park bench for joe's work

I am set a job for Chance meeting which involves me modelling a quite difficult park bench, at first I didn't think it was possible but I gave it a shot and said yes to Joe.
Here is what he gave me to work with, as you can see, it's not very clear but it's good enough for an idea.





From the first glace I gave this picture I knew I would have to use nurbs circles and the loft tool, it might not be the perfect way to do it but that's what came into my head. What I found every useful when using this tool was that I was able to follow the curves down with simple nurbs circles.



Here is another image which was given to me for reference, as you can see it's not very clear but it gives a good indication of length and textures. I didn't use this image for the modelling but it did give me an idea of how the wood is placed from the front.




As you can see the modelling is all most finished, there are a few aspects to come back to but I just wanted to have a go on the textured as I now know that the bench will NOT be used for the shots, this is because the real bench has returned to the park!
At this current stage I was quite pleased with the results, I hadn't textures the metal supports but I was having a go at the wood. It's not perfect but it's a start.



Above is the "finished" bench, I have things like the legs to finish and some areas in the supports but I think it's turned out quite well. Texturing was not as hard as I thought but I know not to underestimate the process. Things like finding the best surface textures or using the right shaders will either fool us into believing its real or simply make others point out your crappy work.

rigging

As I have agreed to rig a model for a movie I have started to practice to remind myself of how to go ahead with it. There are so many things that I have forgotten about like pole vectors.



Here is a quick test of how would add the joints to the geometry, this is basic due to the fact that I was only using it as a quick test. It turned out to work just fine!



The picture above shows how when an ik handle is added and the join is skinned it will bend in a quick organic result.


The images above shows a model that I came across and decided to rig it, at first I found myself just messing around with the arm and hand, the next step would be to add the ik handle.



This image is before I placed the joins in the right place, e.g. shoulder, elbow and wrist.




This next images I have finished half the skeleton and I am joining the shoulder joint to the main section. I believe I have also added the ik handle.


In this picture I am placing the wrist joint and all the finger joints in the right place to then add the nurbs circle for easy selection to the ik handle.



Using the model for a guide line



I have now finished the placements of the joints, I have also mirrored it and it's now ready to add all the other handles and set driven keys.



Here is another practice rig but on an odd shaped character, I started with the easiest part, the tail, I then added the rest of the skeleton.



As you can see the tail now has an ik handle and is able to move in a tail like manner, I found this very simple to use!