CG Asset Creator and Illustrator

Week 4: Modeling, Rigging, and Texturing

04/18/2025 (Updated 04/20/2025)

Over the weekend, the main focus was filming live action footage to implement into our project. However, the footage in question did not quite meet the necessary quality standards to be used, and is now being re-shot. Being in Atlanta instead of Savannah, where the recordings were done, my goals for the week are primarily to rig and texture my models so they are in presentable condition by week 5.

Current Progress

This week, I have been working on rigging, skinning, and texturing. UV mapping was a quick process on both the crab and fish models, and learning to use AdvancedSkeleton has been immensely helpful in speeding up the process of setting up the rigs. At the moment, the fish is fully skinned with a working rig, and the basis of the glass-like textures is in place. The crab is further behind, having yet to be skinned or textured.

An untextured crab model in Maya, with both the rig and topology visible.
The current state of the crab model.
An untextured fish model in Maya, with both the rig and topology visible. A shiny and brightly-colored screenshot of a fish in Substance Painter.
The fish model as of April 18th. On the left is the rig, and on the right is how the textures currently look in Substance Painter.

Update: April 20th

As of today, the skinning on both models is complete, and textures and materials are set up. Small corrections are needed, particularly for the bump maps.

An untextured fish model in Maya, with both the rig and topology visible. A shiny and brightly-colored screenshot of a fish in Substance Painter.
Test renders of both models.
Test animations of both models.

Upcoming Work

According to our current schedule, our next goal is to have our models completed when we meet in person. While this timeline may be shifted a bit for team members in Savannah due to filming obligations, I intend to meet this goal as best as I can, seeing as I am not participating in re-shooting.