Diving in Head First

[largento]

Hello, all!

 

I just bought A:M about three weeks ago, after reading a press release that an OS X version had been released. I'm not a 3D artist, but I am a graphic designer and A:M seemed like an affordable way to experiment and play with 3D.

 

Anyway, as I started playing, I decided I'd focus on trying to figure out how to model some of the comic characters I'd worked on in the past and decided I'd start with a parody of Star Trek I'd started as a web comic back in 1996 and then did as a PDF comic in 2000. The character designs I'd used were pretty simple and there was a focus on character to them, rather than striving for likenesses. (You never know what they'll decide to sue you for!)

 

That said, I've finished my first model of the head of one of the characters, Captain Krok. Having never done anything like this before, I'm dazzled by it's dimensionality, but I can still see that there are some definitely rough areas that hours of fidgiting (sp?) with have failed to smooth out.

 

Some of the model was done as an afterthought yesterday (like the neck), so I've yet to go back to it, but figured this would be a good stopping point and check and see if you knowledgeable folks could spot some obvious mistakes I'm making and can pass on some tips.

 

Any comments/criticisms/slight-ego-crushing would be extemely welcome!

 

I definitely feel like I've been bitten by the bug. I can't tell you how many hours of sleep I've lost in these three weeks!

 

Largento!

[JohnArtbox]

Great model to start with largento. Lots of character.

 

The best way to get help with model topology is to post a mesh shot so that we can suggest alternatives. I can see some model creasing but without a mesh shot can't suggest a solution.

[largento]

Thanks, John! here's a couple of views with the mesh on...

 

I must confess that most of the work here has been trial and error. Move this point, see what damage I caused!

 

I also never could tell where I needed to add more splines or take them away. I ended up with huge amounts of them on the nose.

 

Largento!

[Iham Wrong]

I think his hardened Scotish cut looks great. You did a fantastic job jumping the first 3D hurdle. Do you wish to animate these characters?

[ZachBG]

Wow. For a first model, you're doing incredibly well.

 

That said (and I'm not a modeler, so here's a spare grain of salt I have laying around, no, take it, I insist), there are some things you should consider:

 

1. Three point patches don't render or animate very well. You should examine your topology to see if you can avoid them--change them to four- or five-pointers.

 

2. If you want to animate this fella, especially the mouth and the eyes, you need more circles around those areas. That is, your splines should follow the contours of the mouth all the way up to the nose and onto the cheeks, creating concentric rings all the way. Do a search in the WIP section for threads started by JTalbotski. Soon enough you'll see a wireframe that shows what I mean. (And Jim's a Mac-hed, too!)

 

Welcome aboard!

[largento]

Thanks, guys! Your encouragement means a lot!

 

Yes, I do plan to animate, but I want to model all the characters' heads first. (I figure once I've done that, I can make one body that I can reshape to accommodate the different characters.)

 

I'm viewing it like learning to play music. I want to learn all the notes and stuff, before I start playing the instruments.

 

Here's the 2D version of the character that I was trying to translate. That's why he's got the flattened jaw and the weird scott'sman hair. The hair was a breakthrough, since it was really the first time I was trying to find a way to create something I'd only seen in 2D. I'd drawn the sides before, but never the back. It was sort of like, "Oh, so that's what the back would look like.")

 

Again, it's far from perfect, but it's at least down the right path...

[largento]

Making progress. Took the advice and went back and removed almost all of the 3-point patches. (I think there might be one or two in the hair, but I figured it was okay, since the hair won't move.)

 

I also began building the body. I've got to do some work with the hands (probably rebuild them), but I was anxious to see how the whole thing would look.

 

A:M is a fantastic program! Kudos to all involved with it!

 

And the talent of the folks working with it is amazing! Very inspiratonal!

 

Thanks again,

 

Largento!

[KenH]

Good progress! His arms look a little big though.

[Dearmad]

This reminds me of some other star trek spoof done in AM... what was it called... Hm. I can't remember- anyway they animated a few episodes and then sorta disappeared off my scope.

[Rodney]

I just bought A:M about three weeks ago...

 

Only 3 weeks!!! Okay.... definitely time to go back to my crayons....

Hang in there... you are definitely on your way to some awesome character animation!

 

Keep it up!

[largento]

Good progress! His arms look a little big though.

Yeah, I'm having a problem there. Looking back at the drawings I've done, I notice that I've "cheated" the arm length as was necessary.

 

The way the character is set up, he's sort of normal size up top and then stubby at the bottom, so stubby arms don't quite look right.

 

Yet, in this position, you are right that they look gorilla-like long.

 

I'm going to see if positioning can make this work. If his arms stay bent at the elbow most of the time and you only see extensions when you can't see his lower half.

 

Or maybe there's an inbetween solution that I'm not seeing yet.

 

...

 

Dearmad, if you can remember that ST parody and know of a place I could see some of it, I'd like to. I don't want to make anything too similar to what's been done before, but I'm also curious to see how certain things have been approached in the past.

 

I remember seeing "tests" for some animation years ago, but it was a guy in Australia (I think) who did all of his characters using "Simpsons" characterizations.

 

...

 

Thanks for the compliment, Rodney! I hope so! I'm having more fun with this than anything I've done in years. (Probably since I first started using Photoshop.) It's like having a machine to make your own toys and then you get to play with them!

 

I hope to fix the hands and get the rigging started tonight. I can't wait to move the guy around!

 

Largento!

[CRToonMike]

Great Job! I've heard of the Trek parody, think it's called Sevtrek or somesuch thing. All I was able to get to was a downshot-render. I seem to recall it being some kinda pay site.

 

As far as rigging and boning a model, the best tute I've come across is from the Hash video tutorial page. It's excercise 13: show some backbone. I was having massive problems with the 2001 rig until I watched this tute a few times.

 

And my shoulders were helped out a lot by the sonofpat Tutorials. What helped me get the arm length porportion correct was to complete the rigging, using the skeleton (as per the video tute) and assigning the CPs to bones. Then adjust the length of the arm bones. Then in a choreography window I turned on the IK arms relationship in the pose window Under Rig/Setup/.

 

Then I looked at how the arm length is (postition of the tips of the fingers and where the elbow is in relationship to the mid-thigh and waist, repsectively) and went into the modeling window and adjusted the length of the arm/elbow/whatever. Then, switched to the bones mode and adjusted the lenght of the various arm bones. Back to the chor window and hit spacebar to refresh the view. Make sure you save at the end of each step ( move cps in modeling mode, save; adjust the length of the bones, save; and so on). When ever I make drastic adjustments like this, I always save a version of the model ( such as redsuit a.mdl, redsuit b.mdl and so on) so if things get totally fubared, I can go back and try again...

 

So far in my adventures in A:M, it seems that secondary motion should be done after the general animation is where you want it. And turn off the arm IK setting if you want to move the arm around in a way that is controlable. Otherwise, I've found that the elbow bone is where all the gremilins come to roost

 

Looking forward to what you do next!!