New character WIP

[JTalbotski]

Hi all,

 

Haven't shown anything really new in a while, so here's a peak at my newest character, to go along with the elegant lady and gentleman I did a while back. He's sort of the head of the investigation agency. At least, that's how I see him now. And I think he says "Jolly good" a lot, too. I need to give him some thin hair on his head.

 

Jim

 

[omoanime]

very nice Jim. The mustache has, to my eye, a hint of Vincent Price, and I think that this gentleman, if he so desired, could pull off that style quite admirably.

 

Paul

 

Vincent Price

[SeanC.]

wow... truly amazing work you do Sir Jim. The only crit i see is something about the mustache. Maybe its the lighting but its seems to rectangular.

 

 

Great work

 

SeanC.

[Mike Lium]

SWEET !

 

I hate you

[Parlo]

As draw dropping as ever Mr Talbot. I especially love the bags under the eyes and the "shoulders back, chin out!" nature of his posture. May I suggest a monocle and a squint?

[JTalbotski]

Thanks for the comments! Even your sentimental message, Bud.

 

Yup, the moustache is too square. It's just dropped the material onto a few patches and didn't apply any controlling decals yet. I'm trying to do this character in the OSX alpha to help with the bug reporting. So maybe I'll try the decals soon.

 

 

Now that you mention it, I do see some Vincent Price in him. I want to stay away from making him look like a "badguy", but I want to make him pretty stern.

 

 

I was toying with the idea of a monocle, but wasn't sure how vintage British that would look. In my head it seems more vintage German (I don't know why), but I could try it and see. I'm definitely going with a pipe. I don't know why all these characters seem to need to smoke, but I'm just rolling with it.

 

Thanks again,

Jim

[Ross Smith]

Just rolling with it? Tobacco? ... Okay, maybe I'm the only one that caught that one.

 

But anyway, wow. I mean, um, wow. I really like him.

I agree about that touch of Vincent Price, but it strikes me as absolutely appropriate.

 

Could you treat us to a wireframe?

[JTalbotski]

Here's a screen capture of the shaded wireframe. He's basically a reworking of the younger gent I did with some deleting and adding of new splines and a lot of tweaking.

 

Jim

 

[Iham Wrong]

Hehe! I thought he was the English butler and head of the household. Afterall, he is dressed for the part.

Of course, excellent work as always. You are getting too predictable in your quality these days.

[JavierP]

Hi Jim,

That's a smashing good job,ol' top Great model, he really has a lot of character. Don't forget his brandy snifter.

 

Javier

[Rodney]

Incredible as ever.

Especially love the spline shots you post as this lets us know a little of the superb technique you use.

 

Do you still have the Abe lincoln on your site?

Perhaps a hair treatment on him would catch the eye of the masses off the list/forum.

 

Rodney

[johnl3d]

You make it look so simple..Nicely done again

[Lex1342]

Great Model!!!!

Thank you for posting the wireframe too. Newbies like me get a very good insight of how to model a face. Much better than various tutorials I read.

 

Thanks again.

 

Alexander

[pequod]

Splendid spline work Jim.

I agree with others, the bags under his eyes are wonderfully crafted and observered. Sneaky use of 3-point patches also.

There's some nice warm turning edges on his skin, is that just good lighting or are you using some shader or other?

 

Personally, I think he looks French, like Charles de Gaulle!

[DarkLimit]

Great work Jim you have captured age itself....... I think his wrinkles can be a bit more appearent or exaggerated on his forehead and the cheek area. Thats just a surggestion.

 

Keep up the great and inspirational work !!

[JTalbotski]

Thanks one and all!

 

"Butler" did cross my mind as I was modeling him. Maybe he's the head of ops while just disguised as their butler....okay, maybe not.

 

Javier, I think I'll make him just a tea drinker. Someone has to be a clear thinker in the bunch.

 

Rodney, the Abe model is lost, due to a stupid back up mistake by yours truly. Sigh.

 

Stephen, I'm just using lighting at the moment. He is colored only with group surface colors, but I will start the textures soon, I hope. He does look more like De Gaulle. Perhaps I'll have to focus more on clothing as a clue. How about a bowler on his head?

 

Robert, I will definitely be adding quite a few wrinkles as I progress, right now he's untextured.

 

Thanks,

Jim

[modernhorse]

JIM ! Well, what to say .... . You sure do raise the bar around here.

 

I would love to see this fella in a smoking jacket.

 

Doug

[chikega]

Very nice character, Mr. Talbot. As others have mentioned, the bags under his eyes are nicely crafted - but are there really 3 point patches there? It looks to me like 4-point patches that become closely approximated and overlapped, so you don't see the 4-point patches beneath the bottom of the bags. I can see a spline terminating into a 5-point patch towards the inner eye area that can also be misinterpreted for a 3-point patch.

 

How well does "hooks" into 5 point patches work during the animation phase? Can it handle any deformations without popping or seams being created? I've just gotten back into A:M - so, I've been out of the loop for quite a while.

 

Again, very nice job!

[nixie]

Geez louise and holy smokes! *how* do you do it! - what do you have planned for him and his comrades which you mention?

 

superb as always

[JTalbotski]

Very nice character, Mr. Talbot. As others have mentioned, the bags under his eyes are nicely crafted - but are there really 3 point patches there? It looks to me like 4-point patches that become closely approximated and overlapped, so you don't see the 4-point patches beneath the bottom of the bags. I can see a spline terminating into a 5-point patch towards the inner eye area that can also be misinterpreted for a 3-point patch.

 

How well does "hooks" into 5 point patches work during the animation phase? Can it handle any deformations without popping or seams being created? I've just gotten back into A:M - so, I've been out of the loop for quite a while.

 

Again, very nice job!

 

 

I do have a couple 3 point patches tucked away in the face, as seen in the first image. I had to go back and check whether I had any in the eye area or not. Even though the angle of my original screen capture looked like there were 3 pointers there, I kept them all 4 pointers with a couple 5 pointers farther out.

 

As far as I know, I haven't hooked into any 5 point patches. I don't even know if you can. I try to keep hooks in areas that are generally smooth and surrounded with enough cp's to get the job of animating done.

 

I haven't noticed any popping of hooks in the last year or so, maybe because of my placement of hooks, but I think the Hash guys worked on it some. I've just started getting into animating so I may not be the best source.

 

Jim

[JTalbotski]

Geez louise and holy smokes! *how* do you do it! - what do you have planned for him and his comrades which you mention?

 

superb as always

Thanks! I'm not sure what they will be for. I'm kind of having fun watching them develop. But they seem to be leaning toward being in a quasi-James Bond world, but set a little farther back in history. I have no story or plans for an animation, but I will probably do some still scenes and some animation tests just to learn.

 

Thanks,

Jim

[gazzamataz]

Lovely Jubbely Jim! My only criticsm on this peice is that his skin does look a little plastic... perhaps a bump map or two showing pores and wrinkles would give it a bit more depth. Anyway the render is lovely and I gotta learn to do this meself.

 

I am looking forward to some of your animations. I kinda did Hash around the other way, I learnt rigging and animation first and now I am learning more about texturing, mapping and lighting

[Fab]

Again a superb character! Thanks for posting the wireframe, I'm impressed to see the hooks and the 5 points patchs without creases.

 

Great work Jim.

 

Fabrice.

[shaunf]

Jim,

 

........ You're an inspiration! I LOVE the character!!!

[Rodney]

Rodney, the Abe model is lost, due to a stupid back up mistake by yours truly. Sigh.

 

AAAHHHGGGHH.

 

Somebody invent something to stop this madness!

Keith Lango's Secret Joys of Myopia and Jim Talbot's Lincoln lost... forever...

 

Was it harddrive failure? Or file corruption?

[JTalbotski]

Just me being a blockhead.

 

Jim

[Rodney]

Still have any pictures of Abe.

Can't seem to find the one I saved.

 

Rodney

[sonofpat]

Got in on this very late.

 

I see a very coool face thats full of charccter and an upright and dignified man.

 

Great work as usual Jim

 

Luv Patos

[JTalbotski]

Here's an update with textures (just color and bump) and some tweaks to the mesh. I reduced his nose size and made his brow less sharp.

 

Jim

 

[Parlo]

absolutely gorgeous Jim - from the subtle wrinkles on the brow to the upper lid overhang.. brilliant.

 

My only comment would be that in places the 'liver spots' seem too uniform or flat if you know what I mean. They just don't seem to sit so well on the upper lip, above the brow or the bridge of the nose. I find texturing above the brow is a nightmare - there's so little detail to play with. And the nose may just be the uneven flatten problem that often occurs when you've got a largish nose - not you Jim, yer man there!

 

But I'm just nitpicking - it's like chiseling away at a monolith with a toothpick.

[DarkLimit]

Looking good jim, I just think his skin could look a bit more old. Maybe add some dark blemish to his skin ( diffuse map ) like under his eyes, his chin etc.

[gazzamataz]

My only criticsm on this peice is that his skin does look a little plastic... perhaps a bump map or two showing pores and wrinkles would give it a bit more depth.

 

I take it back... you were gonna do that anyway - you sly old devil! I fink it looks bloody marvelous! I would love to see you making a texturing video for Hash, it would be on the top of my 'to get' list

[JTalbotski]

I would love to see you making a texturing video for Hash, it would be on the top of my 'to get' list

Gazz,

 

Perhaps you haven't seen these?

 

http://homepage.mac.com/talbotj/FLATTEN-TUTORIAL.zip

 

 

http://homepage.mac.com/talbotj/FEATURES-TUTORIAL.zip

 

 

http://homepage.mac.com/talbotj/EYEBROW-DETAIL-TUTORIAL.zip

 

 

http://homepage.mac.com/talbotj/EYELASHES-...IL-TUTORIAL.zip

 

 

The bump map tute will be next, when I can find the time.

 

Jim

[robvmonte]

Im jealous of everyone here. Everyone is so good. I can only do somple characters. Im not trying to make you guys feel pitty on me but im just saying. I wish i could do stiff like that. Ive tried doing tutorials but its just to confusing. Where did you learn jeff?

[JTalbotski]

Uh, it's Jim.

 

I've been using A:M since v5 (about 6 years?) and all I've done with it, until this year, has been modeling characters. One is bound to get better in that amount of time.

 

If you can't learn from a tutorial, then you'll have to teach yourself. Just start modeling something, anything. Stitch more splines into it and notice what happens in different situations. Pull cp's outward and try to make them into something, an arm, a nose. Model things out without trying to make a masterpiece. Make it a fun learning experience. And if it bombs who cares, just make sure you learn something from it.

 

Jim

[kikiriki]

Wow!!!

This is one seriously great character!

Congratulations Jim!

Would you mind show us images for color and bump?

 

Dusan

[JTalbotski]

Thanks, Dusan. Here are a couple jpegs at 75% of the actual size decal images. I set the value of the bump map at 50% in A:M.

 

Jim

 

 

[Rodney]

Jim,

 

Have to say you're sharing of techniques, images, etc. impresses me.

If I had your talent I'd probably invest in locks, security camera, electric fences and whatever else I could find to keep the trade secrets.... um... secret.

 

Sure glad your not me!

 

Rodney

(Tonight on A:M Channel: Jim Talbot: The inspiration. The man.)

[kikiriki]

Hi Jim! Thank you for the pictures and informations you are sharing. I'm just playing with bump maps in v. 10,5 and I found that bumps are MUCH(!) improved! Whan I was working on Perk in old v.8,5 I have to make bump maps at least 4-times bigger than color maps and then soften them a little to get similar antialiased effect as we could see on your renderings! Rendering quality has really improved in last few months.

[Phil]

Jim,

You never seem to amaze me with your talents. Nice work,

disingusished fatherly figure. Thanks for sharing

Phil.

[Ross Smith]

Jim, please clue us in about that bump map. Did you draw a sketch and scan it? Or, Wacom tablet? Did you use vector paths?

How a person makes the bump map for a wrinkly face really intrigues me. Maybe because it seems to deal so much with the geometry as well as the surface.

[JTalbotski]

Ross,

 

I use a Wacom tablet (exclusively, no mouse). The bump map is a duplicate of the face color decal. I changed it to grayscale and deleted the layers that weren't neede, like the rosey cheek and nose color layer. I just use the mesh template as a guide for where the wrinkles should be. Sometimes I wrinkle my face up and feel the direction of the wrinkles or look in the mirror to get a better idea of their direction. No vector paths, just freehand drawing with the stylus.

 

Jim

[shaunf]

The model goes without saying.

 

I do have to mention the lighting. I really like the setup. The blue backlight is a nice touch.

[Iham Wrong]

Amazing transition to a weathered, slightly hardened personallity.

[JTalbotski]

Another update:

 

This time I've added some hair, moustache and eyebrows. And a few more tweaks to the mesh. He's starting to get that "Alec Guiness look" that I'm after.

 

Jim

 

 

[Parlo]

Love the hair! It's really softened him up. My only comment would be that the moustache is a little too neat, especially along the top edge.

 

Out of interest, what are your render settings and times for this image?

[Dearmad]

Just because you're so damned good, J., I'm gonna throw you this crit:

 

The effect of his face being so... organic has made his clothes stand out in a poor contrast for me- detracts from the image.

 

I couldn't resist... wanna see you go to town on his clothes now.

[JTalbotski]

Love the hair! It's really softened him up. My only comment would be that the moustache is a little too neat, especially along the top edge.

 

Out of are your render settings and times for this image

Thanks, Sam. You're right, I need to work on the moustache. I knew I was forgetting something!

 

If I remember correctly, it took around 6 minutes to render, with 2 ray casting lights and one z-buffered light, 9 pass multipass at 600X800 pixels. There are 2 different hair materials on him and I gave it a tiny bit of bloom and softened it a tad in Photoshop.

 

Jim

[JavierP]

Hey Jim,

He's really lookin' good. Definitely turning into a great character.

 

Javier

[Parlo]

6 minutes is really good going seeing as you're using hair - though his age related lack of it may be to your benefit!

 

Have you tried using A:M's native bloom 'post effect' on one of your renders? I've been playing around with the 'post effects' myself and have been very very pleasantly surprised by their capabilities.