3d still

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by nightoftheroundtable

that looks pretty good dennis.how do you plan on getting this one finished.

Thanks night - I'll post with updates as I make progress --- I'll likely use this thread as a live update until the modeling is more or less complete.

Originally Posted by captainj2410

So, Dennis, how much are you going to charge for these models we're asking for? You could make a good bit of side income at this rate!

Heh - wish I had time to fulfill the requests. At the rate of stuff I have piled up to get to, I'd have to charge an exorbitant amount of money; it would likely not be worth anyone's while to purchase versus what you could buy at turbosquid .

If you're interested in doing character design, the tutorial here can be a lifesaver: http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials...c/joanmenu.asp . It's for 3DS, but adapts quite well to AC3D.

There seem to be two popular methods of character creation (for heads, at least) --- the edge extrusion technique, and the solid object extrusion technique. I'm personally a fan of the edge extrusion technique, although I've personally seen that more people tend to favor the solid object extrusion technique. Basically, the edge extrusion starts with a simple rectangle, and you extrude edges to form the object. Solid object extrusion starts with a block object, and you divide/extrude the faces you need to create your shape.

In both techniques, you really need reference drawings/photos for best results (see the "2. Modeling of the head" section in the link I posted). I would likely have a difficult, if not impossible, time of modeling a worthwhile head without a good reference drawing.

Also, LiveWire posted a good example of body creation in AC3D: http://www.ac3d.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2187

Now, if modeling a human form is not your cup of tea, i.e., you're more inclined to model the surrounding environment, vehicles, etc., there are models you can purchase individually at http://www.turbosquid.com . Not very custom, of course... but you could purchase a model that comes close to what you want and tweak it yourself.

Also, newer versions of Poser (v5 I believe, v6 for sure) have a fairly nice face creation studio; this purchase would be worthwhile if you needed a lot of different characters and did not have the desire to create each one. It's rather expensive (compared to AC3D), but may end up being cheaper in the long run than buying individual models if you end up needing a lot of them...

Hope that helps.

Dennis

[nightoftheroundtable]

well I have not gotten into character designs yet. I am sorry if this is off topic but I was wondering dennis if you wouldn't mind looking at some of my work with vehicles, or transport units.

http://users.techline.com/drreed/Min...pgraded1.2.jpg
this is of my latest work. so far on my mini shuttle I have added nacelle pylons. also some Impulse engines to go with the star trek theme.

I was wondering what you thought of it.

[captainj2410]

"That's the problem with you, I get on a roll and all of a sudden you make sense..."

[nightoftheroundtable]

who makes sense. I am confused. is it me or dennis that makes sense.
my money is probably on dennis who makes sense.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by nightoftheroundtable

well I have not gotten into character designs yet. I am sorry if this is off topic but I was wondering dennis if you wouldn't mind looking at some of my work with vehicles, or transport units.

http://users.techline.com/drreed/Min...pgraded1.2.jpg
this is of my latest work. so far on my mini shuttle I have added nacelle pylons. also some Impulse engines to go with the star trek theme.

I was wondering what you thought of it.

Sure --- I think you have some very good, solid modeling skills when it comes to ships, and you have very original designs. I'm not an expert on ship designs, of course , but what I see looks great. From the wireframes I can remember seeing, you also seem to strike a good balance between polygon count and subdivision levels --- most people getting ramped up on subdivision modeling, myself included, tend to create more polygons than they really need to get the desired shapes.

I'd love to see you focus on materials and lighting --- given good materials and lighting, you could have some absolutely fantastic renders with the base models you create.

That being said, I envy folks that are good with lighting, as I'm not great with it myself (that's part of what I hope to accomplish with my latest project, getting more experience with materials and lighting). Like many folks, I tend to focus on modeling more than mats & lights --- I'm on the path to correcting that with practise. Here are the only two rendered projects to date that I've created and have been somewhat happy with: http://supercoldmilk.com/project_stills.htm --- both came out a bit dark, and I'd love to revisit the lighting on each of these (not just for darkness, but for placement, color, intensity, falloff, etc).

[captainj2410]

They still look quite good in my opinion. The juggler has a really realistic face.

[nightoftheroundtable]

thank you for that dennis. I do try to create some low polys when it comes to making models. and to tell you the thruth this latest project is has no subdivision to it. also for right now I am not to worry about lighting or materials. which I should be. but for right now my main focus is trying to complete the mini shuttle.

so far heres what I have accomplished.
1. I have finished the nacelle pylons which you see are attached to the small wings.
2. I have finished the impulse engines, to give it a star trek theme.
3 right now I am working on putting a rear hatch to the shuttle to make it look more realistic.
But the hatch is proving to be most difficult as it is not very symetrical in the back. but I have already found and fixed the problem.

Also on another note you said my models are orginal. I try my best to make all my models unqie. I really love and I am addicted to ac3d 6.0. so far I have discovered 36 new methods to making and manipulating my models to get certian specife results.

[luuckyy]

Very good beginning Dennis.

[Dennis]

Thanks luuckyy --- here's an update.

I adapted the eye unit from my old cyborg model to fit this fortunate fellow.

The body is very raw still --- I'm anticipating throwing on lots of doo-dads here and there, as well as some connectors and cables.

BTW, I'm making extensive use of the new Divide Loop plugin that luuckyy originally requested --- it's a *very* useful tool for adding detail.

[nightoftheroundtable]

hey that looks pretty good. I can tell you used the divide loop tool.