Concept: TOOL - WIP :: UPDATED: WALK TEST

**Erik** · March 11th, 2003, 07:29 PM

Here a preliminary render and some wireframes of a character i'm working on - his name is 'Tool', he is -very- stupid and big. I'm working on the head trying to get my edges to work right.

The shaded render is just slapped on with some lights thrown in to get a feeling of the skin and colors/texture. Will be added to in the future.

Crits wanted - especially on edge loops (at least that's what they supposed to be ...)

[EDIT: body images below]
[EDIT: more body images below those]
[EDIT: texture experiments below the last ones ... ]
[EDIT: animation test below the other stuff...]

E.

**John Doe Humpface** · March 11th, 2003, 09:33 PM

the head is completely symmetrical, after mirroring the half and connecting take the time to shift some of the features so it isn't so perfect. it does read big and dumb however, texture may be a bit too clean/uniform as well. keep at it.

**Erik** · March 12th, 2003, 05:30 AM

Thanx! Yeah it's completely symmetrical right now, i'm going to work on that. This is still just a mirrored head to see the shape coming up.

For the texture i'm thinking on doing a less uniform scaly pattern, maybe in a lighter color too.

E.

**Neox** · March 12th, 2003, 01:48 PM

you did this? Wow you learned how to create edgeloops, i guess i don't have to overpaint your other head model
some loops are still not perfect (the sternomastoid, the corners of his mouth, the one thing over his ear) but man that is a HUGE step forward!

**cucaracha** · March 12th, 2003, 03:04 PM

Hi like it - :cyclops:

My only crit is on the eye. Make it more natural, eyes don't glow (ok ok - maybe some eyes glow, but I think of Terminator or other robotic thingy if I see glowing eyes).
So, just a matter of taste, keep on

**Erik** · March 13th, 2003, 10:36 AM

More Tool :: first modeling session of the body

I'm not quite happy yet with the shoulder/head area. The hands and arms are still basic shapes and the mesh is far from clean at this point.

Maybe the head needs to be smaller and the neck muscles need to be attached higher up on the skull...

Tell me what you think! (the images are somewhat bigger but otherwise the wire would not show ... sorry)

smoothed versions:

and the non-smoothed version i work on:

**Neox** · March 13th, 2003, 03:18 PM

try to model his hands and arms mor relaxed and a little "fold" dunno the englich word :/
thats just for you to get things like the ellbows/shoulders/knuckels (joints) better modelled

watch this
http://neox.gfx-scene.de/public/CG-T...ahoro_base.avi

**Erik** · March 14th, 2003, 04:28 PM

More body :: almost ready for 'cleanup' now -- the mesh should be cleaned in many places i know...

Changes: shoulders, feet, arms, back, hands

Still need to finish hands.

I moved hands and arms in more relaxed position like Neox said. Maybe even need more relaxed position...

E.

**Erik** · March 16th, 2003, 03:20 PM

A new edition of tool -- a texture test done with deeppaint. I'm not completely sure of it but i guess it is getting done.

I couldn;t resist texturing before rigging thoudh i'll probably regret that soon...

First time texturing in Maya, tell me what you think.

**Neox** · March 17th, 2003, 07:50 AM

well he's very well done, you improved your skills alot since the first post i've read from you

and texturing before rigging ain't a shame, i's definately better to have the textures on him befor rigging, just to see, where it stretches

**Erik** · March 17th, 2003, 07:56 AM

Thanx man!

I really appreciate it. And the nightly hours doing Maya and following tuts are starting to pay off i guess... But i have a loooong way to go...

I'm still planning of doing some animation or at least posing with this guy. And probably want to try facial animation too, although its face will have a limited range of emotions: 'stupid', 'very stupid', 'scared stupid' and 'dumb' i guess ;-)

Well... back to work...

E.

**Erik** · March 25th, 2003, 04:38 AM

Rigging is progressing. I learnt enough to create some simple poses but the skin deforms too much. Those damn shoulders! The fingers, hands and arms look ok as long as i don't ben them too much... but the armpits and legs are not ok yet. I'm going to have to learn vertex weighting now i guess...

Any tips on doing the skinning with maya are helpful!
and yes the renders are sloppy... just tests for deformations.

**Erik** · March 29th, 2003, 07:17 AM

Some concepts i drew before i did the character, but i never scanned them until now.

E.

**killing.people** · March 30th, 2003, 12:18 AM

yay! you rock.

he looks so cool. looks like there is something weird going on with his ribs on that second pose. he needs something weird to bang on stuff with, something slightly rediculous and kind of effective.

-kill

**Erik** · April 4th, 2003, 05:11 AM

Hi,

I finally got around and rigged the bastard up, smooth skin bind applied and vertex weights painted. Took me a while to get it somewhat right...

Now i see lots of problems with the skeleton and model (deformations...) but well, that will come next time. I just want to do some animations!

Here my test avi of a sort-of walk (blast render) -- 484 kb avi test avi

The animation is not very good, because for the life of me i do not understand IK ... I mean, how doe i rig the thing up in IK? The tutorials i tried all go completely through the roof on locators, helper objects and so forth, but why? And why those items? So the animation was done with FK only, hence the 'skidding' on the floor... The arms don't move coherently either but keep in mind it's my very first attempt at character motion.

Could someone shed some light on how and why to rig for IK? And could someone please enlighten me some more about the poses and clips you can make with maya for a character? What are they used for? Can they be stored separately?

Thanks!

Erik

**YemYam** · April 4th, 2003, 03:40 PM

I dig him! It looks like he will be pretty cool once you get the rig all cleaned up. I like the direction you are going with the texture, I think you should run with it!

**WerxOne** · April 27th, 2003, 11:26 PM

have you checked out this sight, pretty good maya info from what ive found

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/

might help

**Royale** · May 7th, 2003, 09:24 AM

It's a good model though I really recognize the style from thehobbitguys work.http://www.thehobbitguy.com/media/pics/fullbody.jpg
You might want to mention that if you used it as a tut, if not then sorry.

**Erik** · May 7th, 2003, 10:05 AM

Yeah i did do his tutorials but i drew the concept before i saw that he did one that looks like it a lot. He did it far far better though... ;-) I was more influenced by the cave troll in the idea. I must admit that i have looked at a lot of models to find out how i could do the concept though... so it is highly possible that i am influenced. I did get some of the ideas and details from his model probably -- but i was not trying to copy it...

Now that i look back at your link it does look too much the same. Shame on me.

It's not a very original model, i know... but it was just practice. I won't claim originality.
sorry if i did not mention that it is not an original character.