Tarsier
polycounter lvl 8
Going through some of my previous models, Ive come to the conclusion that Im avoiding a few things that I should not be. The purpose of this model is to take me a bit out of my comfort zone and focus on a some new skills. I am attempting to model a tarsier with the primary goal being improvement of my hand modeling, working with fur, fur/skin transitions, and very thin body pieces.
The high poly model is about an hour along with one or possibly two more subdivisions to go.
The high poly model is about an hour along with one or possibly two more subdivisions to go.
Replies
from the side view he seems flat so I suspect the whole torso and head looks cubeish.. flat.
I dont know about these animals but I suspect they are more rounded.
is that the only reference you got? mind posting others if you got?
I think that you are correct about the blockyness. I was going more for "pudgy" but I might have taken it too far...or not far enough. Looking at the references again, I think I have the back of the head wrong as well.
I don't think the tips of the fingers/toes are bulbous enough. They're almost like gecko feet on the ref, but you have pointy boney sticks.
The eyes aren't positioned as they should be. These little guys are prey not predators. Prey like fish have their eyes positioned for maximum peripheral vision. The more likely it is that you'll be eaten, the closer your FOV moves to 360.
Predators, cats, humans, dogs ect... survival depends on zeroing in on one thing, killing it and eating it, so their eyes face forward.
You dialed in human predator eyes when they need to be "oh shit... something behind me is going to eat me, isn't it! ISN'T IT!!?? OH shit OH SHIIIT!"
http://www.starwars.com/databank/species/moncalamari/index.html
but well. what is this model going to be used for? easier to figure out what you can cut out.. is he supposed to be able to curl his fingers/toes? will he be animated at all?
I am a little bit concerned about removing extra loops from the body simply because (judging from the reference pictures) these creatures spend most of their time curled up hanging from branches. The extra geometry might not be doing much right now, but when he is posed it should be fairly important.
I think that the eyes would look much better if they could rotate in their sockets and if they looked like they had some depth (a shiny coating floating over the actual iris and pupil). Is there any standard way that this sort of thing is done?
http://gnomonology.com/group/11
moving?
Pictures with diffuse and alpha textures only:
Pictures with Diffuse, normal, and specular textures (no alpha)
Half size textues used:
Here is a closeup of one of the more infuriating errors I had with the transparencies. One side is rendering correctly and the other side is not. Both sides are using the same geometry, the same material, the same display settings and the same texture space.
Overall I cant say that Im thrilled with the results so far. I do have a better understanding of why there are so many hairless orcs and bald space marines out there tho. Hair is a pain in the ass!
Im probably going to take a day or two off from this and then come back to rig and pose it (might as well since Ive already come this far). Maybe it will look a little bit better when its not all stretched out, especially if I can figure out how to display it with working transparencies.