Midget Warriors

[Karikoga]

This is my latest project - I have big plans for it. I am making these guys for animation. C&C Please.

[Karikoga]

Here are the very-rough concept sketches of the charactors. I will make them short, very agile and fast...

[neiy0]

the concept is good, but it could do with some work IMO..

the head seems to be to large for the body, even though it is a midget.. also the arms are to long for a midget's body..

the mesh seems to be a little to bumpy as well..

i lke it though, good concept:)

[Karikoga]

Thanx neiy0...
The large head and long hands and fingers are part of the concept. A little dispropotion/distortion. The idea is to diviate from human proprotions. They will not quite be human midgets but something of a fantasy. But as far as the proportions go I will see how that works and will adjust accordingly as I go on...:).
I kinda like the bumps - gives them that roughness. Or perhaps i am not doing it right...

[Maddawg]

i agree about the bumps.... gives the face a kind of molten wax look.

[Borg]

yeah i think it would look more natural without the bumps
the corners of the mouth also need to come in a bit more

[Karikoga]

For now the proportions may look a little wierd, but hopefully the buff in the thighs and legs will ballance out the large head...:D.

[neiy0]

funnily enough, ur model is turning out better than your sketch.. i really like the anatomy that is taking place here;)

excellent improvement, and i cant wait to see more;)

[Karikoga]

Thanx again neiy0. And more you will get.
I drew the sketches early last year - in 2003. At that time I couldn't model in 3D - so you can see for how long I have had this idea. Earlier attempts were total disasters :p.

[Karikoga]

This is where I am at. C&C pls before I do the feet and hands...

[Cyrenn]

This character is comming along great.

What kind of animation is it going to be about.

You should have him kicking a British Red coat in the butt. LOL!

Just kidding.

Keep up the great work.

[Karikoga]

:))))) - LOL LOL - Cyrenn and thnax
It will be an ambush - one charactor vs another. A revenge killing but the other guy will put up quite a fight.
The idea is to get some fancy moves out of the charactors.
Though I am not into Star Wars that much but watching Yoda with that light saber stirred me up.....

[pat1337]

Hey man nice job so far, you think we can get a close up render of the ear?

[Karikoga]

Thanx Pat...
Here is the ear you asked for. If you are wondering about the loop in the lobe - it's a fashion statement :D .
Some indigeneous people in Africa and South America do that to their ears. One of my grandfather's ears was like that (though not that big). If you look at the pic in the left corner - that's how they make the loops. All you have to do is remove those big round corks....

[Karikoga]

An update...

[neiy0]

this is looking good, but there is one thing that puzzles me..

in photos i've seen in national geographic, and other such magazines, when the ear lobes are stretched out on these aftrican natives, they usually have things inside of their ear lobes, dont they.. im just saying that it looks kind of weird that they are so stretched out, and that there is nothing in them? u prob. know more about this since you live in Africa, but that was just something that didn't seem right to me..?

the body, and the anatomy is looking good, and the proportions are good as well..

:)

[hells angel]

hey Karikoga!!!....
awesome stuff dude...i like the stylisation...and wow...u've had this in ur head that long....takes some focus to carry it out man:)...
character looks neat......maybe u could make the palms/hands bigger..will go with the style.......
neiy0.....once those things inside the ears come off..the loops stay the same way..all droopy.....it doesnt come back to its original form...after tha they can vary their style of earrings.....u can see this "fashion" in a lot of old indian village folk too...
keep up the good work dude....waitin for updates.

[neiy0]

haha thanks hells angel for explaining that to me..i already knew that, but i just thought it looked kinda silly?

:o

[Karikoga]

hells angel: Yo man thanx a lot. You are absolutely right about the fingers. I will play around with hands, make them longer without making himm look like an orangutan...:D. My problem is I don't know how long the arms should be for me to get right effect. . I will experiment.

neiy0: Man those are one set of fashionable, sexy ears man:)). Ladies from near and will come just to check them out. Not to mention intimidating. Its like on the battlefield if you meet a guy with a scar across his face, you will think twice before you pick a one-on-one with him. Same with these ears.:))

[Cyrenn]

Very cool Karikoga, I like all the toys this little character is getting.
His outfit is all stating to come together. I also can't wait to see how you model the decorations on the calves. I always thought those were the coolest things.

As for the hands you are following true to the concept. So the hands look right. But I also would try and experiment like you said just to see what you come up with.

Keep the updates coming.:D :D :D

[Karikoga]

Cyrenn, your wish is my command....
I am still working on the feet and eyes.
Another update...

[Karikoga]

Damn that was one hell of a big pic....ooops:o

[Cyrenn]

Yes he is looking pimp! LOL!

I take it you are going to use opacity maps for the lions hair on the calves. I think thats what they used. I remember asking you that before.

Are there going to be any other chracters in your scene.

[Karikoga]

Thanx again Cyrenn...
It may be opacity for the hairs on the calves - I have not decided yet. A wide range of hairs and materials are used for this, from sisal fibre, hairs from animal tails to - yes lion's mane...The other option is to use these white ones which look like wool. It would be easier to deal with these when animating...
There are going to be two charactors. The theme is like revenge. One charactor ambushes the other guy from a tree and a fight ensues - using spear and stick fighting techniques - if I can pull it off :D. The scene is a dusty waterhole - that way I avoid doing a lot of trees :D :p.
I have given tweaking my guy a little rest for now and have been bogged down doing the scene.
I will also be doing another 3D thingy for my employee in Dec. so progress is gonna be rather slow over the next month :grr:

[Karikoga]

Just wanna share with you where I am going with this...Here is the scene I am working on. I haven't finished tweaking my guy though. Just taking a rest from him. I am using the photo below a a ref. for the scene...
I would appriciate some ideas and tutorials on how the effectively do this. Should I matte paint, should I do multiple shots with different camera angles then put them together in say Adobe Illustrator...? I am bit clueless here. Thing is I have never done anything like this b4.

[Karikoga]

Ref pic...

[Cyrenn]

Since your doing an animation with a fight scene.

I supppose it depends on your camara angles.

I would storyboard out your fight scene so that you knew exactly how your camera shots are going to look. This way you could decide if you just need a composited background. Or if you have to make a dome sphere over your scene.

It all depends on how crazy you want to get with your camera angles.

I also see in your ref picture there are going to be alot of rocks on the ground. What would really help just in case you didn't know, would be to create a few rock models and then use compound scatter, duplicates alot of rocks all over your ground. Then you could tweek them around abit.

I hope this might help.

Keep up the great Work Karikoga.

[Karikoga]

Thanx a million Cyrenn for the advice. You da pimp... :cool:
I do have a storyboard?! but I did not factor in the Cam angles -tihi hi hi - I just have a bunch of stick men on paper :D. I will get right to that...

[hells angel]

hey karikoga......this character is comin out really nice......do u have a name for him!!:D
as for the model...looks neat except for a few things....the definition where the deltoid meets the chest is a little too sharp...looks more like a pinch.......
and the toes are too elongated(in the front view).....maybe u should round them up a little..scale them in the x axis......
looks great otherwise...

while makin a short....story boarding an scriptin always helps....this way u know exactly where ur goin with this and u get to save a lot of time not modellin a lot of things that will never be used in the short..apart from camera angles...even if u know all the poses ur character is gonna take...u can save time while rigging and modelling......e.g.u wont have to worry about shoulder deformations if ur guy is never gonna raise his hand above the shoulders......,..
u can find some good referneces here to study storyboards and composition of ur shot.......
http://www.animationmeat.com/index2.html

all the best...waiting for updates:)

[Karikoga]

Hells angel you are a life saver....thanx a lot, for the crits, tips and especially the resources.
And oh yes a name, well not quite. Where I am from legend/myth has it (I was told as a kid) that midgets have some fierce fighting skills, in spite of thier size, and one should never make fun of their size otherwise they will thoroughly polish your derrier... We call midgets Mandionerepi - which is actually a question you would be asked if you meet one - "How far off was I when you first saw me?"
RIGHT ANSWER = "You were far away" (implying he is not short - something to do with perspective)
WRONG ANSWER = "Oh right here" = you are too damn short = thorough butt kicking

Don't ask, coz I still don't get it either, but thou shalt not question the wisdom lest you will make it onto the most wanted list of all the midgets in the land = real thorough butt kicking everytime you meet one.
So it came to pass that all midgets are treated with the utmost respect and awe....
So for now I just call him Mandionerepi....for now! :D ;)

[Karikoga]

The reason their feet are rather long is so they match with the hands and they will also need to compensate for the shorter lower leg - i.e. stand on their toes for more agility instead of the whole foot...

[Karikoga]

Happy New Year y' all
Started texturing. Not much of progress though.

[Karikoga]

Attatchment...

[Karikoga]

I haven't gotten to the hairs yet so the underwear and legs will change. I also plan to put hairs at the base of that asagai (spear).
I decided to be a little more inventive with the weaponry and made then larger. One guy will have the asagai (and maybe a knife) and the second charactor will have the knob-carry and the battle axe.

[Phynius Gauge]

Now there's a funny little guy :). I liked the second to last render better than the most recent one, but it's coming together well either way. There seems to be a mesh error of some sort on the chin, like an isolated verticee or something. Looking forward to whatever's in store :).

[Karikoga]

:) Thanx Gauge...
I am not sure what you mean by you like the previuos render (without texture). The other render doesn't have lights though. Here is another render with a skylight....
P.S I will fix the chin vertex

[neiy0]

aren't u gonna change the...leg warmers, or grass anklets, or whatever they call them:D to a non brown color, or atleast the same color as his legs..?

looking good, i like the textures so far, and it will look good with hair on the outfits..

also i think, IMO, there should be some sort of old blood stains or something on the blades..i think that it would look cool, and more used as well:)

[Karikoga]

Thanx neiy0
The leg warmers are a very important ingridient, I will definately have them. It's just that I have never unwrapped anything before to add texture and am still going through the tutorials :o
Blood, sweat, dust....You will definately get blood alright - in the animation. For now the weapons have just got a new coat of polish...:D

[neiy0]

haha alright sounds good karikoga, im waiting for good updates:D

[Karikoga]

The more I work on this project the harder it seems :D.
I have put aside the charactor for the time being and have been working on the landscape.
I have decided on one scene with a 360 degree view. Some of those trees are RAM-guzzling-3D-modelled to give a little depth and some are opacity maps. I plan to put roughage (stones and stubby grass etc) around the waterhole area (currently without texture).
C&C most welcome...
P.S. please ignore the leg-warmers for now :D.....

[Karikoga]

I am back to my little guy, hopefully with more vavoom...

[neiy0]

Well it certainly has been a while, Karikoga!

It's good to see that you haven't completely given up this project..:)

The model looks good, glad to see that you have started working on the "leg warmers" a little more so that they look more like hair..

Keep us updated, and how come it has been so long? School..Freelance..?

[Karikoga]

Actually both (school and freelance). But now I think my head is clean as far as this project is concerned.
I gave myself a year to complete this thing, both short animations and all. I should be done by this October.
Thanx neiy0 for the boost...

[hells angel]

hey man...good to see u back on this.....been a while......
nice update....have u considered using a hair plugin for the furry part on the leg??....
waitin for updates:)

[Yoda]

looks cool looking forward to see the lil dude animated :dance:

[neiy0]

Have you considered changing the eye texture, I don't think it suits him at all.. or his surroundings..

[Karikoga]

....have u considered using a hair plugin for the furry part on the leg??....
waitin for updates:)
Help on that will be most welcome. I am using Max6, but I do not have the Shag Hair plug in. At the moment I am trying to paint the texture in Photoshop - as you can see I am having problems when it comes to applying it. Is there another way of making hair. A more effective method?
I am not sure what "scatter" will do when it comes to rendering the animation. Won't it be too "heavy". hells angel how did you do Hanuman. You have some really nice folicals there.
You have a point there neiy0. I will try to fix that.

[hells angel]

hey karikoga....i can understand the difficulty that comes in doin hair....will be glad to help u....have u tried ornatrix?..its free...and its lighter on the sysem than shag....give it a shot:)

[Karikoga]

Thanx a million Hells Angel. I will give it a try. :dance:
That last post took 24 hrs to render :wall:, well partly because I only used a skylight with shadows set at 20 :smug: but those "hairs" were a real drag

[Karikoga]

A little update. I have started putting in the bones, though I still have to work on the eyes.

[hells angel]

nice update karikoga.......nice to see the new hair.....well u could try givin it variations by using more than one model hair.........the textures on the skin and the shield need a little more work...looks very even now......and the cloth loks very flat on him probably cos of the lighting...maybe u could tweak that.....
good stuff..waiting for more:)

[Karikoga]

Yo thanx Hells Angel. You are right about the lighting. It is the problem in the last render. Here is another small update and tried to fix the light. I can't seem to get him to cast shadows though....

[Karikoga]

A different background

[hells angel]

the skin texture still needs work IMO...try a standard 3 point lighting in ref......and for shadows...u can always use seperate lights for illumination and shadow cdasting as u can disable either in the properties.