Snowball Character WIP

[Epoch]

Hello all

This will be my first post and first WIP.

The characters name is Snowball and she is my mascot for my website. I plan on doing some small animations of her along with a small film if everything goes as planned. The model is almost complete, all that lacks now are the clothes and the hair. I didn't want to offend anyone so I censored her anatomy for public view. In all other animations/renders when complete everything is covered so I won't need to censor anything

Please critique or comment whatever you feel.

If there are any suggestions as for clothes by all means let me hear them, the original character was more cartoony and didn't have as much detail in anatomy/muscles etc so I didn't put any on her.

I'll post the original character drawing after this post.

I also hope the file isnt too large.

Enjoy and crit/comment away

[Epoch]

And here is the original drawing of her that I used

Thanks

[tannyboy]

i'm liking it, this will look tops with the fur on top... are you still gonna have the two-tone colour like on the pic?

 

Cheers

[KenH]

That's excellent...where have you been hiding out?

 

A few crits:

 

I don't like the colour

The nose seems abit pointy at the top.

Some areas (arms) seem like you have quite a high splinage.

[Epoch]

tannyboy::

Thanks - I'm still figuring out how I want to do her hair. Hope it turns out ok. As far as the two tone, do you mean the white middle? if so, I plan on that but havent figure out how to do it. If I select those cps and set as a separate group and add material it looks too...blah. So I may have to do some decaling which I haven't learned how to do that yet in AM

 

KenH::

Thanks

I've been hiding in my basement

The color does seem off from my original, I am still tweaking the material plus need the addition of the second white/silver tone once I figure that out. I'll fix up the nose thanks for 'pointing' that out. It's in the shape of a heart, I need to fix the color on that too.

The arms don't have an extreme amount, but it's knocking on that door. The main high splinage was due to the hands and chest area having many splines. It helped define her muscles but I do need to work on decreasing them with future models.

[Mr. Jaqe]

HEY!! 's up with all the censoring?!?! Awsome model, but psst! I like the color, so don't listen to Ken Splines, splines! Always too many of them! I always have 20 times as many as I should. But then again, it's easier to delete than to add, atleast that's what I think. Again: Awsome model!

[Epoch]

Thanks Censoring was so I dont get banned, I don't know the rules of this board for valid images.

I am going to tweak the color as I add the map so that may look a little different

Thanks again - hope to have her clothes soon too

and a tail, forgot about that

[agep]

WOW Very nice. Looking forward to see the final resault. How long have you been using A:M?

[Epoch]

Thanks!

and not long.. I purchased it a year or two (ver 2004 pike one) back but have been so busy with work and all that hadn't had a chance to use it. Total time of messing with it would probably be a month or so... I did one other model prior to this one but she was very sad

I'm just now starting to get some free time to really start molding and moving things I hope for the best, I've got much to learn with AM!

[KenH]

Did you do your avatar and with what?

[Epoch]

KenH ::

Yes, I digitally painted it with photoshop

full image is in my gallery of my portfolio site...link in my sig

[Epoch]

Pardon the lengthy post here but I have quite a few questions pertaining to my WIP here, so if any of you AM Gurus could help out, by all means please do

 

1:: Hair

I was messing around with her hair last night (I have ver 10.5r) and I want somthing that has thick strands going into thin strands as in her drawn picture above. I want to use hair emitter so that I can add dynamics and such to it but is there such a way with this version? I want something similar to the test that Joe Williamsen did with his hunter. The feathers were perfect for what Snowballs Hair seems to look like. Along with those dynamics of them moving up and side to side.

 

2:: Texture

What would you say the best method of decaling would be, I am slightly stumped. I want to know if I can easily take or unwrap a portion of her and layer it over her standard fur material so that she has the lighter silver fur in the middle.

 

3:: Cloth

Her top will be a tank top, but I want to know if I should even try to tackle this problem or make some dynamic bones when I rig her. I notice there has been a lot of discussion about collision issues with versions prior to the alpha 12 release.

 

4:: Rigg Dynamics

Could I get some direction in rigging or a tutorial link? I am almost there and would like to apply some dynamics to her again similar to those of the Hunter tests. Those were so amazing and lifelike to me, parts of the skin moved or shook, her earings bounced around etc.

 

 

5:: Kind of OT but UPGRADE

I would like to upgrade but I notice there is alpha 12 in the forum. If I purchase the upgrade to 11 soon will I be able to use the new release? or should I wait to upgrade to 12 (when will it release?) from my current 10.5

 

 

 

I believe that covers my general topics so far

again sorry for long post, but I'd appreciate some nice feedback

thanks!

[KenH]

For hair and cloth control that you want, I'd advise the upgrade. You're just a version too old for that stuff I think.

 

With hair, you can paint a decal and put it anywhere on the body. The hair can be made to stay within the area of that decal(even with alphas). Look at the Hash tech talk on it.

 

It depends how much you want to texture....if it's just small portions here and there, you're better using seperate decals here and there. If it's most of the body, you're best bet is to put the UVs onto one map. You'll find a tutorial by Will Sutton if you search the forum for "uv tutorial".

 

Can't really help with cloth or rigging.

 

Upgrading now will entitle you all new versions until december/january. Upgrading later in the year will entitle you all new versions until december/january.

[Epoch]

Ok

Here is latest update

::Fixed her skin color to match the original concept. also colored other parts.

::Added hair

::Added her clothes

::Added Tail

::Added Anklet

::Threw in some decals and such

 

A few changes I will do are:

::Tail color to white

::Add white to her middle ears, bottom of hand, bottom of feet

 

After that I think she'll be ready for me to rig up and move

 

Let me know what you think so far

Thanks

[Rodney]

That's some nice modeling.

 

You might experiment with materials to get some of that airbrushed color look to the fur.

 

Attached is a bad example but is meant to give the general idea.

I think a variation of Keekat's fur might do the trick.

 

-Rodney

[Fishman]

Just a quick comment on rigging. If you are going to use the 2001 rig, you will want to rotate the hands so that the palms face down. I learned that the hard way.

 

If you are going to rig it yourself from scratch, then they shouldn't be a problem as they are.

 

Scott

[Epoch]

Rodney::

Thanks!

I'll look into that fur - That is the model on the cd correct?

 

Fishman::

I planned on creating one from scratch to get more used to the boning proceedure in AM. I appreciate the advice though. Any errors on creating a bone structure from scratch that I should avoid?

[Rodney]

Here is the material if it will help.

Looking at your picture again it seems I've got the colors reversed and the dark should be on the outside with the light toward the inside.

 

One good way to adjust colors is to change attributes to high contrast colors tp get a feel for what changes they make to the material. In the case of this color changing an attribute to red... looking at the change... and then adjusting should do the trick.

 

Right click the attached material and "Save Target as" to prevent it from opening as a textfile. Note that I'm not the originator of the material I've just tweaked and added. Richard O'Donovan, who I believe created the Keekat fur color, created it.

 

-Rodney

BlueFur.mat

[Fishman]

Any errors on creating a bone structure from scratch that I should avoid?

I've said this before, but it bears repeating - I am not a rigging expert and I don't play one on TV, but I would suggest the following:

 

1) Decide on functionality of the rig before you get started. It is better to do a ton of research than try to learn only from your own mistakes.

2) Check out the rigging forum, there are some great experts that can help you or even just to bounce ideas off.

3) Study other rigs. The 2001 rig is quite good, Patson Brooks has some interesting ideas (http://www.sonofpat.com/Tutorials.html), www.3dartz.com is another good resource. I believe there is a thread in the Rigging Forum on rigging a face.

4) Of course there is always TSM (The Setup Machine) from Anzovin studios (www.anzovin.com), which many people swear by.

5) The ARM has links to lots of rigging tutorials.

6) Check out the rigs on the CD character models. There is a lot to be said for stealing ideas from the already proven.

 

I could go on and on, but the best way to learn all this is to try and do.

 

Scott

[Epoch]

Well here is the final render of snowball before rigging.

Let me know what you all think.

 

Rodney::

Thanks for the file, it helped out in creating my own fur material. Gave me an understanding of the setup. I think it looks a lot better than before

 

Fishman::

Thanks for all the links, they will surely prove useful for my next milestone: rigging

 

 

*edit...doh, forgot to make her tail white. Well that is the final providing her tail be white

Also some sort of specularity on her, wil have to take that out...well it is final minus those minor things

[Mr. Jaqe]

Chooooooool! Render time? From the image it looks like you spent a coupple of hours away from your computer.

 

Is that a... bunny on her thong?

 

Cool hair and a neat, eh... paws?

 

To sum it up: love your model, although there seems to be some white reflection or something else on her arms.

[Epoch]

Rendertime was about 3-4 min. Couple of hours? man, that would be too long!

And yes she has a little bunny there I thought it would be a cute touch. It's her little faction logo.

And yup, paws shes a more futuristic setting bunny. Shes a fighter for a faction who isn't very popular amongst the high ones.

thanks for the comments!.. and I see the reflection I dont know what it is. I believe there is specular light on one of her materials that I failed to disable

[Korken]

veary nice model! but im missin pupils in the eyes..

 

//Korken

[Mr. Jaqe]

3-4 min? ahahaaah! No multi-pass, eyh? Do multi-pass.

[Epoch]

Korken:: THANKS - i was wondering if I should put on the pupils or not...I guess I can give it a whirl before rigging

 

Mr. Jaqe:: Ah well one was Multipass... I guess I could have said the max time all togehter

one was multipass which was 3-4 min. the others were final setting which took about 2 min each

so average render time sat around 4 min give or take.

[Korken]

Np

It would be nice to see it with the headband too

 

Had you only modeled for some months?

 

//Korken

[Epoch]

Korken:: I was also debating whether or not to add headband! Since you notice I guess I'll add it to see if everyone likes with or without. thanks for the comment and noticing

I've modelled in hash for a couple of months, this is my second model in it. I've done poly modelling prior to Hash's nice program.

[Korken]

U r great! Only after some months, Cool!

 

//Korken

[Epoch]

Thanks, far from great though. Learning the ropes and hope to get better

[agep]

Only "crit" I have is that I think (personal opinion that is) her hair is a bit to "spiky". Anyway, your model is looking GREAT. Would like to see hear in a pose (guess I'll have to wait until she is rigged).

[entity]

She is a FOXY wabbit, ain't she??

Her hair can stand to have some variation like the drawing you did (Very good drawing). Length, position, direction and thickness could be tweeked til you get it the way you like. Other than that, LOOKING GOOD so far.

[Epoch]

agep: and entity:

thanks

I'll give that hair a little variation

I can't wait to see her posed myself - that T position just doesnt do any justice for me:P

[Epoch]

Hey been a while since I've posted. I had a little time to work on her (finally)

I've fixed her pupils, tweaked her hair...Decided to keep her bandana off for now since I like it like this.

I have her rig set up but I have a small problem...

I want to move the bones of her arms up a little bit to match a little better but when I select the top bone of the children ( I select her shoulder bone...and want all to move all the way down to finger bones) they should all move right? well they dont. Is there something I am missing?

[KenH]

I select her shoulder bone...and want all to move all the way down to finger bones) they should all move right? well they dont. Is there something I am missing?

Press the N key to get the children bones to move with the parent. Also, if you want the assigned cps to move with the bones, hold down Control key as you move the bones.

[Epoch]

I knew it was something simple..I'll have to give it a shot soon.

Thanks KenH

[Korken]

Then you must put up a pic with the pupils! I'm dieing of exitement!

 

//Korken

[Epoch]

I will

I gave her stylized pupils...not very realistic...as the rest of her isnt

there are three objecs that form the eye...one base is the white part of the eye then there is an over half sphere that is transparent with color to show the iris...then the pupil is beneath that

kind of a nice effect in my humble opinion

you'll see

[Kamikaze]

Sure looks Great!!!..that model would fit right in on some of the video games my sons play...I also look forward to seeing her rigged and animated....Im woundering how I midded the thread ...

 

Michael

[Epoch]

Didn't want to post a new topic so reviving an old post of mine on continued work of my bunny character "Snowball"

I finally had a slow down of work so I began editing some parts of splines and created her rig with smarskins for muscle movements. She is pretty much complete save for some facial expressions so she can speak.

Would love any comments / critiques that you have thus far. Thanks

[Zaryin]

Wow, she is lookin' good.

[trajcedrv]

WOW! Cool bunny!

 

Somewhere along the way she lost 'snow' part of her name ;-D

 

keep us posted!

[DarkLimit]

I think u have done a fantastic job......is that a shader on her skin?

 

thanks 4 sharing.......

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Looking really nice... I love the look of the character. I always loved the animal/human crosses anyway.

[Epoch]

Zaryin - Thanks!

 

trajcedrv - thanks - mainly her name comes from the color of her fur..the blues and whites.. as well as her fluffy ball tail that she has.

 

DarkLimit - Much thanks. The fur is a shader. I've also added some decals here and there as well.

 

MMZ_TimeLord - Thanks - I've always enjoyed creating cross animal/humanoid creatures... It's a good 'vacation' from my humanoid paintings/models

[Epoch]

Here is a new quality render of Snowball

I've added a facial morph for her smile...she's very sly

I'll create her other morphs soon and hopefully do a small animation with her somewhere along the line.

All done in Animation Master of course except for her signature....and yes, she did sign it (kidding)

Let me hear your thoughts

[Xtaz]

Hi D !!!!

 

She's amazing ...........

i love her !!!

[Epoch]

Hi D !!!!

 

She's amazing ...........

i love her !!!

 

Thanks XTaz

Shes my favorite creation... (been working on her long enough )

[noah brewer]

Good Job!

I found this thread after I saw her on your website, so it was neat to see the progression!

[Epoch]

Good Job!

I found this thread after I saw her on your website, so it was neat to see the progression!

 

Thanks Noah - Glad you like her

I will attempt a human soon after her and the little rat guy I have going.

May consult you with some tips if you dont mind

[noah brewer]

Ahh, the joy of characters! Sounds like fun.