Battle bird

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

I need finished work for my portfolio so here we go

.

Just base meshes so far. Taking it to mudbox after i finish a few more things here.

Killaball · Nov 2009

Hm... just a suggestion, you might want to just have a plane and using alpha channels instead of modeling out each individual feather.
s
Though the tail feathers do look good might just want to do the alpha thing for the wings.

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

I'm planning on doing that those planes are placeholder, sculpting feathers would look like ass.

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

paintover of the wip sculpt to try out a direction.

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

wip head

Nizza_waaarg · Nov 2009

^^ diggin the concept paint, tho kinda feels like there's one to many bright colours in there (maybe desaturate the feet a little?)

head's lookin cool so far. little soft in places but looking frward to updates. Any idea how you're going to manage the feathers on his body? feather alphas mebbe? :P

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

thanks man

.

Alot of the body will just be normal mapped stuff, but ill be placing selective alpha cards around.

hmm... just came up with a problem, i have no idea how i should do the wings. They are open so far, but the thing will mostly animated with them closed.

i guess i have to change the low poly for it.

Any ideas?

Sage · Nov 2009

check out these tutorials they might give you ideas on how to rig the wings and feathers

http://www.3d-frankiev.com/maxtuts/max8_video_tutorials.htm

The bat wing video might be a good start.

SyedS · Nov 2009

Looking very promising

can't wait to see how it turns out

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

Sage, thanks for the link, but it doesnt really help me

, all it shows is some simple dependencies using splines and the physique modifier.

It doesn't go into how you would make a nice folding wing at all.

EDIT:
Just found this, http://www.nakyoungkim.com/pop_birdRig.html

Thats what i wanted.

I think that looking at this i have 2 options, just model the wings closed and never open them, or i make the large part of the wing i made tiny and try and do the rest with alpha planes.

The first would be alot easier but i think it might be worthwhile to try the second route

.

Sage · Nov 2009

Muzz I figured it would give you ideas on how to rig the wing. If I was going to do it, I would mimic how a real bird wing works. For the feathers I would use bones to drive the splines and in turn those would deform the alpha planes. You might have to add extra loops so they can bend. Without trying it I can't tell how they would stretch with the texture on. It might look fine. The reason to use the spline is the verts set to smooth would be so they deform the alpha planes in a soft manner.

Glad you found what you wanted.

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

thanks for the advice sage

.

Not sure how much further ill go with the sculpt, but im going to spend more time on the props and come back to this.

I'm planning on doing most of the feather work in photoshop with nvidia filter. Hence the smooth body.

butt_sahib · Nov 2009

Everything looks FAB.
Im particularly lookinh forward to texturing

Nizza_waaarg · Nov 2009

mmm, CHICKEN!

cool sculpt thus far :P

by alphas i shoulda said, any plans for making some alphas for zbrush and stamping them right on the high poly? Tho on second thought doing them in the texturing stage could be easier :P

Hope you post more stuff soon man :poly142:

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

There are two reasons why im going for the photoshoop method, first is its faster, second i can get it sharper than i can doing a bake

. Unless you can think of any really good reasons to sculpt it?

Thanks!

First prop pass:
Bags will be done properly, but for now they are just random blobs to get a feel for where im going.

woogity · Nov 2009

really cool idea is this going to be a flightless bird?

-Woog

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

thanks man

.

yeah its flightless.

Just got to finish the straps to hold it all down then finish up the sculpt. then its time to retopo and do the wings properly.

Muzzoid · Nov 2009

I cant seem to make any mudbox shaders i like, any suggestions?

dv8ix · Nov 2009

Can I shoot it with a gun

?

achillesian · Nov 2009

i know its very wip, but i think all the mudbox work so far looks.... well very muddy

Battle bird

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