Forrest Clothing Development

Below are still images of a simulation I ran to test out the first version of the clothing I created for Forrest who is the main character in the SCAD animated film LumberJack and the Woodpecker
- The model was created by Connor Bushoven and the animation I used was from Mixamo
I created the clothes in maya and used ncloth cloth simulations in order to get the clothes into their positions and shape
The pants were simulated in order to rest on top of the boots and create the wrinkles at the base of the pants.

Concept art by David Penagos

Below is the second iteration on the clothes.
- I added id colors to differentiate the different materials and finished most of the modeling and uving.
- I added in the belt loops and buttons. I also made the rendermesh and the simcages.

Below is the final version of the clothes after receiving notes from the Professor mentoring the film.
- Textures & Look Dev by Connor Bushoven

Forrest Groom Development

For Forrest’s groom I used Maya’s xgen to create the groom using guides. Below is the hair placeholder geometry that I used to get the shape of the hair.

I created an Xgen collection for the full groom for Forrest and created 4 descriptions for the main areas of hair on his head.
- Head
- Beard
- Mustache
- Eyebrows
I created a quick first pass in order to check with the director on the shape of the hair on the top because it is a very defined shape in the concept art. His green markings are his notes on the shape comparison.

After I tweaked the shape of the main head of hair I then went ahead and created the other three descriptions of the eyebrows, mustache and beard. I kept them quick and focused more on the shape so that I could get critiques from the director and the other members of the team.

Next I moved on to adjusting the shapes more and started to add basic clumping to the groom so that I could begin to see an approximation of what the final groom will look like.

Below is a drawover comment the producer made on the eyebrows. Another artist on the team also wrote a note image on things to work on in the next version.

The 5th version of the groom was much closer to the final look of the groom. I was able to achieve the stylized shaping of the hair and beard that the team wanted and I began to add in finer clumping and noise to the groom to add realism to the individual hairs.

The director loved the groom at this stage but I decided to take the groom a bit further by fixing the hair density and direction in the back of the head and I took some notes from another character artist, Jess Paolo.
Here is the final version of the groom:

Woody Clothing Development

Woody’s clothes were a lot simpler to model and set up in comparison to Forrest because I did not have to worry about the rolled up sleeves and how they would simulate. Below is the concept art for Woody that I follow in order to achieve the look the team wanted.

I began the process of tailoring Woody in a similar way that I did Forrest. I started by extruding faces from the body that I would then mold into the shapes I needed. I struggled a bit with the collar and the jacket in general because the concept art did not seem too clear on what type of jacket it was. Below is the first version of his clothing.

After sending the first version turnaround to the team I received some great feedback and reference for what they wanted the jacket to look like. After clarification the Director showed me the Dad’s jacket in the animated movie Connected. It is similar to a bomber jacket in style. Below are the notes one of the team members wrote out for me.

After taking feedback from the team and looking at the new references I created a second version of the bomber jacket.

At this stage the jacket was near completion all that was needed to be done was to layout the uvs and extrude the single plane meshes in order to create the render meshes. I also received critique on the jacket feeling too boxy around the chest area so I worked to smooth that out.

The image to the right is the cloth in the way I submitted it to the team. The file has the sim cages for simulation and the render meshes to be wrapped onto the simulation. I applied lambert materials to create material groups. The pants and undershirt are 1 group and the jacket and pockets are the other group.

After getting reviewed by the Professor and the rest of the team there were a few more fixes they wanted to be made to the clothes. Some of these fixes included: adjusting the length of the jacket and shirt, adjusting the shape of the shirt and collar,and adjusting the shape at the bottom of the jeans.

Forrest Cloth Simulation Development

The first image I have in regards to Forrest’s Cloth sim tests show the beginning of the cloth set up and constraint set up. There are a large amount of constraints in different areas needed to hold the cloth in place.
- Some of these constraints are:
  - at the bottom and top of the pants
  - the bottom of the shirt
  - two rows of constraints around the flannel cuff area
  - a few constraints in the button area to close the flannel
  - a few constraints at the top of the collar to keep it from sliding off his big neck muscles

Two major issues I had to address in the first few cloth sim tests were the armpit area exploding because of intersecting geometry and cloth, and the other area was the short jeans sliding out of the boots and becoming visible to the viewer.

After I solved those two major issues it was then onto fine tuning the cloth to behave the way flannel and denim jeans should simulate. The first few tests ended up having the cloth in both areas being too loose and floaty.

The next test I was able to fix the leg boot area and tighten up the shirt and pants so they fit his form better. The Professor in charge of this film also provided some feedback on this version.

The latest version is almost at a point that the director approves. What needs to be adjusted next is adjusting the floating feeling in the collar and tightening up the cloth a bit more in the crotch area.

After continuing to work through the beginning of week 7 I was able to fine tune the simulation to get the desired look and feel for the cloth that the team desired.

Below I have an image showing the simulation install file that we will use later in the production in order to quickly swap out animation files and get simulations 75% done. The other 25% done is making sure the simulation works properly and looks good.

Woody Groom Development

After finishing Forrest’s sim at the beginning of this week I then moved onto planning out the groom for his son Woody.

After I started grooming I began to realize that this groom was a bit more complex than Forrest’s because he has very specific clumping of hair and his hair is a bit long.

Concept art by Kasie Price

My first pass is the yellow guides in the image below. I thought I was doing fine when placing guides but as I started to preview the hair I then realized I needed to approach this groom in a new way.

I took a step back and researched some more reference for the specific hairstyle and spoke with the director in order to make sure I was doing the correct research. Below are the references I am using.

Sketch drawing by Connor Bushoven

References from online

After collecting reference, I decided to go with a tube groom approach for the top of the head and then I will fill in the hair on the bottom with guide placement.
I am using ev curves in maya to create curves for where the hair will go. I then use a curve warp to make a cylinder follow the shape of the curve. I then am able to tape the cylinder and adjust the shape as needed.

With the above method I am able to better visualize the hair placement. Once the tubes are complete I will then convert the edges to curves and then convert those new curves to guides. My goal is to hopefully have a finished version of the groom by the end of this weekend.
Below are the first couple versions of the hair using the above hair tubes and style.

That above version ended up being really off from what the directors and team had in mind. There was a bit of a miscommunication on what they wanted from the groom but after looking back at some of the sculpted hair models we were able to get a better idea of the desired look.

Below is the first version based on the above design^. The look was already starting to get closer to what the team desired. I used a similar tube groom process but had to go in a tweak a few of the guides. Below are also the notes provided by the professor based on this version.

After making some tweaks and then going over the notes of the professor I created the version below. At this stage the shaping and directionality of the hair was getting closer to what the director wanted but the clumping and lengths of the hair were still not looking right:

I ended up separating the hair in the hat and the hair on the bottom to two separate xgen descriptions. This made controlling the clumping a lot easier and also gave me a chance to restart the guides on the bottom groom to get better shapes and lengths. I also deleted all clump modifiers and started from scratch to get a fresh perspective on it. It all turned out well and below is the final version of the groom: