Anybody good at creating cartoon heads?

Rich O Brien

Though Alan has a file somewhere that's only 100kb in size yet makes SU hang. So components can also cause issues if you go OTT with them

spogadog

That's interesting. I'm actually using SU to create virtual mannequins and save time on 'old school' construction techniques (a lot of folk appear to be doing that?). To that end, I'd like to keep the surface detail and contours 'to the max' as much as possible. I know that such an approach can seriously slow down the PC in the construction phase, but are you saying that once these complex shapes have been 'componented' you can effectively have the penny and the bun?

@unknownuser said:

No they're clones that reduce file size because SU only has to know where in 3d space they reside not how much geometry they contain. That's a rudimentary answer without getting too in-depth.

For example make a sphere and group it. Then make 10 copies of that group and save it. Check the file size.

Now make a sphere a component and make 10 copies and save then check the file size.

So if your making a head model half and mirror a component for the other half.

Alan Fraser

@spogadog said:

....but are you saying that once these complex shapes have been 'componented' you can effectively have the penny and the bun?

Only as far as file size in concerned...not as far as navigability is concerned. The only thing SU is concerned with in terms of being dragged to its knees is how many faces and edges the model contains...it doesn't matter how you dress them up. They can be groups, cloned components or even just completely exploded raw geometry, there'll be little if any difference in performance. In fact the exploded one might even be easier to work with, as SU doesn't have the extra hassle of burrowing down into nested groups and components.

Rich O Brien

Alan's spot on there. Going OTT on components does more harm than good. It's a balancing act at times.

Is it something like this that you're modelling?

spogadog

I'm actually modelling the cartoon form itself, i.e: a 3D Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, etc. As previously mentioned, this saves so much time I'm sure I can't be the only person doing this?

Apologies for not being able to show this stuff, but I'm having major problems accessing the Sketchup Warehouse. Having screwed up+++ with the password/username malarkey I now don't know what to do. I was using this facility on an almost daily basis about 8 months ago and could really do with it now. Can anyone help me to start over with it?

@unknownuser said:

Alan's spot on there. Going OTT on components does more harm than good. It's a balancing act at times.

Is it something like this that you're modelling?
[attachment=0:3slleag8]Mannequin.png[/attachment:3slleag8]

solo

Something like this?

spogadog

Exactly, but these are characters I've designed myself.

@solo said:

Something like this?

spogadog

I'm staring to make pretty good progress now, but am finding sketchup slows alarmingly if I import a scanned profile to follow. Should that be happening?

@alan fraser said:

@jgb said:

Using SU to do what you are attempting is akin to using a screwdriver to hammer nails. Doable, but not well. SU will frustrate you in short order trying to model/manipulate life shapes.
Trust me, I tried....

On the contrary, I've just spent most of this thread so far demonstrating exactly the opposite.
The figure 5th post down was constructed entirely in SketchUp. Sure it takes time if you're constructing it from scratch...but it does in Max or Maya too. Daz or Poser models...even if exported at low-res are MBs in size and almost unusable unless you go in for serious poly-reduction and cleaning up(which can take as long as actually building them yourself.)

I've already demonstrated how to make a head. Justin Chin demonstrates here how to make the rest of the body. This is exactly the way I do it...but with fewer polys. It's basically just a series of layered cylinders which are then manipulated to the correct proportion and angle.

[flash=640,390:29gjob29]http://www.youtube.com/v/ZzDM_JrHCGM?version=3[/flash:29gjob29]

[flash=640,390:29gjob29]http://www.youtube.com/v/8pz7IXpTMMk?version=3[/flash:29gjob29]

solo

Some of my characters are also created from images I got from a client for a theme park in Japan. Do you first draw the characters before modeling them? If yes, got an image to show?

spogadog

At the moment I can't get sketchup to work above crawling speed as soon as import an image to trace. This is despite cropping the shite out of the scanned image and pulling the resolution right down to the lowest setting. Is this common?

@solo said:

Some of my characters are also created from images I got from a client for a theme park in Japan. Do you first draw the characters before modeling them? If yes, got an image to show?

solo

@unknownuser said:

Is this common?

Nope.

Charlie__V

@spogadog said:

At the moment I can't get sketchup to work above crawling speed as soon as import an image to trace. This is despite cropping the shite out of the scanned image and pulling the resolution right down to the lowest setting.
Is this common?

Have you ever "purged unused"

Window....Model info.....Statistics.....Purge Unused button is at the bottom of the window.

Unused images can really Bog things down for you.

Best,
Charlie

spogadog

I added some meaningless lines (unconnected to the model), hit purge unused and it did nowt. This was with the model fully selected as well. Tried this three times.

Also, still can't attach a drawing to this thing, 'browse' has nothing in it, and you can't type b*gger all in the box!

Can't for the life of me 'lathe' a 12 sided circle either. Not a good SU day!

@unknownuser said:

@spogadog said:

At the moment I can't get sketchup to work above crawling speed as soon as import an image to trace. This is despite cropping the shite out of the scanned image and pulling the resolution right down to the lowest setting.
Is this common?

Have you ever "purged unused"

Window....Model info.....Statistics.....Purge Unused button is at the bottom of the window.

Unused images can really Bog things down for you.

Best,
Charlie

spogadog

I couldn't get 'purge unused' to do anything! BTW, is there a quick way of removing unwanted construction lines from a model? After I've done a few 'follow me's and intersections I seem to be spending hours going in and 'pin-boning'/filleting out thousands of lines. Takes ages

Also, how do you DE-select unwanted lines/faces from an area you have clicked and dragged out for, say, re-scaling?

@unknownuser said:

@spogadog said:

At the moment I can't get sketchup to work above crawling speed as soon as import an image to trace. This is despite cropping the shite out of the scanned image and pulling the resolution right down to the lowest setting.
Is this common?

Have you ever "purged unused"

Window....Model info.....Statistics.....Purge Unused button is at the bottom of the window.

Unused images can really Bog things down for you.

Best,
Charlie

jgb

spogadog asked: Also, how do you DE-select unwanted lines/faces from an area you have clicked and dragged out for, say, re-scaling?

Use the Select pointer/tool but hold both SHIFT and CTRL keys down as you click on unwanted lines or objects. Using only CTRL adds items to selection set, just SHIFT toggles items in selection set.

spogadog

Many thanks, jgb. Don't suppose you can help with the 'filleting' question?

@jgb said:

spogadog asked: Also, how do you DE-select unwanted lines/faces from an area you have clicked and dragged out for, say, re-scaling?

Use the Select pointer/tool but hold both SHIFT and CTRL keys down as you click on unwanted lines or objects. Using only CTRL adds items to selection set, just SHIFT toggles items in selection set.