Professor Pose
 

I'm modeling this character in preparation for animating. I'm a novice and have done a few other simple characters. This is my first attempt with clothing (lab jacket). I'm trying to get that " The Incredibles" look to my character. I enjoy doing character development. I have a few others I can post if anyone wants to see them, let me know.

Thanks,
Mark

i really enjoy the style of the character and the color scheme, they work really really well. only thing that bugs me is the size of the glasses... i know they go with the style, but seeing how his eyes are narrow compared to the face and then seeing really large glasses, i feel it kinda detracts from what the character is supposed to be, and gives him more of a clown-like feel.

Smaller Glasses!
 

Hey Thanks,

I appreciate your opinion. I changed it and I agree with you. I like it much better.

Mark

yes, much better. wonderful.

Thanks
 

Gonna work on the facial rig next.

By the way, I'm in Cleveland too.

Yeah, I think NeoStrider was right on the money. It looks much better now that you changed the glasses to better suit his face. He looks like a really fun character, and with such a cartoonish, expressive face, he should be a blast to animate. Were you going to use BlendShapes, or a complex facial rig?

As far as the overall look, I'd say he has more of a 'Jimmy Neutron' look than an 'Incredibles' look. I'm not saying it is a bad model at all, as it is quite the contrary. What I'm saying is he has that cartoony look to him like Jimmy, instead of the exaggerated humanesque feel of the Incredibles, IMHO. Maybe it's the brightness of the colors, too. If they were toned down a bit, and a more realistic look was added, I think you'd get the Incredibles look. But, if you're satisfied with the look it has now, then sweet. You've got a great model there, and as I said, it looks like it's gonna be awesome to animate. I'm just giving you an opinion on the Incredibles look. Just a thought.

I can't wait to see the progress!

another thing that screams 'jimmy neutron' is the hair... the incredibles used actual hair simulations, whereas you've got the stylized 'hair cap' going on... which i still thinks works great. as long as you give him personality in your animations, the modeling choices don't really matter all that much.

Well said, Neo.

Jimmy neutron > all. Good luck with it cant wait to see more.

Labcoat looks cool - maybe add a breast pocket. And by that I mean a pocket on the breast of the coat, as opposed to a pocket you pull titties from :alien: and maybe even put a pen in there.

Either that or instead of like normal specs, you could give him some of those squarer sciency eye protector glasses, if you know what I mean? I think for me the character needs to be an 'obvious' professor, rather than maybe say a kid in his dads work shirt :) People may or may not agree, just a couple of ideas anyway. Cool model though :)

Thanks
 

- I'm gonna add that to the coat, I'm looking at some Professor reference and that makes good sense. And you're right, it does look more like the Neutron characters, that type of hair is out of my league right now.

- I got my hands on a video tutorial that teaches Facial Rigging using blend shapes which I'm excited to start on.

- Here are 3 animations I recently worked on. They're my first attempts at the walk cycle and squash and stretch.

I used Flash.

http://www.markpicone.com/buddy/
http://www.markpicone.com/jester/
http://www.markpicone.com/dude/

I really appreciate your input, It helps tremendously.

mark

i remember trying to watch those before... any way you can redo them into video files (avi, mpg, mp4, etc) so they're more watchable?

Hey work you just have to open them 1 at a time.

yea i guess it might have been i was trying to watch them at home *shrug*

well buddy: looks pretty good, i would think he would go as high as his eyebrows do, but your squash and stretch and anticipation is basically what i would have expected to see... maybe a little wiggle in his toes when he reaches the top.


jester: walk looks great! all i'd really wanna see more out of him is some bounce from the points coming from his hat... maybe a little spring from the twirly parts of his shoes?


dude: was still choppy for me to watch, but from what i can make out, the ambient motion works ok. that's all i've got there.

'maybe add a breast pocket. And by that I mean a pocket on the breast of the coat, as opposed to a pocket you pull titties from '

lol, Classic!

Ahem...I also agree with petrol about the glasses. That was an excellent point. The safety goggle idea would really set the model off, IMHO.

The animations are cool. I didn't know flash could produce such things.

I liked Buddy. I liked the style and theme. I think the eyebrows go a tad bit high, but I see the theme of them being 'disjointed' from his head/face/body, so it works.

Jester was your best, IMHO. The walk was really energetic and expressive, and fit the character well. I agree with NeoStrider (once again:p ) that the hat could of used a bit more of a bounce, and maybe the shoe tips as well. The only part I noticed that needed some work was the eyes and mouth. There was a bit too much bounce in the eyes, but the mouth didn't budge. Unless this was some sort of mask, in which the mouth wouldn't move. In that case, you pulled it off swimmingly. But, he's an awesome model. I like it a lot. Great work!

Dude was my least favorite. Not that is was very bad, but it just looked more like an unfinished animatic than a completed animation, IMHO. But, it was a good start.

I'd like to see what you could come up with using the Professor and the Jester. I think a whole Mad Scientist/Frankenstein type animation would be awesome. Just a thought.;)

Thanks
 

Thanks for th input. I'm going to take your advice. I agree, I think the character needs more detail. I like the goggles idea.

I didn't really explain myself correctly. I'm working in Maya but I rendered using a .Tiff image sequence and imported the images into Flash to export as a Flash .swf. I've tried rendering out as an .avi from Maya but I keep getting these trails. like a flickering thing.

The jester was my first time I created a rig. All I know how to animate on his face is the eyes blinking, I'm starting on the facial rig next so I can make him speak.

Thanks a lot, this advice really helps out.

Oh, and I'm gonna make the Buddy character's feet wiggle when he's in the air. Thats a great idea!

Mark

oh don't render out as an avi (bad idea), i meant like... render out as a tga sequence (or whatever you prefer, just not jpg cause maya's jpg quality is cwap), and then use a compositing program such as after effects (or there are some free ones out there) to put the image sequence together as an avi...

To add to what NeoStrider has said, you can render the frames out as tga files, and them open the sequence in Quicktime Pro. Then, you can export it in many different formats.

I like Quicktime Pro 7. It's only $30, and it's loaded with some awesome features. I think it's a necessity.

Thanks
 

Man, you made my day! I wasted so much time trying to render out as an .avi.

Thanks for the info.

I'm creating this character for a maskot my company wants to use. I'm going to model a second version more like the professor from the movie 'Back to the Future'. ( crazy hair, black gloves and funny goggles).

Thanks again.

sorry if this crit is a bit late, but for me the nose isn't really working. that sort of soft mushy type of nose always kind of bothers me. I just feel like the underside of the nose should be better defined.

If you are happy with it though, pay no attention to me. :)

I also agree, some pens and pencils in his pocket would really add a bit more level of detail.

By the way, really nice animations mate! good work! :beer:

You know what... you make a good point, I'm gonna add a little more detail. I appreciate it!

hey mpicone, haha love the character youved created... i gotta agree with arran though that the nose isnt doing it for me abit aswell, it looks like a little hump :P i think you should make me more obvious :) but other than that, i love all of it... hopefully one day i will be created them like what you have done. keep up the good work,

also about the 3 little animation clips you have made, hahaha they look awesome, i really love the jester one lol.

cheers man, marlon

Thanks
 

Yea, a more real nose looks much better. let me tell you, modeling a nose is no simple task when doing it after the face is already modeled. I'll be practicing noses, for sure.


Thanks again.

"let me tell you, modeling a nose is no simple task when doing it after the face is already modeled"

yeah i know, ived had it happen to me twice and i have a habit of doing the nose last for some reason :S

cheers,

Nose and pockets have made a big difference already mate, that guy has a lot of character. Pens in pockets and science goggles next? :)

when arran said that the underside of the nose should be more defined i think he meant that there should be more of an actual underside, instead of just adding nostrils... perhaps like pushing the lip area in a little to give the nose a slight jutting out, or take part of the nose and lower it, but then again that's just what i interpreted it as...

but then again i might just need to see a side view *shrug*

Yeah, the nostrils look a bit big. I would adjust them a bit, and bring the tip of the nose down, maybe?