Gerry

Yeah, really nice. Great sense of detail while keeping the shapes simple.

Thanks John! That is a huge help!

Noah- these are really masterful but I have one comment and one question. Comment: In the second one, the foot against the wall doesn't seem to have the necessary weight to it. It seems like either the ball of the foot should be pressed harder (flatter) against the wall, or there should be a hint of tendon showing in the ankle joint, or both. Picky picky! Question: Are these completely rigged, or are you just modeling them in the final pose? i.e., do you rig her and then put her in the pose, or are you modeling her in the pose? Great work!

Robert - these are all looking gorgeous, the atmospherics in these scenes is awesome! The fishy you posted up above, I would suggest making the pupils of his eyes bigger. I think it might help the character design. also I can only assume you'll be doing something richer with his texturing. This is all looking great.

This all looks great and I love the look you're going for, but I for one would vote for a cleaner, more legible title on the poster design. It should be at LEAST as readable as the other copy. As it is, the fussiness only makes it hard to read (especially against the stylized "sun" on the horizon) and robs it of impact.

Bill, the first thing that comes to mind is whether the purse/pucker expression will be used for more than a moment, if not I don't mind the slight creasing. It even appears to go with the facial lines of the character. Second, can you do an effective purse/pucker that's not so extreme? One last comment, maybe you could make the small mouth the default (it seems to go better with the character designs) and have the option for the big mouth when called for. this is looking good, it's fun to watch develop.

Hi Rodney- Happy birthday!

Bill-this is just awesome for you to put this work in. thanks so much and happy new year!

Thanks for your comments Bill. So you've just got hemispheres that you rotate and the intersecting geometry is concealed by the marshmallow body, is that it? I'm going to keep working on my approach and if I arrive at a workable solution I'll post it. Thanks for your help!

Hi Bill - yup it helps a lot, but I should have been more specific. What I was wondering about was the opening and closing of the eyelids. Is is a pose slider? How do you get the lids to move in the same curve as the surface of the eyeball?

Looking good so far, and some fun attitude coming through. I would definitely say some teeth/lips/mouth detail, and some detail in the shoes. Also maybe fuller in the waist, and a longer baggy t-shirt.

Yes. I'm planning for eyelids that work exactly like Bill Gaylord is doing with his Marshmallow Safety guys. Here's how I've modeled the eyelids, they'll close from top and bottom. I don't know if this is the ideal way to model for what I want, but I've asked Bill to post a wireframe of his.

Hi Bill- this is looking great! I like what you've done with the eyes. I'm working on a character posted in WIP with very similar eyelid structure. Could you post a wireframe of the eyes? Thanks, good luck with this. I'm looking forward to more.

I've thinned out the mesh around the mouth. Still working on re-doing the eyes with a less dense sphere.

Ken and David, thanks for your advice, great help and great pointers. Hi Rodney! it's nice to be back here and working on some AM stuff again. I'm starting a new job next Monday as a one-man art dept. for a casino games designing and marketing co. where I'll be doing a little of everything, sketching, lo-res game graphics, web work, promotional design and some 3D modeling, and I wanted to get back in practice. They're not choosy about what software I use and though the guy I'm replacing used Lightwave, it's his software and he's taking it with him. I've already told the boss that AM is my preferred package and buying a copy will be a first order of business. Actually, on this subject, I will need to convert some of the existing Lightwave models into a format that AM can work on. Can anyone offer advice on this?

Check this out David, I've added the eyes and reduced the splinage. For some reason the eyes get all weird in the modeling window but they render just fine in a chor. Thanks for your advice. It's already looking better.

You can see what I've got so far in my WIP thread on this new model. I've been wondering how detailed to make the inside of the mouth, teeth, tongue, etc. I'm working on the eyes now. Yes, it's a very cool tute and if I don't like one eyeball I just trash it and build another one goshdarn it! Takes five minutes.

Here's a model I'm working on from my Bugbots comic. Some of you have seen other work on this project, and I had a whole website at www.bugbots.com but I recently lost my free webspace so it's on hiatus. However I've been meaning to work on modeling Skarab, the main character, and here's my work so far. I'm going to be doing the eyes based on Dave Simmons great eyeball tute on the ARM. It's so simple and so effective I can't believe it! However I'm concerned that the eyes will look too "real" compared to the skin. I still need to work out some of the angularity in the splines and I'm open to suggestions for tweaks. The character is half insect and half human so I want the skin to look a little hard and shiny (and I would really like to solve this with a procedural texture) but I don't think it's there yet.

This is great work David, like John said, maybe exaggerate it to a level more in keeping with its cartoony appearance. But it's meticulous especially the tongue movement. I just spent some time yesterday looking at your eyeball tute and I'm going to use it on a character I'm modeling. Great work and I appreciate the time you put into putting the tute together. I look forward to your additional work on this lipsync test.

Harper - Don't be shy, this is a great group of folks and you can learn a ton just by asking! Also check out any and all online tutes you can find. Vern's ARM is a good place to start. Your wireframe looks a little denser than it needs to be. I'm having the very same problem in a thing I'm working on now. maybe someone here can post a link or an example of just how light the wireframe can be in AM. The less dense the mesh, the better and smoother the model. I wish I could offer more concrete advice, but you are definitely in the right place. Keep posting progress reports.

Pengy - Great work, great thread, I'm really enjoying this! Not going to crit, since everything I would have said has already been covered. Besides, all these others guys are so FUSSY!

Ha! Doug, funny misread! Doubly funny because I've specialized for years in doing paintings of people's houses and always had to be careful to say "I'm painting a portrait of a home" and NOT "I'm painting someone's house"!!

Doug and anyone else interested in the lone printed sample of "Bugbots", I've finally found them while unpacking. It's an 8 page, b&w version of chapter one online. Also came across my stash of Bugbots postcards. I'll send one of each to anyone who wants 'em. Just e me your snail mail address and they're yours. Haven't done much more on modeling Headlouse as I snagged a pretty nice day job about three weeks ago, and also started painting some of the awesome scenery surrounding us here in Catawba County, NC. When are they gonna perfect that cloning stuff we keep hearing about? I need two of me! Gerry

Yeah, it looks more like smoke than fog. Maybe lighten it a little and less tonal variation. Gerry

Nice looking pooch. Seems like he should have some fur on his ears and probably tail too. Great personality coming through. Gerry