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williamgaylord

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Posts posted by williamgaylord

  1. This has been on the shelf for a while, so I thought I'd dust it off and work on some improvements. Might incorporate it in an entry for the September image contest. So far this design is far too mechanical. I want to modify it quite a bit to give it a more "organic"--and menacing--look. Any suggestions will be quite welcome.

     

    The really interesting challange will be to rig it for animation. Any suggestions for that will also be quite welcome. It is basically a "boneless" anatomy according to the novel, so it will probably look best if it can move much like a squid's tentacles or an elephant's trunk.

     

    Really looking forward to Guillermo Del Toro's version of "At the Mountains of Madness"--currently in the works for release ~2010.

    OldOne01.jpg

  2. Wow! Nice work!

     

    Started with an experiment on making a tank tread...

     

    Have you tried rigging a tank tread for animation yet? I've not tried rigging a tank tread, but I wonder if attaching bones to a Path Constraint is the most straightforward approach. You could even animate the shape of the path to animate the track suspension as it follows the terrain. I'm sure somebody on this forum has done this sort of thing.

  3. Dude! I almost got to go this year! But, nay, the fates did not smile on me this time. My friend and colleague Gene Granados will be there. I'll send him a note to drop by and say hello.

     

    The Marshmallow Safety Films are back in production. ;-)

     

    Bill Gaylord

  4. Well, they don't run under VMWare.. but I'm not sure what software you are speaking of.

     

    Microsoft has a virtual PC program:

     

    Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

     

    I'm swamped with other things to do this week, but as soon as I can I'll give it a try. I already have several instances with various OS platforms, so I'll try it on one of the Windows XP virtual machines. (Virtual PC is free, but you have to supply the OS and applications. There is a "Virtual Hard Disk" program where you can download and test drive various applications for a limited number of days.)

     

    I have 14c running on XP in Parallels on an iMac does that count?

     

    That's probably a good sign that the Virtual PC option is likely to work.

  5. My "secondary" PC I was using for rendering has developed a system bus problem. I have server running Windows Server 2003 that I have for other purposes. Would A:M run on Windows Server 2003 OS?

     

    If it is not compatible with Server 2003, I suppose I could install it on an XP Virtual PC instance?

     

    If so I'll move it to the server until I can replace the PC.

     

    Thanks!

    Bill Gaylord

  6. Well, I experienced a crash of sorts trying to watch the clip within MS IE, so I just downloaded it and it played fine locally.

     

    Looks great, though I agree the end is a bit too abrupt to give a feeling of weight. Just making it rock forward when it stops (tail rising up and rocking back down--like someone's legs going up as they grind to a hault face first in the dirt) could be enough. Make it just slow enough to give it a good sense of weight. Looks like you have enough at the end to work with. Maybe, prop digs in, and the plane rocks up on nose and one wing and then drops back down.

     

    Altogether, though, pretty darn good! I have to say I envy your sense of lighting.

     

    OOOh! How about some squash and stretch! :D

  7. I'd love to learn more about volumetrics. I'll of course read check the technical reference, but a tutorial would be nice. The "wiki" link on the feature page is broken.

     

    I'm working on how to best produce cigarette smoke. I've made good progress on the stream of smoke off the end of the cigarette, but it still could use some work. I'm guessing volumetrics could add a nice cloud around the smoker.

     

    Cigarette smoke thread

     

    Best example so far

  8. Oooh! I could use this! I'm working on "The Old Ones" from H. P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". Their starfish shaped heads are covered with hair that is supposed to be "irredecent". This sort of animation could give it that really alien touch I've been looking for.

     

    Thanks, John!

  9. Nice work all around!

     

    Suggestions about the nose (all very subtle changes): The back side of the nostrils should stand out more from the face. The tip of the nose should be a tad rounder so that where the "upside-down bowls" of the nostrils meet the tip of the nose there should be a slight reverse curve that differentiates the nostrils a bit from the tip of the nose. (Imagine a marble as defining the shape of the tip of the nose.) The bridge of the nose is fairly wide by proportion on a baby's face since it doesn't stand out much and the flesh on either side softens the curve across the bridge. These fleshy bulges slope down from the bridge to each side. They also emphasize the crease around the back and top side of the nostrils a bit.

     

    Like I said, these are suggestions for subtle changes, since overall you've done a fine job on the nose, and indeed the whole head!

     

    A couple illustrations:

    babynose.jpg

    NostrilDomus.jpg

  10. Nice work! You are way ahead of me! I guess vanity is bogging me down in the modeling stage... ;)

     

    Maybe an animated seft portrait category should be added to the list of contests. The emphasis would be on the animation--especially doing things with your virtual self that would be hard to do in real life. Like a superhero alter-ego, or a squash-and-stretch persona, clones...let your imagination go wild!

  11. Stian, maybe this could be your next project! Your Peterbilt got me wondering what is the world's largest diesel engine. I found it!

     

    Largest diesel engine in the world.

     

    Thought you might find it interesting. 25,480 liters of displacement, 108,920 hp at 102 rpm, 5,608,312 lb/ft of torque at 102rpm. Engine weighs 2300 tons, 300 of which is just the crankshaft! It consumes 1,660 gallons of heavy fuel oil per hour, at %50 efficiency, which is actually pretty efficient. (Most engines run 25-35%.)

  12. Stian, can you educate me and explain what those large chromed cylinders on either side of the cab, in front of the doors, are for? Are they air filters or part of the exhaust system? I'm just wondering if they get hot.

     

    Those are the air filters for the engine.

     

    Stian, you always amaze me how fast you produce these models at such amazing quality! You are quite a gifted 3D modeler.

     

    Bill Gaylord

  13. Thanks for posting these, Rusty. They look great to me! I think getting proportions around the eyes and getting the eyes themselves to look right is a challenge, but I could be wrong. I think we are just programmed to be very sensitive to subtleties of the eyes. You've done a great job!

     

    I'll enjoy seeing animations of these two!

     

    Suggestions for some minor tweaks on the noses: Round the tip of the noses (mainly yours) a tad more, tucking the front side of the nostrils in a bit so the reverse curve between the tip of the nose and the nostril stands out a bit more. Imagine the tip of the nose as a sphere and the two nostrils as two upside down bowls intersecting it. Sculpt above the nostrils a bit more so the slight dimples on each side of the nose stand out a bit more. The crease around the back side of the nostrils that starts under the mounds of flesh that slope to either side of the bridge of the nose should wrap around the nostril almost all the way to the ridge between the nostrils (the "columella"). The nostril openings should stand out more from the face at the bottom/back...think of it more like applying a loop of clay starting from the side of the tip of the nose, wrapping around and then attaching about the middle of the "columella" instead of the corner of the nostril. These are all subtle tweaks...a matter of adjusting the shapes slightly rather than any mesh restructuring.

  14. Indeed, Bill Young's tutorial certainly gave me a big "head" start! Seriously, most of it followed Bill Young's example very closely. I used photos of myself for rotoscopes, and large machinist calipers to take more precise measurements (a mirror also helped). The ears were mostly my own work though, with some big hints taken from the fine splinage of Mark Strohbehn and Yves Poissant. ;)

     

    By the way, if you take photos for rotoscopes of someone as your model, use as long a telephoto lens focal length as you can and take the photo from as far away as you can short of losing details. Otherwise the point of view will cause distortions (most obvious in an extreme closeup) that will make it hard to match the front view with the side view. You want to approximate an isometric view rather than a perspective view.

     

    I don't have an image of Bill to compare to his model, LOL!

     

    How about one of my baby pictures: icon8.gif

    Billy02.jpg

  15. I'd love to see your portraits, Rusty. Go ahead and start a parallel thread. Have you rigged yours yet? I'm looking forward to giving the Squetch rig a try once I get all the missing pieces added. Also might try some facial rigging ideas of my own.

     

    Bill Gaylord

  16. Guess I'll drop out of the Hash Bash this go 'round. Don't think I'll be up to speed in time to make it worthwhile. I'll save the money and put it into a new machine for rendering. I've got the Marshmallow Safety Films to finish up as well as getting back involved in TWO. I'll certainly be up to speed for next year though! See ya then!

     

    Bill Gaylord

  17. It looks good to me. I keep trying to make a realistic head mesh but they always come out kinda cartoonish. This definately gives me some ideas as far as setting up the splines goes. Keep up the good work and keep posting your progress.

     

    Anzovin Studio's "Model a Face with Bill Young" is a good tutorial to start with. Anything that will help you learn art anatomy, like Berne Hogarth's "Dynamic Figure Drawing" would also help. Jason Osipa's "Stop Staring" is one of the best books on facial animation and modeling, so you might check that out, too. And practice! Check out the examples you can find on the forum as well. Ears are the hardest part, so check out how I worked them out by tracing back to the "Ear" thread through the link at the beginning of this thread.

     

    i gotta tell you man...that is the best ear i have EVER seen lol.

     

    Since this all started with an ear, I should do a short where a whole human grows from the ear! :D

     

    Bill Gaylord

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