Game quadraped: Crab Guy
 

Hi there! This is a game model I've been working on for the past 3 months. Most of the time has been spent in Photoshop. Model stands at only 3500 triangles! Woohoo! My lowest count yet.

Modeled in Maya(obviously) and painted in PS.

Other applications I've used/using on this project:
UNFOLD3d
SEGA ANIMANIUM
DEEP PAINT 3d(for seems)

Thanks for looking :)

All pics are viewport grabs with NO LIGHTING.

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab70.jpg

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab69.jpg

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab72.jpg

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab71.jpg


And the photoshop flats so far:

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab67.jpg

Skeleton is also complete and I plan on using multiple versions of different riggs to see what works best for animation. This is made possible through Maya's kickbutt "retargeting" feature. I don't have to rigg the actual "skinned" mesh. I can rigg a clone or rigg a proxy version with simple parented geo(what I'm doing). The legs are also perfect canidates to test out Maya 7's new "SpringIK" solver.

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab53.jpg

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab61.jpg

very nice and inspiring :)

great work, torso, head and eye skinning is fantastic. cant wait to see the fully skinned version.

Great bit of texturing. For some reason it reminds me of the old X-Com texturing.

I would love to see this guy in action! He looks like he could put the hammer down it a fight! I really like the textures you painted for his claws.

Dave

Some good textures and model. Give us some animation dude!!

Jay

Very nicely done so far!

a very great modelimg and texturing but i think it would be better to give his legs some color

Slight update
 

Hi there! Thanks, all for pleasant comments :)

@Samurai jack, it's still work in progress so I didn't get to the rest of the legs yet. Here's a new render this time of where I'm at. So close to finishing the texturing. Woohoo!

@mhcannon: It probably reminds you of that because of the semi-cartoony "saturated" color scheme I was going for. Lately, I've been influenced by a Korean MMORPG I've been playing that features bold, colorful textures that really "pop". The game is ROSE online, btw.

btw,
@MtMckinley: I page through your book all the time. It's a brilliant peice of literature and one of my favs out there for game art.

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab73.jpg

I also managed to optimize the mesh further and he stands at only 3400 triangles right now.

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab74.jpg

Can't wait to take this fellow out for a spin soon.

Thanks for looking,
-Rod

WOW!

Cheers, :beer:
,Matt :alien:

Bit of a texturing break.. My Wacom pencil's smoking right now. :)

Anyhow, you want some motion tests? Here's some animation test(unfinished) I did within Sega Animanium. Haven't retargeted the motion yet on the skinned mesh cause I haven't gotten to skinning yet:

WATCH HERE
It's a 1MB flash movie file.

Anyhew.. I'm using Animanium to keyframe the primary motion on a proxy rigg. Here's a pic of the 1400 triangle proxy rigg:
http://www.rodbrett.com/crab80.jpg

Then, within Animanium:
http://www.rodbrett.com/crab79.jpg

Don't have Animanium? Check out the demo at www.animanium.com

It's a "full body IK" control rigger setup similar to MotionBuilder, but with a much simpler interface. You can download a the demo on Animanium's website and check out my CrabGuy animanium file here:

Here ya Go


Thanks for looking.

Lookin' good so far!

Crab Guy has a wicked right hook!

update
 

Ok, I'm done with the texturing. Well, at least for now. I just finished skinning the beast. I didn't do the tounge yet but I'm pretty happy with the deformation at only 3400 triangles! Here's some pics.
I've got a pretty decent range of motion on him. Since I'm not using any finger joints, I decided to invest more joints between the shoulder and elbow, incorporating "roll" joints similar to the cane-toad setup Roll joints are great for "pinning" the front deltoid muscles and getting a nice and natural "twist".

No spec map yet either. I don't think I'll do a bump just yet.

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab81.jpg

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab82.jpg

http://www.rodbrett.com/crab83.jpg

I know I've got a big gaping hole on one of the texture sheets. I'm going to use it for some armor add-ons later on. Lots of wasted space, but oh well.

-pod

Thats amazing, man! Are you planning on making a real game out of him? Anyways, amazing work. And only 3400 tris? Wow!

Cheers, :beer:
,Matt :alien:

Dude, you HAVE to export this to UT! :)

Great work, I especially like the textures since the legs and the body got painted...

Thanks
 

Thanks, fellows.

blomkaal, I am planning on exporting into Ut2004 actually. I've been planning it and been studying UnrealEngine 2.0 for quite some time now. However, it won't be a "playable" character just yet. I want to create a little machinima short with him in some sort of environment. If I DO decide to make him a "playable" character, he'll have to go through a little bit of a redesign for it to work. In particular, his body is a bit too wide for most of the corridors in UT2003. I would have to shrink down the legs a little. Also, he would need bits of armor peices on him so you can distinguish Red/Blue CTF teams. One of the claws would have to go in place of something that could hold a weapon. Not to mention all animations will have to be custom made(it's a lot of cycles.)

-pod :)