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Artwork => Finished Works and Works in Progress => Topic started by: almost cool on April 22, 2008, 01:05:25 am

Title: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 22, 2008, 01:05:25 am
I thought I would make an alien.its near completion But there is room for improvement.I did not use the classic green.wanted some creativity.ANY advice would be wonderful,im new to anim8or.(And life,im only 11. :-[ )I would like to make eyelids but dont know how,so please help.Anyway, heres the render.

ps:Do you like the neck?
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: hihosilver on April 22, 2008, 01:31:00 am
That's a decent start.  First, the improve your render, check 'antialiased' when you render (there is a checkbox in the popup box when you go, "render>render image...")  This will make the edges nice and smooth.  Did you actually cut out the mouth or texture it?  I'm confused because I first thought this was a subdivision model, but the sharp corners turn me awa from that idea.  Rounder corners would look more realistic.  It seems to me perhaps you converted to mesh after you converted to a subdivision object, which is a bad idea.  When the object is a subdivision object, you can switch back to the original mesh by double clicking the subdivision object and changing the 'working' value to 0.  You can then convert to mesh again if need be.
The neck looks decent, but it also looks a bit deformed, perhaps that's mainly because of the bumpy base.
Could you post a wireframe as well?
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 22, 2008, 01:39:36 am
I just converted to mesh and then subdivided the faces.But the shadow went wrong the neck originally looked like it had a throagt and everything.I removed the vertexes and added a plane for the mouth.Here is antialiased and how do i render wireframe?
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: hihosilver on April 22, 2008, 03:28:12 am
First, never use "subdivide faces" to subdivide a model, NEVER!  Use "convert to subdivided".  With "convert to subdivided" you can revert to the original mesh and continue to make changes while keeping the model smooth (with the method I told you about before.)
As for wireframes, you can actually render them only if your graphics card supports OpenGL 2.0.  Mine doesn't so I don't have the option to render wireframes.  To render, you'd go "Render>Renderer>OpenGL" then you'd render as you normally do (antialiasing will not affect the model in this render mode.)  If the option isn't there, you can't actually render them, so you do as I do: use the printscreen button! ('PrtSc' it should be near the top of your keyboard.)  Open your favorite image editing program, paste the image, crop it to a decent size and resize if necessary, then post here!  For wireframes, the flat shaded view is preferred.  The actual wireframe view is normally VERY confusing, therefore people tend to avoid posting images from that view.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: thecolclough on April 22, 2008, 03:59:14 am
im new to anim8or.(And life,im only 11. :-[

well then, welcome to anim8or, and welcome to life!  8)

I would like to make eyelids but dont know how,so please help.

make a sphere, make it the same material as the main head mesh, set its size to be slightly larger than the eyeball (giving it more than the default number of divisions might also be a good idea), then go build > convert to mesh, go to point-edit mode, select and delete all points in the mesh below the centre line.  just be careful not to delete any points from the main head mesh at the same time!   :o

then, you go back to standard editing mode, and put the new mesh at the same location as the eyeball.  because it's a slightly larger sphere, it should fit comfortably around the eyeball.  then all you need to do is rotate it into the right orientation - it's amazing how much expressivity you can get out of a character just by rotating the eyeballs and eyelids a bit.

hope that helps :)

- colclough
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 22, 2008, 12:22:10 pm
Hey guys thanx 4 the help!And hihosilver,
If the option isn't there, you can't actually render them, so you do as I do: use the printscreen button! ('PrtSc' it should be near the top of your keyboard.) 
i know about print screen 8).Do you think i should give him a bumpmap?Anyway heres the wireframe.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: im not a people person73 on April 22, 2008, 03:55:47 pm
bump maps make everything look awsome,so...yeah (by the way i am 12 so dont feel that you're alone ;D)
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 22, 2008, 05:16:07 pm
well i guess im not alone :) neway heres him wih eyelids and a zoom on the neck (heres why i like it so much!)
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 22, 2008, 06:29:39 pm
Hey heres the final product, lighting, enviroment,eyes,and a slight bumpmap.i set ambient and diffuse to blue and emissive to green so eyes have a complex color in light and glow green in dark.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: Tanzim on April 23, 2008, 06:06:27 am
WOW: that is really high poly, something you should avoid, but since your a newb... don't worry about it
Otherwise, really good for a newb (I think), you did better than when I was a newb :D

About your age: It shouldn't how old you are, but how much skill you have  ;), I first used Anim8or when I was 12
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: spicy on April 23, 2008, 06:50:07 am
Good start. Better than what I did, all I managed to do was create a blob
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 23, 2008, 04:16:20 pm
thanks guys, its not really that good :-[.thanks a lot though.oh by the way,i crafted it from a sphere,is there a better way? ???
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: Tanzim on April 24, 2008, 05:45:20 am
It's all up to you in the end, different people model different ways, some don't even use primitives.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: im not a people person73 on April 24, 2008, 08:00:09 am
how does one model without primitives ???
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 24, 2008, 10:45:17 am
i think lathing ??? Then using modifiers.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: Kubajzz on April 24, 2008, 11:07:21 am
how does one model without primitives ???

there are many ways to start without primitives. You can lathe, extrude or fill a spline... Or you can start with nothing and start building the mesh from the first point... It's up to you to choose the best solution for the a particular model.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: hihosilver on April 24, 2008, 08:25:54 pm
One way is poly-by-poly modeling where you use the add edge tool and draw each edge yourself, then fill the faces.  You can combine this with edge extrusions.  Many people use a combination of box modeling, poly-by-poly modeling and edge extrusion depending on what they're trying to do.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: EcoTyler on April 24, 2008, 09:06:16 pm
omg thank you,finally some1 my age on here,I'm 12 too so u guys that are my age wanna make an animation team or sumthing?


BTW this looks awesome
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 24, 2008, 11:22:11 pm
u guys that are my age wanna make an animation team or sumthing?
Um... yeah... were just an age group not a different group from the rest of society...but why not. :-\
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: Tanzim on April 25, 2008, 12:26:59 am
almost cool, almost correct :D
Make a path using the 'Straight Path' tool and then Build->Lathe/Extrude/Fill
But fill is usually only used for a text.

DAMN! My stupid internet made my post come after everyone else's, I made this post 2 hours ago! >:(
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: spicy on April 25, 2008, 04:34:10 am
Back to the topic. I like the alien but you need to sort out the mouth (To make it look better). Move around the points abit
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: im not a people person73 on April 25, 2008, 07:04:26 am
omg thank you,finally some1 my age on here,I'm 12 too so u guys that are my age wanna make an animation team or sumthing?
well...i'm in the newb project already but do you wanna join http://animanon.xtreemhost.com/index.php?board=69.0 (http://animanon.xtreemhost.com/index.php?board=69.0)...by the way,yes it looks like the mouth needs work.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: EcoTyler on April 25, 2008, 04:12:32 pm
Man i sounded dorky when i said that  =P
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 25, 2008, 07:16:20 pm
ynow i think id rther not join a group.(dont take it personally.im just a freelance kind of guy. :( )
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: EcoTyler on April 26, 2008, 01:45:06 pm
lolz
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: hihosilver on April 26, 2008, 10:31:24 pm
EcoTyler:  Comments like "sweeet" "man I sounded dorky when I said that" and "lolz"  first of all don't add anything to the thread.  You aren't adding any additional information, you're not giving any real comment or criticism either.  These comments are fine for conversations on AIM or myspace, but this is a civilized art forum where I feel we should all be able to act and speak/write professionally or at least with a purpose that makes sense.
I'm not picking on you or trying to be rude, but these comments do get on my nerves.  They don't make any contribution to the topic whatsoever, and they look very unprofessional.  I understand you're 11 or 12, but that doesn't have anything to do with your ability to type comprehensible sentences.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 28, 2008, 09:07:40 pm
I agree back to the topic.I sorted out the mouth.Id let you download it but its like 800 kb against a 128 kb max. :'(
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: thecolclough on April 29, 2008, 03:43:57 am
...Id let you download it but its like 800 kb against a 128 kb max. :'(

that's why zip archives were invented ;)
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 29, 2008, 02:10:43 pm
Its still too big by like 6 kb  ???  >:(!
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: hihosilver on April 29, 2008, 02:22:49 pm
You can use sites like Savefile (http://www.savefile.com/) or Box.net (http://www.box.net/) to upload your files, you can then provide us with the download link so that people can upload the image.  Don't depend on the space provided here on this website.  There's very limited upload space, allowing only for very small images and files.  So take advantage of these sites.  You can upload very large images through sites such as Imageshack (http://imageshack.us/) or Photobucket (http://photobucket.com/).  You can get a code then to paste into the text box for forums and people can view your larger images without the restrictions of this website.
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 29, 2008, 03:08:10 pm
Ok here it is. http://www.savefile.com/files/1530401
Title: Re: Alex the alien.
Post by: almost cool on April 29, 2008, 06:21:40 pm
send me a render if u use it plz.