Digital Works

[Anttaru]

I'm going out this evening, and i don't know when i'll return. So here is what i have so far.

I made it more tubby and added a few new features to the torso

I created the base for the arms, as you can see. Later i'll raise them i bit higher and add armpits and everything that can possible be there.

Not much progress, i need to kick it up a few notches >,< Ok i'm off

 

[Aristarc]

lol, take ur time...and have fun

 

[Anttaru]

I have an urge to post. So here is the number one boring post of qcdn ever made, nice and fresh.

Todays Boring Modeling Lession...Great for when you're trying to force yourself to sleep

Some of you may be wondering what/why are those blue lines sticking out of the models surface. The rings around the neck i used for getting the shape to work. I take the verticies row by row and inligned them to that ring, making a more rounded neck shape. Without it, it would be more time consuming to turn a boxy looking neck into a more rounded one.

Those blue lines are called "Nurb Curves" Even though as i explained earlier Computers do not understand how to make curves, they are just called that... Nurbs is another fourm of surfacing. Imagine taking 2 lines that are apart from one another, then commanding them to create a surface inbetween them, the result is square shape or a rectangular shape, depending on how the 2 lines are facing one another. You can set the tool to make the lines...

- Linar (straight point to point)
- Cubic (curved but the reality of it, it's a bunch or lines doing a damn good job or creating curves point to point as you bend the controll points appearing as an actual curved line)

Say you drew two C shaped lines and spread them apart, you can take a line and connect the ends to the C shapes. One you have this connected, you can command it to birail. because it's railing off of the C shapes, you created what appears to be a half pipe in sync with how you have made the C shapes.



How to pull off shapes Nurbs Vs. Polygons...

What are they ?.... ask me later, just Nurbs and Polygons

When first starting off, it's a pain in the ass "How the hell am i ever gonna make a hand" or even more "How do i pull off modeling a glass or a lamp"

Knowing about these things, and talking to alot of 3D artists, you'd come to realize there is a "Secret War" with Nurb and Polygon users.

-Nurbs.... are straight to the point, model it as it is, lower the rez of the geometry itself, to prevent the PC from chocking to death, if the scene has alot of geometry. Nurbs can really be dense and requires alot of planing (Mathimatics), if you plan on patching them together. Nurbs have been a favourite tool of the masters, so it was written somewhere... In all honesty i have seen some serious shit made with them. The technique in an underground sense to the subject, has been called patch modeling. trying to bend a Nurb surface is almost impossible. Bending one would mean altering it's verticies, which isn't something you want to tamper with since the shape of the surface is exactly what you wanted. Nurbs have been given the ability to be converted to polygons for a damn good reason.


-Polygons.... First thing to know about them is... What will happen to a simplistic shape if you smoothen it. Best way to find out is to do it. Taking a basic polygonal planar ( A flat sheet made of say 20 square faces).
Now if you start pulling verticies ( the point that crosses each line) you start to deform the flat sheet into a series of spikes (Say you pulled them up high) .... oooh they are very pointy, but what will it look like if it gets smoothened ? I don't even frikkin know, but i know enough that they will probably develope into a bunch of small hills.
So when modeling with Polygons you're constantly keeping them in check by adding more lines and smoothening them to see how it looks every now and then. Polygons can be described in a sence, like a mutating bacteria. You can take it from the face and extrude it.

Exampe: extrude a square face onec, and you have a cube

Or extrude the edge

Example: Extrude the edge/line from that cube and create a flat face.

When extruding polygons, they will stretch as far as you pull them, they also have vertex points, you can bend them up from there.

A single Polygon cannot fold, simply adding a line ( say dividing the square face) will then allow you to fold it. The more polygons on a model, the more posable the model will be.

There is such thing as overkill when modeling with Polygons and Nurbs best to make it as efficient as possible. That rule applies to the fact that todays computers can only handle so much. There is a reason why Video game models are boxy.

I started with Nurbs, and went long before i started with Polygons. I'm greatfull i did, cause if i started with polygons, i would not have given Nurbs the time of day. As silly as it sounds, Nurbs are better for making loggos text and a few other things i'd argue. Polygons are better for insane detail, and when animating organic. And they render faster than nurbs for reasons i do not understand. Even when compared to a equally matched polygon in density, the polygon is faster.



First there was Nurbs, i think... then there were Polygons, i think. Then there were "Sub divisions" aka "Sub D's" but for all i know they could have been first

I can think of 12 teachers it took for us to learn the software ( Nobody knows how to use it 100% it's crazy ; ; ) And only one knew how to model with Sub D's. In my world, if you know how to model with this, you are a machine, either you can model well or not, it's the fact of understanding them. And are discluded from the Nurbs Vs. Polygon thing.

Understanding Nurbs and Polygons is enough for me, and i can take either side. But i won't. I'm just too proud to know Nurbs because only 4 of us walked away knowing how to weild them ^^ and it was us 4 that blew away our other classmates. But if i was forced to choose, then polygons is it.

 

[Drewtaru]

still going bro???

i glanced at maya... thats all i did...... never gonna touch it ever again.... blasted techno tongue thats impossible to figure out.
So i wont bother reading you long lectures

im seeing alot of progress now though... the model is growing fast^^

 

[Anttaru]

still going bro???

i glanced at maya... thats all i did...... never gonna touch it ever again.... blasted techno tongue thats impossible to figure out.
So i wont bother reading you long lectures

First few days on it will make you feel sad, All the mathamatics involved in the animation alone is a brutal welcome. But after awhile it becomes very pleasant, after you get the hang of it and are freely able to make what you wish you'll know the beginning stages is nothing.

Like i always say, No advanced task is hard to do. Only difficult at first, before it becomes part of you're nature.

im seeing alot of progress now though... the model is growing fast^^

Yeah it has been growing fast for the amount of time i've put into it, Except i haven't touched it in 3 days before today.
Lightening has just struck my brain. I was about to mention how due to the complexity of the blendshapes, i would just change the hair on the model. But i figure i can change the face and assign that as a Blend shape and leave it on, It should cross with the other blendshapes when i use them just the same, so long as it has the same amount of geometry. I don't know we'll see how that works out. Worst that can happen is a set back a day or so, no biggie. I want the Tarutaru's to have unique facial structures the way we do in real life.

I was taught how the project is never finished, so when i put down modeling for the further completion to the projects release. I plan on working in this order.

- Teeth/Gums Tounge. *I want it to be able to open wide and say ahh if they had to. Because of that i'll probably be detailing the inner throat. Also need 2 sets to teeth. Easy peasy.

- Joints/Skeleton *It's more than just sticking a skeleton in the model for posing. It's hours or rigging it to work how you want it. Each Bone ( And everything in the scene) has to be named, just incase there are technical problems. When animating you can set blame on whatever is misbehaving by name and easily deal with it. (In a funny sense when things go worng, it's always the animators fault, Maya is not A.I.). Naming everything will save you a good amount of time when shit happens

- Complete the eyes. *I'm so not happy with them to a point i refuse to expose what's hiding behind what should be transparent.

- Blendshapes *I have no idea how long this will take, the lower face at low poly is pretty dense meaning i'll literally be making the face retarded for each blendshape i make, and the molding it to look proper again. I have to repeat this for every blendshape. It can have hundreads of blendshapes, so i might want to plan out a script and storyboard and stick to it to prevent making blendshapes i'll never use for the upcoming picture.

-Textures *This is where our good friend photoshop gets to play. I won't even bring up other complexities that lay within this process within Maya.
Might be a good time to mention, and as important as it is, It can never bring out realisim like proper lighting can.

- Hair = Head and Eyelashes. = *Possibly peach fuzz, seen it done once, it's impressive, i wouldn't want to kill myself doing it though. Maybe i'll do hair sooner than i antisipated, i'm trying to focus on the sturfacing first, then i can take all the time in the world to play with the hair. At this point of time i don't know which of the 2 hairstyles will be more difficult to pull off, one is long and smooth, and the other, short and more coarse. I already know the colouring for Anttaru's hair will be harder to do.

- Clothes = * Many outfits to make, as i want it. I'll also have to read up on actuall sewing methods. How to cut cloth in Real life and stiching them together makes the clothing. Same with Maya's cloth.

For now that's as far as i'm looking, when all of that is done, i'll start to list a heap of other things that need to make this happen.
.
.
.
In realation to anything we do as humans. Sometimes we feel high up on life, then we drop like i brick and are stressed.
In the visual arts Alot of artists literally lose their marbles and swing really close to the rocks. It's almost fictional how a crazy person in a stray jacket has an impressive tallent with art. Now i'm not saying i'm crazy or anything ( even if i may look it) Just sometimes i'm not feeling my own work and other times i am. I don't think it's a good idea to create when my spirit needs a charge. Maybe that me being careful about what this turns into.

The Arms are so and so, like most everything else i'll be going over it again, and maybe again.

The Armpit itself like everything else needs more work. Even though alot of this will not be seen in the final project. I figure i'd do it for the sake of practice. Truly i just want to have the entire body made, so i can carve it beyond satisfaction.


Things seem to be going good so far. The one thing i'll probably mention later on in this thread, is how every line has to connect, and it must remain 4 sided. If i need more geometry in so much as a finger, i'll have to split a line not inly in that part, but all the way to the other side of the entire mesh.

Time to make a hand. So for now like everything else i'll start by making a base. Making a base for a hand is simple, and to make it easier to explain, i saved the image like this.

Starts off with a polygon cube ( You can get one as a paramitive shape, 3D software has all kinds of basic shapes, Spheres, cubes, flat plainars, Cylindar, cone, whatever...So you take a cube and scale it down to that shape you see there, you then divide it so you can start to extrude the fingers out, then extrude the side and brng out the thumb, then you have a hand, then you start to make it look like a hand.

This is a low poly shot i took btw.
In this case i'll have to make more geometry so the hand can attach properly onto the arm. This will require a little bit of planing and simple adding. It would probably be wise of me to try to evenly distribute the lines along the fingers. I can't wait this this part is done, so i can start to actually make the hand the way it should be more or less.

 

[Anttaru]

I'm having some serious issues with the arms. The Mesh should be merged properly so when it bends and flexes, we won't see any breaks and openings.

The software has kinda bugged out on me, the arm has 4 lines of edges that read as un attached, Yet when i pull on one of the verticies, it does not break.

This is making it impossible for me to attach the hand, so i'm out there seeking help on how to deal with this issue.

Finding information on technical errors for this software is fucking hard, since there are thousands of reported bugs and cries for help. So chances are i'll have to remake a new arm.

 

[Aristarc]

Hello THERE!!

okie, i know that ur in the "hmmmmm, this looks kind of wierd, let me try this....no i better try this.....hmmmm ect" part of ur project.

dont worry 'bout it, take ur time....."those who persevere will asways suceed" or something like that :?

about the arms, from the back view they look good, specially the forearms. hope u find the help ur looking for.

as for the rest goes....dude u rock.

ill be here to end my friend^^

 

[Anttaru]

I'm always in that state Aristarc, That time i sttumbled upon a technical issue i never came accross before. It had something to do with the surface "normals" as i found out and fixed it by simply clicking on "Conform" in the normals tool menu. Everything is ok now. ('-')
.
.
.
When making hands to fit onto the edge of a mesh, there most likely is a better way of going on about it. The way i chose probably wasn't the greatest cause i had to extract mathimatical answers out of my own brain ; ;

The good news is i got the hand to attach onto the arm without leaving out any lines.
As for the missing thumb. There simply isn't enough lines to make a well rounded shape. I can add more lines to it. But because of the 4 face rule, i'd have to run the line all the way to the other side making for a more dense mesh, and a possible deformation somewhere i'll have to worry about.

So what i'm going to do is create more geometry in the opposite direction so i can extrude the thumb in the foward direction and then shape it up properly. I added minor details to the hand. I think this part should mostly rely on textures and bump mapping for the details.

The fingers are also too long, so i'll be scaling them when i get back to working on the hands.

Here i'm working on the mid section. This is probably the toughest base shape to do. It won't be long before i start to sculpt it though. Just have alot of edges to put in place.

The Yellow dots there are selected verticies and the selected area on the Tarutaru itself is the area that i'm bending up in shape now. It was just easier to detach and work on. You'll also notice in this image i'm revealing a key method ( splitting the model in half ). In the end when i'm satisfied with how it looks, i'll be making offsets to the other side for the sake of realizm.

Next time i won't wait so long to post. But i can't say that everytime. So to all of you coming in here to check up on new exposures, thank you. And feel free to drop you're 2 cents before you go.

 

[Drewtaru]

/cheer

 

[Mortanis]

Hello, I have a couple of crits!

1. There is too much geometry. You are going to run into all kinds of problems having a mesh this dense. You definatly want to try and keep the geometry simple if you are going to texture and animate it. Plus if you are going to use Blendshapes, you will be needing to duplicate your model's face several times, and that'll just add even more geometry to the scene, increasing the slowdown even more. You can use texture-maps and bump-maps to show minor details instead of adding more geometry. You mentioned wanting to use MayaCloth...let me tell you that cloth simulation is very labor intensive on your computer, it takes tons of resources to mathmatically calculate all of the collision events happening underneath the cloth, and on a model this dense the time it would take to render a few frames of animation would stagger the imagination. Maybe instead of using cloth, you should just model your character with the clothes already on.

2. Only model what is necessary. You mentioned wanting to model the inside of the throat and stuff, that is kinda a bad idea. If you really need to see the inside of throat in your animation, then consider just using texture-maps or another model entirely to pull that off...otherwise, your computer will be having to calculate all that geometry that's hidden inside the mouth even when it's closed and that's not necessary. It'll only slow you down. Teeth and tongue are fine though, just keep them simple! Same goes for the body; unless you are going to be seeing the muscles of the naked back in your animation, there's no need to model it.

3. Consider a different modeling method. I realize all people like to model differently, but personally I have always found that when I model something in a bunch of different parts and then attach them together afterwards, I run into lots more problems, and the model looks all funny and distorted way more than when I model the entire thing from 1 cube. Try just starting with 1 polygonal cube, and extrude some faces into a basic character shape. Then using the SplitPolygon Tool, split up some faces and move around the vertices into your basic shape. If you don't like that method, maybe think about using nurbs, or maybe even subdivision surfaces. Try to leave out the fine details until everything is done. Most of the time, I keep my poly characters not-smoothed while I rig and animate them, then once everything is done, I hit smooth then render.

Other than that, your model looks like it's coming along fairly well. Just remember to keep things simple! Too much complexity leads to unfinished projects. ^^

 

[Anttaru]

I don't know you Mortanis but.... What the hell took you so long ? I'm glad you came.

Hello, I have a couple of crits!

1. There is too much geometry. You are going to run into all kinds of problems having a mesh this dense. You definatly want to try and keep the geometry simple if you are going to texture and animate it. Plus if you are going to use Blendshapes, you will be needing to duplicate your model's face several times, and that'll just add even more geometry to the scene, increasing the slowdown even more. You can use texture-maps and bump-maps to show minor details instead of adding more geometry. You mentioned wanting to use MayaCloth...let me tell you that cloth simulation is very labor intensive on your computer, it takes tons of resources to mathmatically calculate all of the collision events happening underneath the cloth, and on a model this dense the time it would take to render a few frames of animation would stagger the imagination. Maybe instead of using cloth, you should just model your character with the clothes already on.

Here is a low poly view of the model of what is so far. Even so it is a bit on the dense side on boath the UV's. I do plan on claning it up the best i can before i start animating it. That is why i chose to extrude the thumb foward instead of continuting it upwards. I never wanted to have to split yet another line accross the mesh. (I'll be posting the thumb soon ^^)

(Image taken from inside the head)

The dense part around the mouth and under the nose wraps around the head. I needed all those verticies to pull off the shape of the mouth. Using the sculpt tool (which is a fine tool might i add ^^) lines up the edges nicely and helped alot with unwanted deformations. After sculpting, it had a more dense appearance as it has a smoothening effect with no extra tessalation, i just can't figure out another way to get that shape without those lines being there, as everything must be done in quads.

Even though the hand isn't fully fourmed yet. I know i went overboard with putting those casams in the finger joints, I figure i can get away with them cause they are made of the simple geometry that is gonna be there anyway so the mesh would bend there in the first place.

I'm not too worried about the blendshapes, as Maya does not include what it's not currently exsposing when rendering, blendshaps were meant to be invisible when in use. For this project it will probably take a few hours for all of them to apply, so testing might be a pain (I don't know, i always add them all at the same time, i hardly use them)
True say if i can make a skeleton rig for the face that would be awsome, but i'm not that technical when it comes to painting weights and binding surfaces to joints in such a way....Maybe i doubt it would work how i imagine it...Now that i think of it, i have nothing to loose but time if i even try it, so i might as well, it might pay off.

As for the cloth, i don't plan on it having to deal with too much geometry, just a few well placed parented surfaces . If my tests take a life age then i would resort to plan B, (It just wouldn't be as nice ><).

2. Only model what is necessary. You mentioned wanting to model the inside of the throat and stuff, that is kinda a bad idea. If you really need to see the inside of throat in your animation, then consider just using texture-maps or another model entirely to pull that off...otherwise, your computer will be having to calculate all that geometry that's hidden inside the mouth even when it's closed and that's not necessary. It'll only slow you down. Teeth and tongue are fine though, just keep them simple! Same goes for the body; unless you are going to be seeing the muscles of the naked back in your animation, there's no need to model it.

You're so right. But as i mentioned in an earlier posting (or i think i mentioned) I'm modeling it naked so i can get whatever part i need. When the model is clothed, i'm not going to have all the geometry under it. I'm not that mean to computers ; ;. I plan on taking parts of the body to complete outfits, and i figure i'd make it detailed even in parts i would not use for the sake of practice. Same thing for the inner throat. when not in use i'll simply put it away making for a more acceptable calculating performance on the hardware. Trust me i'm trying to make it simple. i just have much to do on the final sweep.

3. Consider a different modeling method. I realize all people like to model differently, but personally I have always found that when I model something in a bunch of different parts and then attach them together afterwards, I run into lots more problems, and the model looks all funny and distorted way more than when I model the entire thing from 1 cube. Try just starting with 1 polygonal cube, and extrude some faces into a basic character shape. Then using the SplitPolygon Tool, split up some faces and move around the vertices into your basic shape. If you don't like that method, maybe think about using nurbs, or maybe even subdivision surfaces. Try to leave out the fine details until everything is done. Most of the time, I keep my poly characters not-smoothed while I rig and animate them, then once everything is done, I hit smooth then render.

Aside from the hand everything was extruded from the same mesh, the mid section i duplicated the model and deleted the unwanted parts, only so i can model it without the rest of the body getting in the way. It just seemed more flexible for me.

I have many modeling methods, i just choose to use this method cause it's a method used by Julian Jeremy. (I think he is the best CG Artist in the universe).
I read one of his Tutorials on modeling and even put it to the test. As it turned out i took a great liking to his polygonal technique, though i can't fully emulate the guy. Even so, my version of his technique is probably the best suited for this project. I feel i have more of a grasp on the outcome of the mesh (Even though it needs a fair bit of clean ups).
This technique starts with a single polygonal face, then extruding an eye opening then merging and extruding it out from there. When i first seen how it was done, i thought it was rediculous, now i really like it.
It was because of this i started to use Polygons more than Nurbs for modeling.

Nurbs i always used for modeling machines and metal parts, also for logos and what not. Only thing, although they make nice organic looking surfaces, I don't feel i have enough controll over them, when i use them like that. I also never wanted to patch model this, it would make for serious planning, and i don't like stitching organic nurbs.

Here is a wireframe of that Gundam model, reason why i'm showing it (again kinda) is because it is the most insane thing i have ever done with nurbs. (I never understood polys then ><)
Only thing that is polygons on this is the feet. I put a rubber shader there and made it poly cause i wanted it to bend and flex for when i animate it's foot role, worked like a charm ^^.

They Hypergraph for it is so insane, i thought someone sabbatoged the Maya binary file itself.

Other than that, your model looks like it's coming along fairly well. Just remember to keep things simple! Too much complexity leads to unfinished projects. ^^

Will do, i don't want this project to take forever. ('-')d

Thank you for the feedback, I can see you're conserns on how the projects dynamics will effect it's ability to be solo'ed by one artist and 1 or 2 computers (Rage card is fried and never tested it since so maybe one computer). I value your technical stand points cause i know i can learn from you. So check up on me every now and then.

For now the Project has yet to show signs of any lag. Even when double smoothened it still runs fast.

Intel Pentium(R) 4 Overclocked to 3.0 GHZ
1 GHz SD RAM ( I think it's SD)
- ATI Radeon (Excalibur) 9550 VPU
- 64/128/256MB - 64/128bit DDR Memory

I figure since i'm running at 256MB in the graphics department, i should be able to get away with a little more damage. Modern technology... truly that is what keeps us from really cutting loose if you ask me.

 

[Kat]

I had to take a peak and see where you were at. This stuff just blows me away!!! Keep up the good work Anttaru.

 

[Anttaru]

Kat, atleast 13 days ago i wanted to say thank you ^^
I haven't worked on this in awhile and started back again lastnight. I'll lessen these long modeling breaks or else this will take too long.
.
.
.
- Mid section
- Legs
- Base for foot

I've started the base for the foot. It's simular to making a hand. When the foot is done i'll start scaling the torso and limbs so it's more proportional to how it should look in size, I'm going to make the hands a little bigger too, taking some of the forearms narrow shape outwards with it.

By this point i have come to the realization that modeling a full body with 1 solid mesh leads to alot of faces edges and vertecies. Soon i'll run a test to see how many replecas my graphics card can handle before it starts to choke. I'm sure it can handle atleast 4 of them before it shows signs off choppy frame rates. The Funny part is most of this model will not ever been seen.

 

[Mortanis]

It's coming along...

My only suggestions are as follows:

1. Make the neck thinner. Taru's have very skinny necks, your guy looks like a Taru football player, haha. Taru's have a strong "manga-style" to them, so keep that style in mind when you are modeling.

2. The head seems malformed. Taru's have barely any eyebrow ridge, nose shape, or chin...so by making the entire head more spherical might make it look a little more accurate.

3. Learn about Edge-loops. Since you said you were wanting to animate him, you should learn how to model using edge loops, it helps keep your geometry correctly moving when they open their mouths or move their body, or whatever. Then you won't have any texture stretching issues or weird things happening when you decide to use Blend-shapes. Here's a link that shows some edge-loop examples:
http://cube.phlatt.net/home/spiraloid/tutorial/modeling.html

I know that when I work on a model, after I stare at it for hours and hours, it's very helpful to have someone else tell me what looks wrong with it. Good luck and keep working on it!

 

[Anttaru]

Hey Mortanis

The neck definatly is too thick, and it's probably going to set the bar for the entire mesh when i start scaling it. As for the shape of the head, i won't worry about changing it cause of the afro. If the fro fails me, then i'll definatly lean more towards the more rounded crainium. And the eye area probably is too deep. After i put in the hair i'll probably fix it, i really wouldn't want it to clash too badly. I want it to look Tarutaru, but not 100% Squaresoft style. Otherwords i would have modeled this with front and side reference in the Ortographic views. Yet so much really does need to be fixed. I'm having a strong urge to start the hair man !

Edge loops, so that's what they call them ^^ I have never tried that, but funny enough i have seen it done before. Flexing muscles when the body part is posing. It's very nice.

Most of what i have modeled will not be used. The body will be replaced by very low poly surfaces that are roughly the same shape as the structure, of coarse if Maya cloth really is taking forever, then i'll have to model the clothing. However, If i were to make a harness or sublagar, i'll then resort to taking the exposed body parts from the naked mesh i have created here.

Very interesting site you posted there.In the morphing section it was talking about setting points when animating an eye. When they say morphing, i'm positive they mean for maya users to take it as Blendshaps. I was contemplating using blendshaps for the eye lids, but only when they are shut tight. Can i single blend shape really give us that center arc we want for a half closed eyelid ?



I have looked at the low poly Tarutaru in comparrison to SquareEnix's higher end tarutaru models. The Higher end one inspired me to shape the chin so, as theirs has more of an edge on it.

Taking a very close look at the higher geometry model, you will notice Tarutaru have the exact same nose as a hume, Just visualize the nose as though it was the same colour as the rest of the skin. I wish i had a side view of this ><. But i took a very good look at it earlier.

I really should set up my PC version so i can fraps better reference from the character select screen, There they have different models, and from what i remember those ones have a rather pointy chin when you look at them from the side.

Ok So Neck...I'll be scaling the entire torso on the X and Z axis for this. Or it might make more sense to make the head a little bigger than it is now. Maybe the back is out too much. I'll figure it out, and post it when it's done. For now i'm going over the entire mesh. I may even do the hair before i fix the eye balls and start the teeth, deep down i'm begging myself to do start the hair.

 

[Anttaru]

Hair Test

Well i have been reading alot about this and after hours of peicing together information i gradually started to succeed in my exsperiments with the Hair engine. So far it's been 2 days, and on day 1 i haven't made much progress, and on day 2 the headphones came off and i was taking it in much better.

I'm just taking time to play with the Hair engine, i'm very pleased with how well it's working so far and by tomorrow i should know more on how to use it. As i browse the attributes for the hair i can see it's equiped with many splendered values, such as gravity turbulance, and stiffness. It can be twisted, braided, thickend, and curled even on the tips of i want.

Like real life, an artist can make a wig with fibre glass or real hair. Even in CG we need materals to work with for surfacing, dynamics such as elements or whatever we do, many would think the computer is doing all the work, but in truth there is no "Make pretty button". Computers were made to keep track of our progress and provide us with these tools so we can use them on a universal basis.

This hair engine is so well done, it moves the hair accordingly to whatever motion you throw at it, at whatever condition you made the hair in realation to collisions and gravity (the gravity part amazes me). That is the programs way or feature, It a way it's no different than making a puppet and putting soft fur on it''s head then doing a presentation. Only thing that seperates this from real Is this is driven by the math you give it, while real substances are driven by real physics.

 

[conquerer]

yo dood..... DOFH...

u been doing this n neglecting your game?? -_-"

I cant play much due to my days in the military.. yet when i do.. i dont see u.... u need to get back to ye puny wuss rdm man... or get taru'ed by me! :twisted:


lets go round aimless doing nothing again man!.. lmao

 

[Anttaru]

yo dood..... DOFH...

u been doing this n neglecting your game?? -_-"

I cant play much due to my days in the military.. yet when i do.. i dont see u.... u need to get back to ye puny wuss rdm man... or get taru'ed by me! :twisted:


lets go round aimless doing nothing again man!.. lmao

At easy SGT.
I'm on 3-4 times a week on average, and i'm not always doing this. ^^ And you left me first ; ;
.
.
.
Here is more fooling around with the hair engine again.

Trying to fill the skull cap with more hair, my first attempt was to add more points to the hair folicles

.
.
.
This picture i forgot to set the collisions on the hair, so as i was droping it into place i figure i'd stop it and take a picture so you can get an idea of how it works.

After setting the ccollision this test run turned out like this. Notice the arc towards the base of the hair. That is due to the stiffness and the rest is simulated gravity. Toggling the stiffness to a softer setting will make the hair jump up in a mess and then the gravity will start to pull it back down creating a different look. It's a very relaxing learning exseprience, and i feel the joy of learning once again !

.
.
.
Back to basics i made another test run with more determanation to find out how i can spread the follicles to cover the skull cap.

Funny enogh the name of the option escapes my mind ( I think it's called spread base, or base spread something of that nature) and it worked.

Dispite how it can lag a bit, the beauty of it is there are cleaver ways to view the hair in the hardware, you can simply minimize the disply quality which actually makes little hair show, and it still renders all of it.
.
.
.
So now i consider myself a bronze medelest in the entry level department for using the hair engine. And i repeat, entry level. i've yet to scratch the surface when it comes to this.

So far i have clear views as to how i'm going to do the hair for the almighty Black Mage known as Drewtaru. With some cutting and styling it shall be him. But that face is mine ^^

.
.
.
Next i should put away the hair for now, and get the damn eye lids working, so i can start texturing it, if you noticed that head is the first blendshape (a smile). And after texturing and making blendshapes i'll make a Blendshape to change the appearance of the face, and leave it on and mix it with other blendshapes. It'll work it's gotta ><

 

[Onu]

It looks like Cousin It now, lol.

Awesome work, wish I could do stuff like that.

 

[Anttaru]

It looks like Cousin It now, lol.

Awesome work, wish I could do stuff like that.

lol Thanks. None of you have no idea what this will become, trust me '-'

And if you can draw, you can learn how to use this software, and make your own 3D art and animations. Just gotta get into the way it works ^^