Ilidrake

That was exactly the kind of answer I was hoping NOT to hear...... Anyway I am using v12.od Don't worry. That model I did took a week. I had to redo his upper torso 9 times! 9 times And I ain't talking rebreak a spline or two. I mean I deleted everything and started over 9 times. But the end result is nice. Go ahead and break them apart and see if that solves your problem. Another thing you could try before going that far is to select the 5 points and then hide the rest of the mesh. Then select them and see if they'll form a 5 point patch. Keep cranking away at it. I really wanna see this dragon finished. It's gonna be an awesome model.

You may have extra cps lurking in there. I've had it happen where I accidently put and extra cp on top of another. You should be able to make a 5-point out of that. My only answer to this dilema now would be to take and break all the splines in this area, pull them aside and check for additional cps, reconnect them, and try again. What version of AM are you using by the way? That may have something to do with it.

Could you elaborate a little? What type of action are you applying? Any constraints?

Show me a shot with the circled splines included so i can see where there going. But looking at this I see no reason why it wouldn't close. Select the 5 cps that make this patch up, lock them so you edit only them, and then reselect all of them, then see if it will allow you to make a 5-point. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23028&hl= Check that page out. It's of a model I just finished. If you look under the arm you'll notice I have 2 5-point patches side by side so I see no reason for yours to work. Don't give up yet. There's an answer somewhere

One quirk about AM is that if you have a hook near your 5 point patch, as you do here, it won't allow you to close it. Simply extend your splines and hook them furthur down the line. 'A' is effecting patch 'B' and hook 'C' is effecting patch 'D'. Once you have the hooks moved simply select the individual cps by hoding the Alt key and picking them one by one and then lock them. Deselect them then reselect them, and you should be able to apply a five-point patch.

Exactly how do you do the feathers? Is it a Targa image applied to a patch or particle hair emitter? Nice effect

Any updates today? I would like to see any new pics on your model.

I've found sweeper, I just don't know how to use it. It's found under wizards, plugins in the modeling mode. Anyone out there in HASH land know how to use it?

Slash LOL....Thanks for the tip John

I really have to ask, what do you plan on doing with this thing? It's a GREAT model, simply superb. It would be neat to see it in a war scene with newton physics added. You know? Blow it up!!! Just a thought. I love war movies and explosions.

Nice site.

Anyone know where I can find a good tut on modeling cartoon hands? Nevermind, just found one.

k....I'll just tinker with my own stuff until then...

Well, I tried the realistic modeling but found I enjoy cartoony characters better. I don't have any real boundries with them. They can look however I want (thus the arm placement for this guy) I think he's really gonna stand out once he's animated. And if not, I had fun modeling him.

The ego is okay I have to agree with the too many splines in the face. I was thinking about going back and getting rid of a few. That's usually how I do a model though. I place a ton in the face to help me shape it then start deleting extras. The hands are boxy aren't they. I can do realistic hands pretty good. But for some reason I SUCK at cartoon hands. Beats me why, I just do. I just started working with the particle hair so thanks for the feed-back. Perhaps if I added another attribute to the hair and thickened it a bit? I'll redo them tonight and repost. Thanks for the feed-back Ken. By the way, what do you mean by 'make them shine?'

Good to hear. So.....what do you need modeled? Throw something my way and I'll get started tonight.

I've been wondering if I should get involved in TWO. Does it require I have internet access at home? I checked the forum page on all the requirements and it seems I do, vbut can someone confirm this for me? Anyway, I'd like to try my hand at something. Here's a link to a pic of one of my own models. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23028&hl=

I finished this character up last night. He's not rigged yet but for those interested he's using the new hair particle system. There are no decals here, only material combinations. He weighs in at around 1200 patches. He rendered in about 2 and a half minutes, resolution 640x400, multi-pass x 16. Okay Martin...there you go...like I promised. Comments are welcomed and encouraged. I appreciate any feed-back I can get. (Especially around the shoulder area.)

I have this problem as well. Check out this web-site for splinemanship tutorials. Real good stuff. http://www.alienlogo.com/tincan/ I still make the same mistake so don't worry about it. It gets easier the more you do it.

I've had this problem myself along the way and it is simply a matter of breaking the splines apart and reconnecting them. You may need to do it several times, in various ways before you get a smooth look that is pleasing to the eye. Don't give up. Believe me, I know it's frustrating but you can fix this, and once you learn to fix this you'll be a bit wiser when something like this rears it's head. Just keep plugging away at it. Try extending the splines as I've detailed in the pic, that may help smooth the spline curve out. And once you get it as smooth as you can apply Porclien Material to it to really smooth it out. Good luck

Reminds me of Puff the Magic Dragon Good luck with him.

One way you can make sure your cps are centered along an axis: Example Make sure your in the front view Select all cps in the center of the model. If its a face it will be all cps in the x-axis starting from the bottom and going to the top open the properties and in the scale part select the x-axis and enter 0% and press enter All cps will be centered along the x-axis press the '/' key to select the entire model, C/F/A This should take care of the problem Sometimes I have to just flip the model along the y-axis and then preform a C/F/A Just some ways I go about doing a C/F/A

I took a look at that tutorial and it's pretty nice. Here's a translated version of the last page. Here's the address of the translator I useed. http://babelfish.altavista.com/ I hope this helps you out. Nevermind. The files too big to post. oh well, here's the translated text of that page: 19. Drawing up the ear and the eyebrow As in the upper figure the model of the eyebrow and the ear is arranged. That it parallels to amount, extrude doing the spline which is drawn it draws up the eyebrow. Using copy reversal connection, to both sides it converts the model. As in the upper figure shortening CP of the mouth in extrude, pushing in, it draws up the lip. Furthermore pushing in extrude, it draws up also in the mouth. Drawing up the tooth and tongue The model of the tooth and tongue is put in place. Drawing up the forelock First it tried making the forelock in extrude. The plural pastes doing this, it tries surrounding around the head completely. Drawing up the whole hair Furthermore the flow and volume of the hair are adjusted with distortion. 7. Completion The head completed with this. Figure 24.

Overall it's a good looking model. I generally have trouble with eyes and was just wondering how you did the eyeball? Could you post a couple shots of the eyes from various angles and maybe explain to me how you did them. Good looking model over-all though.

Well, there is one solution that comes to mind. Render the models in Max from various angles, front, side, back. Instant rotoscopes that you can use in AM. Good luck with your movie.