New WIP, please feel free to add comments

[Lead Balloon]

Hello all, here is my new WIP. Its a bird / man / lizard hybrid. Please let me know what you think.

Chimera01.jpg

Chimera02.jpg

Chimera03.jpg

Chimera04.jpg

Chimera05.jpg

Chimera06.jpg

Im unsure as to whether to keep the fins and the webbing on the hand (I know the webbing especially still needs a lot of work) and I would appreciate your thoughts on this. The modelling has been a combination of Maya and ZBrush. I plan on developing this piece as much as I can over the next couple of weeks. Cheers in advance all, I hope you like it a little.

[Frenchy Pilou]

Have happy Zbrushing! :cool:

[Lead Balloon]

Cheers Frenchy

[Lead Balloon]

Quick question.

I know that this is a ZBrush forum, but does anyone know how to render wireframe in Maya? Ive not been able to figure it out and I'd like to put some of my wireframes in my next updates.

Cheers

[Lead Balloon]

Heres an update of the boots, remodelled in maya and ready to be put back into ZBrush for detailing. Straps, buckles, and bolts yet to be modelled. Any feedback would be nice. Cheers.

boot01.jpg

boot02.jpg

boot03.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Heres my last update of the night. Ive got the bolts modelled and in place, now I have to model the basic straps and buckles before detailin it all in ZB. Itd be nice to get a response of some kind...

boot04.jpg

boot05.jpg

[womball]

I think the boots look way to boxy to fit his feet and don't quite look like boots yet. Your focusing on detail rather than structure. The beak is too wide, the fingers are too wide and lack form, the muscles are lumpy and undefined. You should work on forcing some opposing curves on the muscles. Avoid places curves directly away from each other like on the arm, which is resulting in a michelen man like arm. The pants are going to need some wrinkles at least in the parts that move.

[Lead Balloon]

Cheers womball. I agree entirely with what your saying, im not too chuffed at all with the topology on the body, and I want to restructure it. However, Im having difficulty rendering out the wires in maya, so I havent been able to post them for critique / urgently needed advice :) . The trousers were a very quickly made placeholder, as I still havent quite figured out what this characters gonna wear yet. the arms have been bugging me the most about the character at the moment, and I was planning on waiting till I had decided on what kind of trousers it would wear before doing a detailed sculpt on the visible torso. I wanted to make a pair of big chunky boots, but I agree that they look a bit odd on the character at the moment, this models been a bit of a pain to get right, but Im sure I'll get there in the end lol. I'm gonna tweak the overall shape of the boot tomorrow, though the detailing will remain similar in the end. Id like it if his foot actually fit in it.

[Lead Balloon]

Quick post, ive been experimenting with the overall shape of the boot, please ignore the overall detail, and let me know if the shape itself is looking more natural, as I can then work towards fixing the more detailed model tomorrow. Any advice would be much appreciated. P.S. womball, thank you again, I would appreciate your input on how the shape is now looking. Definitely ignore the treads on the bottom, they are being deleted first thing tomorrow morning, cos I hate them ;) .

Cheers

edited boot shape01.jpg

edited boot shape02.jpg

edited boot shape03.jpg

[womball]

Its improving but still very cartoony like for this character. You might want to look at some pictures of timberlakes for reference or construction boots. Boots are designed to fit the foot, so if your character has human feet, he's going to need some boots that won't fall off his feet whenever he walks. I would like to see the wires. Although what I was referring to was the actual muscles you have there, which you probably could fix without changing topology.

[Lead Balloon]

Thank you again Womball. I am a bit more awake now, and I will be reposting a (hopefully) better boot in an hour or so. I will post the wires as soon as I can figure out how to render them out from maya. The torso will be sculpted once Ive removed the fins from the back of its arms. I'd been remodelling the boot directly from my zbrush concept boot, and you are right about the boot not fitting the model.... ah, the joys of getting carried away playing around in zbrush while forgetting about the overall whole...

[womball]

prtscn button on the keyboard in maya of the screens with wires, and paste in MS Paint. Than save the file as a jpg. :D

[Lead Balloon]

Hahahaha, cheers Womball, I never thought of that :D .


Heres the new boot, I hope you think the boots lookin a bit better! I just tried print screen, but for some reason its not working. My pcs been acting up, so Ill post the wires as soon as I get it fixed.

newboot01.jpg

newboot02.jpg

newboot03.jpg

newboot04.jpg

newboot05.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Heres a wire of the arm....

armWires.JPG

[Lead Balloon]

Here are some images of the low res trousers as they are at the moment. I would really appreciate any advice anyone could give me about getting the trousers right. I will be sculpting the majority of the detail in ZBrush once I have all the base meshes done. I have still to add belt holders, and I think I will add pockets when I make the normal map instead of building them on the low res mesh. Any guidance on this model would be greatly appreciated, as I want to make this character my best work yet. Cheers all!

trousers01.jpg

trousers02.jpg

trousers03.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Ive started sculpting the torso. Only worked on the torso, neck and shoulders. I know that there is still a long, long way to go. Could you please take a look at this and give me some feedback to help me improve it. Cheers.

TorsoSculpt01.jpg


TorsoSculpt02.jpg

TorsoSculpt03.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Last post from me tonight, as its almost 5am and Im knackered. Heres more images of the sculpt in progress, and I could really do with some advice on the hands and forearms. Anyone awake out there?

TorsoSculpt04.jpg

TorsoSculpt05.jpg

[womball]

Front is coming in nicely, back is lumpy. The fingers could be segmented into 3 parts per finger. They don't look like they would work as it is. Keep at it! I think he's going to turn out great. Just keep up with the references for the muscles you don't know.

[industripop]

lead, if i have any crits i'd have to say, DRAW THIS GUY OUT ON PAPER! you obviously have a grasp on anatomy and visualization, so get it down on paper and follow your own map on this guy. he is after all yours...

did you make boots for this guy, or did you just make a nice pair of boots? nothing is precious. save em for later. the hands are great, by the way.

[Lead Balloon]

Cheers guys. Industripop, I appreciate your comments. I know I really should have pre-planned this character on paper, but I wanted to use this time to push my freehand modelling skills as well as my anatomy knowledge. Stupid, yes, but its how I'm gonna be tackling it. This is also why the costume he's getting might seem a bit odd, I think he's becoming some sort of soldier / security guard. It might be a bit odd as hes got a bird head and webbed hands, but I'm sure web-handed-bird-men need soldiers etc too. If Im not keen on the overall look when the clothes are completed, I might turn his bottom half into a robot or a skateboard or something. I'm just in one of those moods :D .

Cheers again Womball, the hands are doing my head in but I'm sure I'll get them right in the end. I agree with you about the back, I've just been tryin to block in where all the muscles are at the moment. I will keep posting work for you to tear apart as I go, I'm determined to get this one right. Good luck with your thesis by the way, I'm sure you will do great.

[aceala]

would really like to see some definition in the beak, less round and more angular with a sharp look to all of it.

[Lead Balloon]

Yeah, I am looking forward to working on the head. Still not got round to it yet though. I'll be putting an update on later today.

[Lead Balloon]

Heres the hands at the moment. Im trying to make the fingers more finger like and less suasage like. Any info on how to improve on how they are now would be great!


Hand01.jpg

[Animatect]

Hi, here is a few quick observations of the back side, study the flow of the muscles under the skin, I hope you find it usefull.
also check the proportions in relation to the head.
oserv2.jpg

[Animatect]

favorcitoori.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Animatect, thank you very very much, I will start restructuring the back in a minute. I knew there was something wrong with the shoulder, but I couldn't figure out what it was.


Cheers again!

[lildragon]

Invest in these http://www.vilppustore.com/anatdvd.htm or if you're on a budget http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Artist-Sarah-Simblet/dp/078948045X

You can't get much better than Vilppu for structure.

Cheers and good luck

~t

[Lead Balloon]

Cheers LilDragon. I am using the anatomy for the artist book just now, its really good. Thanks for the other link, I'd never heard of the vilppu stuff before. I may get some of them when I have some money :cry: .

[Lead Balloon]

Heres a quick update. I have tried to take onboard all of your suggestions, and I hope that I am getting closer to getting it right. Cheers again all!


TorsoSculpt06.jpg

TorsoSculpt07.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Heres a quick update, I'm trying to get the general weight and shape of the trousers right. Im using the boots as a template to sculpt around, and I will be adding final details to a boot-free version of the trousers once I have the underlying structure right. Let me know what you think.

Cheers

Trousers 01.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Hello all,


Heres a couple of pics of how my model is shaping up. I need to sort out the bottom of the trouser legs, but aside from that I think they're going ok. What do you think?

trousers and boots 01.jpg


trousers and boots 02.jpg

trousers and boots 03.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Just a quick pic. I finally sussed out the stencil tool. This is just a quick test image, I will add all the major details tomorrow.

stencil test 01.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Hello all!

Here is an update of my progress at the moment. The tattoo has been placed on as a test, as there is still a lot of work I want to do to the basic skin texture before I start adding the details. I just thought I would post it to find out what you think. Feel free to criticise as harshly as you like, as its the only way I am going to make it better :D .

tat test 01.jpg

tat test 02.jpg

tat test 03.jpg

tat test 04.jpg

tat test 05.jpg

tat test 06.jpg

[Animatect]

Hi Lead Ballon, you have a good idea, but I think you can get more out of it, I like your details, but you should give more time to check proportions and be more aware of the curves of the spine because without that the detail doesn't look believable, take notice of how the muscules fit into each other so you don't leave gaps, try getting the ear hole a little down.
I love the colors, that saturated purple gives an impressionist palet touch to your work.
here I put you some quick observations, check the curves, the angle of the pectorals, how the ribs goes to the oblicuos abdominalis, the abdomen and the butt.
I hope you find this observatios more usefull than anoying, and if yo are going to make some changes, remember to take your time and study the why of those corrections, there is no rush and that is the best way to learn.
sidefalcon copy.jpg

[aceala]

think he needs a stronger more sleeker beak, something with more edges instead of roundness

[Animatect]

yeah I agree, maybe eaven a little broken piece

[Lead Balloon]

Cheers for the advice animatect, I'll have a look at the muscles again today before I get back to texturing. One of these days itll look right lol. I'm glad you like the way the colour is going.

Aceala, thank you for your advice as well. I tried to sort the beak a bit last night by roughing it up a litle. I'm having a few problems getting it to look right but I will post an update later on today.

[Lead Balloon]

Hello everyone. Here is a quick update. I'm trying to follow all the advice I have been given, and I think the model is looking a lot better, so thank you all again. I am still unsure about the small of the back, so I am away now to look up some reference to fix it. Anyhow, heres the update.


fixing torso01.jpg

fixing torso02.jpg

fixing torso03.jpg

fixing torso04.jpg

Quick edit. I think I have sorted it now (I can hope can't I :D ).
Here are the new pics.

fixing torso05.jpg

fixing torso06.jpg

fixing torso07.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

I want to cry :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:


My last save of this model crashes ZBrush every time I try to load it. I'm down on 3-4 hours work. This sucks. Oh yea, due to time constrictions this character is just gonna be the torso on a plinth. At least this way I don't have to look at that god-awful pair of trousers again :D

[Animatect]

man, that is very frustrating, if you want, I can see if I can open it, I'll save a copy with a difrent name and give it back to you to see if that solves the problem

[XtremeAMX]

This is looking good. From the first post, I see there is more progress. But are you gonna add some wrinkles to the head?

[Lead Balloon]

Heres a new update, my final materials on the birdman. Made using texture maps made in ZB, and the misss fast skin shader in maya. I'm making the eyes tomorow, and then getting on to some kind of base before posing it and setting up lights etc for final renders. I hope you like it!

01.jpg

02.jpg

03.jpg

04.jpg

05.jpg

06.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

New Update,

Here is my experimental walker model made with simple geometry in maya. Im going to use it to create a full high res mech. Let me know what you think :D

up01.jpg

up02.jpg

up03.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Hello all,

I finally got some time to do some more work on this. I've got the eyes done now, gonna do some work on the mech next, then im gettin stuck into the feathers (I think my pc is gonna hate me :D ). I'm hopefully gonna get this thing animatable, although I'm unsure how much time I'll have to dedicate to this. If I can get enough time, I think it'll look pretty good on my showreel. Hope you all like it, and some feedback would be great.

upload01.jpg

upload02.jpg

upload03.jpg

upload04.jpg

upload05.jpg

upload06.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Good evening everybody!

I thought I would share my current progress on the mech with you all. I think itll take me about another 6 hours max before I start ZBrushing it, cant wait....


new walker01.jpg

new walker02.jpg

new walker03.jpg

new walker04.jpg

new walker05.jpg

[sharpbrothers]

That character reminds me of the "bobs" from Mirrormask. Creepy...sort of cute...but creepy.

[Lead Balloon]

Cheers for the input sharpbrothers. I can see what you mean bout the resemblance, hopefully it wont look like them after I've done the feathers.

Heres an update with the guns added, only got the visor and controls to go then off to Zbrush. Oh yea, my jaw hit the floor when I saw the footage of Z3. I dont think Ill see daylight for months once I get my hands on it.

withguns01.jpg

withguns02.jpg

withguns03.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Heres everything ready for ZBrush. Let me know what you think.

withguns04.jpg

withguns05.jpg

withguns06.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Heres an update with the basic colours added. Unfortunately I had some UV troubles, which are thankfully sorted now. ZB detailing and colouring can thankfully begin tomorrow. Yaaaay!

P.S. Feedback or advice would be great. I would like to hear all of your opinions and questions if you have any. Cheers all!

01.jpg

02.jpg

03.jpg

04.jpg

05.jpg

P.P.S. I am curently working out a backstory for this character. It will help me work out what to do with it in animation, and what to make it's nemesis like.

[Lead Balloon]

Good evening all. I couldn't get much done this week, been sick as a parrot. Anyhow, heres my current progress. I will hopefully get the legs finished tomorrow, I'll have more time then. I hope you all like how it's coming along.

newup01.jpg

newup02.jpg

newup03.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Quick question,

Why cant I edit my posts from more than a week ago? I'd like to change the title of this thread,but im having no joy at all. Any ideas?

[Lead Balloon]

Heres another update for you all. I've nearly finished the mech now, prolly another day in it. I forgot to make the inside of the mouth, so I will make that when I'm done. It'd be nice to get some opinions, though I doubt there will be any replies.

nearly there.jpg

[Lead Balloon]

Hello there all. I don't know why, but there has been positively zero feedback / comments on this thread for ages now. Would it be possible to get an opinion of some kind from some of you? Please, if you think this model is a steaming pile of cow dung, tell me :D . I've put a lot of work into this to put into my showreel, and I wanted to use this thread to document my progress every step of the way. I also wanted to use this thread to share my work with the community of cg artists which has truly helped me the most. So thank you all for the great work you do, but please, someone, give me an honest opinion. It would be greatly appreciated.

[Lead Balloon]

Here is another update of my progress. I only have to texture the guns, control panel and shield now. Hope you like it :D

almost finished02.jpg

almost finished01.jpg

almost finished03.jpg

almost finished04.jpg

almost finished05.jpg

1K.jpg