ectohippy

Wireframe of her head...

Well, dunno if I'll finish her anytime soon but here are some wireframes... now that I have more time I'm probably going to make some geometry changes that will make her easier to animate. -Matt

Hehe, thanks Jim. The only thing in that image that is finished is the lighting (it could use a few more tweaks but it's way passed the good enuf stage)... I'd call everything else in progress... she doesn't even have lipstick or eyeshadow yet!!!... or hair!!! Which reminds me... for those wondering, the eyelashes and eyebrows are hair emitters, man I love the new hair . -Matt

Well gang, I tried but I didn't quite finish it in time (yes I could technically work on it tonight but I wouldn't have enough time to do a good render) I'm going to work on the image some more anyway and finish it in my leisure time so I can enjoy the experience instead of rushing and not being happy about it. Still in the progress of rigging her so I can pose her, and she still needs decals (everything there now is 100% procedurals)... and I had grander plans for the textures in the background that I had abandoned to finish in time for the contest but that I will do now since I don't have a deadline. Oh... and that firestand won't be floating in midair... it'll gets some legs too . Anyway, here it is as far as I've finished it. Small version attached, large version here -Matt ps: crits welcome

Yves inspired me to go back to work on one of my old models (I have too many to choose from...). Started in v.9, stopped in version 9, because, well... it was version 9... restarted in 10.5 First the old version: Spinning Fairy New versions: half of the front side view The hair is a placeholder, it'll go away when I get 11.5 or 12 or whatever comes out next... I don't know what is causing the weird pattern on the wings or the leg, it seems to follow the splines but it only shows in a model window render and not the chor so I'm not gunna worry about it... yet. -Matt

Thanks Rod, Its sad that we need a moderator in there, but some people just don't know how to be civil, but don't worry, as long as folks aren't asking for warez or being complete jerks pretty much anything goes still, now we just have a way to deal with miscreants when they pop up... Anywho, the modeling just a half thing is conservation of effort, if a model is mostly symmetrical there isn't much point in duplicating the effort, kinda like mirroring bones and smartskin during the rigging process. But... if you have problems keeping your proportions right, I would recommend doing the whole thing at once, and use roto's to help keep your proportions in line... just so you have the visual cues that something might be off. A lot of my old work is just floating out there... waiting for me to finish it... I'll see if I can put a webpage together with all my older stuff on it. I'm using the OS X beta of 10.5 until Randy finishes that up and gets 11 ported over, I am oh so looking forward to using that new hair... some of my bald female models will finally be able to go out in public without a hat! :-). /me sends Randy a caffeine laced cookie bouquet -Matt

Hey Rod, I don't usually draw spline placement, since I don't necessarily stick to my sketch (or my photo reference), and in this case, I only drew a side roto, and even that was only for the head and torso. I wing the rest, especially with creature type characters where you don't have to get proportion 100% right on (a lot more fudge factor than you have with human characters). I come from the extrusion school of splining (and modeling in general my technique is pretty much the same in wings and LW, with just a few different rules to follow). I start with an eye model, position and size it and then do a ring for the beginning of the lids, shape and extrude, shape and extrude, until I get to the point where I'm at the nose bridge. Then I do the same thing with the mouth (just half of it though) then connect the two sections up and hen work in the nose, get the general face the way I like it, extrude out the back of the head and under the jaw until they join to shape the neck, more extruding... you get the picture... didn't mean for this to turn into a modeling tut, but this is true for anything I make, whether it be a minotaur, a goblin or a voluptuous salty pirate babe ;-). Which brings me to your other question. I model only half... because I'm lazy. I do copy flips along the way to check proportion but its just too much work to make sure mirror mode is on, or off depending on what I'm doing, and my technique developed before that was available so it falls into the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" category. I get everything the way I like it, do a final copy flip attach at the end and then do little tweaks to throw the symmetry off a little. Boy that was long winded... -Matt

His neck might be a bit too thin at the back and I'll thicken it up a bit when i get to defining out his back a bit more.. Anyway, small update, feet added, still fine tuning them, doesn't have toenails yet:

The lackey, who he's a lackey to is in progress, but she isn't ready for public consumption yet. Are ya happy now Parlo?, I posted him. -Matt wireframes: frontwire sidewire original sketch/roto: sketch