Diomede's 1st try at alpha to omega

Diomede

Hello everyone.

I am starting out on a journey to tell stories of Brash Lonergan, a law enforcement man assigned to the outer territories of the galaxy.  Cliches?  You bet! 

 

This all started with this month's Carrara challenge, but I'd like to take it further.  I'd like to put together a whole story.  In this first attempt, I tried to have something unique, so I have tried to model everything from scratch, rig, texture, pose, render - the whole thing from alpha to omega.  I am not going for photo-realism, but I also do not want the currently popular manga-styled toon.  I'm still struggling to figure out exactly what I want so am likely to keep experimenting.  Everything in these works in progress was done in Carrara because it is a single integration app.  Down the road, I may completely reconstruct my hero (Brash) and the other characters by taking genesis based figures and creating custom morphs in another app, rig in Studio, yadda, yadda, yadda, but for the moment I am trying to be like the Karate Kid and learn how everything fits together.  The panels were assembled in Photshop with a few additions.  Constructive criticism appreciated. 

Diomede

Here is a second start on a custom low poly figure to be used as the base for male figures in non-photorealistic projects.   This is just a base starter mesh of about 1250 polygons. The actual characters will be created by adding detail.  More to come, eventually. 

 

IceDragonArt

Will be watching with interest

Saphirewild

I will be watching with much interest!!!!

Diomede

Thanks for the encouragement.  I have started a thread in the forum for my modeler of choice and for details of interest to users of that progam, but will use this thread to share and to invite help for the project more generally.

Diomede

What would an adventure serial be without some birdmen?  I've experimented with modeling and rigging some custom figures.  I need to get some better shaders and could improve the edge flow but on the whole the figure poses reasonably well.  Everything modeled and rigged in Carrara.  If anyone is interested, some great Carrara tutorials by PhilW and Infinite Skills are 70% off.

3Diva

Oh nice! I wish I had the skills to do this! Good luck - I know you can do it! 

Diomede

Thanks for the encouragement.  I have been rigging within Carrara up until now.  I may try to rig within Studio but I think the method has changed since I Iast looked. I've watched some youtube videos on Daz rigging but should probably pick up a tutorial while the sale lasts.  The nice thing about Carrara is that you don't have to assign each polygon to a group and match them to the skeleton parts.  Instead, you just attach the skeleton to the entire mesh and then edit the joint weights if you don't like them.  But if I learn to rig within Studio then I could probably also use additional Studio tools like the tranfer utilty to make compatible content such as birdman armor and clothes.

 

Always more to learn. 

Knittingmommy

Looks like an interestiing project.  I really like how your birdman turned out!  :)

Diomede

I'd be grateful for any suggestions on rigging custom figures in daz Studio. 

Here are some of the related resources for rigging in Studio that I am aware of.
Jen Greenlees rigging a prop  (eg., open and close doors of a building)

Richard Kapuaala for rigging an asymmetrical mesh (figures with bending limbs)

Daz Wiki on rigging
prepping the model
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/rigging/tutorials/basic_rigging_preparation/start
Basics of bones and rigging
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/rigging/tutorials/adding_bones_for_rigging/start

Here are some resources for rigging in Carrara
Cripeman
intro to bones

bone influence

Dimension Theory
part 1

part 2

Marcelo Teixeira
IK chains

 

 

 

 

 

Diomede

Thanks, when I look at the birdman in its current form I think of those old claymation holiday shows.

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Knittingmommy said:

Looks like an interestiing project.  I really like how your birdman turned out!  :)

 

Diomede

My concept for the heroine is Mercedes Olivia Xabat-Espinosa, but her friends call her Moxie.  Very cliche, but that is what I like.  Brash Lonergan is brash and Moxie Espinosa has Moxie.  moxie is North American slang for someone with energy, courage, determination, and know-how.  I intend for her to be a government administrative official.  She and Brash will have romantic tension, but he wants to be on the frontier, but she wants to live a glamourous life in the capitol.  She only travels to the frontier for work.  Here are a couple of tests, one for Moxie's face, and one that is not Moxie, but is to continue my progress learning to rig and pose custom figures. 

I watched some more tutorials on modeling the human head.  This attempt at Moxie's face has better edge flow to make expressions and other morphs easier.  The purple and green bands show the edge flow.  Still trying to get the nostrils right. 

 

This model isn't Moxie but it was a test of rigging a custom figure that I did for one of the Carrara challenges.  Focusing on rigging the hand and fingers. 

Diomede

Here is a great video on modeling a human head.  Definitely worth watching to the very end, even if you don't care about modeling.  Really.

Diomede

Haven't posted in a while but still making steady progress.  In the meantime, here is a little inspiration for anachronism and art - just like ths month's Carrara challenge.  Enjoy this from Bloc Party.