Turn Tables!

I made these for Clark. Not sure if he'll use them, but I figured I might as well post them here as well. :-)

Some closure

http://visualizingthepast.webs.com/weaving.html

Adding the missing features...

That shawl was still very tricky to pull off, so I did some improvising. Using Maria's research (and a bit of creative improvisation...which I hope wasn't too dangerous), I tried to approximate what the wrapped dress might look like underneath the shawl (pulled over the shoulders and pinned). This actually might have worked out nicely for me, since a shawl would have covered her belt and bag. Now everything can still be seen. :-) Also, I added her sandals based on the Poma illustrations (I remember looking at some in Anne's collection, but she never gave me the pictures...so again, more creative improvisation). Over the next couple days, I'm going to incorporate these shots into a semi-interactive Javascript webpage that will let the user mouse over certain clothing items and have them light up on some Poma illustrations (with corresponding images of my lady model showing up as well). True, the project deadline has passed, but I still want to follow through with the webpage to showcase my (and Maria's) effort.

Video of my low LOD lady in action!

She is planting things. :-)

I am a bit disappointed that I didn't get the man to Pengfei before he made this video. I'd love to see both models in the scene.

What I have so far...

Well, my time is up, folks. Today is the last day to show my progress and I need to catch my train, so here goes.

Based on collaboration with Maria and Anne, I've re-constructed what an upper middle-class Incan woman what have worn (most of it, anyway) using Maya and a starting model that I bought:

As you can see, I was not able to finish her sandals or her shawl. I spent hours trying to figure out how to model a shawl in Maya (using nCloth and without). Things kept going wrong (Maya crashing, the cloth simulation exploding, etc, etc). Eventually, I had to stop working on her and begin creating the male and female models for the ritual group. Since there were going to be so many of them, I had to keep their geometry simple (even more simple than my lady!). Here they are (I hope that the ritual group will be able to use them successfully. Last I checked, Pengfei had the lady walking around with CMU mocap data just fine.) I know they look a bit angry...I had to go back to the original tall-forehead version in order to keep things simple. Alas, shawls were not an option for these guys, and I know that the women didn't wear sleeves (according to Anne, anyway), but due to time and geometry constraints, I took a Poma illustration --> 3d model approach, which consisted of looking at Poma's simplified illustrations and adding colors to things based on what Anne told me about class hierarchy and how it corresponds to color. I even took a stab at making silver plated earrings for the man.
I haven't had a chance to look at the final ritual simulation - I hope it looks okay! One problem that I did experience with these other models is "wandering" eye textures. If I didn't delete non-deformer history before binding them to their skeletons, their eyes would go crazy! All in all, I actually came away from this project feeling like I learned a lot (and I'm glad that I got to dress and animate some virtual people of the past, which was actually a goal of mine at the beginning of the semester).

I will try to work on making a shawl for the detailed lady over the next couple days. If it doesn't work, then I'll throw in the towel.

Step 2 Progress (7) [and a pose!]

Due to time constraints, a single pose will have to do for the Inca lady. I hope it's an alright pose. Her pretty features combined with the staring off into the distance may have incidentally caused a fashion model effect. Well, I suppose she is a fashion model...for Inca fashion! So, all I have left to do for her is make her shawl and then paint her sandals. Then, render a few good quality shots (I wonder if ambient occlusion would look weird). No movie...oh well. After that, I need to block together the low LOD man and woman for the ritual group.

Commence the next step!

It's the final stretch! I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get done by the 22nd, but I'll give it my all. Today the focus is on rigging and animating with mocap data. Here's just a taste (a scary, scary taste):I haven't put on her clothes yet, since I want to make sure that her body is sized and rigged to fit the mocap data. Unfortunately, Pengfei, who is helping us put things into OGRE, needs the models by this afternoon. I'm hoping it will be okay if I give him the unclothed version to start off and then hand him the clothed version tomorrow morning. We'll see...