Mr.fE - Army Of One - The Last

[Mr.fE]

Ok here we go...
This is what I modeled so far...I'm going freestyle with on concept right now an just model the basic mesh...

[Cordero]

I thought only humans are allowed for this comp.
Or is this going to be a human?

[Mr.fE]

gonna be human... this is gonna be an armor...
and in a cartoonish style for I'm not for hyperrealistic models!

[Mr.fE]

Wow I've got a long weekend ahead so I guess I'm gonna work hard!

here is the idea I was thinking about:
this guy is using a king of tactical defensive prototype that creates a spherical barrier that blocks anything and can be overloaded to cause an explosion...

so he is something like a soldier who is still alive because he has this defensive weapon which can also cause big destruction...think of him in the middle of the battlefield protected by his dome of energy that suddenly explodes leaving the ashes of the enemies alone with him...

[SnappedStrings]

Before you go any further. I would bring this to a halt right quick and throw down some concept sketches. Even if they're just little more than stick figures with speech balloons. even that much will give you a better idea of where you're going, and it even might help you come up with new ideas that you hadn't considered yet.

Also, some sketches will help the rest of us to critique and give advice.

I know it's tempting to just dive right in and swim. But everything is always better when there's concept! Good luck :-D

[Mr.fE]

yeah you are right! I always do tons of sketches...
This time the main inspiration comes from Megaman/Rockman form the videogame...

I always wanted to model something alike... and I was also planning to use the Megaman world as the main concept for my upcoming 3d animation classes...

Here are some references...

I'll eventually stop as soon as the basic shape is done to sketch details and features before event thinking about sculpting! (for is my students see my very wrong workflow I can't imagine what mess they will do in their projects!! )

thanks again...really!

[Mr.fE]

here's some modeling still going on...

[xxxcubanxxx]

model is coming along nicely man, looking forward to more.

[Mr.fE]

...too bad I didn't work a lot this weekend but still I made some improvements on my mesh...

I'm planning to finish the head shape and start sculpting this weekend!
(I hope!!)

...and by the way you all guys are doing a great job!!!!

[Cordero]

I'm starting to feel what you are thinking about!

I like the size of him

Show us something soon

[Mr.fE]

glad you like it!

got some time issues as always and I'm getting lost with the head but as I scheduled to start sculpting this weekend...I'LL DO IT!!

...xmas presents can wait...;D

ps.
..this is something that goes beyond this topic but:
do you guys have some links for useful tips on using displacement maps in maya/mentalray? I kinda feel ashamed but I never really managed to make them work properly...

[Mr.fE]

grrr...

that is what kept me from spending my time on the challenge today:

a CUPCAKE!

oh god I hate them...

[mr_lemon]

Originally Posted by Mr.fE

glad you like it!

got some time issues as always and I'm getting lost with the head but as I scheduled to start sculpting this weekend...I'LL DO IT!!

...xmas presents can wait...;D

ps.
..this is something that goes beyond this topic but:
do you guys have some links for useful tips on using displacement maps in maya/mentalray? I kinda feel ashamed but I never really managed to make them work properly...

the thing that usually goes wrong are the setting in image file of the disp slot,try this:

take your model,give a material and in the disp slot put your image file,go the the properties of the image you imported then under the "color balance" tab try to set Alpha Gain to 1 and alpha offset to -0.5,maybe it's too high as a value but keep in mind to use that formula as the alpha offset has to be always the half negative of the alpha gain. other example (i'm not so good at english so it's better to do some) are values like AG: 0.5 AO:-0.25 AG: 0.1 AO: -0.05. Also remember that the higher value you'll use for AG the more disp you'll have,if the detail are coarse add a MentalRayDisplacementApprox under approximation editor (window ----> rendering editor----> mentalray-----> approximation editor select your mesh in the dropdown under displacement and click create) Hope that those information will be useful for you.

BTW keep going with your model,love the cartoony exagerated proportion

[xxxcubanxxx]

hope to see some updates this weekend, I'm loving the base mesh so far and looking forward to the sculpting. Now drop them cupcakes and pick up that tablet...

[Mr.fE]

the cupcake is dead!

here we go again!!!!

to MR_LEMON: grazie (ance se in realtà era già quello che facevo...solo mi dava poca soddisfazione! - thanks! (even if I usually use those settings...but they didn't satisfy me that much!)