CreativeAustinYankee

Want to keep easy track of which way your normals are facing as you're modeling? Go into Options, select the Rendering tab, and turn off "Show Back Facing Polys". Notice one that you want to change? Use the Patch Group tool, and hit the F key. If you don't normally keep track of which way your normals are facing, you might be suprised at how many you find. Steve P.

Candlewick

He's moving too slowly. At the speed he's traveling, he wouldn't even reach the light. Keep at it. Steve P.

Foam from a shaving cream dispenser. Interesting, but it seems a tad too liquid. Steve P.

The first one's pretty mesmerizing, but a really cool effect! The second one looks alot like some space/time wormhole effects I've seen. Great stuff! Steve P.

It depends a bit on what you want to do in this room. If it was just a bedroom, I'd recommend some soft colors, personally I like natural colors ( forest green, sky blue, ect...) Since you plan on working on your computer in there as well, you want alot of light, soft light but bright enough to allow you to correctly see the colors on your monitor. As for decorating your room, colors that spread light would help, perhaps a light blue/green and a white ceiling. Additionally, you might reconsider the placement of your furniture. The following is partially based on my understanding of Feng Shui and how your work enviroment mentally affects your creativity. The placement of your furniture in your room looks too boxy - linear. I wouldn't have my bed next to my computer desk. If there's room, I'd suggest angling your bed kitty-corner, with the feet pointing toward the door. Trust me on this one and try it out. Have your bookshelf close to your computer desk, you don't have to go as far to grab that reference book. The few moments you take looking for a book might be just enough time for that brilliant idea's inspiration to fade away. Anyway, my two and a half cents, Steve P.

In NO way, do I want to discourage you and the progress you're making. I've been gifted with a critical eye and I find it more helpful to receive (and give) carefully thought-out criticism. For your first model, this is extremely well-done. I really like the stylistic look of this model. The first character I modeled was a robot, nice easy geometric shapes. Anyway, here goes. I recommend adding a pic showing us the splines, helps to give us an idea of how you put this together. One beginner mistake is to use too many splines to accomplish the job. Also, I would recommend separating the sword and shield from the rest of the model. This should help when you go to animate more complex scenes. Looking at the character, two things really struck me as out of proportion. His legs seem a bit too short and his hands look too small. Considering that part of animation is exaggeration, larger hands would help you convey more personality. Also, looking at the first pic, the arm pit areas look like they could use some work to smooth them out. I'm not sure what it is, but in the first pic, the pupils of the eyes seem strangely "off" somehow. Three toes? I know that it's common in animation to give characters only three fingers and a thumb on their hands, but three toes just doesn't look right. Looking at the second pic, his head (face area) seems a bit flat. Study some of the available models, there's several of cartoony-type boys, that would help in this area. Also, his mouth seems wrong, deformed unnaturally. On the plus side: I really like the look of the textures and materials that you've used. The skin tone (though perhaps a bit shiny) is nicely done. The wood grain on the shield is good as well. Above all, I like the character. It has alot of appeal. Now all he needs is a wooden dragon for him to practice with. Keep working on this guy. All the best. Steve P.

A word or three about dungeons (As I slip on my old DM cap): Sure there's plenty of generic dungeons out there, but to really give it a sense of reality, consider who it is that built this dungeon. A human necromancer is going to have a considerably different fashion-sense than a dwarven king. This is were all the subtle little details really distinguish a well-crafted dungeon from the everyday generic dungeon. Also, it will make a BIG difference in the types of denizens that lurk about. The undead (with perhaps the exception of a vampire or some other more refined creature) aren't going to be as concerned about the pleasantries, the stonework is going to be old, cracked, and filled with dust and cobwebs. Light sources will be in disrepair if they are even present. More than one victim might be visible... and on and on....I'm sure you get the idea. A magic user will have made excellent use of runes, spells, and traps. A warrior will have sturdy hardwood, stone, and iron throughout. There's plenty of other examples, but the point is, dungeons are going to fit the characters that created them The dungeon that you have now, while functional, lacks character. A few nicely thought out details should flesh things out a bit. "What do you mean he rolled a 20! I had my magic boots on....Fine!" Steve P.

I noticed that he has hair growing out of his eye....yoww!! In case you don't know, to fix this... make a group of all the patches that you want to have hair growing from apply hair material to the group, not the model. That should take care of it. Steve P.

Following along with the book Excercise 5 Take A Walk, I've been unable to fix the slipping occuring. I've adjusted the stride length, shortening both points, lengthening both points, lengthening one point while shortening the other, nothing seems to really work. How do you adjust the stride length to get rid of slipping?

A comment on your spaceship/sub: I gave it a close look over, most of it is very fluid and smooth, befitting it's intended purpose, what struck me as out-of-place were the (engines)? They lack the same slick lines the rest of the vessel has. They aren't fully integrated with the design of the rest of the ship. It may be a small nit-pick, more about style choice, but.... Steve P.

From a modeling viewpoint, your models look quite good, but perhaps a bit patch-heavy, a particular example would be the angels on the Ark. Study some of the humanoid figures that were created in AM, and you'll see where you can get away with less. To really get some quality critiques on the modeling, you should strip all the models down to wireframe and post pics of those from a few different angles, it looks as though you might be used to dealing with polygons. Patches are much more economical and forgiving. Then again, I'm not sure how models native to AM interact with other programs. My two cents. Steve P.

Bat wings aren't so tough. It looks like Mark has some descent ones that you could work with, but what I had in mind was much smaller, some so small that they don't look like that he could use them to fly. But, again, this is all about style choice. I'm sure there are some people who think bat wings on demons has become cliche. Basically, give a good thought on character for this guy, decide what fits and what doesn't, what characteristics do you use to define this type of demon? Steve P.

This is more about stylistic choice than anything else. I recommend lengthening the tail, part of the appeal of this character, particularly in animation, would be the secondary motion and character attititude that could be expressed with a longer tail. I'd model the ears so they came to points at the top, perhaps even curl the tips a bit. It would give the demon a more impish quality. Oh, and maybe some rudimentary bat wings. My two cents, Steve P.

If you want fantasy reference, probably dragon teeth would the best reference. If you want real world reference, you might consider studying alligator teeth. Generally, when I think of Draconians, I picture a mouth full of pointy canine-like teeth, different lengths. However, you need to give some thought as to how close the camera is going to get. As long as you're pleased with the final results, the less detail you can get away with the better. Steve P.

..."So how come you let the kid get away so easily?... I don't know about that, it does look like he gets his head stepped on. Looks like a pretty good start. Steve P.

weird optical illusion... After watching this for a time, if you concentrate on the feet, it looks like the back foot is kicking the middle of the forward foot before taking a step forward. I guess it's the angle. It looks like a pretty simple walk cycle, the only possible suggestion I could make is to tweak the arm movements a bit to avoid symmetry. Steve P.

Jason, Keep at it and keep it simple. And if you're looking for just a smidge more of a challenge, try a staple puller, a butterfly paperclip, or a hole punch. What you've got looks great so far. The thing that's really valuable to learn by doing these simple kind of models is getting the most out of the least amount of splines. Steve P.

Reminds me of some weird sci-fi B-movie. Instead of Warning From Space or The Crawling Eye.... The Falling Eyes? Thanks for the project. And...KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES!!! Steve P.

double post...

Wow, there's alot of potential there. It looks like a character caught in a downpour with flashes of lightening. A really spooky effect for this would be to leave it black and white and combine it with a color scene. Something one of the characters sees for just a split second. With the right model and animation, this could really be creepy. Thanks for sharing. Steve P.

This may seem like a stupid question, but, every chor comes with a default ground model, you have removed it, right? Steve P.

Antonio, Welcome to the forum. Try these links for creating a simple head. http://www.ovis.net/~cgroves/tips/toonhead/toonhead1.htm http://www.lowrestv.com/arm/search3.asp?bo...ateAdded%20desc A crit on your animation: It's a great start, I think it could use a bit more ease in/ease out. Steve P.

I agree with what the others have suggested. One additional small crit: to give the pic some more contrast, change the wall color, choose a complimentary color (perhaps a forest green). The current color is too simular for the guitar to effectively stand out. Just one guy's opinion. Steve P.

Umm... not to discourage you, but the antennae look more like horns in the pic. You might consider making them much more slender, possibly curved. Most bug antennae are segmented, that could work well with a mechanical bug. As far as the body, since this is a cartoony looking character, too much realism would probably work against the simple character design. Depending on your plans for this character, a simple one piece (think turtle shell) would work nicely. Just my opinion. Steve P.