July Challenge - Traiven3d - Noobie
 

Hi, just stumbled upon this board a couple days ago, so I thought I'd join in.

A little bit about me... Just graduated college where I was working in 3dsmax, although i've been working with all sorts of 3d apps for years. Decided this past month to finally take the plunge and learn Maya, seeing as most companies in Ontario use it.

I've used NURBS in Rhino3d... however Maya's have a bit of a different edge to them, so i'm not sure if i'll use them along the way or not.


On to my concept for the challenge. I've always liked the idea of being a vampire (i'm not a goth, just a fan of Anne Rice [an excellent author]), so I thought "What pet would a vampire want to have with him through the centuries?". I chose a house cat; small, easy to transport, see's in the dark, agile, and always has a look on his face like he knows something you don't.... what more could you ask for?

The pic below is of "Fred", a family pet who died a couple years ago. I decided i'd try to bring him back to life...

Of course in order to live for centuries longer, and be under my control, the cat requires a small diamond shaped vial of my blood, strapped to his neck by a eloquent leather collar.

Well i'm gonna go get some polys cookin, Later

welcome! Looking forward to seeing your work.

Cant wait to see what your capable of traiven! Seems like you have a wonderful idea! I feel sorry for your cat that must of been hard. I have also lost a cat and it wasnt easy.

One thing though, please try to stay within the challenges boundries.. which are making it a beast. This may be hard to do, but your model wont count for the judging at the end of the month if you have a normal cat. Ok, cya later.. and welcome to sm!

Thanks to everyone for their support from the start... The first few days of using Maya have been enlightening, and challenging. I'm slowly starting to get used the program... in many areas its nearly identical to Max, and in others its completely different.

IE. to make a mirrored copy of an object with smoothed proxy set up in Max is fast, however once you learn how to do the same thing in Maya, you start to understand the power that this app has under its hood.

Back to the project at hand, its also a coincidence that this is my first 4 legged model ever... so it's been a shakey start. I'm still not happy with my mesh... I may start again, but we'll see.

BTW: A handy tip for everyone else out there. Though i'm sure there's a lot of animal anatomy reference on the net, I found and invaluable, and incredibly cheap book thats a must have for the modeler types, "How To Draw Anaimals" by Jack Hamm.

Its a deceptively novice sounding title, but the author does an incredible job of breaking down animal anatomy, giving examples of motion and small details. For instance, not only is the shape of paws and hooves of many animals given, but for the elephant he shows the varying number of toenails that African Bush, African Forest and Indian have. Fur colouring, proper striping of tigers... skeletal structures.

The book was only $14 canada, the back lists it at $10 US. Sorry for the sales pitch, but its been a great resource to me, so I hope someone else can find it useful.

Anyway heres my struggling WIP.

cool :)
nice looking shoulders
but thats polys right?

welcome Traiven3d to sm! enjoy your time here...and learn much :)

Another WIP, I started over and its going much smoother now...

aL_3891: Yeah your right its poly's... i need to do some more work with NURBS in maya before i'll feel comfortable enough to model characters, especially considering there's less than a month left. ALthough I did start out forming the general shape with NURB's patches.

Hey, this is looking really nice! One thing im wondering though.. why dont you just merge the last 2 edges at the neck? Other than that (heh).. really nice figure! I love its shoulderblades and the joints in its legs.

looking good! more please:)

Well this is my last WIP for the day... its actually starting to come along.. i'm quite pleased with how this second version is going... although there's lots to work and tweak!

M: I kept the poly's seperates cause thats where the bone starts to angle into the leg and seperate into the body.

After i get all the basic structure done, i'm going to go in and start finessing the musculature...

"Finessing the musculature".. i will have to remember that one.. sounds a hell of a lot better than "adding muscles"... hahaha.

THanks for explaining why you left those seperate.. its coming along very nicely i do have to say. It doesnt look like polygons anymore though... or it looksl ike you have a lattice overtop of it in the above image. Will you be using the fur tool to add the final texture? Just curious.

Well its 4:31 in the morning here in ontario.. hope this message makes sense...

Nearly finished the body for now... I think the front legs need to be wider... Almost ready to actually add character to this guy by giving him a head that resembles Fred...

M: Its still poly's i just use a lower poly proxy as the cage, with the smoother underneath... its fake Sub-d setup from Maya 4: Fundamentals book. I'm not sure if i'll use fur yet, i'd like to, but I have to see how difficult it will be before I decide.

Off to get some much needed sleep.

Here the feet are added.. Right now there aren't sufficient enough poly's in the area to make the individual toes. I'm going to work on the head now.. and when its attached, i'll raise the entire body's poly count, thus giving me enough polys to add detail to all areas, including feet.

Cheers!

One question.. does anyone know of any rigging tutorials? I need something relatively easy, not too complex like IK/FK switching or foot locking, just a simple make-the-bones-and-attach-the-verts tut. Big thanks! :D

Hey traiven, the ones here on SM by mike are amazing! shows you everything you need from making the skeleton, to paintweights to blinn shapes!