RAD GUITAR

There were now two tasks left to do before animating. These were modelling the rad guitar and rigging the character. It was decided that Matt would learn some rigging and I would model the rad guitar. I would like to have learnt how to rig but we were now on a tight schedule and there was not enough time for us to both learn to rig as there was still a model to create.

As per usual Matt knew exactly what type of guitar would best suit our idea. The guitar that Matt had in mind was a 'BC Rich Mockingbird' and I must say it does have a very cool shape and I was very excited to model this. Again providing a next step up which would hopefully again improve my modelling skills. It turned out that modelling it was very similar to modelling the basic guitar. However I still learnt a lot and feel that my modelling skills did improve. As they say practice makes perfect. Below are the reference images that I used. I found them once again via the internet, but never the less they were still extremely helpful and helped me to create my proudest model yet.

 

 This reference images very useful. Especially the second image above. Without these images my model would not have looked any where near as good as it does. I did have a couple of other reference images that I used but they were having trouble uploading for some reason. Once I had all of my reference images i followed the same procedure of opening up Maya, setting the scene and I begun modelling.

 I followed the same process as when I created the basic guitar as both guitars are very similar. However this model did take me a lot longer as it has more detailed parts and a more detailed shape.Which heavily effected the UV map as it meant there were hundreds of pieces. Below are some images of the completed model.

Above is an image of the front view of the completed Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the right side view of the completed Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the back side of the Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the left side view of the completed Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the top view of the completed Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the bottom view of the completed Rad Guitar Model. 

Above is an image of the perspective view of the completed Rad Guitar model.  

It was now time to UV map and as I said before this contained hundreds of little pieces that needed to be sewn to their shells. This was the most challenging UV map that I have ever had to do. This was due to the fact that their were lots of shallower faces on certain parts of the model. Therefore creating more faces. Below is an image of the UV layout once I had automatically mapped it. 

As you can see from the image above there are hundreds of pieces. I then narrowed down some of the sewing work by individually UV mapping certain faces with the required UV technique such as planar mapping, cylindrical mapping etc. This took a very long time as there were lots of faces to select. Even after this process I still had a lot of sewing to do. This took me a long time, however I finally completed it. I took into account what I learnt about UV mapping from the basic guitar model and kept all parts of the UV shells on one UV layout. I then just increased the size of the UV snapshot when exporting it. Which in return lead to me creating one of the best textured pieces of work that I have ever done. Below are is an image of the completed UV layout.    

As you can see from the image above the UV layout is now a lot clearer. The textures will now fit perfectly to the model. Now it is time to texture. I took images of textures from the Internet and edited them in photoshop. I think that with this model my texturing improved a lot and in my opinion I managed to create one of my best pieces of textured work. Below are images of the completed textured Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the front view of the completed Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the right side view of the completed Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the back view of the completed Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the right side view of the completed Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the top view of the completed Rad Guitar model. 

Above is an image of the bottom view of the completed Rad Guitar Model.

   

Above is an image of the perspective view of the completed Rad Guitar Model. 

Overall I think that this is one of the best models that I have ever produced. I developed my modelling and UV mapping knowledge, and especially developed my texturing knowledge and ability. I think that this has a realistic look, I also think that it complements the other models perfectly and that all three models will work really well together in the promo.