Beetle - WIP

JaySmitt

Currently working on a college project, I've been meaning to start one of these WIP threads for ages. I've set myself the task to model, texture and animate a beetle for a short clip. The clip will be a simple camera rotation with zooming shots detailing certain parts of the beetle.

So far I'm into the late stage of modeling, all I need to do is add some more detail like hooks on the legs and the wings under the shell. I've already done a rough model of the wings and I'm messing around with some simple animations, also studying how a beetle takes flight (Thanks BBC / David Attenborough ).

This is a quick render of the stage I'm at:



Please let me know what you think and tell me if anything needs adjusting.

JaySmitt

OK, Im not too familiar with animating but I'm basically trying to make the wings fold as they do almost like a bird, so that the wings can fit in the shell. This is what I'm trying to get work:


But this is the ugly look I get:

I've had a mess around with the paint weights tool with no success and I have no clue at the moment on how to make it fold.

Any suggestions?

sneakymcfox

ha was expecting the car,
but seriosly nice work cant see any real problems with it at the moment

Piflik

Folding something using Bones isn't easy, but you don't have to make it perfect. Beetles fold their flight wings with the elytra closed...and the unfolding happens so fast, you hardly see anything of it...unless you want to make a slow motion animation

JaySmitt

I'm kinda OCD with attention to detail.

Piflik

Oh...I know that...I once modelled some nuts and bolts lying on top of a shelf, but there was never any camera angle to show them ...

anyway...you might have to add some loops (and possibly bones, too), to have smoother weights...and I haven't seen a bug folding its wings, but maybe you should consider folding them in the other direction, too (Z-Axis)

JaySmitt

I've added some spikes on the legs.



Still no luck with the wings, think i might not bother animating it.

Tea Monster

You need a few more edge loops in the wing to smooth stuff out when you animate it.

You are turning the wing tip at 90 degrees to the rest of the structure, so with that extreme a bend stuff will get kinked, try to adjust it along the z axis some, so that it doesn't fold onto itself as much.

JaySmitt

I scrapped the rough wing model, I used some reference from a bat and looked at how it's almost like a hand but with webbed skin between the fingers. But in the end I just got confuzled with the whole idea so I just modeled a more accurate version of the wing. I've been messing around with Blend Shape which is working out OK so far. I'm going to use the lattice tool to make the wing tip flick out, none the less they beat their wings so fast you wouldn't notice so I think I'll cover up the mistakes with a motion blur during the animation :poly137:.