Ok So I came up with a couple funny ideas for some Final Fantasy/D&D/pop culture based CG shorts. (Sauron will be the bestest cleric EVER) anyway I have started modeling and I was wondering if I could get some advice.



So you can see the sketch of how I want the char to look more or less when it's done, and a WIP shot, I started with a basic body and am going to build each char from there. The body is rigged and moves. (The mitten hands are done on purpose not just because I'm a Lazy rigger) Anyway I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna do his coat. My current plan of action involves making the trim, laying it on top of the char and then Making the skirting hanging off the belt. What do you guys think would that be the way that you approached it? Also for the hair I'm using the head on the right.

Yeah that's about it really.

That's probably the best way to do it, laying a 2nd clothing mesh on top of a model can get pretty messy when animating.

Might even be easier to paint the trim as a texture map instead of modeling it in. All depends on if/how heavily you're gonna toon shade it. The more ya toon-shade, the more you can cheat things like that heh.

Very true, I thought about that but wasn't sure. Do you have much experience with the cloth material attribute I was thinking that I might do that for the long part of the coat. As for how heavy I'm gonna toon shade it, probably somewhere in the middle not flat but not realistic.

if i'm right the coat is leather or denim like material?

Yeah something like that. It's sorta like final fantasy-esque char colored cloth or leather or something.

you should model it over the base,depning on how cartoony its gonna be(and it looks realy cartoony),at least model the belt and bottom jacket.and of its gonna be leatherly or like,you should have the cloth setting pretty high right?

I would imagine. I've never used the cloth modifier before That was why I was asking. I thik that it may be easier in my case to rigs it with bones. Maybe something like a series of fan bones connecting the leg to the coat skirt.
although it strikes me as it might be a pain in the but. Oh well. Anyone have any sugesstions, bear in mind that I am kinda a rookie still

Ok so here is an update on the model



need to make hair and ears then it's on to textures.

i've done some test with it,but not sim cloth though.but i do know for some good anime results have the settings high.nice btw.

Thanks, I appreciate the comments as well.

oh just asking have you dicided on a graidient?(just wondering)

Not yet. I was thinking that I may UVW unwrap the model rather than go with the procedual textures

Something went screwy now when ever I try to open the model it crashes, giving an exception.... I'm so ........... I don't know. It was going so well too...

doh! To avoid this problem I usually switch between 2 prj files when saving. file-a.prj and file-b.prj (and sometimes more), that way if one goes bad you can go back to the other.

Open the project file with a text editor like Notepad, look for strange garbage which may have corrupted your file.

Might wanna try sending the project file to Hash if it still wont work.

Yeah I stupidly didn't have a back up file. I took a look at the file last night what I suspect happened was that one model file has gotten embedded in the other ( work from a base body and make alterations for each character, in theory to save time). Any way I have sent it to the Hash Reports section of their web site. While I hope that they can fix the file I' Starting over on a different part of the project just in case. Sword should be modeled tonight. Anyway more updates to come.

The sword.



I have for the time lost the cros piece, I like the simplicity of it not being there.

Uh has anyone done anything like morphing on char to another in AM?

let me guess,you want those 2 things n the picture to come out like in thunder cats(i hated that show).sorry can't help you there.but in any case i think a pose slider would come in to play here.

NO I was thinking that the sword's magic crystally bits would be all glowy and let the sword evolve over time also I was thinking to have another living sword that possess people and sort of turns them demonic, really not unlike Soul Calibar. I figured a morph effect would be cool.

Dude you hated Thunder Cats? It was totally a staple of my child hood like Voltron or Transformers. Oh well we are all different and I respect that. Just surprised me that you didn't like it. Oh well to each their own eh?

yeah,it was the bad voiceacting/sinc & the theme song that did it.and it was years ago and i couldn't remeber what it was abut but i know it didn't interest me.but the female cat was kinda hot O.^ .but still pose sliders would stil come it play here.draw what you want i to look like fully evolved the form the sword like that in pose sliders.

It may happen to characters as well....

hmmmm...well i dunno about that one.it might be able to be done with pose sliders but it might be super hard.

Ok I decided that it needed a cross piece of some kind. Also It now has some basic texturing done on it. Forth coming is bump maping and a handle wrap the UV images to work from are already in photoshop all I have to do is get around to actually doing them...

It Lives once again.



I have restored the basic body (Rebuilt) The body is actually better this time round, more efficient splines, the head has more detail as well. In short I feel so far it is better and I have a back up file as well. Now just to get back to where the clothing was.

Also note ears this time.

hey, so mabe it was a good thing it crashed!

Maybe but was still disheartening. I nearly didn't restart it. But I'm too stubborn to give up that easy.

OMG!!! I AM SO teh Happeh! They Fixed my corrupted file. I can Now seal the armor bits. from it that I modeled. LOL saves me some work, and I liked the aromour better on the old one. HAppy happy happy.

WHOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

grats!

Thanks all I'll be posting some more stuff soon, I have a background/set almost done.

Heh. A model for My demo reel He is also appearing in a comic that I'm drawing. For a realtively easy character he has been a real PIG to model. I figure that I am gonna use Volumetrics to make the smoke coming out of the smoke stack at the back of his head. He a robot samurai spcializing in the element Fire....

He has progressed Further.

Cool, very Mega-Man'ish.

Yeah. I love the Mega man games lots. Those Boots are a Pain to model cause the ankle covers tend to overlap somewhat. I guess tht would be position rather than model but anyhoo....
Thanks for the comment

Dude...nice

Mega man rules!!!!!

It does indeed. Here he is with some materials on him.

nice, cool glow on his intenas
but i don't think the face is really al that smooth i see some lined areas.

Yeah I know that they are there. I tried to fix em but couldn't As he is a robotic character pannel lines make sense especially in those areas so I don't care much. If he was organic I would make Damn sure that they were gone.

BTW I HATE RIGGING WITH A PASSION!!

A Question About Smart Skin. Do I have to make a new smart skin for every bone or can I do multiple bones on one SS?

Smartskins can't be shared between bones, each bone has to have its own SS. You can move bones in a smartskin tho.

You can copy Smartskins from object to object so long as the meshes are identical.

If they're identical and mirrored (like a left arm and a right arm) make sure you use Paste Mirrored instead of Paste when copying the SS.

good to know thanks.