Excavating the Deep Cut

[sboerner]

A few more. Almost done with the 20+ poses that will be in the scene. Very little of the detail here will be visible, because most of the workers will be in the distance behind clouds of dust. But this is good practice. Working with these models every day is giving me some good ideas as to how the meshes and rigging might be improved. I'm planning to do a new generation later this spring or summer and those will be better.

[Kadri]

I like them even now as they look.

[Hannes]

Really great models!
The facial expressions of the guys in the first image made me laugh though. They both look extremely drunk I'd say...

[sboerner]

The facial expressions of the guys in the first image made me laugh though. They both look extremely drunk I'd say...  

Well, they did in fact distribute whiskey rations several times a day, up to 24-32 ounces total for each worker.  I wouldn't want to be the guy holding the drill.

But yep, I'd really like to animate the eyes to avoid that thousand-yard-stare.

[Dune]

Fantastic characters! Do you do any post on the clothing after MD, like smoothing normals or sudividing? I start with particle distance 20, then switch to 10 or even 5, and remesh to squares. But even then some angles/polys show up quite hard in TG, and I take them through poseray at least to recalculate normals, or ZB to polish (you have to take care not to tear the seams though, so I mask these first).

[DocCharly65]

The facial expressions of the guys in the first image made me laugh though. They both look extremely drunk I'd say...

I thought the same  

But how could they withstand the hard work without their whiskey rations

But yep, I'd really like to animate the eyes to avoid that thousand-yard-stare.

In a few cases it's easy. I used a "technique" animating my Robert Patrick Terminators eyes to avoid the thousand-yard-stare by "animating" the texture maps:

(This is only a quick example I made in some minutes. And it only works if each eye is a separate object)

[sboerner]

Thanks, guys.

Do you do any post on the clothing after MD, like smoothing normals or sudividing? I start with particle distance 20, then switch to 10 or even 5, and remesh to squares. But even then some angles/polys show up quite hard in TG, and I take them through poseray at least to recalculate normals, or ZB to polish (you have to take care not to tear the seams though, so I mask these first).

No post work. In MD I work with a particle distance of 20 but export at 10, keeping the triangles. I experimented with converting to quads but they broke up the folds. Everything gets converted to triangles by the renderer anyway. For these models I'm trying to keep the weight down. But for a hero object I'd still try to avoid having to do post work, and might try a particle distance of 5 and export with fabric thickness enabled.

I used a "technique" animating my Robert Patrick Terminators eyes to avoid the thousand-yard-stare by "animating" the texture maps

Nice idea!

[Dune]

Thanks, Steve. I might leave it then as well. It's supposed to be better for post in ZB as that doesn't like triangles, that's all.

[sboerner]

I understand completely — my first inclination was to output quads and then refine in Mudbox, in my case. But MD can produce high-density meshes so it seemed best to let it go. Are you using ZBrush to smooth the result, or to reshape it? MD has a sculpt tool but I haven't tried it yet.

[Dune]

I use it to smooth and move out any inconsistencies, but it's not the best procedure as seams are easily torn. I'll have a look out for the sculpt tool.

[sboerner]

You might be able to merge the shells and weld the vertices along the seams. I'll take a look at that.

[j meyer]

You might be able to merge the shells and weld the vertices along the seams. I'll take a look at that.

Or you could use ZRemesher and projection.

[Dune]

Yes, but then I'd have to redo UVmapping, and MD provides good straight maps by itself. Or can you project UV maps onto a new mesh? Sorry, btw, for it getting a bit offtopic.

[sboerner]

The thing that sold me on MD is that it produces such clean, distortion-free UV maps. The UVs are not stretched around folds, the way they are when you use sculpting tools to model fabrics, so any applied textures appear the way real cloth would. I don't think I'd mess with the UVs. 

I'd recommend trying to do as much in MD as possible, adjusting the fabric parameters and simulation settings (gravity, etc.) to fix things if they don't seem right. You can pull the fabrics around to some extent while the simulator is running, but let it do the work.

Yeah, this is seriously off-topic but no point in starting a new thread. 

[j meyer]

Yes, but then I'd have to redo UVmapping, and MD provides good straight maps by itself. Or can you project UV maps onto a new mesh? Sorry, btw, for it getting a bit offtopic.

There are ways to do that.
But you can of course just weld the vertices in ZB, either on import or when already imported.
Forgot to mention that yesterday, sorry.
And, of course, sorry Steve.