PMT Tool Week 1

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This is my initial planning and research for my Project Management Tool.


For the PMT tool, I want to make sure I create something that is both usable and relevant for not only myself but for other artists.

When thinking of the PMT tool, the one thing I can think of currently that would personally benefit me is a tool that will handle the organization of my Houdini to HDA to Unreal engine workflow. Keeping my HDA's organize based on project, in one directory, while keeping the subsequent UE4 project in the same place would be quite nice but also prove very useful when working on digital assets because it would allow me to test them in One single project.


So my PMT tool planning is as follows:

I want to be able to switch between Houdini and Engine versions by setting them up to a 'project' in Setup. This will allow me to have different levels of Houdini/Engine.

I also want visual feedback to make sure I have the correct project selected and the correct project files are visible. I want to be able to browse through this and possibly select a certain file I would like to work on.

I would like to be able to load Houdini(DCC1) and possible load any DCC tools(additional tools to help).

I would also like to be able to load the Engine. From there, I would like to be able to simply click the import button to load the 'Testing' and 'HDA' branch, which is Houdini DA files copied over (HDA).

This is a LOT to ask for but I have firm confidence that I can create this tool and bake it all into a single binary installer like I did for my Texture Tool.

BONUS: For DCC tools button, I would like to be able to load my Texture Tool as a bonus to my texture management tool. Perhaps this could be a 'ENGINE Tool' button next to Engine, but given my time constraint, I really do want to implement my previous tool into this one as a learning experience.

Bust Texture Pass

Finally got a chance to do a little texturing. Did a pass, skin is super difficult to do correctly...

I did 2 renders in Iray, one focusing on the texturing, and one with the specularity blown up to give it a resin look, as with the reference.

Next up, get it in Engine! Hopefully I'll find some time to spare in the coming few weeks before industry reviews.

Edit: I noticed the glossy render had some artifacting in the neck area due to the rendering. So I went and did a more refined edit. This one combines both into a more finalized approach.

Slimy little Alien boy.























Update: Heads successfully in Engine with minor hitches. Texture's are not working correctly due to incorrect scaling :( My mistake, an oversight, I thought I had the size sorted out in the FBX export but I didn't.

And it's in Engine, fixed with decent detail! Just need to make some lighting/scene changes and maybe some in engine material tweaks to get the full effect!

Bust HighRes

I finally have some time to work on the 3D bust,

Update 1: 3/18

I went ahead and made some changes to the sculpt. Working on slowly pushing and pulling the folds and shapes. Trying to maintain some degree of accuracy but mostly just working from large to small in Dynamesh.


Currently only got one side of the face done. Adding the ear flaps/sculpting the eyes/mouth without symmetry was a pain but manageable.

So I just got to do the right side of the face, the right eye. Then the mouth, followed by the nasal bridge area. This will then lead to the turkey neck. I will also have to re-emphasize the folds, as they are quite loose in the original sculpt.









































Update: 3/20

Continuing to build out the sculpt, I am continually making changes to the form because I'm noticing small things that need to be tweaked or edited as I go. I need to inflate the brow a bit and tuck some of the cheek muscles back a bit more towards the ear (which also needs to be pushed back and made smaller). I will most likely move the mouth and brow forward slightly to compensate.

The neck is what I'm currently working on as well as the general body. These will take the least amount of time as most has been and will be invested in the face.

Update 3/21

Cleaned up a lot of the issues that I found earlier and started moving onto sculpting out detail.

3/25
Continued to finalize the High res sculpt, here are a few shots of the sculpt and overall detail. I wasn't able to do the lower body due to time constraint but this is something I could always go back to and keep working in more detail.

3/26

This morning I quickly did the low poly inside of Zbrush, using  polypaint/weights (to create a basic topo) as well as a 'bear-rug' unwrap using UV master. I really only had about an hour to do this because I wanted to get it into Substance and bake it before class.

It's at 25k. I did some tests and managed to get it to around 10k-3k but I was starting to lose too much details even with polyweights.

Here are some renders from inside substance.

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Bust proxy pass

Here is my sculpt reference by Aris Kolokontes:

And here is my proxy pass: