Kong - modification

[steve392]

You have a touch of evil in you lol, good shot and the b&w one is very good looks more interesting for some reason

[Rodney]

This is almost better than going to the movies Mark.

 

Someone pass the popcorn!

[mtpeak2]

Thanks guys.

 

Gene, I didn't model the t-rex, it's a free model I found on the forum. I think it was on the extra CD or DVD as well. I don't know who modeled it either.

 

Rodney, I wouldn't bother getting the popcorn out, it's not that good, I'm just having some fun.

[Rodney]

Your way of having fun is certainly contagious.

 

I used your imagery as an excuse to explore A:M's Post Effects.

Here is an example of your previously posted color image with the following Post Effects applied:

 

- Film Grain

- Denoise (I backed off the settings on this considerably but this produces some interesting effects)

- Bloom (I tried to blow out the background a little more but it took the characters with it)

- Tint

 

Adding some artifacts and cutting up the edges might finish the old film effect.

The benefit to doing this post effecting in A:M is that what we can use with still imagery we can also use with animation.

 

Gonna need more popcorn!

[TheSpleen]

Kong looks perfect to me

[mtpeak2]

Threw in a landscape model and added DOF. Unfortunately I get an out of memory with cast shadows on the hair material.

[steve392]

Looks real good especially with that bg and the dof .I was trying to use it but can never seem to get the settings right

[Paul Forwood]

Interesting compositions, Mark, and beautiful renders!

Kong looks very cuddley though. Like a little toddler. Kiddy Kong.

[TheSpleen]

that is too cool!

[Rodney]

You've really been pushing all the buttons Mark.

Bringing back memories.

 

From the old black and white stop motion film look to modern day cg graphics.

Now this latest one has a look of one of those miniature dioramas with the painted backgrounds. Reminds me of some of the dioramas someone was always setting up in the public library when I was a kid.

 

As Paul states, this last image creates an interesting effect of a dimunitively smaller Kong. Perhaps that is because there is nothing else in the environment besides the TRex for comparing the scale? Interestingly though the TRex still seems to feel 'in scale'.

 

Edit: That last one could pass for one of those ViewMaster setups as well.

The ones where they photographed models on a set and you saw them through the ViewMaster in 3D.

[Paul Forwood]

I think that the DOF is probably adding to the baby Kong effect. Because he is meant to be huge one might expect a little of that DOF to affect the more distant parts of Kong. Perhaps.

[mtpeak2]

I know what you mean Paul. I scaled the t-rex in the scene, which was too much. I wasn't sure what the scale should be according to kong. I finally found a pic to help with that. Kong should be quite a bit taller than the t-rex when standing upright. Also, I think the head on kong is too big for his body, which is contributing to the kiddy kong look. I scaled the head down a bit in the scene using the head resizing pose in the squetch rig. We'll see if that helps. I'm rendering a new camera angle right now. I was also using one of the hair shaders, which was brightening up the hair too much with the higher intensity lights, IMO. I turned the shaders off for this render.

[mtpeak2]

Made alot of adjustments to kong. Added a few patches on the belly to the hair group to try to blend the decal fur and the hair. Changed the hair guides to 4 cps from 2 cps, to try the give the forearms a more wavy look to them (still needs more grooming). Changing to 4 cps seemed to flatten out the hair, so I lengthen the hair a bit and upped the hair direction. Trimmed down kong's waist line a little as well. For the shot, I scaled down the t-rex and scaled kong's head down. I think scaling the head down helped him to look less like kiddie kong. I think I still need to mess with the DOF as Paul suggested.

 

Sorry for the render size, I rendered it for wallpaper for my desktop.

[steve392]

A very nice shot ,that dof looks ok ,,don't it?

[Rodney]

I continue to be fascinated with each post.

Perhaps you could throw another Trex into the background whose already been trounced.

 

I'm posting an image manipulation of your last scene that I think helped clue me in to what helps create that diorama effect. The Point of View (POV) of the camera seems to have a lot to do with it. I can't change the camera in your scene so I did the next best thing and brought the image into A:M as a Layer and rotated it considerably. I adjusted the Ambiance color of the Layers surface too as an extra tidbit for those looking in. We can adjust a whole lot in the images right there in A:M.

 

The point here about POV being that in most of these images the camera's view is at the same level as the creatures, maybe even slightly above? This adds more to the illusion that this is all on a small set and we are the ones that are huge.

 

Lowering the camera and bringing it up and under the creatures might add to the illusion that they are indeed huge. Of course you might loose a lot of the backround if you do this too. The trick there then would be to move the camera back and close in the focus to grab everything in the scene. This might require hiding the ground plane.

 

Keep on posting those images.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention.

In the attached I cropped the image pretty high from the bottom.

The reason was that Kongs legs looked too tall and a bit silly. It looked a lot like a man wearing a gorilla suit. This was mostly a result of tilting the image but might hint that the legs are a little too long or too man-like?

 

Kind of hard to believe these are the same images, no?

[mtpeak2]

Rerendering with a new POV, Rodney. Yes, I too think the legs are a bit too long and hips too wide (I try to cut part of them out of the render). Adjusting these proportions require alot of manual bone positioning or rerigging. At some point I'll make those adjustments.

[mtpeak2]

Is this more to your liking, Rodney? Unfortunately, it changes the look of the lighting and will need to be adjusted if I keep this camera angle.

[Rodney]

Is this more to your liking, Rodney? Unfortunately, it changes the look of the lighting and will need to be adjusted if I keep this camera angle.

 

That definitely changes the effect from the diorama look to a film look.

Much more dynamic, close up (relatively) and personal.

They definitely seem gigantic.

 

I'm not sure if its more to my liking than the others you've posted.

I like them all so far!

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Rodney, but unfortunately I'm running out of steam on this project.

 

The body proportions are the biggest problem, I can't find any good reference pics. I've been searching for days now and can't find anything that I need. I haven't even finished the rigging cause I didn't know if I was going to change anything, the hands really bother me and the legs are definitely too long. Most of the changes I would want to make would require rerigging again. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

[Rodney]

Thanks Rodney, but unfortunately I'm running out of steam on this project.

 

Perhaps you've accomplished most of your goals with this one?

Short of adding a Martin character adventuring through the jungle and Kong up close and personal I'm not sure what else you would add to the scene.

 

You could always consolidate the project and save it for a rainy day.

One never knows when inspiration will strike.

 

The body proportions are the biggest problem, I can't find any good reference pics. I've been searching for days now and can't find anything that I need.

 

Perhaps this is where we can help out.

I assume the target reference would be Kong and not gorillas in general?

Perhaps the rerigging part could be a challenge someone could take on under your artistic direction? Who would be fool enough to pass that opportunity up?

 

Anything you post on the subject will be of interest to us.

Posting a quick summary (with a favorite image!) will signal to us that its time to adventure on.

 

Here's an encapsulated view of the adventure thus far: Kong

[Paul Forwood]

I think he looks terrific, Mark!

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Paul.

[Rodney]

Will Sutton posted a relink to his 'Modeling Kong' video tutorial so I thought it might be a good opportunity to highlight this topic as well.

 

You can check out Will's video tutorial here:

 

https://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46975&do=findComment&comment=402526

 

 

And here's a slight post processing of the last image Mark posted here in this topic as an effort to capture a little of that old back and white film look:

 

 

[zandoriastudios]

Pretty cool thread! I hadn't seen it before, so I didn't even know that Mark had re-rigged the Kong model. As you can see from the modeling video, I developed this character over a weekend to prepare for a Siggraph modeling demonstration. There was a lot of excitement about what Peter Jackson's Kong was going to look like (this was before the movie came out) and I thought it would be a good subject.

I hadn't made a character with hair before, but was inspired by seeing it on the orangutan in V11, so I also thought that this would be a good subject for learning that. I think Mark's grooming looks really good, so I'm glad that providing the model to the community was helpful for someone...

I have mixed feelings looking at the renderings, and reading the comments. I can see the frustration of getting critiqued on proportions and other things that were already there. But I also feel a frustration as I see things evolve away from my own vision--even though I knew that when I donated it that it would become something else, not of my making. So there is an emotion of loss, even at the same time I see some changes (like the chin whiskers) and think, "I like it". So I would advise, that you just have to make it your own--change the proportions. Remodel areas that you don't like. Plus it up! Then post it back up for someone else to learn from and watch the cycle start again.

 

Here is the black & white image that I rendered as my final:

[Shelton]

I think I told you Will, the Kong tutorial was the video that convinced me to stay with AM. i was so frustrated and I got the Sig graph video, and wow, I watch that section of Kong over and over. Finally i got it. Thanks again for doing it!