Have attached arm and hand, let me know what you think...

[Zaryin]

I think the modeling of the foot is pretty good. With the back of the foot I would remodel that. I would take the back cps of the ankle and extrude them down two times (maybe three) to the heel. Then attach the extruded part back to the rest of the foot. The rest is just some smoothing that needs to be done. Nice job so far.

[Roger]

Ok....

 

I haven't posted an update in a bit, but I was working on ironing out some of the kinks yet with this thing.

 

I have a fully modelled body w/ hands and feet properly attached, it looks pretty decent for a first attempt at a proper unibody model.

 

I am working on attaching the head right now, currently its just sorta "stuck" there. Its times like this I really wish AM had some kind of boolean weld feature, but oh well.

 

All I have to do after that is stick his eyes on, and some horns. Fortunately I will have Setup Machine to aid in rigging, so that shouldn't be too horrible. I hope to have some a really short 30 second animation or something that I can post soon.

 

This model looks really close to my sketches, but I am bothered a little by the chest......seems a touch too narrow. Maybe I should widen it?

 

I am also thinking of putting some decals on....but am not sure if I should put anything else on him....he is not getting wings (he's a flightless dragon)

 

So....what do you think?[attachmentid=19164]

[Ilidrake]

Perhaps you should pull the legs in closer to the body? The chest could be widened a tad. Overall a very nice model. If your using TSM I advise you to go ahead and read up on smartskinning, cp weighting, and fan bones. The Setup Machine does a very good job, I own a copy, and it is quick, but for places like the elbows, knees, and under the arms you'll definitly have to tweak.

I usually set up fan bones around the knees, elbows, and wrists. I use cp weighting in the chest and armpit areas. Check out the ARM for anything on these subjects.

Good model. I can't wait to see it animated.

[Roger]

Ok...

 

Added horns and eyes, but they're just kinda floating now. I am not sure I can get the horns right without starting over and just extruding them from holes in the head. (I don't think that I can attach them this way without it being a HUGE pita)

 

I agree about moving the legs in just a touch...doesn't look quite right. And I think I will widen the chest just a bit. But I think I will save a backup and experiment on that so I don't fark up my model.

 

I want to do quick test after I get him rigged up.....I'm thinking 30 seconds dancing to Brass Monkey by the Beasty Boys.....lol

 

 

[attachmentid=19167]

[Roger]

OK..

 

Here's another shot with the legs fixed.....

 

I moved them in just a bit. Not sure if I really want to screw with the chest, I tried it once and couldn't do it without messing it up.

 

He's pretty close to what I want though, in terms of concept to finished model. Maybe after I have some food I will be a little braver and try to go back and fix the chest a bit.

 

 

[attachmentid=19168]

[Ilidrake]

He's looking good. If your going to attempt to reshape the chest use mirror mode so you can work on one side and the other mirrors it. Nice model. Waiting to see him animated.

[Roger]

Hey there...

 

I've decided to take a break from rigging and go back to finish up some of the modelling tasks I was putting off.

 

While nice, setup machine is not as "automagical" as I thought it would be, and rather than frustrate myself needlessly right now I am going to finish the modelling stuff and maybe do some of the rigging tutorials in conjunction with Setup Machine so that I will be able to use it better.

 

I thought that the dragon, while ok, needed to have an actual modelled mouth with nostrils and a tooth or 2,

and rather than having floating eyes I'm going to build sockets with actual eyeballs and lids. While I'm at it, I will fix the horns.

 

Once I fix these things, I'll post something here, I think he'll end up looking a lot better. Hopefully I will have an animation test to post soon. I wish I didn't have so much other work to do, I still need 4 environments, 2 other characters, and a few misc. props. I think it would be a miracle if I got this done in 3 months, let alone 3 weeks ( I set an arbitrary date of 6 weeks a while back just to see how much I could get done----not actually have a finished product).

 

So, as I tick a few of my milestones off my list I will post them in here. Thanks to everyone that has offered suggestions, aid, etc.

 

Roger

[Roger]

OK

 

I've got some nostrils now, let me know what you think. I had modelled an interior for the mouth, but

unfortunately, it seemed to have screwed up part of the muzzle so I am going to try again.

 

As far as the eyes go, do you think I made the right call to put them in actual sockets? I am not sure how I

am going to make proper lids for them, though.

 

I don't know that I like how these look, he looks constantly suprised. I was going for a sort of Wallace and Grommit look, but I seem to have missed the mark.

 

Let me know what you think of the modified snout.

 

 

[attachmentid=19221]

[Roger]

OK.....

 

 

Here's another shot....I was trying to add a mouth. Its not done yet, but I think it looks a bit funny right now

and I am not sure its going to look better once I add the mouth interior.

 

I am going to leave the eyes the way they are, but add floating brows above to allow for more emotion.

 

Thing is, just the snout w/ no nostrils or mouth looks ok, it looks a bit off like something is missing....

but when I added nostrils and a mouth it doesn't look quite right either.

 

This character is not supposed to speak or do anything like that, if I leave just the nostrils I can still have him

"breathe" fire.

 

In my original character design, its just a snout though.

 

Any votes on which way looks better?

 

[attachmentid=19236]

[Roger]

OK....

 

 

I didn't care for the way the modelled mouth was looking, so I sorta did a Gumby/Killer Bean type mouth. It worked for them...*shrug*

 

I think it looks better. I also modelled some floating eyebrows, to allow for more expressions since I am not planning on having lids.

 

I widened the chest, so its not quite so thin. The legs were moved in from before.

 

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I need to tweak the textures on the eyebrows, mouth, horns and eyeballs but other than that I think he looks ok. I may add some decals to him, he seems to be missing something.

 

 

I need to get busy rigging, but I don't know if I feel up to it right now. Maybe I'll model some of the other things that I need to get done.

 

Comments??[attachmentid=19268][attachmentid=19269]

[Ilidrake]

Simple is sometimes better. I like the look. It's got that clay character look.

[Roger]

Well.....

 

 

I seem to be making some progress w/ rigging. Once I get all the cp's assigned correctly (I have some areas that are giving me fits) I will post Mr. Dragon in some poses. At least I know now its not the constraints but the fact that the auto cp assign is less than stellar which is causing the problem.

 

Anyway...thought that those of you that are following this thread would be interested in an update.

 

Thank god my other 2 characters are simpler. Anyone know if there is a female in an evening gown that might be pre-rigged? I am surely going to modify the head to have a more cartoony look.

 

Roger (who is beginning to wonder if he will ever get to the animation bit)

[Ilidrake]

Wondering if you'll get to the animation bit? Don't worry, I've been using animation master for 5 years and have managed to animate 5, maybe 10 seconds worth of footage. I spend more time modeling, rigging and texturing than anything. I like animating and can, I just prefer the others.

[TeresaNord]

Start animating already!!!!

I'm not one to know how to comment on models and stuff, cause I've only made the flower in the tutorial...but I have a feeling that once you start animating you will realize if you need to change something in the model and what that something is.

You should definitely start animating though, even if they're just little tests!

Go for it!

[Roger]

OK

 

I am jumping back in with this, but I am having some problems. Its been some time since I was last working w/ AM. I have opened a new chor w/ my rigged ( admittedly poorly but I am working on that) model and am trying to create actions.

 

Once I have the new chor open, I import the model then go the File > new > action.

 

However, when I select the bones to start moving them around, the geometry does not follow. The splines are also a light gray. Am I missing a crucial step here? Seems like I am.

 

If someone could please send a post of what I am doing wrong, I'd appreciate it. In the meantime, I am going to consult the manual.

 

Thanks

 

Roger

[Caroline]

The only thing I can think of:

 

After making the bones, did you assign the control points to the bones?

 

Create the bone, then make sure the bone is selected and lasso the relevent control points for that bone. In shaded mode you can then see what cps are assigned to what colour bone.

 

Have you checked what the shaded model in bone mode looks like?

[Roger]

Ok well I am taking a break from rigging and I decided to model the other main character.

 

So, here is a quick and dirty penguin:

 

From my penguin image googling, I think I got the head a little too big and they have two stubby little legs, so

I need to maybe fix that.

 

But, not too bad for about a half hour total.

 

What do you think? Also, anyone know if there is a way to rename a WIP thread? I'd like to change this thread to the working title for the film, rather than go and create a whole new thread.

 

Roger

[Roger]

And yes I know I still have to add feet and texture it, but in terms of just a rough model, what do you think?

[TeresaNord]

Roger,

Let me tell you this again...I have only modeled the flower in the a:m tutorial, honestly...I really don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to modeling and stuff. I prefer the animating side, and I'm just a beginner with that stuff too. If I were you I would ask somebody with more experience to look at your work.

Really, it's up to you whether the penguin is uni-body or not? You're the director, right?

About renaming a thread...I dunno...sometimes forums let you rename them when you add a new post to a thread that you are the original author of (in the topic bar)...I'm not sure you can rename threads on the a:m forum though?

I wouldn't start a new thread for the sake of a title though, it would be more important to keep all your progress in the same place.

Anyways, good luck with your film. Keep up the good work....and start animating!

[Roger]

I have decided to attempt a unibody model for the penguin, with the exception of the head which is just going to sort of sit on top of the "neck". The leg came out ok, it doesn't look great but it will do.

 

However, I am having a problem w/ 5 point patches. I seem to remember there being an issue w/ 5 pt patches where if they are too close together they won't work right. However, I have 3 in close proximity and haven't had any problems with them.

However, the last one I need to close off won't close off. The ellipse in the center is the start of the penguin's flipper.

 

Any ideas or suggestions as to what I should do? If I can't get this to work, I am just going to model a flipper separately and have it just sticking out the side, seams be damned.

 

I thought about running another ring of splines around the bottom of the flipper hole to turn those 5 pt patches into 4 pointers, and then doing the same with the top (although there is no problem up there, I'd just be doing it to be consistent. ) But then I would have the problem of too many splines crossing at the bottom cp of the flipper socket.

 

I have included a screenshot. Patches w/ yellow x's are rendering correctly, the one circled in red is the problem patch.

 

Roger

[Caroline]

You did mean that the patch won't fill, rather than not render?

 

Have you tried the lasso tool? I have been able to close every 5 point patch by hiding everything in the way of the patch and using the lasso tool (shift G) to go around those 5 points and select them.

 

Other things you can try are inverting the selection, so you select the 5 points, then press . to invert, and . again. That often helps.

 

Also, you can try breaking and reattaching the points to the splines.

 

The lasso tool works best for me though.

 

Good luck with the penguin - I thought perhaps the flippers needed more flesh on them, but perhaps it's just the angle (the eyes weren't straight either, so it probably was the angle).

[johnl3d]

Caroline just stole my suggestions I often will often reconnect each spline around the 5 point patch. In case your interested here is a v13 project with simple penguin I did earlier.

 

penguin5d.zip

[Roger]

Thanks for the comments:

 

The current penguin I have posted is a bit dodgy. The one I am working on now looks a lot better. I somehow managed to fix the 5 pt. patch problem, not quite sure how I did that but the damn thing fills in now so I'm happy.

 

I think I got the one eye just a little higher than the other when I was throwing it together, so I don't think its the angle. I will be sure to post the better-looking version when I get it done.

 

Johnl3d, thanks for the penguin model. I don't think I will use it, but I would like to take a look at it for reference to see how you solved some of the issues that I am struggling with. It may be a big help in that respect. I am having a hard time getting the legs/feet to look right now.

 

Thanks again for the comments.

 

--Roger