Red Rooster

[largento]

I was a bit surprised that my assembly line graphic didn't generate much interest at work, but undaunted, I'm trying again. :-)

 

There's a mascot for one our client's that gets used fairly often. Often enough, I thought, that it would be worth making him over in 3D. It's a rooster character and I've had trouble getting his beak right from different angles. To sell them on it, I said I'd just do the head first and see if the client liked the idea. This way, even if they didn't, I'd have a 3D model of the head that I could use as reference for different angles.

 

Here's what I came up with:

 

 

And here's a little turnaround of it:

 

roosterturn.mov

 

Not an exact replica of my 2D version, but pretty close. The beak was an interesting challenge and could probably be refined, but I was just pleased that I figured out a way to do it at all. :-) There was definitely that moment where I looked at the rotoscope and thought "How the heck am I going to model that?" :-)

[phatso]

Isn't there a moment like that on every model?

 

Nice transmutation, a bit of work on the eye is needed. Raise the brow a bit, open the eye a bit. The 2D version looks a bit smug, the 3D version doesn't.

 

I often run into the problem where, if the pupils are placed where they should be in a straight-on pose, they disappear in a side pose. I guess that's just a fact of life. In my "door's stuck" exercise I had the eye target placed way different than you'd think it should be, just so you could see the pupil at all. It seemed to work.

 

This effort may come to nothing, and the next... but one of these days one of your clients is going to say "Hey, let's do a whole animated ad campaign!" I think A:M's natural environment is in advertising. The ad biz just doesn't know it yet.

[ruscular]

What was the name of the rooster on Hanna Barbara toons? I think I would love to see the whole animation with your version of the rooster Cogburns?

Fantastic looking Rooster!

[John Bigboote]

'Foghorn Leghorn'.

 

Good work! Too bad our toon-liner can't do thick-thin lines like that...

 

Looks like you need to work on the corner of the mouth...AND you have lost the 'roundness' of the head- perhaps if you 'thinned' the base of the head feathers in the 'X' direction (width) you will get that contour back.

 

Hope you get to do the body!

[phatso]

NOW, SEE HERE, BOY, WASN'T HE - I SAY, WASN'T HE A WARNER BROTHERS CHARACTER??

[ruscular]

I watch that toon when growing up, that was cartoon, fully animated, and stretch and squash, nowadays its garbage mostly. There are some good one, but I wonder if leghorn is still playing anywhere. I saw that they are bringing back "underdog" but as a real actor with CG elements. I wonder how much of it is the real dog versus CG?

 

I would love to see the whole episode of foghorn in 3DCG animated cartoon.

[largento]

Thanks for the comments, guys!

 

I did a little tweaking, nothing too major. Thanks for the suggestion about thinning out the crest on the top, Matt. Not only did it restore the shape of the head, but I think the crest looks better that way. I messed with the beak some, but mostly just trying to even things out. In the end, I put porcelain on both the crest and the beak. I tweaked the brow some, but I need to add some more splines to really get it right.

 

I don't know that any of my tweaking helped make him look more like the 2D drawing, though. :-)

 

I was out visiting friends most of yesterday or I probably would have gone hogwild re-doing things. I'll see what the salesman says today and see if he wants me to get it closer before we send it to the client.

 

Here's a turn around with the tweaked head:

 

roosterturn2.mov

[nimblepix]

looking good!

[largento]

Thanks!

 

I haven't gotten the go ahead from the client yet, but I couldn't resist going for it!

 

 

He's not rigged yet. I'm going to do just a simple one, mostly just so I can put his wings into positions and turn his head. I'd kind of like to put some more detail into his overalls, but that's something I'll put off until I know for sure I'm going to get to use him.

 

Here's a turnaround:

 

 

roosterwhole.mov

[3DArtZ]

Looking real good!

 

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

[nimblepix]

Since this is a W.I.P.

How about bigger feet and tail?

[ruscular]

A client have to be insane to not go for it. the works look fantastic, and I cant wait till you have fun animating him. How many patches did the whole thing end up at?

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

Nimble, I like his little feet! :-) The mascot has already appeared on several of their products, so I don't have much wiggle room here. My only doubt about the client okaying the 3D version would be if they think it doesn't look enough like the 2D version. I've got it pretty close, though. (At least as close as I can manage.)

 

I think they will like it, though.

 

As it stands now, he's got 2,065 patches. I don't know if that's good or bad. I do know that the wings have a bunch of patches.

[ruscular]

As it stands now, he's got 2,065 patches. I don't know if that's good or bad. I do know that the wings have a bunch of patches.

 

That is pretty good and normal. I began to be interested in seeing how well you conserve the patches. Its one thing to create and another to create but conserving as well.

[largento]

Hopefully that will come with more experience. I think this is only the third character I've fully modeled so far. What was great for me this time was that I felt more like I knew what I was doing. :-)

[LeeAnderson]

Your modeling skills are increasing like crazy Mark! I'm way impressed with this model! Going from 2D to 3D is tough but you're doing all of the right things: those nice sharp folds where the lines are and the smooth surfaces everywhere else! You should do a tutorial sometime!

 

Lee

[largento]

Thanks, Lee!

 

I am beginning to feel like more of what I'm doing is on purpose rather than guessing. (Although, there's still a lot of that.) :-) A lot of that is coming from having done things before and remembering how I solved the problem the first time. So maybe by the time I do my 10,000th model, I'll have figured everything out. :-)

 

I'd love to do a tutorial sometime. Maybe a simple one on spline continuity. That was really the key that unlocked everything for me.

[largento]

Here's the rooster in his first appearance in 3D: