Gerry Posted May 8, 2008 Posted May 8, 2008 I've never entered one of the image contests because my AM work was usually rigging practice or the occasional live project for my day job. But I've got this online comic, Bugbots: The Mansect Rebellion! that has been back-burnered for a couple of years now. I've occasionally tried some 3D treatments but usually ran into some glitch or complication and put it aside. But I decided to try one more time to model and rig a character, and recreate a scene from the comic as a still image. So what I'm working on is a model of Croaker, the assassin bug, in a 3D recreation of the last panel of Chapter 3. Quote
HomeSlice Posted May 8, 2008 Posted May 8, 2008 Hey that looks promising so far. It you designed the characters for this comic, then you obviously know how to draw the character from just about any angle. It would be easier to model it if you draw a front view with his arms straight out, and a side view without arms. Then use them as rotoscopes in your model window. Quote
largento Posted May 9, 2008 Posted May 9, 2008 Looks like you're going to have fun with this, Gerry! I love that idea of recreating a panel in 3D. Quote
Gerry Posted May 9, 2008 Author Posted May 9, 2008 Yeah, but I probably won't put in the word balloons, though! Quote
Gerry Posted May 12, 2008 Author Posted May 12, 2008 ...Aaaand, copy/flip/attach worked just fine. Quote
dborruso Posted May 13, 2008 Posted May 13, 2008 Looking great Gerry. Will look awesome textured! Quote
Gerry Posted May 13, 2008 Author Posted May 13, 2008 Thanks Dennis! I'm looking forward to it too. Quote
Gerry Posted May 15, 2008 Author Posted May 15, 2008 Here's a sketch and a start on modeling his double-barreled stinger. Quote
Gerry Posted June 10, 2008 Author Posted June 10, 2008 Here's a beauty shot of the stinger. Still needs some work on the detail, the textures, the color, the... the... well, everything! stinger_beautyshot.mov Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 11, 2008 Hash Fellow Posted June 11, 2008 that looks good. It will need careful lighting to bring out the detail. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted June 11, 2008 Admin Posted June 11, 2008 Gerry, Seeing your Bugbots come to life, even if its only one of them for now, is really a treat! Its almost as good as having the action figures to go along with the comics. Don't you dare stop! I want to see this bug jumping right off the 2D page in full fledged 3D action. Are you going to rig him with TSM2, the Squetch Rig or create something new? Quote
Gerry Posted June 11, 2008 Author Posted June 11, 2008 I agree, Robcat. I had some trouble getting it lit just right. I don't know what it was. I'm on v15c and still getting used to some things. I had a rim light turned all the way to white and 100% brightness and it still looked like it was in shadow. The .mov I posted was about the fourth render and I wanted to post something before I quit, but I'm not happy with it. I also need to do some decaling and not settle for just textures. And thanks Rodney! I'm trying not to think about the rigging. That's what always bites me in the butt at the end and if I dwell on it I'm afraid it will all come crashing down! I was just reading about TSM being made available for free for A:M, and after all the time I've spent trying to get my head around the squetch rig it freaked me out a tiny bit, that I'd have to go back and learn something new from scratch. I want more than anything to see these characters move, too. But for now I'm just focused on the modeling. Gerry Quote
Admin Rodney Posted June 11, 2008 Admin Posted June 11, 2008 I want more than anything to see these characters move, too. But for now I'm just focused on the modeling. Hey, if you can model them I'm sure someone will be glad to rig them. I'd volunteer to do it myself but you actually want them to be animatable! I've still got a long ways to go myself to get there. Keep on modeling. The rigging can come later. Quote
Gerry Posted July 25, 2008 Author Posted July 25, 2008 Here's a rotation of the finished model. Now onto the color and texture! Croaker_rotate_h264.mov Quote
NancyGormezano Posted July 25, 2008 Posted July 25, 2008 Here's a rotation of the finished model. Now onto the color and texture! wow - that is one terrific looking model I would suggest you rig first - it's not totally necessary to do it first - but there is the possibility that you may find out you need to modify the mesh, and then would have to redo some of the texturing...(caveat: I don't usually follow my own advice) As for rigging - TSM2 might be the way to go - (try following Caroline's thread using TSM2) - it's fun! it's easy! It's possible!. Ok. 2 out 3 of those exclamations might be a bit exaggerated. Quote
Gerry Posted July 29, 2008 Author Posted July 29, 2008 Here's a render with some quick coloring and materials. Next I'm going to do some decaling and texturing. And the helmet should be dark blue, not yellow, but I'll fix that in the decaling stage. Croaker_rotate02_h264.mov Quote
case Posted July 29, 2008 Posted July 29, 2008 Its looks rather amazing Gerry! I like the material effect you used as well! Case Quote
Gerry Posted July 30, 2008 Author Posted July 30, 2008 Thanks, case. I'm continuing to experiment with textures and materials. I also need to do something about all that yellow! It looks like he's wearing rain gear! Quote
Gerry Posted July 31, 2008 Author Posted July 31, 2008 I downloaded and ran the great Setup Machine from Anzovin and the install went pretty smoothly I must say! I'm having one problem though, in that I set up a bunch of cog joints in the elbows, knees and finger joints, but they don't work in the chor. I created them all in one action, the constraints are still present in the PWS, but they're all rigid when I try to animate. Do they need to be turned on or activated somehow? Otherwise it's a very promising start. Gerry Quote
Gerry Posted July 31, 2008 Author Posted July 31, 2008 Okay, here's a very rough first draft, lots still to do, but I wanted to put something up for comments. I'm pretty happy with the cave wall background though I still need to work on the colors and other fine tuning. Also, as I mentioned the rigging is misbehaving but in this view you can't see how the elbows are crimped. Quote
jason1025 Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 Okay, here's a very rough first draft, lots still to do, but I wanted to put something up for comments. I'm pretty happy with the cave wall background though I still need to work on the colors and other fine tuning. Also, as I mentioned the rigging is misbehaving but in this view you can't see how the elbows are crimped. Great work, have you tried a toon render? Quote
Gerry Posted July 31, 2008 Author Posted July 31, 2008 That's a good question since I'm trying to duplicate a comic panel. Maybe I will as this progresses! Quote
Caroline Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 Gerry, I should have put this here, not in the other thread: Have you turned your constraints on in the Pose window? TSM Constraints has to be turned ON, and also your own pose where you created your own constraints has to be ON. You can set them to be permanently ON in User Properties under the model's properties. Quote
Gerry Posted August 1, 2008 Author Posted August 1, 2008 HI Caroline- I was gonna post a response but before I did I clicked over to the rigging forum and saw for the first time your Gala rigging thread. But I got as far as the link to the Mechadelphia rigging tute and I am completely blown away! This is not only inspiring but exactly what I need to learn before I do one more thing in my rigging attempts. I'll look at the settings you're talking about. I tried to create a pose from the action where I created the constraints for the cog joints, but it had no effect on them. I think I need to go back to the version before I put in the cogs (or realistically, to the version before I put in the bones!) and take it from the top. The TSM install is pretty straightforward and I think I'll get it closer on the second attempt. Thanks for your comments. Gerry Quote
Gerry Posted August 22, 2008 Author Posted August 22, 2008 One more practice render. I still need to do some detailing here and there. Quote
martin Posted August 22, 2008 Posted August 22, 2008 Impressed me. Did you put a rig in him? Do a quicky animation of him raising his gun, and perhaps have the lights on the side of the gun flash. That would really show off your work. Quote
Gerry Posted August 22, 2008 Author Posted August 22, 2008 Thanks, Martin! Your comments mean a lot. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I did rig him with The Setup Machine but neglected a step when I put fan bones in the knees and elbows, so they crimp at the moment. For this view, the gloves are hiding some ugly elbow joints! I'm going to fix the rig, but mainly trying to get this still done for this month's image contest, so I'm gonna be doing some more decaling and other details, etc. Believe me I want to see these guys runnin' and shootin'! That'll come next. Quote
Gerry Posted September 11, 2008 Author Posted September 11, 2008 Here's a quick test of my rigging and animating. Still some work to do on the joints but I've found a good comfort level with tweaking, testing and tweaking, which i was always nervous about before. I'm most grateful for Caroline's Gala rigging thread and the stability of v 15d. Croaker_leap_test01.mov Quote
Gerry Posted September 11, 2008 Author Posted September 11, 2008 Here's another with a few refinements to the lighting, camera and timing. For some reason, light doesn't appear to be hitting the ground plane. Croaker_leap05.mov Quote
martin Posted September 11, 2008 Posted September 11, 2008 Oh, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Moving is much better than a still. p.s. I loved seeing this guy in the Image Contest - too much competition though - yikers! Quote
Gerry Posted September 11, 2008 Author Posted September 11, 2008 I can't complain, that was a tough slate of entries! I'm not sure I even voted for myself! But I really like seeing this guy move, and I'm feeling more and more comfortable with the rigging process. I used TSM and 3Dartz's cog joints, and though some joints need more refining I'm pretty happy with how he's working. I recently posted some storyboards I did for a trailer for these characters, though Croaker doesn't figure into the trailer. But I may start working on developing the models needed for it. You can see the storyboards here. http://www.mooneyart.com/bugbots/storyboards.html Quote
martin Posted September 11, 2008 Posted September 11, 2008 You can see the storyboards here. You got some skilz, boy. Quote
MJL Posted September 11, 2008 Posted September 11, 2008 You should definitely do this. Animation would go great with your punishing dialogue. Quote
Gerry Posted September 11, 2008 Author Posted September 11, 2008 Heh, heh. There's lots more where that came from! Quote
Gerry Posted September 30, 2008 Author Posted September 30, 2008 Here's a walk test I did about two weeks ago and I was on the fence about posting it because it has problems, and I won't be getting back to this in the near future. But since it's done, and doesn't completely stink, I thought, why not? Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up again after the holidays. To my eye, problems are a lot of foot slippage, and he lumbers more than slinks. I thought about filming myself doing the kind of walk I envision for guidance, and I may do that when I get back to it. If anyone cares to comment that would be welcome. Croaker_walktest02_h264.mov Quote
Gerry Posted October 1, 2008 Author Posted October 1, 2008 Ya know I deliberately used a grid for the ground plane so the slipping would be easier to catch, then overlit the dang thing so the grid is washed out. I meant to re-render it but it had too many probs to re-render as is. I had posted a query on another thread about the stride length manipulator in v15 but I don't think anyone ever answered. The way it works seems to have changed but I can't be sure, it just doesn't work like I remember it working, or the way it should work according to the manual. so I've tried tinkering with the numbers in the properties window instead of dragging it in the action window. But as far as I can tell, the final test of the SLM *should* be that there's no slippage on the SLM itself. Is that correct as a general thing? Anyone? Quote
martin Posted October 1, 2008 Posted October 1, 2008 First let me say, that's a great "walk," and unless I was STARING at the feet intently (slowly, multiple times), I wouldn't see any slippage - but there is some on the back foot as it lifts off, (near the end - maybe coming around a corner?) Quote
Gerry Posted October 1, 2008 Author Posted October 1, 2008 thanks for the comments! It appears to me that he's "clomping" a bit much. I think the soles of the feet need to roll more. That's what I hope to correct by looking at a vid of myself. I think the foot slippage would be more obvious if the ground were actually visible. Quote
HomeSlice Posted October 1, 2008 Posted October 1, 2008 Great Gerry. I think you are now ready for Richard Williams "The Animator's Survival Kit". I think you will really enjoy it. Quote
Gerry Posted October 1, 2008 Author Posted October 1, 2008 Just ordered it! thanks for the tip! Quote
Gerry Posted October 3, 2008 Author Posted October 3, 2008 Hey, the book came today and I flipped through it when I went home for lunch. It looks great! I'm looking forward to taking more time with it. Quote
StormedFX Posted October 4, 2008 Posted October 4, 2008 You really have that drawing skill... I really your concept. CHEERS! Quote
Gerry Posted October 4, 2008 Author Posted October 4, 2008 If you *meant* to put "like" in there, then thanks! Quote
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