I’ll be modelling Zabuza (guy on the left) from the anime/manga series, Naruto (possibly the best anime series ever? :D). Really looking forward to this competition - Now that uni is over for the year - nice to be able to sink my teeth into something fun! Haven’t done any character modelling for some time…
I’ll post some more images and some concept stuff tomorrow!
Prepare for the Devil of Hidden Mist 
EDIT: Changed the image to one that (hopefully) works 
I can’t see the reference image, but I love Naruto! Great choice! If I have time, I may do Haku… Dunno…
Okok, I’ve been slacking - I’ve been back home for most of the week and I haven’t had access to my computer or much time to draw (saw the Chili Peppers (with support from James Brown(!!) in Cardiff last night - f*cking superb :D). Anyway, yeah so I haven’t finished my concept yet (still). But I plan to. I plan to actually get this model done. I will post the concept later tonight. I promise! :sad:
I promised you concepts and I have delivered: 
Random Zabuza caricature to get me in the mood (I may paint this digitally at some point)…
Front view of his ‘Final Battle on the Bridge’ outfit… I haven’t drawn the bandages hanging round his neck on there (see the caricature image above)… but rest assured, I will model them though! 
…and his famous Head-slicing Cleaver 
Looking at them, I’ve just realised that I don’t have a side-on view yet… so that’s something to do tomorrow. The front view only took a couple of hours (one of which was on a very bumpy coach, so it wasn’t that efficient), so the side view should be fairly painless. Let me know what you think guys!
Thanks!
EDIT: 30 posts! Avatar woo!
Cheers Dave!
Funny you should say that - More or less finished the modeling of the cleaver (unoptimised and not unwrapped yet):
390 tris:
Not really sure how to go about optimising it (and triangulating it). Should I unwrap it first, then triangulate, or should I not bother unwrapping it at all? Do i need to triangulate it? It’s wide and thin… would be easy to do a planar projection of the texture… Opinions/help please!
(In terms of scale, this stands a little bit taller than Zabuza himself)
EDIT: edited the cleaver progress image so it doesn’t stretch out the page width of CGTalk - man I hate that
Here is how I would optimize it -
In the image, the green area is flat, so it doesn’t need as much definition as you have given it. I’ve circled the areas were added vertices are virtually useless other than to make the mesh look really clean. When you triangulate the version you have, the flat area comes out to 42 tris. In the optimized version, I’ve removed those vertices and it comes out to 29 tris, about a third less then the original and it is still as flat as it was. I know it looks ugly as hell triangulated like that, but it will look fine when rendered. I hope this will help you.
Superb! Maya 6.0’s lovely tri-counter will definitely come in handy then!
Cheers Lekku
I would suggest rotating your handle by 45 degrees, along…Z axis, I think. Basically, make it a diamong shape, when looked upon from the top, instead of a square. It’ll give a better impression of being round.
Cheers Strider! Very Very much appreciated. This is helped by the fact that Lekku informed me that we don’t actually have to triangulate the models, so optimising should become a lot easier thanks to you! Sorry I didn’t reply sooner - you’re a new member, so your post didn’t show up straight away!
Zieroth: That’s a good plan dude. I may just do that. I will however also (hopefully) be applying normal maps to make it look more rounded… Hopefully I can pull that off, but yes, I do need to make it more square and rotate it round a bit! Thanks!
I started modeling Zabuza’s head late yesterday, progress pics later today!
Hey Dan, already thats starting to look pretty wicked! I just read your posts on the NCCA forum and thought i’d come check it out over here! Can’t wait to see the character modelling, and after hearing how wicked the anime itself is, i really wanna find it and watch it!
Also, you went to see the chili peppers in cardiff?? You should have given me a ring mate!! I went too - it was awesome!
Keep up the good work mate.
I quickly sorted out the problems with the cleaver (thanks to Strider and Zieroth) this morning.
Managed to cut it down to a sexeh 350 (edit: now 322) tris:
(Updated Image: 16:22 GMT)
As I said previously: head modeling is (sort of) coming along - update later!
EDIT: Hmmm… just spotted that random edge on the blade - removed :rolleyes: And just noticed some other things I hadn’t quite cleaned up - looking much nicer now: 322 tris now
Well, if ya give me some DVDs after Summer I can stick 'em on them
Oh crap! I didn’t realise you actually went to that show! I thought you might have gone with Leanne to the Hyde Park gig… sorry dude! :rolleyes:
Cheers for your comments 
well, my unending problems with my crappy unbranded RAM DIMMs came to a head last night - my PC supplier said if I send them back, I could get some decent branded (Kingston no less :D) replacements. So I’ve sent them back. Of course, that means I have a PC with no RAM… which means no PC with Maya… No PC to play games… No decent PC to do anything. So I’m on my crappy family PC writing to you guys. That’s about all I can do. I can’t even access the screen grabs of my progress to post for you. Muchs suckos :shrug:
So unless some RAM magically materialises on my doorstep today… I’m certain I won’t be able to meet the deadline 
Sorry guys! I will endeavour to finish this model once I get some RAM back in my machine!
Cheers for your comments…
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