Arran,

I REALLY like the concept and design of this character! I liked your drawings and I too am looking forward to this fellow's completion! He looks strangely evil...! :-)

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"Ad astra per aspera..."

Thanks a lot Lt Jim!

I wasn't going for evil, so I am a bit curious as to what makes him look evil to you?

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arran3D

arran3D blog

Actually, Arran, he looks like a likable, everyday guy...but with that vacuum suit on, well...you gotta admit with a little imagination, he would make a GREAT "Batman" style villain! :-)

When I first looked at the thread, I had just gotten home from a full day of National Guard drill and I had only gotten maybe 3 hrs sleep the previous night. I saw your thread and took a look. The first thing I saw were the concept drawings and I thought "Wow! What a cool concept for a bad guy"!

Funny, the things you see when you're plain dog tired!

Keep us posted on this character! :-)

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"Ad astra per aspera..."

I see what you mean Lt Jim - he might make a good villain - I can't think of any super villains who used a vacuum as their weapon! Not a bad idea!

I was intending to use him for a short scene where he plays with his cat / dog creature, though I am going to put this project on hold for a bit, while I get to grips with rigging. I may have to include a few grumpy faces when I do his blend shapes. Thanks for the comments Lt Jim!

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arran3D

arran3D blog

haha cool. Does he need a job? 6 bucks an hour to clean my room.

Ha ha - I think he's already working for 13th_Resident!

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arran3D

arran3D blog

hey arran

This guy has progressed well, I really like him with all his gear on.
The shading problem is the line down which maya has triangulated the 4 sided face. You could play about with the smoothness on the edges, alter the height of the back topmost vertice or add geometry to smooth that area out.
Looking forward to seeing him jumping around zapping things

Si

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Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

Thanks Si - I'll take a look at that area and will give those suggestions a shot.

I think I am going to put this to one side and get back in to my mtmckinley Silenus project which I stopped after I finished rigging him. After watching all the great work in this months challenge, I think it is time to start doing some animating. Here's my Silenus as he stands at the moment. Look at those crappy arm textures!

Attached Thumbnails

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arran3D

arran3D blog

Nah man keep your Vacuum Guy going till he's fully rigged, then maybe have a fight between the two???

That would be cool!

Good work Arran

Ha ha - Not a bad idea gster - though Mr. Mckinley might not be to happy!

By the way, maya arrived yesterday and everything seems to be working fine. Any luck with your laptop yet or are you still deciding?

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arran3D

arran3D blog

Just got a Job for the summer so raising funds. To be honest I think it's going to be arround september before I get one.

Gone back to thinking of one similar to yours now!!

Is it nice and fast?

P.S - I think Mike McKinley might be be persuaded if his character wins!

ha ha - well I don't know about that - vacuum guy is pretty tough!

Though I certainly haven't pushed it, it seems to be pretty fast - I have been playing the new Half Life Episode 1 on it and haven't had any problems so far. Like you, I have been doing extra work to pay for it, so I haven't really had much too much of a chance to play with it yet.

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arran3D

arran3D blog

Not much to show at the moment - I have been working my way through a few tutorials and trying to get my head around animating. I started (slowly) working on Vacuum Guy's skeleton, so I am hoping that I will have some updates soon.

Also, I was having some problems transferring project files from my pc to laptop. mmoore5553, who showed me how to do it, suggessted I post the solution, in case anyone else has the same problem.

Basically, before recording your files onto CD RW, you need to turn them into Zip files. To create a .zip file, select all of the files you wish to add , then right click the files, select 'send to' and 'compressed (zipped) folder'.

This will compress the files allowing you to store your entire project and sub folders on a CD RW.

To open the .zip file, just right click and select extract. Probably obvious to everyone, except me, but just in case there are any other computer noobs out there... cheers mmoore5553!

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arran3D

arran3D blog

no prob ..just take it from an OLD computer person ..have to tell other people how to do it cause there will come a time when my old age will kick in and I will have to ask you cause i forgot hahhahah


glad you got it to work ...

also love how yoru vaccum guy is turning out ...keep up the good work ..and good luck with animation

ha ha - I think my memory is already going.

Cheers for the good words mmoore5553.

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arran3D

arran3D blog