Just Helping Out

[mtpeak2]

I've started helping Katt out with a few things on her project. Here's a set I've been working on for her. The muddy water is animated and there is particle bubbles, but I didn't render the with particles on. I added 2 models in the chor for a sense of scale.

 

Lighting for a toon render was a bit different. I opted to render with "toon with falloff" with one kleig light, which I think came out pretty well. Hopefully this is a look we can carry over to some of her other scenes.

[Rodney]

Mark,

Katt must be very pleased to have the assistance.

Who wouldn't be!

 

'Just a Wooden Sword' is a fantasy of epic porportion.

I'm amazed with the quality and quantity of work on display already.

With your assistance more of the story can be told.

 

Go Katt!

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Rodney. I'll be doing some rigging as well.

[HomeSlice]

That's great Mark. Kat really deserves the help, she seems to have been working really hard. It's wonderful that someone of your caliber is stepping in.

[mtpeak2]

Well, we'll see if I help her make it better or worse.

 

I'm getting close to having one of the models rerigged. I hope to have it in good shape by tomorrow. There is some extra rigging for the sword, bow and arrows. I also want to add the face rig as well at some point. I'm hoping those won't take too long.

[itsjustme]

Looks great, Mark!

[kwhitaker]

I've started helping Katt out with a few things on her project. Here's a set I've been working on for her. The muddy water is animated and there is particle bubbles, but I didn't render the with particles on. I added 2 models in the chor for a sense of scale.

 

Lighting for a toon render was a bit different. I opted to render with "toon with falloff" with one kleig light, which I think came out pretty well. Hopefully this is a look we can carry over to some of her other scenes.

Mark, I'm so delighted and lucky to have you working with me. you're so knowledgeable and , l'm so lucky. i love the muddy swamp set. and the glowing fairy .

[steve392]

Looking good ,the mountains look real nice ,I would like to see the water animated, and nice lighting

[mtpeak2]

Thanks.

 

I had some issues with the install, but I got it sorted out. I hope to have some test renders today of the model.

[mtpeak2]

Getting close to having Eppen rigged. Still tweaking the weighting and adding the rigging for the accessaries. I'll install the face rig later, once I have a few models rerigged.

[TheSpleen]

Looks awesome!

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Gene.

 

I think I got the bow rigging setup. The bow is constrained to the left IK hand and the right IK hand is constrained to a null, which controls the bow string. So it's basicly animated by 2 nulls. Here's a test animation.

Eppen_Draw_Bow.mov

[steve392]

Thats nifty ,how did you get the bow to bend like that ,it looks real good

[itsjustme]

Cool! The bow rigging looks perfect. Great job, as usual, Mark!

[Rodney]

I think I got the bow rigging setup. The bow is constrained to the left IK hand and the right IK hand is constrained to a null, which controls the bow string. So it's basicly animated by 2 nulls. Here's a test animation.

 

Stunningly effective.

 

You got everything right except the 'I think' part!

When you make things look that easy... character/bow and arrow rig setup ready for animating with 2 nulls... you know you have success.

 

(I was going to say something witty about hitting the 'mark', right on target, bullseye... something... but I don't have enough wit to throw at it)

 

Mark, you are an Animation:Master virtuoso.

[mtpeak2]

Thanks guys.

 

Onto the next character for now.

[mtpeak2]

Here's a render of some of the other characters that have been rerigged.

[Rodney]

Those guys look like they could be J-Pop stars (like the music stars all the girls adore in Japan)

 

That's a good thing. Because those guys are very very popular.

[mouseman]

Katt, you'll be big in Japan!

[steve392]

You got some good looking charectors there ,looking forward to sding this animated

[mtpeak2]

I've been working on a scene for Katt. I've added the sky (clouds somewhat animated), layered background trees, lighting and made some adjustments to the fire material for the bats. If I have time, I'll render the scene.

 

How does it look?

[Dagooos]

Looks Great!

[mtpeak2]

Thanks David.

 

I made some changes, opted for modeled background trees instead of the layered trees. I'm rendering a test now, no particles though.

[mtpeak2]

Here's a shaded render of the scene, no particles. I was testing the wings, animated with expressions.

bats_shaded.mov

[HomeSlice]

Way to go Mark. The set looks great. I like the idea of fire breathing bats!

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Holmes, still lots to do.

[steve392]

Thats looking creepy , expresions you say ,looks good

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Steve.

 

Here's a test render with particles. Add the moon and setup the bat wings so I can randomize the start of the wing flap, so they don't flap in unison (pose slider adjusts the lag of an orient like constraint on the geometry bones to an expression bone).

 

I'm getting render artifacts from the streak emitter. Most likely because of multiple copies of the same model. I may try sprites instead of streaks, will probably render faster too. I might add an expression to the rate of emissions on the particle emitter, so it's not a constant flow of flames. The bat model still needs work on the rigging. I want to set it up so I can set the bats on pathes in the chor, right now the model bones are animated, unneeded key frames. Still lots to do, but getting close.

bats.mov

[mtpeak2]

Well, I had issues with sprites, they don't play well in a toon render, so I'm sticking with the streaks. For now, I'm calling this shot done, til I have more time. I have alot more shots to work on.

[steve392]

I didn't see any artifacts ,even scrubing through .If its that streek look then I think it adds to it

[Paul Forwood]

That looks very effective, Mark! The only criticism would be about the flame being emmited by the bat that is hovering in front of the moon, it could use some variation in its motion, but I guess just rotating the bat a little would do that. It looks like you are enjoying yourself.

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Paul. Yeah the bats fire needs some movement. I could just rotate the head bone to do that.

[mtpeak2]

Here's more of the cast of JaWS. Meet Summer, Spring and Bree. There are 3 more fairies in the works.

[itsjustme]

They look great, Mark!

[martin]

Katt should be ecstatic!

[HomeSlice]

Hey Mark those look really good!

[Rodney]

Very nice indeed.

[Paul Forwood]

They look terrific, Mark!

[steve392]

Very nice ,the wings look real good

[mtpeak2]

Thanks.

 

Katt did the modeling. Bree (in purple) is the model I used to create the other two. I just cleaned up the modeling on Bree, CFA and reigged. Then modified her for the others. I still have 3 to go. I have to come up with some different outfits and different hair styles. And I have to modify their faces a bit more, they look too much alike, I think.

[Rodney]

And I have to modify their faces a bit more, they look too much alike, I think.

 

Perhaps you have a point there.

I was just thinking that it was cool that they looked like they perfectly fit into the same world of fairies.

 

The thing of even more interest to me is that I favored the toon style more... until I looked closely at the standard render.

Then I liked that one more. Looking back at the toon render... swayed my opinion back that way again.

I guess I like them both.

 

Which do I like better... gah! I don't know.

I've now convincing myself I like the toon render just a wee-little bit more.

 

The point here I suppose is that they work really well in both stylistic worlds.

[mtpeak2]

Still have a few things to do.

 

What do you think so far, does she fit in?

[HomeSlice]

Yep. She looks like one of their cousins.

[mtpeak2]

Hmm, back to the drawing board, I guess.

[KenH]

What do you think so far, does she fit in?

 

No?

[mtpeak2]

I'm not sure what you mean by that Ken.

[martin]

She looks great, Mark. Anime people would fight over her bod.

[KenH]

I'm not sure what you mean by that Ken.

 

The "yes" answer sent you back to the drawing board so I thought a "no" answer would save you the trouble.

[mtpeak2]

Well one persons "yep" wasn't too encouraging.

[Rodney]

Well one persons "yep" wasn't too encouraging.

 

Sorry Mark. I was pretty sure you knew my answer already.

I've also been consciously trying not to post 'me too' responses in the forum.

 

I like her! She seems quite differentiated from the others in the face at first look.

She looks different enough to meet your goal of providing some variety in facial expressions.

 

If you really want to attack the differences I'd suggest working on their silhouettes.

I haven't seen enough to compare/contrast to make any suggestions there.

 

You should be able to tell which is which without seeing *any* features just from their darkened in silhouettes.

Succeed there and that'll be well worth the effort.

 

 

Hope that makes sense.

Rodney