PROJECT PHOENIX ENTRY: Uwe Kerpen

#1

Hi,

like the most of us here, i don’t know if i am going to finish this project.
At least this is a nice excuse to model something different than maschines and car parts :slight_smile:
So here it goes:

Surrounded by barren land stands an old warrior statue of a long forgotten culture.
Wind, rain and centurys of sandstorms have broken parts of the old king away and turned them into rubble. Inside, hidden for so long, the core of all living is revealed. The statue of mother earth stands unharmed and beatiful.
Sometime war and death will be gone, life goes on :slight_smile:

On to the drawing board!

Oh well, i never modeled a human figure before, but hey, this will be fun!

#2

Welcome to the contest. Looking forward to seeing your sketches. Remember they are due by midnight tomorrow night.

Good luck!

#3

Woo!

Go Uwi, I hope you beat me :wink:
Ian

#4

here we go!

sure i will beat you or NOT… :slight_smile:

i am kinda afraid of the modeling task, never done something like that.

_
i hope you can see anything on the pic.
my scanner (never touched for 2 years) failed for some reason. i had to go the digicam route.

#5

I like the statue the lady (maybe a little young for mother earth) is in. Maybe she could be a older to impart a scense of wisdow?

What are your ideas for your background?

Buggsy

#6

nothing fancy, i guess.
right now i am in the middle of a project and the modeling of the statues will take some time.
some kind of landscape with some rocks and little (very little) vegetation should do.

what i want to try is generating some nice clouds with just the eias toolset (no fancy 3rd party stuff here).

edit:
oh, forgot the lady. i think mother earth is not young nor old, she is just a representation of something beautiful. think about it. god is often pictured as an old man with a beard. why?
i don’t know. i don’t think there is anything like a gender or age for a deity.
just my opinion :slight_smile:

#7

well, today i started modeling.
here is the 1st wip render:

the model still needs some heavy work. i think i have to change the hair. how? i don’t have a clue right now :slight_smile:
but first i have to start on the rest of my setup.
now the problem: looks like the normals get messed up using the fact export.
look at the chin area. do i have to go trough transporter?
btw, this is my first model using silo. quite nice workflow.

critics welcome

uwe

#8

here is a closeup. i tried transporter and got nothing. the model was not even visible anymore. are there any special settings i have to use? anyone? reuben?

#9

after “refine control mesh”, try modify>tesselate: to triangulate the polys.

I have gotten pretty good results saving as .fac right out of Silo without having to run thru Transporter even without tesselate/triangulation. I think also if it is too dense it can cause problems, usually subdivision of 2-3 is sufficient.

looks good so far.

k!

#10

The model is still there - just not visible for some reason…

export as usual and it should show in EIAS

#11

thanks kevin, i’ll try that.
i guess 440k polys just for the face is a little dense :slight_smile:

#12

You might get better results exporting an .obj from silo then convert with obj2fac or transporter.

Its a pitty about the Silo fact export, its nice not to have mess around with file converters, but it seems everyone is using GI now, and with GI (and the occlusion shader btw) this problem manifests itself.

Another way is to use the Encage plugin, although i’ve just tested this and the only way to get a clean render was using “loop” sds and triangulating output also which results in a slightly different surface as you would see in Silo.

Probably the best work flow would be to export a low-res mesh (obj) > transporter > Encage.

Good luck !

Reuben

#13

thanks for the tips reuben. unfortunatly i don’t own encage.

i think it’s strange that this only occures when using GI or occlusion. very strange.
well, i have to investigate this later, on with more modeling.

…blocking the torso

#14

This is so great! I envy you. I make textured boxes and cylinders and you make art…
Good job!

#15

thanks rick. very kind of you, but i wouldn’t go as far as calling this art.
i am still learing to use silo. today i discovered the topology brush and started to model some new and inproved (i hope) hair.
first test with just some strands:

i think this is a doable way for the hairs. what do you think?
as you can see i decided against modling “in pose”. well, i never rigged a character in eias, but i am willing to try my best. at least this way i will be free to change the pose without remodeling. so, where is that rigging tutorial? :slight_smile:
tomorrow i will start with the lower half of the statue, the broken warrior.
uwe

#16

update on the lower part.

#17

Uwe, I’ve follow your thread for quite sometime, you work very fast, and your model is very nice:thumbsup:… the muscle of the leg looks very good. but the topology is too even, I’ll suggest you try the Spin Edge “\ key” on some of the edge (may be you already know it)

regards,
Loon

#18

thanks loon.

do you mind to explain why the spin edge is any helpful?
i don’t have a clue. this is my first try at silo and character modeling in general. so, i need any help you can provide :slight_smile:
but i have to say this real fun so far. i think i have learned A LOT, just sitting down and doing this.
thanks brian! without this contest i would not have learned or bought silo.
after trying EIMs übermesh for a few hours and getting really nervous :slight_smile: i tested the silo demo and after 2 hours orderd it without hesitation.

ok, little shading test with the “too even topology” :slight_smile:

#19

Hi Uwe,

The shaded statue looks very nice:thumbsup:, the modeling style is very suitable for statue, you can forgot what i’ve suggested (spin edge).

do you mind to explain why the spin edge is any helpful?

Spin Edge, more into organic modeling, select ‘one’ edge press “” Key (PC), the edge will be rotate, very good in model muscle and clothes.

for more information in spin edge, here are a great tutorial from Tony Jung :thumbsup:
http://www.nevercenter.com/tutorials/html_tutorials/user_tutorials/character_modeling/
a very long tutorial, he use spin edge quite a lot…this is a tutorial that silo user must read…

now back to my work…:slight_smile:

regards,
Loon

#20

nice tutorial. i have seen it before, but i am way to lazy to go through it all! :slight_smile:

some more detailing and modeling updates.
bringing it all together i’ve got so far:

ladys hands seem a little small. well, still enough time to fix it…
i am not so sure about the shading/texturing of the lady. she has to be somehow astral but still made of stone. that will be a hard one.
sometime i have to get a good anatomy book.

uwe