Ross Smith

Looking really good, Hutch! You've got the smoothness of the contours down flat -- err, hmm... They're just fine. I would suggest making the nose a bit taller, so that it is a bit closer to the top of his lips. Right now it looks a little too small (to me). Webbing on the wings might be like the webbing on the fingers that I've done for a character. I can tell you about if, if you'd like. Keep up the good work. :-D

Wow. This looks amazing! Glad I asked.

Smashing. It'll be real good, see? Rocky likes his animations, see... What sort of lighting rig are you using? Did you make it yourself, or is it squirreled away in some bit of A:M lore? In any event, it looks really good. =) Also, just wondering -- is the Fat Man going to fit in the car?

Alrighty then, on to texturemapping. For some reason I am leery of rigging... maybe it's because I've never really done it before. Hmm. So I'll map him first. Here's some work on the scales. Let me know what you think. Scales, far Scales. close-up Also... See how the scales there suddenly stop, so they look like sequined hoochie pants? Yeah, I made this texture with a tessolation. This comprises the color, spec intensity, spec size, bump, and diffusion. (3x scale): A tessolation makes it rather difficult to do any sort of non-abrupt transition to another texture. Does anyone know what I'm talking about/has anyone done something like this before? I'm thinking, scales giving away to skin, like the gradient of a beach to grass. Anyway. Thoughts, comments, and help are most welcome.

He's got attitude. I like. About those tricky CPs you mentioned... I had problems like that in my model, too. It pays in the end if you try hard to make every patch a quad -- that way, each CP has two splines running across it. It keeps things smooth and makes future editing really easy. Have you tried using hooks and five point patches yet? Once you get the hang of them and learn to use them sparsely, they'll make modeling a ton easier. I think they're in the manual tuts. Best of luck!

For your first head model, let alone your first mesh, that's mighty fine. You're right about it running a little thick on the splines, but other than that it looks great. =) Congrats! Now the next step: modeling for animation... that makes it trickier.

Alright, here's an update -- the tail is a bit longer (maybe not too noticeably), the fold under the ribs is a bit better, and I thickened the arms a smidge. Also a close-up of the head, for kicks. Whole body The head I suddenly realize that links are better than posting the whole pic. Hmm. -- Ross

I was thinkin' about that actually, DarkLimit. How many people do we have around here modeling scary icthyoids, anyway? Thanks for the comments, fellows. That head took more than a month to model, Mike, so I hope it looks good! I could devote only five or six hours a week to it because of classes, but I'm proud of it... I tried to fix the troublesome skin area under the ribs, and it looks better. I'll post something later today with these modeling changes and my will-be texturemap patch groups. Big-time excitement -- I've never really done UV mapping before.

Ja, very nice splining indeed. You've got great control over the shape. Hmm... does it need texturemapping? White doesn't look bad.

Ah hah. That's logical -- just today my brother made the same observation. Sounds like an improvement, then. :-D

Your texturemapping just keeps getting better. What's the secret, is it technique, a piece of software? Both? I'm envious!

Thanks for the input, guys! Glad to hear from you, Zaryin, your input is always constructive. I'll try lengthening the body, too. Hmmm... The shoulders do need to bulk up a bit, ja. I set out to make a character with a very specific design, back in the day when I was doing the sketches. Now I'm not so sure what it is I wanted. To answer your question about the arms, Jim, my goal was to make a creature that was once human that somehow "developed" into this mer-creature. (Readers of HP Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" know what I mean.) In that spirit, I wanted to make the remaining "human" parts of the creature look wasted and wan, while the "fishy" parts thrived. I was going for arms that slid out and elongated, with flippers and large muscles developing towards the wrist to resemble a frog. Perhaps I need to look at more frogs... Wider hips? Hmm. I wanted to make this creature androgynous, so's I could make males and females from the model later. Do you say wider hips with the impression that it is female? I'll try it and see. Thanks all! I'll post a revision of the arms/hips situation later. --Ross

** EDIT: 4/8/04, update has been posted on page 3.** Hey there, folkses. I'm making strides in my first big Hash project. The modeling for my merman character is nearly complete -- by complete I mean "all parts are there", not "perfect". I doubt I'll ever get it to that point. Anyhow, I want to make sure the proportions and overall look strike people well. Once I fine-tune that, I'll start decimating unnecessary splines and then -- *gasp* -- texturemap it. I know the bottom of the tail ends a bit ... flat. I'll fix that. Thanks! --Ross

Yow! Really great character design. I like the outfit a lot. Could you post a 3D shaded render, out of curiosity? The toon looks good, but I wonder how different it is... I'm still getting a handle on how toon works.

My browser (IE 6) can't load the image. Did you link it properly?

Really fun! Animating and motion look good -- I would only recommend working on the cricket's face, sculpt it for a little more detail. I look forward to more.

I heartily concur. Your artwork strikes me, Darklimit, I mean that. I would be sorry if you had to let this project go.

Thanks for the support, all! =) It is appreciated and motivating. I think I'll go for that slimy look, Sean.... that sounds good. I'm going to figure out a good, symmetrical pattern like you might see on a salamander, for the color-mapping. I'll post with progress later. And thanks again!

Hey all. I'm looking for a little input for my little, on-going merman project. I am now attempting/struggling to texturemap the head. Jim Talbot's video tuts have been really helpful in this capacity, since I needed to know how A:M allowed the magical UV process to take place. But from a more artistic standpoint, I really don't know what to do. What sort of skin tone would look best? How thick should a person lay on shading and facial features? Does he need color mapping for wrinkles, or should I leave that to bump mapping? Any input is quite welcome. Here are some pics. [img]http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/gallery/mm_tm_side.jpg[/img] [img]http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/gallery/mm_tm_front.jpg[/img] [img]http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/gallery/mm_tm_angle.jpg[/img] Thanks for lookin'. :) --Ross

Very cool! You've got the carved puppet look down. The highlights look good, I think... it's like the wooden head has been painted and varnished. Really cool effect. How do you think it would animate, though?

Zaryin, It took me a while to even find that spot I mentioned in my previous post. It looks like it was just some kind of light trick: In any event, that's a really nitpicky detail. I'd just ignore me. Specularity map? OK, coolness. Looks good. --Ross

Zaryin, Looks very sharp. =) I like the very light bump-mapping. Around the back of the calves, I see two "corners", where the patches appear to meet. If you throw one more spline between them, it might break that up. Do you see it? That's the only part of the modeling that struck me as less than excellent. Looking forward to developments!

I'm running Windows XP, and the movie played just fine on my machine. Great tut so far! I already feel like I'm bearing witness to mystical secrets, and I haven't even seen the whole thing. :P

Thanks for the input, guys! :) I really appreciate it. I made two different arms, one thick and one thin. I couldn't decide which one to use. Here's one with the bicep, Zaryin: [url="http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/gallery/mm/mm_arm_thick.jpg"]http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/ga...m_arm_thick.jpg[/url] They each have merits, but it would be easier to insert an elbow in this one, methinks... *ponders*

As usual, very impressive. I like how you use the bent, glassy-looking trail on the bullets. You rock the style department.