Professor Character
 

I'm working on a second version of a professor character concentrating on more detail compared to the previous version, especially the nose. I appreciate any feedback. I'm trying to get that 'Incredibles" feel.

the nose seems to be a problem area for you, but it's hard to describe what's wrong with it. the top portion (bridge) should be a little higher (it's gotta hold his glasses up!), narrower (especially towards the tip), and a little softer on the edges, kinda like a more gradual edge than a sharp one.

the nostrils seem to be coming out of the cheek as opposed to out from the nose. maybe a little more definition towards the top of the nostril area (bring it out a little more from the cheeks at the top to distinguish it from the cheek).

i'd post a pic of an 'the incredibles' wallpaper, but i don't think that's a good idea since i don't have permission. you can do a google image search and if you choose only large images you'll come across a closeup of mr. incredible's face, which basically shows the points i've tried to describe without picture reference.

oh and just a thought, it'd be cool if you actually used a glass shader for the lenses so that way his face was distorted behind the glasses, kinda like when someone's got REALLY thick lenses and they've either got bug-eyes or really tiny eyes. the glasses are modeled really well for that cartoon look. i also like the ears and (what looks like) hair.

Thanks
 

Thanks for the input. I'm working on the nose. I'm glad you mentioned about the lenses but I'm not sure of the glass shader that gives that distorted look. Can you tell me how to get that effect?

well if you're just using maya software for rendering, you should be able to use any object with two sides to it and then on your shader:

open your hypershade, and go to the work area.
create a phong.
create three 'blend colors' utility nodes.
name one of them 'colorBC', one 'reflectBC', and one 'transpBC'.
create one sampler info node.

connect 'facing ratio' from the sampler info node to the 'blender' attribute of each of the three blend color nodes.

now...
from transpBC connect the ENTIRE 'output' to 'transparency'.
from colorBC connect the ENTIRE 'output' to 'color'.
from reflectBC connect ONLY the 'output R' to 'reflectivity'.

in each of your blend color nodes you'll have 3 attributes:
blender (which should be connected to the phong by now), Color1, and Color2.
for transpBC, you want Color1 to be 1 on the hsv, and Color2 to be about 0.8.
for reflectBC, you want Color1 to be around 0.02-0.05, and Color2 to be around 0.15-0.2.

in your phong, you'll want to check 'refractions' under 'raytrace options' and set your refraction index to 1.33 (which is the IOR for glass). turn on raytracing in maya software and render.

what you did was set your material up so the more perpendicular to the camera your object is, the less it will distort and reflect, and the more transparent it will be... like so.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l3.../glasscopy.jpg

the 'glass' sphere consists of two spheres with the same shader applied to both. that's how i do glass. remember, the more unique the shape of the lens (modeling a real lens might make it work better), the more distortion you'll get.

others like to render using mental ray and if i remember correctly, use mental ray's dielectric material.

Just thought this may be of interest. It is a tutorial with dielectric material. I have used it, and it works pretty well.

http://www.matty3d.de/MayaTutorial/d...rial/index.htm

Thanks
 

Thanks. I can't wait to try this.

I'm working att he nose, now I'm determined to get it correct. I'm glad you mentioned it, it's making me concentrate closer on detail.

This shader is going to be perfect.

mark

I love the syle of this and the nose is looking much better.

I like it! Looks really funny lol

Thanks
 

I love the lens effect. Thanks a lot.

I modeled with nurbs and converted to polys to extrude faces then went to subs for detail. Now I want to shade the hair and I'm having trouble. I can't use the paint tool with subs, I guess. Whats the best process? I converted back to polys to use automatic mapping but it messed up the smoothness in the render.

Any input will greatly help out.

Thanks

I dont think the glass shader settings you have are great for this

I dont understand why you have been give such a complicated set of instructions for something that can be achieved even simpler. You are a newbie....

For standard Maya Software render (with Raytracing), choose a blinn or phong shader, apply it to the glasses lens, set the transparency to almost clear. Unless you want a color in the lens, set your diffuse to Zero. Then in the raytracing options of the shader, turn on refraction. Then play with the setting for the refraction up or down, this will determin the distortion on the lens.

In your render globals menu under raytracing, set the values to 2, 6 and 5 for now while you run tests on the glass, these values are low enough to give a fairly quick render with good results.

Cheers
Jay

Thanks
 

Man, that was much less painful to achieve. I appreciate the help.

Yes, I'm a Newbie! If you have a moment can you tell me the best way to shade the head? Its sub d's now and I can't use poly UVs of course. I've done some shading while in polys using the automatic mapping and the move and sew tool before going into Photoshop but this model I'm not sure how to go about it, being in sub d's. The 3d paint tool doesn't seem to be the right way to go.

Any input will be appreciated.

Mark

I can't help you with the sub-d shading, but the model itself is looking great! I really like the style of it now.

Since you didn't use any Sub-D's specific actions (creases etc.) you'd better convert back to polys. Do the UV-mapping and then smooth it. (or convert to sub-d, same thing view wise).

Thanks for the info.
 

Sometime I gotta go 'round circles to get back on track, but I love this program! Maya rocks. I just discovered the 'Create .PSD network'. And to think I just scratched the effing surface.