Uplift Universe - Image Entry: Vikram Mulligan

#21

Thanks – it’s probably what I’m going to go with. I’m still deciding whether to make the alien hand furry. I’ve done some tests in XSI, but I can’t figure out a good way of making curly hair. I had hoped to do this contest with the free XSI copy that Softimage is giving out, but I might revert back to Maya’s paint and hair effects.

#22

I’m still playing with possible looks for alien fur. Does anyone know a good way to make curly hair in XSI?

#23

I certainly hope everyone will take a break from rendering to shut off their computers for Earth Hour :slight_smile: .

#24

Here’s the base mesh for the alien hand, modelled in Wings 3D 0.99.01. The mesh is totally symmetrical right now, and I’ll keep it that way just until I do the UV mapping. I’ll then add a bit of asymmetry in ZBrush, as well as sculpted details.

#25

I’ve done the UVs now for the alien hand, using the Roadkill UV Mapper 1.1.

#26

I’ve started the detail work on the alien hand, now, using ZBrush 3.1. I’m going for a fleshier look than a human hand (or at least, than my bony hand, which I’ll be using for reference when I create the human hand in my image). I still want some hint of underlying bone and tendon structure in the alien hand, though; it’s not supposed to be a tentacle.

The colours aren’t final, and the alien hand might still turn out furry in the end :slight_smile: .

#27

I like your last model. Very nice design!

#28

Thank you very much!

#29

I’m still sculpting the alien hand. I’ve added detail to some of the suction cup fingers, now.

#30

Well, I could keep sculpting indefinitely. In the interest of moving on, I’ve started texturing the alien hand now.

#31

I’ve finished sculpting and texturing the alien hand, now. The original texture and displacement maps are 4096x4096. The displacement map is a 32-bit TIFF. I’ll post a rendering of the finished hand soon, once I set up the subsurface scattering material in Softimage XSI.

#32

Here’s the finished alien hand, rendered with the contest version of XSI. I might still add some fur…

#33

Hey Vikram really interesting to follow your thread I really like your alien Hand and the study you did .

#34

Thanks, Eric. I’ve taken some photos of my hand now for modelling and texturing reference – I’ll post some new work today or tomorrow.

#35

I’ve taken some reference photos of my hand. I’ll base my hand model on these, and I might lift some textures from them as well – though I’ll have to paint out the hairs, since I plan to do those with Maya paint effect geometry.

(Thanks to my good friend Patrick Goodale for helping with the photography. It would have taken me a lot longer if I had to be both in front of and behind the camera.)

#36

Hello Vikram,

If you select the hair than press enter, you’ll get the hair property page. In the property page you should see a set of hair presets. They have a curly hair preset that you should be able to tweek until you get what you want. If you boost your render hairs on the hair panel to about 75%, it will show how it will look before you render. Hope that helps. Looks great by the way!
Brad

#37

Thanks, Brad. I did play around with the frizz and kink settings, but I couldn’t really get a curly hair look (i.e. something in which each hair is a nice arc or spiral). I did get something that looks like sheep’s wool, though. Maybe I need to play around some more, but Maya’s paint effects give me more control, so I think I’ll use them for the curly hair on the human hand. I’ve used them before for this purpose (see this link). I’ll export those as geometry and import them into Softimage XSI. I think I’ll have longer, straighter hairs on the alien hand, which I will do with XSI’s hair controls (which will also allow me to groom the hair).

#38

I’m playing with the alien fur, now. It’s still not quite the way I want it, but it’s getting there.

#39

thats some really cool detailing dude! :eek: very curious about your next update!
good luck to you! :thumbsup:

#40

Thanks a lot, Neville. All the best! (And nice CGPortfolio gallery, by the way).