Gerry

Yeah, really nice. I clicked through about four or five of them and enjoyed them all. Must be great practice so when the real work needs to be done you can just take it in stride. So to speak. Gerry

Actually it's not keeping me from working. I wondered if this was a problem with my modeling (always my first assumption!) or some odd software behavior I should be aware of. I thought splines were by definition continuous. When I selected that first cp I expected to be able to comma-select a cross section spline of the top "blade" of the helmet and adjust it.

Here's a link to some screen shots showing what my problem/question is. I couldn't seem to attach the image in the post. comments welcome!! Headlouse screen shots

I'm having an odd problem with this one spline, and I know it's probably my modeling. I'm trying to post some screen shots but it doesn't seem to be working; may be a firewall here at work. I'll try to post it from home later. It's not keeping me from working, I'd just like to understand it. Gerry

Jeff - I tried a gold texture from the materials library but when I really heightened the reflectivity, all the adjacent elements (the "snorkel", the eyebrows and the edge of the helmet) all reflected right at the edges of the eye lens and kind of worked against the roundedness. I think you're right about the reflectivity but too much of it didn't look like what I wanted. I think I'm explaining this clearly. If you want to suggest a better way to get the effect, I'd be happy to hear it! What about an environment map? Gerry

Doug - it's hard to "read" the beak. Can you post a slightly turned image? Also looking a little muscular in the chest for a bird (unless it's the bird that's up in the sky with the plane!) Gerry

Here's a progress shot with a bunch of procedural textures slapped on. I think to really get this to shine I'll have to decal most of it, the procedurals only go so far. However I also have a slight problem with a couple of hooks causing gaps. I'm posting a screen shot. I have a feeling I shouldn't be hooking to a curved spline. Any and all suggestions welcome. Gerry

Doug and Rodney, thanks for the comments! We do have a black and white "ashcan" of issue #1 and if I knew which box they were in I'd send you one. We're in transition and most of our stuff is still packed up. I had a plan to really publish a couple of years ago but the money and logistics of distribution quickly get huge, so that's on hold. Even the basic work was a major project, as the color files I created for the web comic need to be completely recreated: super high res for the line art, separate black plate, cmyk... There was nothing from the web comic I could repurpose for print. I would have had to do everything twice. All things considered, I'd rather be working in A:M!

Like I said up top, this guy is from my online comic, Bugbots: The Mansect Rebellion!

Mike- just cause you ended with a laughing smiley, don't think I won't! I was playing last night with some procedural materials for the eyes and got a *pretty* good combiner to suggest the comicbooky reflections. I'm going to try to keep the combiner and notch up the reflectivity to get the glassy look. Or something like that!

Hey Rodney, I definitely consider the comparison to Dave Cockrum and Bob Layton a compliment. I was first familiar with Dave's fan work before he went pro...a zine called "The Yancy Street Gazette" I believe. Funny thing was, he signed his work DEC and there was another fan artist named Alvin Grinage who signed his work AUG. Not that funny but you can see how it looked! Dave and Bob started working for Marvel just prior to when I stopped reading comics, so I'm less familiar with Bob's work, but you'll see on Bugbots I was consciously trying for that Marvel "look". Long after the characters were created, I realized that, with Skarab, Centipete, Midge and Friar Blowfly I had UNconsciously recreated the Fantastic Four! Mike, I've started reducing the splinage and the difference is noticeable and positive. I'll be posting more progress shots shortly. Here's the full figure of Headlouse:

Mike, thanks, I will definitely give this a try.

Yeah, nothing for you to apologize for here. Nice work! the detail in the modeling more than makes up for the simple color and texture.

Thanks everyone. Mike, you're right about the eyes, I've been struggling to get them smoother and more bulbous and they're not exactly right yet. Where would you suggest hooks?

Here's a start on modeling my avatar image. This guy is Headlouse, head of security for the Weevil Legions. This is one character from my Bugbots online comic. Comments welcome! Gerry

Thanks Jeff. I feel like I could build an actual deck now! Planning it all out on graph paper and using precise measurements was key. Now that I'm getting back in the saddle with AM after an absence, I've been inspired to recreate my avatar image in 3D. I'll be posting some images on the WIP board shortly. What I really need to do is get to some rigging and movement with a figure. I can model just fine, and the deck of course required no rigging, just modeling and keyframing. Of course it's the end effect that counts and I'm pretty happy with the result.

Wow, I inspired THAT? I must be awesome!! Seriously this is great info Zach, I did read *most* of it, down to the audio encoding stuff. I use the terminal for only a few functions, haven't learned much more than you could write on the back of a business card. Keep meaning to learn more tho. I was reading the Hash Fellows section yesterday. This is something new since I stopped posting a couple months ago and it got me to thinking...there should be a lower level of honor called "Hash Fellas" (or "Hash Fellas and Gals") for us little people! You Hash Fellows should always remember that you're standing on the shoulders of, well, not giants, but a bunch of stacked up midgets! Gerry

Robcat - just checked the MS website and that encoder is Windows-only. Thanks for info though!

rob, thanks for a tremendous amount of good info. Codec's are something I need to learn a lot more about. this is a good start! Can you tell me if the MS Windows Media Encoder runs on an OSX Mac? And Pally thanks for the headsup on the Flash export. Something else I will play around with. Here's the "DC". My wife thought the ending was too whimsical for my intended use so I cut it. But I had (still have!) plans to have the deck entirely furnished by the end. Maybe I'll still get back to it. The Director's Cut

Thanks Zach and Grubber! Yup I am on OSX so let me know what you can dude. I could have gone a lot further with the s&s I agree, I banged this out in two or three days and may keep working on it. I've got a second version ( the "director's cut") with a different ending that I may post. Gerry

Cyber- Ditto means "me too!" I also couldn't view this on my mac, I look forward to a .mov version. Gerry

It's been awhile since I posted here as I've been busy moving from NY to North Carolina, and looking for work. I may have a shot at a job designing an employees' instructional website for a home improvement chain, so I did this animation of a deck assembling itself as a portfolio piece to impress them into hiring me. My 3D animation page I used toon line rendering for the first time and it worked out really well! It was perfect for the appearance I wanted. I like to post both .avi and .mov versions for my website. The original render was about 11 megs. I was astonished to see that the .mov version compressed to 680k with almost no loss of quality, however I couldn't get the .avi version any smaller than 4.5 megs. Any smaller and there was a total loss of quality. I use QuickTime Pro for my compression. If anyone has any pointers for compressing a Windows version smaller than what I've got I would really appreciate hearing it. Gerry

Hi Sean- For a first attempt i like this a lot. While I can see it still needs fine tuning, it's a good start and the moves are largely very lifelike. If you rerender this sequence, pull in a little tighter on the figure so he fills the screen better, he seems a little lost at this scale. When he goes into the karate moves it's pretty funny. How about some Matrix/Crouching Tiger freeze frame chopsocky? I know you were probably just trying out moves, but to see this stuffed shirt Mr. Monopoly turn into a killing machine would be hilarious!

If you can texture up the rest of it like the roller, this will be great! Maybe use the new hair for the grass. Nice start.

John - Keep posting for us! This isn't in the least self-indulgent, certainly not a waste of time. that's what this dang forum is for. Look forward to more updates.