swankymonkey and jramauri did some feathers for the gaming challenge (one before the last one) so maybe they can help out if it gets a bit messy

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Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

I am also doing a bird for this competition ( on simplylightwave ).
And i am also worried about doing the feathers. Fur is by far the hardest thing to make in 3d at the moment for me.

I wish you good luck with the feathers.

Yeah. When I created the feathers on my bird rider model I just used alpha maps along with textures on feather shaped polys to get the look I wanted. Although that wasn't a completely realistic model. The macaw's head feathers are pretty smooth so I imagine you can just concentrate on texture and a cool shader.

I'm sure you've got it figured and I'm sure it'll rock!

I used to own a blue and gold macaw just like this one way back when. She was so smart it was scary. One of the coolest things she used to mimic was the sound on people talking on the TV. Kind of a strange garbled chatter. Plus she knew plenty of fart noises.

Dave

Originally posted by swankymonkey
Plus she knew plenty of fart noises.

Originally Posted by

And I'm sure you had nothing at all to do with that Dave...

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Liter is French for 'Gimme some ****ing cola before I break vous ****ing lips!"

Test for instancing geometry as hairs using Shave and a Haircut.

So basicly I have created a simple object (an arrow to be sure its pointing the rigt direction).

I think I am gonna use a mix of Texturing, shave and a haircut fur, and shave Instances where I want more fluffyness on the feathers..

all this is theory tho ..

Edit: Ohh yeah, I also had to test how to control the twist of the instanced object, but that turned out to be managable.

And by the way: if anyone should be in doubt - its just a sphere - not my actual model -

Attached Thumbnails

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Carsten Lind
Senior 3D Artist,
Maya Software Manager & Maya Instructor
LEGO Systems A/S

cool

So you've applied a multiple instanced arrow over the surface of the sphere all pointing in one direction? Is that MEL magic or something that can be done straight through the interface?

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Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

pure magic

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Carsten Lind
Senior 3D Artist,
Maya Software Manager & Maya Instructor
LEGO Systems A/S

Awww... too cool!

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Live the life you love, love the life you live

Now the basic model is done.. time to tweak....

Attached Thumbnails

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Carsten Lind
Senior 3D Artist,
Maya Software Manager & Maya Instructor
LEGO Systems A/S

looks like you've got the shape spot on, good stuff

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Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

Thanks

I need to tweak and do lots still .. but that damn online game takes alot of my time LOL

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Carsten Lind
Senior 3D Artist,
Maya Software Manager & Maya Instructor
LEGO Systems A/S

and this is the "simple, but I think its gonna do the trick" UV map

Attached Images

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Carsten Lind
Senior 3D Artist,
Maya Software Manager & Maya Instructor
LEGO Systems A/S

and a "how does the surfaces look with some fast shading and subD on" image .. quickly made in Silo..

I have actually found silo quite usefull for a few things..

First, it has this little neat thing called "select all faces that are not 4 sided" .. nice to have this

second, the subD is much easier than in Maya, but sadly it doesn't export the subD setting to maya, so I only use it for fast previews. Example : just press C on the keyboard and the damn thing is in SubD / Approximated subD

but here you see it..

Attached Images

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Carsten Lind
Senior 3D Artist,
Maya Software Manager & Maya Instructor
LEGO Systems A/S

Cool! Looks great, and very lifelike, even though its, well, not. It has that look that makes it look alive.
excellent! And is that UV map just 2 stitched planars?

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Live the life you love, love the life you live

Not completely two planars, but almost

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Carsten Lind
Senior 3D Artist,
Maya Software Manager & Maya Instructor
LEGO Systems A/S