Eric2575

Here is a render of the reworked arms and a tweak on the legs for a better stance and ground contact. I want to do a short animation with this guy, would someone be willing to take a look at the model and show me where I might have problems with creases, etc? Thanks

Trust me, you will need patience if you want to create some of the awesome works that are possible with AM. Once you learn some of the tricks of the trade, so to speak, you'll really start to enjoy the process. Good luck and enjoy.

The first thing you need to do is go through all the tutorials in the book. I know you want to get right down to the meat of things, but as the saying goes, learn to crawl before you can walk...etc. In terms of modeling a character, the fighter plane tutorial, excercise 10, and the giraffe tut, excercise 11 are very helpful. You need to get basic splinemanship down before doing anything. Again, browse the forum and do the book's excercises first.

Hi Dana - and welcome to the forum. First off, Rodney is the moderator for this forum and he is the Mother Goose of AM land. Rodney, hats off to you, your help is always appreciated and can always be counted on. Personally, I found that checking into the various forums here has been of tremendous value to me. Start out by reading some of the posts you find interesting and then using the search function at the top of the page to get specific info on the topic you are interested in. You'll be amazed at how many other users have already asked the same questions you will most likely encounter. The AM forums are filled with talented and helpful users, never lacking encouragement for novice and advanced users alike. Hope this didn't come off like a commercial, but you couldn't have picked a better forum to immerse yourself in. Good luck and hope you crank out some awesome models pretty soon.

Thanks for the kind words and the suggestions. I agree with all of them. Turning out the legs a bit is a great idea. Yes, he is balancing on the feet right now - gonna work on that too. Glad to have a better ref for the arm - thank you. Gonna get to work and will update soon - maybe even tonight.

Love it! The knobbies are great and I also like the small detail around the axle nut. Are the spoke a little thick, or is that just my imagination? Can't wait to see more. Good job.

Are you using actual photos as rotoscopes? If not, it would probably help in lining up the panels a bit more. The taillight seems to be skewed somewhat. If you would post a wireframe, we could give some more constructive critique. Keep working it, practice makes really good.

Here's a render after more tweaks to the body. I don't have really good reference material for the T-rex, so I am doing a lot of guessing. I was surprised to find out that much of what we think we know about the T-rex is just speculation and movie mis-information. Scientists aren't sure if T-rex was a predator (goes after live prey) or a scavenger (only tries to get it's share of prey already killed one way or the other, ala vulture.) It is not known for sure if T-rex moved about upright as in the movies, or actually moved about with it's body in the horizontal using the tail for balance. The color and texture of the T-rex is pure speculation. It could have had thick hide like an elephant, or thinner skin like a lizard. It could have been brightly colored, even multicolored, or very monochromatic. As I was modeling the small arms of the T-rex, I found that I needed a clearer picture of what I was modeling. Looking for a source, I found that there has been only one T-rex skeleton found with a complete arm. Again, much speculation about this small appendage. It was too short to reach the mouth, so it wasn't used to eat. Scientists are still not sure of the exact function of this misshapen arm. Anyways, please let me know what you think. My personal quipps are as follows: Hips are still a bit too wide. I'm not happy with the look of the legs - bit too human like, and I'm still not happy with the way the small arms look....

That's very cool, looking forward to it. Here is my second body attempt, but this time I used the awesome T-rex model that used to be on the free Hash models site as a rotoscope. I did not want to make a duplicate of that model, so I used the outline from that model and did my own thing from there. Who did that first T-Rex? I would like to give credit to the modeler whenever I reference it. Is it a little heavy on splines, like around the legs? Critique please.

Really like your little guy, Chris. I know nothing about rigging, did you do his bones from scratch or did you import a rig? You mentioned something about TSM? Sorry to be such a noob, but I'm eager to learn.

Chris, that's exactly what I thought - pretty much everything you said. Had a lot more time invested in the head and will start tweaking the body this weekend. Same thing with the leg position - damn, should'a done it right the first time. Oh well, I'll take solance in the fact that it's my first try at this. When I looked at your avatar, I thought it would look really cool if your little guy was riding my T-rex cowboy style. Maybe, once Rex is done, you'll let me try a pose like that with him? Maybe make a short fantasy clip - we might both win a Hash contest at the same time with that - lol

Here is my first body attempt. The Giraffe tut really helped here. I had a rotoscope of a t-rex running and modeled the half in that position and then flip/copy/attached. Prolly should'a modeled him standing still first. Critique please.

The 3 point actually isn't that bad. I need to rework the lower a bit better. Btw Stian, love your Robot on treads. You do great work

Thanks! I found a site that had a really clear side view of a fossilized T-rex skull. I am using a Rotoscope of that skull for my model. The pic below shows two areas I'm not happy with. I used a 3 point patch in the upper jaw to seal off ends and a messy looking mesh to seal off the bottom splines. How could this be done more elegantly and smooth - more so on the bottom splines. Stian, the T-rex model you made available to me is also a great reference, thanks again and would you please give kudo's to the originator of the model.

Here is an update.

Ouch, that looks like it hurt!

Well, Idid get a laugh out of it What! You were serious??? Ahem,...yeah, ...I came to similar conclusions, ahem, ...yup, you're on the right track...hmmm...nanopores.........

I like your first image already. You can only go uphill from there. Btw, is the center of the star a 5-point patch?

Mark, if you could find that T-Rex model, I'd sure appreciate getting a copy of it. Although I'm going to model mine totally from scratch, the reference model will surely help. When it comes time to animate the Rex, should I also attempt that from scratch, or should I go the TSM2 route? What are everyone's thoughts? I will keep progress posted as time permits. Keep the input coming. Thanks

Read about someone who was looking for the T-Rex model from the free models section and couldn't find it. I thought, that would make a nice project for me. Please give me your input; I need all the help I can get.

Good guess, but I flipped the normals too. I don't like loose ends, that's why it's bothering me. Any of you have this problem? I'm starting up AM now, gonna make a 5 point patch, apply a decal and see what gives....The patch accepted the decal fine. I then skewed it to look like the one in the giraffe model and that went fine too. I then patch selected the offending 5 pointer in the giraffe model, turned it to get a better angle on the decal and applied. This time the decal went on better but still had some distortion. It must be a combination of spline issue and Video issue. Ok, so long as it doesn't show up in the final render. Thanks for your patience and input.

It doesn't show up in the final render. Definitely only on the 5 point patches. The model is clean, no double patches anywhere. Pressing pg down doesn't make it go away, just makes it look blockier. Changing from OpenGL to DirectX and vise versa doesn't change anything either. Deleted the decal and applied again with same results. When I change the geometry to eliminate the 5 point patches, it works, but I need to find a way around this because we all use 5 point patches. And don't tell me I don need no stinkin 5 point patches

Going back to basics and completed the giraffe. Glad to see that my mechanical modeling on the sub has paid some dividends. The giraffe was fast and easy compared to the Nautilus. Only problem, though, is that the giraffe decal is distorting in every 5 point patch. What is the remedy? The tut includes the 5 point patches also, but gives no advice on the distortions.

Makes me wanna open up AM and give them balls a try. Very cool!

Kinda like the lagoon at Universal Studios with the big screen in front of it. He, he