arkaos

I like it a lot, so far, Kam. I really like the environment too. I can't wait to see it in action.

It's too dark to really see anything and it has one frame where it is all bright.

WOW! WOW! ....um, did I forget to mention "WOW!"? I am so totally not worthy. In short..."THAT...KICKS...ASS!". Awesome job. Enough said.

Not bad 4 an hour's work! I especially like the dropping bomb--very realistic motion.

Nice retro dive-bar carpet, dude!

Pretty good so far. The splinework is done very well. I think you are off to a good start. My suggestions: 1) The faceted approach is interesting, but the way the light reflects off of it seems a bit distracting. If you want to keep the faceted approach, maybe tone down the reflection quite a bit. It would be very interesting to see how a faceted model animates though...never tried it myself. 2) As far as the holes in the helmet, have you tried using a decal for transparency masking instead. You may have to apply enough stamps to penetrate through each layer of the helmet, but it would definitely save his head from unwanted holes. (I am not familiar enough with the boolean cutter technique to really give a good fix while still using boolean cutters.) Having watched your quicktime clip, I don't really see (or notice) any problems with it. 3) Nice first shot at a humanoid figure. Better than my first attempt.

Looks nice! I might go with a little more ambient lighting to make the details easier to see. I like the work thus far, keep it up.

WHOA...DUDE....SHE'S HOT! I like the eyes. You've done a fantastic job!

I use the Sorenson 3 compression on medium setting. That usually makes nice small files without sacrificing much quality. A nice and free one is Windows Movie Maker. Ships with Windows XP and 2000 (sometimes). But it is free to download if you don't got it.

The clip looks COOL so far! Great modelling! Frank DOES appear to be standing up. You need a reference point in that shot so the audience can properly orient themselves. I like the camera angle, I wouldn't change that. Maybe the edge of the table he is supposed to be laying on would help. Anyway, that's just a general suggestion. The modelling and animation are far superior to any of my work to date, so ... great job. I can't wait to see the finished product!

I included that to act as a visual separator between the two differently colored areas. I have no problem with doing something like that, since this piece is supposed to be fairly cartoony and less photo-real. Without the border there, It just didn't look very good with two contrasting colors bordering each other. In the future, I may replace the surface coloring in favor of a decal with gradient blending between the two color areas. I will see how it goes, but so far I kinda like the way it looks. Yes, I would LOVE to see your boots Even worse, wake up with that head on YOUR BODY. EEEEEEEEEEK! Odog said: The key to smooth characters is to only put enough splines and cp's needed to define the curve of the surface and at strategic spots for animating. This is my third full-blown character. He has more detail than my others (for the most part) but he also has a lot fewer splines than his predecessors. It is so much easier to smooth out and tweek a character when you are not overwhelmed by the sheer cp count. Also, your processor will be happier too!

Here is a mostly finished character. I am currently adding a thigh-mounted holster for a blaster gun and some odds and ends to mount to his/her/it's futility-belt. Having fun.

Here is a prelim of Captain "Lucky" Starz upper body. I'm not entirely decided on the coloring of the shirt and it still needs some texturing (maybe). Just trying to get a feel of his body and proportions.

Wow VERY nicely done. My suggestion is this: The semi needs to rock a little on it's suspension while is is making that hard, skidding turn. It is too rigid. Otherwise, this piece is pretty impressive stuff. I'm amazed.

Here is version 2 of this character's head. Since he was looking rather horsey, I added a mane/mohawk and decided on the space alien horsey look. I am rather pleased with the way the head is turning out. I'm also not going to go overboard on textures since I am trying to accomplish a more cartoony look.

Awesome lighting effect. Love it!

Here is my latest character. Yes, I know...it's just his head. His name is Captain "Lucky" Starz . He is a spaceship pilot. Or soon will be! I haven't decided on a design for the rest of him yet. If anyone has any suggestions, please speak up. What I DO know so far... 1) humanoid body 2) some kinda space getup 3) imagination, imagination, imagination I am still working on some sketches (but I'm really NOT a very good sketch artist) and I will post those as I go.

One word.....D'OH! Oh well, live and learn.

Very nice and realistic jet indeed. Maybe you could model a runway with maybe a terminal with copies of the plane parked at the gates and even a simple tower. Don't go to lengths for making props photoreal. Toss it all in a chor and set the camera to focus on the jet while leaving the background models fuzzed. Just an idear. It's a very nice plane, so it would be nice to see it in a cool setting. Should post it in the stills gallery.

FYI, It's not a human. The lower lid can do whatever it wants in MY WORLD. But thanks, that advise will help me out on some of my other models.

that new yeeargh clip is AWESOME. I think the turbulence effect on the smoke should be left in, Zach. Photo-realism is not always a necessity. It looks cool and passes as a good artistic way of mixing things up. It's fantasy, anyway. Good job.

Looking AWESOME so far, Rebecca! I love the arm and face detail. Your character is a-gunna ROCK!

Very cool. I love the flooring and the transparent tube-encased spiral stairways. Looks like you are off to a great start.

Thanks Nancy and Nos. I'm glad u enjoyed it. I just got a new graphic software Paint Shop Pro to create my decals in. Not as expensive as Adobe, but has all the same features and effects. Most importantly, I needed something to create *.tga files in with alpha channels. Only so much MS Paint can do. More coming soon.

This is a CLOSE up of my dragon blinking his eye. This is my first shot at a dynamic eye. I thought I did pretty good for a newbie. What do y'all think? Dragon_Blink.mov