A Preliminary Pose Test

[Lt Jim]

I've been busy modelling, rigging, weighing, &c &c and here is the final result. Both characters are fully articulated, and all of the facial controls work!!! The problem here is mainly that I don't know squat about lighting, and it's been hit-or-miss (mostly miss)! Comments and suggestions are welcome, of course! BTW using Mental Ray as the rendering tool, with ray trace shadows. One BIG lighting problem comes from the robot. He has a working "tesla coil" on his back (which animates a lightning arc as he walks); the lightning sort of "overlights" the scene, and I can't seem to turn it off! I tried setting the brightness lower when I created it, but it still seems too bright!

Fire at will, fellow MAYAns!

Regards to all!

Lt. Jim
NYC, USA

[13th_resident]

like father, like son. :attn:

i never knew robots were christians.

[arran]

Ha ha - nice work Lt Jim - the robot reminds me a little of the robot from that 'Return to Oz' movie from a few years ago.

Both characters are looking very good - the man has a lot of expression in his face and it looks like these will both be fun to work with.

Sorry I can't help with your lighting and 'tesla coil' issues!

[gster123]

Nice work man, especially like the robot.

[Lt Jim]

Thanks for the compliments, everyone! No, 13th Resident, the robot isn't Christian :-) though THERE is an interesting Sci-Fi idea, but I digress. Victorian/Edwardian "hi-tech" is all the rage right now, and I took my cue from the "Boilerplate" website ("Boilerplate" is a fictional robot, and the website is brilliant... http://bigredhair.com/boilerplate/ check it out!) My design is a more cartoony would-be German variant, pre-WWI-ish...I've named him "Heinrich" until something better comes to mind!

BTW Arran, the OZ stories definitely had some brilliant mechanical characters. I guess mechanical men were all the rage circa 1900!

Anyway, here's another pic of "Heinrich" doing a "buck and wing" from what is going to be my demo reel. I had somewhat better luck on the lighting, but there is STILL room for major improvement. I suppose I'd better start looking for books on lighting. Any suggestions? I will post the finished animation when it's done!