For this brief I was asked to create a low poly model in Maya and animate it. Here is the concept for my model, based on a mix of Iron Man, iRobot and Robocop. This character would be used in low poly games for the Wii, iPhone, iPad, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP etc.
We were given a limit of 3500polygons and as you can see I easily was under, by almost half of this limit, with my model while still keep a good amount of detail and movement. With the poly count being so low it makes it easier to import into game engines as it won’t take up much space.
Overall I am very happy with my model for my first attempt at low poly modeling, rigging, making controls, skinning and animating.
Before going into Maya I made these images below for the image planes on the perspective views to help me model better. I made these in Illustrator and alot of guide lines to make sure everything is lined up correctly from each angle.
After getting my model to a point where I was happy, it was time to make a UV map for the texturing of the Combot. To do this I had to unwrap my model in section, lower arm, top arm, head etc. Once I had done this to all of my model I put it all on one image to be used in Photoshop to texture.
In Photoshop I used the textures I had from my mood bored and placed them onto the created UVMap.
Now when I create a new Lambet and add this as the image, all the textures will line up in the correct places, so if I need to go in and edit anything it is a simple task.
On top of the UV map I wanted to add a Specular map which would determine the rate of reflection on the model. The brighter the white means the image will reflect more, the darker the colour the less the model will reflect.
Now that the model is in good condition and is textured it is time to add a rig (skeleton) and controls (to help move the joints).
You start off with a root which in this case is the hip, from there you can work upwards for the spine, arms and head, or downwards working into the legs, knees and feet.
The last stage before animating is to paint weight the model. Now that the rig is attached to the model, that is all “Skinned” doing so means that, say elbow rig point is in same place as the elbow on the model. You would think that when I want to move the elbow only the elbow would move, oh no chances are part of the forearm, shoulder and possibly chest will also move. To counter this you use the “Paint Weight” tool to make sure that only parts of the model will move when you want it too. White means it is attached, black mean it isn’t.
As you can see parts of the lower chest were movable when the hip is selected. After painting you can see a nice clean looking area for the hip to move.