This week I started development on my first model for the project which is a cactus. After collecting example imagery I decided on making a Saguaro cactus.
Creating the initial shape for the cactus was not a difficult thing to do, it is a quite simple shape in terms of geometry and had it been that it would be a simplified lower-poly version of a Saguaro than my model would have been completed soon there-after however difficulty came upon closer inspection of a Saguaro.
The Sagurao’s needles are not strung about randomly on the surface of the cactus but are instead placed repeating like a geometric pattern originating from the center of the bulb and spreading outward. Initially a classmate suggested I attempt to recreate this using Xgen in Maya.
Had the cactus been more traditional, with spikes dotting the surface evenly, then X gen would have been perfect. While I got close manipulating the settings of Xgen I could never make it that the needles sprouted from an origin point outwards. Instead the needles would always start in a different place, then converge and then spread out which was not how the cactus worked. Eventually I settled on attempting to use MASH to create the needles.
I created a single needle pod model and then using Mash was able to duplicate the model along the lines of the cactus’s mesh creating this.
This would save me significant time in development as I wouldn’t need to manually place all the spikes and it allowed me to adhere to the geometric pattern of the cactus.
I also spent this week tracking the footage in 3DE. While I am not a composite artist for this project it is beneficial to understand all aspects of the project and practice more with industry standard software such as 3DE. While I currently have tracked the footage I have yet to implement it into maya for further matchmove work.