Below you will find the work I carried out during my 1st and 2nd year of my BA Course in Design for Digital Media. The work completed during my 1st and 2nd year does not contribute towards the 3rd year, it was just for progression to bring me to the point I am at now. So for anyone wishing to carry on following my work I'll be continuing my work for my 3rd year on a new blog linked below:

MY 3rd YEAR BLOG

Final Major Project 3rd Year

This is my third and final year and after a fairly successful 2nd year Final Major Project I've decided to throw everything I have at this next project.

After being a massive fan of the Terminator and Robocop I've decided that I'd like to combine the two for an all out fight sequence. I want it all to be 100% of my own work every thing from building and modeling rigging and animating.

I'd like to start with a fully fleshed terminator which will be broken down to a fully visible T-800 Endo skeleton and will result in the two characters ripping each other limb from limb.

There is a tremendous amount to consider. I need reference material as I work best when I have something I can physically hold and look at so I have obtained the models.

I have to learn how to rig a biped, muscle structure, character animation to name a few. I really have my work cut out for me but if I persevere I know I can do a credible job!

Click the Robocop & Terminator icons to see the Work In Progress

Final Major Robocop

The trouble with Robocop is that the only reference images I can find are screen captures from the Movies and the T.V. Series. Along with the Robocop model I will use the DVD movies and blueprint references. I also found a good model of him to aid my efforts.

I've started building Robocop in 3D and also started with the Terminator. Robocop isn't that hard or should I say as hard as the Terminator T-800 so I've put a hold on this one until I get to a comfortable point with the T-800 Model.

Final Major Terminator

I like this as it is something solid that I can hold, look around, see how the light catches it and what goes in what goes out etc.
NECA have just release a 18inch T-800 Terminator figure holding a lot of the detail and movement so I bought myself one!

The most important thing to get right is the head and face I've seen many T-800 models in my research and there's only a handful of good ones. I want to be one of this hand full and am concentrating on trying to get that menacing look the T-800 has rather than the cheesy grins some of the models seem to have.

Here are a few renders of the build so far:

I've thought about doing teaser trailer for my project and so far I've come up with:



I've found a very good creator of the T-800 from someone that calls himself dazzawalla. They are some of the best I've found so far and the models can be downloaded at a price which may be a worth while investment on completion of this project.

Examples below:

I'm a little further along now but it's so hard just trying to give the terminator that mean sadistic look rather than look like he's grinning!

I've refined a few more bits of him and done part of the neck. Here is a colour version:

Just a few more to show his development:

Just a little bit further along now without too much hassle:









I've just spent the best part of 6 hours just building 4 fingers of the hand and it's a lot more tedious than it looks!
Here's what 6 hours looks like so far just the thumb and then cleaning up:

Finished the thumb tonight!



I've leaned how to make a working piston and just did a quick video to show the two pistons either side of the neck working.

I've made quite a bit of headway now finishing most of the Endo Skeletons basic shape all he needs doing now is some refining and tweaking here and there to try to get him to look almost screen perfect!

Final Major Project for the 2nd Year

Final major project of Yr 2 Design for Digital Media course

My strongest assets are 3D I managed to find a video I saw a few years ago that is one of the reasons I wanted to get into doing 3D stuff and I'd like to re-create something along the lines of the video below but given the time I have and the amount I have to learn may be more than I can do

Here's another video done by Kevin Pazirandeh which is equally as impressive.



Another nice video along the the lines of Kevin's video with some nice twists and turns

Or alternatively I'd like to be able to create a 3D moving image good enough to be able to pass off as real so I would maybe contemplate creating something like this video below for my final major project.

There would be a lot of work I'd need to do but the end result would be well worth it!

Before I even think too far ahead I need to do a tutorial on building a 3D car. I had this one pointed out to me and after a few weeks this is how it looks..
I've not fully finished it yet because I was just using the car as a learning curve and with the complexity of the car I want to build I need to crack on before I run out of time!

I've decided on doing the photo real video or something like it. After a lot of searching I finally decided on the Mercedes McLaren SLR.

After talking with my tutor I've decided to try and make this as professional as possible
so one of the things i've done is but a 1/18 scale model of the SLR I wish to build for reference mainly to see how much angles bend and how the car catches the light to give me the best representation as possible.

After doing a Ferrari 360 Tutorial I've decided to get on with building the McLaren
here's some pictures below!

Some more of the model completed I'd start Sub-diviging it and just seeing how the light catches the model. I know there are quite a few errors to take care of but this is just a general idea.
I found a real McLaren on the autotrader website and asked if I was able to get reference images of parts of the car I was unable to find on the internet. The owner agreed and I took over 100 pictures just of the grills lights close ups of the door handles etc.

As I'm pushed for time I've decided to make the alloy wheels on the SLR I went to view they do set the car off nicely anyway but since I only have 4 weeks to have this finished I'm going to concentrate on getting a passable model for the animation obviously to a high standard but concentrain on the bits that will be seen and less on the ones that won't.

Here's the start on the alloys:

I discovered that although there was a huge amount of reference material of the McLaren SLR around there were some images I just couldn't find reference for e.g. break callipers discs some of the internals and interior I needed so bought this very rare brochure apparently only 10 were given to each Mercedes-Benz Dealer that were selling the SLR McLaren
so cost the winning bid of £41 courtesy of eBay and the images and reference information was worth every penny.

Further images of my work so far:

After having issues with the original wheel I built namely that I'd forgotten to incorporate holes for the wheel bolts to go into so used tool booleans that allows you to remove the shape of one object from the shape of another object.

The trouble is that the wheel became unstable and polly's that make up the wheel began to break down and developed holes in the model. I could have fixed them but decided by this time that rather than just doing a video of the McLaren driving away I'd do an advert instead so decided I'd model the original standard wheel.

A screen capture of the SLR more up-to-date and with the newly built wheels a finished render of the finished wheel.

For the animation I wanted to have the McLaren come up out of the floor from in between the model of the McLaren technology centre that would split into two spinning around focusing on some close up's of the car then making a hasty get away. Having less than a week to have this done I thought it would be a good idea to use ncloth and as the cloth slipped off the car. I could do some nice close ups but I would have to learn how to use ncloth since I had never used it before.
I downloaded Digital tutors introduction to ncloth to find out how it works:

Although very in depth I don't have time to work through the whole DVD so I found what I needed to know and put it into play.



After a little more playing:

Until finally coming up with..

I need a story idea that supported ncloth so I'm working on the cloth dropping down onto the SLR and covering the car then as the ncloth slips off and have a few nice close-ups as the ncloth unveils parts of the car.



Finished video: