Work in progress

Can someone help me out here? I did what I thought was the right thing to do, I clicked on the insert image button, then pasted my sumea news post URL inbetween the tags, but to no avail, anyone else had this problem?

you have you link the image rather than the news link, just delete everything after the .jpg and you should be good.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/25_HeadL.jpg[/img]

there you go mate.

It would help if we had a photo of you.

Yeah, its a bit hard to compare it to what your trying to achieve without the photo.
Something that I see is the top of the head is rather flat and your ears dont stick out enough, they look like the bend around your head.

Cheers guys for the tip on the image problem, next time I'll get it right. As for the feedback, I'll look into the ears, but my head isn't flat, it's just my haircut, thanks anyway :) Oh, and I don't think I want to post pictures of myself, I was more just after general feedback on the model, not as to how whether or not it looks just like me.

There are two things I can see.

First the ear. With the head turned slightly as it is you should have a good view of the ear, almost square on not edge on.

Second the mouth seems bit too far down the face, at least the space between the mouth and the nose seems too big when compared to the space between the mouth and the chin. Not by much though.

not a very good thing to crit direct things like models or paintings based off people without seeing your source material - you'll find a lot of people (myself included) will decline to offer any pointers just because we don't want to say something like "my god that's a hideously shaped nose" and it's actually spot on, which makes it a personal referance to the person we're commenting [;)]

Hey looks pretty cool :) Post a piccie of the control mesh so we can see how it's built!

One thing I would do regardless of who you're modelling is maybe remodel the corners of the mouth so the lips there have some shape. Take a squiz at this tutorial to see what I mean: [URL]http://www.3dluvr.com/setherial/tutor/mouth/tutor01.htm[/URL]

Hope it helps, wouldn't mind seeing another shot of the side of the head as well so we can look more closely at the ear.

Cheers again for all the feedback, here's the results, I'm very happy with it, let me know what you think.
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/sprofilepic.asp?pic=25_Head_side.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/sprofilepic.asp?pic=25_Head_WIP17.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/sprofilepic.asp?pic=25_ctrl_mesh.jpg[/img]
Note: I'm still going to unwrap my UV's and do some personalised texturing, so it's not over yet!

you did it wrong again wiz-
here:

(to get the correct address for them, right click on them where they are displayed on on sumea and click Properties, then just select and copy the address in there)

[EDIT] I removed pics because of post below.

Ok, once more for the biggest retard in the world, ME! But yeah, I figured it out, so here's the pics!

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/25_Head_WIP17L.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/25_ctrl_meshL.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/25_Head_sideL.jpg[/img]

Cheers Inglis, but I managed to figure it out just before I read your post, thanks anyway, now there's no stopping me at all!

I gotta agree with JI Styles that commenting without seeing some source images is a dangerous affair (on that- I once saw someone get a poor mark and a harsh crit for a protrait project. They had given their portrait unrealistic super thin hair line lips. Unfortunatily the model apparently looked like that! )

that said ,I will be bold enough to suggest that whilst you are looking at the ear angle, they could do with moving forward too. Off hand I think the the ear hole should be about halfway between front and back (might be worth checking another source to confirm that.) the eyes at a smidgen high I suspect too.

On the whole though I like it the way it is. The shapes and positions of the features make the face look gentle/kind - I think it might be emphasising the gently rounded forms of the cheeks... or may be it's lack of wrinkles on the forehead and blood shot eyes [;)]

Due to popular demand I've managed to take some pics of myself. As for the model itself, I've slowly been doing some texture work on it after editing it's UV's, subtle for now, but I'm a newbie to texturing so I will take any advice.

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~cmcmurr/mypic4.jpg[/img]

front

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~cmcmurr/mypic5.jpg[/img]

side

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~cmcmurr/mypic6.jpg[/img]

latest version

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~cmcmurr/mypic7.png[/img]

diffuse texture map

Excelent. Now we can comment on it fairly :) First off, it is quite good. It does look a fair bit like you, but there are some areas that could do with a little work.

[img]http://home.netspeed.com.au/mlanham/tutes/mesh.jpg[/img][img]http://hom…]

You may want to have a look at your edge loops around your check bone area. They are very smooth and lack definition. It would be a little more difficult to give yourself goos looking cheek bones the way the mesh is at the moment. The main way it is noticable is through your checks. If you look at your photo, you have your eye socket that sinks in to your face. Your checks then come out and slope down. On your mesh, the check bones start off high and round, and then smooth out at the bottom. Basically you just need to vertaclly flip your checks. You also need to make your eye sockets come down lower. I tried to show what I mean with the red lines.

Your Lips. On your mesh, they are very flat. In real life, you have very pert lips. You just need to pinch them up near the middle. Yellow lines.

Your nose could come out just a little more, and be a little pointier at the tip.

Your ears look slightly flat. It is something that most modellers suffer from (hell, I'm one of them :p).

The last thing you may want to have a bit of a look at, is your eye lids. In real life, your top eye lid slightly overlaps your bottom eye lid on the outside edge. This is something that does take a bit of practice to achieve.

I hope that helps just a little. Good luck :)

Wowsers, thanks for that reply Aven, I'll be sure to try and tweak it up just that little bit extra now. Thanks again for putting the time in to help me out.

Argh...argh... put a shirt on ...argh...arghh.....

Heh, I think you have done a pretty good job of making the model resemble you, good work :)
I still theink you should raise the top part (the hair) some more, look at your photo and compare it to the model.
Get some more colour varition into your texture as well. Parts like around the eyes, nose and mouth have some subtle yet important changes in there colour. Look at your ref to see what I mean.

Pretty good job so far. Main difference I see is in the eyes. Your model has the typical stunned mullet look that all cg character have at first before you start adding emotion. Your eyes seem a bit more squinted I think.

Generally the proportions look very close, though I would say that your head is slightly rounder or not quite as long as your model. Also the jaw line on your model is too pronounced, I'd soften tat up a bit.

Otherwise, pretty good job. I'd suggest working on a half decent skin shader before you progress too much further as skin can really trick the eye at to how a surface curves and turns. That how I do it anyway.

Good work, keep it up. It will be a cool think to have in your portfolio... a 3d self portrait.

Thanks for the feedback Ionized, I see what you mean about my eyes, you should see the earlier ones though, I look totally wired!

As for the skin shader, is there anywhere you recommend as a starting point? Do you mean actually coding my own shader or just using Maxs ones and adjusting them to suit, cause if it's the former, I'd be stumped.

I've got a few plans for my head in my showreel, can't let too many secrets out though...;) Hope to have him talking actually, going to be a big project.

Ok, here's the next stage of my head,

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~cmcmurr/mypic11.jpg[/img]

front

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~cmcmurr/mypic12.jpg[/img]

side

as you can see it's getting to the stage now where I'm putting in several hours work to only get a slight improvement. Skin shader was worked on a lot, used a translucent shader to get a slight reddish 'glow'. Also changed the lighting and am now rendering with Lighttracer. Other changes include the cheeks, nose, eyes and ears (so pretty much everything;)). Scrapped the hair for now and will redo it later.

p.s. still need to dirty up my texture a lot.

That is looking MUCH better. I still think that the eyes need a little work. I will scan in an image later on to show you what I mean :) You should also have a look at the top of your chin, as it needs to be sharpened just a little. You have really shown a lot of progress with this one :) A very good job for your first ever head.

The skin shader is coming along nicely, but you should probably ditch whatever brand lip stick you are wearing. It just doesn't match your eyes :p If you are after a little help in making a really nice skin shader, then look here.
http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/dr_julians_texturing/dr_julians_t…
I warn you that it is very in depth though.

Wow your first ever head that looks great. A lot better then the first one it looks a lot more like you.

What's this business about first ever head? Not exactly right, but close enough, previous to this I've just done some low poly heads or deformed cartoon style heads. Needless to say I'm quite happy with the results, but it's still not over, going to tweak this one to the extreme;) You're right about the eyes Aven, will be doing work on those soon, and yeah, pink lippie clashes with my green eyes;) I think I know what you mean about the chin too.

Ta for the link.

i agree with above, it is looking a heck of a lot more like you now, good job

Yeah, that looks like you now, espacially from the front. But the ear is back a little too much.

Heh, I was actually thinking the other day that we havent seen much from you lately, good to see you posting again :)
I cant seem to work out whats going on with the right side of him though, its a little too dark.

[IMG]http://members.optusnet.com.au/altiquex/sithcmdr/cmdrsith6.JPG[/IMG]

another character for jedi timeline- an advanced sith apprentice.

hey makk - yeah i've been buisy looking for work and stuff.

How do you work? A normal brush set at low opacity? I love how you convey your ideas in your art. I'd still like to see a greater level of detail. Are you quite good at environments as well?

As a side note (not intended as an insult) - do you have a short attention span or do you just work your concept to a stage where it conveys what you want it to convey and then move on? I'd really like to see a 'finished piece' of your artwork - you've got a nice original flavour to your style.

Is there any pencil under there?

hey JonathanKerr > thanks for the critic

i work until i get bored atm because it's hard to invest alot of time in something when i'm not getting paid while still trying to cover my rent.
and there is no pencil , i use my new wacom :) still learning , got it for christmass but things are looking up - this is only the second thing i have sketched on it so far.

cheers .

[IMG]http://members.optusnet.com.au/drummonds/officedude.JPG[/IMG]

erm nice work but some annotation would be nice

The style is great! I would love to see some output that you do toward the quick draw activity in this style/technique > It would be refreshing to see an approach to the activity from a really different angle... might even get the rest of us thinking along new lines.

Nah, you could still do it. Maybe clean up some of those broken lines, and if you want, try experimenting with line weight. :)

Yeah it's good that you are developing your own style, but you shouldn't let it stop you from doing other things. Just jump in see how you do, I reckon you'd be surprised, once you get your style down it's unconicous and it can creep in to everything you do, without you trying. Anyway no-one ever learnt anything by doing nothing! hehe

It's also good to try and experiment with different styles. You will find that art jobs ask you to adapt to styles for the chosen games etc so may be worth starting early to work at different styles.

In my programmer mind there are still very basic concepts in art that will hold true no matter what style you apply them to :)

thanks for your comments people, i know those two pics arent perfect but its sort of the most abstract that i get and the most realistic (mad hatter being the abstract ofcourse). if you want to see any more i have a few sketches in my gallery (there will be a link on those pages i think).

makk could you post a link to perhaps some theory writing or a photoshop tutorial, currently i sketch my lines and scan them, then invert the layer and make it a screen and do the colour behind it.

JohnN thanks for your encouragement, i might give that activity a whirl but i dunno if you noticed, none of my sketches have feet/shoes, i cant do them :'(

matias, ive developed my style over years n years of drawing, back when i was a kid i allways wanted to be a cartoonist. So my cartoon style sort of developed into this bizzare thing. I allways try to give realism a try but fingers crossed ill be able to develop a bit more with a more focused art class this year (yr 11)

Jacana, im unfortunatly a person who can get frustrated when something i draw goes horribly wrong. So often my attempts at different styles have left the floor littered with scrumpled up peices of paper. Im trying to broaden my horizons but only time will tell how well that goes i suppose

thanks again for your words of wisdom everyone

Solution to not being able to draw feet = practice! In the past I spent evenings in front of TV drawing my own feet (and hands). I also used a mirror so I could see different views.

As for realistic vs cartoon both have their own pros and cons. If you redid your clown pic with a realistic technique it would change the mood of the pic (probably not for the better.) Having tackled cartoony pic syndrome in myself I personally think that the main difference between a pic that is seen as cartoony or realistic is proportion. So spend lots of time measuring things!

I don't reckon that sketchy line work is an issue beyond personal taste. Smoothline techniques are just popular at the moment because anime and comics are in this style (although comics have been changing since the late 90s) In the past I did my sketching in blue (any colour other than black/gray is fine), then inked the pic in, scanned it, then removed the blue in photoshop, then selected 'Threshold' to remove the grays (make it just B&W). For colour I am currently setting the layer with my pencil sketch to Multiply and putting it on top of all the colour layers that I have*. I would be interested how others set up colour in Photoshop as a suspect their are many ways to do it.

*with the exception to white highlights. I put this one on top, with layer set to normal.

cartoon does have a lot to do with proportion, it also has a lot to do with detail, cartoon you will often have much less detail and less emphasis on all the shapes and curves of someones body.

Feet/Shoes i hope to get over but thats only a matter of time

my line works allways kinda sketchy, its just my style.

um sorry but cartoons emphasise shapes and curves of the form so u dont need detail.. try and think of feet as triangles and fingers as legs.. well thats what i did when i was just lerning, and try and draw for atlest 1 hour a day this way shapes stay fresh in your mind, and they slowly buld up day after day

Hmmm, funny how we (Moonunit, Adie and myself at least) describe what 'cartoon' is from the perspective of our own techniques. But I suspect that we are looking at the same elephant from different angles!

Moonunits pics are certainly cartoonish in appearence, and this has been achieved through a reduction of detail and simplification of shapes (as moonunit mentioned.) This technique has however resulted in an emphasis of the basic shapes (Adie's point) that make up a clown!

My mention of proportion refers more to the aspect of distortion. This is done to emphasise shape/form (there it is again.) However, I think proportion and distortion are more accurate terms. A realistic image of a female can be presented as a silhouette to emphasise her feminine shape- definitely not cartoony until the her proportions are further altered. If moonunits clown was photorealistic but with the same out of proportion hands and mouth I would still rate it as cartoony.

i cant really think of much crit to say for this one, and thats a good thing :P

offering something though, his upperarms seems reletively ungarded, i dont know if this is intentional for greater flexibility or something but its just an observation

oh and it appears that the spikes on the shin/leg guards are missing in the side view

nice work, very roman style, im guessing that was the inspiration

It looks cool - but not very 'elite'. It could probably do with some sort of ornamentation. Think of the elite guards you've seen in movies like Star Wars or LOTRs elves.

I'm not sure what it needs - but maybe some sort of aspect that gives it a 'regal' quality. A cape? A gown? A robe, perhaps? He just looks a wee bit 'common.'

I like it, but I agree with JonathanKerr, and this is just a personal thing something is naggin me for a shield, I'm thinking a buckler or perhaps extend the left wrist guard even more. Ofcourse if you wanna go the full roman you could give him a big tower shield? Just little things, nothing big wrong with this concept in my opinon. Good job.

in terms of ornamental regal qualities, it'd be a fair design for say a barbaric race - the armour is well forged, but still loose, the spines giving a certain air of barbaric menace. Functionally this is good for such a thing.

If you where going more for the imperial guard type of look, then more ceremonial type garb would be more fitting - they'd be functionally more for a show of power and position than just fighting and protection; things like etched metals, flowing banners from the halbred, head-dresses etc would go very far to showing this type of thing if that's where you're going with it.

Yup, roman and greek garb was in the back on my mind whilst doing it. The overall look of the guard was a bit plain wasn't it. I was a bit undecided as to what sort of spiffy bits to add for a while. The feedback seemed to suggest that the theme was 'fence sitting' between barbaric and refined... and in retrospect it was [:)] so I flipped a coin and have gone refined- no spikes,added coat of arms etc.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/258_elite_guard-2L.jpg[/img]

That looks really good man.
Was this all traditional?
Good work :)

thanks [:)]
everything that I have posted to date has been graphite pencil sketches, scanned then coloured in Photoshop.

top stuff man, i still wouldnt mind a cape or robe or something really dressy for the whole "elite" thing

The new one looks really cool. Definitely more elite than the original. I also like the move to him using a spear.

I think the effect of pencil and computer colouring has worked well for You (I might be biased as this is my fav way of applying colour[:)]) I think the soft line work of the pencil and the matching 'water colour' appearance of the colour works really well.

Even it you don't personally like the result, I reckon you should keep the technique in you repertoire. It might be worth using for illustrations with a soft/feminine theme.

Hey, that rocks pants.
Great details, cool style and very nice colours. It's interesting that the pencil work on her skin gives her an older or more butch look... ie. She's not a 23 year old supermodel in a post apocalyptic world =D

I'm intrigued by the contrast between her skin and her equipment. The equipment is dark (generally) and has strong highlights, while her skin is quite light without any highlights. I suspect adjusting either would create a strange unbalanced effect...

Nice presentation too.

cheers

Sweet job Pants.

Don't know why you think she needs to be overly sexy Marty, its not stated anywhere that she was conceived that way.

Pants: I still think shes feminine, just in a robustly athletic way, better imagination than the average 'quake 3' chick that gets done.
I for one am glad you tend not to go for the 6ft, 36-24-36 model types, they are a dime a dozen and show no real imagination.

The original sketch is great stuff but I'm not sure about the colouring, seems overly washed out and flat, lacks highlights etc.

Marty: Thanks, Although attractive she is also supposed to be in her mid 30s + but a certain amount of roughness is due to the tooth of the paper which I was using. The equipment is obscure and its use would not be known unless you knew the setting. But since you asked...

The barrel and spike things on her back are a large battery and conductor keys used for shorting and overriding large mag locked warehouse doors.

The object in her hand is a small programmable ceramic key card

The chain on her wrist is a sign of her apprenticeship when she can over come the lock on it and free herself she is no longer an apprentice.

JohnN: Thanks, its not so much that I don?t like it, more of a question of preferred ways of working. I do like it and will probably do more stuff like this in the future, but I don?t think it will substitute for my other ways of doing things.

smeg: Thanks, I was not sure how the contrast between her skin and equipment would work out, it was something that I am used to doing when I do just plain pencil sketches. I will probably try it a couple of other ways to see how they work out.

Pantmonger

Nice pic Pants. I don't have any probs with her rough look. Any woman who looks like they could kick my arse is fine by me :D

Her clothing is quite nice. Simple, yet would be rather effective in any harsh environment.

I especially love how her arm pit worked out. That was very well done.

Although Her skin lacks highlights, I don't think that it is necessarily a bad thing. Although butch and banged up, it does help to make her look a little softer and more feminine.

I really like her and can't wait to see your next piece :D

Nice colouring and tone so far, but either her eyes are too close together or her head is too wide. Check the distance from the edges of her eyes to the sides of her head...

Also - either her head is too wide or her neck is too thin. So far it doesn't look like the head and the neck are joined properly.

Still pretty good so far, tho'.

Yeah, looking good Aven :)
Her neck is a tad bit thin, maybe some more dramatic lighting? although thats a personal thing.
REally like the hair and there is a nice softness about her.
What brushes did you use? loaded pallete knife?

Thank you both for the help and comments :)

Jonothan - I will scale her face up a little to fill up her head a bit more. That will also help with her chin (which I think is too large at the moment). I will also thicken her right side of the neck, and psoibly drape some more hair over it. I will have to see what works.

Makk - I don't really want dramatic lighting with harsh shadows as it is meant to be a concept art comp. I am aiming to show the colours of her and her clothing. This means more simple studio lighting. Even soft light with one light from the front to show some shadows and highlights for realism sake. For the major piece I will try to have more dramitic lighting :) I am still just using the Loaded Pallete Knife. I don't know why, but I just really love that er... brush. I read this tute http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/lunatique/mood/mood1.asp and gave it a try. It just feels more comfortable than the other acrylic and oil brushes. I have only been using three different radius with it so far. 10,5 and 2.

I don't know how much I will get done over the weekend as I am working, but I will keep on posting updates for advice. Thank you again :)

Okay. Update for today. I have to admit that I was unable to get as much done as I wanted to :/ I am still trying to get used to painting creases and folds in clothing. It is just so much easier with line art :)

[img]http://home.netspeed.com.au/mlanham/td7/ariana_frontpainting_02.jpg[/img]

I'm currently working my way down her dress. Starting rough and adding in detail as it looks good. Her skin and dress are too dark at the moment, but they will be fixed up once I paint a wash of white over top to make her transparent dress.

Jonathan, I tried to make her face larger, but it just looked shit. I would rather go for what looks nice instead of what is physically correct (anyway, just look at her legs :P).

Looking good, cloth is something that I really, really, really struggle with, its my weakest area. You have done it quite well.
Maybe add some light decorations that you see on clothes, that sort of stiched design, usally flowers and stuff, gah! I cant explain it!! buts its only very faint, so you cant really see it unless you close up.
Have you tried adding in some cool/warm colours into her flesh tones?
Coming along nicely :)

wow u thought my pigman was freeky..eww she horrid..he he jut jokeing ,, her face needs more tone dosent match her neck,dosent have enuff depth.. I like what u'v fone with the proportions . i like the long neck look

looks pretty sweet, i designed a similar mech once (four legs, flat sphere-ish thing body)

offering some crit..... ok im assuming the mechs purpose is for fighting, where is its weapons?
also the legs would provide the driver with pretty much tunnel vision as they are

but thats just if you want to nit pick, really its awesome, has a frog look about it

Cool idea, couple of crits though

The legs, as they are, aren't practical. Sitting straight out like that, and only bending on the one axis, turning corners will be impossible. For it to work, look at bugs, see where the legs are placed on them. Generally, bugs have their legs more out the side.

Anyhow, nice job. Gets the idea across well :)

Nice. Dont have much to crit, maybe go over the some of the lines with pen so you can see it easier. Could just be the pic though.

Thanks for the feedback. I foolishly commenced on alterations before receiving comments about the legs. I will tackle these other details in my next round of sketches.

I was thinking recon/exploration rather than weapons platform, hence the friendly curved body shape and lack of weapons. I took on board MoonUnit's comment about driver visability and have moved the cockpit to a turret configuration.

The second sketch gives a different view (I find it's a good way to cross check how the forms fit together.) A bit of rendering to give some atmospherics too.

definitely not a machine of war in polished clothes [:)]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/258_quad-mech-3L.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/258_quad-mech-3aL.jpg[/img]

very nice, i like how its coming along, the other advantage of bringing your cockpit up there is your driver pretty much has a 180 degree view as it is (cause he cant turn his head 360 dont forget :P )

the legs might need to go on ball joints (following on from what bob said)

good theming for the hull, the metal panels and so on seem all apropriatly placed, now lets see some add ons, things like lights and i would say weaponry but you said that wasnt its purpose

Looks like it is about to jump. Very nicely done.

Just a note, your pictures should be 800x600 if you're uploading it onto your Sumea profile, otherwise the gallery will show them stretched to that size.. and I do appreciate your smaller file sizes (around 20k!), but the compression is affecting the image quality, so you could do with less compression [:)]..

Here is the next installment of my Quad-Mech. Legs have been modified to allow corner turning. Addition of a few details too, not too many as I wanted to keep the overall look sleek.

After a 10hr LAN session (Valhalla LANParty) I had a brief 'gun-lusting' moment and sketched a version with a cannon mounted upfront too.

I'm thinking that this project is about done. I am entertaining the idea of mocking up some box art (keeping with the game theme of this site.) I would do a 3d model but I don't 3d... if anyone has suggestions of where I could take this project let me know.

[img]http://home.iprimus.com.au/johnnewall/sumea/quad-mech-4L.jpg[/img]

not sure about where to take it but thats a nice polished drawing you have there! youve come heaps from the original concept.
if your serious abuot the gun id lower it so that it can actually swivel and not just fire where the mech is facing.

nice work and im glad to have helped you with it :D

You know, if you can get a small sample of Handel's Messiah and attach it to those angel dog pics, that would be classic.

I like the second one best.

Aww, they are so cute!

Very cute mate, I love them :)

lol nice work, now i want to see the shitzu as a little santa elf!! :D

Okay. I have to bite. The pig is kinda freaky, but this is just nightmare inducing :D

Good job on them though. The second is well made.

LOL good one JonathanKerr maybe next christmas.
There chihuahua's!! not stinking shitzu;'s Moonunit, but an elf is a good idear.
Sorry for freaking u out Aven.. just remember there 25cm high in realife and they carnt realy fly..

chihuahuas, shitzus, its all the same really.... ok its not, sorry my dogs a cross breed so distinguishing types isnt really my specialty :P

That is kinda scary looking. If that was the whole idea, then well done :D

He's going to be frendly.. so I moddled him kinda smileing, which is why he looks kinda freeky

He is kinda scary, I think its his eyes.
Looks good though, I really like his teeth!

Heres a pic to show u how I made the teeth was realy easy.. i just made a loft then converted to edit polly and extruded the edges blah blah u can see how i did it..[:)] if u carnt[8] I'll do a tute if u want
[img]http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~pigsnogl/images/howteeth.jpg[/img]

quick texture test and rounded the top of his head [img]http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~pigsnogl/images/3d2.jpg[/img]

Well, I dont do 3d so I dont understand much of it, but thanks anyway :)
I like the texture you have given the skin, but add some colour varition might improve it a bit.
Keep it up :)

nice texture, i think the reason for his "creepyness" might be showing too much mouth and teeth, as awesome as you moddled them id be interested to see him with his mouth closed or atleast not with so much gum showing, just to see if it detracts from the creepyness factor

I think what is freaky is that the body is quite cutesy cartoony but the facial features are eerily human. The facial features are quite realistic. Maybe you should try and make them more cartoony - perhaps less teeth and bigger eyes and a smaller nose.

quote:Originally posted by JonathanKerr

I think what is freaky is that the body is quite cutesy cartoony but the facial features are eerily human. The facial features are quite realistic. Maybe you should try and make them more cartoony - perhaps less teeth and bigger eyes and a smaller nose.

Actually I think it's the six nipples [:p]. I like the model but it is creepy.

Give him a top hat and a tailed tuxedo and he'll be the next Japanese cutie craze!

Sweet. Mahjong mixed with Columns. Any chance of PC port? :P Nice Shots

Heh. I can't tell by looking at theese screens what is going on, but it does look very cool.

Nice work.
cheers

Thanks for the comments. Aven's right about the game, its kind of Tetris/Columns playing with Mahjong rules. Mahjong players may find it more fun to play as they can get higher scores by using their Mahjong skills [;)]

As we are a very small team, 1 artist + 1 programmer (myself), we are focusing on J2ME development only. Porting to other platforms may be done at a later stage when we have more J2ME titles done.

wow japanese crazynes.... i like :P

nice work, very colourfull and detailed for your limitations

Thats great, love the choice of colours. Speaking of, whats the limit on the amount of colours you can use?

My artist friend did a great job with the graphics. If I didn't remember it wrongly, the actual Series 60 hardware supports 12bit colours, but as we are using PNG files, the limitation is 8bit, hence 256 colours. And in order to reduce file size, our graphics in fact use even fewer colours. The graphics is about 48K in total and our entire package (.JAR) is about 87K.

Very cool. I'm nearly finished a quick shareware game myself thats a cross between Poker and Tetris (but there's a bit more to it than that). No, it's not called 'Poktris' but it is called Poker Panic. Not as pretty as your game tho'.

HAHA, i htink i have that game in my carboard somewhere

Wow. They are some fantastic models.

Furthering our education is nearly always a good idea. You seem to know quite a bit already, but some courses may still have something to teach you.

Have a look at all the educational institutions available (there is a list in the Education section of this forum), and see if there is anything that interests you.

Too old? Nah. I went to the AIE with people who were passing their mid 40s. If you love doing it, then who gives a crap how old you are. There is no expirery date :)

Thanks for the kind words Aven, what course's would you reccomend to help get my foot in the door making 3d models for someone?

Well. If you are after Educational Institutions Have a look at these two links.

The Education/Industry Forum
http://sumea.com.au/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=17

A list of Educational Institutions
http://sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=652

I went to the AIE and had a blast. There are many others here at Sumea that also went there. They are based in Canberra though. Not NSW.

If you are after a job, well you are off to a great start. What you are doing now is fantastic. High quality work that is presented in a great manner. My guess is that you would be after a gaming job where you can make car games? If so then when you have a portfolio to the level of your liking, send it in to games developers that mainly create racing games. I am not the largest fan of racing games (I do like some though - PGR for example), so I can't really help with Australian developers that make those games. I'm sure that if you did a search on here for 'racing' then something would turn up. Otherwise there are other people here who would know more about racing games :)

Good luck with whatever you decide to do :)

quote:Originally posted by Aven

Well. If you are after Educational Institutions Have a look at these two links.

The Education/Industry Forum
http://sumea.com.au/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=17

A list of Educational Institutions
http://sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=652

I went to the AIE and had a blast. There are many others here at Sumea that also went there. They are based in Canberra though. Not NSW.

If you are after a job, well you are off to a great start. What you are doing now is fantastic. High quality work that is presented in a great manner. My guess is that you would be after a gaming job where you can make car games? If so then when you have a portfolio to the level of your liking, send it in to games developers that mainly create racing games. I am not the largest fan of racing games (I do like some though - PGR for example), so I can't really help with Australian developers that make those games. I'm sure that if you did a search on here for 'racing' then something would turn up. Otherwise there are other people here who would know more about racing games :)

Good luck with whatever you decide to do :)

Thankyou very much for your comments, finding an institution is not so much of a problem, its finding the relevant course that would give me the best chance at getting my foot in the door of creating gaming models. I guess any course/s are better than none :)

yes i would love to be able to create cars and tracks for gaming use, it would be a dream come true. However i am passionate about 3d modelling in general so id by happy to model anything for a living :)
once again thank you for your time
regards
Danny

[img]http://users.bigpond.com/dgelston/images/tut2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://users.bigpond.com/dgelston/images/sbrfe.jpg[/img]

The new pic is quite nice, but there is just a little problem with it. As you haven't posted the specs for it, I may be completely wrong. If so I am sorry :)

If you are interested at getting into gaming, you may want to drop your specs just a little. It looks like you are pushing quite a few polys and using quite high/advanced textures/shaders.

Seeing as though it is a closeup of an engine that could be used in a menu system, you could get away with 5000 tris quite nicely. How many is it at the moment? Also, try not to use Brazil's(?) raytracing for gaming reflections. It is still too advanced for gaming engines. Stick to default Max raytracing with no ray bounce, falloff/fresnell, or autenuation on the rays. Otherwise just use an environmental map. Also try to fit all of your textures onto a few 1024^2 sheets.

Other than that it is quite nice :)

quote:Originally posted by Aven

The new pic is quite nice, but there is just a little problem with it. As you haven't posted the specs for it, I may be completely wrong. If so I am sorry :)
If you are interested at getting into gaming, you may want to drop your specs just a little. It looks like you are pushing quite a few polys and using quite high/advanced textures/shaders.
Seeing as though it is a closeup of an engine that could be used in a menu system, you could get away with 5000 tris quite nicely. How many is it at the moment? Also, try not to use Brazil's(?) raytracing for gaming reflections. It is still too advanced for gaming engines. Stick to default Max raytracing with no ray bounce, falloff/fresnell, or autenuation on the rays. Otherwise just use an environmental map. Also try to fit all of your textures onto a few 1024^2 sheets.

Other than that it is quite nice :)

Thanks for the tips i really appreciate your time, and no need to apoligise :)

For actual gaming (driving the vehicle!) my cars are within 10000 triangles in total and most of those would never be rendered at any one time depending on the view the player is using and obviously the detail the machine can handle. Apparently this is well within the realms of this particular simulator! I have seen renders from the developers that would have to pushing 30-50k faces! The developers claim they can run these models at a decent frame rate, until i witness this for my own eyes i am some what sceptical.

As for materials, my gaming models dont really contain much more than 5 megs of total uncompressed memory ie: 512x512 and 1024x1024 .dds textures being used. Until this simulator is released i wont know what they will build into the rendering engine, i imagine it will be like every other game ive reversed engineered and they will use standard materials. Any reflections and the like will be a global coding thing, well thats what ive heard anyway :)

As for these renders here, you are correct, the first 3 are using brazil (with the sky light)and last one is using max raytracing with a basic 3 light setup. They were my first attempts at brazil and at the end of the day i may use the brazil renderer to make some textures for the car but besides that it has no use for what i do, as with max raytracing :) The comparison picture of the track is in fact in a game, this particular track uses approx 100k faces in total (it is over 6klms long)and plays at 30-50fps in an old gaming engine with a bad lod system.
Once again it is alledged that the new simulator can handle those figures for a track very easily.

It would be my opinion that the renders the developers are showing and alledging can be run in game would in actual fact be used in a garage scene where you can dismantle the cars and repair them, and not be used for the actual gaming (a some what scaled down version would be used the driving). The developers have modelled the internals of the engines down to every last nut, bolt, washer, springs, pistons etc etc in fact they have modelled complete cars leaving NOTHING unmodelled!! This would suggest to me that some where along the line such detailed models will be used, at what level i dont know (probably some canned video intro), but they are being used.
I have thrown 50k+ faces at this car, it is now completely modelled except for the engine and gear box internals, i guess they will contain a healthy budget as well lol I doubt i will drive this particular mesh, but im confident it will be able to be used in a workshop scenario (no advanced physics going on in a workshop!).
I am very much an amature, but im all ears and willing to learn. Im excited about the next generation of gaming and what it may offer to people like me :)

I hope this explains things a little clearer. :)
regards
Danny
ps, it is very quite around here, is that because its holiday time?

You got some really good modelling skills there Danny.
I dunno if you need to go to uni or not, just get a portfolio out there and see what happens, you seem to have a good skills at high poly stuff so you never know :)

Hey Danny, fancy seeing you here :) ...you already know me from another forum (RL)

Great work as usual Danny and don't dispair, you're never too old to get into the game industry... I'm living proof ;)
I was a little older than you when I began, also married with 3 kid's. I took a huge gamble, sold my established signwriting business and just went for it and fortunately it eventually payed off.
We had some very difficult years at first... moved the family from Newcastle down to Melbourne for a job opening and had to survive on relatively low game artist wages for a few years, but we hung in there and now have a successful business of our own... which I'm sure you'll find it interesting (from one car nut to another) ;)

www.virtual-mechanix.com

cheers,

Chris

quote:Originally posted by Red 5

Hey Danny, fancy seeing you here :) ...you already know me from another forum (RL)

Great work as usual Danny and don't dispair, you're never too old to get into the game industry... I'm living proof ;)
I was a little older than you when I began, also married with 3 kid's. I took a huge gamble, sold my established signwriting business and just went for it and fortunately it eventually payed off.
We had some very difficult years at first... moved the family from Newcastle down to Melbourne for a job opening and had to survive on relatively low game artist wages for a few years, but we hung in there and now have a successful business of our own... which I'm sure you'll find it interesting (from one car nut to another) ;)

www.virtual-mechanix.com

cheers,

Chris

LOL Thanks Chris
You are everywhere in cyberspace! I checked out your website, very nice :) Feel free to contact me if you ever get snowed under......im still communicating with the last lead you gave me :)
regards
Danny

LOL, yeah we seem to run into each other quite often, same interests I suppose :)
Thanks for the website compliment, and yes, I will contact you if I have too much on my plate.

Really good for your first hi poly character Bob.

There are only a few things right up that I can see.

. No defenition at the back of his knees at all.
. A bit too much of a sag/crease above his arse. Just soften it up a little.
. Feet are a little flat and oddly shaped. He has too much af an arch.
. He looks a little top heavy (and not in a Paul Steed kinda way :D). Your feet are the same length as your wrist to your elbow. Just lengthen and thicken his lower half a little.

Otherwise he looks very cool. Now make him some damn clothes... or at least give him some beer.

Looking good, his head looks a little odd in shape. It could be the jaw/cheekbone area, also maybe a fat roll or two at the back of his neck might help.

Nice. It would be really cool if you kept on going with her and added in more detail. The pose is perfect and it really does look like her. The only thing that I can see wrong, is that she is meant to be a very curvey woman. Her hips could be a little wider. Other than that it is really well done for an hours work.

heh heh awesome!
does he have any natural armour plates (like a carapace) or is that all supposed to be an armour suit of sorts, its hard to tell when its monochromatic :P
good job

ooooh light-tacular!

Aw, all I am getting is a little red cross :( I think that your server may just be having some probs at the moment. You head model/texture is loading slowly as well :( I'll scheck back later, it sounds very interesting.

I'm just using http://www.uploadit.org - it's bugged sometimes, but hey, free image hosting who gives a crap [;)]

Sweet, looks like those Feng DVDs have done their work, good stuff. Reminds me a bit of an old shadowrun cover.

Great Stuff

Pantmonger

Your use of colours and lighting really gives this a great feel.
Where is that figure thats casting a shadow? REally like the green city scape in there, very cool.
Looks like those Feng DVD are paying off?

There is a figure there. It is just really small and blends in with the green background.

Very nice lighting and composition.

Thanks guys, yeah Fengs the man.

Pants: The full concept when finished will have a guys hacking the atm while another keeps guard behind the pillar looking down the alley.
Shadow Run was cool, never played it table top but I read a few books and played the computer game.

Makk: the guy casting the shadow is in there, hes just a silhoutte though.

Aven: Glad you like the composition, still think its a bit boring but with the other figures it should have more focus etc.

BTW those white lights in the distance are police sentry drones.

nice work dean [:)] i like the lighting [:)]

looks awesome, i love this style of work (as in the medium and method used)

ahhh scary!! quick these someone comming .. becarfull not to take away from the bacgound figure when u add the guys in the forground.. luv it so far

Hey, i think i have seen that pic on a website before.

Doubt that, I only did it last year and posted it hear. :)
Its not that original an idea but that wasn't the point, it was to set a mood for a mod.

Nice man, its all about atmosphere, plus I loved shadowrun, I too never played the table top game, but loved the genisis game and read the books. When it comes to sci fi I don't think you can go past the glowing green screen, damn these new computer and the blue glow, just doesn't have the same feel!!

Hey Matias, say that glowing green comp screens are cool after you have used a 286 for many a year that had a monochrome monitor (Black bg with Green pixels). It really starts to piss you off after a while :)

aaah, point taken, but still, its atmosphere, say with me, at-mo-sphere!

Aria..... ah. [:)]

Very nice job.

Nice, I love the hair.
How are you liking Painter 8?

quote:Originally posted by Malus

Aria..... ah. [:)]

erm....?? Am I missing something?

There are people over at conceptart citing it to pieces, so that is really helping me out :)

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15476

I will start up on another portrait tonight. I can really use the practice. The palette knife is great for doing hair, but it does have a little problem (you can probably already guess it Makk). Since it is a long, thin shape, it changes the application of the paint depending on what angle you move the.. er... brush. Hence why the highlight of hair near her eye is really crisp and sharp, and the others are more soft and blurry. I will keep on trying though. I just have to wade through all my pics to find a good reference photo ;)

Painter8 rocks. I am really glad that I bought it now.

Thank you both for the kind words.

I meant she a beautiful women...don't know why that was hard to follow. [:P]

As for critiques well, the cheeks are missing alot of red (the blush line).
Her eyes need more silver on the upper lid, her nose seems to blend into the face too much, add more highlights to the side of it under the eye and just pull out some depth with some more defined shadows on her jaw, forehead, bridge of nose and chin.

Shes looking really good, alot like the model, keep it up man.

I thought that you may have seen some random photos of her on a porn site and not known who she was :p All good now though :D

Thanks for the crits, I really am enjoying them. I want to become as good as pos for this comp against Ben. You hear me Camper... your going down :shaking fist: :p Honestly, I am just enjoying the fact that this dual has gottin me back into drawing again something fierce. I am nearly always sketching ideas down on my lunch breaks at work. The bad part is that I am not really thouching any 3D stuff at the moment...

I will hopefully have another painting up in a few days :)

I like it :) Nice piece of work!

I agree with the nose blending in and theres a lack of cheekbone structure. Also (coming from a female)the eyeshadow doesnt blend that well the picture looks like it goes from a charcoal to a silver (but not sure could be wrong) and the overemphasis of the crease on the eyelid.

You did a good job - I'd take her home!

Thanks Chezza (sorry I can't help myself :P), it is always good to get a womans perspective on a pic of a woman. I have always tried to draw women to make women say 'wow. she is hot'. I have had some luck. It just didn't help going to a catholic school drawing this type of stuff :D

I think that I could have put a bit more effort into her eye lid full stop. Looking at it now, I can see that i should have smudged her mascara a lot more, as that is what actually is making the crease on her eye lid so prominent. I have learnt a lot and will make sure that my next effort is even better.

And don't worry, I would like to take her home too. Thank goodness that my girlfriend went overseas today and she wont read this for a month :p

quote:Originally posted by Aven

I want to become as good as pos for this comp against Ben. You hear me Camper... your going down :shaking fist: :p Honestly, I am just enjoying the fact that this dual has gottin me back into drawing again something fierce. I am nearly always sketching ideas down on my lunch breaks at work. The bad part is that I am not really thouching any 3D stuff at the moment...

I will hopefully have another painting up in a few days :)

I hear you, you'll need all the practice you can get:p. J/K. I'm hoping it'll be a close match, I've been working my butt off so even if I lose it will still be worth it.

Well, your diving into the deep end without knowing how to swim.
You can only learn to walk by crawling first.
Would you expect to figure out a complex mathical problem, without knowing first the formula?
Ok, ok, enough stupid cliches!
I would recommend that you start with some tutorials first, then using what you have learnt, go at it on your own. www.3dtotal.com have some good ones, like the joan of arc one....

nice start, im on the same level as you man (see thread entitled work in progress) so i wont crit but just remember, practice makes lemon smoothys!!!.... and uhh better work to...... wonder what a lemon smoothy would taste like....

Thanx for feed back guys. But i was wondering how to make the limbs i've tried to create the arms by the same method (Start with square, cut,bevel,extrude etc) but it just doesn't seem to work.

id do cylinders if i were you, there allready rounded and its looked better for me when ive had one or two goes

How many segments and stuff do i use.

However many you need/want. Start off with fewer and and you can always ad in more edge loops later. It is always easier to add in detail than what it is to remove it.

Just give it a few tries. It doesn't matter if they all look like crap, no one even has to see them. At this stage it is more important to try to learn how to do things rather than get too rapped up in how the final product will look. Experiment and just keep on trying :)

Are you starting with sketches first? Do some sketches beforehand so you know what you're aiming for. You can then set yourself a poly count maybe around 3000. Even then, if you go over the count, you might start to see bits where you could cut down. I know I often tend to waste polys in the arms.

But if you're just beginning, don't worry too much about wasting polygons - just try and make it look right.

I agree and disagree with the replies here. :)

I recommend you make a very low poly man.. About 800 polies at most..

Why so low?

Muscles and other details are very nice, but it's best to concentrate on the form - proportions and shape of the model.
Some people would say I'm silly forcing you to consider poly limits when you're starting out, but I believe it's the best way to learn to model characters.

For my first character, I tried to go crazy with detail, your picture reminded me alot of it. I think after a couple of days of really being stuck, and having this mesh that had far too many polies for me to keep track of, I ended up deleting, and starting it over.

Remember.. When you're taking baby steps, keep it simple.. It's been said many times by the other replyers - but it's very true.. My replacement characters' torso was about 30 polies - little more than a segmented box shaped to work. Just enough to deform well when animated.

Just finish that first boxy character - get the proportions right, then, when you're more confident, you can slowly up the level of detail..

I would also like to point out that I had been using max for about 4 months before we (my class) even attempted to make a character. Even then, with our familiarity of the program, results were far from perfect.

good point - maybe make guns and shit for a while. make houses and whatever, then move onto characters once youve got he hang of the modelling tools.

I disagree with making basic things first, especially guns and cars, god Ive never seen someone go from a gun modeller to a character modeller.
While its a good idea to concentrate on form and deformation and not little details it doesn't really help you get better at modelling with various counts, more just optimising.

I'd say go for a 2500 - 3000 poly model and then build that same model as say a 500 and a 1500 version, these are all skills you will need in the industry.
Then unwrap and texture all 3, animate them if you can this will help you learn where to put the polys for deformation.

The problem with concentrating on one style is that alot of people seem to scared to break into new areas of modelling once they become comfortable with one and if you can only model 500 poly characters it limits your potential employability.

Just for reference if I have to build a 2500 - 3000 poly model and I have an actual model sheet I generally start with a 10-12 sided cylinder with 8-10 height segments for torsos and a 6-8 sided cylinder with 8-10 height segments for arms and legs.

Cut the torso cylinder in half if its a symetrical model and mirror and instance of it, when you work on one side the other will update accordingly.

Use the underlying model sheet as a guide for where to place the major shapes for the silhouette and just push and pull vertices until it starts taking shape.

As for heads well they are different everytime for me, generall just start with one plane and edge extrude it int othe right shape, more sculpting than modelling I guess.

A really old way of modelling but its still my favourite and the fastest for me.
Oh and use edit poly not edit mesh, its has much better tools, especially ring, loop and edge/face constraint.

Hope that helps Bullet. [:)]

love it!

i like the second character especially, my only gripes is with the first ones helmet looking a bit to much like a ned kelly thing. i know its not a dented upturned bucket but its structure seems to much like a can shape with extra decoration....

but thats a really small detail compared to all the neat modelling youve done, nice work! (im jealous, i cant do muscles...)

Excellent :)

That is some sweet stuff, my favourite is definately the second one. but just one question, how does the second guy see through his mask.

bullet21 - actually second guy is some kind of psychic warrior. He doesn't need to see what happaning around him he just feels it [:)]

MoonUnit - thanks for comment, that is very interesting point, I'll think about that.

thats crazy, cool though :P
to me it looks like some sort of fat monster with a huge mouth... and the kelp like stuff hanging from it is perhaps teeth and that branch down the bottom is like a arm hangiing out of the bath..... or perhaps thats just my crazy imagination

Wow, i REALLY like where this is heading... great work.

This may be too premature, but I'd be careful to not create too uniform a muscle structure. If all the notches (wrong word im sure) in the wood are equally spaced (too uniform), he starts to look like he's made of some other substance (steel cables?). Or maybe its just me. Or maybe thats what you want.

I'm having a hard time expressing myself, so ill just say "COOL!"

cheers

damn ironikart, you allways come up with the best stuff, nice work

This is coming alnng nicely, what smeg says is true but im sure it will come out looking great. One thing I would be interested to know it what exactly it is. Is it flesh made wood, or a being with no internal organs, an animated tree being. Because either of those could lend to come very different textureing additions.

awwww, he looks happy ^_^

icky white to gray highlights are bad - bring their luminance down a few notches

I'm going to be interested in how you handle some parts - wondering if there'll be any strategically placed knots in the wood [;)]

Howdy, nice work.

It has to be image 5. He looks so Bond, and the subtleties are really cool.

cheers

why dont u just put them all up???

image 5 looks like an agent from the matrix to me

Thanks for that. I can put them all up if you think that they all look good. I just wanted to know which one should be put up first. It seems that the first image will 'appear on the front and sections page', so I wanted it to be the most eye catching out of my images.

So are most in favour of image 5?

id go with Image 5 for your best aswell, reminds me of bond aswell

i also like image 3 though, looks like a page out of a childrens book like jack and the beanstalk, very nice work

Image 4 (female posed with weapon) is definitely the most striking in terms of complimenting colours and lighting, and looks to be the one which could be read easily from a distance (which is very relevant for the thumbs). I'd suggest improving her faces silhouette around the mouth area on the right though (check some ref).

You're right J.I. Styles. To be honest I wasn't really happy with the lady's proportions in image 4. I concentrated too much on the colouring.

Maybe I should start my display with this one -

[img]http://www.users.bigpond.com/toonerfish/Peb_Rain.jpg[/img]

I just finished it today.

i dont think it really matters greatly what image you use...

I agree - Just pick one. No ones going to judge you on one pic -- just put 'em all up. Considering that each piece you work on will improve your skills and probably be better than your last, this conversation will become redundant. I look at the early stuff that I posted and it's miles behind what I'm capable of now.

If you are still stumped, go with the bug detective.

If you want some constructive criticism read on: I like your pics, but I think that you need to work on the feet a little more. Most of the characters look like they're standing on the front (or balls) of their feet and it doesn't quite look right. This is probably my pet peeve, how someone has drawn feet and shoes is one of the first things (along with proportion) that I look for in a picture.

I think your Bug Detective is a marked improvement over the others although I think some detail on the wings wouldn't have gone amiss. You could make them quite transparent and cell-like like flies. I like the lighting and rain in the BD pic. I also find the character more unique than the others. Go with that one for your first pic, I say.

thats seriously good man, the faces look really good with the method youve used

constructive crit... hmmm well i think perhaps they might be being let down by the backgrounds, there themed right with the face but seem a little plain.... thats just my thoughts if _anything_ had to be worked on.

Excellent start there Styles :D
I really like the subtle texturing in the face. The mouth and ears look a little funky, but hey it is a WIP like you said. What size are the texture sheets?
REally cool work

wow thats seriously good!! that must have taken a long time

yeah is suppose you could go back and give the eyes another shot, as they are atm they look sort of flat, but really they aint bad at all

Ah. He needs a bigger throat....

:D

Looking pretty good so far. Especially the texturing.

I wont post any crits yet, as you said he is only half way done.

Would definitely love to see him with ff style hair :)

Yeah looks great so far, looks better on the blue side.

Can you show us the wireframe?

Me still likes.

Would be cool to see an alternate-junky version of the skin. I think some mucus, zits and other facial inconsitencies would be good to see from you.

Thats the one thing that bugs me about your stuff (apart from it being so damn good.. you damn bastard!!!) is that for the most part the skin surface is fairly consistent, clean, and well, always symmetrical..
Not necessarily a bad thing(in most cases a good thing), I'm making it sound much worse than it is.

I'd like to see you push some more variations into it :D. A character with some kind of pox or plague would be pretty schnazzy.

What do i mean.. I don't know.. It's 3:30am and I just finished work... arses made me work 12 hours without a break..... :( If you take offense to anything I've said I'm sorry.. I mean it in a nice way though :P

Anyhow, I still like it as is, but it's very Joel.. Albeit higher quality Joel.

Make something that will make me say

'What the crap, Joel made that!! - *runs to hump joels leg*'

Awesome work, only thing i would say is his eyes seemed a little closed, but he is probably squinting a little, and the tip of his noise is to flat in the side view's. I have no crits on the texturing, but it would look cool in my opinion if his face had a few more wrinkles or "age" stubble etc..., it looks a little smooth like he has make up on, but as you said only 40% done and its what your probably wanting to show. Im new to 3d so I cant really give you a good crit anyway as im still in-experienced. I hope to achieve this level of ability one day. Excellent work.

I've done a few more hours somewhere along the line, mostly some major eye surgery, so I'll be updating as soon as I remember to when I'm at home [;)]

took a bit of a break from it, but did a little more recently

[img]http://server6.uploadit.org/files/jistyles-head_pres2.jpg[/img]

edit: his eyes aren't static anymore, completely animatable, and he's also got an interior to his mouth with an animatable jaw and a few different basic phonemes.

Looking good :)
His ear is painted too far back I think, there is a pretty big gap between the ear (model geomatry) and the start of the ear (texture).
Maybe add some more red into the nose, its a bit hard to tell with the lighting on that shot.
His eyebrows are a little to groomed for my liking, and if they arent, making them slightly assymetrical is a good idea too.
Its a personal prefrence but maybe add some more stubble to his jawline. Since his eyes have those crowfeet wrinkles (or whatever you call them) fairly defined, why not add a wrinkle under his eye area as well.

Anyway, those were just some small suggestions. It looks really good Styles :)

u can upload pics on sumea launchpad so u can show them in the forum...

yeah i know but im really just starting out and im in year 10. Im not really anywhere near looking for a job in "in the biz" as it were and it seems thats kind of the purpose of the gallerys on the main site. I dont want to use it like a deviantart type of thing when thats not its purpose

but any comments?

Well Im not much of a 3d artist, so I cant really give any advice in that area.
The model looks really disproportionate, granted you are going for cartoony, but it looks strange. And I dont know what that small thing in front of his stomach is either, sorry.
Keep working at it :)

You are doing well for a year 10 self taught artist. It isn't easy stuff to do, and you are giving yourself a great advantage for later on.

Crits on the model. It is a work in progress so I wont say too much. As Makk said, he is really disproportinate. How muscley are you trying to make him (slightly or overly)? Try to find some really good reference photos of bodybuilders for help. The first time I made a really muscley guy, I bought a fitness mag that I still have. I felt like a tool buying it, but am really glad that I did.

The biggest problem that is there, is that you appear to be trying to model too much too quickly. Get the basic shade and volume first. He looks too flat. Get rid of the abs at the front and just block in shape. You can then later go in and add in the abs in a more natural way.

I find that looking at others wires was the most benificial way of learning. That way you can see how various parts of the body should join. Have a look at this site, http://www.metagons.com/wiredepot01.htm Just keep in mind that these models have been made to be smoothed. Also have a look at other Sumean's work both in the Exihibition area and the Challenge area. There are some fantastic models there for wire reference.

On the positive side, it is a lot better that what I was making for my first characters :) Just keep on practicing.

Looks kinda like Ben Mathis's tute, the armoured guy with huge forearms. It's a good tutorial, but I'd suggest doing plain old nudes first, or even going lower in count say 1500 poly. I agree with Aven, it depends on your workflow, but I think it's better to rough out the whole character first before going in and detailed specific muscles etc.

Keep it up, I wish I started 3d in yr 10 :D

Hey most ISPs give you about 5 or 10 meg for a web page, if you use one find out if you can ftp your files up!

that tut by Ben Mathis is one of the sources im using to teach my how to make this, thanks for the help guys, ill be working on it again soon (damn rest of life interfeering :P )

im not attempting to break any barriers with this peice. Its really just a project so i have something to apply what ive learnt to, and a reason to look up more things. Im just picking up bits and peices from tutorials and putting them together to make a my first complete project. Yup my first, so its not going to be spectacular :P

thanks again for feedback

Im really impressed that a grade 10 student is so into what your doing, and what you post in the forums is more mature then most grade 10 students could ever manage. Im glad you have found what you really like doing, when i was in grade 10 I didnt have any clue at what I wanted to be, and although I was drawing at that time, i had no idea about 3d animation, where to begin etc..

3 words of advice; Practice, Patience, and Persistence, in 3 years time if you work really hard, you will be rocking peoples socks off with your art, Its all about those 3 little words, stick to them. Also dont neglect your schoolng it will get you into further education after highschool. (Hope I dont sound to much like a parent lol).

Great effort MoonUnit, keep up the effort. I wish I had started that young. Im only just starting 3d myself so hope to get something out after I teach myself some more 3d.

dw im not letting it run over school, i had to stop for a bit (after making a basic character in the style of bender from futurama entirely out of basic geometric shapes :P) for exams, now its the holidays so im back into it.

thanks for your feedback, i am practicing all that i can, its extremely hard when you dont have someone to ask questions to, ocaisionaly i bug anthony (ironikart) but otherwise i suppose i only got you guys.