Simply Avatar : Hammer.
 

this is all i have done so far, (i had to come to work today. so i have no photos)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...r/th_navi1.png

Hey Hammer

Looks like a nice start.
I am noticing that modeling avatar related stuff is becoming a reall hype, no matter :)
I haven't seen it yet but I have looked up some images on the avatar because everyone here places the ears on such a strange place and I wanted to check up on that before commenting.

When I look at the avatar characters they look somewhat catlike to me particulairy the eyes, nose and ears.

I have done a quick paintover which I hope is helpfull

gees, how about you give me a chance to do a little more before posting a "paint over".

I did say i was at work didn't i?

At least it's good feedback and someone took the time to do a paint over.

this is true, and i'm sorry i do appreciate it. i was just a little surprised. I thought it was a bit premature...

so far i haven't really touched the model, just working out how jay made it and changed some of the topology so that it works with the new features.

i posted a screen shot of the base head next to the model i've changed to show how far i've got.

just a bit more... is the ear too big?
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...r/th_navi2.png
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...r/th_navi3.png

I think the base of the ear should start around the bottom or middle of the eye and a bit forward, size might be right....dave

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/news/00026745.jpg

i think you are right.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...r/th_navi5.png

Hi Hammer

didn't think a paintover was a bad thing :), I find it is the easiest way to show stuff and it wasn't meant in a negative way.

I will not do a paintover this time but will try to steer you with words okay ? ;)

Do you have a sculpting app because it's a hell of a lot easier to reshape the features in there and once your happy with them do some retopologising in maya.

Regarding the thickness of the ear I think it greatly depends on how thick your ears are or how large they are, if you have big fleshy ears in real life the avatar should have the same :)

The placement of the ear should be at the same spot as a normal ear through the Z -axis.
The lowest point of the ear should be around the mid point from the eye/iris in Y.
And the ear should look like a cat's ear so get rid of the lower earlobe and connect the ear straight to the head and sculpt/model some flesh around the attaching area.

The inner side of the eye( where you rub your fingers when your sleepy don't know the english word for it) should follow the browridge down some more so it becomes arched and end with a somewhat rounded ending instead of a sharp edge.
The nose should look like a T with a shorter leg at the end

Try searching for cats on the internet and look at their eyes/ears/nose so you have some modeling reference.

thanks for the feedback...
you might be confused when i said big i meant scale not thickness.

I can see what you are saying about the cats ears thing, but they definitely have ear lobes. you just have to look at a few stills from the movie.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/officia...81733/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/officia...82718/sizes/o/


btw, i have no problem with you painting over my work. Although, I had just started and thought you were jumping the gun a bit.

Just trying to help that's all .

I don't count that as lobes really, it's just a bit of a fleshier part than the rest of the ear, so it has some freedom of movement.

keep in mind that its not a native, its an avatar
you're going in the native way I think
but it looks really good =)
but you should keep some humans shapes

i've not actually seen the movie yet. The IMAX is booked until February!

outch! poor you

well in the movie the native have cat eyes or near to..
but humans keep the "human" eye shape
they also have some facial difference
the naavi are not built like the mans
mans faces is... wider well by looking at some reference picture you'll see what im talking about =)

Looks good Hammer, you need to get the reference of you in there too mate so dont forget - bummer having to work today too!

is the ear too big?

Lol your the one posting reference links, use them!

Ears are looking good, funny about the comment of them being in a strange place, they are anyway. The base head I did was a rough placement too just to get things going, I wasnt being accurate, thats for you lot to be!

Yeah we are going for Avatars, not native Na'vi.

keep it up and dont forget refs of you to compare the models

Jay