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Low-Poly Dog
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Low-Poly Dog // Work in Progress
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 24, 2006, 8:54am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Been messing around with TrueSpace since 3.1 but never really sat down and seriously tried to finish anything.
Hopefully using the forums with keep me motivated to finish this project.
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_01.jpg
You'll have to excuse the mouse (touchpad) drawn dog template. Cat was sitting on my tablet. ;-)
Things still to do:
*cut in mouth
*broaden and raise ears more on top of head (look like deer ears now)
*not sure where I'm going with the tail yet
*haven't decided if I'm going to use texture or polygons to do eyes.
Currently around 500 polys.
I'm planning to UV map the dog when done and rig for animation. Will paint a normal map and specular map to get in the extra detail I'm not modeling in. I might wait for TS7.5 before animating though. We'll see... :)
-Jack. |
Post by MadMouse // Sep 24, 2006, 9:33am
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MadMouse
Total Posts: 1069
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Your off to a good start by the look of things.
You'll have to excuse the mouse (touchpad) drawn dog template. Cat was sitting on my tablet I would of thought that your cat would of been more attracted to your mouse than your tablet. ;) |
Post by splinters // Sep 24, 2006, 9:40am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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S'funny but the drawing you copied looks more like a cat than a dog-in the body anyways...;) |
Post by Steinie // Sep 24, 2006, 9:41am
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Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
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J_Edwards you have been warned, since joining this forum you now must finish projects and keep us entertained! There is no turning back. You must get better and you will. We won't accept anything else......we will not rest untill you win the Gallery......oh yea.....glad to have you aboard.
:) |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 24, 2006, 10:27am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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LOL Thanks for the welcome guys :-D
I'm working on a laptop so I usually don't use a mouse, just the touchpad. ;) Last week I gave the USB mouse a go again, but have decided to give up using the mouse entirely 'cause the cats would sit on that too or move it at the most inconvient moment...
I think I'm going to model a cat after I finish the female model I've also started. I'll put the low poly female up as a new thread later. Problem with cats is that the longer fur makes it difficult deciding what to model as solid. I need to figure out an aproximation of the body + fur that will deform well, then fake the rest with alpha mapped planes. My eye for that isn't quite there yet and I don't know know what the new TS bones are gonna work like yet... Guess I could hook these up with Motion Studio untill 7.5 comes out...
For those curious how I spec'ed my laptop:
ASUS Z71v chassis (w/ 1680x1050 LCD)
Pentium-M 1.7Ghz
1GB DDR3 RAM
nVidia GeForce 6600 128MB (84.15 driver)
Don't remember if I overclocked the motherboard and vidcard or not, but I do have to run it on top of a cooling pad. :rolleyes:
-Jack. |
Post by b_scotty // Sep 24, 2006, 12:14pm
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b_scotty
Total Posts: 176
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Looks like you are off to a fine start!
Any particular breed you are aiming for, or just a 'mutt' ? :)
Looking forward to seeing this develop.
And that sounds like a very nice laptop :) |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 25, 2006, 3:25am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Ok here's an update:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_02.jpg
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_03.jpg
And just for laughs I extruded a tongue:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_04.jpg
I'm pretty sure the original reference photo was purebred, but I'm going for more of a generic dog look. Mixing and matching features that I like. So guess the poor guy is a mutt :p
At this point I'm planning to make the teeth as a seperate object.
Unless anyone see something that's anatomically off or needs fixing, I think I'm done with the geometry and pretty much ready to start on the UV mapping.
So should I keep the tongue? Or do without the tongue? Might be cool to animate later.
Total poly count w/ tongue is currently: 681 :banana:
-Jack. |
Post by Johny // Sep 25, 2006, 3:54am
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Johny
Total Posts: 672
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Hey! The dog look so cute :banana: |
Post by Eagle // Sep 25, 2006, 4:25am
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Eagle
Total Posts: 221
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That looks Great J_edwards! Have you started the skin for it yet?
great work!
always~
Vickie :p |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 25, 2006, 4:33am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Thanks for the compliments. :D I think this is the first model I've actually been happy enough with to call "done". Using the community for motivation really does help.
Nope. Not yet. I wanted to wait and see if anyone spots any things to be changed first since I don't want to mess with the mesh once I start UV mapping.
:o
-Jack. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 25, 2006, 6:20am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Update:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_05.jpg
Forehead was bothering me so I made that less prominent. Also slimmed him down a bit. So he looks a bit less like a bulldog :cool:
Decided to keep the tongue.
I think this version has a bit less character but is more general looking.
Gonna go onto laying out the UVs. Will post a screen grab of the different material marked areas and the early maps so everyone can see the process. Should be a good learning experience for me since this guy looks like he's got a lot of different areas to map.
-Jack. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 25, 2006, 10:53am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Here's the material divisions that I used to break up the projections:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_UV_template.jpg
After much pain and a trip into UV cow (which runs horribly slow with the bridge on) -- here's quick layout of the mappings:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_UV_01.jpg
and the checker:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_UV_checker.jpg
Need to stitch the seams and fix some overlaps around the ears and eyes. There's also some clean up still needed on the tail. Might want to create a version that mirrors the texture over symetrical areas... since I could use a smaller texture then. Something to think about. As it is currently, looks like I'll have plenty of space on the texture for the teeth and claws. :)
-Jack. |
Post by Eagle // Sep 25, 2006, 11:56am
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Eagle
Total Posts: 221
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Excellent work Jack! thats going to be a very nice skin from the looks of the layout~
always~
Vickie :) |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 26, 2006, 1:25pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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UV work is sooooooo tedious. Here's today's update:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_UV_checker02.jpg
The UV texture is thanks to Susan Lee and helps a lot:
http://www.render-lab.com/Render_Lab_downloads_textures.htm
The body is pretty much done, just need to clean up the feet a bit more and do the head. It's not symetrical but seems to be laying nice so :shrug:
Here's the UVs:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_UV_02.jpg
I've decided that I am going to do another UV map for this and mirror the UVs for the symetrical parts. If he's a game model it really doesn't make that much sense to work in asymetrical detail. I'll finish this UV map anyway since it's mostly done and I want to get some texture on this guy :) plus it'll still be useful if I throw on a layer of SDS and use him in a close up later.
-Jack. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 27, 2006, 4:03am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Update. UV mapping *finally* done. :banana:
Probably doesn't look all that different from the last update, but trust me a lot was done. :p There's a few areas that are still less than optimal, but I'm tired of working it, so here it is:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_UV_checker03.jpg
And the finished UV:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_UV_03.jpg
*takes a deep breath*
Ok now on to texturing. Hand painting this one for experience, so I'm gonna drop some base colors on it and build up from there. Need to decide what kinda fur this guy has...
-Jack. |
Post by Rareth // Sep 27, 2006, 5:02am
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Rareth
Total Posts: 149
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Wow looking great so far! I need to learn to do animals and similar stuff. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 27, 2006, 8:25am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Got a little carried away on the color test.... :D :D
Here's the update:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_WIP_06.jpg
And the texture scaled down to 512 for viewing on the forum:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_texture512.jpg
Gotta say that I'm really happy with how the color test turned out.... I'm thinking that I'll just go with that as the texture and so all thats left to do now is clean up the seam around the neck and ears. Looks like smoothing the normals works fine so no normal map needed at the moment... That just leaves the specular map. :banana: I might try to use the specular layer to give more of the impression of fur... Kinda want to do something else for a while though ;)
The cool thing is that I actually tried the model with a 256x256 version of the texture and it still looked great :-) So guess I'm not gonna bother remapping the guy after all.
Thanks for the compliment Rareth! This is my first model that I've actually taken this far. I feel like in Karate Kid after he'd been doing wax-on wax-off for so long and got to put his new skill to the test. I've been learning this stuff on and off for since 1996(?) and now that I'm finally putting it to practical use the work is just flowing. I think the texture took about 20 mins to get the basics done and about an hour or two adding detail and tweaking seams.
The texture was done in GIMP. I used two custom brushes for larger size since the brushes that come with GIMP are just too small. ;-) Basically soft edged circular 200px and 64px. That and a $50 Aiptek tablet I got off ebay. :rolleyes:
Thinking about making a classic red and white dog house for the guy... LOL |
Post by Eagle // Sep 27, 2006, 8:54am
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Eagle
Total Posts: 221
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Oooh! he's so cute :D nicely done Jack! Looks really good!
always~
Vickie ;) |
Post by Steinie // Sep 27, 2006, 9:39am
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Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
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Hey you now have a great looking Avatar!:) Nice work with the Dog and thanks for sharing it's progress.
If you need hints on what the dog house looks like I can help...I've been there many times.....;) |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 27, 2006, 1:47pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Thanks Vickie and LOL Steinie!
Did a google images search on dog houses just to see what would come up and I'd have to say those are more like dog condos heh.
I've got a quick idea on modeling the house so gonna whip that up hopefully before I fall asleep.
-Jack. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 28, 2006, 3:30am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Well nodded off a few times then TS crashed on me, so did it this morning. :) I'll be glad when I can do all the modelling in Player side... some great tools on the old 6.6 side but...
Anyways here's the dog house:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/doghousewire.jpg
I'm wondering if the scale is right. Also debating whether or not I should add micro beveling so that I can throw an SDS on it at render time?
The dog already takes SDS real well since I used all quads and flow line pairs for joint animation. Not worth posting a screen grab though since it doesn't really look any diff from the low poly version with smoothed normals. :p
Guess after I map this. I should add a ground plane with grass, dirt, a food bowl and maybe a puddle or two to complete the set.
-Jack. |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 28, 2006, 4:27am
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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This is great Jack - cool dog, he looks very alert and lively. Thanks for the detailed WIP reports too - I've never tried to model a dog (though I've done a snail, some seagulls and a dragon) and your approach is very imformative. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 28, 2006, 5:20am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Thanks W!zard :D
I'm hoping that my learning process will help others too.
Google images is definitely a 3Der's friend when it comes to finding photo references. LOL I've got a folder full of animal references now. Been thinking about churning out a bunch of them and putting 'em up on turbosquid or one of the other model sites and make a few dollars. ;)
After I finish this set, I'm going to post a workflow thread which I'll detail the processes I'm using from modeling techniques to UV layout to texturing. I don't have much experience with lighting and rendering yet (since I never really finished anything before) but I understand the theory pretty well and should be able to come up with an article about that soon as I get some practice.
TS is a great tool. But I think where a lot of people who aren't posting get stuck is that they're spending to much time learning about the tool instead learning how to do things with the tool. :rolleyes:
Anycase should have the UV map for the house done in a bit. Basically just planar mapings for each of the sides.
-Jack. |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 28, 2006, 5:49am
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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TS is a great tool. But I think where a lot of people who aren't posting get stuck is that they're spending to much time learning about the tool instead learning how to do things with the tool. :rolleyes:
-Jack.
Good point Jack - I've often tended to do it the other way round - think about what I want to do then go looking for a tool to do it!! Sometimes to me a while to find it but once I did I alwys knew where to go looking next time!! |
Post by Steinie // Sep 28, 2006, 6:23am
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Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
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TS is a great tool. But I think where a lot of people who aren't posting get stuck is that they're spending to much time learning about the tool instead learning how to do things with the tool. :rolleyes:
I agree with your quote but feel TS is a collection of tools and not THE tool. What I see is too much time being spent on the whole application instead of discovering it's inner workings. Sort of how you designed the Dog. Concept, Drawing, Modeling, UV, Texturing, Lighting and Rendering. If more time was spent on each area and discovering the tools within those areas better work would result.
I don't think anyone here could say they know them all. It takes lots of time and dedication. (and hopefully tons of enjoyment!) |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 28, 2006, 7:17am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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I agree Steinie. What you said is much more accurate. TS has always been more of a collection of tools, some working better than others. :p
From my experience I learned a lot by watching training videos and tutorials done for other apps -- particularly Maya -- and I found they really changed the way I looked at things and approached modeling.
I found stuff by these guys particularly cool:
http://www.digitaltutors.com/
And of course there's:
http://www.3dbuzz.com/
In addition to content for other apps, the GameSpace tutorial is very nice. Some one needs to send him a free copy of 7.5 when it comes out. :D
Lot of good info and people here too:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/
But sort of like what W!zard was saying, I didn't really know what I was needing to learn until I actually tried to create things and ran into roadblocks needing solutions.
I've used Maya and Max a bit, but I feel more at home in trueSpace and assuming 7.5 brings in a modern animation and rigging system, better UV mapping editor, and a more complete polygon toolset, I'm planning to stay with trueSpace. With the addition of Vray we've already got a professional level (and fast) renderer now. TS has always had a very nice material editor. I liked the python scripting, but the new scripting engine with jScript and VBScript is a huge step up. Real time access to DX objects and scripts is certainly a plus too. Pretty soon, only thing we are going to need is more artists to show what tS can do. :D
Ok guess after all that I'd better post an update. Here's the material mapped dog house ready for UV projections:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/doghouseUVmaterials.jpg
UV map to follow in a few.
-Jack. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 28, 2006, 11:08am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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here's the mapped dog house and UV map. I decided against mirroring this texture as well since I might want to add different dirt or distressing to the different sides.
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/doghousemapped.jpghttp://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/doghouseUV.jpg
Still need to decide if I want to go somewhat photo realistic with the texture or keep it in the painted style I used for the dog... guess it'll depend on my skills ;)
Probably won't start on the texture till tommorrow.
-Jack. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 28, 2006, 5:24pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Got carried away with another color test so here's dog house textured. :p
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dogwithhouse.jpg
Here's the map:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/doghousetexture.jpg
And bonus here's a v-ray render just for kicks:
http://www.motbc.com/ForumStuff/dog_render.jpg
Things left on the to-do list:
Food bowl
grass and dirt for around the doghouse
maybe a chew toy... |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 28, 2006, 5:39pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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LOL I just checked and the house is 35 polys... :)
I was originally thinking to do the bowl in red, but to get better color balance I might do it in blue. Which means I'll need some yellow.... so the chew toy must be a ..... rubber ducky! :p
-Jack. |
Post by Nephos // Sep 29, 2006, 11:41am
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Nephos
Total Posts: 59
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Really cool low poly work there!
Keep up the good work.
Nephos |
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