Admin Rodney Posted March 1, 2004 Admin Share Posted March 1, 2004 When you say you've abondoned the lab stuff. Does that mean we won't see any animation come out of this? Sure would like to see the IGORs moving through the scene. Not to mention some animation from you. You also said concerning files in you PWS: I'm just a bad typist Me too, but I've been getting entire words wrong lately. You just appear to have the occasional letters capped/uncapped. The reason I ask is that I've experimented a little with a method to remind me of the stages a file might be in. Your letters made me think of that. I say experimented because I've never got to any conclusion or method that 'works'. What I experimented with is capitalizing to indicate the state of completion of the model. Example: CHARACTER GUY - All Caps - I don't use all caps but I guess this could mean the model has been perfected. Maybe it could mean a HIGH RESOLUTION version of the Final model. CharacterGuy - Caps for the beginning of each word item - Indicates completed model Characterguy - Caps only on the first letter - Mostly complete - Can be textured characterguy - no caps - draft model Most people would probably just put the word "draft", "High Res" or something descriptive in the name itself but no.... I have to experiment... <_> Of course versions can always get the number at the end. I suppose this is pretty standard for many people in A:M. The number added to the model though would seem to say that this guy is a substantially different character; i.e. CharacterGuy1, CharacterGuy2, etc. I think of your variations on your superheroes as a good example. My guess would be that you would enter their names as their filename though, right? Sorry to be a bore... thinking while I'm typing... you seem to be an available target! Should be sleeping instead... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnArtbox Posted March 1, 2004 Author Share Posted March 1, 2004 The superhero project and the IGOR's live on, it's only the lab concept that's discontinued. It just doesn't match the feeling I'm after. It's a bit too straight edged and literal. It probably would have made it this far except that the image contest for this month is mechanical, and once I decided to enter I felt compelled to carry it through. I use the character's name followed by the date for model iterations. If it's a special-use model I might add that fact to the description ie ToonBiplane220204Exploding. I use capitals for the beginning of each word for readability and because I can't bring myself to put spaces in filenames Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted March 1, 2004 Admin Share Posted March 1, 2004 Yes! Glad to hear we'll see more of the IGORs. A battle royale would be sweet! I haven't seen any Superheroes around here for a long time... none in the style you are presenting them in. I'm really looking forward to seeing where you are going with the Superheroe theme. I've decided to stay as far away from posting anything superhero related so as not to mess in any way with your vision. I assume you'll be entering the comic contest for March! Concerning naming files: One thing I would recommend when adding the date to the name is start with the year, then month, then day. That way when you sort files in your directory they will line up accordingly. Using your example: ToonBiplane20040222Exploding - I use four digit years but 2 digit will work Multiple updates saved to file: ToonBiplane20040224Exploding ToonBiplane20040227Exploding ToonBiplane20040222Exploding Get sorted automatically or with a right click and sort: ToonBiplane20040222Exploding ToonBiplane20040224Exploding ToonBiplane20040227Exploding I don't like to put spaces in files either... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnArtbox Posted March 3, 2004 Author Share Posted March 3, 2004 Damn, it'd be so much easier if all we needed were the characters. Started building the city today, I thinks it's going to be on an island. I spent a few hours working out an easy way to build a building that could be deformed. Ended up with a grid that I think works and has relatively low splinage. Two of the building in the image are mostly modelled, the others are just blocks to be replaced. The floating track will be a monorail, and I'm planning on having some balloons and blimps in the air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenH Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Looks really cool! I especially like the rock it's all sitting on. Is it mostly a material? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parlo Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 John - I really like your city, and do think that it's a better style setting for your characters than the lab model you've been working on. The lab is gorgeous (I'm gonna take a look at the project file to do me some learning!) but just didn't feel like it was right for the characters you've been working on. I'd almost go with minimal environments - only objects that directly define or play a part in each shot and the rest replaced with strong colour schemes. I think that this would give your characters a more dynamic setting. edit - I've just got what I've been connecting your work with and why I made the above suggestion. Ren & Stimpy. It has that John Kricfalusi feel somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted March 3, 2004 Admin Share Posted March 3, 2004 John, Thanks for another "Now why didn't I think of that... moment". Great design for your city. Will be perfect for your heroes to live in. Keep posting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnArtbox Posted March 5, 2004 Author Share Posted March 5, 2004 Another day, another couple of office blocks. Architects would kill to be this fast I'm modelling all of the buildings square so that I can distort them on a shot by shot basis, and so I can use them later in normal settings if I want to. Ken: The rock is a very simple mesh with a colour and a displacement material applied. I turned the displacement material off for today's render because it seemed to have issues and render patches black. Parlo: Yup this feels better Rodney: Thanks Designing office blocks is hard work.... 3am.. time for four hours sleep before my kids wake me up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Smith Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 Dang, man. Your style is great! I'm curious what kind of camera-work will be done in the animation. When I see bendy/cartoony buildings like this, I get the impression that people don't think too hard about how they stay up there (part of the humor). In 3D we've got the freedom to do fly-arounds and stuff -- that might throw people off balance. But I dunno, you're a clever guy ( I guess ). Have you given much thought about the camerawork, or is that a different department? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingSalami Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 love the update, buildings are looking great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted March 10, 2004 Admin Share Posted March 10, 2004 BUMP and Congratulations! I wasn't a bit surprized to see your name in winner's circle! Looking forward to your entry for March! Will one page be enough for you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mestela Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 All looking great john! Seems island living is agreeing with you in a creative sense. More updates damnit! Cheers, -matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnArtbox Posted April 13, 2004 Author Share Posted April 13, 2004 This belongs on the painting in zbrush WIP as well. Here's the beginning of texturing with basic displacement and colour. It's been a while because of work committments, but the project is still slowly happening. I try not to post unless there's something to look at. Displacements are back Thanks Hash dudes. Ross: I think I can make it work we'll know soon enough. King & Rod Thanks Matt Good to hear from you man, island living is good Update as ordered Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaryin Posted April 13, 2004 Share Posted April 13, 2004 *drools* Displacement is looking excellent! I think yours colors could be blurred and blended a little bit, but otherwise this is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenH Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Damn! That model looks like it wasn't made in AM! That's the miracle of displacement maps! It's really progressing great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Smith Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Damn! That model looks like it wasn't made in AM! Them's almost fightin' words. ;p It is indeed a fantastic model, John. The Superhero's face looks a little... yellow, I guess. It doesn't feel quite right. But maybe that's just me. Smashing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3DArtZ Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 I think everything looks way cool. Like the city a lot. You handled it with a great 3d cartoon style. Could really be a fun animation to watch I'm thinking.... The hero looks perfect with the style too. I have one question..... what is happening on his body? Is that a suit or is that skin and rippling muscles? Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted April 20, 2004 Admin Share Posted April 20, 2004 The Superhero's face looks a little... yellow, I guess. It doesn't feel quite right. But maybe that's just me. It is a little known fact that he is the firstborn son of a spacefaring earthman and a lovely alien princess from the planet Yelor... Shortly after his birth he was rocketed to earth when his native planet became unstable and... Ohhh.... oopps.... that's not it..... What gives.... John what IS up with the Yellow skin!! P.S. Meant to ask him that before too but we have a hard time keeping John locked in a chat room... Sneaky little bugger... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnArtbox Posted April 20, 2004 Author Share Posted April 20, 2004 Thanks All. Ken:I really like the detail displacement adds, without having to worry about spline topology...Quick, everyone use displacement and tell Hash so we can get more control over it Ross/Rodney the image was more in the nature of a quick test of displacement than a final map. The yellow was just something to look at. Mike: it's a costume. but it needs more work before it's done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted April 21, 2004 Admin Share Posted April 21, 2004 John, I don't suppose you have any more 2D drawing/sketches of your World that you'd be willing to share? Looks like you are almost eliglible for a fan club! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelmech Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Gah - what happened to your website - tis down! Was really wanting to look at it, and heard you have some Osprey tut that might be helpful to me? Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inkblot Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Ooh. Gravedigging. Is that bad here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnArtbox Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 website was only down for a couple of days. I gave the Osprey tuts to hash because they wiped out my web bandwidth(10GB) but if you do a search on Osprey you should get the hash links from the WIP. Otherwise let me know and I'll put it up on the site for a few days. This project is in hiatis while Investigating Jack is completed,then it'll be back in a big way. Got lots of new ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pancho simpson Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 wow, John i just can't get past that lighting, it looks great. I recently discovered/downloaded Skycast but i haven't had a chance to toy around with it,(plus i have to create a 2d anim for my chem class) however upon looking at it i'm scared about the rendertime on my 800MHz celeron. Could your machine specs and how long that render's taking? As for the model it looks awesome as is, if u do leave the crotch that long, try to hide the anim from your daughter ;-) Kidding! keep up the good work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnArtbox Posted February 10, 2005 Author Share Posted February 10, 2005 hi all, don't get excited,I'm not starting this again until the Kapsules short is done. But I did get excited about a new technique recently, and since I used the IGOR robot to test it, I thought I'd post the results here. Recently started to explore Project Dogwaffle(paint program) and played with its Seamless Plus plugin, which tiles and cross fades an image to create a seamless tile(takes 5 seconds max ) . I just grabbed a photo of a dumpster, cropped a small tile out and made the tile seamless. Then I made a few variations by changing the paint colours. Then because I was playing I applied it as an image stamp (because I was being lazy and it meant not needing to alter UV's or flatten). This image was literally textured in 10 minutes. I know the purists will say that it introduces false lighting cues(and it does), but I think it's cool....and very very fast. You could even unfold it and use the stamped images as the base for a decal if you wanted. Pancho: it'll take take a while, but you can speed it up using soft shadows. The robot was about 20 min on my p4 2ghz with 3 raytrace lights, reflections set to1 and multipass x 16. you can use skycast with 1 light at 9xmultipass though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starwarsguy Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 How much does that paint program cost? Cool effects, by the way! I still love the design of that robot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenH Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Beautiful design. You've got a style all of your own. I'm dying to see why the robot only has one arm! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnArtbox Posted February 11, 2005 Author Share Posted February 11, 2005 This is the render after adding bloom, noise and DOF in post. Also added an ambient gradient material as a subsitute rim light. Thanks Ken/Kyle Kyle PDPro(Project Dogwaffle Pro) is about $90. There's a free version which is pretty good, but I'm not sure if it includes seamless plus. Ken: The original idea was for socketted attachments depending on the task at hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.