Work in progress

Nice modeling and texturing. Good luck with getting a new job, shouldn't be a problem though, you got the skills.

Another character using the same tecnique.- some sort of cave dweller hybrid.

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/alti2/v12.jpg[/img]

thanks for looking.

-alti

whatever it is you're doing it looks great. i really like the head/neck on the last one

Alright Mr. Alex, I want to give you a good crit over on these since to be honest, I'm quite impressed - this is got to be one of the single largest steps I've seen you make in terms of personal development [:)] - great job.

Visually, it reminds me of sparths splatter paint style and technique, but it's very much unique and you - besides the obvious, the two other main things I see really being pushed here are popping the forms with high range highlights, and hinting at perceptual forms.

The cave dweller is portraying the forms a lot crisper and easier to read because of the reflecting light (popping the form with highlights) -- something from classical painting studies, Leonardo if I remember right - "a subject study tells us much more about themselves if their environment is taken into consideration even more than the subject itself"; in other words, pay at least as much attention to the environment around the thing you're painting as well as the subject itself. Light reflects and refracts, colours bleed and are absorbed etc - visually showing how the subject is affected by the outside elements more clearly defines what you're trying to communicate in the piece. Wow, that was a bit of a rant... 'scuse me [:D]

The hands of war piece demonstrates the importance of the opposite of what I've just talked about -- in essence, not showing stuff. Painting something that you know is there is all well and good, but if you couldn't actually see it, then it shouldn't be painted. stuff like detail in shadows (where the eye is letting too much light in to see any shape or form in shadow), or stuff that's simply obscured by view (that age old problem of wanting to show everything, yet knowing that the other side is obscured) - There's parts that strongly demonstrate this in both pieces, so I think you've done quite a good job.

Keep it up! And sorry for the ranting [;)]

thanks alot styles, thats actualy one of my fave Leonardoisms, lately i've just been influenced by so many good artists and i've just had alot of free time to home in on a style that suits me.
and yes you picked it, sparth's artwork and style has massively infulenced me in finding my own.
I dont want to rip anybody off, but i think combining alot of different recognisable influences will help me along the way.

my goal over the next few months or so is to beef up my illustration and concept portfolio so i can get a propper foothold into a company.- i'm also working on speeding up my processes, atm one of these images takes about 2.5 hours, i want to get a good sketch hapening in about 10mins and get to a level where i can have something reasonable within 1 hour.

thanks for the words and thoughts its appreciated.

-alti (still looking for work)

I agree with J.I. this is the biggest development ive seen in your work. These are looking great, a lot more clear and defined without losing the splatter and grunge charm of your style. Keep it up :)

Same technique as the rest, just refining the steps abit more in this piece.
thanks for the support so far, I hope you like where this style is going.

2.5 hours photoshop 7

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/alti2/v19.jpg[/img]

The doom 3 presentation is pretty impressive, perhaps try and get your helicopter and tank into it and present them the same way. The WIP Environment is nice too, but very short, I don't feel you should have to show the reference you used for it.

hey kris.. thnx for the reply..
quite a few people have told me to show the reference whenever possible so that i can show that i can match reality..
welle anyways.. the idea about gettin the tank n helicopter into doom3..

umm .. you might want to show your textures fullscreen for 2 secs or so .. its really hard to make out the detail in the small size textures you show in the video.

You also might want to create some organic objects .. like some plants and the like.

Well thats my two cents

thnx for the reply kratos.. yes i am working on this demoreel , to make the presentation better...
also i have started this new environment which involves making trees..
ciao..

very impressive work, particularly the variety of the different models.

They're better characters than i could make but i'll give you some critique anyway. The problem i have is the texturing, which seems a tad faded on all of them (thats not the best description but its the only explanation i can come up with). Somehow they lack that wow factor, and i don't think its the modelling because that is technically solid. So maybe you could use a more saturated palatte and try to get more vibrancy in your texturing.

Other than that, i would say they're some of the best models i've seen here in a while. I'll be looking forward to more

hi,

very nice low poly models.. impressive.. no crits here sorry =I

yeah your textures lack detail or any clearly discernible features. They look lowres/blurry and kinda just blend into everything. i knowwhat i'm trying to say, i just dont kow the terms in which to say it - you'll probably need an texture artist (ie: not me) to tell you exactly.

you definately chose a competetive week for your first entry, i'd be stoked with 1 vote among that selection of characters.

Its a very nice painting but i'm a bit thrown off by the proportions, particularly the small feet/hands and large shoulders. If you want to divert focus away from the detail of hands try end ensure that they're in proportion so that they don't draw the attention in the first place.

Otherwise i really like the colour scheme and textured feel, also, the wings are good but could have done with some more attention.

Yeah, there were a heap of entries many of which were quite nice. I saw yours and bumskee's as well, cool stuff guys :) Its going to be tough trying to decide just one to vote for.
This weeks topic will be a challange. I'll probably go with either santa or the elf.

I didnt reliese that her shoulders were that large, probably one of those things that seem to happen when youve been staring at a piece for too long!
Normally I would do a sketch and scan it in and go from there, this time though it was %100 digital all the way.
Lol, yeah the wings could be more polished but Im too lazy! :P

Hey Makk, damn didn't know you were an aussie too! kewl stuff, I think conundrum spotted few good crits. Mainly the proportion, the lower half is a little too short. She looks more like a demon though, hehe like lot of the other entries including mine. :) nice touch with the birds, though I think the brief said no feathered wings. Hope to see you on the next ChOW.. cheers,

cool makks.

Definately work on hands cos they tend to make a piece.

neat character though.

bumskee and denz- thanks guys, Ive purchased some figure drawing and anatomy books for christmas so I hope they will help me on my looooong path to improvement :)

I like this very much man, really good feel to it. Good choice of music as well. On whole smooth animation, though when the man gets hit by the dragon, I feel that there should be a bit more movement when he is in the air, anyways, good job, and good luck with it.

hiya,

thanks very much for the feedback :) suggestion definitely noted.. will certainly have a play around and see what i can come up with during that part..

very glad you liked! thanks again :)

Were you at the QANTM industry night? I don't remember seeing this there.

Nice, but certainly room for improvement. Go for the 10 seconds of quality next. Animation wise, do one character and work on animating him for a while. Start with perfecting a walk cycle, then move onto various other movements: runs, jumps, various gestures and actions. Try out [url="http://10secondclub.net/]the ten second club[/url] and basically keep working at it.
Modeling wise, find reference (wireframes, etc) on the web and use them to improve your own models. Post here constantly for feedback, and dont stop modeling. Even if you do one character in a week then throw it away and start on another, the more you do the more you will improve.

Most of all dont give up, i've seen to many students just neglect their work after finsihing UNI. If you want to imoprove and get a job you have to keep working.

Hey - I'm an audio guy, not an animator so cannot give much feedback about some more technical aspects you could improve upon in your animation.
However, I did want to add that you should try get an audio guy/composer/sound designer who knows what they are doing - this shouldnt be underestimated! the general feel is there in your animation but for me the sound effects were lacking and very removed from the animation - and this subconsciously affects viewers and can detract from your animation!
For me, particularly the dragon, while fairly well conveyed in design, lost so much of any impact it would have had, only because it did not SOUND fearce or menacing..! there was no 'weight' to it, so its hard to feel scared when its sounds are limited.
But this is all constructive criticism - good work and wish you all the best with improving and finding work eventually!

hi guys,

Livewire: yes i was at industry night! But unfortunately it was a major flop for most of the Diploma grads. We were stuck on Level 12 where there was no free food or alcohol, and most importantly no industry people due to a serious lack of signage (and probably food and alcohol) directing people to us. Everyone was really disappointed, some amazing talent from this years diploma students was missed. Badly organised was the general concensus from Diploma stuendts of Industry night, unfortunately. I personally think a few of the Diploma students gave the Degree class a run for their money, as did many other people. I wasn't expecting a job but would have loved to have talked to and met some people, gotten some feedback. Hence why i've posted here! i found where you all hide! :)

I am planning to do what you've suggested, and that's focus a bit on animating. I downloaded a rig kindof similar to Andrew Silke's Generi (but for max) and am eagerly awaiting January's 10 second club comp. That way i can focus on practicing animating
without all the other stuff to get there (modelling, unwrapping, texturing, rigging etc).

And yes, i won't give up! i enjoy it too much and will do it as a job or not.. if i can make it a career, then life will be grand :)

InsanelySane: thanks for your view as well from a sound point of view. I too have a bit of background in sound, but this particular soundtrack i whipped up in a few hours due to lack of time to get everything else i needed to done to pass the course. And since i knew about sound, i wasn't so fussed about the 'learning' side there, so focused on the 3d elements this year. As much as i would have liked to incorporate my sound knowledge, i ran out of time and had to make do. that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it ;)

But you are definately right, and it does lack a lot, and fixing it up would make a world of difference.

thank you both so much for checking it out and the great feedback. Very much appreciated!

ahh you were one of the ones in 12.6 or something were you? yeah that room didnt seem to be getting much attention, and the only reason i went down there at all was to see if there were any more people there. anyone that didnt knowthe building would not have know to look down there as there was nothing to indicate there was anything else beyond the hallway. sucks, but industry night isnt your only chance to get a job. And as of yet i've never seen anyone get a job from industry night anyway - interviews yes, but never an out right job offer, which is probably to be expected. industry night if for getting contacts and feedback, and feedback you can get here aswell, and there are pleanty of job postings going up all the time too, so dont fret to much about industry night.

yeah i was at the back of 12.5, poor guys in 12.6 were worse off again. They'd put 3 of my favorite animations/showreels from my classmates right next to the door, so anyone entering got stuck at those heheh.. The 3 hours was up when people started to find us. I think both, you Krome guys and Pandemic had just made it to our room when presentations were called lol..

but yeah i'm not fretting about it, i was happy to complete the course succesfully, and was happy with how much i'd learnt in a year, even if their big build-up of Industry night was an anti-climax for many of us.

Finding this SUMEA website was great, and did definately lift my spirits and give me hope for when my work and I are ready for serious jobhunting.. will be plenty of other chances to meet people and get feedback as you said..
i'm pretty outgoing so will definately be posting/surfing on various websites and mingling at any Aussie game and CGI gatherings i hear of and getting my name out there. i'm here to stay.. an industry wannabe :)

cheers for the reassurance :)

You must be Alex, Adam (form from CA) was always talking about you but we never quite met. :) Some very interesting concepts. I quite like the overall look of the second, wish it was a little more defined though.

colonies on europa.

[IMG]http://members.optusnet.com.au/alti2/europa.jpg[/IMG]

thanks for looking

-alti

sleek science compound.
thanks for looking critic welcome.

[IMG]http://members.optusnet.com.au/alti2/landscape2.jpg[/IMG]

-alti

Hey Alti, I've been following you around ca.org a bit more recently, so it's great to see your pieces getting that extra layer of lovin' polish - the first guy I have to say is probably one of the most communicative pieces I've seen from you. Only thing he's lacking would be the leg area -- if he was given as a concept design, you'd inevitably have a few questions about his legs, "are they rag tatters, and he floats around?"... "stumps that he walks around on?... "normal bipedal legs?"

For illustration purposes it's fine as is, but for anything conceptual, the idea and function is the most important element. Stop me if I'm on completely the wrong tangent here, I've made the assumption this is what you're going for from the sound of the thread title (to communicate conceptual design and ideas) [8)]

Other than that, good stuff, and keep up the polish baybeeeeeeeee!

great work, this is a big imporovement in terms of finish. I really like those environments, particularly the last one.

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/alti2/evil06.jpg[/img][img]http://member…]

err... whats a wookiee catamaran?
Looks complicated though, lol! :)

i also don't know what that is but its looking great so far, especially that rocket which you have rendered really well.

Hey guys thx for the replies.
Its from eps 3 of Star Wars, its the opening shot of the Yoda goes to the Wookiee planet to help them fight off attackers.
I've attached a screenshot form the dvd:
[IMG]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/3DnuTTa/Catamaran%20WIP/PDVD_033…]

ah, ok, its looking right then, judging by what you have completed so far the final product should be very good.

another update:
[IMG]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/3DnuTTa/Catamaran%20WIP/engine-5…]

will try and do a proper render of how it looks so far, like my first image.
any crits of comments welcome =)

Thought Id do a render of the engine seeing as its almost complete :D

[IMG]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/3DnuTTa/Catamaran%20WIP/engine-R…]

Heh, I want to reach out and touch it.. it's very convincing. I am not a 3d person but this looks really good. :)

lol
thanks for that bumskee, Im quite pleased with how its turning out [8D]

Did you update it?? I remember that bar thing was gray, now it's bronze. :) anyways, look forward to the finished piece dude.

sure did
was playing round a bit last night, thought Id upload it with a bit of colour :)
give it a bit of contrast n all

Nice!
I like the texture feel from the first one, good stuff. Maybe you could have done more to make it a battlefield though.
Soldier is looking good as well. Like the face, and nice lighting too though his left arm holding the gun looks a bit too small.

thanks Makk, i tried to make it more of a battlefield but couldn't get anything i was happy with done in time for the deadline. I'll try and fix that arm as well.

heres this week's environment: The Windy City

[img]http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7504/thewindycity22yw.jpg[/img]

and a few other guick paintings

[img]http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6802/three7ns.jpg[/img]

conundrum,

Nice entries, though I think the winter battlefield could use some more action, it's little boring, but nice mood. Quite like the ChOW entry, didn't know you were an aussie, hehe. But ChOW is so damn competitive. good on you for participating.

:) min

thanks for the comment,

i didn't realise you were an aussie either, i was very close to voting for you in the ChOW this week, but i ended up going for FridayEve's[:)]

:) hehe my ChOW was a little rushed as usual. BUT this weeks looks very interesting, will you be particiapting in it? I have a feeling this weeks will be the most competitive round. Hopefully get to see your stuff there this week, cheers

Bumskee: It definately was a tough round, your's was very good though

Some more conceptart.org "OW's"

This is the environment for this week: Hell

[img]http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/277/hell29aw.jpg[/img]

and the character: Battle Angel

[img]http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/7489/battleangel39ti.jpg[/img]

nice goin connundrum.

That floating city thing is pretty mad.

Like the hell one to, bit freaky.

Really enjoyed your EOW conundrum, hope to see more soon, cheers

heh, I though your description for your enviro was good :) And good job getting something done for that. With such a topic as "hell" I thought I would get something going but alas it was not the case.
The floating ciy and dude underneath are really nice.

Thanks for the comments,
Makk: I find that the simple topics end up being deceptively difficult to start (after you have something going they're OK).

Thought i'd post a quick sketch from this morning, i didn't start with any specific idea, it was just for fun.

[img]http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/3020/steppedjungle8ld.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img492.imageshack.us/img492/2453/bigthrow0vf.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img492.imageshack.us/img492/2379/delpaso4yr.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img492.imageshack.us/img492/3156/dustystreet7dp.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/2000/samurai1lx.jpg[/img]

great style there, very painterly and well acheived.
maby add some details in the forgrounds of the landscapes to sure up the atmosphere overall.

-alti

REally like the dusty street painting, youve managed to simplify the right values in it, acheiving alot with so few strokes. Good work :)

Morning,

If what you say is true and your bro put this movie togeather by himself thats pretty impressive. I'm sure he had a short time frame to do it in and done a great job in trying to that much stuff in that time frame.

I have to say I was pretty worried about downloading a 30 or 70mb file for student work and boy was I right [^]

I've got no clue on what the course out line was But I think his time would of been better spent if he had done a shorter scene. Working up a few characters with tons of detail and a single enviroment to put them in. This way you would also have time for alot better lighting. Plus more time to work on your characters animations. There were parts of your animation I really liked but because of the huge load I feel that your bro didn't have time to polish any of it.

As for the music I'd have to say I enjoyed it the most out of the clip. Can't say I enjoyed the sound effects as much. Scene 1 you have some dude by totaly still water and for some reason you can hear running water amost as if there is a water fall near by.. Then you have the dudes walking towards the village and you hear there foot steps which is fine but then the camera cuts and you can still hear there foot steps as if there right at the camera.

Anyways. Thats enough from me.
Be nice if you put some pictures up for the clip so people can have a look before they download it.

If your trying to save bandwidth (sumeans) I'd say just check out the website sound bites then getting the movie.

What was the timer frame in which he completed it?

I agree with UniqueSnowFlake about the length and detail, it's certainly a lot to get done by one person, and it's clear it suffer from that. There are some good areas, and some particually nice moments of camera work, editing and animation, but also there are some parts that seem rushed out. Again, what was the time frame?

The lighting is definatly the weakest area, and the models could use work. The aniamtion and sound are the strongest parts.

Thanks for the feedback - Its a tough position to be in as I would be the first to (constructively) criticise works shown to me.. And with this particular animation one can pull apart quite a lot of it - ie many aspects are not top notch in this animation and if anything it provides insight into how to make better impact without spreading yourself too thin (which is the prime criticism which I also happen to agree with). The criticism regarding lighting as well as the length of the animation are spot on.

UniqueSnowFlake, you are also spot on with your comments about the sound effects in places. I can only say that some of the 'logical' sound errors (like the soldiers' marching not changing dynamics when camera changes perspective) were due to time constraints where I had so many other 'last minute' aspects to work on, that some things were sacrificed.. In the real world there is not excuse.

In fact, I was surprised at the amount of technical issues that came up and significantly interferred with initial expectations of what the animation and sound was going to be like. For anyone that has worked on an animation like this (and further more worked on a game etc) should know by now that only experience can prepare for how many 'hidden' variables will interfere. Every aspect needs attention and that is a very good reason to have an animation shorter in length in order to polish all aspects so eventually there is 'nothing' to criticise ! thats the goal I guess.

One other interesting comment (for sumeans interested in the work process) is about the work dynamic and control - in doing the sound, I had free range to come up with creative ideas that could help direct the flow of the animation (like soldier's charge music buildup followed by the dramatic 'silent' rumbling of the Battle Axe character just before the slaughter begins). However, there are a few parts where what instinctively feels right for an audio person is NOT RIGHT for the animator/director (in this case). There are parts where dialog dynamics are not consistent (where I was asked to significantly reduce volume levels for one particular line at the end), where music is too quite or footsteps too loud because that is how my brother wanted it (which is fine, but my instincts jarred with some of the decisions).
As I have not yet worked on a commercial title, I wonder how this sort of issue is dealt with within a company's structure (a question of who gets their way if there is disagreement about a certain aspect).

Just a last comment to respond about the time frame - my brother worked on the animation for 2 months - solid work, many many hours. He has some other assessments and projects which he either knocked out of the way early on or put aside until the animation was done. For the sound, I had about 3-4 days in total to work with the reference animation files (which came 'on the fly' in sequence parts from start to finish - a total of about 11 small video files).

Thanks again for spot on comments - and i'll make sure to put a few images on the links for preview.

interesting, reminds me of the coast section of half life 2 where you use a electromagnet on a crane. What's the purpose of your crane at the end of the jetty by the way? A suggestion i'd make is to randomize the weeds a bit more in scale and rotation (if you dont want to include more variations on the actual mesh), its really fine detail work that may not be necesary when the scene is textured (how visible will they be below what i'm assuming is water level?) but if essentially its the only thing thats stood out to me right now. I'll leave it up to someone more qualified to talk about the other details ;)

thanks for the reply, yeah the reeds are going to be below water level but i think they should be fairly visible, giving them some randomness, is something i will do :)

as for the crane, i hadnt really thought about it when i was modelling, but i think it could traul along for junk or something like that
thanks for your thoughts!

id suggest you make sure it has a purpose, you often see things included in game worlds and scenes without purpose that really just stand out as being unesacary and can make the world/scene appear less beleivable. Allthough this is usually more common in space station themed worlds... ooh look a pipe with some green goo in it... brilliant :P

Looks awesome. I want a diorama of it on my desk!

Scott.

cool thanks guys!,

i hear you unit, and what your saying is to true :)

i might redo the crane, think about it a bit more...

this is just an update on it, havnt had a chance to change it to much just messing with the water

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/bread/2005112625858_new_scene.jpg"]new_scene.jpg[/url]
37.38 KB

ooh wow that looks really nice, keep it up

WIP 01 - basic mesh:

[img]http://www.thoughtvalve.com/dl/mark/sumea/medieval/medieval_wip01.jpg[/…]

Hey Palantir,
You need to check his proportion. There are a few of issues that you could tweak.
Firstly his arms are either too long or his body is too small. The legs could be lengthend a small bit and his feet could be a bit longer as well. The face is looking pretty good.

Thanks Makk. For some reason I always bugger up the proportions when I start a character model. I think I need to improve my reference drawings.

Anyway, I?ve made some adjustments to the proportions and it seems to be a bit better now. I?ve began adding a little detail to the face and arms, but I?m still really just trying to get the general mass right and the flow working. The main issues at the moment, I think possibly the head is too small, the shoulders might need to come down a bit, and the legs seem a bit bow-legged ? looks a bit like he?s constipated or something. [}:)]

It?s about 2000 poly?s now, so I?ve still got plenty of budget for detail (aiming for 3500 to 4000).

WIP 02 - refining basic mesh:

[img]http://www.thoughtvalve.com/dl/mark/sumea/medieval/medieval_wip02.jpg[/…]

Hey palantir, I really think you need to sort out your anatomy before you go any further. It is probably best if you use a real life human male model instead of drawing it yourself.

cheers.

Just a small update - I'm still plugging away on this, little by little. I really need to dedicate more time to working on game art skills rather then game playing skills. :(

[img]http://www.thoughtvalve.com/dl/mark/sumea/medieval/medieval_wip03.jpg[/…]

I used photo references for the body and that was a huge help. Now I?m struggling with the head topology:

[img]http://www.thoughtvalve.com/dl/mark/sumea/medieval/medieval_wip04.jpg[/…]

Still have a fair bit to do really. Still needs more detail plus a big poly count clean up.

Well, back from my holiday and its time to finish off this guy.

I?ve just tweaked a few things and made his sword and helmet, which are both separate models. I?ll probably make a shield for him later too, but now I thinks it?s time to start unwrapping the character.

[img]http://www.thoughtvalve.com/dl/mark/sumea/medieval/medieval_wip07.jpg[/…]

And here?s a close up of his ugly mug, plus his sword hilt.

[img]http://www.thoughtvalve.com/dl/mark/sumea/medieval/medieval_wip08.jpg[/…]

Edit: Oh yeah, he's just a touch over 4000 poly's, which I'm happy enough with.

looks really cool, a lot more refined then when you began. Is it just me or are his feet rather thin horizontally though. keep it up!

Thanks MoonUnit, and yep, now you mention it, his feet are a bit screwy. I'll get on that.

Well among the million other things I?m trying to get done before uni goes back, I?ve managed to at least give this fella a face:

[img]http://www.thoughtvalve.com/dl/mark/sumea/medieval/medieval_wip09.jpg[/…]

But I haven?t done much else on him yet. I?m still just trying to work out the basic colour scheme for him, especially his heraldry. I did a bunch of different tests colouring his tunic, but I?m still undecided. I was thinking blue with red, but now I?m thinking maybe black and red because it was a real medieval heraldry, but I dunno. Any suggestions more then welcome! Actually, working out the heraldry takes me back to my old Warhammer days..

[img]http://www.thoughtvalve.com/dl/mark/sumea/medieval/medieval_wip10.jpg[/…]

reminds me of those days too! personally my faveourite would be the red and black. seems the least.. cartoonish of all the schemes

Not bad min, I would like to have seen a bit more substance in the legs( just a little).

cheers.

Nutter:)

Shane.. you you.. :) how are you mate? how's your back? didn't think I would see you here.

well I spent about 3 hrs on it.. and that's an excuse. :P I hate doing legs.. I think I am going to do it again for sure now.. it doesn't even follow the brief not to mention all the sickening entries. :P you joining along?

cheers,

Min

Nice work,I like the hand gesture.

Awesome, I love it.

Hey bumskee nice. love the website.

Thanks. :) I didn't get around to doing it again though. But here's what I was going to do a rough sketch in photoshop.. maybe later. The new topic is up if anyone is interested. :)

[img]http://home.exetel.com.au/bumskee/con/ChOW5_1.jpg[/img]

Not much to crit at the moment. Whats your target poly count etc.

At the moment, it's looking very boxy. Not a bad thing for a mech, but you gotta look outside the box. (har har har)

I'd consider modelling him in a pose. The bog standard T pose doesn't really show the model off, and it can make it hard to build 'weight' into the mesh. Building the mesh in a relaxed standing pose can help give you a better idea of where the weight distribution is going to be. Working out the center of gravity, and balancing the 'feel' of the model is important with mech stuff, otherwise they can look light and fluffy.

I'm a firm believer in modelling people. They're a lot harder, as theres more anatomical stuff. But the way I see it, everyone has a body to use as reference. Robot monsters are kinda hard to come by.

That said, look at pictures of real robotics. Factory type stuff, it'll give you an idea of the fundamentals of robot design, and will point you in the right direction for articulate limbs etc. At the moment your mech's range of movement seems rather limited, bipedal mech designs are based on humans, so you really need to work out how to mimic the range of mobility a person has, yet with mechanics rather than bone and tendon.

Thats how you can think outside the box ;)

Thanks for the reply Bob, was really helpfull. Basically my target poly count is whatever it ends up at as detailed as I want it.

As for the human modelling, so far I find modelling mecha is fun and interesting given that I love that sorta stuff, but modelling organic creatures "feels" better, more artistic? Thats about the best I can explain it. One day ill get around to an organic mech :)

Looking nice man, good texture as well. Keep up the good work.

looks nice the texture is probably a bit over saturated though. considering this is industrial looking equipment you may want to dull it a bit as i dont think itd keep that bright yellow shine. Other then that its great work, keep going!

thats pretty impressive, good to see your still at it too. The torsos a bit confusing because it seems like the shirts tight on the pecks but it looks loose at the waist, perhaps bring that underside of the curve under the pecks down a bit? i dunno, have a play around.

Wow! [:O]

Massive improovment over your last model Cody!

Keep an eye on that foot shape, looks a bit like a pancake (but that could be due to the angle) and definately alot of extra polygons that can be chopped if need be - but not necessary at this stage. Overall its easy to see your improovements in every model, you should be proud of this [:)]

Thankaz for the nice comments moonunit and hazarD. With the torso area, yeah right about that pecks being to tight, I will fix that up.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/codyalday/20051031213913_Charact…]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/codyalday/20051031213945_Charact…]

( Edit: Updated the model. )

boy have you ever come a long way. lookout for that area around the armpit, its looking a bit blocky right now on the chest side of things. only requires a bit of minor tweaking to round it out but its just something i noticed.

Wow man, I?m really impressed with the progress you?ve made. Great stuff, keep it up!

I agree, this shows significant improvement of your modelling skills. Looking good so far. what is the average character poly count for the quake 4 engine you are doing this for?

Aparently there is no tri count (friend viewed the Q4 DVD Interview Special), but I sused out some character models and it is around 3800 tris. Thankaz for the nice comments palantir and PK.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/1736_AL.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/1736_BL.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/codyalday/200511393136_Character…]

( Edit : Updated the model )

I am really pleased how this has turned out. Around 3998 tris. I still need to add acessories and optimize it. Comments and crits are appriciated.

I am truely impressed, you should be extremely proud of yourself Cody. I remember your first model you posted on here - youve come a hell of a long way since that.

I can see the Paul Steed method of face building showing through in your characters head.

Look forward to seeing how this progresses - Well done! [:)]

Looks really nice, great shape and the whole body seems really well balanced.

Thankaz HazarD and Avalanchex for the nice replys. I am pleased with how this turned out, and the Paul Steed head modeling method, it is really the only way I have learnt to model heads, though I should learn some more.

Hey Cody, like many people have said you have made some good improvement :)
Keep working on your heads, the nose area could be better defined with the polies your using. Dont forget edge loops, getting the hang of modelling with these can really help your mesh work improve.
And are you using some kind of reference? This can help when getting things like proportions just right.
Keep it up :)

Yeah I am using refrence pictures Makk. Also, not sure what edge loops are, could you explain please.

codyalday- very impressed with the progress you have made since last i saw your work. looking forward to seeing it completed.

Edge loop modelling refers to the modeling of good joint articulation via the connection of mayor muscle groups in the body.

This enables better skin deformation when it comes to animating your character. Most edge loop models are made up of quads (or four sided polygons). Though game models can have three sided polys to go from high resolution to low resolution geometry.

Body edge loop model

[url]http://cube.phlatt.net/forums/spiraloid/viewtopic.php?TopicID=736#5688[…]

More edge loops

[url]http://cube.phlatt.net/forums/spiraloid/viewtopic.php?TopicID=733[/url]

Face edge loops

[url]http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/6624/edgeloop1600x12006um.jpg[/url]

Thankaz for that Kratos, going to look into it. Thankaz for that nice comment as well inglis.

No problem.

Havn't updated this character for a while now, so he is the UVMap.
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/codyalday/2005122081320_char_uvm…]
Though I havn't posted the wire layout to it becasue I would like to ask someone for a massive favour if they could do so. There is a third party program that has a tool called "Relax" for max. I was watching Ben Mathis's UVMap video tutorials and he used it, in which made the uvs even more even. So if someone could hit the "relax" button for me, I would appriciate it heaps.

I think you're refering to UVHelp....which you can get here:

http://www.microcan.nl/

also max 8 has this feature...as well as wings I think.

Thankaz for that EIN. I downloaded UVHelp but it didn't work with my version of Max, though I downloaded Wings and it helped out it heaps. Here is a few hours of work on the texture.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/1793_AL.jpg[/img]

Comments and crits are appriciated.

Coming along well Cody :)
Your flesh tones could use more colour in them, at the mo there abit too pale. Like the vest, the blue sleeves could use some folds, remember that things like wrinkles and folds usually appear in areas of movemnt, eg- the shoulders

Added a face texture, and re did the arms. A lot of work still needed to be done. Thankaz for that comment Makk, will sus out the folds and wrinkles later.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/texture7.jpg[/img]

Cody you put me to shame, i havent been making anything in so long. Thats top work mate keep it up. Could we see flats (im particulary interested in the face)?

Thankaz for that MoonUnit, anyways here are the texture flats, both 1024x1024. As I said before still a lot of work still to be done. I photosourced the eyes off the internet. Curious, is that a bad practice to do so?

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/codyalday/20061163918_tex_flat_h…]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/codyalday/20061163838_tex_flat_b…]

Youve got the foundations going here for what could become a top piece of work - something I didnt expect to see from you in a long while. Detail pass and refine, Detail pass and refine. Keep going in this direction and youll eventually come to a point where your work is starting to creep up there with the industry guys.

Moony said that youve put him to shame, which is quite funny, but really I think Moony honestly isn't the one that should be bothered - there are a lot more people who claim to have character building experience who arent at the level of what youve achieved here.

The best piece of advice I can give you is to really seek out examples of similar character and see how other artists have tackled wrinkles in clothes, painting the face, painting eyeballs and things like that. Really devote some time - even hours into reseraching what your going to need for your character - it can really go along way to bring up a picture of a character standing in some wrinkly jeans painted by a pro - so you can compare your work.

Usually this will showup really clearly where you might be going wrong. And lastly - never be content with average [:P]

Oh im not bothered as such, it just reminds me of how lazy i am and how much i need to get working again :P (i blame VCE). On the topic of photosourcing, you'll get mixed opinions on that depending on who you talk to (allthough ive noticed that enviroment artists are usually more pro photosourcing then others). My opinion is that learning to paint the texture from scratch is incredibly important, but incorporating photosourcing is something thats totally acceptable. Overlaying textures, incorporating small things (such as the eyes) and such as a part of something bigger rather then just relying on it completely. I might be sounding hypercritical here considering my last modeller challenge entry but my point is rather if your going to photosource, manipulate it accordingly and dont just leave something as is. Because even if things happen to line up correctly it will have the stuck on photo look. Im confusing arent i... in sum photosourcing isnt wrong, keep it to a minimum if possible and allways manipulate accordingly. Thats just how i see it collected from my experience and what ive learnt from others.

Hazzard I really appriciate your comments that you make, it really gives me more encouragement and to keep going pushing myself. I will sus out textures done by professionals.
Also moonunit, its the same as what I said about Hazzard, encouraging, giving crits ect that I really do appriciate. Also I understand that I should practice texturing what I could photosource before I do so anyways.
Here is an update again, added a ear texture, hands, hair, some detail to the boot, and touched up the arms. Still a lot of fixing up to do.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/texture15.jpg[/img]

Hey man model's looking pretty sound, some clean mesh happening. With the texture I'd vary the tone much more, at the moment it's all similar mid-light tones as well as desaturated which makes it seem a bit washed out. It's your call but I'd do something like make the boots, tshirt, and gloves a nice rich, deep green. Then any small details on those areas can pop a bit more and have some eye catching interest.

Looking forward to more, from this point I'd nail those tonal variations (between elements) and then start to define materials more (leather boots? check out how light reacts to boots, how it ages, repsonds to wear and tear) across the model. Skin is taking shape, I'd even consider downresing it a bit to help things along. Keep it up!

Thankaz for that info eightbitnasty helped out heaps. Havn't done much texturing lately, but here is the latest WIP of it. Changed the glove colour, added finger skins, vest more brighter, boots are green, redone the arm and put hair on it, and more hair on the head. Comments and crits are appriciated as well.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/1852_BL.jpg[/img]

Havn't worked on this character lately, but I have touched it up a bit. Here is it in a 360 degress spin around. http://www.loadx.atekz.org/quake4/aq4/aq4_Char_Textured.avi .

Done some more work to the texture. Need to finish this off so I can start on some other characters. Comments and crits are appriciated.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/codyalday/200641465743_texture19…]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/codyalday/200641465851_texflat1…]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/codyalday/200641465927_texflat2…]

Just a quick one on the muzzle - it is too narrow in width and too long in height. Horses nostrils do not point out to the side, they point forward. The line from the forehead down to the muzzle is all one straight line, there is no dip after the eyes.

Here is what I mean: http://www.dli.ch/hobbies/horses/Amigo00f.jpg
And remember - Google image search is your friend: http://images.google.com.au/images?q=horse&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

Thanks for the feedback. Will be implementing feedback. Stay tuned !

i remember horses as being one of the hardest things to learn to draw, props for attempting to model one! :P The only help i can really offer is just get yourself a plethora of reference pictures.

yup! ref, ref, ref :)

There's a reason that horses are virtually the only other creatures on this earth that get whole anatomy referance books dedicated to them alongside humans. Pay particular attention to the skull shape and how the eye sockets are pocketed and the muzzle flows inwards.

Hey All,

Thanks for the feedback .. heres the latest update with an improved head. Still haven't completed ears or eye sockets. Are the loops around the legs okay for animation ?

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/kratos/20051023132117_horse_upda…"]horse_updated_small.jpg[/url]
34.53 KB

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/kratos/2005102313222_horse_wires…"]horse_wires_small.jpg[/url]
77.93 KB

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/kratos/20051023132236_horse_fron…"]horse_front_small.jpg[/url]
28.93 KB

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/kratos/20051023132315_horse_fron…"]horse_front_wires_small.jpg[/url]
66.57 KB

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/kratos/2005102313243_horse_wires…"]horse_wires_bottom_small.jpg[/url]
88.41 KB

Hey! Muzzle and head are looking much better :)

Everything is looking decent. Something that I can't put my finger on about the head/neck area, tho. It may be that the head just looks a bit too small for the neck - not sure.

Just make sure when you start to polish it up a bit more that the neck connects directly into the head (see the reference picture above).

I'd recommend using your viewport background or referance planes (a plane aligned to the view with a material assigned to it that has the referance image applied and viewable in the viewport). Line up your mesh and use it as a modelling guide/template.

Here's a whole heap of horse referance.

quote:http://www.argentinapolo.com/images/picHorseAnatomy.jpg
http://members.aol.com/wallcad/Gallery/pages/horsepoints.jpg
http://www.allabouthorses.com/site/graphics/photos/anatomy.jpg
http://horsetrainingvideos.com/backup-images/gmartingale%20horse%20head…
http://www.bnbcarriage.com/wht_horse_head.jpg
http://www.steerinc.com/horse_head_22.jpg
http://www.icir.org/floyd/images/HorseExpo4-01/hires/Horse_head1.jpg
http://members.tripod.com/foxfield_stables/images/Horse%20head%202.jpg
http://www.pressomatic.com/middletoninn/upload/Horse%20Head%20side%20ve…

Jacana: Will do .. Head had alot more polys than neck .. so im going to have to even it out.

J.I Styles: Thanks for the images. I've been modeling from a reference plane but the images you've gathered are better than what i had. Thanks again.

Okay heres a quick update on progress

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/kratos/2005102674642_horse_upate…"]horse_upated.jpg[/url]
12.56 KB

Okay sorry for the late update .. been working really hard to get this horse looking good.

Heres my latest model

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/kratos/200511605610_horse_mesh.j…"]horse_mesh.jpg[/url]
30.09 KB

Looking nice Kratos, keep up the good work.

quote:Originally posted by jebus

Looking nice Kratos, keep up the good work.

Thanks Jebus !

it's looking nice kratos, looking at the updates, it has come a long way.

good work :)

quote:Originally posted by Bread

it's looking nice kratos, looking at the updates, it has come a long way.

good work :)

Thanks. Here is completed horse rigged and textured.

Any critics welcomed [:)]

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/kratos/2005112092136_horse_jump…"]horse_jump.jpg[/url]
141.03 KB

This is cool. Bobo modelled the wang.

Nicely done texture too, one of your strongest to date!

heh, havta love this imp fella.

nice work makk. like the back of the arms there looks quite nice.

maybe some more skin tone variation might make it more interesting.

I might join in later :)

awesome, and ow dude, nipples with cracks coming off them just make me wince :P

Bob, Moonunit thanks :)
Thanks Dez, I did try to get some colour in there. Like blue in the shadows and some more yellow to the highlights. You should join in!!

Hey, nice work. Looks amazing very impressive. What did you use to create the demo.

maaate. that was mad, great job!

hey just had a go, thats awesome. There's obviously a lot to do yet but i weird bug i found was i actually managed to pull a flying barell roll when i drove into some weird invisible ditch around about the entrance to the pits. Was kinda cool though, i landed on my wheels :P

I used VC++ and coded the graphics engine with DirectX 9
There are still some bugs in parts of the track to do with physics, I'm not worried about them much at the moment.

Looks sweet; from an artists pov your reflections could use a bit of fresnel component tweaking, and your darks are too black (too dense, and no opposite colour temperature) -- have you thought about using a motogp2 style hemespheric lighting solution?

anyways, looking cool, keep at it! [:D]

megaderek, that's very impressive, great stuff!

You did this in your spare time? What do you do fulltime? o_O If you're not working for Ratbag/Midway Australia, I'd imagine they'd be wanting to knock down your door to grab you right this minute [;)] Very impressive stuff. Who modelled the level?

quote:Originally posted by Souri

You did this in your spare time? What do you do fulltime? o_O If you're not working for Ratbag/Midway Australia, I'd imagine they'd be wanting to knock down your door to grab you right this minute [;)] Very impressive stuff. Who modelled the level?

They'll have to be quick... I've got my sights on him [;)]

Yeah, excellent job man!

My only crit for it is the edges around objects tend to go blue when you're at a distance. I'm imagining this is due to mipmapping? So this should just be in the texture, not the engine or anything.

I also found I was driving too fast for my own good, once I realised how to drive slow but faster than the competition I had got the hang of it.

Excellent stuff, I think your specular bloom effect is much nicer than that seen in Toca Race Driver 2. I'm in Adelaide too ;) (and no...I'm not coming on to you, I'm not that sort of guy :P) Keep going.

Hi all thanks for the positive feedback.

I guess I should get around to fixing the alpha blending issues around the edges of trees, fences and powerlines. I just haven't gotten around to setting up the alpha sorting on that track yet as its just a placeholder at the moment. My highest priority at the moment is to finish the AI.

J.I. Styles - at the moment I've decided to keep to a minimum spec of pixel shader 1.1 so it still runs nice on geforce3 cards. So at the moment I've stretched that to the limit with my car rendering and couldn't do motogp style hemispheric unless I sacrifice one of my other effects or do a second pass to achieve it, only the lower spec cards would need the extra pass and I don't want those cards to be penalized as they are already lower in performance. I might enable some fancier lighting that ps 2.0 and above cards can take advantage of but I'll leave that for a low priority for now.

Souri - The track was modelled by a bunch of guys that made add-on tracks for Sports Car GT and F1 2002, they go by the name Team ORSM. The car was made for my game by a guy called Darryl Mills. We are currently working on more cars.

This game is awesome i cant stop playing it, I have loads of funny pics of crashes hehe. The AI is mad! i managed to get a piggy back ride on top of another car and I was up there for about a minute! great job to whoever made this demo. I found it on the latest PC gamer disc [:)]

Hey, that looks very cool, but where are his thumbs? [:)]. Totally dig the muscle work. I thought the muscles in the thighs looked funny until I realised that he's probably wearing pants? [:D]. The way you've got his stance is a bit funny though, how his legs are concaved/knees are way in and doesn't look balanced and a bit awkward. Are you going for triple jointed legs? Also he seems to be missing thumbs?

What reference did you model the skull with? I think a more narrower shaped goats head would look much cooler. Since you're working on textures, I'm guessing you'll be making a specular sheet so it doesn't have the same shinyness all over.

Thanks for the comments!

Well, this guy doesn't have thumbs, more of a four-somewhat-taloned paw-ish hand. For what it's worth, the original concept only had three fingers [:)]

Anatomy-wise, I wasn't aiming for too much of an adherance to what muscles should actually look like. But was after some freaky combination of human + kangaroo, emphasis on freaky! [;)] He's got triple jointed legs for sure, though the second joint is a bit of a short one, the third joint(s) are a pair of hydraulic stems that travel down the back of the mechanical legs, though hidden by the fairings so they're not really visible.

I didn't use use any reference for the head, just a little sketch. In the concept there were just top and bottom incisors, but I didn't have enough base polys to work with in zbrush (doh!) to bring them out. Just something for me to keep in mind for next time! Will give the head size a bit of a look over and see what happens.

The specular map will come along once all the textures are done. Anyway, update pics!

[url]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~blup/sumea/demoncyroo-02-textured.jpg[/…]
[url]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~blup/sumea/demoncyroo-02-textured2.jpg[…]

More texture work done...

[url]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~blup/sumea/demoncyroo-03-textured.jpg[/…]

A couple of poses, one with an older model of mine. Fun!

[url]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~blup/sumea/demoncyroo-04-poses.jpg[/url]

Views of the back...
[url]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~blup/sumea/demoncyroo-04-view2.jpg[/url]

lookin' good

quite a unique character, nice work on the texture, particularly the metal

This looks really good. I mean it looks ugly 'cause it's like some horrific monster, but it looks good in terms of being game art, haha.
Well done.

His head reminds me of the bunny mask from Donnie Darko.

Thanks for the comments, people!!

Will have a new project firing up pretty soon, a lot less morbid than this one at least!

Rad stuff dude. I reckon he would take a good 7 rockets to go down :)

Nah!... one between the eyes would do the trick ;)

Nice work mate!

Whipped up a scene and put the bugger in it.

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~blup/sumea/demoncyroo-05-scene.jpg[/img]

That looks awesome. very nice work. [:)]

Wow! I agree, very nice indeed.

cool, good luck moonunit!

I get three red x's after the first pic. and the large version links are forbidden by deviantart

Broken for me are:
http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs7/i/2005/249/4/0/On_show_by_the_moon_unit.j…
http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs7/i/2005/264/9/a/lifedrawing_by_the_moon_un…
http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs7/i/2005/200/9/2/When_pills_went_bad_on_can…
http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs7/i/2005/264/c/c/mambo_lamp_by_the_moon_uni…
http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs7/i/2005/264/0/b/me_n_emil_by_the_moon_unit…

(and Good Luck/Break a Lead/Whatever the most appropriate felicitous wish is)

cool stuff man..

goodluck with getting into a course.. i think you should no probs

good to see your work isnt all about orcs and swords...

....shows a bit of diversity..

Nice work there, good luck with getting in.

EVERYONE: pictures changed to links, so you can have a look at the ones you couldnt see before. huzzah!

denz: thanks man :) grrr at protective DA
mcdrewski: thanks for the update, seems like everyone cant see different ones so yeah changed. Thanks also for well wishes
tojo: yeah the selectors warned me against those cliches but id been hearing those kinda sentiments for a while now. Interesting was not only did the warn against space marines, orcs and swords but also manga. Personally i dont really "get" manga as such but they hold a huuuuuge grudge against it, interesting. thanks for the kind words :)
codyalday: thanks for the kind words man, itll be your turn soon :P

thanks again to all, keep those thoughts coming!
oh also my gallery is here: http://the-moon-unit.deviantart.com/gallery/ and if there's anything you think i should really put in for that last piece then id love to hear from you

all links are ok for me now - fingers and toes crossed.

Ok so I'm in the process of selecting my final image, what do people think of these ones? What do you like/dislike about them and which do you like best?

http://www.deviantart.com/view/23304162/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/14656305/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/23307457/ (its worth noting that this iamge was made to imitate a famous photographer Bill Henson, so keep that in mind)

Again its all about creativity and ideas, not technical skill. These are both a bit old now but im trying to find something for the last image in the folio without having to make something new. Which i just dont have time to do

EDIT: heh never mind, got a better image then all of the above:

http://www.deviantart.com/view/23312036/

so add that to the original list and youve got my submission folio. Yay! [}:)]

id still be happy to hear from people on what they think of it or if there's anything they can see that i should change because im not submitting it for a few days.

I'm QA, not an artist, so :)

Tomatoe is spelled without the 'e' : "Tomato".
Constructed has an 'r'.

Edit : ...unless the 'toe' thing is a pun intended. [:D]

Didnt get time too look through all of them sorry, but it looks like you have a good shot at getting in. Goodluck to you :)

mcdrewski: [:D] it wasn't supposed to be, its funny that was actually a school project and no one picked up on that typo.. well im going to leave the tomatoe just for kicks now :P but thanks for pointing out the typos.

makk: thanks man :)

I really liked "William Tells All" and "Blood Juice" Nice work.

thanks kizza, i dropped william tells all because its an imitation attempt so i figured it wasnt really showing off my personal creative skill. But blood juice is definetly in :P

not too bad, it seems to be animprovement over your previous efforts. one tutorial i would really recomend which looks at the basics of lighting and surfaces is [url]http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm[/url], its a good point to start from.

i'd also suggest maybe looking at doing some life studies of things like apples and boots etc. just to get a better feel for the subject, painting from photos tends to be a lot harder.

they are my only suggestions (and they're coming from someone who's as much of an amateur as you) so hopefully they're helpful.

Good luck, can certainly see improvement since your last quickpaint posts.

Thanks guys. [:)]
Thanks for the link Conundrum, looks good. I?ve tried a few life studies with pastels and acrylics with mixed results (er, mostly pretty poor really), but not with digital painting yet ? I?ll give it a go.
I think I could really use some more life drawing classes though?

I thought I?d try a greyscale tonight:

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/palantir/2005101635738_sabrina.j…]

Looking really good, though to me the neck seems a tad to long, and the ear should be raised just a litle bit. Keep it up.

nice to see initiative palatnir :) going well.

also coming from someone learning, I agree that you should get to life as much as you possibly can. greatly helps, plus much more fun.

also, keep at the value studies. Most people say that good painting comes from good drawing ability, learning to see value relationships, planes.

keep it up.

One thing I'm going to suggest is that you definitely get some base work down first, be it general shapes or a sketch of the piece you're going to do. This may have happened in your nude, as there's much more attention to proportion in this one that the woman in the red dress. Best way to attack it is to have something down first. Pay attention to your shapes and lines and make sure it's all looking good before you attack colour.

I'd also suggest using some hard edged brushes, and try to avoid dodge and burn. For greyscale value studies, dodge and burn can be useful, as you can start from a nice grey and have all your values with one simple tool. That's not to say that picking out your blacks and whites individually shouldn't be done.

Definitely do more life studies too. For every photo, you should be doing plenty more life studies, even if the subject matter isn't the same. You more you draw from life, the more you'll understand how things work in 3D, and then you can relay this information into photo referenced drawings.

All that said, keep it comin' dude @:-)

Codyalday, thanks man. :) Yeah the neck is real screwy on that one, tilted at an odd angle, and I think the ear is too low and too small.

Denz, cheerz. I?m definitely keen on doing more life studies ? I?m looking for some more classes over the uni break. I?m trying to keep up the quick sketches as well as regular paintings.

Brian, thanks so much for the crits. I?m realising more and more how important the underlying sketch is and how much attention I need to give to my drawing skills.

About the hard edge brushes, this is where I get confused. Most of my digital painting experience is in painting texture flats for 3D models, where I mostly use a soft airbrush to build up layers of detail. When I try hard edge brushes in paintings, I have huge difficulty in getting anything looking even close to photo-realistic. But if I just go back to the soft airbrush I find I can apply the same skills used in texture mapping in building up more realistic shades for skin and a 3d look. I?m not actually using the dodge and burn or smudge tools at all, just layers of soft airbrush?

Anyway, I guess I just need to keep practicing with hard brushes until I figure out how to make things look right?

Ergh, I?ve been so slack with this stuff lately! My excuse is that I?ve been extremely busy with uni work lately, so I haven?t found much time for paintings. Looking forward to end of semester next month so I can get stuck into some skills development again.

Despite all the uni assessment, I did however manage a few quick pencil sketches:

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/palantir/200510170532_life_drawi…]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/palantir/2005101705357_life_draw…]

Some quick sketches referenced from an art book

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/palantir/2005101705511_my_hand01…]

My hand ?life drawing?, and no, my thumb isn?t really that long :P

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/palantir/2005101705614_freeman01…]

Supposed to be some dude from some FPS?

I want to try and do something with watercolours next - hopefully I can make some time for it this week.

Hey...found this great tutorial on DeviantArt. Creates a very cool brush to use in Photoshop....and no joke my paintings hav improved 100 fold.....

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24105181/

cross this with some skin tone samples and viola......

www.furiae.com

http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=166

It's not practice. It's understanding.

I think it would be a good idea to keep an eye on those arms, the forearms are already looking a tiny bit too short. Everything else other than the unfinished ass looks good :)

cool mate :) i like beast rider combos.

coming along nicely, face looks great.

any idea at all wat the beast will be?

looking good so far, good luck with the project!

good progress so far, a few quick pointers:

-Eyes may be a little too far apart
-Her face has a bit too much round padding in depth - pull back her eye-socket ridge a little, and recede it depth-ways to conform to the shape of the skull; as it is, she has no peripheral vision... if you grab some anatomical cut-aways, you may be surprised by how huge eyeballs are when sitting inside the skull; once you have a good understanding of how they sit in there, you'll see what I mean about the ridge, and how the bone allows the surface to form around them comfortably.

anyways, something to keep in mind, looking good, keep updating [:)]

Havent had much of a chance to work on this much, so all I have really done is tweak the face, extend the forerms and giver her some buttcheeks.

Lechy, I lengthed the forearms, thanks

Dez, thanks man :) Yeah I like best rider combos too. The beast will probably be some sort of large lizard creature, though I toyed with the idea of it being a large flying creature.

Thanks moony :)

JI yeah, I might tweak the eyes abit further. Im going for an asian face, so her eye socket area is fairly flat on purpose.

update-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/lady_wip_02.jpg[/img]
Basic body is pretty much finished. Just gotta do the feet area and add some cloth to the forearms.
I brought the eye socket area forward a bit more as the bridge of the nose looked it might be blocking part of eye sight. Was that what you meant JI? I dont quite understand what you meant! [B)]

Here ya go, I'll share a good resource that might help you:
http://forum.japantoday.com/m_116851/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm

that's my number one favourite site of referance pics for asian female ref -- 277+ forum pages of asian idol photos.

You've improved the bridge, but you'll notice that there's a difference in the brow formation in the stereotypical asian woman, which has a slightly rounder bulging of fat and then the optional double eyelid which is the cliche "pretty asian girl face" attribute. With this formation though, it doesn't round out the peripheral vision, it just adds over it. Hope that helps, I'm sure you'll figure it out if you study the eye area... less important is the eye shape, more important is how the eye sits within the formation of the skin/fat fold of the brow.

Anyways! good job, keep going :D

Getting there...

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/lady_wip_03.jpg[/img]

looking good! i was gonna crit about tiny feet but then remembered; asian woman, gotcha :P

Maybe to late to make a few comments -

It looks that her waist is very high compared to the location of her groin area. She is also very straight on top with quite wide hips. If her hips were that wide she would have a more noticable waist line. Also, her hips start high and they curve down quite low into her upper thighs and really don't start to taper off until almost her knee.

The body type you have given here would easily be a size 12 - 14 in fashion (which while not fat, is a lot bigger then 90% of asian women).