Hi,
I've been planning to complete several projects in AM but I can't seem to get things rolling at a good pace. So I figured that if I post some WIPs I might be spurred along by the forum and eventually complete something. I usually have a few things going on at once so its a little difficult to concentrate on one project through to completion. I will try to change that for the new year. Hopefully I can find some success by doing this.
The project I'm currently working on is fairly complex with numerous characters and a very detailed background with lots of action. It will be a still. I am doing this only for my own amusement, especially since it would probably be easier for me to just paint the image.
The first model is of an orc chieftain or shaman. I still have to add accessories.

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and a closeup of the face,

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Hopefully I can keep this going till its done.

He's got Popeye arms!

Good looking splining!

Hey thanks!
I was worried about the arms for deformation when posing but they seem to work ok.

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Up next is texturing. I will be using 3d painter.

Your model is looking very good, Javier, but I would be inclined to continue the spline with the hooks all the way into his armpits, unless he will be wearing something which will cover that area. I look forward to seeing your progress.
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Edit: You posted those second images while I was typing. It looks like the hooks are not an issue so far so maybe they will be okay where they are.

the arms are very interesting. good work;)

Looks great so far, Javier!

Looks great!

You should send that to jason at hash dot com to participate at the mascot-contest!

*Fuchur*

Yes, that is some impeccable modelling Javier! Can you get an image in for the mascot? He's got Mascot written all over him.

Indeed. Better hurry though. One day left!

Thanks guys. Unfortunately I can't enter this model in the contest. I had another model I intended to enter but could not finish in time. Actually that's sort of why I started this thread. Here are some pics of the other model. Since I won't enter, I guess I can show it. Still plenty to do, rigging, textures, clothsim etc...

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Good luck to all those who entered. Maybe I'll submit something next year ...

great modeling

great characters JavierP, they really have a good splining, go ahead whit them...

Here's a goon to follow the orc shaman. Its a model based on the original shaman model, but there are specific differences in the face layout and the layout of the torso. They will look similar because they are of the same race naturally, but I only re-used a portion of the original model.

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More to come ...

I managed to get some more work done on this project. UV mapping on the first character is almost finished. I'm just having a little trouble with the ears and the soles of his feet. I may have to flatten them manually instead of using the auto mapping in AM. Also working on a second goon for the orc leader.

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its on to paint as soon as he is fully mapped

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just fleshing out the face still. I may just modify the body of the first goon and attach it to his head ...

Tha mapping looks good ,Iv never triede it like that but will have a go sometime

Is this a new feature I've missed? How are you "auto-mapping" UVs?

I don't think its a 'new' feature since I'm doing this with v13. I am still learning all the ins and outs of the new iterations of AM. Perhaps I'm not using the right terms, but I have found that manually flattening a model to apply decals is no longer necessary with the variety of application methods now offered (i.e. cylindrical, spherical, planar). It is fairly easy to map even a complex model with one decal to use in 3d painter (or even photoshop for that matter). AM unwraps them for you. Robcat has done some demonstrations of it lately in his 11 second club thread. My approach is different from his but the results are the same.

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You basically end up with an UV setup like those seen in poly apps except with a whole lot more flexibility in less than half the time of manual flattening. It is a pretty powerful feature that does not seem to get much attention.

Ahhh, OK. Thanks for explaining it.

very cool models!

I've not done any UV unwrapping. I would be interested in knowing if there are some helpful tuts or tech refernces to this. I am thinking of adding more detail to some of my models for another project that I have in the works. This seems to be along the lines of being able to do that. I've seen Robcat's cylinder unwrap in the other posts, but how to get the full unwrapping as in your picture, JavierP? Most interested. Thanks.

Ok, the model is fully unwrapped and textured (at least all the areas I plan to use decals on).

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I have not seen many tutorials on this sort of thing. William Sutton had some good info on his site, but I'm can't recall all the details of it. In my case I really am just working to find the smoothest work-flow for my own projects. What I found was that if my model is dissected into logical groups that would take advantage of the mapping methods (spherical, cylindrical,planar) it was easier for AM to unwrap the geometry without too much distortion. If you look at my previous post of the UVs you see quite a few differences with the final result. The extra step of creating groups gave me much better control of the location of seams and the unwrap patterns.

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This model required 22 individual groups and stamps, but I'm sure that the number of stamps will change from model to model. The actual application of stamps is fairly straightforward, I will try to distill my technique and post a step by step for you to see.

Thanks, JavierP. I've searched the forums for 'unwrap' and quite a few threads came up about unwrapping and UV stuff. I read through William Sutton's tutorial on his blog. Very informative. Of course, it's William, so that's a given. hehe I guess my confusion came about from doing it all wrong to begin with.

For me, I always thought of 'Decaling' as a seperate operation on each unwrapped mesh. That is to say, I would select a group, hide others, do an unwrap action and then import picture to decal and then apply it. I would do this for each group. Thereby having multiple pictures for different decaling. I kept seeing how others were doing it with 1 picture. I am now starting to see how it is done. That was the one big thing that was keeping me from doing more realistic characters. I'm learning. As, I've only really done cell shaded.

Look forward to having some insight into your workflow. Thanks.

super work of modeling. I will follow your post attentively;)
the technique is really well thought.

Gratien

Haven't had much time to work on this, but here's a small update. I'm beginning to refine details and will soon be ready for color mapping.

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This is displacement mapping, although bump mapping looks the same but really doesn't render any faster in my opinion.

Great work!
So much I need to learn.

Excellent work!

Looks great, Javier!

Thanks guys. I've begun preliminary work on color and spec maps :

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There are still areas that need work but he is nearing completion. I need to hurry up as I still have a few more of these guys to make.

Well here's a minor update ... I'm still working on this but it has been slow going.

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This is the second goon to follow the shaman. Hopefully I can have him rigged and ready to go by the end of the day.

Great stuff Javier! Hey...how are you getting that nice rim-light on your characater as seen above in post #28?

Thanks Matt. The rim light is made by a "rim light". Its just a light placed behind the character, however, shadow casting is turned off. This only works if the light is at a glancing angle in relation to the model or the lack of shadows can become distracting.

Oh...I missed that second last update. He turned out nice.

The pitted look around the nose looks too course for my tastes, but I do like this character.

Cheer

Thanks ken and David. Yes his nose was too coarse-looking for my tastes as well. I have changed that area of his bump map already.

I thought that was just because he's an alien. Nice creature, well done.

Very nice modelling and textures!