Model this: Popeye

d12dozr

Hi Nomer,
...TOS = Tools on Surface, SDS = Subdivide and Smooth, FFD = Free Form Deformation?, JPP = Joint Push Pull. All the plugins should be found by searching here

Any chance we could get you to make a screencast on one of your characters, Pete? Doesn't even need sound, just the workflow

michaliszissiou

Well, I downloaded most of these ruby plug-ins. Tried them. Never used them before because my usual workflow involves blender. Some worked fine but IMO a lot of them are just trashes (SU crashes). My advise: learn some blender, doesn't cost anything and its just superb. To try do organic modeling in SU (+UVs) looks somehow... lost of time.

remon_v

I agree with Michalis... it's easier to do it in another program. My choice is Modo. And Blender is even free!

nomeradona

but for the sake of modelling i think thats the reason why they called this a challenge. i think its not just about the workflow but the adventure, challenge and discovery involve.. btw i begin to like blender.. though the progress is still slow.. so its your fault michalis and your preaching in the pulpit...

michaliszissiou

@remon_v said:

I agree with Michalis... it's easier to do it in another program. My choice is Modo. And Blender is even free!

More and more SU users have started to use modo as well. SU GUI is faster on this, other apps on that. All these "model this" challenges... just make me think 'oh this is for blender'. Thats all. BTW there are so many ruby, but does anyone knows how to disable snapping in SU? Its the best and worst su's function.

solo

Argh!!

There we go with Blender again!

Okay I concede Blender is the best, now can we continue the SU challenge?

Michalis, have you ever really tried to model with SU?, I mean really try, not import Blender objects and put a scene together for rendering with Podium.

EarthMover

Pete,

Can you explain the process of going from the first image to the second one in your popeye model post? You start with what appears to be a box and then sketch out the rough shape of the mouth and chin, then in the 2nd step, everything is rounded and triangulated. Did you do this manually, or with a plugin?

Also, can you expand upon the thought process as you start to create your proxy?

I wholeheartedly disagree with the contention that modeling organics in SU is a waste of time or that it's necessarily easier in another program. Someone proficient in a technique can use a program and take advantage of it's strengths. I would put money on Pete in a speed challenge between creating that Popeye head in SU or in Blender.

(I'm off to the Blender forum to inform them of how SU is much better. I wonder how it will be received?)

michaliszissiou

"Michalis, have you ever really tried to model with SU?, I mean really try, not import Blender objects and put a scene together for rendering with Podium."
You lost some episodes Pete, sorry about this.

"I would put money on Pete in a speed challenge between creating that Popeye head in SU or in Blender."
About how much money are we talking about? Sounds interesting.

solo

Adam

The first image is the first proxy I made, for those that do not understand (I know you do Adam) is you create an approximate shape, then you run the subdivide and smooth plugin which pretty much divides the mesh and smooths it.
Now creating the proxy is the learning curve as it takes lots of practice to get a proxy that once divided and smoothed will resemble the shape you are after, so In my case I do a lot of SDS and undo's for edit in order to get my correct shape.

Here is the 1st proxy being divided and smoothed with only 1 iriteration, the reason for only using 1 iriteration is to take the very basic shape and create more faces for me to manipulate further.

The next .gif shows me dong another iriteration (for sake of this tutorial lets assume I have made some mesh changes before dividing)
Now I will use the Sculpt tools to bulge and pull the mesh to a better shape, then smooth tools, after which i will use SDS once more for a total of 3 iriterations and smooth final mesh.

d12dozr

Thanks for the mini-tut, Pete.

pilou

Sorry what is exactly the meaning of "proxy"?

EarthMover

The subsurf proxy. The unsubdivided shape that is retained for editing.

dale

Proxy is the authority to represent someone else, usually refers to voting. (If you give me the right to vote for you at the board meeting I am your proxy)
In this case I think it refers to the rough base model that "is standing in" until you run the subdivide and smooth ruby.

pilou

many thanks for the precisions!

nomeradona

@d12dozr said:

Hi Nomer,
...TOS = Tools on Surface, SDS = Subdivide and Smooth, FFD = Free Form Deformation?, JPP = Joint Push Pull. All the plugins should be found by searching here

Any chance we could get you to make a screencast on one of your characters, Pete? Doesn't even need sound, just the workflow

hi thanks d12dozr.. actually i know them after lookin on the pluggin forum. my point really was not an inquiry but rather on using the actuall pluggin name rather than the acronym for the sake of new guys who visit this threads.

nomeradona

hi pete, after seeing your mini tut. suddenly my interest in really modelling organic shapes with SU has came back again. thanks for that tutorial and inspiration.

one noob question. i like that mini tut in gif. how did you do that. did you just capture and save them as gif file. i think i prefer doing that...

nomeradona

solo

I use Camtasia studio 6, it does the screen capture and then produces clip in any format, great compression and quality as far as .gif's go.

arail1

@michaliszissiou said:

Well, I downloaded most of these ruby plug-ins. Tried them. Never used them before because my usual workflow involves blender. Some worked fine but IMO a lot of them are just trashes (SU crashes). My advise: learn some blender, doesn't cost anything and its just superb. To try do organic modeling in SU (+UVs) looks somehow... lost of time.

michaliszissiou - I don't know, I use modo now so I see a lot of wires on their gallery and the final version of Solo's Popeye could stand up to any of them.

A question for Solo - do the Ruby plugins you use create a proxy that is retained like a regular subdivision modeling program? Or is that shape being deformed in the modeling process rather than being subdivided?

solo

@unknownuser said:

A question for Solo - do the Ruby plugins you use create a proxy that is retained like a regular subdivision modeling program? Or is that shape being deformed in the modeling process rather than being subdivided?

Arial, I create the basic proxy, I then use the pluging to give more complexity in order to manipulate it to a shape I am trying to achieve, once I have my seconadary shape I then subdivide once more to smooth that shape and again I tweak for the finer details.

michaliszissiou

Pete, please consider me as a friend. Its all about inputs and outputs. The base of computing. I just find that SU is the better app to do this and another app (like blender or modo) to do that. I like to explore some workflows (from blender to SU, SU to blender) because of this. I really like to see all these fine apps to communicate. Thats all. I believe that for some people this could be useful.