is this better then?

[Joat]

A very good method of building a mesh. Just make more cuts to make it more accurate and move the vertices to the right places after cutting. A tip for you; if you make a cut for example around the nose and want to make the top side of the nose narrower than the bottom side, select the two top vertices and scale them. That way you can shape your model keeping it symmetrical at the same time.
Hope you got what I meant.
Anyway, a much more workable start than the previous mesh(/s) you had. Keep it up!

[Blikkie]

At least it is all quads for now, so that is an advantage. Still there is a lot that can be improved. Design only half and make the other half a mirrored instance, follow some tutorials and learn where you'd need the basic edgeloops and practice till your mouse is bloody. Your current model is way too basic to give really useful criticism.

[Hunkadoodledoo]

I suppose I can't talk - I constantly seek validation after making a significant change - but I will at least say that it is going in a better direction than what you had before. Just one thing, I remember reading two other posts about your dragon. When I searched for all posts started by you, there were seven concerning the dragon. Why didn't you just post your questions in the same thread? I say this to protect you, 'cause the forum policies (http://forums.cgsociety.org/faq.php?faq=cgtalk_faq#faq_cgtalk_postgone) state that any post/thread may be removed if you start "a thread topic that already exists." Keep this in mind in the future. Keep working on the model. Always keep practicing, learning, and improving. Don't give up. Okay, back to work.

[FreakyDude]

yes this is a much better start. now carefully refine it without throwing in loop after loop.
This time you got it right.

Tip, Somewhere along the line you may want to mirror it. I'll assume the pivot point is in the center, So what I'd do is create a an edgeloop in the center of the head (center of the nose) then delete the other half and apply mirror.

[Grunk]

I'm new to this Blending lark, and i find "organic" subjects the most daunting so kudos for trying somthing like a dragon!

I think the shape of the head is a little off though... what you have looks like a duck as the head seems 'tall'(like a duck) where most reptilian dragons heads are 'long' (like a crocodile)...

I would take other peoples advice and keep your posts in context(and the same thread)... Being new here I read the opening post and was totaly clueless as to what it was about until others started talking about your other posts and it started to make sense.

If your new to blender or 3d work in general (like myself) I would suggest working on the background rather than the Dragon first. I found that making (simple)backgrounds was reasonably fast and upped my confidence and understanding of the tools rather than trying to struggle with the main subject of my scene.

As some one who's pretty much taught himself all he knows (i'm not a school/college/uni kinda person) I can say that a good way to get into anything is to make your first project easy and fast... But make it WOW you enough that it boosts your confidence and intrest immediately..
If its too hard you wont follow it through.
If its too long it will drag and you may not finish it or may not think the end result justified the effort.
If its not WOW enough you may be left feeling empty by the whole experiance.

For me, personaly, making a dragon right now would take me a looooong time, a LOT of effort and I would bet (big money) that whatever I made would not satisfy my expectations (based on my n00bness).

For example(s):

When I wanted to learn to program, "Hello World" was fast & easy but not "WOW" enough... so i made a little variation so it accepted input and gave a responce... WOW the computer was talking to me just like in War Games!!! (well not just like it had set responses, to a very limited input ;) )

When I wanted to learn astronomy I poited some binoculars at Jupiter, fast & easy I just printed out a start chart for its position that night and looked up through some binoculars... And I could make out 4 or 5 Jovian moons... it was breath taking for a begginer! I could see moons orbiting a planet hundreds of thousands of miles away.

When I wanted to learn Blender I stated out with this easy tutorial (http://www.blendernation.com/tutorials/blender-3d-beginner-tutorial-a-high-tech-corridor/) and tweeked it (ripped it off) to make a scene of my own.
Its not finished yet, it needs textures and the mian subject (a robot appearing from the mist at the end of the corridoor) is missing.... But I started out on the easy stuff got quick results (thats about an afternoon of work for a newbie) and my confindence is boosted through the roof because i have actualy made somthing that looks like what it should.

Here is my first blender image(WIP) (http://www.monkeycmonkeydo.co.uk/Stage4/quickpic.jpg)

Now the robot and learning to texture will probably take me 2 weeks or more but I have a base that was fast, easy, wowed me and increased my knowledge of Blender.

So my suggestion for your dragon project would be to pick somthing else you also want in the scene, something easier... and get that done. So you can proudly say "Look what i made", impress yourself and your friends and get the confidence and knowlegde to move onto bigger better things.

I hope this doesnt come across as condescending, its just my oppinion based on how daunting i would find a project like a dragon and how I may aproach it (at my current level of experiance).

[thondal]

Okey, thnx for the comments.. maybe i will start on something easier and get back to the dragon a bit later. thnx


-thondal-

[FreakyDude]

just continu with this if you want to. You're on the right track now. Don't let some replies stop you. you've messed up twice with your previous versions of the dragon. if you set up your viewport correctly with the background images you can get this to work out faster than you'd think.
Getting started is always the hardest bit.

[thondal]

I'm new to this Blending lark, and i find "organic" subjects the most daunting so kudos for trying somthing like a dragon!

I think the shape of the head is a little off though... what you have looks like a duck as the head seems 'tall'(like a duck) where most reptilian dragons heads are 'long' (like a crocodile)...

I would take other peoples advice and keep your posts in context(and the same thread)... Being new here I read the opening post and was totaly clueless as to what it was about until others started talking about your other posts and it started to make sense.


okey.. first... it isn't a realistic dragon it is a cartoonish dragon, and it is just that i want to make a model and then animate it later on and texture it and stuff, and i love dragons, and i know i won't stop when i have allready started a dragon.. so that answers your duck and the first comment there... and then i have now continued this thread and trying to learn from my mistakes.. here's the update.. how is it coming?

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/thondal/howaboutnow.jpg

-thondal-

[FreakyDude]

much much better. it's still boxy but your approach is waaay better than before. you have a vertex in the lowest area of the neck though that overlaps a face. you may want to pull the neck forward a bit or adjust the vertex so you don't have these overlapping areas.

[cara-rj]

You should remove de faces and edges from the center. The mirror will look much better.

The head looks a little rounded and the nose could be a little longer.

[thondal]

okey thnx.. been working on the neck and the some other stuff.. yeah, figured out that removing the faces and vertexces in the middle made the mirror better;) but thnx anyway... and i shal try to do something about the nose.. i'll see what i can do... from now on i will update only in my draon wip, so, look there if anyone cares:P

i'll be doing a bit more work on the mesh itself then i'll do some uv mapping and texturing... maybe try some bump map or something... i havent tried that yet, so i'll guess that may take some time... :P

thnx for all the help for now;)

-thondal-

[TroutMaskReplica]

the edge loops should flow around the mouth like this.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/TroutMask/edgeLoop.jpg

this is the kind of shape you should build up your form from.

so, to summarize:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/TroutMask/edgeLoop2.jpg

[thondal]

just a quick question.. i have uv mapped the mesh and got some ok colouring for now... but then i did the eye, and managed to make that okey too, but when i render f12 only the colour on the mesh appears... the eye is still standard grey..... what have i forgotten to do?
here is what i see.... keep in mind i'm just test rendering so the colours look awful :P

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/thondal/problem.jpg


does it have anything to do with that i applied the uv mapping on another layer?

[BeBraw]

Hey Thondal.
Have you pressed the TexFace button in the Material Buttons?

[thondal]

what button is that :P

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/thondal/what.jpg


-thondal-

[FreakyDude]

Different subpanel, there are five buttons at the top, you're in edit mode. try another one.

[thondal]

oh... found it.... sorry.. i should have looked more carefully;)

thnx

-thondal-

[thondal]

because i suck and really are bugging people i thought it best not to create another thread... just hopes someone sees this.... okey.. here's the thing.. i wanna animate something.. and i've looked.. i really have this time and tried.. but i can't find a tutorial that works.. found one with ika tutorial but that is gone (couldn't find it in 2.41..) and i found this one http://people.mech.kuleuven.be/~bruyninc/hb46/blender/chapter_robotanimation.html#robot_simulation
that was good explained... until i tried to move the bones and stuff and the bones turned the right colour i was in pose mode and thank you, the mesh didn't moove... any suggestion... if someone where to write it to me how to do it i would be thankfull...

-thondal-

[FreakyDude]

In the beginning you weren't even trying, or asking double questions, it was a little annoying but no more than that.
Now you're actually trying much harder and searching better to find your answers. When you started and wanted to rig you wouldn't bother to search after the rig article you gave, you'd just ask: "I want this rigged. what should I do?"

You're not bugging people. If this is still about the dragon, then it's still in the right thread as well.

[thondal]

lol.. okey, thanks.... but still... my rigging problem continues... i actually managed to do something about it.. i rigged it with some armetures and bones, but the problem is (i was trying this with just a simple quick box model to see if i got it "right") when move the bones (don't really know if im moving them right either) the body deforms like the arm moves.... some of it at least and som part of the arm that i don't want to move does too... like a part of the "shoulder" am i using too little bones and stuff or just doing it completely wrong?
here is what i see (just did this quick... but hey, the problem is the same.. :P)
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/thondal/doh.jpg


-thondal-

[thondal]

no not anyone? any help at all?

-thondal-

[TroutMaskReplica]

check your weightmaps/vertex groups. that's where your problem lies. it's quite clearly explained in the manual. not surprisingly, it's in the chapter on armature skinning.

i'm too lazy to post a link this time. you probably won't bother looking at it anyway.

[thondal]

no need to be harsh ;) sorry if i havent looked up your references in the past, but I have tried to look at them now.. but any how... i'm nearly done with the dragon modeling... hopefully within the weekend and then i'll do some bump mapping and uv texturing... just a quick question if you have mirrored your object and is trying to animate it with armeture, then will there not be a problem when trying to move the head sideways? at least that's what i get... guess i have to mirror copy it instead if i'm going to animate it sometime...

anyhow... please check out my dragon now (link further down)

-thondal-

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.