Star Character

[NickHutson]

This is my newest character that will be starring in a short that I'm working on. I was going for a Pixar style of character, and he looks pretty close to me. But tell me what you think. His name's Ted.

 

 

P.S. I'll post his wires as soon as I get the chance. Until then I'll be hard at work fitting his rig.

 

P.P.S I also noticed after the render was complete that I did not run Gama conversion. The piece is probably light enough to avoid problems, but if there are any problems please say so.

[bentothemax]

Woody as a youngester, with bright, bright, green shoes.

 

 

I like it

[NickHutson]

Hey I didn't think about it when I made it, but he does lend a striking resemblance to Woody. And thanks for pointing out the shoes. I'll have them a few tones down in the next render.

[KenH]

Very cool! His hat seems abit flat at the top.

[agep]

I like him.. Good work. Will there be many characters in your short? How about telling us a bit about the story?

[Dearmad]

Nice. Only issue I saw: He won't be able to reach his own hat- ever, no matter how he bends. But, that could lead to some funny stuff about how he manages to perch it up there and remove it when/if he wants.

 

And I liked the green shoes.

[Eos]

I think the Woodiest thing about him is the cow skin on him. If you just changed it it wouldn't look that much to Woody anymore. I would make the hair thicker so he doesn't look like he lacks of it.

[Rodney]

I like him too! Looks like a really fun character.

I'm not sure where your storyline might take him but the imagery I get when I think of him in action is cool.

 

I like the shoes too! (probably is a bit too radioactive green though)

[NickHutson]

Hey thanks Rodney and all. It means allot. I know the shoes do look like they came from Tronoble. I'll have um fixed in the next render.

 

As for the hair, front or side? The back is really thick so I don't want to add more to it. Since that's not very visable your probably talking about the front, and I agree with you. For the life of me I cant get the hair of the bangs any thicker. It's the same Material as the rest of the head, so changing the thickness changes the rest of the head. I've tried using the hair multiplier locally, but it's up all the way to the max. And I don't want to apply another material to that mesh because I got his hair doo just right. Any tips?

 

The top of the hat only looks flat from this angle. Real cowboy hats have a dip on top with a little bulge in the middle. But I can see how it would look flat from this angle. The other option was to make a more conically shaped hat. But this didn't lend the look I was going for.

 

Ted is the only character in the short. I mean short literally. It will be from 30 seconds to a minate long. Its shows parents the reasons why kids get into the trouble that they do. Most parents aren't present to see the events that lead up to vases being broken or windows shattered. They just ask " What were you thinking?!" Well this short shows what Ted was thinking when he accidentally broke his bedroom window while paying in his room as an imaginary cowboy. The short will be set to the music of a very fitting 80's song for the sound track. Other than this I can't say anymore because it would just ruin it for you guy's.

 

Thanks for your tips and compliments. Tootle loo!

[Dearmad]

Hey, cool. Sounds like a great little premise.

[Dhar]

Great looking character. Love the vest

[NickHutson]

Sorry I have'nt posted much on my short for a while. I've been working on his rig and his smart skin for a while. Considering his vest this has been very time comsuming and very frusterating. I do so loath rigging. This project has made me realize what parts of cg I enjoy. Lighting (Getting the mood just right sends me over the moon) choreographing, modeling and animating. I guess those would be my dessert while rigging and texturing would be my lima beans. Anyway when my frustration met it's limit I decided to do what two things I was able to do at this stage. Model something and then light it. I modeled the beginings of Ted's room and then tried my hand at radiosity, which turned out allot easier than I thought, once I got the idea behind it. I was so pleased with it that I thought I would post it here. And maybe take the extra time to implement radiosity in the short. Any comments or crits are welcome.

[NickHutson]

I've been really busy lately and not able to make many updates. But here is a some what less blah update of the room.

[amarillospider]

I like his look. I don't think that the hat totally makes me think of Woody, without the hat he's totally unique, at least to my eye, but with the hat your stuff is gonna get compared to Pixar.

 

I've got a character who's head is so big he can't really reach his own nose, makes for creative animating. Cheat with staging as much as you can, and then don't be afraid to pull the arms out of the sockets to get a pose.

 

Nice lighting on the room.

 

Can't wait to see more.

 

-Alonso

[modernhorse]

Not too blahh for me - nice lighting! I dig your character too.

 

Doug

[3DArtZ]

The character is great and the room setting seems to be looking great too!

Once crit is that his hands sort of seem like "man hands"....

Could you make them seem a bit more cute?

 

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

[NickHutson]

Well, I guess I could narrow the roots of his fingers to make the tips look a little more bulbous. This would be more cartoony. But as for cute. Girls "hands" should be cute. He is a boy, so there should atleast be a hint to some sort of manlyness. Anyway that's the way I see it. Thanks for the crits and comments. They really help the project come along into something better than it was at first.

[Zaryin]

Great model and that room is it. I was a kid again, that would be my room.

[NickHutson]

Thanks. Personally when I was that age I was more into spaceships and well, space. So I'm glad here that the shift from space obsessed to CowBoy obsessed worked and it still looks like a kids room.

 

I have one question for you guys. The premis is that he's playing after lunch before his noon time nap. In this case it would'nt be nessasary for him to have any lights on. But the shadows in the scene look a little dark as it is to me. Does any one know how I could brighten it up without recking the whole noon time feel. Should he have any lights on in the room? Thanks in advance.

[Dearmad]

Yeah, I'd add a light. But not coming from a lamp or anything.

 

Before all the light "realists" post on this, let a light "fakist" give his 2 cents:

 

I'd have a sunlight style light outside the windows. Shadows, spec, everything.

 

I'd add what I call a sunlight radiosity faker: a bulb style inside the room near the main reflecting wall. Drop it to about a third to two-thirds the intensity of the sunlight, and make the color a little richer than the sunlight. I'd toy with making this light a spotlight and using z buffered shadows to soften these secondary shadows, but make sure the spotlight is large enough to encompass the area of your shot that needs illumination without it becoming obvious it is a spotlight. This light *may not* need specularities turned on- might be too much, maybe not.

 

Then I'd go through a process of scrutinizing my camera angle shots (because I'd have had the shot planned out, naturally) looking at shadows/highlights and adjust what I need to by using those two lights first- positioning, angles, intensities.

 

Add a third or more light ONLY IF you cannot get those two to work first... be frugal.

 

In my opinion, lighting isn't about mirroring reality, it's about heightening the drama, the beauty, and the color scheme you have going for the shot. It's about getting the exact highlight to shade ratio you want on the surfaces you see through the camera. It's about getting the shadows to fall where you want. And about allowing the audience to see your story.

 

I now return you to the regularly scheduled posting of sky rig, radiosity, global illumination, raytraced softshadows(50+ rays per pixel) and render time's of one hour per frame enthusiasts:

[NickHutson]

Yes, I usually try to fake it too. There's just one thing though. In a room this small (I usually do wide open spaces.) it's very difficult to get the shadows to be believeable. With one or two bulbs you get the look of a dark room lit by a central lamp. Not very real looking. To get that shadow running right down the corners of the walls just right, you have to add allot more lights. If you want to get the light reflections onto other objects to look right it will take allot more. Not even taking things like color transference into considertion. The result (If you still want it to look real) still comes out ruffly the same. I mean look at the original render time for Brian Prince's room with the chair. It took some where around 13 hours or more I don't quite remember.

 

I am a die hard faker believe me. But this project got me to consider radiosity. I might not even use it in the final project. But if I use only what I need from it (unlike those 50 photon 100 passes people) it might turn out the same. But if anyone has any other tips that would make the rendering shorter please chime in. You would be helping me and everybody else on the forum.

 

On another note, I figured out a solution to my question. I'll just put some ambiance to the walls. That should brighten things up in the room without having to highten the sun outside or add a light to the room. All comments that can be made are welcome. Even brutally honest ones.

[NickHutson]

Well here is the next installment of my slow as sloth production. I've added furniture to the room-- bed, dresser, toy box, a book shelf (Not visable in this render), and a little bit of crow to my diet. I took Dearmad's advice and made a new radiosity faking rig. This render took probably about an hour with 9 passes. I'm not sure exactly becuase smoeone came along and shut done the computer after the render was donbe before I could get a chance to see the render time. I could probably do with less photons cast if I uses jittering in the final render and as you can tell from the nuclear door I could also do with less lights. This should make the render maintane this the 1 hour render time when I add Ted and all his toys. Anyway whithout any further adue:

[pixelmech]

That's looking great! I love the furniture man! Is the light supposed to be coming from a window off screen in the left hand side of the set? (lower left)

 

It *almost* looks like it's light cast into a box from the top, but I also think I see a faint outline of what could be a window on the floor and bed wall...

[NancyGormezano]

Love your character - love the room - love the style - love the color choices

 

As for crits of the room scene - door is definitely tooo bleached out - also think - some "dirting" of the wallpaper especially (and other items) would help adding character to the scene - need greasey areas, perhaps some torn places, scuffing.. not a whole lot - but just some to give it a bit more fakey-still-toon-reality

 

LOVE the bedspread- perfect

[seven]

Well here is the next installment of my slow as sloth production. I've added furniture to the room-- bed, dresser, toy box, a book shelf (Not visable in this render), and a little bit of crow to my diet.

Looks really as a boys room!

[seven]

Really a boys room - I would say - having an opinion...

Nice rendering!

Some clothing would be nice...

[rusty]

Cool character -- much potential for personality!

 

Freckles -- have you considered them? When I look at your character it looks like the freckles across the top of each cheek and across the nose are missing. The face seems made for them. Or not. Just a thought.

 

Cheers,

Rusty

[NickHutson]

I tried blushing but not freckles. I don't know why I did'nt think of that. He is a red head after all. Thanks man!

 

 

I've messed around with my light rig and fixed the nuclear door factor. The problem was the fact that I had a bulb light set in eah of the four window panes in the window at the lower left. The thought behind that is more lights would cast light in more directions causing a more realistic atmospheric light. The problem was that it caused light to go in so many directions that it bleached out the wall in front of it. I've now reduced the it to one light just in front of the window inside the room.

 

The suggestion of scuff and wear marks would add a very nice touch especially to a kids room. I'll add these as I go along. Thanks for the tip. But until then here is a render with less lights and a non-nuclear door. This render took 11 minutes and 18 seconds with the extra lights taken away. Enjoy!

[pixelmech]

Much better! Now it looks like light coming through the window, possibly late afternoon due to the angle and darkness in the corner. My guess is that the color of the light is white? Since the sun appears to be low, you could add some orange coloring to the light, which cast some nice coloring in the room and really make it look like late afternoon. Alternatively, if it's supposed to be earlier in the day, you could move the light up a bit and keep it whiter. Or you can disregard my comments altogether and do what you want!

 

Great room.

 

Tom

[Zaryin]

The lighting is looking great. The wallpaper seems stretched too much to me now, but that might just be me.

[NickHutson]

The orange tint is a good idea. I fear that it will make it yet darker, but I'll give it a try. You did pin-point the time of day aswell.

[NancyGormezano]

Yes definitely - lighting is better -

 

also what occurred to me about the wallpaper is that the pattern is not offset vertically as it would be normally when hung properly - thats what I think makes it appear a bit peculiar - I do like the pattern ... Home Depot?

[NickHutson]

Please excuse me i'm not much of a wallpaper guy but what do you mean by a vertical offset?

 

As for the paper. No Home Depot, just clip art from google.

[NancyGormezano]

trying to post image of wallpaper offset vertically - let me know if you want me to remove this from your thread...

[NickHutson]

Now its as clear as crystal and a very good idea at that. Keep'in the image might be good, just in-case someone else out there is as misinformed as myself.