Beast of Burden - Character/contraption - blakboks

[blakboks]

A second view

[blakboks]

Ok, some things I forgot to mention. I've only had about 3-4 hours total working time on this...so it's obviously very primitive. And that I've only just started on the horses, no carriage yet. I'm sure some of you will ask: 3DSMax 4.0 on an IBM Thinkpad 600E (notebook) PII (with MMX!!!) 128 MB RAM, no OGL support on the 4 MB 'no-name' graphics card, and with 16-bit color LCD screen.

Well, that's all I can remember now, i'm sure i've forgotten something else I wanted to say...

[blakboks]

A small update for anyone who happens across my little thread. Soon, i'll start making the armor/harness for the horse so some actual design skills might start showing through. (i'll admit, a horse isn't exactly the most unique thing done in CG:p )

And, please, if you do happen to come across this thread...just leave any sort of feedback.

[ZrO-1]

Cool idea with the 'dracula's carriage' idea. The horse looks good so far, all the proportions look right. nice start. :thumbsup:

[blakboks]

Ok, here's a lowres brazil test render i did. Just downloaded it recently, and liking it a lot. Once again, another small update.

Maybe you all can help me out a bit with my dilemma. I find myself working quite slow on this stuff, particularly on the armor (especially in comparison to other people on the site). I have done sketches and such for it, however, i don't really find them very useful, since my drawings aren't in proportion due to a lack of real skill. I guess what I'm asking is...is there a particularly good way that anyone has found to "breed" creativity? I know a lot of people are just born with it, but I also believe that you can expand on it some, too. (I'd rather not do drugs...too expensive, and all the other mess that comes with it) Or are there any time-saving tips that anyone can give me?

Thanks in advance.

[erilaz]

Your horse is very good!
A couple of crits I would give at this stage is that for a horse pulling dracula's carriage, it looks a little happy! It also looks a little well fed. You might want to scrawny it up a little. Neck might be a bit long too, but that might just be the angle you rendered it on.

In terms of speed/creativity, what the heck are you talking about? You are flying along! You've obviously got some skill, by the proportions and cleanliness of your model, so don't worry about that area. Just keep working at it and you'll do fine.:D

I suppose my main time-saving tip is: If you're using max (which you seem to be), get meshtools! You may already be using this though. It's almost a pity that max 5 seems to have these tools built in now.

[blakboks]

Hey, thanks for the crits. Well, i had meshtools all along, and at first I though it just didn't work, because the same error kept popping up whenever I tried to use one of the tools, but all it turned out to be was that I had it installed improperly. I was a little concerned about him looking happy after i took a couple more looks at those pictures there, but I think it's mostly in the lips...still gotta make that look good. I haven't really spent a whole lot of time on the head itself...I'll go back and add in details once i know what's going to be covered up and whatnot.

I did make his ribs show through quite a bit more, and lessened his 'gut'. I still have to go through and make his muscles more knotted and gnarly. I'm still a little up in the air about what to do about his armor, but what i have there is a start anyway. Still no carriage yet, it's currently being redesigned after watching Cappola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (a whole other argument could be made on whose Dracula it really is but that can be done somewhere else).

Well, I'm gonna be leaving for SIGGRAPH very early Saturday morning (student volunteer--if anyone's hiring:D ). So I may not have an update for a week or so.

'till then

[blakboks]

And another Brazil render (I sure do like that renderer).

[ZrO-1]

Your modeling is looking good. As far as getting faster, it's really just a matter of becoming really used to the tools. Eventually you will get to the point whee you know just what type of surface and tool set you should use for different items before you even open up the app.

As far as increasing your creativity, I'd say this: Look at every type of art you can. And don't just look at it, try to understand why something is the way it is. If something is made by man there is a reason for it's being there. Take nothing for granted.

[TylerHunter]

I like that A lot.. I would love to see it all finished and armored up.

When you get it ready work us up a render with some nice lighting

[rizob]

hey man your dionn great, just keep tweekin vetrs, edges, polys till its lokks perfect, as far as creativity, as zer0 said look at alot of art but also do it all the time. i beilive anyone can do it, the only way to learn right is to sit down and do it untill it looks good.
like cild "prodegies" that play the violin at the age of 3, they only know how to play because they have had a violyn in their hands at the age of four peacccccc.

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