Ross Smith

Greetings, good community. What's up? Mine is a story you've all heard before -- making a model, looking for advice, secretly fishing for charitable encouragement. :P hehe These are bodyparts of a merman/creature from a dark fantasy story. Any critique would be good, but if someone could give me some pointers about modeling for animation, I would greatly appreciate it. [url="http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/gallery/mm/mm_head_side.jpg"]http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/ga...m_head_side.jpg[/url] [url="http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/gallery/mm/mm_head_front.jpg"]http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/ga..._head_front.jpg[/url] [url="http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/gallery/mm/mm_hand.jpg"]http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/ga.../mm/mm_hand.jpg[/url] [url="http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/gallery/mm/mm_arm.jpg"]http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rossmith/ga...y/mm/mm_arm.jpg[/url] The head is done, as far as I know. I just wish I had some way to model the front-on angle to look more intimidating. Aye, there's no elbow in the arm. I'm kind of lost about what to do there. I need to add one, but that's where "modeling for animation" steps in. There's a buildup of splines at the ends of the fins, as they are supposed to be fingers when all's said and done, and oughta function as such. Thanks much for looking! :)

Nice! He has pizzaz... pizazz? If you stick with the human hands (I like 'em), I would thicken the wrists a bit. His head is huge and low, and I get the impression that he's a very stocky figure.

While, we're pressuring our good Jim Talbot to make a tutorial... *pressure* *pressure* I'd read/do/buy it...

Here's to the sildeshow method. I, for one, love puzzle games in that Myst method, including the earlier stuff that Cyan did. (Anyone remember Manhole, or Cosmic Osmo?) Congrats on an incredible-looking render, and good luck. One thing: on the floor tiles on the right-hand side of the picture, there seems to be a rendering artifact of some kind. The lines dividing the hexes get jarred. Just wanted to say.

*falls off his chair* Wow. Seeing work like this is the best encouragement to keep truckin'. *at a loss for words* I mean, good Lord, Jim Talbot, where did you learn to render like that??

Yeeha! So, as perusers of this post can see, the nose issue has been resolved. I took some advice and just inverted it, which looks a lot creepier than any cute button-nose I had in mind. This skin isn't going to stay... It'll become darker and take on some more wrinkles and lines around lips, eyes, forehead, u.s.w. I'll have to texturemap the eyes eventually. I remember Emilio LeRoux had a really awesome eye animation circulating a few months ago... I'll have to divine his secrets. Mwahaha. What do ya think?

You tweaked it around the corners of the lips, right? He (she -- it?) looks a bit more expressive, like s/he/it's about to say something. Sort of lends a more articulated identity to the creature instead of something blindly animal. Totally hinges on what you're going for. I'm really looking forward to the results, DarkLimit. I've been astounded by your talent in your other work.

The Swinosaurus is of admirable make -- ninja-grade work, I dare say. -- Ross

Thankee. This is the truth -- he doesn't really need to have a nose. But there's a very particular sort of creature I am trying to make. This creature was designed after the fish-people in the H.P. Lovecraft story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." In this story (or at least, my imaginitive recollection of it), the unfortunates who descended from some mix of human and fish-creature gradually change into these freakish sea monsters, and then go live in the water off of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Something like that... I need to reread it. Anyhow, that's just backstory. It helped me determine how to sketch him out. When I sketched this fish-guy, I decided to have a very specific approach to his appearance -- that he would have an otherworldly look, that his human features would look withered and pale, and that the fish features would appear like a crawling lichen or a thriving parasite over his body, slowly taking him over. His model will have gills on his neck before all is said and done, and his nose will probably look like a smoothed-over brookstone that hasn't been used in years. *cough* So anyhow, I guess I wrote that just in case you wanted to know it. Heheh... but thankee much for the input. I should loosen up my expectations a bit. -- Ross

Heheh! Good pic. My sensitivities were shocked. ;D A T-Rex would certainly be a challenge, but don't be discouraged when it comes to modeling. For more than a month I've been making and tinkering on a character model from two sketches I drew, and the head is almost complete. Rotoscopes make modeling worlds easier. (I'm new to this "spline-based", "organic-modeling" stuff myself. ) Good luck in the future! --Ross

Hello, chaps. Thanks for the good advice -- I've been practicing my splinesmanship and pondering the when and where of a good five-point patch. My problems in that area are mostly solved. Here are some close-ups of the one thing standing in the way of what I would think total victory: the nose. I suddenly have near-venerating respect for those modelers who make realistic noses, nostrils and all. I doubt this model will have nostrils, but it would be nice if it did... at any rate, if anyone has advice for scultping this elusive feature, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks very much, and thanks again to those who have already helped me, particularly Mr. Sutton. =) -- Ross

18 Nov 2003 - First draft render complete! Thanks a heck of a lot, Hashers at Large, for the support. There's a new reply at the end of this post with a pic of the render. 13 Oct 2003 - I've added an updated post at the bottom, showing my progress on this project. I have some modeling questions about noses, in case anyone is interested in looking. --Ross ----------------------------------------------------- I've got a model in the works of a fishman/merman creature, and right now I'm just trying to get the head done. I hope to make it animatable in some limited capacity (I doubt I'll do phonemes). I have tried at least a dozen times to extrude a shape up from the neck to form the head, and this is this is the most successful attempt to date -- I think I can carry it to the finish line, with some more elbow grease. There is only half a nose up there, to go with the one eye. I plan on trying the copy/flip/attach trick later. Also, the inside of the mouth has been hidden. Apart from general advice, I'd just like to ask, how do you attach facial features to the head and each other? I've attached the eye to the head with satisfaction, but the nose is very tricky... I've looked at some amazing wireframes from folks out there like Jim Talbot, and it has helped a lot... but this seems like a technique issue. Thanks much! --Ross