Character: "DEF" the wormy guy

[NelsonInomvan]

hehhe this is a funny looking guy ^__^ Give us some backround info pls.

is this somekind of ancient or fantasy worm ? Maybe you should work a little bit more on his legs coz right now they look strange. Don't get me wrong, i really like the way this guys looks but mine point is that your textures look in more realistic way than your model. The model looks really cartoon and sweet.

or this guis is moving using creep moves ??? is he a worm like creature ? pls give us some backround info

[polyester]

hmm....not much to say really. He came out of one of my doodles in American Literature class.

I did animate him inching along like a worm, so yea I was going for that kind of wormy quality. The feet act like suction cups. I planned on one day putting him in sort of a swampy environment and have his feet sticking to slimy wet stuff as he pwopped along.

For one of the short animations I worked on, we ended up using this guy and putting a cell shader on him, was mighty cute. I really wanted to try to do a realistic texture so I used this project for it. This was my first and only character thus far, so I guess it would make sense that the texture doesn't quite accomidate the model. This was pretty much my first attempt at texturing as well as modeling and animating.

[Tex3D]

It looks like all the texturing is on one map or shader.

Have you tried doing the whole layered sub map thingy??

If I'm not mistaken you are using MAX right??

Other than that it looks kewl.

How about doing a background enviro for context? Maybe that will give you some kewl ideas for lighting too.

-Dave

[gnarlycranium]

First off-- read the forum rules. The thread needs a meaningful title, and you need to post a wireframe.

What a wacky critter you've got!

The feet DO look strange, but I get the feeling that's part of the whole idea, heheh. He looks like he'd need much wider suction cups to keep from falling over sideways, but since he's cartoony that isn't necessarily a problem.

Textures look good, though since it's not as if you're trying to match a real kind of surface it's hard to go wrong-- only real crit I can think of there is that the spots on the face are too regular. What kind of surface do you intend for him to have? He could use some bump and specular mapping to give us an idea of what he'd feel like if we poked him.

How did you construct the eyeballs? Those look good, but could really benefit from the spark of a little extra depth, whether from a concave iris or some shader trickery.

Does he open his mouth? How's it look when he does? And how did it go when you animated him? Without a wireframe it's hard to tell how he's put together for that stuff.

[Electrofirma]

I like him. I could picture him suction cupping along, when I first saw the image. I think that means it is a good concept/model.

A little pair of short, stubby arms would increase the animation possibilities, but that is just my opinion.

For a first work it is awesome.

Now you have to give us a wire. The rules say so! :)

EDIT: Looking at it again, trying to find something wrong. Though it isn't really an amphibian sorta thing, he might benifit from some eyelashes??? Or not!

[gnarlycranium]

Nah, no arms-- if he needs to grab things, he can use a big long prehensile tongue!! :D

[Quizboy]

Ok, I like this guy ' cause he (or she's) quite original, but of course a lot of whether he's suited depends a lot on the environment you put him in.

Designwise there's nothing to change, but it might be interesting to see what would happen if you gave him a super-realistic texture job and composited him into a real environment, like in a grassy field or something...convince us that this unreal character really exists somewhere.

But then again I'm a photo-realistic freak so my opinion is biased.

cheers!

[polyester]

Originally posted by Gnarly Cranium
First off-- read the forum rules. The thread needs a meaningful title, and you need to post a wireframe.

SORRY! SO SORRY! I'm new at this. Never been good at following rules =(

Originally posted by Gnarly Cranium
What kind of surface do you intend for him to have? He could use some bump and specular mapping to give us an idea of what he'd feel like if we poked him.


He has a couple of separate bump and specular maps; guess I just need to adjust them some. I had the bump ramped up quite a bit to make him look like he had warts...but people said that it made them itch to look at it; thought it took a little too much attention of his cuteness. So I made them more like age spots and freckles.

Originally posted by Gnarly Cranium
How did you construct the eyeballs? Those look good, but could really benefit from the spark of a little extra depth, whether from a concave iris or some shader trickery.

Used two separate spheres...mapped the inner one with the eyball texture I painted, and concaved it a little, then made the outer one sort of a glossy transparent one and made it convex.

http://www.polydimensions.net/defs-eye.jpg

Originally posted by Gnarly Cranium
Does he open his mouth? How's it look when he does? And how did it go when you animated him? Without a wireframe it's hard to tell how he's put together for that stuff.

Added the wireframes to the opening thread (again...sorry)
He doesn't open his mouth...YET...but could feesibly do so. In fact I thought about having him breathe fire at some point when I get into particles :D

(I only had a few weeks to model this guy)

[gnarlycranium]

SORRY! SO SORRY! I'm new at this. Never been good at following rules =(
Yeep!! That's why I said it in teeny letters-- so you wouldn't holler, heheheh!!


Used two separate spheres...mapped the inner one with the eyball texture I painted, and concaved it a little, then made the outer one sort of a glossy transparent one and made it convex.
Ahah, gotcha. If you actually push it -in- a bit that'll totally change how the light hits it. If you want to keep it from looking strange from the side, then you can give the cornea some refraction.


I am curious about your wireframe-- what app did you use?

*edit* Duh, I'm an idiot! That's MAX's viewport layout in the wireframe screenshot!! :P

Anyhow-- there's a whole lot of unnecessary Ngons floating around in there. I dunno how much you know about the foibles of topology, but your mesh is overall so nicely coherent that it'd be pretty easy to fix those.

[SheepFactory]

Thats a cute character ,

I have one question though , if you plan to animate it how is it going to move? ,

It would have been more convenient if you added cutesy little legs :)

[MikeRhone]

I like the character design. Simple, but he definately has personality.

My suggestions:

He needs a spec map. Right now he looks like he has a blinn at the default settings. You could also benefit from a subtle bump map. Anything that adds to the realism of the material.

Personal opinion -

I think he could benefit from a more defined/sculpted ear. I know he matches your concept art pretty close, but right now it looks like those tasty mini-doughnuts you can get... VERY tasty mini doughnuts....

On the animation, I dont know what you intend to do, but he will need TONS of wiggle and jiggle. Im not sure of the app you are using, but you should spend the time to get good secondary across the whole body.

Overall its looking pretty good.

Mike R

[polyester]

thanks again for the feedback guys. Very refreshing.

The ear was supposed to be connected with the jaw, that was supposed to be part of his unique character...kinda difficult to even accomplish. I do need to define it more, points taken. I told Gnarly earlier that I did have separate bump and spec maps on him, but as this was my first texuring project, I was really in the dark on the whole mess. I've had a little more practice sense, so hopefully I can manage someth'n pretty cool now. In fact, my texture files are so cluttered I think I might just start over from scratch with them.

The animation process was by FAR the most teeth pulling experience with this guy. He was, yet again, my first character animation. This was NOT a good model for learning to animate! Highly suggest upright biped!!! One IK handle doesn't cut it(hindsight being 20/20). I ended up having to go back and put a controller on every vertabrae and animating them individually. He basically just moves like a worm but with suction cup feet. I sketched out some animation where I have him wiggling side to side as he pwops along. Front and back wiggle in opposite directions, head kinda bobs side to side. He has a stretchable spine so he kinda squashes and stretches as he moves, his suckers do the same as they hit and are being pulled from the ground.

- poly

[leigh]

Please please please PLEASE render him on a different background!!! Such a dark background does nothing for this little guy - you mentioned that he lives in swamps, so rather put him in a swampy coloured environment for now (until you can do the actual swamp shot) - it's a start ;)

The textures are looking cool so far, although they could possibly benefit from a teeny bit more detail, and also a more defined bump map. You said that you were kinda in the dark before about texturing, but I presume you're a little more enlightened now, so go and make something cool for his bump map. Some specularity or reflection would also do wonders for creating some definition on the surface. It's a worm - worms are a bit slimey! :D

For your eyeball, I would recommend modelling an actual lens to fit into the concave area of the eyeball. Setting up the surface of the lens as you would a glass surface can really help to give a lot more depth to the eyeball ;) Remember to use a bit of refraction.

My last crit is a bit strange - he somehow doesn't look male. I'm not sure why, perhaps it's because he's kinda "cutesy" but I think that if you intend to keep him male, then maybe give him something that gives the impression of masculinity - perhaps heavy eyebrows - kinda cartoonish but I think it would suit the style :)

[MoD_Legion]

Na, you should keep em the way he is, cute = good.

Besides, worms are both male/female and can even have sex with themselves so imho there is no need to make him look extra male ;-).

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