Emilio Le Roux

yeah, mtpeak2, how did you do thaT?? Emilio

Thanks for your comments! pdaley: I know several people use Wings 3D, but I prefer to stick with AM. It's not a matter of loyalty or something, but I feel very comfortable with Animation Master even for very simple models, like boxes etc... Except, of course, I find a modeling task that's impossible or very difficult in AM. But I prefer to avoid importing /exporting tasks. Emilio

The job is getting harder by now. I'm trying to work on a consistent floor plan. I've added most columns and archways by now

I usually create the textures using photoshop tools, but last night a friend of mine found this incredible texture collection: http://perso.club-internet.fr/lemog/lemog_...textures01.html I was surprised by the quantity and quality of them!! Emilio

Just asking for curiosity! I won't complain about a troll's height - nor in its presence anyway. Emilio

Thanks Will! I think you are right. Also, I think the bricks don't belong here. They could be used in the underground crypt, which is supposed to have roughly the same format of the cathedral, but a more rustic finish. Back to the "single concrete block" tile idea. Along with the new columns. (the middle part of the column uses a different patch image to simulate some bass relief) and then some inner archways... Now I feel i'm slowing down because of some lack of references. I'll look for more images now. Emilio Le Roux Mosca Films PD Do you think these images are too big for the forum?

Nice Job! Say, is that troll big? like, 3 meters high? or it's an impression. Yes, it seems there is a small bug in specular color. When the specular color INSIDE the model->surface properties is 'NOT SET', all specular on any groups uses the underlying diffuse color for specular. That means no specular for black objects. Just set it to white or something. Any spec color inside the groups settings will work then. Emilio

Now this is kind of a vote I tried another patch image: and the result is: Do you like it more than the earlier posts? Emilio Le Roux Mosca Films

Thanks William! KenH: it's a patch image. I think patch images are one of the coolests AM exclusive features, and -perhaps as they are so related to the patch concept - I also think is a often overseen feature. Patch images show in every patch, adapted to the full size and shape of the patch. So, they are very useful to create a seamless texture, but also you could create tiles with obvious seams between them. In this case, i used a 128x128 color and bump map, complete with deep borders. Note the 'crosses' that this border creates on the ceiling. But I'll have to increase this resolution since texture is too gross for this model. The color tile: the bump tile: and the rendering. Emilio Le Roux Mosca Films

Another update. I think I'm doing faster that I thought. I built almost all the cathedral ceiling, with its archings and all. Also, I added glass windows, including a texture map. I'm using very little transparency for the glass. Instead I decided to use an ambience map along with GLOW on. The texture tile (patch image) for the concrete was updated, and I am thinking about NOT texturing by hand all the building, but keeping the patch image style (with exception of the details like windows, paintings...) I'd really like a floor plant. Now for the columns... nah, now to bed, tomorrow for the columns. ------------------ Emilio Le Roux Mosca Films

Yes, I'd like to make some paintings in the dome. But first I'll go ahead with the building. I built some archways and their union to the dome. I had to use some 5 point patches in this union, which does not make me so happy but i spent a lot of time looking for other solutions. Emilio Le Roux Mosca Films

Taking a short break from organics and characters. I'm trying to work out some architecture now. Here's the dome for a cathedral. Fair quick to model using extrude and duplicate in several ways. The texture is a small patch-image, not intended to be definitive. This is the result of some 1 hour work so far. Comments welcome!!! Emilio Le Roux Mosca Films

I think you're making a quick and good progress in this model! Emilio

Thank you, Yves. I'll try that. In the meanwhile, I've been working on the body. But textures are still to be worked on. The method i'm using for decaling is not perfect, but i think it renders good results. I managed to flatten and decal all the character skin in 2 stamps, in a single highres decal. In this 'flattening', the head, hands and feet are very large proportionally to the body, as they need more detail, and this way I get a continuous skin without seams on the neck and between limbs, etc. (even thu the seams between front and back have to be carefully retouched). Here's my decal (from the UV editor) There are some tricks... For instance, after applying the face decal (without flattening), I had to render the flattened model, so the face texture had the right distortion to take it into photoshop and integrate with the main body texture. This way I can also apply unflattened decals from various angles, for the hands, muscles, elbows, legs, feet, etc, then render the whole flattened model and work on this image on photoshop. Sorry for this extensive and unclear explanation... well, here's the result so far: Emilio

Hey! thank you for your comments! i didn't expected so many wee and wohoos and something about a smack too. My english is not very good but i'll take them all as inspiring. Well, there are some tricks about what i'm doing. Not enough for a tute although. To tell the true, i've modeled some faces in my AM life, but never got 100% satisfied about them. Finally, I came out with this wireframe, that has not a single hook and plenty of 4 point patches in critical areas. This makes the head highly morphable and animatable, so i decided to use it as a 'mother of all heads'. So, I didn't 'model' this human male in particular. Instead, I just 'morphed' this "primordial head" to fit the new rotoscope, taking about 1 hour. As I needed better definition on the nose, I added some splines later (which bother me because i'm obsessed about the hook things). Here's the resulting wireframe: Then I applied the rotoscope as a texture: I'm using this wireframe to build all sort of characters, from demons to women and children, even using the distortion box to create weird characters! Although women are a more delicate work and morphing takes a little more time. Well, that's all. So I'm cheating Thank you again for your comments. Emilio Le Roux

I'm modeling some new characters for a story. Here I modeled a character's head after a frontal picture as a rotoscope, then what I did was to apply the decal in the same position as the rotoscope! I'm pleased with the results of this technique. Even though I will have to remake the textures later, I can use this rough picture as a base. One of the problems is that the texture has some 'built in ilumination', because the original foto has a lighting on its own. Even so, I think that little 'cheat' doesn't interfere much with scene lighting yet can improve realism. I tried giving the object an opposite lighting here (from below). Comments and critiques are very welcome. Emilio Le Roux

Well, that topic was quite ambiguous.. I hope you get it in the 3D matters... This is my first female model in AM. I modeled the body and now the head, which was much more difficult than men IMO. Not that she's ready for a beauty contest... but at least she's very smart What do you think? Here are some links Chica 01 Chica 02 Chica 03 Note that in this image I drew her eyebrows in photoshop, since the poor girl has none yet. Emilio Le Roux