Tibbles
 

Hi all,
Well I've decided to freeze my other character for a while so that I can work on this guy. It's another one of my characters. I am going to attempt to model the entire character this time including the body. I am also going to texture and render him. A little more ambitious than my previous project, but I really like this guy and have a lot of ideas for him. So I guess this is really the start of something that will be ongoing for me. hope you like him. Here are a couple of refs.

Penguin

Some mor refs:

And finally..... some geometry. Just working the basic shape of the head and trying to find some edge loops.

Mmm... yeah. Not much to comment on as you have only come up with the basic shape for the head. I can tell you that so far.. with the basic shape of the head only, I like it. Also, you have a very clean mesh... so far :). Its really nice, I mean the ref images and the project idea. Sounds cool! Can't wait to see it finished.

Cheers, :beer:
,Matt :alien:

Ok, couple hours of work in now. It's starting to take shape. Once again I am unhappy with the shape of the lips. I am also kind of frustrated, I feel like I have to do everything wrong at least once before I can figure out how to do it right. And once I figure out how to do it right; I later find out it's wrong as well. Grrrrrrrr!!!!:headbang:
Anyway, here's an update. I'm taking a break.

Cheers,
Penguin

Ok, I built the ears this morning. Went pretty smoothly and I am happy with the results so far. (Maybe I'm actually learning something;) ) I feel like with this second project I am developing a decent workflow, finding different tecniques that I prefer for different things. Anyhow, hope you all like it.

Penguin

Anyone have any tips on modeling the teeth, gums and jaw? I want to animate the mouth. So should I make the teeth and gums a seperate piece, so that I can animate them independant of the lips? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Penguin

Ok, so I went ahead and made the teeth this morning. I just made them as a seperate object. Also tweeked the ears a bit and added nostrils. the colors are just placeholders. I'm not sure whether or not I like what I did with the ears but I'm just gonna keep rolling. I will also probably make the teeth a bit bigger, closer to the drawing.
Penguin

The lips need thickness if thats the answer you are looking for with those. The inner mouth edge of the lips is too thin, pull that back into the mouth, you'll need to adjust the teeth accordingly, and then pull them out forward a bit too, its a caricature so exaggerate it more and give it some character.

Jay

Here, something like this, the black line is the inner mouth

Jay

Hey Jay,
Thanks for the advice. I fattened up the lips a bit and made the teeth bigger. I also added the inside of the mouth and throat. Is there a good way to model a mouth so that it will animate well later?
Thanks,
Penguin

I would model the lips closed for the 'default' head then you can create blend shapes (facial expressions) like the mouth open, sad, shout etc later on.

Jay

Ok, so here is an update finally. After 4 attempts I finally have a body that I am willing to use, although I still am not completely happy with it.
Cheers,
Penguin

Ok, so here's my rig. I am using IK for the arms and legs. I have control handles set up on the feet which allow me to control all of the movement for the feet and legs with one easy to identify icon. I am using set driven keys for the hands and feet (toes/ankles/fingers, etc) I have spent a considerable amount of time setting this rig up to be easy to animate so that the animation process can be a free and creative as possible. Next I am going to create a few blendshapes for facial animation and some simple muscle deformation. I know that there are many ways to build a good rig. So, if anyone has any suggestions, tips, preferences, experience, knowledge, etc, etc, etc,...... that they would like to share pleas feel free.

Cheers,
Penguin

does anyone know a good way of making it so that my model's feet will stick to the floor instead of going through it?
Thanks
Penguin

u make the monkey an active body and the floor a rigid (or the other way around) but thats wut ctrl+z is for :p

Thanks for the tip moldy530 I'll try it when I get home from work today.
Cheers.
Penguin

np... but if im wrong im sry...still a newb lol

gl
:beer:

Do you mean for the rig?

If so, select the IK handle on the leg and check the settings in the attribute editor. Turn on 'Sticky'

Jay

final rig
 

Ok, so here it is. After a lot of T&E, many crappy or incomplete tuts, tons of cursing and banging my head against the wall and a whole boat-load of fun......... I finally have finished my custom rig. I ended up trashing all previous attempts and just started this one from scratch. No tuts for this one it's entirely custom. IK for the legs and arms, set driven keys for the hands and feet and lots of manually oriented local rotation axi's. I now have a new best friend, the Connection Editor LOL. Anyway, I am very happy with the way this one turned out. I feel like I have learned so much over the process of building this thing. It does everything I set out to make it do and is very easy and fun to animate. (Don't have to touch any joints :D ) Next I just have to get the skinning right, then it's on to an animation test. Hope to have that update soon.
Cheers,
Penguin

OK, Here it is. I finally have a short animation test. I know that it needs a lot of work so any C&C would be welcome.
http://www.myfilehut.com/userfiles/1..._AT_102405.wmv
(Save As)
Cheers,
Penguin

Ok, not bad, my crit would be that the legs are kinda bound a bit bad, but tha animation's pretty good.

Thanks Matt. You are right about the legs. It looks even worse when you see the smooth proxy (see attached pics) I actually have some free time today. (which I never get during the week) So I'll try to work on that. I guess I'll try to refine the CV membership and add some flexors. That's what I did for the elbow, and knees. Worked out pretty well.
Cheers,
Penguin

Ok, So I worked on the problems with the legs. They look much better now. I ended up removing some of he vertices from the hip joints and giving them to the (pelvis/root) joint. I also added flexors to the hip joints.
In addition to the legs I tweaked the bind on the torso. I noticed that is was creasing and/or folding-in upon itself when deformed into more extreme poses. For this I just added flexors to the lower and mid spine joints. (gotta love those lattices:D )
Here's the updates.
Penguin