pugless

how very surreal....any point to this? Or just learning the software?

Hey The problem with modelling something like this is that it is such a well known character that any attempt you do will only gain applause if its great. Anyhoo, you look like you need to get some more reference. The link below would be a good starting point for a rotoscope to model too: Gir found via google Its from the intro sequence. Try and get the basic proportions and shapes right first, then worry about details such as the mouth. Laters P

Thanks for the replys so far! Hope there have been no further problems with folks viewing the reel. As for the comment about the run, I gotta agree. Just looks like filler I think. I'll definatly drop it with the next revision as soon as I get round to it, thanks for pointing it out!

Learn this! It sounds harsh, but go and delete half of your model right now, and work onjust one half. You'll save time, effort, and the girls will think your cool. Seriously.....er......ok maybe not the last bit, but you'll be glad if ya do. Also, you using reference of anykind? Remember, reference is king!

Hey folks! I've not been around these boards in a while, so I thought I'd post this and start being more active again...well until life rears its ugly head again Below are a couple of links to my latest reel. The work is a combination of AM stuff and Maya stuff as well as some 2d bits thrown in for good measure, comments and criticisms always welcome! Large size (48mb Quicktime) Small size (8mb Quicktime) iliadic.com - updated website

Good old copywrite issues Acutally it all depends on the country you are and what you doing with the work. Any thing written (with or without any copywrite symbol or other such nonsence) is copywrite protected in the uk for the life of the author and 70 years after their death. Again, the fun is in the details. If you just making something for a bit of fun, you could probably use (not saying this is good....but) copywrited material and get away with it. Only problem comes is when you try and make money from it....then again the laws are completly different if its for 'education purposes'... can + worms on this one. Best fire up the ol' google and see what you feel happy with, because in this day and age anyone can sue anyone for any reason under the sun (sounds a little dr. seuss ) so really just depends on what your comfortable with P.

Thanks alot for all of the replys. I think I got an idea for a method using a combination of those suggested. I'll post my results in a couple of months once I finally get around to finishing some other bits I've started! Thanks again!

Hi folks Just curious, has anyone had any luck creating sky filling clouds using sprites? if so how did you do it? Or have I missed a tutorial somewhere? Thanks for any info, P.

Thank you! I'll add you to the list of folks I owe an ice cream to! P.

Hiya folks I can't for the life of me remember where the skylight / sky rig / sky something website it. I remember someone creating a website where you could enter int he various values you had for a scene and it created the necessary lights and action files you needed for it (I believe it used sub frame techniques to use fewer physical lights).......did this ever exist? Was I dreaming? Was I eating too many mushrooms last year and took a 'bad' one? Thanks for any help!

Is that titimao? Its a wee bit small, any chance of posting a bigger version? P.

Well thanks everyone for taking time and bandwidth to have a gander at this one! I know there are a number of artifacts on the robot, and slowly (very slowly) I will iron them out. I still feel fairly new to this modeling business and sure don't have any nack for it (just lots of hours of hard work!). Thanks again! P.

Hey again! I'm not sure what the artifacts were caused by, but one day I may sort out that eye You may like a view of some of the poses and pre-textured images I found hidden away (they might be a bit large), enjoy P. Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7 Pic 8

It was done just using the two lights (one main, one to the side) with one casting a shadow. In some shots there is an extra light to help light the robot where the reflections didn't give enough light. Northing magical and quite basic really! P.

Hey folks, Thanks for the feed back. And as to your questions: er.......you only noticed one continuity error....trust me, Its full of them!!! Its partly cause its a bit of a rush job for the mimi movie contest. The other part is that it was origanally two separate toons for two different reasons, I just linked them together to make them more of a short and less like clips. Popular question The lighting set up is almost the same as what comes with the basic choreography when you launch a new one. Read 'Digital Lighting & Rendering' by Jeremy Birn to get a feel of it. I only really adjusted it to keep the lights in the same place for each render, or so the specular effects were in a similar place where ever the camera was. Most of the effect comes from the use of the camera. I tried to use mainly fish eye (as in really wide camera angles) to add some depth to the scenes, its 3D remember, lets use it! Also in the first half I used a lot of depth of field and motion blur to try and add a kind of dreamy haze to the image. The second half is ugly in comparision I feel. I was limited on time I had to render stuff so I had to go with standard rendering options, no multipass, blurs or depth. As for render times, I had (when using multipass, depth of field and motion blur) anything between 8 mins a frame to 30 mins. Without, they were about 5 to 10 mins a frame. This is on my 2.4Ghz machine at DV-Pal rez. On my mac, the times were greater. The first half took about 5 days to render, the second took longer (as it was simpler, but rendered on my 1GHz laptop).....the experience also left me begging for a batch render option! (Hint hint, nudge nudge....multi camera and multi chor. options would make my year!). I agree...also some continuity between shots would be cool too But another note on the lighting. I don't think it is anything special to be honest! Its really more of the model (the shineyness! Shiney with high specular and reflections) and the funky camera work. These piece was more for me to play with the camera and direction as I feel it is often a weakness of my stuff. Again, thanks for all the feed back, glad some of you liked it! Any more questions and I'll try to answer them, most though are really happy mistakes! P.