Dune's Reindeer (WIP)

Started by TheBadger, February 26, 2013, 03:03:27 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

TheBadger

Hello.
I agreed to make a model and sculpt of a few Reindeer for Ulco, so I could practice at not sucking at modeling.

In this post I present the low polly model, before sculpting begins.

Please C&C and help me to not suck at modeling  ;D



It has been eaten.

Dune

That is already looking magnificent, Michael! Never noticed that they had such 'prehistoric' heads/necks.
The structure and sizes of parts look good. But I would give the model a more relaxed stance (legs and head/neck tilt/curve. I think many models of animals like these have too stretched necks, so they look kind of rigid. I found some examples. One model from turbosquid having this elongated stretched look, which is not very nice, and give away it being a model. Two more real photo's where the necks are curved more relaxed. Nicer, I think.


TheBadger

#2
Don't worry much about the pose, Ulco. I will rig and pose at the very end of the process. It necessarily has to be done at the end since I will use the same base shell I posted above for the other versions of the model. Its just easier to keep everything straight forward and clear for me.

The low polly you see above should make animating/posing the models nice and clean. Not sure about the high polly yet.

Before I move forward, I just need to build the inside of the deer; mouth, teeth, gums, so on. And do a little work on the muscle structure, and the tail as it is very ugly right now. Also the beard, have to decide if that will be fur/hair or sculpt, or simple polygons and texture.

The only problems I am having is the fur. Its not that I cant find out how to do fur. But that a version will have fur in Maya, but not the sculpt. So maybe I should sculpt the deer as if it had beed shaved or even skinned. And then add fur to that in Maya. Or attempt to sculpt the fur in mudbox. But I have not seen to many sculpts with fur from any software that look like photos.
For photoreal deer that will be a good distance from the camera, its no problem. But I want at least one model that can be in the camera's face and fool a untrained eye; Granted, a lot of that will be on the TG2 render though.

Also, I have a good amount of questions about how to do this in terms of importing into TG2. Again, the background deer are no problem. But up close, do to the issues with displacement, a very large file will be necessary (I think). Luckily, TG2 can deal with big object files with many many faces, very well! Vue sure cant from what I have read.
Still, I think all of the issues I am learning about from doing this project with you, I think will be solved when full FBX object support is up and running (as I understand it anyway).

Can lightwave read FBX?
It has been eaten.

Dune

You're way ahead of me with modeling, obviously. I never worked with 'rigged' models, and don't know what FBX is, so I'm no good advisor in that respect. I'll just give you thumbs up and you have all my confidence!

Kadri

#4
Quote from: TheBadger on February 27, 2013, 01:54:31 AM
...
Can lightwave read FBX?

Yes but as always in different file formats there are problems sometimes.
The objects that i tried were old ones. So you have to try guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRewBck4QPc

Lightwave 11.5 is out now.

Look at the "Interchange" part for example:

https://www.lightwave3d.com/overview/

TheBadger

Thanks Kadri, I'm guessing those links are more for Ulco's benefit than mine. But I really enjoyed the youtube link. I hope TG3 will allow us to move through our terrains so nicely

Ulco, it looks like at least you can open FBX, with perhaps some issues as Kadri warns. But this is good news because I can get the models to you just as I make them in Maya, and you should be able to more easily open and alter them, before taking them into TG2

I will rig a simple deer (no uv's) and save as an fbx to send you. You can try to open it and see what you can see. Of course I'll pose the finals like we talked about, but this should give you a lot more flexibility to use the models and create many more variations for your populations in TG2.

By the way, just because... I am running into very strange things on google as I look for source images.
#1 the inside of a deers mouth is kinda gross. And #2, even a search on google for deer will eventually lead you to hard core porn. I am surprised that, that surprised me.
As to both...
[attach=1]
It has been eaten.

TheBadger

Finished the Low Polly, Ulco. I will get something to you to look at soon so we can figure out how best for me to finish.

It has been eaten.

Dune

Holy cow, that's low poly? Looks great already. I am beginning to understand how you guys work with the rigging of a model. You have this basic stance and you add some internal sticks that can move the feet, neck, etc. have to dive into that more, I guess. But time is so short to do all I want.....

TheBadger

Hmmmm. It does kinda look like a cow.

I think the mane and antlers, with a proper pose, will fix that though.  ;D
It has been eaten.

TheBadger

#9
Crap, just learned that Caribou are wild reindeer. But there are differences from breeding.
Caribou vs reindeer http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/weddell-seals-in-the-ross-sea/journals/2011-02-24

I'm not sure if your getting reindeer models, or Caribou, Ulco.

Edit] Ahhhhh, so the the 2nd image you posted, Ulco, is a Caribou, and the 3rd image is of 2 reindeer. Looks like you are getting a Caribou Ulco. Cause thats what I have been using as a source image...

I guess I just learned something new.
It has been eaten.

Dune

#10
I actually knew they were not exactly the same, but it was in the very back of my mind. Thanks for the link, very interesting to 'catch up'. The Caribou is just fine, as in those days (around ice ages) they weren't really domesticated  ;). And they still might even have looked quite the same across the northern hemisphere, who knows....

Just learned that there's a herd on Georgia Island or something like that, near Antarctica. Food for the old whale hunters. But they want them out as they're introduced of course. Same with the millions of rats.....

TheBadger

#11
Soon Ulco, soon :)
It has been eaten.

Dune

Wow! Those antlers are incredible! And so is the rest of course. Great job!

One thing; maybe you should look at the mouth and make it a bit more 'relaxed' ( http://journeyswithjoyce.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/caribou-head-up.jpg ). He's kind of grinning a bit too much, IMHO.

mhaze

Amazing work very impressive modelling.

TheBadger

Thanks mhaze

Dune,
I will probably close the mouth. I just wanted you to know its all there; Teeth, gums, strange hard plate thing on the roof of the mouth, because they don't have upper teeth, also the throat. The only thing not represented is the molars, it got tedious, and I got a little board. But it will be there if you want it.

Theres still a ton to do  :-\
It has been eaten.