Final Cephalopod Render

My class is over and one of the renders I used was this one. After doing some more research this week, I would change the two squid tentacle arms to 2 regular length ones to make 10 of the same type of arms. Also I would add a fleshy hood to the top of the body to keep more like the diorama protrayals in museums.

My Rendering

It is coming along but still not finished. The semester is winding down with some finals already taken and one left plus two final project presentations.

Plus more work outside of that so I gotta keep truckin!

Progress on Cephalopod Render

Cephalopod Render

Okay, I am making progress on the rendering the cephalopod. Learned some new techniques in making arms and shaping the head. Made another eye that looks like it has a cataract but I am making progress.

Concept Idea of Cephalopod Look

Here is Autodesk Maya render of a cephalopod. I created one arm then replicated it across the the body just to make the model more complete it does but the creature looks very stiff and artificial.

Maya Cephalopod Shell

I have been working on the body of the cephalopod so I made a few texture changes and made this render of the shell. The UV mapping of a Photoshop image to the arms is not going so well for me. It comes down to how good are you at teaching yourself.

Cephalopod Render

For my next class project render, I am working on a cephalopod. This particular cephalopod is classified as Dawsonoceras. I guess for the ridges in its shell.

Here is an early render of the shell.

Exploded View of Maya Project

Here are some more images of the project I submitted today. It went pretty well but my Powerpoint presentation went I little haywire when I was presenting. Next time I will make some adjustments to keep that from happening.

View of Maya 2008 Render

Here is another view of the object I posted yesterday but the parts are now separated to show the detail of each piece.

My First Original Render in Maya 2008

Finally, have a complete model of what I am suppose to render for my first class project.

It is riddled with issues though. The metallic look does not match that of the original. The screw thread is not right at the end. I could not get a thread pattern on the inside of the wing nut. The bevel look of the circumference of the mirror is not right. I am having trouble getting a mirror shader for the mirror section. The rivets on the bottom piece are touching each other and there should be gap there. No text on the back of the mirror. No texture on the mirror handle.

AHHHHH!

Bug Found In Autodesk Maya 2008 Unlimited

For weeks now, I have been trying to learn how to model things in the Autodesk Maya software application. I started with Maya 8.5 Personal Learning Edition (PLE) available for free from their site. At school, we use a real version of Maya 8.5 and after a while it was getting hard to make it to the lab when it was open or other activities were going on there so I order an educational copy. At this time, Autodesk is selling the newest version 2008 so I had to buy that. It has one new feature I like, a cube that shows up in the panels and on the side orthographic panel it allows right/left view flipping.

Unfortunately, a software bug appeared not long after using it. It occurred in the Color Chooser window with the background for where sliders and color choice boxes go missing. The slider and boxes still respond to mouse movement and clicks and can be used. It is just they cannot be seen.

I filed a bug report but I wonder if I get any response since it appears you have to some of support subscription to get help. It is too bad I cannot add more information to my report since when I was at school today it dawn on me that the problem could be from using two monitors with my computer. So tonight I tested that out and sure enough the main monitor works okay with the Color Chooser but the when it is displayed on the extended desktop monitor when it is in a 1280x1024 or 1400x1050 mode the area of the window disappear.

It would seem that video card in my computer is running out of memory thus the display areas have no allocation and are blank.