sprockets The Snowman is coming! Realistic head model by Dan Skelton Vintage character and mo-cap animation by Joe Williamsen Character animation exercise by Steve Shelton an Animated Puppet Parody by Mark R. Largent Sprite Explosion Effect with PRJ included from johnL3D New Radiosity render of 2004 animation with PRJ. Will Sutton's TAR knocks some heads!
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Hash, Inc. - Animation:Master

WIP: Creature head


Ross Smith

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18 Nov 2003

- First draft render complete! Thanks a heck of a lot, Hashers at Large, for the support. :) There's a new reply at the end of this post with a pic of the render.

 

13 Oct 2003

- I've added an updated post at the bottom, showing my progress on this project. I have some modeling questions about noses, in case anyone is interested in looking. :)

 

--Ross

 

 

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I've got a model in the works of a fishman/merman creature, and right now I'm just trying to get the head done. I hope to make it animatable in some limited capacity (I doubt I'll do phonemes). I have tried at least a dozen times to extrude a shape up from the neck to form the head, and this is this is the most successful attempt to date -- I think I can carry it to the finish line, with some more elbow grease.

 

wf_side.jpg

wf_angle.jpg

 

There is only half a nose up there, to go with the one eye. I plan on trying the copy/flip/attach trick later. Also, the inside of the mouth has been hidden.

Apart from general advice, I'd just like to ask, how do you attach facial features to the head and each other? I've attached the eye to the head with satisfaction, but the nose is very tricky... I've looked at some amazing wireframes from folks out there like Jim Talbot, and it has helped a lot... but this seems like a technique issue.

 

Thanks much!

 

--Ross

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Its a real good start and I agree with William the stitch tool is a great modeling tool.

It also looks to me like you have an uneeded 5 point patch and a 3 point patch towards the base of the left side of the wireframe which will only cause headaches down the road.

 

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello, chaps. Thanks for the good advice -- I've been practicing my splinesmanship and pondering the when and where of a good five-point patch. My problems in that area are mostly solved.

 

Here are some close-ups of the one thing standing in the way of what I would think total victory: the nose. I suddenly have near-venerating respect for those modelers who make realistic noses, nostrils and all. I doubt this model will have nostrils, but it would be nice if it did... at any rate, if anyone has advice for scultping this elusive feature, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Thanks very much, and thanks again to those who have already helped me, particularly Mr. Sutton. =)

 

 

mm_nose_1.jpgmm_nose_2.jpg

mm_nose_3.jpgmm_nose_4.jpg

 

 

-- Ross

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Nice head stucture.
Thankee. :)

 

Its an alien it doesn't have to have nostril from the nose ,make it have them on the head or neck or whatever. With this being an alien there are no rules so go crazy.

 

This is the truth -- he doesn't really need to have a nose. But there's a very particular sort of creature I am trying to make. This creature was designed after the fish-people in the H.P. Lovecraft story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." In this story (or at least, my imaginitive recollection of it), the unfortunates who descended from some mix of human and fish-creature gradually change into these freakish sea monsters, and then go live in the water off of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Something like that... I need to reread it.

 

Anyhow, that's just backstory. It helped me determine how to sketch him out. When I sketched this fish-guy, I decided to have a very specific approach to his appearance -- that he would have an otherworldly look, that his human features would look withered and pale, and that the fish features would appear like a crawling lichen or a thriving parasite over his body, slowly taking him over. His model will have gills on his neck before all is said and done, and his nose will probably look like a smoothed-over brookstone that hasn't been used in years.

 

*cough* So anyhow, I guess I wrote that just in case you wanted to know it. Heheh... but thankee much for the input. I should loosen up my expectations a bit.

 

-- Ross

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  • 1 month later...

Yeeha!

 

mm_tmp.jpg

 

So, as perusers of this post can see, the nose issue has been resolved. I took some advice and just inverted it, which looks a lot creepier than any cute button-nose I had in mind.

This skin isn't going to stay... It'll become darker and take on some more wrinkles and lines around lips, eyes, forehead, u.s.w. I'll have to texturemap the eyes eventually. I remember Emilio LeRoux had a really awesome eye animation circulating a few months ago... I'll have to divine his secrets. Mwahaha. :P

 

What do ya think?

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