ypoissant

This looks like a cool little project and I like your character design. So far, your doing a good job recreating the design in 3D. Here are 3 observations: - You got the left fill light good but IMO, this fill light should have its shadow turned ON. - The rim-light (also called hair light) is either missing or is not effectively positioned. - Henrietta's neck should be pulled a little backward.

In Chor view, the usual "add CPs" button will add a path to the chor. Add the path from top view and then lower (or raise) the CPs so they conform to the surface (I usually find it is easier and faster to do that selecting each CP and then opening the properties pannel, using the mouse to increase or decrease the Y value). Then, for each of the character, add a "Constraint to path". Your character will translate to the path. To change the place on the path where you want your character to be positioned, you must modify the character's constraint to path "Ease" property. You can do that at any frame in the chor. This way, you can place several character on the same path, one behind anothers. If your character does not have a walk cycle with a stride length, you, actually, will have to translate the character on the path with the Ease property. If your character does have a walk action with a stride length, then you can still control where the character is positioned on the path with the "Ease" property, But the actual chor stride length (and step speed) is dependent on both the path length and the choreography length. You will have to adjust the path length and the "Ease" property to fit the walk cycle.

Another way to view the solution is to consider moving (that would mainly be rotating) the scabbag so it stays in line with the sword. This way you can get a natural motion of the sword pull with the hand. The scabbag staying immobile wouldn't look natural anyway.I would consider using an orient-like constraint on the scabbag so it stays aligned with the sword. Then, all you need is to align the scabbag pivot point with the sword.

That was my favorite too. Must have to do with different monitor gamma settings. Your last one (#6) looks like a winner to me though.

Yes. A mental construct. I would not call that a fudge though. It is more like vanishing points and lines when you draw in perspective. They are usefull concepts. But polygon models don't really have an edge loop structure that would hold the chain of edges that constitute an edge loop. The edge loop is really in the eye of the modeler. This is unlike a spline which have an intrinsic continuity that can span several patches.

This is looking very good. A well balanced composition and lighting. Bravo.

"Edge loops" is a concept created to teach good modeling habits for polygon modelers. They don't have the luxury of natural spline continuity so they had to invent a way to talk about this important modeling technique. This said, the modeling technque itself is still very relevant to spline modeling except that in our case, we cannot use the term "edge loop" because we don't have edges. The basic idea of the modeling technique, is that you should try to lay out your splines in such a way that it will follow the natural contours of the form your are modeling and intend to animate. Nancy is correct, the above template could very be well used to layout splines. In fact, that is more or less the spline layout that experienced modelers do. So there you see the obvious loops around the eyes and loops around the mouth. But what is less obvious, is the loop that follow the naso-labial furrow and other flowing forms of the face.

I corrected spaces in the URL. Try again.

The model looks cool. I took your render and pushed the saturation to the max to show the colors that are in the photo vs the colors that are on Tar. To match the same light as in the photo, see the direct lit sand which is yellow-orange and the shadowed sand which is blue, you need to set the AO color to blue and the suncolor to yellow.

That is cool! Nice execution. How did you get the model into scale? Did you do it from photos or did you have to measure it with a measuring tape or did you have access to plans?

Me again. A few more questions: I just positioned the cheek, jowl and nostril slider to mach the positions you show in the screen grabs. But I don't know why I positioned them there. If I were to position those bones on another modes, what am I looking for here? Again, which facial landmarks should I aim at? And what are the purposes of those bones? How ar they going to be used? I had a vague intuition that those bones are there to pull the naso-labial furrow dring a smile or a whide mouth but then the "cheek" position would not be positioned correctly. So that is probably not what I think it is. BTW, I found the name "nostril" confusing. I was expecting this end to match with the nose nostril in some way.

OK. Matching the origin of all those bones makes good sense to me so that is what I'm doing. But by doing so, the "translate_thongue_install_Z_axis" maximum value of 300% is just barely enough to place the thongue bones over the actual thongue. Might consider increasing its amplitude. Yes. Thanks. But I will have more questions.

For the hand and thumb? Yes.

I feel I need more instructions here. I really don't know what I'm doing with those bones. I have no problems figuring that the translate_jaw sliders purpose is to position the jaw open pivot point. And scaling jaw_XYZ_axis I can figure too. But how much do I need to rotate the jaw_X_axis bone? What is the purpose of this rotation? Is there any landmark I should aim that bone to? Are there any consequences of not rotating it or not rotating it correctly? I see that when I rotate the upper_teeth_X_axis bone, it also rotates the other bones. How much do I need to rotate that bone? Is there any facial landmarks that I sould aim that bone to (like the front of the teeth)? What is the purpose of rotating that bone? Same set of questions for scaling the upper_teeth_XYZ_axis bone. I see that when I scale that bone, the other bones are also scaled and thus translated. How much do I need to scale it? Any facial landmarks I should reach to? And if I don't scale it, what are the consequences? I obseved that the lower_teeth bone cannot be translated in Z so I thought maybe, the purpose of rotating the upper_teeth is to position the lower teeth pivot point. But I doubt that is the case. I can change both the pivot point and the end point of the lower_teeth bone by translating it on Y and rotating it around X. My intuition tells me that the lower_teeth pivot point should be at the same position as the jaw pivot point. Is this important? Or is it even related? What facial or head landmarks should I aim at when positioning both the pivot and the end of that bone? What does it controls? What are the consequence of not positioning and rotating that bone right? I think I know what I'm doing with the thongue related bones. Note, I don't always replicate the exact bone placements that you show in your screengrabs. This is on purpose. It is obvious that if I follow the exact placement and values that you show, everything will go perfectly. But I want to test the limits of both the rig and the install rig themselves and the limits of my own understanding too. Beside, I have my own idea of where the joints should be positionned

OK. I know why. I translated the head install bone, from step 5, higher than in your example and thus, when I scaled it to the top of head, it scaled shorter than yours. And since the eye install bones are parented to the head install bone, this is how I got into this situation. Bottom line, I think the eye install bones scaling need larger amplitude to accomodate more head morphologies. In the meantime, what are the consequences of not scaling the eye install bones to reach the eyelids? Should I scale the Head Install bone larger so the eye install bones reach the eyelids?

I cannot get the eyes bones "scale_eyes_XYZ_axis (side)" to scale long enough to reach the eyelids as shown on your screen grab. If I scale them to 330% like yours, I can only reach to about half the distance. Even if I scale them o 400% (the maximum), it does not reach. This time, I'm sure I got the base bone scaled and translated correctly.

Well, I had time to sleep on this and I figured, this morning, that this issue with the thumb phalanxes was may fault. I was not following the instructions. I wanted to turn the tumb bones so the thumb phalanxes turns in a more natural way: The second grab shows what I mean although I exagerated the turn angle here. And when I was aligning the phalanx bones, I could not get them to align with the actual thumb: I could get them to align from the top view but not from the face view or vice-versa. But it turned out I was not following one of the previous instruction that says "Rotate_thumb_Z_axis (aim_pointer_install_at_nail)". As you can see in the first two grabs of the first attachment, I was not aiming at nail. Once I aimed at nail, then I could get proper phalanx alignment. For reference, here are the hand bone names I'm using as reference by Dr Paul Richer "Artistic Anatomy".

I redid all the steps after you updated the rig. I have one question and one issue. The question is how important is it to scale the end finger bone? Say the scale_black_middle_3_XYZ_axis? What are the consequence if it is not scaled or not scaled correctly? And if scaling it is important, then I guess it should be scaled right to the tip of the finger? The issue is I cannot get the black_thumb bones to orient correctly with the thumb phalanx. I think it is because I rotated the "rotate_thumb_Z_ais (aim_pointe_install_at_nail)" so it have a more natural folding angle. I think this is this rotation because if I rotate it back to its default angle, I can psition the other bones correctly.

This rig never cease to amaze me. I, too, had this issue of turning scarecrow foot on the ball and had to fight with the heel null and then compensate. Had I know about that ball rorate thingy, that would have been much easier. Thanks for this. Next time, I'm gong to use that bone. Rotating on the ball happens so often.

Ah! OK. I'll check that. Thanks.

Yes. It is scaled up to the top of the head. I guess I could scale it a little more and compensate later.

OK. Thanks.

I agree. This is pure genius. Mark, David and whoever else have developped this rig, you have my highest respect.

The right(left)_elbow_pointer_install is not centered on the elbow joint. Is this normal?

Just to mention that the translate_white_leg_install_bone_Y_axis maximum value of 1200 is not high enough to position the hips joint wherei should be.