Another Super Hero I'm working on

[Rodney]

Okay... just for discussion sake I've added the obligatory Byrne example.

He surely must get it wrong from time to time so... take it with a grain of salt.

 

In the attached, Superboy is punching with his left arm/fist.

If you imagine what his next move might be it might almost set up the pose you have. Perhaps this isn't the best example...

 

An important distinction I guess would be that these guys are flying.

I haven't explored the changes (if any) that come to play when you remove the ground or other object to push off of.

[Rodney]

Here is a better example from a side view.

Not too far off of your current pose.

[williamgaylord]

I tested on Dex and Shaggy characters...

 

I can see it now...Shaggy instructing superheros how to pose dramatically! LOL!! That would make one very funny short film! A fuzzy Yoda....

 

Looking quite fine, Colin! Actually the binary sprites are a pretty cool idea..."Digitize him!" Sort of a double layer pun.

 

Bill Gaylord

[heyvern]

...The costume is actually starting to grow on me...

I had that problem as well. My doctor gave me some ointment and told me to change my clothes more often....

 

uh.. that isn't what you meant is it?

 

Nevermind... Great project!

 

Vernon "My brain implant itches!" Zehr

[JohnArtbox]

Hiya Colin

Fantastic looking thread. One silly suggestion, have you tried adding physical motion lines just to emphasise the motion, real comic stuff.

Outfit is growing on me too

[Zaryin]

I've tried motion blur with my hero, but it doesn't look right to me. I would love to see someone try adding comic motion lines to see if they look right.

 

Colin: I love the binary code, but I don't know if the color seems right to me. Too bright i think...

[cfree68f]

Here is a newer angle on the punch pose. Added more attitude in the face etc. I actually have a pose for clentching his teeth( you know how the muscles on the face get defined and flex?) (yeah.. I'm having fun ;-)

 

I've got a few more I'm finishing.. I'll post later.

 

 

C

[JTalbotski]

SUPER-cool! Looks really great! Is there a toon line on him or is that done in post?

 

Jim

[KenH]

It'd sure make a cool splash screen.

[Mega]

Very nice indeed. You have him perfectly ready to smite someone! However, it seems that his cranium, or the noggin', may be a bit off kilter. It seems like his right, our left, is protruding out a bit more than the other half. Unless he got a major ding tussling with the Captain Marvel (Mar-Vel not Billy Batson)...

 

For me, very much in the style of Steve Rude. No slouch in the power dept.

 

Tony

[cfree68f]

Thanks guys,

 

Jim, actually his outline is a happy side effect of the way he's shaded. I did render him on black with an alpha and swap the background with what you see, but the dark line is actually a slight reflection, specular size, diffuse falloff effect. ie.. I tweeked the settings to work good on the bright side.. rotated the camera and low and behold.. he has this nice outline. I could loose it with another backlight, but I'm kinda liking it at the moment.

 

Mega, the "bump" on his noggin is actually the view angle of the camera (20 degrees) making his head warp a little. Its how I get the hyper style poses, with the big Marvel fists. I never go with the default view angle (to flat for my taste) I tend to like wider angle cameras. Not sure why.

 

Ken H, I may make some desktops with him. I'm liking this mesh of all the ones I've done.. So I might use it for lots of things. I'm allready cooking up a semi wireframe shot of the valley of his eye... super close, that might end up being an interface for a flash version of my site. Of course that depends on when I get sick of him. If I get sick of him. Right now I'm having waaaaay to much fun.

 

C

[Julian]

Mega, the "bump" on his noggin is actually the view angle of the camera (20 degrees) making his head warp a little.

You mean 20 millimeters? That actually works out to a bit over 82 degrees. I always thought the focal length property should have its units labeled, or better yet, we should be allowed to enter either a focal length in millimeters or a view angle in degrees and be able to convert between them. (Come to think of it, I wish the velocity of particles could have its units labeled as cm/sec too.)

[cfree68f]

Julian,

 

Yeah what you said... Arrgghh the math it hurts.. turn it off...

 

Anyway, here's another. I like this one for the face and it reminds me of Alex Ross's Captain Marvel in a way.

 

 

Thanks for all the comments guys. Guess I should get to animating him soon.

 

C

[KenH]

Ahoy there Capin'!

The shoulders are looking fine...don't forget about that tut!

[Paul Forwood]

Those last two are stunning, Colin, apart from the distortion of the head in the first of them.

[cfree68f]

Heres a link to his first animation. Its sort of a transition for a kiosk type application. He'll Jump off the covers of books. The kiosk itself is actually an interactive projection on book shelves where you touch the projected image and he jumps out at you. then he flies off to find your book. The projector moves and he shows your were its at. I know its a dumb application for a potentially cool technology, but I didn't come up with it.. I just do the animation ;-)

 

Anyway, heres a rough. To get the full effect. Stop the playback and play it from the beginning. That way you see the book for a longer period. When its all done I have to create a Flash app that simulates the way it will work in the actual tradeshow. I'll post that so you can see the full effect. Comments are welcome.

 

http://www.colins-loft.net/free/MIRun.mov

 

C

[jamagica]

Not bad, but the beginning of his jump isn't exaggerated enough..he should kneel down much further before he jumps..then in the air his straightened position will look much more bold and firm

[cfree68f]

I agree Jamagica, except that I have to make him start from a stop and leave the cover as soon as the animation starts. ie I can't give him any running on the cover. If I could I would have given him more pop in the jump.

 

It was rediculously hard to get the angles to work as it was. I had a very wide camera angle in the original pose.. and when I tried to shrink him back to the book cover.. his perspective went crazy. I tried many ways to overcome this, but it was all for not. What I settled on was animating him from the side doing a jump from the planted leg. As he does this the Camera animates back and up, all the while adjusting the camera angle for the final position. The Camera also has to rotate in and translate to the left in order to get him out of the left side of the screen.

 

I figure this was the hardest of all the poses I've created. The punch will basically have him fly off the page finish the punch. You'll see a batman type kapow and he'll come up from the bottom of the page as the stars fade. Then the same ending. Still working out how to do the standing pose transitions.

 

Thanks for the input.

 

C

[williamgaylord]

Here's a suggestion that should be relatively easy to add, but might give his emergence from the book cover a lot more kick without any need to alter the initial pose: add a bright flash just as he springs from the cover, as though a flash of energy propelled him out of the book. This would be somewhat consistant with the way he "disolves" at the end.

 

This is clearly a test run, but a pause at the very beginning that gives your eye a chance to take in the layout would help a bit, too. I like the overall concept!

 

Bill Gaylord

[KenH]

I don't know if you want crits, but here's mine anyway :

 

1) The right knee on push off on the jump looks strange. It kind of rotates down.

 

2) In the jump, his arms might lag behind the body more. Also his body should be back more.

 

3) His landing looks ungainly. I know it's pretty close to what would actually happen, but he's a superhero and he can land how he likes. The main problem is the watcher is looking at his back for a while. I don't know if you've seen Jeff Lew's tutorials, but the last one covers this very subject.

 

So, I see his landing as his legsstretching out preceeding his body. That way, he won't come forward as much and go out of frame.

[nino banano]

Really It´s a great model colin, congratulations, I like it a lot...I think this animation looks like a TV series ...greetings

[zandoriastudios]

The right foot seems a little unnatural in mid-jump. The frozen frame between the two animations,where you are spelling out his name, sticks out--maybe a moving hold there. Are you going to have any facial expression?

The model and rigging seem to work really well, I like how it turned out. Nice effect where he disintegrates.

[3DArtZ]

Great work first off!!!!

I do have some feeling on it....but I'm not sure what's gettimg me about this...

I think it's an overall stiffness to the character. Also a touch unnatural as he looks like he is rushing to get every pose covered.

I notice that the shoulders/collar bones don't appear to move?????

I think it's harder to pull off the character work, the more realistic/real a character looks. And this one looks pretty darn good.

Also, I'd like to point out, if I didn't have the ability to watch over and over again, I would found nothing wrong with this the first time through.

Anyways, I think overall, the work is really great!

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

[cfree68f]

Thanks guys,

 

Yeah he is stiff, unfortunately I have limited time to get him moving at all. But each animation I do seems to get better as I get used to the rig. There are problems that I had with his left knee pointer. something in the 2001 rig was off or something. It made me have to key much more than I should have and caused all kinds of slipping which drew my attention from the other stuff. That and the forced perspective I had to work from gave me fits.

 

Fitz, his shoulder does move but in this one I hadnt smartskinned it yet so I only moved it a little.

 

I'll post some of the other stuff when I get a chance. Right now I'm still in the middle of it all and working like a fiend to get done.

 

Thanks for the comments guys. I agree with them whole heartedly. Its the bane of my existence having to settle to get stuff out the door.

 

Happy New Years!

 

C

[Rodney]

Whoa... Colin... that rocks.

 

For whatever can be said about any problem areas, I'm thinking your clients will be more than pleased. Makes me wanna look up books...

 

Somebody find out where these kiosks are gonna be so I can look one up!

[cfree68f]

OK, well he's in the can.. Tradeshow in New York is over. Well recieved and yada yada ayada...

 

Time to make him mine!

 

He are some images of him in a different costume I did for Hash. I liked it ok for about 15 minutes of work.. but I'll probably modify it for my next animation with him in it. I'm planning on having him kick the shiite out of my Hulk model. Just have to get through some other (paying) projects first.

 

Here are the images. Same poses just different costume.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Input is more than welcome as long as it doesnt have to do with "evolution, god, or the bible"

 

C

[Dearmad]

God, his costume is evolving nicely! Pretty soon he'll be a hero of biblical proportions!

[Guest RemoteViewer]

*Deleted*

[lazz]

Amazing work Colin. I like the new suit. It's cool! I just hope I can model like that in the future. Like as in within the next week, so I can enter the next image contest and hold a sporting chance

 

-Robert

 

[Edit]- Just out of curiosity, but are you ever planning on making a villain to go with you're super hero? From the way your hero turned out, there's no telling to how cool your villain would turn out. Just a thought

[cfree68f]

Actually yes.. I'm going to make a villain. I'm just smothered with work right now.

 

Its in the works though.

 

Amen to that Dearmad! Let us pray that Colin's resolve to quit the forum has evolved into something more like visiting only 20 or so times a day. I sure like that art.

 

 

I suppose I asked for that. I am resolved to stay out of the rants forum as much as possible and to limit my trips to this forum to 1 a week or more if I have something to post or a question to ask.

 

If I've got pics.. I'll post them.. if I have a question I'll ask it. I'll do searches for my name if someone can't reach me (once a week) otherwise, I'll come browse and leave (yeah right) who'd have thought my resolution for this year would be to limit my forum time.

 

Maybe I should give it up for Lent.... arrghh.... there I go again. where's that rants forum?

 

Thanks for the comments guys. They are appreciated.

 

C

[heyvern]

I hate to be the one to say this but...

 

...his new costume looks a lot like spiderman...

 

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

[cfree68f]

And your point is Vern?

 

C

[Mr. Jaqe]

oh! oh! I know! he's SPIDERGUY!

[Dearmad]

Dang, I'm liking that avatar cfree! Tasty little sample of the dude animated! Looking cool!

[higginsdj]

The new avatar - he's spending way to much time in the crouched position for a superhero - and whats with his eyes?

 

I'm interested to see what utilities you fit him out with - are you planning any?

 

Cheers

[Mr. Jaqe]

sugestions: flamevision(ooo! never heard of THAT before), ice fart and of course our all time favourite: supersonic yodeling!

[KenH]

Or his suit heats to the temperature of the sun...on the outside! No villian could touch him then. Hey Colin, how did you do his belt?

[heyvern]

And your point is Vern?

 

C

...Uh... my point?

 

hmm.... uh... er....

 

I don't know... I guess... he looks like spiderman... and... uh... well... you know...

 

...he looks like spiderman...

 

Vernon "Pointless" Zehr

[ypoissant]

I notice that on the second image, viewed from the top, his left deltoid looks really funny. The upper part where it meets the collarbone.

 

Nice costume.

[cfree68f]

I notice that on the second image, viewed from the top, his left deltoid looks really funny. The upper part where it meets the collarbone.

 

Damn Yves, what do you do go over your monitor with a magnifying glass. You are very perceptive! This was a very early render in spite of the the fact that I'm just showing these images (I didn't want to steal Hash's thunder) I hadnt done any smartskin on the shoulders at that point, and in fact I have redone all the weighting since these pics. There were some problems when he shrugged his shoulders. What you noticed was just one of the issues. He's better now, not one hundred percent.. but better.

 

Hey Colin, how did you do his belt?

 

just lathed a cross section and used the distortion cage to make it fit. Then I mapped a bump on the center of the belt.

 

Pretty straight forward. Making it stay fitted when he does a stomach crunch was the hard part.

 

Vern, Don't worry.. I thought the exact same thing. If you could see his back you'd really thing that. But he also resembles some of the Costumes for the Inhumans or the gods (who fight DarkSeid) in the DC comics.

 

C

[MiddleKid]

This has probably been mentioned but I didn't bother going back through all 10 pages... Truly great modeling but those white, zombie eyes just ruin it for me. I know you've got a killer eyeball model laying around, Colin. Throw 'em in there and give the guy some soul.

[lazz]

I kinda sorta half agree with the whole whit eyeball thing. It think its because of how it looks glossy, in a sense. However, I do like the white eye on the mask a bit more than with out it, but it would be interesting to see what it would look like with an actual eye. Have you tried to see what it would look like with more ambience, to kinda seperate it from the rest of him a bit?

 

-Robert

[cfree68f]

I tried eyes, and they werent working.. I might revisit them with the new costume.

 

I got word today that Major Innovation (this guys name) was so well received that IBM is going to trademark him for use with other things. Not sure what.

 

Thanks for all the input guys.

 

C

[Paul Forwood]

Congratulations, Colin!!!

 

By the way, are you still considering producing an Uberman?

[Mr. Jaqe]

eyes or no eyes, I don't care! the model is exellent! nothing more, nothing less! that's final! the end! finnito!

[cfree68f]

Yeah I'm still working on Uberman. This guy was sort of a test run. I've got two modelling commisions and an animation to do and then Uberman. At least thats the plan. I'm still shooting to have something by summer.

 

The good news is that the two modelling commisions are also serving as more test runs.. so by the time I actually get to Uberman.. a good bit of the bugs should be worked out. I learned allot in doing this guy. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

Tell you what.. I'll start a new WIP thread when I start Uberman and give everyone input into the process.

 

C

[cfree68f]

I finally got him hooked up to a BVH rig.

 

here he is using his super power....

 

warning 8megs.. but should stream.

 

or maybe not.

 

Yeah.. I'm having fun.

 

C

[Paul Forwood]

Colin

 

That streams beautifully for me and the quality is excellent.

Is that the SWF format again? It works much better than Quicktime for me and 8Mb is tiny for somwthing that long

 

His limbs do some strange twists at times but on the whole it works really well.

[Mr. Jaqe]

HAHA! he's so great! what kind of super power is dancing? does it make villans laugh so hard they can't stand on their feet anymore?

[UNGLAUBLICHUSA]

That dance routine you have in the icon box is F***ING excellent! Now thats what HASH needs to put out for people to see - M*YA can kiss my A**, AM is the real deal!!!!