All the tricks of the trade! I learnd something new today
:beer:

cheers BMS :)

not really a trick Tiago2 just an experiment to see if it'll help (I hope!) ;)

Added a few teeth in, just the front teeth at the bottom to do and then onto the top teeth.

http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/polarbear/skull4a.gif

I really like what you have done so far. I look forward to seeing how you will build the skin around the skull.

cheers arran, I thought with 2 months to work on it then I can add a lot of detail in the mouth area :)

Are you shure you want to waste time on a skull just to get the proportions right? I cant see a polar bear head being that hard to model.

Of course this is just my personal opinion.

Like you say THX1138, a polar bear head isn't really hard to model a shape for. Whether the shape is correct is a different matter ;)
Instead of finishing the modelling in a week and then having 7 weeks of texturing/shading I thought I'd push my modelling skills over 2 to 3 weeks, give the texturing a week or two and leave the last few weeks to finishing the shading and learning paintFX stuff

Whether it goes as smoothly as that is yet to be seen ;)

Looking good by now.
I've already seen some guys modeling a dragon using this strategy. They made the skeleton, then the muscles and finally skin and details. You could see this on
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=290488 maybe it could be hepful to you.
This approach will never work with me, I don't have enough patience. I always avoid this kind of "zen" work. ;)

t1ck135!! You are a MADMAN! Nice job so far. Are you working on this one while riding the train? That must be one looong train ride!

Dave

I like this idea of modeling!

Yeah T1ck is really constructing a bear, not modeling it.
:attn:


I like the approach also. Great job.

Cheers jramauri, that link is definately useful and helped me think about searching for other reference material including generalised carnivore jaw muscles. The main reason I'm having a go this way is because I like the idea of learning about the inner workings while doing the modelling (crazy I know ;) )

Hehe, yep Dave quite a bit of it is done on the train (the morning one doesnt bounce around too badly (40mins) but the evening one is a nightmare (1hr). Gonna try and get some done in the evenings this week so I dont get left behind by everybody else.
Looking forward to see another winner by yourself!

Thanks Pyrus, though I have a limited amount of head muscle information at present so it might end up being a bit of a guess job in some areas :D

More (minor) updates tonight

Nice work T1ckl35! :attn:
You do have a great eye for proportions. I think this will turn out awesome.

:beer:

thanks mayafreak :)
I just try and get good reference shots so I dont have to second guess as much ;)

Not going to get a chance to finish the top teeth tonight so heres a little shot with the bottom teeth modelled. I plan to detail them a little more and make the mirrored teeth all unique at some point.
Just for ref, the front incisors are from both polar bear and brown bear references.

Fact of the day: Brown and polar bears can still mate and produce viable offspring as there is only about 100,000 years of evolution between them.

http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/polarbear/skull5a.gif

look good ;)

really cooking on Gas now Tick..great work !