphere in the middle of the view kind of looks like the Death Star.
I recently purchased an online game called Playerunknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG for short). It is a player vs player third person shooter game and the goal of each game is to be the last person standing. It's incredibly difficult because each match contains 100 players, meaning that you have to beat 99 other players in order to win.
Each match starts with an airplane flying over a huge deserted island. Players choose when they want to jump out of the plane and skydive down to the island. Once the player lands, they have free reign to do whatever they want. Most go looking for weapons to use against other players. I decided to go on a vacation.
I like going to the beach when I'm on vacation so I decided to land near the coast. Once I got to the beach, I decided to lie down to get some sun. In the distance I could hear some gun shots. On the feed, I see that about 20 people have already died. The ocean breeze is nice.
Another game mechanic of PUBG. A couple minutes after all the players have landed on the island, the game forces users to congregate in certain areas of the map by reducing the playable size of the playing field. The game does this by implementing a huge circle that's the size of the island that shrinks over time. If players are within the circle, players are safe. But if players are outside of the circle, they take damage over time. So if they stay outside of the playing area too long, they will eventually die.
Luckily for me, the area I was in was pretty near the center of the circle, so I was in no hurry to move. Unlucky for me, this means that more and more people are going to come closer to my little private beach getaway. I decided to get some more sun. About 30 more people have died.
The gunshots were getting louder and louder. It was getting harder to relax on the beach, so I decided to get up and go for a walk. There was a villa nearby, so maybe I could relax there. As I approached the villa, a bullet whizzed by my face. Another bullet hit me. I see blood spurting out of my body. Maybe it was an accident, so I kept walking towards the villa. Another bullet whizzed by and another hit me. It would seem that someone was trying to kill me on my vacation. A final bullet came and hit me and I fell to the ground, bleeding out. I eventually died. I was never able to even locate my mystery killer. I came in 38th place.
Going on vacation in PUBG was surprisingly a good tactic. Recontextualizing the space of PUBG was interesting to me since this game is usually a tense and nervewracking experience. By relaxing and not caring about winning, I was able to beat 62 other players by laying on a beach. I would definitely vacation here again.
Note that I tried to record my gameplay with Nvidia Shadowplay, but for some reason it didn't work after I finished the game. I will try to rerecord the game again while reenacting the same actions.
I created a simple tool that allows someone to take control of my voice.
By typing on a keyboard, you'll be able to talk like me.
The first avatar creation tool that I used was Bitmoji. I was a bit familiar with this since I've seen my sister and mom both use it in our family group chat. I thought it was stupid.
And now I love it.
I've been responding to texts and messages primarily with Bitmoji these days. My family and my friends seem to enjoy it as well. The amount of different Bitmoji stickers is huge and really fits with how I communicate to my family and close friends. Below is a timelapse of the actual creation of the avatar.
for Performative Avatars
My girlfriend helped me in the process of making the avatar. She says that my Bitmoji really captures the essence of Bryan. I think it's primarily due to the glasses and the body type I chose. The glasses look exactly like the ones I'm wearing now. I also gained a bunch of weight over the summer. You can tell in the video that I was wavering between choosing the fit body versus the chubby one. I ultimately decided on the chubby Bryan, not only because I felt that it showed my current state more accurately but because it also represents a big part of who I am: a happy guy who eats a lot of food.
The second avatar creation tool that I used is called Line Play. It is a game where you can purchase clothes and accessories for your avatar. It also includes a house that can be decorated with furniture and lots of other stuff. The first character creation screen was a gender, I saw that there was a third choice of Animal. I chose this option.
It was interesting to go through all the options of creating an animal version of Bryan. I tried to choose parts from different animals to represent different aspects of myself: a bear face because I'm a big guy and I eat and sleep a lot and dog ears because I'm well behaved yet playful. And of course I needed glasses. I found that being able to choose these features that are from all these different types of animals gave me more freedom to express attributes of myself that I would not be able to if they were human features.
I found that when creating avatars, it's good to exaggerate both physical and non-physical features. It's a bit like a cartoonist emphasizing your slightly larger front teeth by turning you into a rabbit. By using a more hyperbolic representation of one's self, character traits and personalities are more easily definable in an otherwise static avatar.
