patrick_j_clarke

Okay, I've been away for a while, and Rodney told me to check out this thread. WOW! Great job on the model Lee!! I know how it is working with the old red and gold armored guy and the armor you've modeled is quite the complex set of duds! The final render is nicely done (although I prefer a little more red and gold personally) and is top quality! Would love to see War Machine created by you. - pjc

At some point (when and if I do more than one character) I think something could be possible, but I haven't heard from the creators of the series at all yet. - pjc

yes, those are bump maps. I overexaggerated the abs a little more than I usually would because of the white and red, and when it goes to CMYK I was worried it would flatten a little too much. I've had people say he looks like Sgt. Slaughter, but John Cleese, I like that too! - pjc

It felt very "Astro City" Alex Ross to me, but it could be the costume... Thanks, martin! - pjc

While I was continuing work on my Superman model I had a stop at Image comics booth during the San Diego Comic Con, and got to talking to the great creative team that makes a superb comic called "Invicinble". As a study in how quickly I could take my Superman and turn him into Invincible's dad, "OmniMan" (he's their worlds Superman) I created this image. About 3 hours work. He's got a new face sculpt and new face map (based on my face this time). The funny thing is, he kinda reminds me of my dad...with a mustache...<<image missing>>...hopefully the guys at Invincible will dig it and put it in their book...fingers crossed...now back to Superman. - pjc

Nice start! The one thing to remember with Wolvie is that he ain't much of a smile-type guy I don't know if would help, but I'd go buy a Wolverine figure to help out. You can still tweak it to your stlye, but having something to hold and turn sure helps out sometimes! ...and Rodney, dig the John Byrne pix! I was a big fan of the "brown costume"! - pjc

Well, the model started as Jim's Superman Kingdom Come model, but I resculpted it to do my version of Superman. His neck is in a pretty extreme pose, so that might have something to do with things, but I will look into making the neck muscles line up. - pjc

cool! I wanna wind him up and GO!! Nice modeling! - pjc

Thanks for the comments everyone! Rodney, I tried to point the toes even more, but they ended up looking like little nubs...Now that I look at it again, it might work better to have his knees bent a little more like he's swooping up...I'll look at it. Jim, it was a great model to begin with. I am in your gratitude for creating a great model for me to monkey with! As far as this being a "Showcase" image....here's my thougths: I really had no intention of creating anything more than just a test image for some poses I was working on to test the rig and Smart Skin (which I have some work to do in the chest area when he pulls his shoulders back) and I had a sky model hanging around from my Iron Man work, so I just threw it in as a background to see how AO interacts with it as a test for future work... So, this composition just kind of happened, no plan, nothing. For some reason I think that when I make something for the Showcase I plan it a little more I have some definate plans for some new images, so keep an eye out! - pjc

I don't know if it's really a Showcase piece, but after finishing the modeling and getting the bones setup and the Smart Skin, I needed to do a simple pose to see how everything is working...so maybe a step up from a WIP? Well, here it is: Rendered in A:M v13f, AO turned on with one Key light and Sky Textured sphere, as an OpenEXR and then motion-blurred in Adobe Photoshop. Size was originally 1400 X 2000 but was cropped in Photoshop. Render time was around 2.5 hours on my Mobile P4 with 2GB RAM. - pjc

Yeah, a brand new photo-based image map for the face. here's a gif of the "face progress" with base skin, my face, then Kevins: - pjc

What a difference a face makes. I finally got pictures of my buddy (and fellow A:M'er) Kevin Lyon. I quickly did a replace of my face with Kevin's late last night (quick and dirty) and here's the results: I think it works really well. My blonde hair and fair complexion just didn't work as well I think... Here's Kevin: Now I have to build the final face map, unwrap and finish up the skin on the head. I'll report back with details and pictures soon. - pjc

Wow. (that's all I got) How many hours would you say you've put into this? - pjc

Mr. Incredible? Hmm, I haven't heard that one. What features make you think of him, the jaw? My references for the model were this mixture (not really scientific, but it looks cool to use numbers): 10% Brandon Routh (I used a side view of Routh as a rotoscope for parts of the bridge of the nose and forehead) 10% Christopher Reeve (side profile of the nose and jaw) 25% Alex Ross' Superman (Alex's is a little older than mine) 35% The "comic" amalgam of DC comics Superman and/or how I would draw him. 10% Me. Since I'm using my face as a texture map I tweaked the geometry to match some of my face. 10% Jim Talbots underlying Kingdom Come model. The funny thing is, someone mentioned that he looks like Bruce Campbell. The more I look at him, I can see that. I appreciate the feedback and the crit! - pjc

Thanks martin! I can't wait to hook some BVH motion to him and see how much work I need to do to the rig setup! Gotta work on a little storyboard too. I did some more tweaking of the face map in the UV editor (man do I love that tool) and started to map the rest of the skin (added the ear maps), and then wanted to do a silly little test, but I think it's important. I wanted to see how Superman read at a small size (simulating a small comic panel) Now this facial pose isn't extreme or exciting, but I wanted some sort of expression (yay, now I just remembered all of face poses I'm gonna have to set up!). So, a little test, AO rendered of course: - pjc