Character: gnome-ish dude

[pixelranger]

Hi folks.

It's been a long while since I have posted anything because it has been so very busy at work lately with rather demanding, but boring stuff, so I kinda lost a bit of inspiration/motivation.

I thought that was sad, so I desided to make something of my own to get the right spirit back. And it helped.

I modelled him yesterday afternoon (about 6-7 hours) and have spent about 5 hours of texturing today. I plan to model the resst of him as well and add hair and stuff. Please critisize and come with ideas for further refinement/development.

He's made with subdiv surfaces and he's got 1 UV map which iss 3000x1500. I got to work some more on the texture (removing highlits from the color map which has been put together by various photos and such).

Here's the smooth shaded version:

http://www.storedyret.com/iB_html/uploads/post-5-21909-hode3_copy.jpg

And here is one with a temporary texture:

http://www.storedyret.com/iB_html/uploads/post-5-21973-hode3_texture.jpg

[sammael]

That's looking realy good, the only suggestion that i can make is to mabe roughen the mesh up a bit where the cheeks meet the nose, he appears to have a bit of a smooth line there which goes right to the edge of the cheek... hope that makes sense
I love the ears and mouth.

[Angel]

Very inspiring stuff...

Happy u´re back posting.. :)

First, i believe once u´re done with him, that huge eyebrows cry expression right away, imagine him one brow up and the other down...

About the modelling i will round a little the outside part of the cheeks right where they start to meet the side of the head, other than that i think its perfect...maybe try to tweak the bulge down the lips, maybe smooth them right in x=0....

Ideas about this char, dont know if u have a clear image for this char, but from what i can see, he´s a tough guy, maybe could be a miner or a lumber jack...

I´m sure u´re going for 4-5 heads body proportions(gnomish...), which is what it fits better for this head, imo...


keep updatin....


Cheers


_____
angel

[Hiraghm]

Your "temporary" texture is fantastic. How did you do it? Procedurals or image maps?

Can't wait to see the finished product.

[riki]

Lots of personality in there. The lighting is a bit harsh. What are you going to use him for?? Reminds me of a few sad characters like guy from Kafka's 'The Trial', or Erazerhead for some reason?? Anyway great work.

[pixelranger]

sammael: Thanks. I've changed the area around his eyes and tweaked the textures. Made the eyes larger. Hope this will be better.

Angel: Thanks man. Its good to be back ;)
I've fixed the mesh a little. Hope it was for the better....
Ah, a lumber jack/miner. That's a good idea. I also heard that he kinda looks a bit like Kevin Spacey. Maybe I'll do something in that direction. A parody or something... I don't think he look so much like mr. Spacey in the new version, though...
I think you're right about the proportions.

Hiraghm: Thanks. They're coming along. Slowly. They are a mix of UV maps painted in PS (photos put togetether and repainted) for color, spec, gloss, bump and diffuse and a couple of procedurals in the color and bump channel.

riki: Thanks. Yeah, the lighting was a bit harsh, I know. Hope its better now. I haven't heard of The Trial or Erazerhead. I originally sat down to make something like this:

http://www.rayk.be/pxlranger/sketsj.jpg

The sketch was something I drew tonight, but if I had drawn it before I started on the 3d model I guess I'd have kept more to the "path". So now I just think I'll use him for some lip sync exercise... Haven't got a clear idea yet.

I am planning to make an animated short, and I'm looking for inspiration. I've read some of André Bjerke, Tove Jansson, Ben Okri and Maxim Gorky, but I haven't got a clear idea yet.
Do any of you know some good dark children's story I should read to get inspiration? I got the idea when I first saw Maly Milosh at Atom Films (http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/atom_525) and now when I saw Gertie Gutless (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66300) at cg talk. I want to make a short that's stylistic like Tim Burton's Films.

Here's the new version with larger eyes as I thought there were something lacking between his nose and his eyes:

http://www.rayk.be/pxlranger/hode4texture.jpg

//edit: I know it looks like he's wearing mascara and I'll change it in future versions.

[pixelranger]

Here's an update:

http://www.rayk.be/pxlranger/gnom/hode7texture.jpg

[Angel]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat update...

U´ve done right with the eyes...first pic they were too far apart...

Kevin Spacey? Nah! that eye lashes eye brows and in the last pic mouth expression(which is fantastic), goes to Sean Connery all the way... maybe there is an idea...

It reminds me of a very nice stop motion short i saw some time ago, there were three chars, every one exactly as the other except for the personallity, and they were in a newspaper office or something like that, and they had some arguing, but the chars where a very nice charicature of kirk douglas, with the huge chin and the hole in the middle...pretty fun...


Cheers

Keep us posted...


_______
angel

[sammael]

Man that looks MAD (that means outstandingly excellent where i come from).

I was pushing it to find any sort of crits in the first place but now im at a total loss.
I cant wait to see his body... he looks disturbingly real, love the hair, eyes etc etc... its all good!

Whats the key command for the thumbs up emoticon?

[jin'a]

Did you create the wrinkles around the eyes/mouth (the small wrinkles) using bump maps?

How do you change the expression? And get extra creases when doing it?

Great work!

[Earl]

I love watching the progression of your work!

[Carbon71]

omg, that is a wicked little guy!. I love it and can't wait to see more.

[opreska]

I just saw this for the first time today. Man, this is great! At first when I saw the basic model I was sort of impressed. But, the more I scrolled down and saw your texturing ability, the more "alive" your character became. Great job, you really gave this character a soul. I would love to see more!

[Jokerd007]

thats awesome, looks like a mixture between photo realistic and claymation. make a celebrity death match with that guy

[pixelranger]

Angel: Thanks alot! The version with the wide-apart-eyes also made me think about Kevin Spacey, but when you said Sean Connery I saw it too. Actually I think I'll make this a tribute to Odd Børretzen, an old poet and limerick-writer here in Norway. He kinda looks like him plus he's a cult figure, so I think a tribute is a good idea, yes....

http://www.ollebukta.no/jub/oddb_m.jpg

jin'a: Yeah, they're bump maps. You can link the bump map's opacity or texture amplitude to a morph so that they become more prominent when e.g. smiling. The other way, which I usually do is make the ekstra geometry around muscles/creases and make the creases in the morphs.

Thanks for the kind words, people.

Here's his wife that I modelled yesterday and textured today. I started with the other head and changed it, but I had to make the UV map and the textures in Photoshop over again because of all the creases. (I didn't know that the male character was going to be Odd Børretzen at the time when I made this woman, so any resemblance to anyone he knows intimately is purely a tragic coincidence):

http://www.storedyret.com/iB_html/uploads/post-5-97765-hode8texture.jpg

[pixelranger]

Hi, I haven't had the chance to do so much more since the last time because of work-related stuff, but I've started making his body.

I'm not sure how his proportions will be, so if anyone has a good idea or a comment, I'd be happy to remodel his torso/body from scratch...

[l. a. akira]

awesome character so far! keep it comin', andre. :)

[sammael]

This model is realy cool, id love to see him with a thicker neck and bigger body (but not too big), mabe a bit more pudgyness.
Just suggestions, whichever way you go im shure he's gonna look amazing.

[bobakabob]

Awesome work... full of character. You really understand the topology of a 'fizzog' as they say in Yorkshire. The update was a real step forward - keep posting!

[pixelranger]

l.a. akira: Thanks, mate. I'll update as fast as I can.

sammael: Thanks. I'm not sure about his proportions yet. I'll try him out with a bigger neck/body.

bobakabob: What's a "fizzog"? But thanks... I guess ;)

Here's a temporary texture test of his body. A friend of mine lent me his arms and a guy at work donated his belly and another one at work donated his leg. What do you guys think? OpenGL Preview:

http://www.storedyret.com/iB_html/uploads/post-5-64257-maptest.jpg

[sammael]

Hey whant going on man?? iv been hanging to see an update, this guy rocks!

[pixelranger]

Sorry, folks. I'm too busy this week.

Work stuff is killing me, I'm moving into a new apartment my girlfriend needs me now more than regularly, but this weekend I'll start working on him again...

meanwhile, here's a test I did last weekend.

http://www.storedyret.com/iB_html/uploads/post-5-72813-hode11exture.jpg

[travis]

Now i know why he looks mad, he's got no peeshee! Awesome work, but of course you don't need me to tell you.

Hope it is not tacky to ask but how did u do the textures, all photoshop or something else?

Im almost speachless:eek:

[pixelranger]

Just a little update. Here he is with hands. I feel his arms are too athletic. I'll fix it and now that I threw my girlfriend onboard a plane that went far away I'll have time to work on it alot more.

(ps... I didn't actually throw her onboard. It was more like I followed her to the airport when she was going home up north.. :) )

http://www.storedyret.com/iB_html/uploads/post-5-31563-hode13exture.jpg

[sammael]

Looking good... he disturbs me a bit :)

Im not too sure about the proportions, but like you said neither are you.

Truely excelent work man, keep it up.

[pixelranger]

Thanks, sammael!

He disturbs me too, you know.. That's disturbing.... :)
I' think I know what proportions he'll have, but I'm not satisfied with the mesh yet. The forearms are ugly.

But I saw a demoreel over at cgtalk where there was this amazing morph rig, and I wanted to try it myself. I've never tried expressions before, so I figured it would be a nice way of learning. And it sure was fun!

Here's (http://www.rayk.be/pxlranger/gnom/Morphtest_divx_small.avi) a 2 mB divx showing how the rig works.

I didn't focus on the morph targets, but rather the expressions and rig itself. I'll go back and tweak the endomorphs later. Now I want to finish the model.

[bearfoot]

Simply great work dude....

I would kill for a wireframe...

basically its just inspiring !

[MarkJTaylor]

Man; pixel this guy awesome; but not quite disturbing yet!

Put a diaper on him and a lollipop in his hand; now that; is disturbing my friend.


Sincerely;

[pixelranger]

bearfoot: Thanks. A wireframe is coming as soon as I finish his body.

Mark: Thanks, man :D

I compiled a version of the scene in my avi for ya in case you want to dl it and have a look at it.

Facial Morph rig (http://www.steelronin.com/profiles/PxlRanger/facial_morph_rig.zip)

A simplified version of the model (so that everything runs smooth and in realtime on any system) is included so that the expressions work right away without you having to model something to making them work...

Everything is done in Layout without any plugins.

I made two expressions for each morph. Lets use the Morph that opens up his mouth for this example.

The first expression says "The value for this morph is beein controlled by the control Null's movement in the range from 0-100mm in the y axis (based on its parents coordinates, of course...)".
I call this Expression "Mouth Open control" and it looks like this:

mapRange([Mouth controller.Position.Y],0.000,0.100,0.000,1)

The second one is called "Mouth Open constraint" and says "if the first expression returns a value below zero, keep it zero" and looks like this:

[Mouth Open control]<0.000?0.000[Mouth Open control]

The reason I use this constraint is that if I don't, the Map values will go below zero when I move the control Null below y=0mm. And since I'm going to use the Null's range from 0 to -100mm for another morph, I cant let it have any influence on th Mouth.open morph when its below y=0mm.

I control 4 morphs with each control Null. One from 0 to 100mm in the x axis, one from 0 to -100mm in the x axis, one from o to 100mm in the y axis and the last from 0 to -100mm in the y axis.

One thing that's nice to keep in mind is that you should try to use two "opposing" morphs for the Null's movement above and below a certain axis. I mean... the Mouth.open morph is influenced when the Null is below y=0mm, therefore there should be a morph where the mouth closes that is being influenced from the moment the Null goes above y=0mm.
This way there are sort of just two real movements being controlled by the Null, one in the x axis, and one in the y axis with the base object as the middle position in a nonlinear morph. Smart, eh? :)
The other benefit you have from using opposing morphs is that you don't get the problem you see with the smile morph and the morph where he pulls back the corners of his mouth. Here you se that there is no "follow through" when the Null crosses the x=0mm, and if I was animating him I would have to make a key for the Null object with tension=1 everytime the Null crossed x=0mm. Otherwise we'd get that jerky start on the "opposing morph".




The 4 expressions on the eyelids were even simpler! I just made a new expression, right clicked on Eye Target.Position.X and chose "Append to Expression". Then I applyed the expression to a morph called eyelid.right and started to move the eye target to see the effect. If the effect was too small I just multiplied the expression with e.g. 2:

Expression name: Eyelid Right control
Syntax: [Eye target.Position.X]*2

I didnt use any constraints for the eyelid expressions because they seemed to regulate eachother well by themselves. So why interfere with nature, right? ;)

Just open the scene file I posted at the top, grab the eye target in the front view and start "looking around".

You have to move it in front view to be able to move it in x and y at the same time.

[MarkJTaylor]

excellent; thanks pixel.

Also if I may add; your model is excellently done; nice construction. Oh and the texture? Don't even get me started on the texture; fantastic work. be sure to keep us up to date with this fella.


Sincerely;

[MarkJTaylor]

Sorry for the second post in a row; however wow. This setup is seriously aweosme! Man...... bestill my beating heart!

[thekho]

Excellent works. Remind me of Bill Murrey :p

Others your excellent facial morph set up which i have never seen any like that done by Lightwave. Thanks for sharing.

Is it radiosity or your own lighting setup cos your lighting really looks very nice.

Keep it excellent work :)

[MarkJTaylor]

You know which celebrity this lil guy reminds me off?

Anthony Hopkins. I think its the eyeline and jaw structure. I swear its like a posessed Dr. Lecter.

[pixelranger]

hehe, I've also heard that he looks a bit like Michael Keaton :D

Thanks for the comments, folks!!!

[MarkJTaylor]

lol; I'll never be able to watch a Michael Keaton movie again.

[Hervé]

..... it is soo good and creative that I want to kill you..... (just to tell you how good you are)

Hervé

[rogerrs]

Great character! He does look like Michael Keaton, at least an older, not too fit M. Keaton. Which led me to think of what would be a cool animation: Seeing mr. not-so-fit-anymore-M. Keaton trying to get into his old Batsuit... That would be excellent!! :-)

[webfox]

That is so well done! The female reminds me a little of the twin witches from "Spirited Away."

I can't wait to see you share a little of her animation capabilities with your funky interface.

:D

Keep us updated. Thanks!

[starbase1]

You rotten swine! I will never be able to look at Micheal Keaton the same way again! (So perhaps I should thank you?!?!?)

Nick

[pixelranger]

Hi again.

Been so busy at work I haven't had the chance to uptdate my little gnome. But last night I let myself loose and loaded up my little friend here and continued working on his rig.

http://www.storedyret.com/iB_html/uploads/post-5-83521-rig_test.jpg

I have much trouble getting the deformations of his shoulders and armpits to look right (that is, make it look like there are muscles underneeth the skin flexing and sliding) but here is a little MPG to show how far I've come. I'm really in deep water here, so any help is highly appreciated.

Here (http://www.rayk.be/pxlranger/gnom/rig_test.mpg) is the mpg.

Disregard the animation, as I made it only to make deformation problems more visible and easier to identify.
I've got muscle bones in his pecs and in his neck tendons/muscles but I think I have to change mesh topology at his armpits to get correct deformation.
There are no secondary motion on his stomach yet either. But I assure you, it will come. ;)

I'm not certain if I will normalize his weight maps or not. What are you other character animators' experience? Mine aren't normalized yet.

[aaronv2]

He looks like a mobster to me... whack him in a nice pinstripe suit and dye his hair black and grease it down and you got yourself one bad crook.

[MarkJTaylor]

Wow, man he is looking excellent so far.

The only deformation problems I was able to catch in the test anim your uploaded, was as you said. under the arms, a little in the bicep/forearm location, and maybe a little in the groin region (unsure of the last one, as its a little hard to see)


And I'd have to agree with what you've already said. I'd try to change the mesh topology around and under the arms for a cleaner deformation.

In terms of normalizing maps. Try it :) In many cases it may give you better control.


I look forward to seeing more of this guy :) he's freaky as hell. And let me tell you my friend. hell is freaky.

[pixelranger]

aaronv2: hehe, cool. That's actually how I've been picturing him all along, allthough I haven't taken him in that direction deliberately.

MarkJTaylor: Thanx, man. Yeah, the elbow joint pinches on the inside. You're right about that. And I'll fix the other stuff too. The groin also. I'll post an update tonight. Hope it will have fixed some of the bad areas...
grrrr... it annoys me having to rebuild his armpit when I know that I'll have to make new UV maps for his body because of it. But that's life...
And I gotta say, rigging in LW may be kind of a hassle, but darn, its great fun!!!

Can anyone tell me if its neccesary to make all weight maps overlap so that each point has at least a total weight value of 100 when I normalize my weight maps, or does it work with areas on his body that has e.g. a weight map value of 40 % in one weight map and that's it?

[KOlson]

Haha this is so cool! His facial features sorta look a bit like Michael Keaton. :) Keep up the great work!

[MarkJTaylor]

:: grrrr... it annoys me having to rebuild his armpit when I know that I'll have to make new UV maps for his body because of it. But that's life... ::

You could work around it. Because your right. Rebuilding the armput then re-uvmapping is a pain. Instead you could try some crafty weightmapping. With a bit of playing around it should work out great.

::Can anyone tell me if its neccesary to make all weight maps overlap so that each point has at least a total weight value of 100 when I normalize my weight maps, or does it work with areas on his body that has e.g. a weight map value of 40 % in one weight map and that's it?::

If your going to normalize the weight maps in layout, it's not neccesary... however in most cases, it helps. It's better for you to set the desired values and try to get them to approximate 100%, than leave too much up to lightwave.

[hrgiger]

KOlson's right, he does look like Michael Keaton.

Cool character. I really like your modeling skills a lot Pixleranger. I enjoyed the Saddam charactiture and marine also.

[bobakabob]

Awesome work, Pixelranger - first rate, full of character and truly disturbing in a good way. He should audition for a role in a David Lynch film! Are you going to animate him soon? Has he any friends? :p

[richwave]

It has the most important feature that any 3D character should have and that's character .

By the way - a 'fizzog' is a face. :D

[Angel]

hi there,

I´ve been lurking the gnomish dude saga threads, here and there...

What you have done with the expressions setup its utterly awesome...

And sharing all of that makes you in some kind of Saint andré...:)

And ppl already mentioned earlier what you got with this dude, character...and even that it has a disturbing point( mainly cause of the naked, hairy, half bold...)...this is truly inspiring artwork..

And if is not clear enought yet, i´m your nº 1 spanish fan here...


__________
angel

[pixelranger]

Hi folks. Thanks for the replies. I really appreciate it.

bobakabob: Thanks. I am going to animate him, but I'n not satisfied with the character design yet. And no, I don't suspect he has goat anyu friends :)

Angel: Thanks, man. I'm a big fan of sharing, and there are so many great lw artists out there sharing tips, tutorials, models, rigs, plugins/scripts etc, so why shouldn't I share what I think may be of help to others? That's what I love about the lw community!

Here you can see an attempt to alter his design abit. I used Modeler and ZBrush to tweak him. I have fallen in love with the possibilities that ZBrush offers as well as it has some quirky limitations that annoys me...
But anyway, here he is:

[Angel]

Thats really wicked, in a positive sense if there´s one...

In fact this maybe could be the true final personalllity for your gnomish dude, like a hiden true characterization...

grreat work andré, as always...


_____
angel