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New character WIP


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Thanks guys!

 

Sharky- here's a screen capture to show how the ears are attached.

 

Bill Y.- Thanks, I agree about the specularity issues. I never seemed to be able to get the hair to show specularity when the hair is already white. Maybe I should have tried a gray instead. This guy has no porcelain, I thought any lumps and bumps that appeared might add more character.

 

Vern- I usually just do them from my head, but I put the stylus up my nose to avoid hitting the wrong keys. I don't like using a mouse, especially up my nose. Most models I do are just characters that evolve as I model them, unless they are for something specific. like Schlitzy was for a contest. And Joe Williamson told me about the bump as diffuse trick.

 

Jim

post-7-1081795583.jpg

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You want to hear something funny? A realistic human ear was the very first model I made in A:M back in version 7. Wow, I must have been ambitious or something! :) It did actually turned out quite well and I learned a great deal about modeling in A:M while working on it. Mine was a little more patch heavy than takahiro's but visually rendered about the same. I built the rest of the head as well about a month later and it ultimately did get used on a book cover by our publishing department here at work. Never did really like that book cover though. :P

 

I'll see if I can find an image of that ear model (maybe the whole head) somewhere and post it.

 

Really Nice model BTW Jim! Top Notch.

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Ears sure are a funny body part, if you look at them long enough! :)

 

Jim

Be very careful!

 

That is why she got the restraining order....

 

..I was just looking...I didn't actually touch them.

 

p.s. You know I don't think God used AM when he designed us. If he had we would have much simpler ears AND our legs and shoulders would connect differently as well... I wonder if he did any maquettes first.....

 

Oh well...

 

Vernon "?" Zehr

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Thanks for comments, guys.

The structure of human ear reminds me of Klein's bottle.

And the shapes work like permanent organization...!

 

p.s. Don't watch ears too long.

Or you will get 'dazed and confused' by its structure!

 

 

Takahiro

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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

I know I'm quoting Rodney from a while ago, but...woohoo! I found a copy of my Abe Lincoln model. I wrongly thought I had never backed it up successfully. But here's a render I just did with some softening and color tweaking in Photoshop. I'm waiting for the Mac v 11 to start coming together (after the OSX v 10.5 is done, so it may be quite a while) before I redo the hair and beard. Right now they are just decaled geometry.

 

Jim

post-7-1081952316.jpg

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Awesome news Jim!

Its so interesting that I was just talking to someone about that very model in #hash3D last night!!!

 

I am too happy for you. And now I get to see the picture again too!

And people don't have to think I imagined it.

 

Isn't life sweet. :)

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I hate to break this to you Jim but...

 

Well, I think you may have a problem. You seem to be obsessed with....

 

Bowties!

 

There seems to be a tremendous amount of bowties in your work. Once you acknowledge the problem that is the first step to healing. There are many 12 step programs for obsessions like this. Also lots of drugs will help...trust me. They can't hurt anyway.

 

On a serious note (yes! I can be serious!)

 

Would it be possible to see some screen grabs of your lighting set up? Maybe one overhead and one from the side? Lighting is one of the things I struggle with the most. It can make or break the look of even the BEST projects.

 

Thanks much!

 

p.s. I like bowties too. We can go to meetings together.

 

Vernon "Very serious" Zehr

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Oh no! You saw through my facade. I guess I was desperate for someone to help me. I feel better now. And to show my appreciation, here's a project with the lighting set up as I would do it for a character. Actually it's the set up for the Abe image. It's nothing fancy. Just 3 instances of the same bulb light. One used as a slightly warm main spot light, one a cool edge light and the other a dull warm fill light from below.

 

You will need to move them around slightly according to which direction your model faces, how high his head is lifted, how dep his eyes are. You don't want to lose important features in the shadows.

 

Jim

SAMPLE_LIGHTING.prj

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Did I scare everyone with that last post? I did didn't I?

 

I was afraid of that. That always happens. reveal your true feelings and out comes the pepper spray.....

 

I did it again didn't I?

 

Jim,

 

We never see very much of your characters animated. I know you mentoned this yourself. Have you ever considered "teaming up" with someone?

 

Not me of course..well... I would certainly not make it any worse...I heard that! (my fan club)

 

Your characters are by far the most expressive profesional things I have seen done in ANY medium/software. It would be fantastic to see them come to life. Even if they were just for a short, 1 minute? 30 sec?

 

Anyway, keep up the good work. You inspire...uh... jealousy, envy, voodoo dolls, inferiority, bed wetting....

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

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Hi Vern,

 

No, you didn't scare anyone away, I...uh..I was out chopping wood..yeah, that's it...and tearing phonebooks in two and other macho stuff! (Actually I was birthday shopping for my wife.)

 

I did recently team up (in a way) with Stephen Millingen and the Schlitzy animation he did so well. That was for a contest at "another" forum. Here is MY animation attempt for that contest:

 

http://www.homepage.mac.com/talbotj/SCHLIT...-JTalbotski.mov

 

I learned a lot doing this. Mainly that animating is hard AND fun! And like everything else I do, I never really feel like I finished it. Which I didn't in this case. Even my characters are unfinished in a lot of ways, like rigging and final touches to the constraints and smartskin. Another reason I don't animate them much.

 

Thanks for your kind words. And the peculiar ones also.

 

Jim

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First time seeing this, since I just joined recently. You're very talented. :D I think I'll stop on my first model and start a new one because of the inspiration ( I think I spelled that right ) of your work and I've learned a few things from my first model. Keep up the good work. :D

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OK I said I would post that ear model if I found it, and I did, so here it is. The shaded verision on the right is the first model I ever created in A:M (it's a little spline heavy) and the shaded wireframe on the left is a slightly reduced spline version of the same model (still too heavy on the splines).

ear.jpg

 

I really like Takahiro's ear model and I think I will rebuild my a new ear model sometime using some of his strategy but also including the ear canal that you can see on mine. I think that's an important feature that most people miss, or skip.

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Jim: THat's awesome that you fond Abe. I loved that guy since I first saw that on your site. I am also still surprised you did so well on that animation. If I was the jealous type I would telly you, "You Suck!", but I'n not. So I'll just say -- um -- "You Suck!" :).

 

Chris: I think the splinage is fine for you ear. Especially if you are trying to make it realistic.

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Thanks Jim!

 

You inspire us all to achieve greatness!

 

I said you INSPIRE us to achieve greatness. Whether we reach it depends on how tall we are.

 

Thanks for the great tips and tutorials. It will be a while before I am tall enough but I will keep plugging away.

new_bob0.jpg

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