Dog Help!

[thetanman]

Can anybody help me with this? Why are the pupils not showing up? (I used the Toon Nation eyeballs material). How can i make the mouth? Please somebody help me i am wanting to make a dog and animate him. This is my first time ever to make a character.

[johnl3d]

you have to tell the material were the pupils are I think there's a tut showing you how I know I had one I made somewhere

[thetanman]

how though i have tried ever thing like changing the transformation properties like the translate nothing is working plus somebody please give advice on the mouth i have no clue where or how to begin on the mouth

[arkaos]

I had that same problem when I first used toon nation eyeballs.

 

Here's the deal:

 

Toon Nation eyes are a projection material. They project the

image along a specified vector.

 

you must set the x,y,z coordinates for each material to "point"

at the location you want them visible.

 

Set the "z" to a place somewhere

just in front of your character. Then set the x and y of the material shortcut under each eye group to the same x,y

values as the center that eyeball in modeler.

 

When you then move the eyes in an action window or chor, the material will follow the translation and

rotation properly. But if you move the object to a different location in model window, you will have to

reset the values in each material shortcut again.

[thetanman]

umm........ i am kinda confused do you just make up the coordinates?

[arkaos]

umm........ i am kinda confused do you just make up the coordinates?

 

No, you don't make them up.

 

First, you will need to make sure that "Show Advanced Properties" and "Show Property Triangles" option

is turned on in the general options.

 

Drag the eyeball material into the eyeball group you want. By default, the eyeball material will project

along the z-axis. In the material's transform->translate property, you must input the x and y of the center

of the eyeball in the model window.

 

To find the coordinate of the center of the eyeball:

1. select a cp at or near the center of the eye (or the location you want the pupil to be).

2. with the "Properties" window open, the Pivot property will give you the coordinate of the selected cp.

 

In my picture example, the eye is projected onto the models mid-section because I dragged the material

over the root of the object in the project workspace and I input the y coordinate of 137cm (which was the location

of an arbitrary cp I selected on the model for illustration purposes). The eyeball material projected at that location.

If you look carefully, you'll notice that the material also projected onto his back. All surfaces in the line of projection

of the group you apply the material to will render the projected image.

 

So, you must set up a group for each eyeball and specify the transform->translate location for the material under each eye group.

 

I can also supply you with a sample of a character I used the eyeball material on when I get home, if you'd like. Though the character I

created didn't have forward-facing eyes, I still projected along the z axis and rotated the eye bones in chor so you'd see them correctly.

 

I hope this advice helps. If you are still confused, I will probably be available in online chat in Animation Master's chat window after 9 pm eastern time.

I would be happy to help you out.

 

Edit: in the picture, the "Shorcut to Eyeball" is the shortcut to the material, not the group to which the cp's are assigned.

You can adjust the size of the projected image setting the iris and pupil size (in cm) properties within the material.

[thetanman]

Here i finally got the eyes right now i need help on the mouth!!!!! plus does anyone have any good ideas for the ears?

[thetanman]

Well i kept messing with this dog and i finally got a mouth achieved it is not that good but it will do

[thetanman]

i would appreciate it if you would please take this poll

[thetanman]

if you come up with a really cool name email it to me at tannery2009@hotmail.com

[arkaos]

If you want help with a particular area of the model, it is helpful to post a shaded wireframe render

so we can see the spline work.

 

My suggestion is to reshape the head a bit. In the front view it looks a little square. Round that off a bit.

 

As for the ears, with a cartoony-looking dog like that, you could model them any way, really. Whether spline

them into the head or make them separate meshes, it doesn't really matter. What matters is:

If you are going for floppy ears, then model the ears with just enough spline rings so they can flop around

during animation. With cropped ears, give them only enough splines to achieve the shape.

 

Personally, I think he/she would look more cuddly with floppy ears.

 

I have another name idea, too. Since he is brown, why not name him Cocamutt?

 

Remember to always think about how the model is supposed to animate when creating the geometry.

 

Lastly: Have fun with it.

[thetanman]

do you think that the eyelids are animatable?

[thetanman]

i like that name cocamutt, but i am going to wait a while until there are a pretty good size of votes on the poll, and if the name that wins that i don't like i will go with cocamutt

[Nunsofamerica]

hmm. Kinda scary. nice model though

[thetanman]

could somebody please give me some tips on how not to make the teeth look so scary i want this dog to look cute not scary LOL!

[thetanman]

Well I think that this model of the dog is a lot better than the one with the teeth. Tomorrow I am going to decide what name will be picked so far duster is in the lead i don't know if i will choose that one yet but i will see as you can see from the picture i added ears to the dog smoothed the shape out added a different color to the eyes and fixed the mouth i like this new mouth better cuter looking and not as scary

[the_black_mage]

looks very nice! your improving, whats his body gonna be like?

[thetanman]

everybody I would like for you to meet Duster! that name won, and I am glad that it did because where i go to school we are the Beaver Dusters. i don't know exactly what his body is going to look like. i know that he is going to have paws (no clue on how to make that), and his tummy is going to be a bit chubby

[totlover]

try rendering in Toon Render see what it looks like

 

i am leaving though.. so have no time to tell you how if you dont know how right now

[the_black_mage]

i know toon render well, if your gonna try it tell me.

[thetanman]

i know how to do it and i will

[the_black_mage]

if your doing specularity i have a Japanese plug in that makes the specularity look to your likening rather than only smooth. pm me if you want it.

[thetanman]

Here is the updated dog (Duster) with the midsection and the collar later i will update with the cartoon render. black_mage can you post an example of what the japanese plug-in looks like?

[thetanman]

hold on

[thetanman]

ok i will just use this picture here is the one in 3d and here is the toon rendered one

[thetanman]

why does is keep going yellow like that?!!!!

[thetanman]

HOPEFULLY THIS ONE WILL WORK!!!!!!!!!

[thetanman]

i think that this one will work i had the stereo plug in on how stupid was that

[thetanman]

crossing the fingers

[thetanman]

maybe?????

[thetanman]

why is this doing this to me?????!!!!!!!!

[thetanman]

black_mage do you know a good way to make the paws?

[the_black_mage]

heres an old model of a cartoon wolf i did. you can use those paws.

aaron.zip