Alien project - Page 2 - Simply Maya User Community

# 16 18-04-2006 , 05:28 AM

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Wasn't referring to your muscle setup. Was talking about the first snap shot of you alien model.

Good luck though.

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# 17 18-04-2006 , 08:51 AM

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James

Thanks for the incite, I'll keep dropping in to see how it all goes

Cheers
Jay

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# 18 18-04-2006 , 09:13 PM

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Thanks for the support guys!

magget78

Yep. I know all about displacement maps but I'm not going to use them on this character. One thing I'm experimenting with is using Zbrush to make a displacement map for the alien that I will use as a bump map. So far it's working well. I don't like using Zbrush's bump map viewer texture.......

My alien is about 30,000 polys. That really isn't that much for a full character. I'll probably apply a Smooth when I render too.

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# 19 19-04-2006 , 01:30 PM

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Very impressive rig. I'd like to have a go at muscle systems too, but I think it would just crush my computer.
How do you imagine the texture for your alien to look? (if you plan to texture it)
And some kind of personal question, don't need to answer it if you don't like. Are you a clay modeler for profession and making cg ones is kind of a "hobby" or the other way round? And what is your preffered medium?

so many questions...

one or the other way, great models :bow:

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# 20 19-04-2006 , 09:15 PM

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farbtopf,

The muscles do take a while to calculate when you first hook them up. It took my AMD64 3000 with 1 gig of ram over a half hour to connect the muscles to the skin but now that it's done, I can move the model around quickly and the muscles move too.

The texture will be kind of light. I don't want a lot of wrinkles and bumps on this one. From 10 feet away the character will probably look pretty smooth but up close it will show a soft leathery texture. I have another creature that is very heavily textured. I used displacement maps on that one but I don't want to show it right now. Maybe later...

I use to sculpt with clay professionally but mostly it has just been something I do here and there when people want me to make something for them. I worked on the Jurassic Park ride for Universal Studios and also a few robotic displays that are in Vegas and Atlantic City.... I love clay but I also love the limitless quality of CGI. Funny thing is that the alien I'm making with Maya is taking about as long as it would take to make with clay and molds and cable controls and all that jazz.

I don't think of CGI as a hobby. It's more like a quest. I want to be able to offer low budget film makers a place to go to get hyper-realistic creatures at a price they can afford. I also want to use CGI characters in a movie that I plan on producing later this year. The alien I'm making is 1 of 3 creatures that will be in a 10 minute short that I'm shooting now. There will also be 2 spaceships and a couple of fun effects. Thanks for asking!

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# 21 20-04-2006 , 01:41 PM

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thanks a lot for your detailed answers. Wow Jurassic park! I loved it when i was a child.
Sounds very interesting what you are planing to do. I'm looking forward to see your models in action.
10 minutes short sounds like a lot of work. I've been working on a 2 minute animation for the past two months, so i guess i can get the picture of what 10 minutes mean.

Good luck with your film, (would be interesting to see a storyboard or animatic if you have user added image

cheers

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# 22 20-04-2006 , 06:14 PM

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farbtopf,
I want to see your 2 minute animation when you're done!

I'm really keeping the story and the storyboards under wraps because I think people will enjoy the movie more if they don't already know what's going on or what they are going to see. I decided to show the making of the alien model but I'm not going to be showing his ship or the other creatures. Ooops. I've already said too much user added image

Don't forget; I want to see your animation as soon as it's done!

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# 23 20-04-2006 , 06:32 PM

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So do I when you're finished
I guess I can show it to you somehow. My deadline is the 27th so it has to be ready for next thursday.
Before I disapoint anyone it is not all done in maya. I don't have the computing power nor the knowledge to do that. It's basically lots of hand animation and other stuff, composited together and the 3d had to come in to solve some shots that would have been impossible without, -to add some subtle "magic" user added image

thanks for asking for it!

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# 24 20-04-2006 , 08:59 PM

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The muscle system's looking very nice, have you got it to a point that you could post a pic of the influence of the muscles?

Love to see it if you have.

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# 25 21-04-2006 , 12:08 AM

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gster123 ,
I promise to post some rendering once I get everything working. Right now the muscles are working and they are indeed influencing the skin but there is some wrinkling and bunching going on that I have to smooth out.

It's hard to resist the urge to have all the muscles jiggling and bouncing around. It looks cool but it doesn't look real. Once you tune everything in the way they should be, the effect becomes very subtle and in some areas, practically unnoticable. It's starting to look good in the chest area. When I raise the model's arm, the chest muscles and the shoulder muscles and the back muscles all slide under the skin and cause it to deform.

Here is a shot of the completed muscle rig.

user added image

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# 26 29-04-2006 , 02:48 PM

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Hi,

finished my animation. But I can't compress it enough to be able to post it, well I could but it get's tiny and you'd need a magnifying glass to watch. Unfortunately I don't have a website either, so if you want to see it I'd have to email it to your conatact adress on your website.

good luck with your alien
cheers

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# 27 13-05-2006 , 11:55 PM

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Here's an update.

I've been spending some time learning how to use the cMuscle system. I like the way it works but I'm still figuring out the techniques of using it. In other words; I'm still making mistakes. Anyway, here are a couple of new pictures.

cMuscle has its own skin node with skin weighting, sliding, jiggle and a few other useful features.
user added image

The muscles stretch and contract as the joints bend. The skin slides over muscles or, if you want, you can make the skin stick to the muscles so that if the muscles jiggle, the skin will follow even if contact is not made between the skin and muscle... You can also add a fat layer if you want..

user added image

There are some more pictures and poses on my site. Feel free to check them out! As usual, all comments and criticisms are welcome.

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# 28 14-05-2006 , 12:06 AM

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wow! Really cool work velusion. Well done mate. user added image

The only thing that I am not sure about is the bump texture - It looks a little patchy in places. For example the upper arm looks bumpy, but the lower arm looks smooth. I am sure that this is somewhat intentional as you stated earlier on, but I just think that the transition from bumpy to smooth needs a bit of work.

Great website by the way.

arran3D

arran3D blog

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# 29 14-05-2006 , 12:20 AM

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arran,
Thank pal! I appreciate it...

I'm sorry. I guess I should have mentioned that the skin color and bump map were just thrown on for the rendering so we wouldn't have to look at gray skin. I've started working on the actual bump map but I haven't even started painting the model yet.

I'm struggling a bit with the creases in the pit of the elbow and also behind the knee. I thin the problem is with the way I modeled those areas. All in all; I'm having a blast with this character!!!

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# 30 14-05-2006 , 12:36 AM

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Yeah - it's been really good to follow your progress. I am definitely interested in the cMuscle system - it looks pretty cool.

Looking forward to seeing your animation. user added image

arran3D

arran3D blog

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