Jan-feb - Noob - arran - Page 2 - Simply Maya User Community

# 16 08-01-2006 , 09:26 PM

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keep up the good work
very nice. i like it

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# 17 08-01-2006 , 09:37 PM

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Thanks everyone for the helpful comments. Haven't had much of a chance to work on it today. Finishing off holiday vodka.

This has been really helpful so far. Cheers.

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# 18 09-01-2006 , 04:05 AM

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Here's another picture. I have converted to polygons and have been filling out the rest of his face and trying to smooth out the geometry. Still lots more to do. Need to work on his cheeks, the folds of his skin and his ears.

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# 19 09-01-2006 , 04:07 AM

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and here is one of him smoothed.

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# 20 09-01-2006 , 05:12 AM

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Your base mesh looks great!

Be careful with some of those bunched up edges around the muzzle/nostril area. I don't think you need some of them.

Dave

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# 21 09-01-2006 , 05:22 AM

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Thanks Dave, I'll take a look at it. The nostril definately needs more work.

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# 22 09-01-2006 , 09:44 AM

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looks good and already has that 'huge' presence that hippos give you user added image

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# 23 09-01-2006 , 11:06 AM

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Very, very good. You're in the right way!

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Low poly model - Tesse

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# 24 09-01-2006 , 03:49 PM

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Originally posted by arran
Thanks for the comments and suggestions t1ck135 and Legolas_hv.

Yeah, I was thinking of doing the inside of the mouth, but I don't have any experience rigging, so I wasn't sure how to go about doing it. Should I open the mouth while modelling to build the inside and then push it all back into place, or do I just hide the top part while modelling the bottom jaw?

Does that make sense? Anyway, I'm going to keep building the outside first. Thanks for your help.

arran

Originally Posted by

Yups I would also rely on Fallot's advise as modeling, then rigging (if you need some final open mouth).

What you can do within Maya that i really LOVE now is setting "Near Clip Plane value". If you don't know where this hides. Viewport Menu >> Camera attrib settings.
(you probably know, as every one of us encountered the default 10 unit far clip plane setting, and changed it).
There in the very first parameters. You'll find near and far clip plane.

Try it (if your scene is well proportionned towards working unit), ... some 0.5 or 1.0 value is funny to work with. This way you can kinda penetrate any object in scene (as it's not a object related parameter as wireframe+backFaceCulling e.g.). If you just want getting closer to some inner area before view hides it, well, just lower the value.

Some like it , some others don't. But it's pretty simple and
But it's pretty usefull to act on inner polys, CVs or curves, whatever. Mostly when combined with some selection framing.
A good way to set it correctly is defining a virtual centric point* to frame the cam onto. Then, press "f" ... and finally , tune the near clip so that it cuts out the part in front of you (the one hiding all "inside").
Then you're free to rotate around the part you're modeling, taking advantage of a well set near clip plane.

virtual centric point : for a cube, you're definitely defining it correctly if you select 2 opposite points. For a sphere, estimate 2 faces (even slightly not opposed) that will define the centric point. Then "f". For other more intricate volumes, you got to "estimate" as close as possible. Selecting the mesh than "f", is of course not always best choice.

Well done so far, nice fat head.

Hope it helps you not loosing time in opening the mouth to model the inside of it user added image

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# 25 10-01-2006 , 05:55 PM

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Looks great arran.. coming along nicely user added image

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# 26 10-01-2006 , 06:34 PM

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Thanks everyone for all of your help. The info on Near Clip planes is really useful to know. I am pretty new to Maya and had not come across that yet. Thanks Pyrus. I had a play around with it and it is definately going to help me model those giant gums, when I eventually get around to it. At the moment I am putting off his ears....

Unfortunately I am back to work for a few days so the hippo is on hold.

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# 27 10-01-2006 , 09:49 PM

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I think you must open its mouth to model the inner, then it wont be difficult to close them using a lattice or a simple rig

Trying it with the mouse closed is something insane!

Maybe the best is to make it in the middle point, i mean half opened.

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# 28 11-01-2006 , 06:28 PM

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I've took an ugly ( but detailed ) picture of a hippo in the zoo. Maybe you can use it for getting inspired when you starts texturing.

Hippo Photo

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# 29 11-01-2006 , 09:18 PM

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thanks Legolas_hv. Yeah, I wasn't sure how to model the mouth. I originally intended to rig the head and then pose it open, but as I don't know much rigging, or lattices, or anything.... I might just build it with the mouth half open as you suggested and then worry about rigging later. I am just not sure where those giant bottom teeth go when the mouth closes.

And thanks for the picture Bullet_Evader. It also helps me with those hippo ears, as well as with the skin colour.

cheers!

user added image