Malaclypse235

Even tho it's already been on the WIP forum a while back, here's mine (was my first non tutorial model). Mal

If the image is small enough you can use the "file attachments" browse button right below where you are typing your post. If it is a file type that is not supported, or if it is too large to include you can link to the file on your website. Hit the "http://" button above where you are typing and put a link directly to your file in the box that pops up. The second box is the text that will be displayed for your link. I hope this helps.. Mal

Jim, I also want to say that it looks great. I also am very happy that you and Colin explained about using a paint program after to soften the look of the model. It never occured to me before, and it was like a light going on in my head. It's so nice to have Masters around for us apprentices to learn from. Mal

Wow, VERY nice! It's a very nice design and has a great hand drawn/painted look. Your link isn't working though. Would love to see the wireframe. Mal

Hey Tom, I don't know if it's the "right" thing to do, but I hate having holes where they don't belong, so I rarely just shrink the circle of cps together. Instead I join them to make new patches and close it off. That's another way to solve you foot problem. While I don't know how it works, porcelain is supposed to be the best way to smoothe things out. I believe there is a tutorial on it's use at the resource matrix, or if not I bet someone has a link to the tut handy and could post it. As for making it plasticy... sorry, I have no idea on that one. Good luck, Mal

Maybe not the best afterburner effect, but it looks like smoke trailing, and with a little tweaking you might be able to have a nice smoke effect to put on in addition to the afterburner Mal

Niced tutorial... I just wish I had Photoshop For now I have posted it on my under construction website. Link to AI tutorial I'll leave it there for a while at least... Mal

David, Don't doubt yourself so much. It's a cool animation. Almost surreal. It's much nicer than most logos you see on tv from small production companies. Well, that's just my opinion anyways. Mal

It looks right then... I thought it looked like a (man-made) sattelite that had fallen into an atmosphere. Very nice work with the sprites. I tried using sprites once, but tweaking the settings kept crashing me and I couldn't get anything to look good. Mal

This might not be too constructive, but it reminds me of the old arcade game "missile command" where you use a track ball to fire at incoming missiles. I liked that game. Interesting animation... I see potential... Mal

Wow, the flame effect looks great so far! Are you using sprites? Mal

It looks great Markus. Very realistic. Mal

I have to agree. That looks really cool! Mal

Grr. Here's a gif...

I wish I had a record around to test this, but I don't so here is a theoretical idea that might be terrible. If you take a picture of a record using a bright light, it might bring out enough detail in the grooves for you to convert it to greyscale and use as a bump map. If it works it should be pretty quick and easy if you have a record and a digital camera lying around. Ok, I just found a (semi crappy) image of a record on the net. despite the picture's lack of quality I get fairly good results using it as a color and bump map. See below. I hope this helps some... Mal record_render0.tga

Wow, that is looking very nice! Mal

Yea, what is it? Seriously though, it looked kinda cool. If nothing else you could possibly alter it slightly and make a model of an oscilloscope. Mal

Thanks Roughy.

Hi all, I've been working hard to incorporate your suggestions into my rifle model. I think your ideas have made it many times better than it originally was. Thank you Beveling - Failure on my part. Tried to improve it some though. Attach hand grips - Done "Dirtying it up" - Done Leveling of stock - Done Second cylinder on ejection port - Done. 4 out of 5 isn't too bad... a B grade if I remember right. I am probably done working on this model, but if anyone else has any suggestions on what I could have or should have done with this, I'd love to hear them. Thanks again all... Mal

Paul, It's looking good so far. I have no advice for you on the modeling since I am new at it too (About to post an update of my first model after this), but whenever things are looking strange in shaded mode, and I want to know if it's real or just the shaded real time render acting up, I hit the render mode button (or q on the keyboard) and can get a real render of most things pretty quick. That way I know if the problem is real or not. I hope this helps some, Mal

I like your model. My only question about it is- Do you plan to animate much as far as facial expressions? I ask because the first thing I noticed was the eyes and most of my attention was focused on them. If your action is more aimed at full body stuff, you might want to make the eyes less prominent, but if you plan to show a lot of emotion in the face, it' probably perfect. Please note that this is just a newbie's opinion. I don't actually know anything Mal

Julian - Thank you. I will be going to the beveling tutorial as soon as I finish this post. I want the rifle to be photoreal, but in a sci-fi doesn't already exist sort of way. Maybe I will try an M-16 or a P-90 next time. Modeling something real and having those constraints could be better for me at this point in my learning. Rodney - Thank you also. The sight is intended as a cool laser thingy, but also as an optic that can be looked through. Possible in reality? I'm not sure, but I liked the concept. In my original drawing the stock was much lower, and I think you are correct. The idea of the second cylinder is great. Not sure if I am going to be able to get it modeled, but I am deffinately going to try. Very excited about that idea. Should add a lot if I can pull it off. Have a great day, Mal

I agree. I'd kill for the tutorial... Well, maybe just maim... Exceptional work! Mal

Zach, Thanks for the input. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by beveling, though I have heard the term before. I'm pretty new at this. If you or someone else could give me more info on that it would be great. I will work on attaching the grips to the body. Attaching isn't my strong suit in modeling, but I'll give it a try. I'm also rarely sure of when things should be attached, and when they should just be "stuck together". As for a spline ring "moulding", I am guessing that would be pretty much exactly what it sounds like- an extra decorative piece designed to hide the seams. Will try that if I can't get them to connect right. To dirty it up with decals, would I make an image with the diffuse color as the background, and then use an airbrush tool to selectively "dirty" parts of it, then apply as a color map? Or do I use transparancy somehow (Either in the decal image itself, or set in A:M)? There was no material tree for my bump map. It is a standard material in Paint Shop Pro that I converted to greyscale and used as a bump image (see below). If you need this texture for anything, let me know and I can send you a larger file. Thanks for the help, Mal Mal

Hi all, This is the first real model I have done without a tutorial. It is based on a simple pencil drawing I did. Everything you see was done with A:M's shaders and bump maps. I like the way the model is going, but it doesn't feel quite real, and I am not quite sure where to go with it at this point. I welcome any suggestions, comments critiques or advice. Oh, just to get you started, I know the trigger is terrible. I'm already planning to work on that. Thank you, Mal