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A Dragon's Love Story


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  • *A:M User*

Ok I think I have something that I am starting to like here with the treasure chest made of the individual boards. I still need to make the iron bands to brace the sides and top.

Let me know what you think:

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • *A:M User*

Ok, not sure what happened to my last post. Here is a newer version of the chest with smaller bevels. I haven't bothered capping the ends of the planks, since I figure those are going to be covered up anyway by iron bracing.

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  • Hash Fellow
Robcat, do you mean increase the number of cross sections that make up the board and then adjust the curvature so its not perfectly straight?

 

 

yeah. maybe 2 or three in the middle. And then nudge a few of the CPs around so they're not so straight.

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  • *A:M User*

Ok, I've got the edges of the board with sort of a scalloped look to them now. I didn't do any adjusting of points along the vertical plane. I think this is starting to come along nicely. I just need some iron strapping to hold it together, and some handles on the side (not sure if I'm going to make a lid for it yet).

chest_with_imperfections.jpg

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  • *A:M User*

I hadn't really thought too much about textures. The original plan was to use the modelled clay shader from the Darktrees. I had also thought about incorporating the colored pencil look from my sketches, but I think everything would have to be rendered that way. While I like it, I think it may be very difficult to get it to look good in 3d given my lack of texture mojo.

 

I had been planning on using modelled clay for just about everything except the water (was going to try for realistic or semi-realistic water) and things that need to be metal or reflective.

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  • *A:M User*

That's a good question, been thinking about that. I'll need to search for some reference images, been a long time since I've seen one of their movies. Last one I can remember was the one with the chickens, can't for the life of me think of the name right now. But I do seem to remember there being other materials besides clay, except for the characters, which were all clay.

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  • *A:M User*

Yep, just got back from an image search and looks like props are wood, metal, fabric, etc. and characters are mostly clay but may also have fabric clothes. I think I like the all clay look better, I would have a heck of a time trying to mix the different materials and get it to look good.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • *A:M User*

More progress on the treasure chest - it has a padlock now. I need to add some iron strapping on the top and bottom edges, and some rivets on the strapping. I think I might also like to move the boards just a bit closer to each other, the gap is too large for my taste. It probably should be almost unnoticeable. Also need to make a lid for it, not quite sure how I'm going to do that, since if I try individual boards they will need to be much narrower than the existing boards, in order to approximate a curved shape better. And I'll probably need hings for the lid, and some sort of clasp that goes into the lock. Let me know what you think.

treasure_chest_WIP.jpg

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  • *A:M User*

Ok, here is the top of the treasure chest. I may change a few things yet, but so far it is not looking too bad. Still need to model the top half of the lock or latch that will go on the top of the chest, also the end pieces of the chest need to be done.

But I feel fairly happy with this so far.

top_of_chest.jpg

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  • *A:M User*

And here it is with the ends capped off. I still need to figure out a way to close off the inside of the metal strapping that goes around the top of the chest, it looks odd with that gap there.

chest_top_with_end_caps.jpg

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  • *A:M User*

Ok, so here is a nearly completed treasure chest. Some of the things that are bothering me are: the metal banding on the corner doesn't match that going around the planks on the top, I'll need to resize one or the other so it does. I need to come up with some sort of latch for the padlock to hang off of, it looks odd just attached to the chest like that. I need to think about moving the boards closer together so that the cracks aren't quite so wide. Handles are in the wrong position and should maybe be closer to the top? I'm also thinking about redoing the handles. I may need to scale the boards that make up the bottom half, so that there are more and they more closely match the top half in size. Something just looks off about it. And I still need to add rivets on the metal parts. But I think I have maybe one or two more nights of solid work on this and it will be done.

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  • Hash Fellow

I like the wavy planks, but some of your treasure is going to fall out! Maybe nudge them closer together.

 

I like the larger size planks on the bottom. I think scaling them smaller would get too busy.

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  • *A:M User*

I'm thinking about tweaking the body of my dragon for limited animation. Right now he looks awfully humanoid, the audience is going to expect him to move like a person. If I simplify the character a bit, perhaps I can "cute" him up a bit and also eliminate that expectation of realistic human motion. I am thinking about simple tubes for the arms and legs, sort of how a teddy bear has very simple limbs. Maybe just a suggestion of stubby toes or fingers. Shorter neck, larger head.

I have just sort of jammed the legs in there for now until I can figure out how to attach them.

dragon___for_limited_animation.png

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • *A:M User*

Ok, here is the chest top more or less finished. The spacing between the slats is just a hair too much, but I'm really loathe to go back and adjust this now, because it was a real pain in the butt doing it the first time. I'm sure something will be completely off if I do it, so it may just have to be that way for now. One solution might be to make another semi-cylinder that would nest inside and block the view of the interior. I do plan on adjusting the other slats, just not these.

chest_top___more_rounded.jpg

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  • *A:M User*
Hey Roger,

 

I went through the "CuteZee" Dragon Building process a few years ago. Here's a snap shot of "Sparky."

 

Wyboo_Dragon_composite_01.jpg

 

 

William

 

That is cute. I haven't decided if I'm going to significantly modify my dragon or not. It will mean throwing out a lot of work if I do, BUT might make him easier to animate. Or at least reduce expectations that it should move like a person.

Having something I can animate rapidly is going to be critical in being able to finish this in the time frame I've allotted myself. My penguin char is already fairly simple, I just need to add some finishing touches.

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  • *A:M User*

Here is the more or less completed chest. I've adjusted the spacing on the planks that make up the chest bottom, but there still seems to be something missing. Guess I need to make a latch for the padlock to dangle from.

I'm not sure how much I like the metal parts that keep the slats which make up the top together, but given that this chest is going to have a clay shader applied to it I'm not sure how much sense it makes to stress about them.

completed_chest.jpg

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  • *A:M User*

Here is another take on my dragon, so far. I don't have the hands, feet or head modeled yet, but I'm getting better at modeling quickly, anyway. This took me about an hour to do, compared to a week to knock out the first (very) rough version.

I'm not sure how productive, this is though. Even though I'm trying to create a more limited look I seem to keep coming back to the same general body shape.

Dragon___experimental.jpg

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  • *A:M User*
Does the dragon need to walk like a human?

 

It doesn't need to, but it is bipedal, the legs are jointed like a person's legs are. So I figure the expectation will be it should walk like a person. I could do a stiff-legged robot walk, but that would look odd (unless he was pretending to be a robot). I'm going to have to experiment with some walks and see what looks best.

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I'm glad to see this project is still going! My only advice would be to use the forums and people's opinions as you see fit. Because the models, story, and general feel of the movie is really only good enough when YOU say it is. I have been learning this with my own projects. I listen to what others say, and I value everyone's thoughts, but in the end it has to be what I want. How I see it. Then you know it's right. Good luck Roger.

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  • *A:M User*
By "walk like a person" I mean on two feet rather than four. A dragon that moved more like an animal might be cuter, like a dog or a cat.

 

Yeah, I really hadn't seen him as being a quadruped. In my storyboard sketches he is able to stand and walk upright. Although originally he did have quad legs and regular arms.

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In my case, I designed our dragon partly based on what he would be doing in the film. It wasn't absolutely necessary for him to have arms.....But he had to have

wings. I decided on the TSM2 rig which worked well for the legs, long tail, long neck, and wings. Nancy G did a nice job with the textures and spots.

 

Attached is a short animation and two screenshots of how the dragon was designed to the role he played.

 

Wyboo_Dragon_TSM2.jpg

 

Wyboo_Dragon_Mesh.jpg

 

Wyboo_Dragon_shot_021.mov

 

William

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In my case, I designed our dragon partly based on what he would be doing in the film. It wasn't absolutely necessary for him to have arms.....But he had to have

wings. I decided on the TSM2 rig which worked well for the legs, long tail, long neck, and wings. Nancy G did a nice job with the textures and spots.

 

Attached is a short animation and two screenshots of how the dragon was designed to the role he played.

 

Wyboo_Dragon_TSM2.jpg

 

Wyboo_Dragon_Mesh.jpg

 

Wyboo_Dragon_shot_021.mov

 

William

 

Nice!!!

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  • *A:M User*
In my case, I designed our dragon partly based on what he would be doing in the film. It wasn't absolutely necessary for him to have arms.....But he had to have

wings. I decided on the TSM2 rig which worked well for the legs, long tail, long neck, and wings. Nancy G did a nice job with the textures and spots.

 

Attached is a short animation and two screenshots of how the dragon was designed to the role he played.

 

William

 

Yeah, no mine has to have arms, it's important to the story that he be able to grasp things. I think I just need to make a few subtle changes to my existing model, rather than re-work the whole thing. I'm not happy with the revision I did yesterday, that is for sure.

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  • *A:M User*

So after having some time away from my experiment at an alternate dragon, I've decided it is pretty awful. I'm going ahead with my original model but making a few tweaks to it.

I am going to try to have some kind of mouth for him, since in my mind it doesn't make much sense for him to have no mouth. I'm posting a screengrab of the spline I'm going to add

to create an upper and lower jaw, and I'm also thinking about putting some nostrils in. I will have to experiment to see where they look best.

dragon_head.jpg

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  • *A:M User*

Well, I have a rough mouth splined in so far but it has me wondering if maybe it goes back a bit too far? Also, the corner of the mouth is really bad right now and I'm not quite sure what todo to fix it.

I think the mouth might look better if the hinge point of the jaw is moved up another patch, but I'm still left with the problem of how to make that corner look natural.

tweaking_dragon_head.jpg

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  • *A:M User*

Well I definitely think this one looks better than the other. I have a much more pleasing look to the corner of the mouth, even if it is not perfect. I think I may be able to redue the detail on the front of the snout a bit.

The inside of the mouth wasn't as bad as I thought it would be to do.

dragon_head_with_mouth.jpg

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  • Hash Fellow

Don't do the dead-end spline right below the corner of the mouth. That will crease..

 

Continue it across the next patch and hook it or join it with it's mate from the other side.

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