Galactic Jellyfish - Modelling

#1

Modelling the opener Galactiv Jellyfish.
Modelling in 3dsmax, and this is my first time doing some real modelling so might take a little time :wink:

Hope to be done this weekend, but if stuff gets int he way i appologise :smiley:

#2

Well this seemingly simple model just isntā€™ easy for me ā€¦ hehe

Well i have tried like multiple ways of trying to make a sphere (no prob there) or a geosphere and either extrude the arms or use a bolean connect to attach spheres to the big sphere and thus creating the ā€œarmsā€.

However i just cant get it smooth. If i take 2 spheres and use boolean connect it works fine, as long as i connect the polar region to the polar region, but that doesnt give me more than 2 good arms, and then i run into problems making the rest of the armsā€¦ and i want quite alot of arms on there heheā€¦ like the concept art.

anyways if anybody has any good idead of how a newbie like me can model this quite simple modelā€¦

#3

Hey Swoop, this is how I would do it.

First, create a simple sphere with enough segments (32 in my example) and convert it to Editable Poly.

Then select some random polygons (see pic01), click extrude a few times until you get something like in the picture. (See pic02)

Then slap a meshmooth (2 iterations) on top of this and u have somthing similar as what you want. (see pic03)

Hopes this helps,

Poco

PS: dont export the mesh with meshsmooth to Maya (thats to keep the density of the mesh low, you or somebody else can then in Maya make a ā€œsubdiv surfaceā€ out of it)

Pic01
Pic02
Pic03

#4

Actually i found that out to be working last night ā€¦ heheā€¦ thx anywaysā€¦

Hoewever thx on the tip of not exporting with meshsmooth ā€¦

Gonna hopefully have a model ready by wednesdayā€¦ busy tonight

#5

I would extrude from a set of 9 squares rather than just 1. Or cut out a section, patch in a cylinder that has 12 divisions and cap off the end.

Canā€™t wait to see what you come up with for the rig and controls. I was trying to come up with a good solution, but didnā€™t have any luck.

Of course, Iā€™m not the most knowledgable person when it comes to making 3D models.

#6

I have a model ready.
Here goes nothing for my first real modelling gig hehe:

BTW; did i make too many arms, caus iā€™m really sucky at altering the model at the moment, so i hope there shouldnā€™t be that many changes.

I was figuring a nice noise modifier will give it some good motion, kinda of a blubber moving slowly through space look.

As for rigging and such i can give it a try, but i dont know squat about that just yet.
But here is the model so far. C & C

#7

The good news is ā€¦ that no one has got the models correct the first time out. Even ilaā€™s excellent alien model recieved my brutal critiques. But, he listened and applied my ideas and ended up with a perfect representation of my style in 3D.

The bad news is ā€¦ you need to make changes. First (as you feared) there are too many arms. Iā€™d cut out half of them to get it closer to the concept. Secondly, the arms are shaped wrong. They should be narrower at the base and really bulbous on the ends. ā€œWater balloonsā€ and ā€œtear dropsā€ are the forms to keep in mind when working on these models.

Give it another try. Iā€™m sure youā€™ll get it or at least learn something important trying. :thumbsup:

#8

I bet for rigging we could just morph the poses it cant have that many can it?

#9

also make it transparent and put a few little glowing purple balls in there that would look cool ( and like kirts drawing) maybe the middle parts could be meta balls.

#10

swoop iā€™ve got a little tip for you that will make modeling a lot easier and keep polycount downā€¦sadly youā€™d have to redo the model if you want to apply it:

use a smoothed box instead of a sphere. just create a box with 1 segment in every direction, meshsmooth it with 2 or 3 iterations, convert this mesh to poly again - this will give you a more uniform, quad-only mesh you can work from

like this one:

#11

hey swoop good start youā€™re getting the hang of itā€¦ I had just been goofin around in wings and came to the same comclusion that fist just mentionedā€¦ try modeling it with a smoothed cubeā€¦ it works pretty goodā€¦

#12

Iā€™m gonna give thoose methods a try today heheā€¦

JIII Well i was expecting the see through part to be texturing ā€¦ didnā€™t want to texture the model in case the textures didnā€™t go well when exporting to another program.

But if i can textuer it without problems for the animators and such i will apply some textures to the next model hehe

#13

i was just thinking aloud sorry bout that, no the texturing for that would probibly need to be procedural so it would probibly need to be textured in maya.

#14

Iā€™m thinking like this:

I make the model without textures and somebody textures it in mayaā€¦ plus makes the purple dot things since they will just be balls with some noise addedā€¦ so shouldnt be a great taskā€¦

#15

yeah that makes sense should not be too hard.

#16

here is the new version and i want the critique :smiley:

slapped a standard background on there :smiley:

PS: i figure that a noise modifier would make it more organic, but i didnā€™t want to do too much yet, unless the basic shape was okay :smiley:

#17

Yes, that one looks much better! Iā€™m not sure what you mean by putting a noise modifier on it. I guess Iā€™ll have to see an example to give you an opinion on it.

On the model, all I would change is to lessen the degree of change from stalk arms to bulby ends. Make the transition between the two less severe and I think youā€™ll have it.

#18

Okayā€¦ basically make it less like spheres in the ends ? caus i had that look but i thought you wanted more like sphrical in the endsā€¦

Gonna have an other version up tomorrow plus some noiseā€¦ to make it less ā€œperfectā€ and more like a blob :smiley:

#19

Okay here is a render with the Noise modifier added, which can be animated in 3dsmax.
I added a small test animation to show off how i think the JF should be animated, which also shows how the noise modifier gives it a more organic shapeā€¦

Animation Here

PS: i dont know if this sort of animation is possible in maya (should be). Also i think the noise gives it the ā€œperfectā€ look, but still i await the harsh critique :wink: ehehā€¦

PPS: How do i export the model for use in maya ? specific instructions please :smiley:

#20

In a previous post

"By the way, for the people working with 3D Studio Max there is a good export plugin to .obj for Maya, called MAX2OBJ

Discription;
MAX2OBJ generates an Alias|Wavefront OBJ and MTL file from a 3DStudio MAX scene

Here is the link

http://www.habware.at/duck4.htm

Hopes this helpes some of you out there.

Greetings

Poco

PS: If everybody already knows this, sorry for the trouble."