cfree68f

Cool idea Xade. thats the next step in the process I suppose. It was amazing how easy it was to get from the original to this. with no deletion of splines. You guys are giving me way to many ideas. C

yep. And Quiet succesfull experimentation at that. C

Mark, yep both magnet mode and lattices. Probably equal amount of both. Some mirror mode pulling as well. Took about an hour to get from my son's original "realistic" model.. to this toon version. I had a couple of winners in the intermittent stages as well. Wish I'd saved those.. but they would be easy to reproduce. Chalk it up as another one of my "uber model" experiments. Thank you for the thank you! C

Heres a better one.. Modified some stuff. Neck shorter. cleaned up the eyes. C

Yep.. at first he thought it was weird.. but after a while he thought it was pretty funny. Actually I just did it for a break and an idea. But I like it so much.. I might keep going after I finish the other stuff on my plate. I'll have to try it with my daughter and make a short out of them. Perhaps a "tom and Jerry" style bit. Or maybe "Wyle E Coyote and the Roadrunner" My kids are allways chasing each other around the house. Hmmmm. Makes me wish I had nothing else to do. C

and heres 45 minutes of tweeking on the original Coop head using Magnet mode and mesh warp. Fun, fun, fun. C

Ok.. I'd been playing with this idea for quiet sometime. Don't know if you guys know who Edward fudwupper is.. but its one of my favorite kids books from one of my favorite illustrators. I'd allways thought my son Cooper looked a little like Edward.. and I had to give it a shot. The how to; I use photoshop Liquify.. ALL THE TIME... for all sorts of things. From time to time.. I use it like the old morph tools to make funny faces. I took this photo... http://www.colins-loft.net/free/Coopsand.jpg and manipulated it to this in Photoshop.. http://www.colins-loft.net/free/ComicCoop.jpg As I did this.. it struck me that the same thing could be done with Magnet Mode in AM. And since I allready have a model of Coop... well you get the picture. Not sure what I'll do with it from here, but I thought I'd share with you guys. C

Stian, That second to last render was superb. The Colors and paints looked 99% there. The wheels looked much better. I was going to post my car for you to dissect.. but I don't think you need it now. You look like your handling it fine on your own. Lets see a wide angle shot up close. right up on the bumper. PLEASE! I might tone the reflection down on it just a little.. depending on what you are reflecting and make sure the reflection falloff is a lower number, so the car doesnt look like a mirror. Leave it high on the chrome. Oh and one "cheat" I did on my car.. you see it allot in the mags.. is to airbrush a "fatter" spec on the windows. Smooth glass doesnt show up well in dark lit scenes.. but you see it like crazy in beauty shots (just seems to look better) Try giving your glass a really large spec size and make it brighter on the glass. Just to see what it looks like. You might like it. Great work man! C

Hey Joakim.. try using the AM rig and following the tute in the Art of AM.. Adding a little backbone. Theres a video one as well. They work pretty good and the rig is fine. Same one I used on my Hero.. but I added many fan bones and used lots of custom weighting. That should at least get you a good rig in him though. Then the trick is getting the joints to bend good. Thats where Fan bones, weighting and Smartskin come in.. probably in that order.. in my oppinion. C

I made an image showing what I was talking about. but thought better of posting it on your thread. Let me know if you want to see it and I'll email the link to you. C

Model looks great. I've studied Nordic Myth since I was 11. My favorite of all mythologies. Odin was known to wonder the earth as a normal looking man from time to time. This could be that manifestation of him. Don't know about the teeth though. They make him look more like Loki than an Odin to me. I mean as the leader of the gods he should have some level of "Magnitude" to him.. even in his wondering guise. I agree about the beard as well. Traditionally Odin has one. His wondering look has a less full beard.. more like a Magician or illusionist than a full on Viking beard. How bout a patch for the eye? I like the stiches, but the patch might make him look more "evil" Save this guy though.. he's a good starting point for loki. I hope you're doing a Thor. I'd like to see him. C

Um.. dude? You beat me. Good work. C

I'm of the mind that if you posted before the contest was anounced.. No harm no foul. as witnessed by my hero post. But I prefer not to post after the topic has been announced just for the reasons stated allready. Don't sweat it. Its all about people helping people. The contest isnt that serious.. and its mainly for fun anyway. True you get fellowship if you place. But I doubt many people are overly influenced to vote for you just because they've seen your stuff before. C

Hey Stian, Nice work. I'm working on getting that chrome to you. I'll post it in the materials section when I get a chance. My only comment about the paint is that the specular hiLite is pretty big. and washes out the under paint. I'd make the spec size a little smaller. or try a Multipass render to see if the specular softens. Looks awesome as is! C

Come on guys. Who needs a toe when you can have a whole foot (ie.. without toenails.. but I just stamp those). I've also included a hand. Theres an arm and a waist in another post. Check at... www.colins-loft.net/free for those. hand and foot C

Hey, I know that guy. Nice sparks! C

Cool. Just select the spline you want to flip across with a shift click and that sets the flip. Then select copy/flip attach and you should be good. C

Ingenious! why didnt I think of that? See? you are allready teaching no tricks to old dogs. Keep it up. C

Melissa, Don't knock your work. That model you are working on is pretty impressive in its own right. Thanks though ;-) C

Here is a trunk... and the model for it.... RightMouseClick to save Link as and here is an arm and hand... and the model for it... RightMouseClick to SaveLinkAs Hope that helps. C

Very very cool. When you Render it.. Try using a wide angle camera, like 22 mm or something.. That tends to give it a more dynamic sleek look sometimes. Perspective is your friend. Great job man. C

Melissa. I think I have a solution for you. What you need is a direction map. The advantage of this is that it "aims" the hair from the base.. instead of bending it as combing does. Try this... http://www.colins-loft.net/hairbrush.html its an app I wrote to help paint hair direction maps. They are tricky because they use the different colors of the RGB channels to paint the direction. Red one way Blue another and Green 256 tweeks between increments. The paint app makes it a little easier to paint them as it paints the appropriate color in the direction you want the hair to go. Its good for parts and general hair styling. The problem is, this overrides Hashs combing once the map is applied.. so its all one way or the other. Theres a tutorial as well that might help. I think if you get the hair going in the right direction.. the collision will be fine. You are right in that the skull Cap is more than dense enough. Try combing the hair over the ears back first (without collision on) Then turn on collision and see what happens. If combing doesn't work.. try hair maps. Hope that helps. C

Melissa, the problem could also be if you are using a skullcap and I think you are. If so.. you need to have the cap outside of her skull and bring it into place with an action or pose.. so that the hair does not start out colliding. That "MAY" help. Johns right about the collision being on the guides.. so you might make the skullcap around the ears denser to see if you get more guides to work with (cumbersome at best) or comb the hair back and over the ear. Make sure your stiffness settings in the dynamics are stiff enough to keep the hair combed back. Also play with the constraint type. "Spring" might work better with collision than constraint (not sure). Hope that helps. C

yeah belly and arms can be tough. I'll cut out some parts tonight and post them for you to look at up close. Maybe that will help. Or you can just scale them and use them as is. Give me about 10 or 12 hours and I'll have some posted for you. I'll post here. C

Obviously. nice work. C