Helmet Homework
For the task were we had to model, texture and render a helmet of our choice, I chose Samus Aran’s helmet from the Metroid series. Modelling the helmet was actually quite tricky. I had to use a lot of different meshes, and I need to manipulate and edit then a lot. The first try I was not happy with, the shape was wrong and I tried using a mirror modifier, which caused problem for me with the Knife tool. I took a break and restarted.
For the main body of the helmet I used a sphere, then used some loop cuts to made it the right shape. For the little node things at the sides I made another sphere model, sized it down, then deleted a quarter of it. I made some cones, scaled them to be the right width and slotted them into the gap in the spheres and angled them correctly. The little tubes were a lot easier, I got a cylinder, sized it down then did a whole lot of extruding and scaling to get the look right. The visor, forehead line and mouth where my first big problems. I used the knife tool to cut out the shapes of the visor and forehead line, then used some extrusion to shape them. The problem I got was that vertices and edges kept overlapping and causing issues with the render, so I spent some time deleting the overlaps and remaking the connections.
Once I had the model I exported it to Adobe Paint and started to apply textures. When I tried applying them in Blender I ran into another problem. I asked Mike for help and he pointed out that I had put multiple materials onto the model and so Adobe had made multiple textures, which ended up making the model look messy and smudged. So I went back to Blender and applied a universal Checker material to the whole model.
I fixed the textures and added them into Blender using the same node method as the Warhammer. Mike also helped me with an issue I had with the blood. On Adobe the blood had been attached to the UV, which meant it cut off at weird angles. He helped fix that I wanted to add a special background, to really portray the space side of Metroid. I had already done a starry effect for the background in the Tie Fighter task so I simply followed what I had done there. But I wanted to add something a little extra. So I followed a tutorial online to add a kind of nebula space dust effect thing using noise textures and ColourRamps.
I am happy with this despite the multiple problems. The silver lining is that each time a problem came up I learned how to fix it if it comes up again in later projects. I’m also happy to know that anytime I have an issue I can always ask for help and the staff will be there.