HMC #16 Alien Queen

[Locusta]

Quick update of the nearly finished crown and the started head. Teeth are in progress.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Queenhead03.jpg

[RumorHazard]

The model is comming along realy nicely, could we see a wireframe of the gead so far.

Keep the progress comming, LOOKING WICKED

[Thyme]

Excellent start! I am definitely looking forward to seeing this in full glory! I second the wireframe request!

[WyattHarris]

There is a big crease right in the middle of the crown.

Looking very clean and sharp, I'm glad someone is tackling the big queen. I love all of those shots of the big menacing Queen in the model shop. :D Changes the perspective a bit.

[Locusta]

Thanks alot guys!! I´m happy that you await the arrival of her majesty :bowdown: LOL

RumorHazard and Thyme: Yes, no prob. Wires come here, and thank you ;)

WyattHarris: Yes, the crease. It was meant to be there. A few pictures and modelkits have a segment there. The Sideshow bust, which shall be a cast of the 1/4 puppet has not. http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=2905 so I left it by now. Thanks again.

Here the next row of pix:

Worked on head and mouth, as well as the teeth. A few changes on the crown where made too. Enjoy!

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Queenhead04.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Queenhead05.jpg

Detail for the dentist ;)

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Queenhead06.jpg

And some wires:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Head_1408_mesh04.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Head_1408_mesh01.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Head_1408_mesh03.jpg

And now I go to sleep ZZZZZZZ.....

Cheers :beer:

Markus

[Tasp]

Hey Locusta- This is looking amazing so far, the teeth are great and I'm looking forward to seeing the secondary mouth when you get around to it.

I've just one very very minor point of crit from looking at the reference you are using. At the inferior portion of the crest where there is that little jut near the jaw, in the reference to the bust it terminates right over the intersection of the jaw tendons. So maybe move that forward just a bit. Very nit picky but this looks like it's going to be one awesome queen. The crest looks nearly perfect.

Oh and are you going to attempt the entirety of her majesty or just a bust? Either way look forward to seeing it!

[Deepam]

I like this character very much, this was my second choice for this challenge.

Your progress is going smooth and fine, this is looking perfect to me.

I don't know you have seen this pic or not, but think that this is a 3d version of queen alien, here is the link to that image -
http://sunflow.sourceforge.net/gallery/v0071/queen.png


Can't wait to see it finished !! :D

[ChewyPixels]

Super job, I like it! The Alien Queen is one of my favorite cinema creatures. Looks like you are doing her justice. Keep it up!

[WyattHarris]

Oh yeah man, you are doing her serious justice. :thumbsup:

The mouth looks amazing and I love the fleshy details in her jaw.

[Antropus]

Man, this is one of my favorites so far. Great job. I'll wait to make some comments because seems like you know what you're doing ;)

Cheers,
-Kris

[Locusta]

Many, many thanks to all of you. You really encourage me.

Sorry, no pictures now. Had a bussy weekend. But I will hopefully progress until tomorrow night.

Then I will answer the asked questions too, ok?

Thanks again and stay tuned!

Cheers

Markus

[nmcelmury]

This is looking spectacular, you really have great control over your mesh and poly's, keep up the great work, I'll be following this for sure!

[matsman]

Oh my those wires look sweet!

I have to look out that i won't drool like the aliens do :drool:

looking forward to more and learning from what you are doing!

Cheers!

[McGreed]

Looks real great, especially since you still only got a lowpoly model and not been working in ZBrush with it yet.

Btw, anyone know how much the Alien Queen design has changed from Aliens and Alien 4?

[lightcache]

that's looking great. really nice clean mesh. keep it up!

[Nomad]

Exellent work so far, wish I could have so much control on my polygons :argh:

Good luck in the next steps :buttrock:

[Trenox]

Great choice of subject! it would definitely also have been my first pic if i had participated in this round..

Good progress so far :) looking forward to more.

[Locusta]

Sooooo, finally I got a bit time and tweaked and pushed my wire ;) and I have to show a bit more. OMG!! Time is running! Somebody has to step in my bu**

OK, no time for despair.

I try no to catch up with everybody, ok?

But first: Thank you all for your very, very encouraging and cooperative comments and compliments. THANX!

@ Tasp: Yes, you are so right. I will tweak the crown part in the area of the head anyway that it is more suitable for animating. Actually all the front part of the Crown is moving, better said bending and twisting a bit with every headmove of the queen. So the appearance of that part you mentioned varys.

@ Deepam: Thank you! Yes, I saw that queen model already. It´s a while back. But the modeler was taking the McFarlane action figure Queen as reference. A great figure, but not that movie accurate. But anyway, the modeling of that 3D is great!

@ Jedi-Juice: Many thanks, and I will try not to disapoint a big "Queen" fan ;)

@ WyattHarris: YES!! The pleasures of the flesh. LOL! Look down and you see even more fleshy mouthparts.....Thanks man!

@ Antropus: Thank you very much. I flush now ;) Very nice and cheering!!

@ nmcelmury: Yes, yes...the mesh! I guess I´m just a bit old fashioned in my workstyle. I know that I could go even more earlier into Zbrush and tweak an push to get my sculpt and than come back and retopo. But I have more control in XSI over my polys. And to be honest, I´m sometimes too lazy to retopo everything over a high poly. LOL. Yeah, great excuse! But I can sleep better (sometimes I do it...), when I know that the wire is at least controllable, clean and at a decent polycount before I push the subdivisions in Zbrush. Thank you!

@ matsman: Many thanks. I hope, I´m able to give you some inspirations.

@ McGreed: You are right. It´s all still 100% XSI. The renderings are taken at two steps of mesh smooth (aka 2 Subd´s). Regarding your question about the Queen: There was only a slight change between the Aliens and the Alien Res Queen. First of all the color (from bluish to brownish) and secondly the mouthpart was altered in reducing the transparant musclestrings on the mouth. They used anyway the same head and crown as well as the upper bodypart ot the "Aliens" fullsize Queen. The biggest change was made for AVP. New crown, new facial muscles, totally new torso, renewed arms, new hands. Only legs and tail where the old ones. But as the AVP Queen is not a Stan Winston creation, it has no place here....but wait when I have a bit free time in future ;)

@ lightcache: Thanks to you and I hope I can keep it clean.

@ Nomad: Polys I command you!! LOL! Thanks man.

@ Trenox: Thank you. Stay tuned.


Now a update:

I actually reworked alot of the head (nearly 80 %) even if it´s not that recognizable. I figured out while closing the mouth, that the loops are not sooo well flowing for a decent lip and jawmuscle animation. Beside that I had to reorganize and a bit remodel the gum and the teeth, that they not collide and fit together when the mouth is closed. A closer look at the movie and a few ref pix, made me tweak the head proportions overall a bit.

And of course, I made the in-famous inner mouth. UUUUaaargh!!!

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Newheadclosed_mouth02.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/newheadclosed_moutth_wire02.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Newheadclosed_mouth03.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/newheadopen_mouth03.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/newheadopen_mouth001.jpg

[Locusta]

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/newheadopen_mouth02.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/newheadopen_mouth01.jpg

Enjoy and stay tuned and thumbs up to everyone else!!

Cheers

Markus

[DaezD]

absolutely incredible modelling so far...can't wait to see this one finished

[speakerwizard]

WOW, is this still all from modeling ? or have you started with a sculpter (x-brush)? I really like it.

[Locusta]

Thank´s allot DaezD and speakerwizard.

@ speakerwizard: Everything you see here is 100% box- and edgeloopmodeling out of XSI. No Highpolymodeling by now.

[oliveira]

amazing work! looks perfect to me!!

Alex Oliver

[WyattHarris]

Everything moves and interacts great. So with all of this homework ahead of time are you planning for animation, cause that would be freakin' awesome you know. :D

Looking great Locusta

[oneandonlyDiscoStu]

:buttrock: are u planing on using Xsi as your high res modeling software? :D this is fantastic work so far

[Locusta]

Thank you Alex Oliver, I highly appreciate that.

Wyatt, thank you very much. Yes, yes, the homework. AAArrrgh!! And time is running. Ah, speaking of running. Yeah, I wanna animate her. And yes, I´m totally out of my mind. ROFL. Time will tell and we will see how far I get with her. Cross your fingers, would you? ;)

@ oneandonlyDiscoStu: (great name btw) I use XSI for all the overall polymodeling in the meaning of low-poly or midi poly range (one subd). I have than a fine mesh witch I UV layout. Than I put it into Zbrush. I will give the mesh all the levels of accuracy and fine tuning of the major sculpt and bake the normals and the displacement out with Zmapper. As I already have my UV´s, I will start to paint the textures via Polypaint within Zbrush and have than a decent texturemap that´s easily to be refined in Photoshop. That all I bring back into XSI, rigg the beauty and pose her and render.....and than I drop down dead, cause all this sounds like I have still 2 month time. LOL

Ok, I guess I have to sleep a bit. All the modeling and no play make Markus a dull boy....

But at least I have now a plan what I have to do. Not bad, isn´t it?

And now a quick, little, tinny update.

I completed the crown with the lower side.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/crown_downside03.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/crown_downside04.jpg

More soooon......

Good night.

:beer: (I need now one)

Markus

[Itsgallus]

Wow.... !!!
Great modelling dude.....Excellent....

keep it up...man....
//cheers

[RumorHazard]

WOW! looking really good, keep the updates comming! cant wait to see more, the head is modeled superbly.

[southparx]

hi there Markus,

if u plan to bring it over to zb anyway, you could get away with making the ridges in zb and let it show in normal map...might save you some polycount..

very nice clean subd modeling btw :)


all the best,
andrew

[Locusta]

Thank you guys for your comments. I will hold on, promised!

Andrew, you are so right. Of course I could add all ridges and rib-like structures in Zb. But as I started as edgeloop model, I try to catch all the major forms already in XSI. Anyway I will bumb and displace finer details in Rendermode but I just wanna reduce my retopo as much as possible. When you say now, this is very old-school way of modeling, I say: Yes! :)

But in my case, I just could not be that movie accurate using Zbrush in that stage. I´m very used to push and pull polys in XSI (couldn´t do it in Max or Maya to be honsest).

I´m curious by myself, what that one will turn out. Believe me ;)

So, I found a bit time again and started with the torso.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/busttest07.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/busttest05.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/busttest03.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/busttest06.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/busttest01.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/busttest02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/busttest04.jpg

Thanks for watching.

Cheers

Markus

[TimCallaway]

fantastic modeling I must say =]

[ConceptStingray]

As I can see your model is going to be a masterpiece when u finnish it.

Was you thinking in what pose u'll made a beauty-final still?maybe prisoned whit those chains all over his body parts...it would be kickass.But its not my business anyway...Are you gonna texture this queen?


Paulius

[JockRambone]

Wow, signed up to post in this HMC, some of the entries are fantastic! this one especially, can't wait to see how the legs come out. Great stuff.

[vizard2605]

Hey i joined CGsociety just to look at the hulk on this but then i found out that there are challenges! but bk mon topic, are you thinking about making a complete scene with your queen?

[MartinNielsen]

Well, this poster here is one BIIIG Alien fan! I love the queen, so please finish this one :)

[RumorHazard]

WOW! man, that is looking awesome! keep up the wicked work :D

[Locusta]

So, weekend gone and another tinny little update.

But first, thanks again to all the nice words and comments. You push me on, and that is very, very good. Thanks!!

@ Stringas2000, many thanks. Yes, I wanna texture her. Another reason, why I still stick to XSI, to have a UV layout of my original mesh in Zbrush.

I haven´t decided by now, what pose in the final render she will do. First of all, I have to finish her. Cross your fingers for that, please ;) But as you mentioned the chains, I guess you refered to AVP. While the AVP Queen is different to the "Aliens" Queen and was made by ADI and not Stan Winston company, I prefer to stick to the original one. This would mean, either the interiour of the atmosphere station heat exchanger level or the hanger deck of the Sulaco would be appropriate. Yeah! What am I talking of. Finish her first!! LOL.

Maybe she just get´s a simble base, like a floor piece of the Sulaco e.g.

Thanks JockRambone and nice to have you here. Yes, the legs will be the next step. :)

@ vizard2605, thank you very much and great you found this forum. Have a nice time here and show your stuff if you want. About your Alien model, just PM me, ok? Thanks allot!

@ MartinNielsen. Many thanks. Yes, I LOVE HER!! Stay tuned!

@ RumorHazard Thanks to you. I hope I get her even more wicked in the next stages of detail.

So, here a bit of weekend work. Refined and continued the torso and started to block out the arms.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/torso80_01.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/torso80_02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/torso80_03.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/torso80_wire_01.jpg

More soon.

So long.

Markus

[Azereus]

Is this a sub-div mesh?

[Locusta]

Is this a sub-div mesh?

No, only 2steps of quick smooth in XSI over the lowpoly.

[WyattHarris]

Looking really good Locusta. The body is matching the head in quality.

[vizard2605]

Post Removed

[Locusta]

hey guys here are some screen grabs of the alien fighter.
It is also a wip Done in 3ds max 2009
enjoy.
Click on thumbnails for larger image. ;P
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/5f9524e28e4625d2c3cfd13a6cc9da652g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=dtevxghmm9g&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/0926e3cd7f0065e1a84b08cb106828082g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=yxp0edx4lnc&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/18e0052ec28e828c407d85b1e3064f202g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=5limgjnnbbv&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/b7f82b9071c5cadaa9e1c0a35049d8412g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=nyn4ydnb10v&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/46f3eb4edc4e9c82037128df70a5c55f2g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=fnyynpabj0w&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1106ff4a88ab80b3b4e2a74109d5f3d32g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=2d22exzxlni&thumb=5)

Polys: 754,284
Verts: 378,540
File types:*.max, *.obj, *.fbx
PM me if your interested. ;P
file:///C:/Users/Adi/Desktop/Alien%20ScreenGrab.jpgfile:///C:/Users/Adi/Desktop/Alien%20ScreenGrab.jpg


BIG PROBLEM!

Vizard2605, can you please explain me, why the Alien model which you claim is made by yourself, looks exactly like the "Alien Drone" model from Franz Münz from Germany. LINK: http://www.scifi3d.com/details.asp?intGenreID=19&intCatID=44&key=593

I know this one since 2005 and rememberd it instantly. I have a screen of the Franz Münz Model here and it shall proof all

REMIND EVERYBODY!! This Alien Drone is not done by me and has nothing to do with this thread or the challange. Copyright has Franz Münz, franz.muenz@fh-landshut.de

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Franz_Muenz_Alien.jpg

Vizard, please don´t try to claim other peoples work as own!!! And don´t offer them here as well!!

Good bye!

[vizard2605]

I don't mind that it's some one else's model. I had no intension of selling it. I was going to include the files that were included with the original download. I understand that I is wrong to cliam that I made it but you can understand that i have not completely kept to the file to what Franz Münz sent, I have added to it. As you can see from the legs and some work with the body. But since a wrong is a wrong. I will adjust the above post accordingly.

[headfirst]

It's a bit rude to post your own images in someone elses thread. I would adjust your message to not show anything. I hope you have learned a lesson, and wont repeat this again.

Now as for your alien queen, I love the head. I think its great, the modeling is great. I think the body is ketching up to the head, Ill wait to see how the rest turns out. Its looking very promising.

-Ray

[Itsgallus]

Locusta: Man..... as I said before , the Alien Queen ..is absoluty AWESOME....

one of the best models, so far.... in this Contest , can'wait to see more of it.... Keep going man... do you intend to make the Queen , in chains , like the 'Alien Vs Predador' movie??

/Cheers....

[StevenEgan]

Really, Really amazing stuff! I love how much detail your getting out of it without going into ZB, and not going crazy with the poly count... Impressive!
I can't wait to see the final image.

[Antropus]

Looking better and better. Now, can you guys please report vizard2605's posts as bad posts (use the "!" triangle under his avatar). Very rude and pointless posts that are helping this thread in nothing. Besides, he was posting as the work posted was his work...

-Kris

[Tasp]

Locusta- WOW that second mouth looks great, she's looking damn spooky and making me want to keep a flamethrower handy while looking at this thread.

As for the time left on the challenge (you mentioned it earlier) you've got sometime left yet, keep working on it and I'm sure you'll make the deadline, regardless of that this model will be an awesome piece of work if you finish in time for the challenge or not.

[BSaetre]

hey guys here are some screen grabs of the alien fighter.
It is also a wip Done in 3ds max 2009
enjoy.
Click on thumbnails for larger image. ;P
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/5f9524e28e4625d2c3cfd13a6cc9da652g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=dtevxghmm9g&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/0926e3cd7f0065e1a84b08cb106828082g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=yxp0edx4lnc&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/18e0052ec28e828c407d85b1e3064f202g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=5limgjnnbbv&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/b7f82b9071c5cadaa9e1c0a35049d8412g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=nyn4ydnb10v&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/46f3eb4edc4e9c82037128df70a5c55f2g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=fnyynpabj0w&thumb=5)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1106ff4a88ab80b3b4e2a74109d5f3d32g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=2d22exzxlni&thumb=5)

Polys: 754,284
Verts: 378,540
File types:*.max, *.obj, *.fbx
PM me if your interested. ;P

You can even see in the heading of your 3D Studio Max window that you havent even saved your scene. You have just imported the model and than hit "print screen".

[lightcache]

what a strange thing to do, I mean hijack someones thread with work that isnt even yours but claiming it to be lol!

anyway.. extraordinary model sofar. wish I had the forsight to place my poly's in such great topology as you have.
great work :)

[RobertoOrtiz]

what a strange thing to do, I mean hijack someones thread with work that isnt even yours but claiming it to be lol!


And that is not even remotely kosher...
Drop me a pm if this happens again.
-R

[Azereus]

I just realised that the alien queen has no NECK :P hahahahaha...
I dont know you guys but im amazed with the body... i mean i love the detail on it.

[oneandonlyDiscoStu]

lol what a lowlife that guy is posting unsaved not self done work! harharhar

why is he aint banned yet?

As for the main reason of this thread :
GOGOGOGOOOO finiiiiishhh :wip: gj keep up the great work

[oneandonlyDiscoStu]

back to topic ^^

[Locusta]

Many, many thanks to all of you for pushing me on and your nice comments! I appreciate that a lot.

Thanks to come back to the main topic.

Stay tuned, I will post pix later in the night.

Cheers

Markus

[TimCallaway]

You know, this is a good thread. A very talented person showing us his work. Let's stop talking about whatever dude did, and get back on track :hmm:

[lightcache]

agreed.
can't wait to see more! :)

[Locusta]

Hey guys, me back again. Yes, yes. Slowly but steady proceeding. ;)

First thanks again to all of you. :thumbsup:

Yeah, to the question about the polycount. Even when it doesn´t look like it, but it is still very good to oversee. As you maybe allready noticed, I work on serveral files for the bodyparts and only bring them for renderings and for adjusting the proportions together in a stage. I mostly work like that, especially in case of such a complex character like her highness, the Queen ;) That´s why still the neck is not completed. I have to build the throat part still. Anyway I will keep all parts separated even in Zbrush. The Subtool function is a blessing from the heavens! Makes the polycount and the detail work much easier to handle. Put I guess I´m not the only one, who appreciates that.

I still have not decided, how to present her in the end, but it will definitely not be a chained Queen a´la AVP. That was not the Stan Winston Queen. Hey, but who knows what happens in future. Maybe after this challenge I can´t do anything else as Alien Queens. LOL!

Again, thanks to you and come back soon. I hope I do too :D

Update: refined arms and started the hands (with manicure), finished the torso with spines, hips and abdomen and the infamous tail (were is Bishop?)

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/bodywithtail02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/bodywithtail04.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/bodywithtail01.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/bodywithtail05.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/bodywithtail03.jpg

C U Soooooooooon!

Cheers

Markus

[Deracus]

i don´t want to question your workflow in any way...but if you´re using XSI to model her highness anyway, why don´t you use the very good layer-system of it?

Would spare you the trouble of having a variety of files and you could have her arranged in one piece all the time. you only have to hide the layers, that you don´t need.

Don´t want to tell you things, that you already know...just want to know why you work this way?
Are there things, that you don´t like about using layers? Are there problems with them?

But anyway...great...really great work...

[StevenEgan]

Sweet update! this just keeps getting better and better!

[Deepam]

Can't believe :eek: this is a 3d package work, not a sculpting work . . Great modeling :thumbsup:

I don't think there will be any problem of polycount here in Maya, XSI or the latest 3ds Max can also handle heavy model.

I am scared about zbrush rendering - how you render full character there, its ok that you can work on different part using subtool but for final rendering you have to show them all together. And after some couple of subdivision, I can't imagine how heavy the model will be then :curious: .

Anyways, can't wait to see this finished :bounce:

[Azereus]

Deepam you can do a composition with all the parts...

[Jay-Mo]

WOW! I'm very inspired by this. The fact that you are not using a sculpting program right now gives me hope not to give up on sub d modelling, since I don't have zbrush or mudbox. I think I'm going to give the queen a try. Very inspiring work!

[madcan]

Really really great work. I am doing a Powerl Loader vs Alien Queen scene and your work is going to be a real inspiration for my queen.

[Keiyentai]

Dude thats simply amazing! Aliens is by far one of my favorite movies. Awesome job man. Can't wait to see her finished and textured.

[ghostyash]

oh man what a nice work. :applause: great detail work. nice balancing :thumbsup:
i want to see her finished :rolleyes:

[Locusta]

Puh....what a time since last post. A lot to do and everyday life interferes always. I need a clone. LOL! So, a weekend passed and I had a bid freetime today too. So I did what I have to do ;)

But first, again many thanks to all of you for your comments!

@Deracus, many thanks for your comments and I can just tell you, that you are so right. I love the Layer system in XSI allot and coudn´t work without it. Especially in handling such a complex and many parted piece like "her". About your question, why I still was handling single files. The reason is simply, because I have in the case of and Alien or any other model, witch can easily be separated (like Insects, Hard shelled animals or any technical stuff) the advantage, to have all my backdrops, better said the rotoscopy images in XSI, for the different views there, and I´m much quickier able to build up the major forms. As I work with different referenced models (I love that function in XSI too so much), my file with all the bodyparts combined is updated automatically and shows me already the complete figure in pose and proportioned.

@ Deepam, many thanks to you! Yes, the subtools are a necessity in Zbrush already. In my case I´m realy happy to have all body parts seperately to handle there, without letting my machine glow :D But works only good i the case, where the model is easily to devide into sections. For the render, I render in XSI. That´s why I already have a topologized mesh with UV layout. I bake the Normals and Displacements in ZB to render them over my lowpoly in XSI. At least, I hope so ;)

@ Jay-Mo, Thank you allot. Yeah, great to hear, that there are still Sub D modelers out. Hahaha.. just kidding. But not to give a wrong impression, I love ZB and Mud and what you can do nowadays with that applications. Unthinkable to work without them anymore. But there was a time before that ones too....and not so long ago.

@ madcan, thanks man!! Yeah!! Bring it on. Let them make the fight of the millenium :buttrock:

@ Keiyenta, you speak to my soul!! Thanks alot!!

@ ghostyash, I hope to get even more details in the highpoly. Thank you!

So, now to the main course. I consider my mesh to 95 % done. (sweating) A little bit on the neck and some refinements still to do, but not that much. But anyway, she can grab now and that in quadro-way and she stands on her own feet. It was time for a lady in her age. Beside that, she got here nice backspinepins stretching to the heaven and, because I love to torture myself, I made a new tail (even when it is hardly recognizable in the renderings...call me stupid).

I go to sleep now and sometime tomorrow I gonna look at her with fresh eyes and see what has to be fixed. I hope, that I finally can go to Zbrush and have fun there too :bounce:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/fullfigure_first01.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/fullfigure_first02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/fullfigure_first03.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/fullfigure_first04.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/fullfigure_first05.jpg


Thanks for watching and so long!!

Markus

[oliveira]

amazing work!!! really perfect!!

Alex Oliver

[StevenEgan]

Beautiful!

Great model, and great details! I really can't wait to see the final.

[MartinNielsen]

Excellent work my friend :thumbsup: You make an Alien fan very happy :)

[Antropus]

Looking pretty sweet man. I can't wait to see some renders of this baby posed.

-Kris

[lightcache]

great stuff.
my only sllllllight crit would be the toes and heel worry me a bit, as dos the pose. the feet imo shld be placed slightly further apart to acheive a more convincing gait.
great though :)

[Locusta]

Many Thanks to all of you!

great stuff.
my only sllllllight crit would be the toes and heel worry me a bit, as dos the pose. the feet imo shld be placed slightly further apart to acheive a more convincing gait.
great though :)

Lightcache, thank you a lot. I should had mentioned in the last post, that there is zero pose by now. That means, all bodyparts are just placed as they where modeled. You are so right about the posing of the legs. She could not stand like that. But it will look totally different when posed. When you see the original movie, or better said the "making of" scenes, the queens legs allways looked a bit strange (they where operated separately or even left off completely, depending on the shot). As she is manly to be seen moving during the fight with the powerloader, she has mostly a crouching or better said creeping positions. That means that the knees where bent. But I have to balance that all with a best possible pose, that is for sure.

You mentioned the feet and the heel (high-heel or the neck?). I´m not sure about that. Could you please give me a direct hint. Maybe I just don´t see an mistake here, what happens after seeing a model so much. So please feel free and open and push me in the right direction.

The toes and lower part of the legs is anyway not 100% complete and will be much more detailed in ZB then.

Again, many thanks and stay tuned.

Markus

[Jay-Mo]

Really looking awesome Locusta. Can't wait to see the zbrushing.

[Sirhcnait]

Great thread and pics. I love the wireframe pics earlier in the thread, very nice edge loops. The head poses on page 2 are great (must have been fun posing the inner mouth!) and you really nailed the grin. :D

The whole body looks great, looking forward to the ZB passes.

[Spin99]

Amazing poly work. Got to love XSI.
Really great thread here terrificness.

[Locusta]

FINALLY........a tinny little update....and time is running.

Was too bussy lately. Hope I get it done. We will see.

Anyway. First again many thanks for all your comments.

I started to get my details for the crown part in Zbrush. I only wanna get my Normals and a few polypaints from there.

Just take a look:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/crown_head_zb01.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/crown_head_zb03.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/crown_head_zb02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/crown_head_zb04.jpg

So, and now further on.

So long and cheers

Markus

[Antropus]

Looking GREAT man. So much more organic now. You captured the character quite well. I can't wait to see it all finished and posed. You go man!

-Kris

[StevenEgan]

Beautiful! That second shot is gob smacking! You have captured the Queen perfectly!

This is fast becoming one of my fav entries in this contest.

Masterful modeling, and your detailing is superb!

I can only imagine how great the finale piece will be.

:applause:

[Jay-Mo]

Now that's looking real nice!! Looking forward to the next update.

[MartinNielsen]

Excellent detailing. Can't wait to see the final. :bounce:

[lightcache]

wow thats blinking great!. I sooooo need to get a wacom.

[AET23]

amazing work man.

[Locusta]

Many, many thanks to you guys!!! You cheer me up in this last days without seeing an end....

A quick update, showing a first texture and normal map test rendered in XSI. Nothing else.

Just a test, and no final stage. Anyway, I´m not sooo happy with my normals by now. Still a lot to tweak.

C&C please.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/displace_test0_newMesh_dispnorm01.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/newheadclosed_moutth_wire02-1.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/01.jpg

Cheers

Markus

[oliveira]

just PERFECT and AMAZING!!

Alex Oliver

[TimCallaway]

Fantastic job man, my only crit would be to try and make it look more wet you know what I mean?

[Itsgallus]

Hello Locusta.....

Whoa Dude... this texture is outrageous !!
Keep coming....'cause this IS TOTALLY AWESOME....

//cheers.....

[StevenEgan]

Impressive! The specular highlighting inst working for me. I know it's just a test, but I think it should look more like slime... Know what I mean?

Looking forward to more!

[Cabbage82]

I'v been keeping an eye on this thread for a while but havent had the time to post anything untill now. Just want to send some compliments your way! Awesome work man! Keep it up!

[WyattHarris]

Fantastic paint job locusta.

[GhostmanZombie]

Great work!
That's really looking cool.

[Locusta]

Many thanks to you guys.

I know, the Alien slime is a big challenge in CG. I hope I get an decent effect in the end. Speaking of the end....I have no idea with what I will show up in the end. I´m pretty, pretty sure not to be able to make the full body until monday. So I guess it will only be a bust in final quality. I have no idea if it is possible to submit a bust, even when allready started a full body. Anyway, I give it a try. Taking part is everything and even when I don´t make it, I got an big experience boost in a few things again.

So, please cross your fingers, that I get the bust done at least.

Here just a few quck glimpses of the new Texture as polypaint in Zbrush as well as final details on the crown, that show what my final normals will look like.

Please be advised, that the color is not final. I will tweak in PS the right levels of Hue and saturation. I´m not the big polypainter and I can handle colors much better in postprocess.

Anyway, here it goes:

My bump details:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Clipboard01.jpg

Textrued crown in ZB:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Clipboard02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Clipboard04.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/Clipboard05.jpg

And the infamous inner tongue:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/tongue_zb01rez.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/tongue_zb02rez.jpg

So, and now detailing and final texturing the head.

Cheers

Markus

[Spin99]

What a lady :D
I've been learning some hard surface modeling in XSI and must say I'm so sold.
The package is really amazing.

Nice and slimy can't wait to see the rest.

[StevenEgan]

Very nice!

I think the color should be a slightly darker Grey color.

I also I have downloaded the trial version of XSI, but my License wont activate, So I can't try it out.

Anyway, great work!

[sanketpro3d]

really gud job .. love the shader.. the slimy luk is coming ... keep it up ..:thumbsup:

[Itsgallus]

Hello Locusta....

here is a cool reference that i've found on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKK8dMlo-BU&feature=related

//cheers

[buryme]

This has looked amazing since you began it, can't wait to see it after you put it through some zbrushing.

[Antropus]

Come on man. Watch the deadline! Post your great model already :bounce:

[WyattHarris]

C'mon Locusta! I got my entry in after all, we got to have yours. :thumbsup:

[TimCallaway]

It would be appalling if you don't post your work!

[Antropus]

Dude! Less than 2 hours left. GO!!!

[ChewyPixels]

Where is your final entry? :eek:

[RobertoOrtiz]

I am still at work right now, soI will not be able to post any

voting thread for at least 6 hours.

It would be a sin if you dont post your work on the voting thread.
Keep in mind it is amodeling competition, so the shading is optional.
-R

[farazmobin]

aw man i really wanted to see the final . hope you still put it up.

[Locusta]

Guys!!! I am soooo amazed about your encouragement, your comments, and your hard try to see, where I have left of. It makes me proud to see, that you have such interest in my work! :bowdown:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Speaking about being proud and explaining, why I left so spontaneously and without any further post, I can put into one sentence:

I wanted to make a Queen and I got a Princess!! ;)

On Sunday morning the 14th of September, my little daughter Greta came into this world!

So please understand, that my proudness level can´t be increased nowadays.

Greta decided, as spontaneously as her father sometimes can be, to forget about the schedule and arrive a week earlier as the doctor has predicted.

My wife and our wonderfull new family member is doing very, very well and we are back from hospital now.

Please don´t judge me now as a total lunatic, because I took part at this challenge, and having a pregnant wife at home. But my wife was bussy with herself and gave me full permission, and for me it was beside the great, great opportunity to make one of my most preferred movie monsters, a very good learning process.

Yes, what did I learn at most: I have to be faster than my little girl! :)

So again, many many thanks to all of you. I love this forum and I will take part of it and show my work as much as my time allows.

I quickly want to come back to the main subject of this thread, even when it is hard for me nowadays, to think of something else than my little majesty here.

The Queen will be finished!! I promise you! I can´t let things be unfinished anyway, untill I´m satisfied with the result.

Even when I didn´t made the submission for the challenge, the completion of this project will allways be my personal tribute to Mr. Stan Winston. It´s one of his masterpieces and I wanna embrace it.

So here a little teaser of what she looked like, when I left her:

Rendered in XSI. 4k color map and 4k normal map on 2 subd of my lowpoly

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/lastcalltextrued02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/lastcalltextrued01.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/lastcalltextrued03.jpg

I just need info from the moderators, how I have to continue showing the progress on this project. Can I still post here or will the thread be moved to the WIP section or do I just start a new thread in the WIP? Many thanks for your help!

Again, many thanks to all of you and you may understand, that it can take a little bit, untill the next update on the Queen.....my princess is waiting!

[TimCallaway]

Congratulations!!!
Glad to hear everything is ok ( was wondering why you dissapeared for a few)
See you next time =]

[Jay-Mo]

Congrats to you on the birth of your daughter and your continuation of this model!! I have to admit that I was saddened to not see this in the judging, but now we know. Good luck to you and your family.

[WyattHarris]

<- Father of 4 so I know exactly what your talking about. Congratulations on the new baby girl, nothing better in this world than your wife and your kids.

[Antropus]

Man, congratulations for your newborn daughter and for the queen, who is looking sweeeeet already! :beer:

-Kris

[StevenEgan]

WOW! Congratulations on the new born!!! Glad to hear all is well with you & Co.

Great work on the model!

again, Congratulations!

[MartinNielsen]

Congrats :) And it's wonderful to hear that you'll finish this :wip:

[Locusta]

Tim, Jay, Wyatt, Kris, Steven, Martin!

Thank you so much!!

I so appreciate!

And stunning work, what you guys did. This was an impressive HMC, and 4 weeks was a tough schedule.

Please stay tuned and I wish all of you the best in the voting process.

Cheers

Markus

[RobertoOrtiz]

I just need info from the moderators, how I have to continue showing the progress on this project. Can I still post here or will the thread be moved to the WIP section or do I just start a new thread in the WIP? Many thanks for your help!

Again, many thanks to all of you and you may understand, that it can take a little bit, untill the next update on the Queen.....my princess is waiting!
First, congrats about your Baby!

And about the Alien, Great work man!
I would suggest o finish the work right here in HCR.
When you are done I will spotlight it the next challenge (in either the annoucement or the results thread)

[DisturbeD2k]

Congrats! I also was wondering what happened and glad to see that this will be finished! Looking forward to seeing her in her monsterous glory!

[webhead]

Congrats on both the Princess, and the Queen! Nice modeling. I never really realized how impractical the design of the Queen's tail appears until now. Though, it's cool looking, it is essentially just a skeleton, and has no muscles, or tendons on the outside to support it, or make it move. It's quite a large/long part of her anatomy with no visible means of support. Being alien, their could be some explanation of how it works I suppose, but it wouldn't seem practical from a human standpoint, at least, from what I understand of anatomy anyway. Again, nice job.

[Locusta]

Roberto, many, many thanks to you! So I just continue here my progress.

DisturbeD2k, thank you very much. And glorious she will be. Promissed! ;)

Webhead, thank you. I highly appreciate. Yes, the tail is actually kind of awkward and unpractical. It´s more the character of a dinosaur skeleton, than a living limp. But that what Aliens are....STANGE! Btw. H.R. Giger never liked the Queen design that much. He actually saw her to much as an dinosaur. But as we honor here the work of Stan Winston and the initial design of the Queen was anyway from James Cameron, we have to lay the opinion of the master himself by side and I think I will measure up with his creation in another thread.....;)


So here comes a tinny (yes, yes again just teasing around) little update, cause my ladies gave me a bit free time.

I guess I finished the overall texturing and detailing process on the head, crown, mouth parts. Everything again rendered in XSI with my 4k maps. Btw, no final gathering and/or global illumination used. All adjusted through the maps and lights.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/bust_occlusion01.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/low_poly_bust_displacementmap03.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/bust_occlusion05.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/bust_occlusion03.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/bust_occlusion04.jpg

Enjoy and please be patient for further updates.

Thanks

Cheers

Markus

[MartinNielsen]

Back on track I see :) Go go.

[Spin99]

Hey there really cool update.
Maybe I didn't like the stringy muscles on her mouth first time round.
As a crit they look a bit mechanical imho in a sense not organic enough even?

But seems better now and she's really cool with her inner mouth :)
I think I should send you congrats on the baby girl too. Cheers.

[Locusta]

Thanks guys for your comments.

Spin99, yes the jaw muscle flesh was looking too much plastic or rubber. I fixed that a bit. But I gues I´m not final with that.

I mini update again. I´m more or less finished with the torso part.

Here a few quick render tests:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/head_and_tosotest03.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/head_and_tosotest02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/head_and_tosotest01.jpg

Just added a bit darker and sinister rendering
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/head_and_tosotest04.jpg

Thanks and stay tuned.

Cheers

Markus

[WyattHarris]

Looking great Locusta. This thing is going to be fantastic when its finished.

[Swidhelm]

Absolutley amazing!! I did an alien a while back, but not with that level of detail. I've thought about doing a queen, but pft, heh too much work. You did an incredible job!!

One thing I think to note though is the teeth should be translucent.

I can't wait to see the finished work!!

Cheers
Swidhelm

[Locusta]

Long, long time nothing to be seen from her majesty. But.....Tara, here I post finally all textured and detailed parts. So now I can start the rigging process and I hope soon she will be released from this odd pose, which doesen´t do justice to the most horrible mom in the universe.

Many thanks to you Wyatt and to you Swidhelm.

Swidhelm, I would love to see some Alien stuff of your´s too. Hey, and it´s never to late to do a Queen ;) And of course, the teeth should be translucent. It makes here mouth even more scary imo. But I have to play around with that until the end. I already got a transparency map for the teeth and the mandible flesh (strings, or what they are called). But I have allways errors and stupid Mental Ray crashes with that one turned on. Maybe my laptop doesen´t make it. But I will not give up, cause I wanna have as much movie accuracy as I can achive.

Ok, here some full renders. Stay tuned for some detail shots later on.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/finaltexthreequarter1.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/finaltexside1.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/finaltextop1.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/finaltexback1.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/finaltextotale1.jpg

C ´n C are highly welcome.

Cheers

Markus

[MartinNielsen]

Finally some progress :) It looks just wonderful. But is it really that green in the movie?

[Spin99]

Wow really nice model.
Can I ask if you're using Z for texturing?
She looks top notch :thumbsup:

[TimCallaway]

Nice! I think your laptop is doing well for those renders =] I had the same probs with crashing mentalray. Had to up to 64bit to hane the termy lol.

[Locusta]

Thanks alot to you guys!

Martin, yes you are so right. The renders came out a bit to greenish. That´s not accurate. I mainly saw it while watching the pix on a different screen. It wasn´t so obvious as I tweaked the colors in XSI composing tool. So: Shame on me, for not seeing that earlier.
The new renderings are pushed more towards the original textures and the movie reference, which is much more in blue tones.

Spin99, yes I use Zbrush as polypaint tool. Only some minor adjusments in PS afterwards, since I have a decent UV layout. In some earlier post you see the crown as it looks like polypainted in ZB viewport. When I´m finished, I will post more progress pix of the ZB detailing and texturing, as well as my texture sheets, ok? I have to rig the lady now. Yes!

Tim, yeah the MR problem is pretty common and I allready figured out, that moving to a 64 bit system and the most possible amount of RAM (smth like 8 Gig), would eliminate such crashes. Great to know. It´s a bit sad, that there is not a cheaper workaround here.

Ok, here a few more shots and some details:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/headshot011.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/handshot011.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/closershot031.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/down011.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/side011.jpg

So long

Markus

[Jay-Mo]

Awesome man! This is going to look so cool when it's posed. You're making me want to complete my bust of this beauty.

[Itsgallus]

Hello Locusta,

The texture is coming nice....Great job....

can' wait to see this beauty on a pose....

can you tell us, more about the render setup, that you're using...??

Ps. Congrats about your new baby....
//cheers

[ConceptStingray]

Holly sh*t!that is almost movie quality...Top1 3d alien queen I've ever saw!
Hm,one thing that I dont like that much are tooth's materials...something is wrong.
Cant w8 for the pose...You have a huge experiance in 3d bro.
5*

Paulius

[RobertoOrtiz]

I will post this entry as part of the next voting thread.


People will not be able to vote for it, but they will see it.

Great work.

-R

[azozel]

Very cool stuff.

[ChewyPixels]

This is so awesome! I'm glad to see she's making progress. Super work! :thumbsup:

[Locusta]

Jay-Mo, many, many thanks. Of course you should finish your queen too. You will see, once you get back to her, you will not stop until the end ;)

Itsgallus, many thanks to you. Yeah, our Baby is growing and growing. She is amazing. And sometimes she gives daddy a bit spare time to work a bit on hers majesty here. LOL.

About my render setup: It´s acutally pretty basic. Infinite light for overall flowing light. One spotlight in front (but very dimm, because of the dark mood, Aliens need ;) , 2 or 3 pointlights (switched on and off on demand).
But the main effects I achieve with the render passes and an environment pass for a HDR map (which is only used for reflection in this case. Not for lightning). Most important, but on the downside render time increasing, is a separate AO pass. That one gives the most deepness in the overall color and in the shadows.
Btw, because of the slimy and shiny appearance of an Alien, I don´t use a specularity map here. Reflection is more effective for wetness.

The rendered passes are than composed in the great XSI composing tool. Here I can tweak reflection, refraction, specularity and adjust the colors and do my depth of field.

That´s it.

Paulius, I´m deeply honored and I thank you very much. Thanks for the stars, I highly appreciate. Paulius, you are so right about the teeth. I was sick of them too and so I spend my time off today, for correcting that. I tweaked the tooth material and applied a transperancy map for the teeth and the jaw-muscles. I´m more satisfied with the result now. Please tell me your feeling about it.

Roberto...many, many thanks for providing me this opportunity. That´s just great! Big thanks! :bowdown:

Azozel and Jedi-Juice, thank´s alot guys!

Ok, as I allready said, I tweaked the teeth and the jaw flesh to get more the transparent material look on them.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/front031.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/front011.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/front021.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/sidetrans021.jpg

Cheers

Markus

[MartinNielsen]

The blue color works much better. :beer: And now all we need is a kick-ass pose. (Not literately)

[ConceptStingray]

Now these new tooth are way better to me,good work.
Anyway I have few questions about scene if you dont mind.First of all what's render time of all passes together?
Secondly how you (will) rigg it?Im asking,becouse Im very newbie in rigging organics...So will you add bones to it,and will you model some kind of muscles like some people are doing?
Hm,how long are you working whit 3d programs?

Anyway your model inspired me to watch "aliens 2" again :)
good luck in rigging it.

Paulius

[Locusta]

Yes, it´s possible. Finally she is rigged! So a few sleepless nights here and there payed off.

Now, she can unfold her true sinisterness and unleash her terror. Ok, so much for the drama.

But first things first (even even though I have to appologize for the late respond):

Martin, thanks alot! So I guess we let her kick now some a**es!! Yeah!

Paulius, many thanks to you. I highly appreciate. About the passes. XSI renders with the main rendering at the same time the specularity pass, diffuse pass, reflectivity pass and the refraction (transparency) in the .pic format, which automaticly includes the alpha. There is no effect on rendertime here. As custom passes I render an ambient occlusion pass, cause he get´s alot of real deepness and a realistic light behaviour. Than comes the depth pass for depth of field and other effects like smoke etc. And in this case at last the shadow pass, to have the possibility to tweak the shadows where needed (especially in the case of an Alien, because of the very dark nature).

So about your question, what time they take to render. That´s of course hardware related. In my case, everything was done on a Dell Inspiron 1720 Notebook with 3 Gig RAM and running a (unfortunately) 32 bit system. LOL. Ok, but I got it done. It is obvious, that an 64 bit system with at least 8 gig would have spared my alot of time and trouble (especially with stupid mental ray crashes). But the next private investment comes for sure.

To come to the point: I render in raytracing mode in a resulotion of 1900 to 1080 p. The main passes come nicly in about 4 to 5 min. Depth and shadow just take under one min each. But of course, the AO pass eats time. Up to 12 min it can take. Yeah, I know. That´s not smooth.

About the rigg. Paulius, I mainly rigged small characters by now and mainly low poly game characters. The Queen is maybe the most complex rig I´ve done by now. Another reason, it took a bit longer. But I learned alot about rigging again. I can´t say, how much difference there is between the programs. I work in XSI and I work, or worked in Max (but not much rigging in Max). The rigging process in XSI is imo very handy and logic. It gives you alot of freedom too, to experiment in the behaving of the bones towards each other, via different constraints. I can only recommend XSI for many reasons. I just hope that the recent events (Autodesk takeover) make no huge impact on that wonderfull program.

You asked about muscles. In that case, I mean an Alien or other insect kind of beings, it is in many cases easier to lay the bones and to make a decent envelope of the mesh. So there is not much outer streching or bulking of the mesh, as in other organic movements. But in that case, XSI has the great possibility of shape deforming and key driven cluster deformation. That means, if a movement of a mesh reaches a decent key or position in the animation, the mesh deformes via a reorganizing of the vertexes, which was done manually before. Like a smile on a face, or like a bulking of a muscle when contracted.

Than finally to your question about my work experience. As I am a professional industrial designer, I started my 3d work mainly in consturction. That means CAD. Starting with Auto CAD, Pro engenier and in my case long time Solid Works as well as Alias. I started about 8 years ago the same time to use 3D MAX. We did it in university to render our surface stuff, which was pure geometry. Not so likely to watch or present. Many people automaticly went from Alias (former Wavefront) to Maya (former Wavefront too, now Autodesk....) but I was allready a bit familiar with MAX because of games. A few years later, and mainly because of the fact that Half Life 2 was using Softimage XSI as basis for the Engine models, I started to use XSI and I never let it go again!

And If anybody has now read all this and is not sleeping or bored to death......here we go again:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/fistposetest021.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/persshade011.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/full_front1.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/01halfprofile1.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/firstclose021.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/sideview1.jpg

And what the rigg looks like:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/wire_rigg.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/wire_rigg02.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/wire_riggclose.jpg

So, I would be happy for some C & C and maybe some hints for the ultimate Killer pose ;)

Cheers

Markus

[ColinC]

Amazing, I love everything about her, the only thing that catches my eye as being odd is that it looks like she's giving everyone the finger with her left hand.

[WyattHarris]

Glad to see her done Locusta and what a great job you did on it. Be proud of that portfolio piece.

That's quite a rig I must say.

[MartinNielsen]

YEA! She finally up and running. Superb :)

[Spin99]

I think she looks great pose rig and all.
Wonderful stuff. Only thing I notice is how you rigged her tail.
The way you've done it (bones?) you probably end up breaking it when you move it?

So maybe it would be better to simply use a spine bone there?
Just guessing I know I couldn't rig a tail last I tried but
I'd definitely try a spine there next time round :)

[TheNeverman]

excellent work Markus!

a few crits, the ligaments around the mouth seem a bit over-simplified in shape, kinda look like bandages right now and not very organic, here's a hard-to-see reference from Aliens:
http://paulteusner.org/pics/alienqueen.jpg

The overall shader seems a bit too green, but this is really open to interpretation since shes only seen in the dark...

My biggest complaint though is there's no slime!!!
Can't have an alien with out the gooey-ness!!!
=)

[Itsgallus]

Whoa....!!!
Cool Rig dude, as Wyattharris said, it will be a great piece on a portfolio,

it would be nice to do a video breakdown, showing all the Rig functions , and a walk/Running video.

the only thing missing now....is a killer background to do a masterpiece

keep working dude....
//cheers

[Locusta]

Guys, many, many thanks to all of you.

I know, this thread is going to be stone-old (LOL) so I´m not sure how I should continue or if I should. I don´t wanna bore anybody to death here. Anyway I got a lot other things in work by now so this will be layed on ice a bit (great, in wintertime).

To come to a more or less final output here, I show a bunch of late renderings and a couple of photoshoped pix (only smoke and minor touch up added).

So enjoy and watch out for other things to come ;)

Cheers

Markus

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/killerpose_new_closeup021.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/killerpose_new_closeup011.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/killerpose_new031.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/killerpose_new.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/killerpose_new_closeup031copycopy.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/killerpose_below.jpg

[TetraLynx]

I think you got it right on man! I was going to say that you just need to adjust your lighting for a darker mood but you did that in the last shot. Just add a slight film grain and you're done :)

[DDS]

these are just amazing. I love every effect on every render. This material is really good for showcasing the model as well. Great!! Will be looking on to your next projects!!

[etd382]

Great Job! One of my favorite movies, you captured the Queen perfectly!

[Senseicapi]

Just wow.

If you ever animate it, let us see it :thumbsup:

[MartinNielsen]

This ended up pretty amazing. You made an alien fan very happy :)

[nmcelmury]

Wow I didn't even know you were still working on this, glad I peeked in! Looks spectacular man, I'm glad you took this model so far, it turned out hella good. Great work!

[Locusta]

Many, many thanks again to all of You :thumbsup:

I decided once more to push the render button (yes, yes. Neverending story....) and bring you this last piece of pixelhorror ;)

At the same time, I want to invite you to witness the growing up process of the young fellow of that lady here (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=43&t=710592)

At this point I want to send my best wishes to you and your families! Have nice and peaceful holidays and I wish you a good start in a hopefully lucky and successful year 2009!

And here we go:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/locusta_album/fnal.jpg

and here a HighRes Wallpaper of the same. Please be advised, it could take longer to open!

Wallpaper1080p (http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/121/fnalme5.jpg)

Cheers

Markus

[WyattHarris]

I'll take that as an early Christmas present. :D
Great job Markus, she really came out amazing.

[LukeZ]

respect man greaet modeling

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