Small Arms for the 1980's - Sounds like a fashion statement

Another weapon post. This time it's a slightly more recent weapon. It's the quite, quite sexy L85A2, which is part of the SA80 family.

My head's stuck in the 40's - More WWII models

WWII was an extremely interesting period in history, which brought about many great machines. One such machine was the Spitfire. An icon of aviation which helped win the Battle of Britain for the Allies, huzzah!

Well, I thought it would be fun to model this gorgeous aeroplane in 3D Studio Max.



Holy quick texture Batman!

Anyway, with this model I was aiming for a low poly version and it ended up at around the 3000 poly mark, which isn't too bad.

Work in Progress - Chicago Piano

The Thompson submachine gun is on of my favourite weapons and a sexy one at that.

I've not modelled a gun since I made some for a mod for Half Life 2 called Decay that I worked on with some guys from my University (more info on that in a later post). Anyway, for that mod I had to make a few World War II era weapons, so I thought "why not continue with this trend?".

Well I started this weapon and promptly finished a few hours later. Time sure does fly when you're modelling.

A texture is inbound, hence the WIP title.

3D Computer Animation - Looks like we just had our glitch for this mission

I love space. I love space travel. So when I was told I would have to animate something using 3D Studio Max I chose the greatest venture ever undertaken by mankind. Putting a man on the moon.

After I realised that I didn't have enough time to recreate the entire mission, I decided that the launch would be sufficient.



Criteria for this module included using kinematics and particle effects.

There are a couple of mishaps in the video. The first is that the second stage of the Saturn V rocket actually had 5 engines, not 4. The other is I forgot to chop the end off the scene where the first stage is ejected and it goes on for far too long. So long in fact that you can see the Earth stops rotating in the background (whoops).

3D Character Animation - Walk like an Egyptian

Call this little spat a YouTube dump because I'm getting all these out of the way early.

Here's another Uni module, which called for us to animate a character in any scene of our choice. I chose a piano recital, but one with a twist. You'll see what happens in this video:



As you can see the character fails miserably (as I did trying to animate walking, eh). I'm no animator as you can plainly tell, but what I am proud of is that Grand Piano. Genuinely fun to model and texture, which is surprising.

Also, the music is "Truman Sleeps" by Philip Glass and it's a beautiful piece.

3D Facial Modelling - My face nearly broke the monitor

Another Uni module for me was 3D Facial Modelling. Simply make a 3D model of your own face and texture it using ZBrush.



My video this time, here's how it turned out. Overall I think the face part of the model is good, but the hair is abysmal. It looks like it's made of wood, heh. That was before my hair was long enough to tie back, which is why it's floppy like that.

Made using 3D Studio Max 7 (lousy "we're not updating because we suck blah blah" Uni), textured using ZBrush and Photoshop.

Optical Motion Capture - Most fun you'll have dressed in Lycra

Uni work is usually a bitch, but sometimes you get a module that is fun throughout. One such module is Optical Motion Capture using the Vicon 8 system set up at the University by RARE. Yes that RARE.



Tip o' the flying barrel to my teammate Binnsy01 for the video.

For the module we were given two keywords that gave us our inspiration. We got "Anxious" and "Donkey Kong". Not the best combination but we went with it. What we decided on in the end was our good friend Donkey throwing a barrel, going to throw another and have it explode above him. The next time he goes for a barrel he's anxious in case it explodes like the last one. Simple right?

Anyway, I chose to be the actor and donned the Lycra. It has to be one of the strangest and most fun moments of my Uni course. Seeing myself as white dots on a monitor moving in real time was awesome.

After recording all the takes it was time to clean the data. This was a bitch, but after getting the hang of it I couldn't stop. We divided the takes up between the three of us but I ended up cleaning all of them just for jollies and that's how it ended up. I think it looks pretty good.

What do you think?

New Blog!

Damn, I think I might have made the smart choice in saving myself £35.

Sod having all that "Welcome to my blog :P" nonsense. You're here and you'll probably be gone soon.

What this blog IS for is to showcase some of my work in the 3D modelling, mapping and modding fields. Anyway, a bit about me:

My name is Phil Goddard, I'm 21 years of age and I am currently on a year out from Staffordshire University where I am studying BSc (Hons) Computer Game Design. What you'll see in this profile is various work I have done for the course and other works I have done or am in the process of doing in my spare time.

Well that's what it's for.

PS: Welcome to my blog :P