Scene UV Mapped

I mapped out the UVs for the props and scene of my film. Most were straight forward but some proved more difficult.
Here is an example UV layout for the tree:

I also modeled the ground and surrounding hills of my set. I did this in two sections; one for the floor and nearby hills and the other for the distant hills.

I think it fits in well with the rest of the scene and with textures it should look even better.

Rope Tests

I have spent many hours in Maya trying to create the rope, which ties the goat to the tree. I have used several different techniques inspired by various tutorials, but the biggest aid has been the Maya Help file. Using ncloth produced quite a good result, however I could not make it retain its three dimensional shape. The video below was created using nine polygon cubes; the middle seven set to rigid active bodies and the end two passive rigid bodies. I then set up spring constraints between each of them and added a gravity field to the middle seven cubes. I created a curve and parented each of the CVs to the corresponding box's selection handle and extruded a polygon cylinder along the curve. This creates a rope that is animating depending on what happens to the end cubes. If I was to loop the cylinder at each end then I could set up constraints to keep the rope attached to the tree and goat. Unfortunately no matter how much I play with the settings, I cannot get it looking better than this and as I have already had to spend more time on this than I would have liked, I am either going to use it as it is or not at all.

Goat Tweaked and UV Mapped

I tweaked the goat model to make it more like my designs, as Joe could not find the time.

I also had to model teeth and the inside of the mouth. I was surprised as during my research I discovered that they have no top front teeth and there are big gaps between the front and back teeth. This is apparently quite common to herbivores as they use their tongue and front teeth to pick grass, then chew it with their back teeth.

I then went about readying the goat for textures by UV mapping it, trying to keep seems to a minimum and where they would least be noticed.

I am happy with how it turned out and can now go on to texture the goat.

I am very constricted with the remaining time left to complete my project and will therefore be asking for help to rig my characters, rather than doing it myself as I had initially planned. This is a shame because I have been following rigging tutorials, reading up on it and watching tutorial videos and was keen to put my knowledge into practise. Dave has agreed to help me and has said he will rig the goat.