My First 3D Model :: Super Mario

[strick9]

Also, does anybody know how you post so that the image appears within the thread itself?

Thanks again!

[torbjorn]

Hey, Mario looks great so far, no worries here...!

Keep up the good work, keep pulling vertices aswell ;-)

[Neox]

he is looking like mario but mario is much smoother, not that boxy i guess :)

[strick9]

Thanks a bunch for the replies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was unsure whether or not I was heading in the right direction.

also, I wanted to ask, how important is it to eliminate all non-manifold geometry. sometimes when I try to correct areas by splitting more polygons the smooth version gets some visable artifacts in it?

Thanks agin for the feedback, It really helped me a lot.

[Carina]

Looking good!

Very good for a first model.

I can't help you with skinning, as i know next to nothing about it beyond my own feeble attempts...

The best way of creating eyes depends on what kind of realism you are looking to achieve.. for a "cartoon" character such as Mario I personally don't think there is much point to go through the whole creating a proper realistic eye business, I'd just use some kind of eye texture on a sphere.. After all, he is not meant to be photorealistic.

As to texturing, in my experience, when you smooth your character, it is possible your texture coordinates go slightly off... So if you've made a really intricate texture for the model, and then smooth it might not match completely. Again, there might be a million and one ways to do it that i'm not aware of, but I never texture my models until I've done the final adjustments.. kind of;)

Regarding geometry that shows artifacts when smoothing... I would say it's a good rule of thumb to avoid this from to start.. geometry that shows artifacts is generally geometry that is goign to cause you grief in the future.

Hope that is a bit of help, remember I'm not an expert;)

[strick9]

Carina,

Thanks a bunch for the answers!!!

It has helped a great deal, and I cannot wait to get home from work to continue working on mario!!

About the eyes, I think you are right, and I will create a texture in photoshop to use for it.

As for the rigging I am completely clueless, I have to read through my Maya documentation on this. My Maya knowledge up to this point is based off of Maya 4 Fundamentals ( Great book for Newbies by the way ) and a few online tutorials.

I am gonna try and post an update after the weekend. I hope to finish the head, get some eyebrows in there, as well as the hair in the back. Then move on to the body.

Thanks again for the response!

[KingMob]

hey I just rigged my first model, so if you need some help with theat Just ask and I would be happy to help with any info I have.

If you are doing sub-ds I know a trick so you can get better "playback" when animating.

umm as for texture, wait till each part of you model is done, and do plannar projections on the face, IE the front of the model, do plannar on "z" the back also then in the uv texture editor you can merge areas that need to be merged. It's a long process, but do NOT use automatic mapping, that takes forever to get a good texture map.

umm yeah good start :thumbsup:

[strick9]

Thanks Kingmob,

I am still a ways off from rigging, I am guessing that I should wait until the whole model is completed before rigging, correct?? or is it possible to rig as you go? I am so nervous when I think about this part of the process, I have a feeling I will have a tough time with it.

About sub-d's I basically am just using polygon modeling, Is there a way I can convert over to sub-d modeling at this point? what are some benefits to switching over???

To do planer projections of just the face, I would select all the poligonal faces on the front then do a planer projection of just those face correct?

As always Thanks again for the great feedback!

[KingMob]

K i am gonan answer these questions in the order in which they appeared...some people may have better answers tho


"I am still a ways off from rigging, I am guessing that I should wait until the whole model is completed before rigging, correct?? or is it possible to rig as you go? I am so nervous when I think about this part of the process, I have a feeling I will have a tough time with it."

Well you could rig as you go to insure proper deforming, but Really i usually wait till the end and do a test rig (ok so I have only rigged two characters so the word usually is not really appropriate ;) ) But honsetly just wait till your done, and then rig, if you do it as a test you just have to keep deleting the rig and unbinding, it would be sloppy.

"About sub-d's I basically am just using polygon modeling, Is there a way I can convert over to sub-d modeling at this point? what are some benefits to switching over???"

Looks like you were using sub-d's to me hehe. Looked smooth, but yeah just select you character and go to modify - polygon to sub-d taht should do it. I usually convert as I mdoel to see what areas look flat and undetailed. or to look for nonmanifold stuff.

"To do planer projections of just the face, I would select all the poligonal faces on the front then do a planer projection of just those face correct?"

yeah, thats right.

"As always Thanks again for the great feedback!"
no problem

anyways keep posting your status.

[Isrithe]

Hey man, its not too ugly looking. You are doing pretty good so far for your first real model. Faces are not the easiest things to model and you learn more as you go. So keep up the work man.

[strick9]

Hello Everyone.

Got a small update, with a wireframe, and a smoothed version.

I am very excited to start textureing this thing because I have never really textured anything other then Nurbs Sphere's and look foward to trying to learn as much as possible.

I was hoping to get some feedback before I move ahead. I think I am almost done the modeling process. I was hoping to see if there are any outstanding issues that need to be fixed before I move on.


I scaled his body down quite a bit to make him appaer a bit more squat-heavy from my last update. I also tweaked the nose sligtly to eliminate some of the boxiness.

Also any reccomendations on texturing this guy. Should I apply different materials to each section, like the hat, face, overalls, etc, and then unwrap each section, and paint some textures in Photoshop?

Thanks in advance for any comments!

Wireframe:

EDIT: had to remove to free up space on the old Ranchoweb account.

[jojoba007]

I think the first link to your mario image
is dead.

By the way, mario looks cool.

[strick9]

Thanks!

Yeah, That link is pretty old I am not even sure if I still have that original image.

I was wondering also if I should go ahead and create the waterpack he wears in Mario Sunshine. Is that something that could be added on later, or is it easier to do that at this stage?

[Renzsu]

I think you need to check the shape of his moustache.. I think it's a bit more pointy at the tips?

check him out here: http://www.supermariosunshine.com

[strick9]

You are sooo right!

I origionall tried that from the get go but he kept looking so mean, I am gonna give it another go because I think It's definetly hurting the likeness of his face.

Thanks for the response!

[mlabrams]

d00d seriously awsome, my first model attempt was mario lol, but i started with very simple objects, so when i get to his head i gave up lol

[oracle]

IT'S-A-MEE... MAAARIO! HE-HEEE.

http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~joshua.y/forumpic/mario.jpg

Looks great. I've always thought about modelling him, but was always too busy playing his game instead :D

Edit: added image

[strick9]

Hi everybody,


I have made quickie update here at work, I try to sneak some Maya time when we are slow :beer: Only drawback is my computer is just not made for 3D here, It does have dual monitors though :applause:

I kinda did this in a rush so some thing are not smoothed that shoulda been like the handle on the Fludd pack and stuff, and I threw some black paint on the mustache real quickly so it would show up better. I did some eyes, but unfortunatly I left the most recent version at home. I got a week off so I hope to make as much progress with the texturingg as possible. If you got any time please give some comments and suggestions. Thanks!!

I'll post the url:

Mario (http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/jay0117/mario_smaller.jpg)

[Carina]

Looking great!

Texture him!

:applause:

[megaflaizer]

when to rig/texture:

ahhh, youve hit upon a very good point.

now, im a max usere, but im sure the same appleis here.

sometimes you need more verts to deform/use as uvw points during rigging/texturing. at these times, its best to subd before . if not, subd after.

often, i apply skinning before subd, and texturing after subd. beacuse i need more uvw text points, but often i can model so mor eis not needed

[strick9]

Hello everyone,

I made a quick update to my mario model. Started texturing, been giving myself sort of a crash course in UV mapping the past 3 weeks, trying to absorb as much info as possible.......Man it's tough. I can't imagine how hard it must be on more complex models.

Do you guys usually organize you UV maps on one "sheet" then bring that into Photoshp and paint or do each section seperately like hands and face, etc?

I pretty much have been doing it seperatly and on it's own material, problem is It's starting to slow my machine down quite a a LOT, almost unworkable with the textures on. It's not too much of a prob I can just work in wireframe, or smooth shade. I am just curious if this is normal.

Anyways take a look and let me know if I am heading in the right direction, everything below the face is kinda placeholder for now. so the tones are off. Also didn't have time to texture any of the water pack yet, and so sorry for the funky shadows.

http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/jay0117/texture.jpg

[BiTMAP]

I like it :) my first 2d work in coral was a cellshaded mario :) I should prolly try making him as a model :)

[strick9]

Hi everybody,

I was hoping to get some feedback before I start finally prepping Mario for animation tonight. Is there anything you see on him that needs some tweaking before I start rigging?

Thanks in advance!!




http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/jay0117/mario_fludd_tex.jpg

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Just a note that how you light your models is very important. It's hard to get any idea of the quality of the modeling when you just have one spotlight. Many of the details and contours are hidden in darkness.

Do a search for three-point lighting. Or heck, even using a "skylight" would give a better idea of the modeling.

Wireframes don't hurt either...

[BiTMAP]

his knuckles look weird.

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Well, the hands are totally flat. Take a look at your hands at rest, even when all your fingers lay flat there's still a lot of depth to them.

[ai_jai]

love him so far!!!!! good job!!!!:applause:

dont suppose u cud post a couple of wireframes up? :hmm: :thumbsup

p.s. how long's he taken to model so far??

:bounce: we want more! we want more! :bounce:

[strick9]

Woah Cool!

I checked my bookmark and noticed a few replies.

Wigaru: Thanks for the feedback on the lights. I know I haven't updated in a long while, but I recently downloaded a Mel Script for Maya called Pyramid Render I beleive It Fakes the GI and gives a much better view. I've been using that for all my test renders since.

I agree about the shape of the hands and the fingers.

BitMap: The knuckles look strange, but It might be those knob-like things on the top of the hands. Perhaps I should have made them more subtle. Mainly being my first 3D project I was just using this as a learning experience. Down the road after maybe a year I wanto do Luigi to see how much progress I made. :)

ai_jai Thanks for the feedback. I did have wireframees up on the first page but they are now gone due to ranchoweb no longer being free. I just bought some web space so as soon as I figure out how to put stuff up in a directory, I'll post some of the wireframes, and the animation avi's. This model took a while because I had no Maya or 3D experience outside of a few web tutorials. Each time I moved from one section to the next ( modeling, rigging, texture ) I had to learn it as I go. which also meant re-doing things over and over again. I would say the whole process of learning and doing took about 2 months.

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Skylighting would be an improvement, but no substitute for proper three-point lighting.

[Izu]

where´s Luigi ?....got sucked down one of em pipes again....damn that bowser..always trying to mess with the brothers....:shame:

[kvernon]

WOW!! Mario Looks great! :buttrock:

How much time did it take to get him modeled? The only odd thing I can say is look at mario on the packaging, in the game. He's got these almost balloon like hands, Yours has this started by looks flat on the sides. I do wanna see you animating him ~ hell now I've got that super mario theme song running in my mind! :shrug:

[strick9]

kvernon.

Thanks for the response. This model took pretty long. It was my first attempt at modeling pretty much anything in 3D. So I had to keep restarting over and over again. I was also doing the training movies on Maya 4.0 Fundamentals at the same time so I was going back and forth. Prob took me 2 months with all the set backs.

oh yeah, I do agree about the hands. I do have some anim for him I did in Motion Builder, but am waiting to get my website up before I upload them.

Thanks again for the response! :)

[cgwolf]

Nice progress, I would fill his cheeks out a bit more but overall not bad

[Sylfurd]

Wow! Looks great!! But i think there's a problem with the face... Maybe the nose is to big too... There's something wrong with the eyes too, but maybe it's because of the non-expression...
But it may be this curve between the eyes:
http://www.chez.com/sylfurd/MarioCurve.htm
But i'm an expert of Mario Bros :cool: It's only details! The overall model is really Great!!

[Sylfurd]

I think you should add the bumps of the cheeks under the eyes too :)

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