Modelling the Weapon and Character (Ned Bunsem)

With my role covering the character and concept art side of the project i had done much of the concept art and the designs and ideas for the characters which the next step of my deliverable was to produce a 3D model of the character and have him rigged and animated. So rather than jump into the deep end of modelling a full character, i decided that since it had been a few months since my last use of Maya that i should model something quickly and simple to reacquaint myself with tools and modelling. So i chose to model the weapon which was simple in it's design and could serve a purpose in posing the character so there is a use later on. I kept the model close to the design and i believe that perhaps in doing that i had gone overboard with the polycount and which is why i will have to go back into the model and lower the polycount to where the model retains what it is trying to show but also keeping the polycount as low as possible.

After the weapon model i was ready to take on a much more of detailed model coming through the modelling of the main character. I tend to start a modellign process by starting with a cube and then extruding to the design however i tried a new process in which you use a plane and mould that plane to the design, this process had been one which i had seen Chris do. But when i had tried the same method i couldn't get the process right as i ended up starting with the plane but once i tried to mould the shape of the design i wasn't able to form the shape correctly and rather than carry on and refer back to my comfortable method as this will allow my pace of modelling to be much quicker and i feel that the plane method will be best suited for a simpler model such as the weapon. Once i had gotten the modelling process underway i had confidently been able to model the shape of the character from head to toe and have come upto the modelling of the arm. Throughout the modelling of the character the design was rounded but simple so i had to keep the smooth round look for the model going for all the areas but i had come across problems where the model would have uneven edges and wouldn't be smooth. So i started using a method in which i could smooth the model then remove those additional edges and vertices so the polycount would stay the same and through that smooth tool i could maintain a smooth and rounded looking model without any additional edges. With that in mind my next process is to finish off the model and then work on the texture.