Worm

My first enemy contribution to the team.

Creating the image didn't really teach me anything new it just helped me work on my rendering and lighting techniques. I wanted to have a specific look that I'm happy to say I achieved.

Texture

Creating the worm texture was the most challenging/ambitious texture job that I've ever been give. I've always created Diffuse textures but Secular and Diffuse maps were new to me. Creating them in mudbox and even exporting them was something i had to go and research and find tutorials on.  

Rig

Rigging the worm was the first time I'd rigged a character in over a year plus the first time  I used the CAT bone system. Luckily the worm has a simple bone system so it was the perfect semi beginner project. After working with the CAT system I now have a better understanding when it comes to IK. One problem that caused me some confused was what i later found was Gimbal Locking thanks to Seth Swanson, he showed me that sometimes bones will appear facing forward but are actually backwards.

Animation

Animating was never something i thought i would enjoy, i always thought it was tedious and cumbersome work. Animating the worms showed me a different perspective.  Besides have the backward bones that i talked about in the rigging portion and having to learning how animate with the CAT Systems. I learned a lot,  how to export animations to unity and how to key frame them correctly.  Biggest regret not having the worm doing the worm as an idle animation... Chum. I'm thinking yes. 

Firefly

Here we have the firefly enemy which was quite a challenge with the Asset cutoff date only a week or two from when I got the task. I finished the base mesh well with enough time, it wasn't until i was told three days before the cutoff date that i should drop the worm and focus on the firefly.

Creating the image didn't really teach me anything new it just helped me work on my rendering and lighting techniques. I wanted to have a specific look that I'm happy to say I achieved it.

Texture

Working on the firefly textured showed me that i can make deadlines and the sometimes simplicity is best. I had less then a day to texture and animate the firefly.

Rig

Rigging the firefly was so much more difficult than the worm it just has to many more appendages and things that need to be animated. I also learned that you can Mirror Cat System bones with ease, this made my life immensely easier. This time rigging the firefly my better understand of IK allowed me to not make any mistakes flipping bones in the wrong direction. 

Animation

Animating the firefly was done on the fly(Ha).  As I mentioned before the completing the firefly was a rush job, i had three days to rig and animate the firefly. Working with this animation I learned that you can't make separate animations i.g wing flapping and expect them to cross over. You need to animate the wings flapping and the attack animation In one key framed cycle.

Half O' Worm & Base Firefly

Worm

Sadly, the worm battle did not make into the build for portfolio night. Creating the half worm was what i thought would be an easy task. It was not. I did learn that you can save Animation Layers from CAT System and import them into different models.  I thought this would save me hours of time instead of reanimating the half worm to do the same animations that the full worm has i would just import then.  This didn't happen that way. So i had to reanimate by hand. Still nice knowing how to import/export Animation Layers.

Firefly 

Here we have the firefly base mesh. Creating it was pretty straight forward, once i finally got the character sheet. Making this model was the first time i had to be more concerned with topology, unlike the worm who has a very simple body anatomy the firefly has a hard shell covering and wings under them. I had to make sure the flow would allow this to be accurately/successfully animated.