higginsdj

how do you mean? i set up the 2001 rig briefly last night when i was supposed to be doing homework and it bent fine (at the tube below the chest) My point was that your other joints have modelled joints. Viewers may question why would this solid spine bend? Cheers

Early days yet. Might I recommend a few more spline rings around the eye and mouth on this type of character to allow you to model/animate some deep furrows and folds. Cheers

I like it. With A:M's animated distortion you'll even be able to mimic the 'go fast' look in animation. Cheers

Not too bad. Splineage issues that I see are a lack of spline rings around the mouth and in particular one that meets the corner of the nose. You're going to have a hard time making a proper smile crease in the cheek and corner of the mouth. That forehead indentation is too big for what it is. I'd continue those hooks on the nose at the brow up to the next spine ring. That way you will have more splinage to work in some creases. I would also reduce the number of splines going over the crown of the head - you only need one - not five. You don't have a spline that runs the length of the jaw. Your jawline is shared by 3 splines. Its going to be awkward maintaining a jawline when you open/close the mouth. To fix this I would bring the non jawline splines up over the chin and run the jaw spline along the actual jawline. Cheers

A good start. The bridge between the eyes doesn't look right. If your aiming at a 'button' nose then it's just a tad too pointy for my taste. The cheeks a little flat and you are missing the little 'puffy' bits on the lower cheeks on the side of the mouth. You might also wish to try to puff out and curve the jawline a little. Cheers

The more passes you do the better the look. Each pass moves the fov slightly - its the same for motion blur. 9 passes seems to be a reasonable minimum. Cheers

Lookign very good Stian. Movie was an interesting take. I wonder how it would look with each frame being a shaded version rather than wireframe? Cheers

Your landscape has a nice feel. Can I suggest a warm blue light to brighten and show detail in at least some of the shadow area (it just looks a little 'dull' on my monitor) Cheers

I agree the chest area looks a little wide. My real concern is how is he going to bend over? Cheers

Faster CPU, More RAM, Better Video Card with more RAM, close any unused windows within AM. Close any other applications running at the same time, change the fps rate on the option panel (Interupt Drawing), turn off particle/hair and reduce the output (shaded render) to 1 or 4 poly per patch. Cheers

You might want to either use an image or the timeline to vary the thickness of the hair over it's length and probably add some value to the kink property to make the hairs slightly less uniform - but otherwise it looks OK. Cheers

Porcelain does a final smoothing of a model - ideal for organic models - perhaps not the best solution for mechanical models. Cheers

For porcelain your normals have to be facing out and then you may still have to save, close and reopen the project for it to display correctly (only an issue after it is first applied) Looking good so far Cheers

No - some nurnies, hoses and wires to come out that unit - he'll be 'hardwired' to his suit so to speak. I'm also planning on modelling a bolt on plate on his skull. (and I'll give him some geometry eyebrows as well) Cheers

Now he has a little armour - still shiny and new Cheers

The first rule of any mechanical modelling is - bevel your edges. Animationpitstop has some free screws that you can download. Pay attention to how they are modelled and textured. Although the robot is a simple design it is quite elegant - a good start. But remember - bevel your edges. (There are numerous tutes covering beveliing - just do a search of the forum/archive) Cheers

OK, Here's an updated version with Jims suggestions for the eyes/brow area. I think this looks much better - Jim/others what do you think? Cheers

Ooooppps. I should point out that the eyes are "Ubereyes" by Colin (William) Freeman - my bad - I should know better by now to plug those who's bits I use This is the first time I have shown this character (aside from a 1/2 face view in Marks Allens 1st character thread) Side Views: Cheers

Thanks Guys, Just in case it wasn't obvious - I'm doing a character here as opposed to a realistic model. I agree that the brow looks a little odd and will fix that. The extra splines will stay, however, at least until I decide how 'weathered' and wrinkled I want his face to be. I'm intending some closeups so the wrinkles/creases will need to be geometry. Cheers

Heres a new character that I am working on. The design is loosely based on Mark Allens drawing for his first character (Mark, since your rotos provided the inspiration you can have a copy of this head model if you wish - just drop me a line). I've been following along Anzovins Modelling a Head tute (just got past the eye and mouth parts - some good lessons there) This character will be a seargent (Space Marine) that may be used in the next image contest and June animation contest. I've got a lot of dirtying up to do As always, comments welcome. Cheers

Ahhh - I though it was just me! AM seems to handle speech relatively well but other sounds are a problem. Is there a set format that AM handles from a sound perspective. AM seems to import and play a great many formats but doesn't render them all to .mov/.avi Cheers

You'll only see the CPs and use the grooming tools when you switch from Model Model mode to grooming mode in the model window. Cheers

Absolutely fabulous Jim. The only thing that stuck out for me was the thickness of the jeans material at the waist - a little thick to my eye. How are you handling the blue jean seams. Are you creating patches for them or are you just relying on decal alignment. Cheers

Very nice model. How dynamic do you want the shorts? There is a cloth sim in the current version such that you can animate the character then sim the cloth (and then fix any breakthroughs. V12 will have a perfect cloth sim (no breakthroughs) from what I have seen. If you just want some limited dynamics then you can set up a rig on the shorts with dynamic constraints. There is a tech talk video on Dynamic Constraints on AM Films Cheers

Be careful with your roto's. If you look carefully you will see that the face is turned toward the viewer slightly pushing the ear even further back. I would suggest moving the ear and jaw hinge 1/2 to 3/4 an ear width forward and scale out the back of the head as a starting point. Cheers