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WIP Gargoyle

Mooseboy
polycounter lvl 18
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Mooseboy polycounter lvl 18
At this point it's just a mesh. The ultimate goal is UT2K4 with custom rig and animation. Specifically, the wings will work.
Does anyone see anything really wrong with the joints that will give me major headaches later on?

Obviously, this is two halves that haven't been combined. (I'm still looking for how to snap verts to a specific x-coord - the PLE help suggests something along with snap to curve and vertex, but I'm having trouble making it work.)

prm1.jpg
prm2.jpg
prm3.jpg
prm4.jpg

For those of you interested in another 125K download, the reference is here.

Suggestions? Insults? Fire away.

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  • SyaPed
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    SyaPed polycounter lvl 18
    Looks pretty good, but for real crits on him you'll need Cheapalert. He'll be able to give you a rundown of any gargoyle anatomical errors there may be grin.gif
  • thinsoldier
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    thinsoldier polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    two halves that haven't been combined. (I'm still looking for how to snap verts to a specific x-coord - the PLE help suggests something along with snap to curve and vertex, but I'm having trouble making it work.)


    [/ QUOTE ]


    if you're talking about getting rid of that double line running right down the middle of the model, here's what to do.
    Delete the 2nd half to just work on the 1 remaining half.
    Go around the edge of the body where it is to join with its other half and select every vertex right around the edge.
    Switch to the scale tool and scale all the vertices in either x or z (dependig on which way your model is facing) to ensure that all of the middle vertices are totally totally aligned.
    Switch back to object mode. Get your move tool. press 'insert' on your keyboard so u can edit the objects pivot point. Grid-snap the pivot point to the exact center of the grid (0,0,0) press insert again. Now when you mirror duplicate it should be perfectly alinged in the middle and ready for u to go around it merging vertices.
  • CheapAlert
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    CheapAlert polycounter lvl 18
    And you registered here on my birthday :P

    His shoulder/armpit looks funkily pinched in, also his ribs seem to stretch a little long down low or so.

    Is his face supposed to be one of a protoss? :P
  • Mooseboy
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    Mooseboy polycounter lvl 18
    thinsoldier: Scaling was interesting and helpful, but the object pivot was already at the origin. So now after scaling I have a bunch of seam verts that hopefully have the same x-coord, though it's not exactly zero. What I'd like to do is something akin to selecting all the seam verts and snap them so that the x-coords are 0. I realize that these are close enough to zero that setting an appropriate merge vertex tolerance will take care of everything else, but it would be nice to know what one does to snap to an axis. I suspect I want to snap to a view plane, but the PLE help section for "Snap to the grid, a curve, points, or a view plane" isn't clear for that option. The "hold" key is blank, and none of the icons are recognizable.

    CheapAlert: I don't know what it means to be a "protoss". If you look at the reference, this is just a sculpture I made that looked the way I wanted it to.
  • Mooseboy
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    Mooseboy polycounter lvl 18
    HALP!!

    I rigged and roughly skinned the model, threw together a cruddy animation test, and exported it into UEd. This is what it looked like:
    badwinggargUed.jpg
    What happened to the wings?? It looks like the wings were in a transporter accident.
    I'm using Maya PLE 5. Here's the file (minus textures) that produced this beauty: [clicky clicky for a zippy]

    Suggestions?
  • CheapAlert
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    CheapAlert polycounter lvl 18
    Do not move bones, EVER.

    That's the result I get when that crap happens
  • Mooseboy
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    Mooseboy polycounter lvl 18
    What do you mean, "move bones"? Are you talking about tweaking the standard skeletons? If so, that doesn't apply here. This model is my own construction, skeleton and all.

    Perhaps I should mention that all the bones follow the Bip01 naming convention used by UT2K4. Most bones that exist in the UT2K4 skeletons have a similar bone in this gargoyle, so I gave the bones a similar, and in some cases identical, name. I wonder if that's throwing the engine for a loop... The Magdalena model uses its own naming convention, and none of the bones have names that match something from a UT2K4 skeletion. I should check Neofin and Effigy and Raptor to see what they use.
  • thinsoldier
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    thinsoldier polycounter lvl 18
    over on 3dbuzz.com they have a vtm covering snapping thoroughly...well thorough enough, it only takes 5 mintues to get the hang of it.
    Actually I cant seem to find it on 3d buzz anymore. Let me know if u really want it and I can ftp it to u or something.

    Anyway, Snapping.

    you can snap to dang near anything in maya.
    nurbs curves, nurbs surfaces, polygon edges, polygon vertices, nurb CV's, pretty much anything can be the target of snapping.

    I find it easiest to just use the snap shortcut keys rather than clickin the icons in the toolbars.

    So lets say you have half a model and wanted to make sure all the verts were aligned to the center of teh grid.

    1. select the verts you want to edit and do that scale thing to get them flat and totally in line with each other first
    2. don't lose your selection. Switch back and forth between the various tools (qwer) multiple times. I do this because sometimes maya does crap and doing this makes the next step work every time instead of acting funny

    3. switch to the move tool (w). Click ONE of the axis arrows (x or z), just a click, don't drag it. Lets say you clicked the x axis arrow. Now since u are only now working in X and you already now you have the verts in a perfct straight line, all u want to do now is align them all to center of the grid along X.

    4. So hold down the letter x key on your keyboard wich activates the snap to grid option. While holdng the key, position your mouse over the origin and click+hold your middle mouse button and move the mouse slightly. The move tool manipulator will snap to be in line with the origin and voila! all are aligned perfectly to the origin in the x axis

    This is called 'gesturing'
    had you not first clicked on just the X arrow of the move tool manipulator all of your verts would have converged to a single point directly on the origin and your model would be frigged unless you undo.

    X - snap to grid
    C - snap to curve, or edge, or isoparm (anywhere along curve, edge, or isoparm)
    V - snap to vert or CV (also some other types of points that I have never tried)

    In the event my instructions didnt work, try double clicking the move tool and mess with the "retain component spacing" setting.

    Also handy, "along rotational axis"
    and "edit polygons > move component tool" (to move a vert or face along its normal instead of being stuck with only x,y,z and options for movement.
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