Troy Posted November 27, 2003 Posted November 27, 2003 11.26.03 Hey hashers Heres something I started today, any comments welcome, please feel free to bash/trash/rant/comment on my work Heres some wire/drawing of it, its going to be a huge whale/fish-like animal that movies real slow. Remember, its a WIP And heres a movie: CLICK Regards, Troy //edit// - by the way, thanks pleavens for all your hosting help and help modeling! Quote
DarkLimit Posted November 27, 2003 Posted November 27, 2003 this looks cool so far troy, are you gonna heep the fins seperate from the overall mesh? am also working on some fishes they are really interesting creatures to study and model.. Quote
CRToonMike Posted November 27, 2003 Posted November 27, 2003 Holy gentle giant, Batman! The curves and shape just seem really right for a big fishie. Wondering also about doing the fins as separate meshes. Seems to me by doing them separate, you could be missing out on some folding and wrinkles on the skin around the fins. Just my 2 CP (as opposed to cents) worth. When I used to work at a petshop in Berkeley CA, I would stare and watch and study the fish every chance I could get. Even had a 30 Gal aquarium at one point. Looking forward to your interpetation of a big fish. On a great start so far, it seems. Quote
Troy Posted November 27, 2003 Author Posted November 27, 2003 Thanks for the comments so far. Well, I was talking with phill eavens about that also (keeping the fins seperate from the whole mesh) and he said it would be a lot easier, and there you wouldnt see any problems once the whole model is textured and all. The only problem I saw that was going to be hard was that the fins have 6 control points that I would have to connect to a patch of 4, so Im not sure if it would come out right using the 5 point patch, because 5 point patches usually create a very weird deformity always for me Anyway, thx for the comments, i'll keep you posted on what happens with him Quote
Phil Posted November 28, 2003 Posted November 28, 2003 it's looking real prehistroic. can't wait to see more Quote
JohnArtbox Posted November 29, 2003 Posted November 29, 2003 use hooks to add some extra localised detail to the mesh where you need to join the fins. The 5 point patches normally look better than the sharp discontinuity of two seperate meshes. Quote
Troy Posted December 2, 2003 Author Posted December 2, 2003 Update 12.01.03 just trying to texture the body first, then the back fin, then the top fin, then the side fins. but I dont think the bumpmap is working right, i set it to 300 and you can barely see any bumpiness (is that even a word lol). Anyway, comments welcome. //edit// oh ya, one question. Can you put a texture over a texture to make stuff blend? can't youd do that with a transparency map? Quote
SeanC. Posted December 2, 2003 Posted December 2, 2003 I think adding barnacles would definitely work onthe underside... anyone got any ideas as to what else to add? Quote
Troy Posted December 2, 2003 Author Posted December 2, 2003 Thanks for the idea sean, am working on that right as we speak, but got to stop now because of work! Work always ruins my fun Quote
Troy Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 Update 12.03.03 CLICK TO SEE THE MOVIE CLIP! -added barnacles and texture to side fins Comments/suggestions welcome, plz! Also, if you guys are getting annoyed of me keep posting, or updating to much, just private message me or tell me on here. I know it might get annoying to some people. Happy modeling, Troy Quote
carterhawk001 Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 hey, love the fish, looking at him(her?) i was thinking that the texture makes him look old, ancient even, and maybe it would be cool if he had some battle scars, because such an old creature would have been in some fights Quote
SeanC. Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 thats actaually not a bad idea! I think its really coming along well Troy!!! Keep it up! Keep updating me. Sean Quote
Troy Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 12.03.03 Finished texturing if anyone wants to check it out CLICK Quote
CRToonMike Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 Very cool progress. The flyaround movie was very good. I agree with CarterHawk about the fish looking old and battle-scarred. Adds a bit of backstory to 'im. Now I have the phrase "keep away from the green ones, they're not quite ripe.." going though my mind. Anyway, I think the eyes could be a bit bigger, they kinda get lost in the texturing. Have you given any thought as to this fish's personality? With the downward angled mouth, I'm assuming he's (she's) a predator. Really fun model, in anycase. Really like it. Quote
Jljhnsn Posted December 6, 2003 Posted December 6, 2003 I really like the concept and your execution of it! Nice creature and good work! I think the transition from the body to the tail is too constricted but then your imagination got to this particular eddy in the Orion Nebula first so you should definately call the shots. Jonathan **no tag line, I just don't have the imagination . . .** Quote
Troy Posted December 6, 2003 Author Posted December 6, 2003 Heres my first animation of him swimming! I realise now I need to bone the barnacles because they kindof come off the body. If anyone has a better suggestion on a way to make the barnacles stay instead of boning all 53 barnacles, im all ears!!! Its a 44 second animation thats 12 mb. I also dont know how to compress files into smaller files so I put it in a zip file CLICK TO DOWNLOAD Comments, again, are welcome Troy Quote
carterhawk001 Posted December 6, 2003 Posted December 6, 2003 Compression is one of my favorite things, so listen up! The best way to compress it is either WMV or Divx, alot of people have either one of these, so almoste everyone can see it, and both are free. to use WMV just get a copy of windows movie maker 2, which comes with WinXP, load your animation:master AVI into MM2, and choose save to computer from the pane on the left. If you want to use Divx, go to Divx and get a copy of the free basic codec (just ignore the ones that say PRO or ask for money, etc, (free link may be towards bottom of page)) after installing div, get a copy of VirtualDub and install it. open VDub, select File>Open Video, go to the video menu, select compression, choose divx, configure the bitrate, save compression settings, and goto File>Save AVI, and enjoy! this link explains vDUB a bit better VirtualDub more or less Quote
Troy Posted December 7, 2003 Author Posted December 7, 2003 Thanks so much! This has helped tramendously! I'll upload the file when I get home from work, untill then, its still 12mb Quote
natess44 Posted December 7, 2003 Posted December 7, 2003 The animation looks pretty good, I think you need to get the front flippers moving though. Quote
Iham Wrong Posted December 7, 2003 Posted December 7, 2003 That's one slow movin critter. I see what you mean about the barnacles floating as the mesh flexes. There are only a couple of things I can think of that could help. Use the CP weighting or boning each barnacles to use a surface constraint. AM Weights and Weight Mover make it easier to accomplish, but you can use CP weights without them. The trick would be to keep the weights from overlapping - resulting in distortions. If distortions are no problem then it might work with little research. BTW Nice texturing. Quote
modernhorse Posted December 8, 2003 Posted December 8, 2003 I think it looks great so far. But there is something about the texture that makes it appear to be small to me. As if the texture is from a smaller fish. I dunno, i'm not an expert on fish anatomy or anything so take this comment with a grain of saltwater. Regardless I think it is looking swell. Doug Quote
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