Darkwing

I think the roundness is due more to my modelling than anything I may yet choose a different symbol, especially since it's been mentioned. The length in the bottom of my logo has been posing problems in matching the contour of the torso anyways, so one not as "tall" would be good. EDIT: Oh hey, bat symbols! Thanks Rodney!!

I think I just may go with a broader neck/shoulder area. These drawings do have him as a thinner batman and I've already thickened up other areas (abdomen and legs are two big ones I scaled up). As for the bat logo, there are sooooo many variations of it. I went with the ones in the rotos (which wasn't my first choice for the symbol, I was originally thinking something more along the lines of The Dark Knight or Arkham City). But to illustrate just some of the variations: It's funny you should mention the animated series cause I almost modeled that Batman instead. I was really debating it in my head for the longest time. That's the great thing about a character like batman, there are like an infinite amount of varying designs of him that you could model him over and over again and each time be different. Like even for a "graphic novel batman" each graphic novel pretty much has him drawn a different way. So much choice but it makes it fun to throw in little bits of the differing designs into a single model.

Muchos gracias senor! Is this any better?

Yea I agree, it's not curved right. I followed the drawings but I think it's a case of where a drawing looks good when drawn from two different angles, but put them together in a 3D environment and then there's some incongruence, so I'll probably eyeball it. I must say though, it feels so good to be back modelling in AM. Spent too much time "abroad" with other software as of late

I've made some more progress. I worked on tweaking his arms and in particular his deltoids. I still need to adjust his neck into shoulder/collarbone area and improve the bevels on the outline of his mask around his chin. I've been working on his bat symbol and have to figure some good way to stitch it into his chest. I must say, distort mode is absolutely wonderful for getting things like the symbol to match the contours of his chest. I have to further tweak his pecks so that they look more natural and so that the bat logo fits better. After all that, it's onto his abs and continuing with his legs! And here's a quick AO render (note you can't see his mask line as mentioned above). I notice in this render some odd lines running down from his neck into his chest. It could just be reversed normals, I'll be checking it out shortly. Anyways, as always, critique is welcome!

Well, this is probably where I'm gonna leave it for tonight, getting kind of sleepy! Progress has been pretty smooth and I've tried a different technique for building the body which so far seems to be working splendidly for me! EDIT: I lied, this is it for me tonight

Aha! Well thank you very much!! And here's some more progress!

Those rotos have made a world of difference!!

Dude, you are my hero, no lie. And good pun, mark Also, is model sheet those magic keywords, cause whenever I look for rotos, I can't quite hit the mark when doing a search and I use everything from rotoscopes, to blueprints as keywords. Usually that's fine for mech models, but character rotos I find so hard to search for because of the difficult choice of keywords. EDIT: Just typed it into google and holy muffins batman, those are the magic keywords! That should be like at the very front of every piece of AM literature. "Welcome to AM. Oh and by the way, use the keywords model sheet when looking for rotos on google."

Well it's actually been a long time since I actually really used AM for anything (probably before Christmas actually). The projects I have been working on required other tools. So I wanted to crack open AM and see if I still had it in me! So what I'm working on is modelling Batman! I'm trying to go for a style similar to that of the graphic novels. The unfortunate thing is that I lack rotos. I couldn't find anything satisfactory online and when I tried to draw my own, well, let's just say that didn't go very well. So I'm just going at it! So far I'm not sure whether or not I'm happy with what I have. There's quite a few problems, such as but not limited to the eye not being set in far enough, the shape of the jaw, the nose (I know, I'm pretty much listing off the whole face ). I haven't really worked on cleaning up the mesh yet or anything so it's kind of rough still. But regardless, feel free to critique, I haven't done this sort of thing in forever! There is a distinct possibility that I'm gonna dump this version of the model and start from scratch. This is actually quite hard without rotos

I'm curious if Carol is a previous Max user, because I'm pretty sure that's a max feature, to be in a bird's eye/perspective view and then hit a button and it generates a camera from that viewport.

Every AMD processor I've had in a computer has conked out early in its life. Meanwhile, I've never had an Intel go on me.

Nah I'll definitely be doing Intel. Every experience with AMD I've ever had has been a bad one.

Ok thanks. So I'll aim for i7 but if it turns out I won't be able to afford it, I'll go i5

Now out of curiosity, is an i7 when not using hyperthreading equally as fast as an i5?

Sorry to bring this topic back up but I've been doing reading on custom building PCs due to my need to have a new PC soon. I was on one website (Lifehacker) and they were describing the different components of a mid-higher end gaming computer. WHen they got to the processor, they recommended the Intel i5 over the i7 because they didn't see the need for hyperthreading in gaming. They did say however, that if the computer was being built for 3D design, video editing etc that the i7 would probably be the better processor due to hyperthreading. I'm wondering if we've determined that this is true and if hyperthreading is of any advantage to AM? Also, I use 3DS Max and Maya as well and perhaps hyperthreading is more geared for those programs? My point being, if I were to have to pick between the i5 or i7, which would be best?

Could you elaborate on this texturing method Robert? How exactly does this work and what exactly are you using to map before heading to the paint program?

Since the set arrived, the family and I have been usually watching a bunch before having supper. It is nice to finally have these on DVD. So I must say, thanks for letting us all know that they had gone on sale!

Just bought. Been waiting for years to snag a good deal like this for Looney Tunes. Thanks EDIT: I notice that The Twilight Zone complete Blu-Ray collection is 170 dollars compared to the nearly 400 dollar regular price

And this pretty much describes me to perfection. All I expect out of myself now is failure. I honestly wouldn't know what to do with success if it walked up and slapped me in the face.

When and where was this? Absolutely. Maybe even if they're not necessarily the creative director, someone who's able/willing to put in the time communicating, organizing and all that fun stuff.

Just an afterthought, I'm not suggesting that we stop talking about it or anything, just wondering if something will come of it is more like it.

Something I'm wondering here, and this is purely just for the sake of argument so give it a little thought, is that are we critically discussing the situation or are we simply beating around the bush? The only reason I say this, is because we seem to have a very similar discussion every couple of months about having a larger community project. I know there's a point of critically assessing the situation and weighing in on the pros and cons, but I'm just beginning to wonder where we seem to do it relatively frequently and the results have arguably been the same, if we're really not into it? Or is it more a matter of someone has to take the plunge (seriously) and pitch their idea for a community project and see if people will come together on it or not? There's a lot of lessons to be learned from the previous two films which I am by no means discrediting and I personally think it's good to have those who were involved to vocalize those opinions and experiences as they've been doing. But I'm positive we have pretty much the same discussion every few months and it always results in nothing. Like I'm trying to wonder if at this point we're learning anything new by having these discussions or are we simply chasing our metaphorical tale? This isn't meant to appear impetuous or anything, I'm just trying to analyze whether or not these discussions are all that productive anymore and if someone should dive into that massive task of pitching and organizing and all of that fun stuff? Or should we just leave it alone? Because these discussions usually end in a sort of 50/50 split of uncertainty where there's some who would be willing to be involved and those who wouldn't be and so it just fizzles out. That kind of leads me to think it's not so much a question of solving the riddle of how to make another community feature, but rather, we lack somebody with a strong enough vision and passion to see it done. Just food for thought.

The more I think about it, the more I become inclined to the idea of a web-series. I see many benefits of that over a feature film such as how the community wouldn't have to wait years to see a final product. Plus there's free reign over the stories, styles and genres. It also presents people with the opportunity to try their hand at different tasks that they otherwise may not normally get to do. Similarly, it presents the opportunity for a person to not have to be that one man studio. I mean if you scrutinize it, it's not that different from what the forum is in the first place. How I see it is a much more focused attempt at letting people produce something or be involved in something they want to make. I have too many ideas scrambling around my head that I just wanna dump them all at once into this text box but what ends up happening is I very poorly explain even one of those ideas. Like there wouldn't need to be a common theme in each of the shorts, just a transitional piece between them. We could even have categories instead of it just being a free for all. Almost like the animation contests, except as a group effort. Say the powers that be say "For the month of June, have produced for the web series a fantasy short, go!" Then anybody interested in producing the fantasy short gets together and does so. We obviously have structures in place to facilitate people's interactions instead of everyone just awkwardly looking at their keyboards waiting for someone else to post first. Does any of this make sense, I feel like I'm really scatterbrained. It all comes together in my head but it probably isn't to you guys haha. Also, we create a Youtube channel for said series and similarly, feature each episode on Am Films. Like the creators of the film don't have to worry about the distribution aspects, the people who decide they like dealing with such things as Youtube would. Someone please say something or ask me a more direct question so I can impart this craziness on you better. Like I really think it's something that could work assuming I've written everything down the way they make sense in my brain!...

On the topic of subject, my personal opinion would be in breaking the film into components. Did anyone see or hear of that ridiculously stupid film, Movie 42? The premise is that it's a series of short films strung together. I think in a community where you have people who would arguably be willing to work on some project, so long as it's the right project, but have differing interests and artistic styles, would be to in effect use that to advantage. To explain further. A film that perhaps a character or theme that runs through everything, but is comprised of different style and genres. Sort of like stringing together a bunch of short films. This is basically an expansion of community projects like Rear Window or Bus Stop. People would in this case be part of teams (could be as many as they like) and work on the thing that interests them the most. Also, where the film is comprised of "sections," people wouldn't have to worry about taking the movie on as a whole (well obviously a few people will have to, those who are going to edit the whole thing together for instance). But with the sectional approach, there can be multiple directors (a director for each section basically), multiple scriptwriters, animators etc. As Rodney was saying, communication would be key. We wouldn't want the script writers to be totally independent of each other, they should probably communicate to make sure that the overall script flows. Similarly, with the sectional approach, say I was intrigued in modelling flying saucers for one section, but wanna take a stab at animating horses. Well, I can model in the scifi one and animate in the western. One other thought is that perhaps it would be an anthology, with no common theme running through it other than a guy in an armchair who introduces each short film. This way, people could pitch that short film they've always wanted to work on but was always afraid of asking for help. Or, it's not even a movie, but is in fact a web series strung together by that guy in an armchair who introduces each short film. The requirement then might be like a limit of 5 minute short or something (or no limit, or different limit, I'm really just rambling now). Again, this gives the variety, creates short term projects that equal a long term project and also presents people with the opportunity to get others working together on that project they never could quite get off the ground.