NixonFish (Anglerfish)

[KrispyKringle]

No replies? I saw some 404's in my logs; I hope y'all didn't give up on me... :P

[Tahl'eN]

Looks pretty good. I would say do a little research on this type of fish and figure out what their gums and teeth look like, 'cause those triangles detract some from the look and feel of the model. Also, I think the line from the lure should be longer and a little thinner. It'll be cool to see that bouncing around when he talks. Make the light a second peice so you can make it clearish and glowing!

One other thing, and this really needs fixing, is that the entire fish is just plain too light. light green with massive white specular, especially put against a light grey background makes it really hard to see. Darken the texture a little, ease back on that spec, and make the shadows a little darker and a little more defines.

And finally: Post your wiers! Preferrably the ones you're using to model with. Keep going, I want to see that animation. (-:

[KrispyKringle]

Thanks! it's great to get some more feedback.

Gums/Teeth: Yeah, those are sort of placeholders. I figured I'd give vaguely humanoid gum/teeth stuff by doing extrusions in and then back out to make that overlapping bit. I've had a bit of trouble finding decent pictures on Google image search; I suppose I'll go to a library if I have to. How much realism do you think is necessary? I figured most people don't know what this should look like anyway, so as long as it's believable, it doesn't need to be accurate (but if it's not believable, say so). I also was trying to make it look humanoid enough that it can talk believably with a human voice, hence the lips (of which the upper lip I have since reworked).

Bait: definitely need to stretch it out a bit more. I have since already made it thinner and danglier, but maybe a bit longer too, eh? I was thinking I could maybe make it translucent and put a light inside or something, but I think my teacher or TA was going to show me how to paint some luminosity on or something. I don't remember; as I said, this is my third model in Maya :P I am planning to make it swing around a bit, so he can gesture with it and with the fins. Should I try to learn how to simulate physics or something so I can make it actually swing and bounce realistically?

And the color is shit. I admit it. :P It looked fine for a bit--like I said, I got the texture from highend3D.com--and when I started messing with fog to see if I could imitate water, it got all screwy. I wanted to use Renderman but it wasn't installed properly on the workstation I was using for some reason, so I sorta figured this was a placeholder. A bit of a WIP render, so I didn't bother that much. I'll probably redo the texture before I finish, anyway, and hopefully make it look like he's underwater (or maybe give him a speakers lectern? :P).

Finally, I'll post some wireframes tomorrow, as I don't have Maya on this machine. I didn't know if y'all would want to see them or not, and didn't want to crowd the forum :P It's all one polygon, as I said. Most of the mesh is pretty regular when I smooth it, but there are a few places around the facial details get get kinda crazy. I should work on that more.

Anyway, it's really great to get encouragement on here. I'll post some updates tomorrow or so.

[KrispyKringle]

Yeah, well, I actually decided to get some work done on this tonight, so here ya' go.
http://www.radioactivechicken.org/images/wf1.jpg
This next one is the smoothed version:
http://www.radioactivechicken.org/images/wf2.jpg And here you can see some issues with the smoothed polys around the facial features and fins a bit. Not as bad as I remembered, though.
http://www.radioactivechicken.org/images/wf3.jpg

[Tahl'eN]

Ooh. Much better on the lure. Just make the bait itself a little longer and more ovel-shaped and you'll be there.
-Lure physics: I think learning Maya's dynamics for this animation is probably more work then it is worth. There are scripts out there that can make a bone chain simulate a springy effect like this. Unfortunately, I don't remember what it's called. I'll see if I can find that again. Of course, if you're going to do that, I would suggest doing it to a smaller degree for all of the whiskers, and probably the tips of the fins.

The teeth you have right now looke very unbelievable. They're prety much cartoon teeth in a quite realistic head. it'll look a lit better if you do either human teeth (this has potential to look goofy until you do the lip-sync) or the creepy long, backwatd-sweeping teeth of the real fish (which might look goofy once you do the lip-sync.) I say make a set of both as separate geometry and bind them exactally the same. (-:

Definately square off the dorsal and cadual fins a little, too. Also give them and the tail rays like the pectoral fins have.

hmm...hard to say if a regular underwater scene or an underwater version of the white-house press room would be best for the background.

One last thing--will he be able to blink? If I remember correctly, these guy's bottom lids do most of the work in that respect.

[KrispyKringle]

Yeah, I think you're right that lure physics are a bit excessive, but some sort of bouncing would be nice. I think I'll hold on the spikes; what I would imagine for them is so understated that it may not even be necessary (we'll see).

I'm not totally happy with the spines/bone structure in the fins on the sides. It doesn't really occur on the dorsal fin or tail or anything, in my reference pictures, so I left it out. I was afraid that even having it on the side fins was stupid looking, though. I sorta feel like it makes the fins look too thin and wimply (which they are, in real life). I have to admit, though, I think your knowledge of icthyology far surpasses ine :P

I also redid the teeth today with gums. It's a bit better, but I need to work on the transition from lip to gum (there isn't really an overhanging lip, but there is a sort of transition line, I think, with some underlying bone structure I'll work on). I'll post some shots when I get things the way I want. I'm thinking similar spiked extrusion-teeth, less human and more fishy. I saw some fish and creature models today with great, random, jagged, gnashing teeth. Sorta what I want, though a bit more understated.

I think blinking will really help expressiveness, so I'll probably add a proper eyelid in a bit. I do think that the most expressiveness, though, would be gained from really overdoing the pronounciation and gesticulation, almost caricature-like. Nixon had this great way of getting all riled up and frothy at the mouth, and in leau of physical resemblence, that's all I got :P

[KrispyKringle]

OK, here's a preliminary of the animation. I haven't posted any progress reports in a while, so here's the deal: I redid the teeth and lips to make it easier to make him talk. I'm using only two blend shapes for the lips--jaw open/closed and lips flat/pursed--but it seems, while a bit minimalist, to be enough. I've got one for the tongue up/down, and one more for breathing. I'm currently rigging--a huge, huge pain, painting weights on something so amorphous--with the intent of allowing his head to shake about like Nixon's, have the bait thing wave around, etc. And then textures. So here's the preliminary.

http://radioactivechicken.org/images/anglerfish_prelim.mov

[Tahl'eN]

2 big things right off the bat. The first "crook" should look like the second "crook". He doesn't close his mouth enough. And the blend shape for closed mouth needs close at the corners of his mouth. Preferably well before the middle of his mouth closes.

Oh, and he needs to emphasize "earned" as well.

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