Inline Speed Skater Model

[cstanton]

This is my first attempt at a humanoid model. It's intended for a training video. My rationale for creating a crystalline skater was to make the lines and outline as clearly visible as possible (I also thought it would be easier. I don't think it was. I'll have to model a realistic character to know for sure.)

 

He'll eventually have hands, eye balls, and ears (I hope.)

 

I'm posting him as is because I have several specific concerns, but I would appreciate any and all comments and suggestions.

 

1) I wanted him to be interesting and well defined, but not too distracting or grotesque. What's your initial impression; is he just too weird?

 

2) I've included a couple of images of the splines. Can you tell from these if he's animatable? (Is that a word? It's not in my dictionary.)

 

3) The helmet was fine until I put it on his head. I used boolean cutters to create the holes in the white area of the helmet. Unfortunately, they have to project completely through the surface they're cutting. When I place the helmet so it looks like it's sitting snuggly on his head, the cutters cut through his skull. I've been trying to create another version of the helmet by stitching all the holes into the mess, er, mesh, but it's been very time consuming and, after several attempts, I'm not sure it will be successful. Is there a way to specify that you don't want a cutter to cut a particular surface?

 

I haven't had any artistic training or experience and I've never displayed any artistic talent in the past--I'm amazed when my efforts result in something recognizable. So, I'm open to all suggestions.

 

QuickTime Spinning Skater (3.0MB)

Windows Media Video Spinning Skater (2.1MB)

 

[attachmentid=10024][attachmentid=10025][attachmentid=10026][attachmentid=10027][attachmentid=10028]

 

Thanks,

Curtis

[jamagica]

if it's for a training vid it's awesome! Just don't try to combine that with live action

 

the anatomy looks pretty correct at first sight...

[amarillospider]

Pretty good job, especially for a first humanoid model.

 

-Alonso

[arkaos]

Pretty good so far. The splinework is done very well. I think you are off to a good start.

 

My suggestions:

 

1) The faceted approach is interesting, but the way the light reflects off of it seems a bit distracting.

If you want to keep the faceted approach, maybe tone down the reflection quite a bit. It would be

very interesting to see how a faceted model animates though...never tried it myself.

 

2) As far as the holes in the helmet, have you tried using a decal for transparency masking instead. You

may have to apply enough stamps to penetrate through each layer of the helmet, but it would definitely

save his head from unwanted holes. (I am not familiar enough with the boolean cutter technique to really

give a good fix while still using boolean cutters.) Having watched your quicktime clip, I don't really

see (or notice) any problems with it.

 

3) Nice first shot at a humanoid figure. Better than my first attempt.

[cstanton]

Thanks, everyone, for the comments.

 

I'll experiment with the specular values. Also, I found some of the shading that showed up in the spin animation to be distracting. The shading issues didn't show up in the Action Window or Model Window renderings. Changing the lighting and textures and tweaking the splines a little in the abdominal area didn't reduce the shadows or whatever they are in the chor rendering.

 

I made a new version of the helmet using boolean cutters that fits more closely without cutting into his skull. (Though, having trepan surgical tools built into a helmet would probably not meet government safety standards.)

 

I too am interested and a little concerned about how this model is going to animate. I'm torn between finishing the missing features and trying to rig it "as is" to see if it will animate before spending any more time on it. But, Luckbat posted nice images of his hand splines today and David Simmons' eyeball tutorial looks interesting. So, I'll take a crack at the missing features, meanwhile keeping the faith that it will animate OK.

 

Curtis