Digital humans the art of the digital double
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# 1 17-11-2004 , 06:42 PM
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Cat for Vet School

This belongs more in the WIP forum than the general forum, methinks.

This is a still from the video that my animation has to blend in to. I don't have to go for photorealistic, because these are just training videos (this on how to intubate a cat for anesthesia), but I do have to make the cat look good enough that it's not jarring for the audience.

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# 2 17-11-2004 , 06:43 PM
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This is where I started several weeks ago, after looking at a lot of skull references online. Someone later gave me some skulls to have around the office. Yay.

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# 3 17-11-2004 , 06:44 PM
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Adding the body.... still a little rough, don't you think? user added image

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# 4 17-11-2004 , 06:45 PM
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Lots of tweaks to the body... this is more or less how the body looks now.

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# 5 17-11-2004 , 06:46 PM
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Learning texture mapping and starting to play with fur... oh, fur. Such a headache.

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# 6 17-11-2004 , 06:47 PM
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Smoothing, opening the mouth and modeling teeth/larynx, and tweaking the lighting:

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# 7 17-11-2004 , 06:47 PM
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Looking good sounds. like a challenging and fun project.
good luck

# 8 17-11-2004 , 06:48 PM
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More work on the mouth/larynx, as this is really the focus of the video... and because fur is driving me NUTS! user added image

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# 9 17-11-2004 , 06:49 PM
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This is my last shot at using Maya Fur. This was the best I ever got it to look under GI_Joe. user added image Poor kitty.

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# 10 17-11-2004 , 06:50 PM
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This is my version of a trachea, which is where all the magic happens in this video. Lots of particle effects showing the gas moving out the tube and into the lungs.

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# 11 17-11-2004 , 06:51 PM
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And, after several attempts to just give up on furring this cat altogether, I gave Shave and a Haircut a shot.... and wow! It's not perfect, but man is it better than Maya's fur. I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere now! user added image

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# 12 18-11-2004 , 12:10 AM
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wow, that looks terrefic!


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# 13 18-11-2004 , 12:14 AM
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Thanks!! It's funny... the vet school people look at that latest picture, and all they see is a freaky-looking dead cat with a bad hair day. They're used to seeing the real thing. user added image I look at it, and I'm like, wow! Look at how evenly that fur is covering the mesh! And how good the light looks on it!! Eye of the beholder, I guess... I'm going to work on de-frizzing it tomorrow.

Does anyone have any critiques on the lastest render? I'm just way too close to it at this point. user added image

# 14 18-11-2004 , 02:27 PM
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He, my girlfriend is a vet, seeing you do something productive with Maya will be a good argument toward here to let me 'keep training' on it!

Are you doing this video as paid work or for free? Because I am sure there is some potential for that kind of business.

# 15 18-11-2004 , 02:35 PM
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Yeah, it's definitely useful. The anesthesia machine videos I finished a few weeks ago are getting rave reviews from the students. I really enjoy the work, too, it's such a fun, refreshing change from trying to create entertainment. user added image

As for whether or not I'm getting paid.... it's complicated! I was hired to do mostly low-level tech support and move tables around in the classrooms. I'm not sure what I was thinking at the time. user added image But then some people were like, wait, you can do all this 3D stuff?? a few months ago, and I dove right into it. It's weird, though, I'm still getting paid to move tables and junk like that, even though the faculty and vet companies that have seen my stuff are going nuts over it. AND, my department is going to make me stop doing 3D December 1st, and go back to moving tables full time! :angry:

So, I'm in the process of putting together a business plan and a website, and I'm just going to try to find clients to do this on my own. It's a big university, and I'm hoping there are lots of professors and researchers who haven't realized how available 3D has become....

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