Jedi character: My first, help?

[seth raad]

final shot...

[Chronepsis]

Ok a couple of things I think need fixing if you wish a realistic model.



1. The front of the ear should not look like it was extruded from the but should be a continuation.

2. The upper eyebrows should be a continuation of your forehead.

3. the upper eyelash looks wierd... like there is 2 of them.. should be smoother.

Otherwise great job continue to practice and for the best realistic result use a mirror or friend for reference.

[[X]treme]

nice work! looks like you've come a long way just by working on this model

can't wait for it to be finished!

also, if u need a lightsaber to use i recently made one, you might need to tweak it here and there to fit ure character and all, but if you wanna use it just say the word

great job

[seth raad]

Hey thanks guys,

Chronepsis: Thanks for the advice! I knew some things were off, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. I'll adjust the ear and the eyebrow right away.

About the eye: Although I modeled the eyelashes in my earlier models, I deleted it, and decided I would use another technique later on, using renderable splines. So those flaps are supposed to be the eyelid (not the eyelash)... y'know how the upper lid is supposed to fold when the eye is open...

Does it still look wrong? I'll look at it and see if there's anyway I can tweak it, in my next renders I'll pop an eyeball in there so you can see how it should look...

Thanks, I am aiming for realism so any subtleties will make a huge difference.


[X]treme: LOL thanks man, for the kind words and the lightsabre. I can't wait for it to be finished either; I have so many cool stuff I want to do with this one character... it's going to be exciting.

About the lightsabre, hey could you post a render or two? I'd love to see it. I'm into them, and plan to design a whole collection of "non-traditional" sabers; double blades, triple blades lol the works . My first model (an incomplete Tubby McChubbs not included) was actually a sabre, I'll post some renders for you to check out in my next update.

rubs hands together aaaaaallllrightythen!

(hiho hiho its back to work I go.. *whistles*)

[seth raad]

Okay, it's been a almost 2 months since I started this project; I don't know whether that's good or bad for a noob, but I must say that I've learned a lot (check out the images on page one to see how much I’ve learned ).

Anyway, I spent the past couple of weeks trying to squeeze some ‘puter time into my hectic offline schedule. *sigh* I did manage to finish what I set out to do; some major mesh tweekage and cleaning up.

Anyway, what I got here is basically the semi-finished product. The two halves aren't welded yet; but this is how it's going to look. I'm going to spend a few days scrutinizing it to see if I can find anything that sticks out; but I won't bother adding any more details as I plan to texture and clothe him etc.

So guys, what do you think? Any adjusting? I plan to use this character for a short, so I don't want to ruin a good production with lousy modeling If needed I’ll post some wires so you can check out the topology for errors…

*wonders how to get the big guns, like Monte in here*

[seth raad]

perspective shots of the body...

[seth raad]

perspective shots of the face...

[seth raad]

Okay here are a couple of renders of this characters lightsabre.

Now this was my first model, all the textures are standard Max textures, with the exception of the reflect map, that I downloaded off the net.

I didn't know what the heck I was doing with this, just fiddled around for hours until I got this...

[seth raad]

last one...

I know the wall texture is a bit off, and the lighting... but it's a good start, I think. I plan to expand this shelf and wall into an entire room for the scene.

The plaque on th wall and the book meshes are obviously Max's meshes; I just threw them in to add the vibe Oh, and the cool dragon yinyang was design by a friend, I added that in 'cause I liked it so much.

Well anything? Words of advice? Cussing? Threats?

This noob could use an extra pair of eyes...

Well goodnight y'all. I'm hittin' the hay, see you in the morn'

[Daniel]

I'm impressed, you've definately improved since the beginning or this ordeal. For your character I would still work on the shoulder blades, but if he's always gonn be wearing clother, who cares right?

[seth raad]

Oh Hey DanielB! Thanks for stopping by again And thanks so much for helping me out so far

Yea *cough* I agree with ya, I do want my character to look right for those topless scenes though I plan to open up with him doing a Kata with his lightsabre, and he's going to not have a shirt on

Now, I just know I'm delirious from lack of sleep (it's 5 am, been on the pc since around midnight)... so please don't feel obliged to answer this right away, as all may be revealed after a few hours sleep...


...but what the heck is a shoulder blade???

*I gotta catch some serious zeez*

[Rump Dreggel]

Hey i´m doing an evil jedi now!! I´ll give u this; Mine´s gonna win!!!

Just keep it up n we´ll meet again!!!

[MonteCristo]

Ok, there are a lot of anatomical issues with this model, but I have to congratulate you on your improving skills. You have taken a big leap forward since the last model, and that is excellent news. Now if you can continue to practice you will just get better and better. I recomend doing another from the beginning again. I used to keep trying to tweak my first female mesh to get her to look right and I never could do it. Then I started again, and I just didn't make the same mistakes again. Pretty simple really

Keep at it. Work hard, and you will rock.

[seth raad]

damn! I accidentally deleted that post, and all I wanted to do was delete the attached image.

*sheesh*

Anyway, in case you didn't get to read that post:

Thanks for stopping by Monte; I realize that you have a lot on your plate right now, so I appritate it.

I know that practice makes perfect, and I plan to get a lot of practice by desigining every one of my characters from scratch. Once I'm done with this one, I will pratice spline modeling techniques on a female character, and nurbs on some kind of monster... then box modeling again.

I would very much like to follow through with this one though; just so I can see what it's like to texture, rig and animate a character... that way when I go back to square one, I will have a good idea what to prepare for.

Anyway, my pc crashed, and I had to reinstall my wacom drivers and some other softwear. I did manage to get some work done. Mostly on the back, shoulder blades and traps... as Daniel pointed out.

I also made some adjustements to the chest, so I didn't stick out so much around the collar bone area; fixed the legs a bit, and the middle area. Oh, and I tweaked the face and ears to match my own, with the help of a small mirror.

Here's the back...

[seth raad]

and heres the front, plus the face...

I'll revisit the mesh again after I get some sleep, to see if I can do any more tweaking... I realize I could spend forever on this...

So folks... any thing you see that you find especially horrible? I want this to look right... but then again, I do plan to animate this, with clothes and stuff.

My concern especially is rigging, and how the limbs will react to bending...