The Lackey

[ectohippy]

The lackey, who he's a lackey to is in progress, but she isn't ready for public consumption yet. Are ya happy now Parlo?, I posted him.

 

-Matt

 

wireframes:

 

frontwire

sidewire

 

original sketch/roto:

 

sketch

[Iham Wrong]

Guess he's a subscriber of "Body by Jake"

Hehe! Nice muscular grimlin model so far.

[Ross Smith]

A little spline-heavy -- but I shouldn't be talkin'. You clearly know your stuff. Looking forward to more.

[mootsger]

RAD! I think he might snap his sneck! You may want to beef it up just a little to accommodate the rest of his physique.

[ectohippy]

His neck might be a bit too thin at the back and I'll thicken it up a bit when i get to defining out his back a bit more.. Anyway, small update, feet added, still fine tuning them, doesn't have toenails yet:

[Rodney]

Ecto,

I know you go way back in A:M and are quite familiar with how A:M works... I've seen some of your earlier work.

 

A question If I may...

You showed us a sketch of your character... Do you draw out the spline placement as well before you work in A:M or do you just dive in and spline?

 

Also,

Any comments on the reasoning behind building only half a model versus creating it whole? You obviously prefer that method!

[ectohippy]

Hey Rod,

 

I don't usually draw spline placement, since I don't necessarily stick to my sketch (or my photo reference), and in this case, I only drew a side roto, and even that was only for the head and torso. I wing the rest, especially with creature type characters where you don't have to get proportion 100% right on (a lot more fudge factor than you have with human characters). I come from the extrusion school of splining (and modeling in general my technique is pretty much the same in wings and LW, with just a few different rules to follow). I start with an eye model, position and size it and then do a ring for the beginning of the lids, shape and extrude, shape and extrude, until I get to the point where I'm at the nose bridge. Then I do the same thing with the mouth (just half of it though) then connect the two sections up and hen work in the nose, get the general face the way I like it, extrude out the back of the head and under the jaw until they join to shape the neck, more extruding... you get the picture... didn't mean for this to turn into a modeling tut, but this is true for anything I make, whether it be a minotaur, a goblin or a voluptuous salty pirate babe ;-).

 

Which brings me to your other question. I model only half... because I'm lazy. I do copy flips along the way to check proportion but its just too much work to make sure mirror mode is on, or off depending on what I'm doing, and my technique developed before that was available so it falls into the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" category. I get everything the way I like it, do a final copy flip attach at the end and then do little tweaks to throw the symmetry off a little.

 

Boy that was long winded...

 

-Matt

[Rodney]

Matt,

 

First, Congrats on your new job as sheriff in #hash3D land!

Having you as a moderator of chat is a very fine choice!

 

Thanks for your detailed response. Thanks for not only getting good information out but also delivering it with style!

 

In the past I've noticed a lot of the legendary A:M Masters build their models in halves. It has been awhile but I think a few of the SIGGRAPH tapes demonstrate the technique.

 

Hope you'll take the time to post a couple of your some of your older pics too!

I've seen your minotuar and knight in armour among other images...

 

I looked in your posts but couldn't find it... Is it true that your current work is being done in v8.5 or another version other than v11?

 

In any case... excellent modeling!

[ectohippy]

Thanks Rod,

 

Its sad that we need a moderator in there, but some people just don't know how to be civil, but don't worry, as long as folks aren't asking for warez or being complete jerks pretty much anything goes still, now we just have a way to deal with miscreants when they pop up...

 

Anywho, the modeling just a half thing is conservation of effort, if a model is mostly symmetrical there isn't much point in duplicating the effort, kinda like mirroring bones and smartskin during the rigging process. But... if you have problems keeping your proportions right, I would recommend doing the whole thing at once, and use roto's to help keep your proportions in line... just so you have the visual cues that something might be off.

 

A lot of my old work is just floating out there... waiting for me to finish it... I'll see if I can put a webpage together with all my older stuff on it.

 

I'm using the OS X beta of 10.5 until Randy finishes that up and gets 11 ported over, I am oh so looking forward to using that new hair... some of my bald female models will finally be able to go out in public without a hat! :-).

/me sends Randy a caffeine laced cookie bouquet

 

-Matt

[gazzamataz]

This is uncanny… I was always goona get around to modeling how I imagined gollum in my head before LOTR came out and this is exactly how I imagined him. Although, I wouldn't have given him the musculature and made his feet bigger with highly unmanicured nails

 

Anyway I look forward to seeing how this model develops Ectohippy - looking good!

 

P.S. Guess I won't have to model my version of Gollum after all

[kualrobi]

Like it a lot!,

The drawing shows a lot of character; a nasty little fellow. And it looks like the 3d version will be great. I hope you get the hair nice and thin like the pic.

 

ta,

Arthur