Looks good as far as i can tell ^^ Nice start

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jes, naice shtart

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"I'm like a rookie paramedic to a siren, praying for an accident.."
Cute Is What We Aim For

danke. it sorta reminds me of a cross between Uruk-hai (LotR orcs) and a lion!
lol

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

stage 2.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Looking good so far!

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Chris

I think you just need to round off his front legs a bit and the bit between his legs. They're a bit straight for my liking. Other than that it's coming along nicely.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

Cool. Tell us about how you're modeling it. I'd like to give input. Are you working with lots of polys?

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for the torso, i used a small box primitive, extruded my way from there...legs need rounding yes... and the back leg area needs to be shaped as well.
for the head i used a plane primitive, and extruded edges etc... made the general structure before the face.
latest update: added cheekbones, and shaped the lower jaw+mouth

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

stage 3. body more or less finished. tail added. claws on feet added. head attached.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Looking good. I think there are still signs of boxyness on his chest and hands. try using the paint relax tool in editable poly and just give him a quick once over. either that or what i tend to do is a quick base level zbrush clean up using the smooth brush. evening out the topology to avoid pinching and rounding off any boxyness, also good for tweaking proportions with the tweak brush.

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thanks tyson will work on that! was anyway planning to do a once over with zbrush once i learn how. thought i'd add some musculature, and define some areas more. will try the paint relax tool also (what does it do?)

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

relax sortof spreads the vertices out to change the surface tension of a mesh. you can use the modifier (ie, relax a box into a spherical shape)
or use it on selections from within editable poly. or use the paint push, pull, relax tools in editable poly to do a sortof z-brush like edit.
Its so usefull when you are modeling and you have artifacts caused by edges being too close together or other such things. often when you model by extruding edges you have to painstakingly move verts around to get nice even topology so there arent regular artifacts or pinches after you subdivide, so relax can just make it really easy to quickly paint across those areas and fix it all up. then the push brush (push is also a modifier which is very handy) can be used to push the shapes back out because relax can shrink things down a bit and you lose definition.

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will have to keep all that in mind... i think i'll try my hand at the paint tools within editable poly...will post an update after i do...lets see how it turns out

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

wow you were right man it's an awesome tool! i just tried my hand at the relax and push/pull stuff, and it works like a charm
check out this update....better chest and back legs have some shape now

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Can't wait to see it come together.

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Chris

erm.... (expectations raised)....

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Now that, Looks great. awesome process aswell. Good job man!

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thanks at the end of it all, i'm gonna have this creature run with a war-cry! hehe

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

latest update.

issues sorted:
1) front legs don't look like tree trunks anymore. they have proper shape, and some added musculature.
2) better chest-front legs transition (no paunch - he's fit now).
3) sorted out boxiness of arms

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Yeah man thats really looking solid now. I'd say the only things that are letting down the model now are the hands and the face. hands are a pain to model. I don't know how many times Ive kit bashed old models to steal some decent hands and avoid modelling them again. generally they look best and are easier to get right if you model them in a relaxed sort of pose. that way you can see the way the bones work in the hand and they look more natural. My advice would be to open a new scene and make a single hand and really focus on it. then merge it in and attach it to the beast and adjust it some more. this creature is turning out to be really good. I can see him with some nice textures and maybe even some zbrush displacement

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thanks tyson! by hands do you mean arms or just the hands?
because i didn't have any references for the hands (other than an orthogonal front view which gave me no help), so i decided to model the fingers as more like claws, except for the thumb, which for some reason i've made human-like.
anyway can you tell me specifically what about the hand needs correction?
and the face i've pretty much stuck to the reference....a very squashed-in face with virtually no nose to speak of, and a slightly protruding jaw (which will protrude even more when i add hair).
i've stuck to the reference for the placement of cheek bones (not 3ds max bones, i mean anatomically).
so can you also tell me what particulars of the face need changing? the reference pic is in my first post, so compare with that

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Ok, well firstly before I elaborate I don't mean to sound preachy, this kind of thing is entirely an aesthetic choice and depends alot on what you plan to do with the model in the long run ie: rig and pose him holding some sort of weapon or animate him or whatever.
with the hands I can see what you mean in the reference but for me i would be trying to find some additional reference to better interpret the design in 3d. The design is very orthographic and you can't really get a sense of what his hands would look like if they were on a marquette. same for the face. It looks to me like he's based on some sort of cat so maybe try and focus in and do a detailed study of a half man half lion type thing and then attach it to the other mesh. My sculpture teacher in highschool showed me how to model a lion in clay and said that the trick to clay sculpture is to not be afraid to add loads of clay. she proceeded to whack these huge chunks of clay on and build out the form into 3d so rather than being conservative and scraping and gouging out the shape I started to add forms very liberally.
I figure its similar in 3d. I often will model a piece of cheek or something out of a seperate mesh and just weld it in without thinking to much about topology and then try to clean it up a bit later on. Its really hard to say specifically what to change but i guess when I look at the model theres a strength to the design and execution that is there throughout the body and legs but the face looks a bit small and undefined and the hands feel like they need more realsism to fit with the rest of the scupture.
Heres a couple of example hands I found in my old files. I can send the max scenes if you want. they are a bit odd though. from two unfinished projects.

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those are some good hands tyson, will probably make some alterations to the existing hands and make it look more human, with the bone joints etc...as you say, it helps to think ahead, and maybe at some point i might want to make a detailed rig of this and animate it. so yeah will work on the hands definitely.
for the face, i inferred the same as you did...that he looks like a cat-based creature, and so i even downloaded some references of lions etc, to help me....but the problem is the Uuka reference does not have any cat-like snout, which makes a huge difference to the way the face is modelled. i modelled that gap that you see between upper and lower jaws (that small delta shape that's characteristic of cats) but other than that i couldn't really elongate the nose because, well, the reference has no snout, and has an almost human shape to the face...
so i don't know whether to stick to the reference, or make it a general cat-snout....
and you described the method of piling on clay without fear...that sounds awesome but i guess i'm too weary of later clean-up and so every change i make is after really careful consideration of whether it'll help....i like the sound of that freestyle method though will try it out

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Yeah I neglected to mention that quite a few students had their clay heads explode in the kiln because you do actually have to be very carefull and make sure the clay is all a similar thickness with no trapped air inside etc.. but the principle was helpfull to me.
personally I recon its ok to interpret the design how you like and maybe make some changes. It inevitable that the transition from 2d to 3d with involve some evolution. some things are just going to work better when it comes time to animate. for instance a kind of lion style jaw will look way more scary in an action pose than a human style jaw. Anyway. look forward to the next update.

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better hands update
i know it's not quite the same as your ultra-detailed hands with fingernails and wrinkles
will do some paint deformation work on these hands still.....

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Looking good. they will be able to grip a spear or a javelin or something. I'd suggest making a selection and applying an FFD or a bend modifier to give the hands a slight curve. like the knuckles arent all on the same plane if you know what I mean. it will make them seem more relaxed and natural.

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will do that...also need to make it a little more uneven i think.
will also try and put some claws on the ends of the fingers, with some inward extrusions and outward bevels.
i think that'll really add something to the ferocity

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Great update man, Looks like some fine work again. I really like the progress you did on this one and the patience you had to fix all the boxes Lovely work!

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thanks john yeah i'm doing it painstakingly slow though...just a few more adjustments and i'll be done with the initial modelling stage.
after that i'll have to figure out how to add some definition to areas, and also fiddle around with hair

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Hi all - my first post! Actually registered because of this thread (I actually stumbled upon this page by googling '3ds max rounding sharp corners'.. )

I really liked to see your progression desade2009 and also the contributions from the other people here. Sure I also went (am going) to a lot of other places but I find this connects more to my level of (in)experience (no offense intended, starting with things is no shame right? )
The other places I find so overwelming..

Because of reactions that it's hard to gather information on how things would have to look 3D according to the shown picture only, I did some searching and found the portfolio of the person who drew it. There are al sorts of drawings of the same character in diffent poses. Sorry if you already have it.
You can find it @ [Link to okmer.cgsociety.org]

Cheers,
Mike.

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oh wow thanks man! really that's a huge help in terms of concept and references , and now i know who created that beautiful creature

aside from that, welcome to the forum
you will find that people here are very helpful, and friendly. there's loads of stuff you can do on this forum, and often it will involve your creativity. you can help others as well, if you know what problems they are having.
introduce yourself in the "Introductions" section of the forum.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

awesome. theres a great action pose I think this site is a little less intimidating than some other places. you wont get hassled out for asking "Noob" questions around here (within reason ).

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latest update. completely remodelled the head, wasn't very happy with the earlier one. it still needs a little detailing, but i'm much happier with it
here's 2 screens. one with references and one without
oh, and the hand.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

damn you boy you made me think of doing a char myself again -.-
the face looks pretty good, except you need to get it into proper loops..
and the fingers could use more shape, but really looking good

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"I'm like a rookie paramedic to a siren, praying for an accident.."
Cute Is What We Aim For

thanks dude what did you mean by proper loops?

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

as in proper anatomical loops? so when u rig it and animate it, it looks more.. organic?
[Link to img510.imageshack.us]
[Link to img232.imageshack.us]

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"I'm like a rookie paramedic to a siren, praying for an accident.."
Cute Is What We Aim For

i think the loops are pretty decent man, just have a little cleanup to do around the mouth,
but mostly i've stuck to facial contours. here's a screen

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

ah, maybe just didnt se properly before, cool

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"I'm like a rookie paramedic to a siren, praying for an accident.."
Cute Is What We Aim For

he doesn't have any smooth modifiers on him already does he? that would be a beast to work with, I like your character giant centaurs are always cool. I agree it's alittle to smooth and perfect right now but im sure you know that already.. Are you going to take this into Zbrush at all?

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"I change my mind so much I can't even trust it. My mind changes me so much I can't even trust myself."

yeah he has a smooth iteration applied.... and yeah will add some small details in zbrush later on (when i know how to work with zbrush properly), but those details will be minor.... the main structure will be in 3dsmax. just picture him with dreadlocks

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

He's really more of a male sphynx isnt he. I was trying to find time to make a sphynx for the mythological creatures challenge. theres something scary about them with the riddles.

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haha yeah he's something like a sphynx i guess...he's more on the lines of human-panther (which is what i found in the references)
i think the remodelled head is based on reference pics of some character called Raww (?), possibly some relative of Uuka's
anyway what do you think of the new head man?

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

i've come here a bit late and haven't read through everything, but i think the edge loops around the mouth and eyes could use some work. unless of course you have no plans to animate the character then it doesn't really matter but its still a good habit to get into.

basically there are a couple edgeloops around the mouth and eyes then they just disappear. I think there should be more and they should extend much further. For example the mouth edge loops should keep going and form a reasonable part of the nose so as to allow realistic deformations. like when you smile your nose moves too for example.

but otherwise good work

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and it's a story that might bore you, but you don't have to listen, because I always knew it was going to be like that.

yeah maybe i need a few more loops around the mouth...i hadn't really designed it with intricate facial animations in mind, but as you say, it is a good habit.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

new and improved (loops)

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

added facial detail, and musculature.
jamie's probably cursing me for my incessant posting, and uploading of images
you can delete the first half of this thread if you like or even more

will now move onto modelling those dreadlocks. any suggestions?

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

cylinders/bend/taper/scale for dreads or draw splines representing dreadlocks and add thickness, convert to edit poly or use a cylinder and extrude it by spline

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The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
-Albert Einstein

The face is awesome man. I think you captured the feel of the design very well. As for dreads. I'd use the hair and fur modifier. Make a scull cap object and add the modifier. then you go into the styling mode and let it fall, and style it a bit. then theres a button to convert it to geometry. which will be renderable splines. Just be carefull to not generate some ludicrous amount by mistake because obviously the resulting geometry can get pretty dense .

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ah ok thanks man will toy with the modifier and see what i can come up with
altopais you mean to say draw splines and make them renderable?

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Beautifull. I just love what you did with the face. Much much kudos to you.

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thanks man much appreciated.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

i've sort of found that the best results for dreads are through renderable splines... i generate these splines using the hair and fur modifier applied to a spline cage, and then convert the hair into splines... the only problem i have is that the hair sometimes passes through the head mesh...

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

use some dynamics for that if needed.. while animation i mean

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"I'm like a rookie paramedic to a siren, praying for an accident.."
Cute Is What We Aim For

i found the problem man the random scale wasn't 0, and i had to adjust the frizz tip value as well.... now i have everything under control lol...

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

yay :d
btw still working on those fallout mods?

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"I'm like a rookie paramedic to a siren, praying for an accident.."
Cute Is What We Aim For

i'm shuttling between that and this.... once i'm done with the hair stuff here, will probably get back to figuring the mod stuff out... try and make custom environments maybe...that'll be awesome!

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

orrr nevermind

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"I'm like a rookie paramedic to a siren, praying for an accident.."
Cute Is What We Aim For

rasta dreads update (stage 1)

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

It's looking really good. Perhaps his cheeks are a tad too pointy, but it's coming along nicely.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

haha yeah i'll sort the pointiness out i have this thing for cheekbones i guess i get carried away sometimes lol
anyway it's been awesome fun playing around with the hair and fur mod!

here's some more rasta shots. this effectively wrecks any chance of importing this model in-game as it is. no way a game engine will render this much hair! maybe i can make a low-poly version of the same

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

You'd probably be able to do it with a low poly mesh and a kick-arse normal map.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

I love it! great job on that hear man. I love the muscles aswell near the neck, everything just matches the model like the reference picture. I really like what you did on the model's head and hair area's. I'm glad to see this one coming almost alive!


Lot's of kudos

Johnbeyer

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Wow man the head is looking awesome. I just want to know one thing!

When can I kill it!!!!!!

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Chris

hopefully....very soon
its lesser form (the earlier Uuka) is already running rampant in my fallout mod, killing things!

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Cogito, Ergo Sum