Getting started on the PIG WIG ...
http://tenthchoir.com/warthog_109.jpg

cool, dreadlocks! ;) or a mullet :D

HA HA!! Yeah! A mullet! Actually more like a balding mullet which is even better (or worse).

Eventually those polys will be alpha mapped so they won't look so dreadlockish ... but dreadlocks would be damn cool!

Dave

Dave

Why dont you go for broke on this and use fur or PaintFX or even Maya hair depending on the version you have?

Jay

Dearest Jay:ninja:,

I may attempt some paint effects ... maybe even today ... but, alas, I do not have Maya Unlimited so cannot use fur or hair.

Dave

Me neither, join the club LOL, But for the future Im seriously considering Shave and Haircut as a replacement!! Its good value for money by far. I use Maya Unlimited at work, and the extras are good but a little slow here and there.

All the best mate
Jay

Hey dude

I've heard many people prefer shave and a haircut over Maya fur. What have you heard? It looks pretty cool on its website. I don't feel like I'm missing much with no fur, hair, cloth or fluid effects. Seems like most of the time people have a hard time working with them. Maybe a steep learning curve I guess.

Cheers!

Dave

Well a good colleague and friend of mine (GioChrono on SM) has been testing the shave demo and its very good judging by the results hes shown me, the ui is quite neat and is pretty intuitive...

Download a demo dude, I think its a 30day or something so...

Cheers
Jay

i beg to differ.

shave is not true hair. its a post effect much like paintFX [although ther are MR shaders it comes with]
styling shave is not at all intuitive. maya's fur has a million+ ways to style your fur/hair.
no true dynamics for shave.

bummer....
:ninja:

Vlad

Bummer...My Arse!!

Unless somebody is running a copy of Unlimited, bought or otherwise, shave is still better than PFX especially for those of us without the cash to by Unlimited or refuse to download hooky software. It can be applied more like a fur description than painting those strokes. I have seen the dynamics run too first hand on shave, I dont have a qualm with it.

Also as far as post effect goes, the same is credited really to all types of fur regardless, especially in larger post houses.

But what I ask having been for demos of PFX and fur at Alias here in the uk one thing I never asked is what the technology is behind Fur? As I know that PFX is based on Nurbs technology, any ideas?

Nuff said, carry on...

Jay :bandit:

yea, the pricing is outrageous jumping from complete to unlimited.

but i guess if $ is the issue, shave is the way to go for hair sims.

and syflex is a lovely product. :) i had a chance to use it on a few project.

i choose it anytime over maya clth.

im not too savvy on the tecnology behind maya fur.
i know i had an excessive amount of control last time i was using it.

Sorry Dave I know this thread is yours,

Yeah the syflex cloth is bloody good, I got a demo (another one) about 3-4 years back at an old work place to test it instead of the Maya stuff, it was veeery fast, so Id hate to think how quick it is now. And if it was good enough for the Matrix, well thats enough proof.

Yeah the price is seriously bad, this is why Im not anti Autodesk, because my theory is - they could do away with the Unlimited version, Im mean, lets face it, most houses re write the cloth etc anyway, but they could sell one version of Maya and like max have things like fur, hair, fluids and cloth as separate plugins so Joes like myself can pick those up as and when we can afford then then build up the toolkit that way. It would be so much easier too for freelancers.

Cheers
Jay

Keep talking ;) I didnt know about shave and that it had a demo (does it leave a watermark or not allow you to save or something?) as I'm worried that paintFX might look a little weak for my model (a guess as I haven't tried it properly yet)

Yeah, thanks for the useful information guys. Very helpful.

And great work on your model Dave. It's looking really good so far. Very convincing.

Hey Dave :)

The model's looking great, can't wait till you texture it, but isn't the hair pretty short on the real ones?

Dreadlocks ftw though! :D

Blomkaal- Yeah dude. His hair is a bit out of sorts in that last post. He looks like a reject from an 80's hair band or something ... WAR+HOG: TUSKS OF DESTRUCTION ... anyhow, I've checked my refs and trimmed things back since then.

The more I look at SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT the more I am tempted to purchase it ... $399 is a big chunk of change but it shouldn't break the bank! I will try the demo tonight and see whats what.

Dave

lol at the war+hogs band, that could be a side project after the comp ;)
keep us informed of how easy/hard it is to get to grasps with shave and if its worth playing with. I've got the demo sat ready to install on my desktop but would like to get the modelling and uv'ing finished before giving it a try.

OK. Here is my final base mesh update! On to texture and bump ... lotsa bump!

T1ck135- Lemme know what you think of SHAVE. I've messed with it a bit and it seems pleasing enough. I'm not sure its something I 'need' but I'll spend so more time with it when I get a chance.

Dave
http://tenthchoir.com/warthog_110.jpg

Dave

Looks great, but can u do me a close up of the ear (inner) as I see an area that may cause stretching unless you add a little extra geo to it


Cheers
Jay

Looking great, no comments from me other than lets see it textured! ;)

Will (hopefully) give shave a try next week and let you know how it goes :)

Hey Jay! Heres a close up of the pig's ear. I actually had been so wrapped up in the eyes, nose and mouth that I had forgotten about upping the polycount on the ears. But I think they'll be OK as is. What do ya think?
http://tenthchoir.com/warthog_111.jpg

Also, for those who may care, I will not be doing any displacement map in Zbrush. I think I've got the model to the point where a good ol' hi res bump map will do the trick. updates to follow shortly ...

Thanks!

Dave

Hey Dave

Thanks. It looks fine now I have the wire. I couldnt see the geo properly on those renders ,TUH! LOL

A bump map is a good idea at hi res. I did it with my last character and somebody elsewhere thought I'd Z brushed it!! Its about using ya loaf with the skills and toolset you have that counts, above that is an advantage which then becomes luxury:bandit:

All is well, carry on.
Jay

Thanks for the stamp of approval Jay! No red pen for me today ... whew!:ninja:

So here is my first bump test render. This was a quick and dirty slop job just to test some of my settings and values. As you can see this is still the non smoothed base mesh. I also plugged the bump map image into the diffuse channel (using a BLINN). Now its time to get down to it and (hopefully) make it correct!
http://tenthchoir.com/warthog_112.jpg

wow!im impressed.its very promissing.im looking foward to see the final result.

definately wow :)
looks like its going to develop really well dave!

is it a standard bump map on the mesh? (asking as I've only ever tried a bump map once) - makes me think modelling the lips on my entry is the wrong way to go...

did you do that bump map in photshop with brushes or...whats your technique?

Yeah, I'm also interested in how you do the bump map - it looks great so far.

Hey Dave! It's looking real good! Congratulations!
But a quick question: Why not to use displacements? I didn't understand. You have ZBrush, old man! So why don't you use to make your model even astonishing? Some philosophical or religion related issue? ;)

I'm just guessing, but for faster renders?

Sweet bump map dave, looks amazing considering the poly count!

You da man! :bow:

lookin nice
nice renders as usual
linkin the new bumb map but it makes it look slightly more evil

Thanks for all the great replies!

Mc-fleury- I'm creating the bump map in Zbrush using tools very similar to custom brushes (some b&w photo samples) in photoshop. The thing that makes Zbrush so cool is how simple it can be to spin and scale the custom brushes (or alphas as they are called in Zbrush). Also when you apply the colorbump material to your model in ZB you get very acurate feedback. I can't say enough about the program. I need a lot more time getting used to it but its potential seems limitless. This quick and dirty map doesn't have any black or near black values on it so things could look more defined. I also blurred most of it to get rid of some pixelation from some lower rez photosamples so it could use some sharpening up too.

T1ck135- Hey dude! Yeah, its regular bump mapping. What I'm wanting to explore more is using the bump map as a diffuse map as well. This can really accentuate the features of the bump ... a bit like occlusion.

Jramauri- I honestly don't think the model is gonna need any displacement. I will probably smooth it once and tweak the additional verts where needed. But mainly I want to see for myself what the true limits of bump mapping may be. I want to push it as far as I can. I think a lot of folks jump right into displacement without giving good ol' bump a chance.

Blomkaal- NO ... YOU DA MAN!!!

Pbman- Note to self: make pig slightly less evil:bandit:

Cheers!

Dave

Heres a bit of a lighting test. I know its too dark. I wanted to see how the bump would respond to more dramatic lighting. Plus I changed the EVIL EYE to something a tad more appropriate. OK ... enough screwin' around ... back to it!
http://tenthchoir.com/warthog_114.jpg

i think zbrush make displacement map not bump map.anyway i have zbrush but i dont like to always have to export and import lol.its why i dotn use it.;)

we cant really see the texture but it looks nice!

yep, not evil anymore, just one determined piggy!

cool stuff dave, keep it up :beer:

Dave

Looks like over roasted hog on the menu t'nite mate;)

Jay

Yeah, he does look a little well done (and I don't mean done well!), but I'm working on it right now.

mmmm ... blackened pork:beer:

and pork scratchings..... mmmmmmmmm (homer captions inc.)

One more update.
http://tenthchoir.com/warthog_115.jpg

that looks awesomly tight!
great work, and the bump map seems to be working as well as a disp map now (at least to my eyes)

cya later
matt :alien:

Hey swankymonkey, your model is looking amazing. I really like the bulges under his eyes. Are you planning on making him nice and hairy as in your side photo?

Keep up the great work!

:beer: