Completed Beetle Mesh

I just "finished" the mesh for my Scarabaeus sacer; I use finished loosely in this context. A more active walking position looked better to me, so I played around with some of the legs. I also went ahead and combined the two separate sections of each leg into one mesh for rendering purposes.


And for some reason Maya "lost" my front camera. I don't know what is up with this bug, but it's happened on two different projects now and I'm starting to get worried. For this project it wasn't a big deal since I didn't have a front view to work with, so I left it as is.

Oh, and the hairs on the legs and underside will come in later during the texturing process. Now I'm going to try out Mudbox. Wish me luck!

Anne

Beetles in 3D

I thought about doing this in January, but never got around to actually modeling insects in Maya. So I asked my friend which beetle I should create, and he recommended Scarabaeus sacer (the infamous Egyptian "Scarab" beetle). You know, unlike The Mummy and Prince of Persia would have you believe, these beetles are a type of dung beetle, not flesh eating terrors of the desert. In fact, I think they're cute.

This is my second attempt; the first time I neglected the angle of the back, which would have led to problems when I textured it. If it turns out nicely, I might try to pose it with some dung. XD

Any suggestions?

Reference images from: http://www.zin.ru/animalia/coleoptera/eng/scasacne.htm

I Think It Needs Work

I tried to finish this model, but I'm having a bit of trouble creating a good poly flow. I think I understand how to do the eyes, but the mouth and nose elude me. Every time I try this I also end up with more polys than I think I should for a "low-poly" first draft, but that's just me trying to be detailed when I shouldn't. The circled parts are those I'm a worried about.


Any suggestions for how this thing should wrap the face? Should I make the cheek less defined?

Bug Bowl

I spent about 4 hours yesterday volunteering with my Entomology 105 group at the Purdue Bug Bowl. In other words, I made meal worm stir fry most of the day. Yum! I recommend that everyone try eating meal worms at some point; they're surprisingly tasty!

Speaking of insects, I just barely finished my children's book in time for the contest entry last week. Here are a few pages from it:
I have to admit, I really enjoyed working on this book. My research also got me incredibly interested in beetles and beetle biology. I almost wish I had another full year of school to take more entomology courses. I think I'll be creating more insect art in the future.

Only a Few Weeks Left

A couple days ago Mike York came to our school to talk about working in the video game industry, and recommended having a blog. If nothing else, you can catalog your progress as a designer/animator/modeler/or any number of other things. So here I am, cataloging my progress so far.

At the moment, I'm working on illustrations for a children's book I wrote for Entomology 105, a piece of facial modeling for my portfolio, a few last attempts at an internship position this semester, and some projects for my travel grant to Japan from last semester. All of these are due within the month, along with various other final projects and assignments, but I like to think I work best under pressure.


This is the facial model I'm currently working on. I've only built a face with this strategy once before (and that was for a cartoon seal), so any suggestions are welcome. I'm trying to model with muscles in mind, but getting something that looks right has been difficult.