patrick_j_clarke

Did some work over the weekend... Retextured his face and am now playing with bump maps and also trying the "Skin Shader" for the diffuse of the face and hands. Here's some pix of that: oh, you might notice I added some seams in his outfit...don't know about them yet tho... Added some "hems" to his red briefs and the cuffs of his "shirt"...like you'll be able to see those in comic book size And to top it all off, I did a turnaround again with all of this...and the boots as they are right now. [attachmentid=19031] - pjc SupesTestBootsTOOt.mov

whoops...my bad....i modeled a lot of the "new armor" in v12, but it was rendered in an early beta of v13. sorry for the confusion. - pjc

I LOVE ALL OF THE NEW SUPERHERO THREADS!!! :D good start, and yes it's a long road...who knew doing 3D you'd learn about...CLOTHES!!! Are your goals to model it all on your own? There is a VERY good female model on the A:M cd called "Lambrina" that would be a good basis for a Supergirl model. Keep it going, and keep us up to date on your progress. - pjc

Well, I don't want to hi-jack your thread, but here's my latest classic Iron Man rendering. It was rendered with Ambeint Occlusion turned on and uses HDRI reflections in v12. and a WIP (I'm not a big fan of the new armor) of my progress of transforming the classic armor to the more "modern" kind: but I've gotten caught up in working on Superman right now. Can't wait to see some updates and renderings of your Iron Man when he's battling Hulk!!! - pjc

Looking good! I'm a big fan of ol' Shell Head too, some might say! The "classic" armor is my favorite. Those hip-pods might get in the way when you're animating, by the way. I had to shrink mine down in my model. Keep us up to date with the progress. - pjc

yes, I like this latest one much better! Good work! - pjc

I haven't tired the Skin Shader yet, still using the technique I used with my female robot Gail with color, specular and bump maps for the skin, but I should try new things, eh? Started working on the boots. Knew I didn't want "booties", but Superman shouldn't have combat boots either. So, I based mine off of a Wellington Hunting boot. Still have some work to do on the top to define it some more, and maybe add some flair to the top part, we'll see. Here's a couple of shots of the boots as they are tonight: - pjc

Well, last night seemed like I didn't move forward at all, but I think I fixed SOME stuff. Made a 16 bit/per EXR version of the displacement map for supes emblem on his chest, and it's a lot smoother now. I think I still have a little issue at the top of my EXR (I think my gradient is getting cut off at the top of the image), which causes some geometry funkiness, and I will fix it tonight. Made a AO turnaround last night before bed, take a look at it: [attachmentid=18745] I went into the face and selected a horizontal spline loop and hid the rest of the face and did some smoothing. I still notice some "splotchies" in the AO render, but I don't think it's due to geometry and lack of bump and spec mapping to help define the smooth and rough areas of his face. I DO have a texture seam around the eyebrow area and will have to fix that. Oh, and don't look at the back of the neck...heh...I know the work that needs to happen there...YIKES! Started on the boots late last night, but nothing to show yet. - pjc SupesROTATE.mov

The Spidey image that I posted in your WIP was/is a 3D model that Scott Sava made for his Spider-Man mini-series. I just inked a test image for him. Scott actually super-deformed some geometry (like his foot) and used more of a fish-eyed lens for his image. Did you render your image with AO? I really liked the direction of your AO renders. Love the webbing coming out of the web-shooters, is that geometry? - pjc

Yeah, I think there may be some creasing going on, but I've also been messing with a 5 o'clock shadow that might need some work...I need to do a turnaround of the face area in AO to see what other things show up that only show up in an AO render. KenH, are you referring to the pec's of Bunkers Superman? That model is more of a body builder type, and I'm really not going to that in my model. Supes is more like a wheat-fed Kansas natural "strong guy". I found Marcel's "conform" plug-in on his site: http://www.kci-group.com/z/conform.htm I think this is what I need, but will look at it more closely. Thanks for the info! - pjc

I'll bite...where can I find some BVH data? It might be cool to do a nice little animated piece with Supes when I get him done. Here's where I'm at this weekend (after a long Saturday at the SD Comic-Con). I decided to work on the Superman emblem on his chest today. I've ran a couple of emblems through my head, should it be like Superman Returns, or should it be like a silk-screen? I finally decided to make a solid plate area that conforms to Supes chest (almost like puff-paint would) and then use a displacement map to make the emboss. I started off by making an outline of the Superman logo on a copied section of Supes chest (into a new model) and then conformed the spline to the general shape of Superman's chest. I then extruded and tweaked and then stitched the shape closed to form the shield. As an aside: I sure wish A:M had "Project Curves to Surface" like some other programs (or maybe I'm just not aware of the feature if it IS in A:M v13) It would have made coforming the outline spline to Superman's chest a little easier. The displacement and color maps were created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator (I have to see if I can export a 16 bit per channel out of Illustrator for the displacement) and exported to Photosop to make TGA's with Alphas. I had thought about making it all out of geometry, but was I was concerned with posing and having the geometry be unwieldy. I'm gonna half to let this one set for a day or so and will move on to the boots or maybe do some more sculpting around the shoulders before I say yay or nay on this one. But, here's the results of the Sunday, the Supes Emblem day: Shaded Wireframe of Supes Emblem AO Render of Emblem AO Render Full Front Comments, crits, all welcome... - pjc

LOVE IT!!! The only nit-pick I would have is the chrome hardware My Les's Tune-O-Matic bridge is very shiny chrome...but DUDE...Awesomely great image. Have you ever shown a wire of it? N-I-C-E! - pjc

Cool, thanks Martin! I like how Jeff tweaked the Arni/Cap models face to a more "Superman" shape. Great hand texture too! It's great to see all the different tweaks we all do to these icons... Here's my latest update. I spent most of my time on re-proportioning his torso, and I also worked on his lip area. Still plenty to do... and an animated GIF of the change... ...I really need to start work on some proper boots...they're bugging me. - pjc

oh yeah...the texture on my supes is a scales Darktree...on Jim's I added the denim DT, but tweaked it so it looked like wool or some heavy cloth of olden times... Did some tweaking of the torso and face last night...looking good...will put up a render soon. - pjc

Cool Website I just found: Superman Costume Comparisons Has a great look at all the different versions...I like the Superman Returns boots. - pjc

It really depends on the build whether or not I'll build from scratch. With humans especially, I'll look at what's available and see if the resculpt is quicker than a total rebuild. And that's really what it comes down to in my book. What's the quickest way to get what I want? I've been doing this for a long time now, and modeling to me now is just a means to an end. If I can resculpt in less time I'll do it. I'm not proud. That being said, I always give credit to the people whose model mine is based on, even if it's unreckonizable in the end. I think two of the most underused models that are free are Lambrina and Dex when dealing with humans. They are light geometry and take a resculpt really well. I understand that the majority of A:M users L-O-V-E to model, that's their kick, but I'd rather spend that time on lighting and posing. Should have an update soon, but with Comic-Con this week who knows how much time I'll have. - pjc

We were using Alain's model for "Shazam." It was Jeff Bunker who made the modern Superman, (we don't have his model). There are several other superhero models that are going to be on the "Extras II" DVD, i.e. Batman, Wonder Woman, Hulk, etc. If anybody else has some superhero models (Jeff Bole comes to mind with his Spiderman model), please donate them to "Extras II." The kids just getting into A:M really love the comic book stuff, (me too). Do you have any pix of Bunkers Superman? He did the Arni/Captain America too didn't he? - pjc

yeah, his lips/mouth are messed up right now, and I have some proportion issues, but all to be worked on soon! I am going to model the "S" logo instead of a decal and the boots...I'm gonna try to make those more "real". I never likes the "booty" thing, even when Alex Ross does it. Would love to see Jim's modern Supes too, I wonder if he'll stop by? Mike, didn't you do a Superman as well? Have any full body pix of him? Would love to see them if you do. - pjc

Hey everyone...long time no pictures. I've been working on a new Superman model and it's far enough along to start sharing. This model started life as Jim Talbot's Superman model from the "Kingdom Come" series that he gave away years ago to the 3D comic collective website. Jim did such an awesome job I decided to use his model as a base for a "regular" version of the character. I still have LOTS of work to do, but I'm liking the progress so far. So, Jim, thanks for making such a cool model, I hope you don't mind my "Hashtic Surgery". Jim's is on the left, mine is on the right. Rendered AO in v13. BIG version of PJC SUPES Comments welcome, - pjc

Yeah, what Rodney said! Imagine the replies I got when I posted this on CGTalk, they weren't as "nice" about the seams...even after I explained to them they were put there on purpose. I like this board - pjc

I could be wrong, but you should be able to get those cool results straight out of the AO color render and not have to composite anything. For some reason I don't get an AO feel from your early color AO renders, but the straight one certainly gets good results...is there any ambiance on your red and blue version? the final results, no matter how you got them, look cool! - pjc

I likes! - pjc

I really like Spidey poses swinging through the city: One of my favorites is this 3D image that Scott Sava did that I inked on top of: I love that angle and the foot coming at you! Can't wait to see some cool action shots, Zaryin! - pjc

Cool. Much better, me thinks! Can you do an AO render with a grey ground and backdrop, I'd like to see him that way! - pjc

Ahhh, Spider-Man! Cool. Man all that webbing. I guess that's the reason I stayed away from him I love Spidey. I think you've got a great start here, but I think you might want to give him some more musculature. There are a couple of different interpretations, but I kinda like this version: It's a great maquette and I've threatened to buy it, but my Spider-Man 2 movie figure is what I use...cuz the maquette is $75! The eyes are big, but not HUGE like they were for a while. These are very Todd McFarlane-y! http://www.brcactionfigures.com/spider-man-maquette.html Keep us up to date!! - pjc