My first character WIP

HAH! your first character ? man you should be proud, i think my first character still looked like a box, with too many polys.

Thats honestly sweet as, the body is taking shape, looks like its coming along nicely bullet21.

Textures make or break a low poly character, ive always found, but still having a good, well deforming model underneath it - also plays a part.

How many Tri's are you thinking hes going to be when your done ?
What kinda character is he going to be ? warrior or something like that ?

Looks awesome so far

bullet21 man you got me heaps jealous, my first character... well i think a few people might remember i tried to give him abs and it looked like he had a grill lodge in his stomach or something :P Yours is awesome man, thats a fair first effort. What have you been using to learn max?

oh and i suppose you want some construct crit, ehhh.... curve the shoulders a bit but really for a first model, dont worry that much :D

well done again, keep it up!

You said you made him from everything you knew so far. So I thought there might be something important I might be able to tech you. Not so much about how to model but the effects of how your model is set out.. anywhoo.... have a look at this:

http://uniquesnowflake.web1000.com/Sumea/deform.html

HazarD - Thanx for the encouragement. I started him of with a box as well. I agree that textures make the character. I'm aiming for under 800 poly's and also i don't know what i want him to be just a basic human. i'm jus trying to apply what i know to make a character so nothing to specific.

Moonunit - I've taken your crit and i curved the shoulders more and it does make a whole lot of differance. As for what i've been using to learn. I strongly suggest the 3d buzz video tutorials. They go through every edit geomatry button and tell you what it does. they are free. but now they have some sort of system where only the people who go on it heaps can download anything passed issue one :(. i've got some video tutes on cd if you want i can send them to you.
also i can't stress this enough be patient and just muck around in max. creat a box and do stuff aimlessly.

Snowflake - wow, that is awesome i expectted help but not that much :), i did the shoulders with edgedivide and i am about to do the legs. thanx.

wow, great for a first character, keep it up :)

How can i view every single poly. I'm using edit poly and i'm pretty sure it isnt showing some edges. For example when i divide an edge it should creat a poly shouldn't it but it doesn't show it. There a also places where the slope of a poly changes but there isn't any edge where the slope does change. plz help

and also, ho do you do the renders with the thick lines, i know how to turn the edges to shapes but how do you make the edges renderable. Sorry about the double post.

Bullet21 - Go into Edge sub-object level, select all your edges ( make sure ignore backfacing is is turned off ), scroll down until you find the create shape from selection button. Click that then make sure linear is checked in the box.

Now press 'h' and select the new spline shape you just created.
Click on 'renderable' and adjust the thickness which is just above (?) or below - from memory.
Now hit the render button and view your new thick and clean wired goodness [;)]

Also you can change the colour of the wire just like you would any other mesh object.

For viewing every poly - you can right click on the mesh object goto properties, then uncheck the box that says 'cull backfacing'.

Hope that helps man [:)]

Also, just a note - im using max 6.0 - i hope those directions work for you [:D]

good work man! my first character probably looked a bit like 'hazards' except my box had wings haha. I am ashamed ...

What's a good lighting to use

Oh man - now thats a pretty broad question [:D] - depends on what your trying to achieve i spose!!

the best way to learn about lighting is to just keep mucking around with some lights and rendering until you like it. Or if your going to try and capture a specific mood or lighting, try some of the max tutorials and user reference, perhaps some tutorials on lighting somewhere might also help.

If you've got $90 spare go and purchase Jeremy Birn's book 'Digital Lighting and Rendering' published by New Riders, great book. Should be easy enough to purchase online.

$90 bucks no chance, i'm starting to question your sexuality, i mean 90 bucks do i look like a fucken ATM up in here.

quote:$90 bucks no chance, i'm starting to question your sexuality, i mean 90 bucks do i look like a fucken ATM up in here.

Righto then, just a suggestion, no need to get so hostile. Also, how does my sexuality weigh into the equation?

Just joken wizendoldman please dont get offended [:)]
it's just that i'm on KFC wages, so money is always a big issue seeing as it is so scarce [:)]

HAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!! thats classic - sorry for the spammy post, bullet21 you just cracked me up with that ATM comment.

[img]http://img7.photobucket.com/albums/v18/bullet21/cwip.gif[/img][img]http…]

On the right is a screen grab and on the left is a render. I have done the hands and i am quite happy with it. I have started the head but i am having great dificulty. I need to shape it more, do the nose, ears and eyes. Can someone tell me how they would do these, i've tried and had no success. I am also wondering if the lips are made from polys or textures. If polys how do you do them.

Oh an yeah it's sitting at 956 tris a bit over the 800 i set for my self but i don't care to much, i'm just trying to make a character with out to much worry over polycount.

All help is appreciated. Thanks.

Man that looks heaps better than my first go -

If you want some good reference - try and find yourself some anatomy pics - i can see just from a glance that his forarms are heaps long and quite fat at the wrists, his head is a tad big and looks like its sticking out more than it should due to the longish neck. also i reckon youve got a whole lot of tris sitting in those fingers you made - if you check out how i made the hands on my cyber punk guy - he only has thumbs the other 4 fingers are grouped in one big chunk [:)]

have a look at some reference anatomy and all sorts of stuff from here :

www.fineart.sk

if you wanna create noses and lips and things like that - usually for a low poly character below 1000 tri's id only have maybe a couple of tris like sticking out from the actual mesh - - same for the nose as well - just make it really simple, dont worry too much about nostrils and shit like that.

I hope that helps a little man - overall though thats honestly pretty good for a first attempt at a human proportioned character [:)]

I did some of the mods you told me Hazard, shorten forarm, resize head ansd neck. and i could not believe how much of a differance such little details make. Thanks mate. But i'll work on the head tommorow. Oh and the fingers are grouped but for some reason there are edges where on it, i don't know how to get rid of them with out deleting the polys.

Edit: don't worry i just worked it out, select edge and hit delete. but when you press delete on the keyboard it deletes the polygon as well Y.

No worries man, glad to help. the length of the arm was ok as it was - just the forearm was a bit long. hope you didnt shorten the length of his arm [;)]

[img]http://img7.photobucket.com/albums/v18/bullet21/Cwipf.gif[/img][img]htt…]

well it's slowly comin along. I've made the ears, the nose and resized the forearm, head and neck. I just need to do the eyes and lips nad i think i'll be finished. But the hardest part is shapin the head i just can't get it right. also how do you make the eyes, do you make a whole and chuck a sphere in or what.

And you've probably noticed that they are elf ears, i've decided to make an elf :)

I hope that this isn't taken the wrong way: your model look like a 60's robot! (I think the uniform gray might be contributing to some extent) have you thought about how you will do the surface finish? An old style robot could be a cool theme for finishing it off.

ps- I like 60's robots, retroCool! so it is a compliment :)

boy wouldnt that be hard to texture. *scan in some alfoil*. lol

Thats looking heaps better than it was before bullet21.

If i could suggest one more thing and that is the chest part of him looks a tad long, ie from the base of his neck down to where his hips would be, if you shortened that distance it would fit in nicely with the length of arms and legs he has now [;)] - in saying that, im being pretty picky man, its not too shabby at all, but i think youll notice a difference if you tighten that area up a wee bit.

He looks heaps cool tho man - i wonder if i could fnid you a pic of my first ever max human model... ull laugh for days. [:D]

Does anyone know a good tutorial for making low poly hair. and clothes.

at this stage you could just texture them on, short hair (or bald if you like) etc. itd satisfy for you first model :P

yeah but i'm havin a lot of dificulty unwraping it i can't find any tutorials or nothing.

LOL! alfoil!!, could do a nice crinkly finish! (sorry bullet21, I'm probably not sounding very serious about your project at the moment) That could look kind of cool in a funny/naff way.

has anyone else noticed that the bullet21's image at the top looks like a child/adolecent and the one further down like an adult in proportion?

If you are still doing minor changes to the form, could I suggest making the torso get a little wider at the side of the hips? So the torso would taper down over the chest, then slightly widen to the hip line, this would allow the tops of the legs to be a little wider too

... I don't think you can scan alfoil; too shiney! you would have to take a photo I reckon... Hey, bullet21, If I made an crinkly alfoil texture would you do a 60's robot version of you model?

ah I don't know if it's been said already...
The post seems to have radicaly changed when I clicked post reply.
Everything is everywhere. I'm confused. ! :P

Anyway,

Editable Poly does not produce all edges like edit mesh does, it dynamicaly calculates where the edges 'might' go...
Which means you have to manualy put the edges in your self or max will create and edge where it thinks one should go. (which generaly isn't a very good spot :)
Poly edit is awesome !!! =)

Also because of this the polycounter does not work correctly.
Convert the model to an Editable Mesh and then check the polycount to get a correct number. (then just undo and continue working)

(handy tip - turn the 'undo levels' upto a higher level, like 100-200 and set up your 'auto back up')

once you are done with the model, convert to a edit mesh and turn/touch up and edges that need it.

[img]http://img7.photobucket.com/albums/v18/bullet21/Cwip_Hair.jpg[/img]

Well i haven't given up, i have been lazy for a while but since it's the holidays i'll be gettin back into it. I've added the hair and some much needed tweaking to the neck and head. I just want to slap some shorts on him and i'll be ready for texturing. The main reason i did it was to test the Vray Global Illumination. It seems pretty nice. I'll post him with his 3/4 shorts on soon. [8D]

Edit: note the differance in the neck and chin areas