Works in Progress

#341

Hi Mike,

First, I’d say it’d be a good idea to post some “standard” shots - pseudo front view, pseudo side view, back, etc. It’s hard to see from the fly-around how everything is proportioned and placed in relation to everything else on the model - make sense?

A few suggestions from what I can see:

Yes, she does need a bit of smoothing (and if you’re not using Porcelain, I’d suggest it) A lot of times, it helps to hide everything but the spline you’re working on - and then you tweak that spline so that it flows smoothly (at least it works for me)…

Her abdominal area is a bit on the flat side. Women have a couple of very distinct planes in their abdomens - the plane from the bottom of the ribs to the belly button goes in, next there is a plane from the belly button to just below the crest of the hips that pooches out, then there is the sweep from that “pooch” to the crest of the pelvic bone, and finally, the “flat” of the front of the pubic area. So, the curve goes (starting from the bottom of the ribs) in, out, in, flat… I’m sure that makes no sense at all - LOL!

Her breasts look like they are pointing very straight forward. If you look at her from the top, the centerlines of the breasts should make a “V” with it’s apex somewhere behind the back. The ribcage isn’t flat on the front, so the breasts should point away from each other somewhat - think of grapefruit halves stuck on the outside of a barrel. Her breasts don’t have the “hang” that I like, but I understand that that’s just my preference…

Her deltoids seem to be pretty far out on her arms - like she’s got exceptionally wide shoulders - this could be a stylization, but if you were to shorten that distance a bit, it might look more appealing.

There are a few anatomical cues missing - the double “bump” and divot of the collarbones, as well as the trachea and sternocledomastoids - but those can be added. I’m assuming you simply stuck the head on the body for now. If it is a continuous mesh, try to soften the transition between the neck and the head - it’s a bit sharp as it is…

I think her face is fine - I don’t really see anything to comment on there…

Overall, I think it’s looking pretty good - you just need to keep pushing and do the necessary tweaking. As with most things, the majority of the effort goes into finishing the last 20% of the model… don’tcha’ just hate that? :slight_smile:

JoeW

#342

Ok, thanks for the replies:

@Bugle: I appreciate I need to work on the ribcage, I’ve not done a good job on it at all - and point taken on the shoulders and collarbones (or lack of). As for the face, I’m soooo done with it - I’ve been working on it for yonks!!! No doubt it’ll evolve a bit more in the future, but I’m happy with it at the moment.

@JoeW: Where to start? Thanks for all that feedback, there are some still shots here, but you may have already seen them. I’ll redo some more stills, I think… On the smoothing of splines, do you mean horizontal, or vertical, or both? I guess it’s something I need to practice… As for her breasts, points taken: although I did model them not sticking straight out, obviously they’re not as far apart as expected. However, I am planning to put some restraints on her at some point, i.e. clothes. As for the hanging, hey, I’m going with Michelle Thorne for reference. As for shoulders and arms, I’ve not addressed them yet, but I’ll take that advice, thanks. Same goes for the head, it was kinda just stuck on… And yes, it’s the whole 80/20 rule, isn’t it?

Kind regards,

Mike Kingscott

:wink:

#343

Hi,

In case any of you haven’t been to the Hash forum, here’s a look at my new character.

I say, I think I shall call him Sir Nigel!

Jim

#344

Ooo nice. It’d be cool if you threw on a specular map as well. That would let certain areas of his face be shiny and others dry.

#345

Looking REALLY good Jim - as usual :wink:

I second Wegg’s statement - some specular intensity maps would really make him pop.

The color maps and bump maps look great - a little stretching around the bridge of the nose but that can be tweaked in the UV editor…

Going into hyper-picky mode, it would be nice to see some beard “shadow” in the color map and diffuse maps

Overall, kick-ass! - great job!

JoeW

#346

JTalbotski does it again.

He fits right in with the others that you have been making. They all have such character. I bet he is a bit of a go-er. I can see the years of dinner parties and balls written on his face.

The only fault that I could find was mentioned by JoeW, Oh, maybe the top edge of the mostache is a little straight also, but then he has had many years experience in pruning it.

I see that you are using r/t lights with just one sample in multipass. I find that this is the best route to soft shadows also.

#347

Thanks guys!

Yup, specular maps are definitely next on the agenda.

I was wondering, if your beard is white does it actually give you a beard shadow under your skin? I guess I should try it and see how it looks.

I haven’t tried the UV editor lately. When I tried it in v9, it was unusable. Maybe I’ll try again.

John, I don’t know how you knew that but you’re right. I use it because I can’t render hair with AA turned on (Mac). And I’m impatient. :slight_smile:

I did some revisions earlier today that I was going to post, but I do want to add the spec map first.

Thanks again,
Jim

#348

Egad! Jim, your talent is … is ripping!

Sincerely,

Carl Raillard

#349

Hi Jim,

Excellent work as usual, he looks fantastic… Hmm, he could be Alfred’s older brother
:slight_smile:

Looking forward to seeing the updated specular version,

Mike Kingscott

#350

Hi there,

Due to suggestions received, I’ve applied Porcelain to my model, albeit quite uniformly, leading to loss of definition around the face. That said, it was 1:30am and I was in a rush :stuck_out_tongue:

The new pics can be found here

I’ve also altered the deltoids, but not as much as required, I think…

As before, any advice/criticisms are gratefully received…

Kind regards,

Mike Kingscott

#351

I really like this model. I think the porcelain is working well here. I also think the hair is good. Though I think it would be cool to try her with the new hair as well.

Congrats on some good work here.

#352

I added the specularity map and some more hair. I tweaked the nose splines and reworked the moustache a bit, too. This is done with v10.5.

Jim

#353

Looking really good, Jim. Have you tried adding your bump map back in as a diffuse map and keeping the value at something like 5-10%? Bump maps can look a little sterile unless you add some “variation” in the coloring to match them.

The other possibility is to go into Photoshop and overlay your bump map as a “Screen” mode to the color map to add the variation to the color that matches the bump. I think if you play with one of these techniques, it would add a lot.

And while I’m on that subject, doing the same to the specular map (adding the bump map to it in Photoshop) would add a lot, too…

Still, as it is, a very nice image :thumbsup:

JoeW

#354

Jim,

That’s fantastic - with ol’ sir Nigel looking directly at me, it’s incredible… I feel like I’ve done something wrong and he’s displeased with me, but in a “Oh, dear…” type of way.

Looks great!

Mike K.

#355

Mike> Whoa! Neck far too wide in front view. A “swan neck” is a big feminity cue…

Jim> Great model. The lapels of his jacket look a bit sharp/flat, but I guess you really aren’t focusing on that part yet

#356

I’ve been toliling away at a cg model of naomi campbell.
Here is what i have so far .

#357

Love the image Jim but I’m not enamoured of the specular highlights apart from those on his nose - (I get a shiny nose sometimes) but the bright highlights elsewhere undo the excellent texturing work.
He has too much of a “plastic” or “Gel-coat on Glass-Fibre model” shinyness for my liking now.

#358

I’ve started working on an animation for the official Q02 animation contest at Hash.

An animatic is posted at:

http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg724n/animatic.zip

As has already been pointed out, I need to do some learning about codecs. As is, the file is the only codec I could get to accurately represent the timing of the animatic.

#359

If you use the Animation Codec with a Depth of 256 grays, set your frames to 10/sec and use MPEG-4 Audio at 11.025khz, 16-bit mono - you get a file that’s 1.42 MB and is all but indistinguishable from your original…

BTW - Is this a Dragonball Z thing?

JoeW

#360

Thank you Joe, and yes, it is. I don’t plan to use the Vegeta character design though - I’ve actually got something else in mind.