thanks t1ck - yes, I must admit I was kind of getting into the cheesy background sky images - i was kind of going for an end of the day, hippo on the range kind of vibe...:p I will try not to let the sky dominate the final image.

Not sure how much more I will be able to do with this before the deadline, as I am back into work today, but I have my maya books with me and I am reading about shadows and bump mapping...

Thanks for everyone's help.

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arran3D

arran3D blog

Here is my final entry. I have not done too much more over the last couple of days. I added a bump map and played around with the lighting, as well as some other tweaks here and there.

Thanks to everyone who took a look at my project. This has been a really good thing to take part in and I really feel that over the last couple of months I have been pushing forward.

Good luck to everyone else.

Cheers!

Attached Thumbnails

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arran3D

arran3D blog

well done on ure final man hope it goes good for u

well done and good luck arran
looks like you've learned loads in the challenge and put it to good use!

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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

Good work, arran! I still miss the shadows in the interior of mouth, though... But it's great, I know on next challenge you're gonna to do this even better. Good luck and congratulations for your efforts!

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Portfolio
Low poly model - Tesse

Awesome effort Arran! I thought you were biting off more than you could chew modeling that open mouth but you pulled it off like a champ!

I think I would lose the sky though. Its a bit distracting.

Rock on!

Dave

Thanks a lot everyone for all of your positive comments and constructive criticism. For me, this has been the best part of the competition - hearing what others think and having others view your project with a fresh set of eyes can really help. All of the entries have been of such a high standard - it has really helped push me forward.



Unfortunately I did not leave enough time at the end of the project to really do the lighting justice. I definitely agree that the mouth needs to be worked on some more. Still, I am glad that I have finally dived into textures and lighting - I had been putting it off for a while.

I know what you mean about the sky, Dave - I must admit that I really got into building the sky dome and looking for cheesy sunsets to match his cheesy smile. Although I am looking forward to taking a break from this model and working on something else for a while, I would definitely like to come back to this at a later date to work on his body and to possibly rig him.

I think next I am going to work on a low poly character... that is unless the next contest drags me in...

Thanks again!

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arran3D

arran3D blog

Awsome job on the modeling! Been following this one for a while. Why just use the maya software renderer for the model?

I am so new to rendering and lighting and due to work I only had a few hours right before the deadline to try and sort it out. I was using Mental Ray, but the last couple of renders I did looked really bad. On the next project I will get my act together!

Thanks for the good words THX1138.

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arran3D

arran3D blog

Oh no! I just realised that I forgot to post reference pictures on my entry. Here are a few of the images I worked from.

https://img138.imageshack.us/img138/7...02small8ft.jpg

https://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9590/hippo526dr.jpg

https://img45.imageshack.us/img45/5018/hippo748yr.jpg

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arran3D

arran3D blog

Nice work Arran. I never really liked hippo's, but know I quite like them. excellent skinning and modelling. This really gives me many tips on organic modelling.

Thanks bobalie - I definitely recommend entering one of the challenges and sticking through it till the end - everyone was really helpful and it was really good seeing others work on the same project.

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arran3D

arran3D blog

Hey man cool hippo. If you have a camera, you should take the inside of your mouth and use it as a texture.

Hey thanks anslaught!

It's funny you should say that - actually I did use photos of my mouth for the textures. :nod:

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arran3D

arran3D blog