Al's Organics
-
No grand designs, sci-fi or sexy means of transport; just the everyday nuts and bolts. Having done quite a few people, I'm currently adding to the inventory of animals. Here's a cow WIP.
This kind of organic modelling needs to be done on an almost vertex by vertex basis in order to keep the poly count under control...as several of these things may need to be introduced into what is already a heavy model.
Justin (Monsterzero) once did a great vid of modelling a game character, but I can't find it now. I use pretty much the same technique of basically push/pulling a face, adjusting the result, then repeating the process...before finally doing a helluva lot of vertex tweaking and edge flipping to fine-tune the resulting form.
The entire animal had been done this way...in separate bits which are then sewn together. The technique is not obvious when the model is nearing completion, so I've done some annotations on the rear leg to help explain it better.This is only half an animal at the moment. Obviously it will be mirrored when complete. It's currently on course to hit my favoured poly count for this kind of content of around 2500 polys.
It will be mapped when complete; I'll being doing variations for Herefords, Jerseys and Frisians. Then I'll probably adapt the mesh to create some steers. and bulls.
-
That's a great looking cow Alan, I'd love to see a time lapse video one day of how you do your low poly organic models.
-
@solo said:
That's a great looking cow Alan, I'd love to see a time lapse video one day of how you do your low poly organic models.
Me too!
-
Thanks guys. Yes, I've been meaning to...but never seem to get around to it. I'll look into some software. I could have sworn I had a FF plugin for recording windowed activity, but it seems to have disappeared since I upgraded. I have got Camtasia collecting dust somewhere.
-
-
HyperCam2 has been a reliable screen recorder for me as of late. Free.
Nice cow Alan, and that's no bull
-
Hi Allan
Really great low poly character you got there, one of the best i've seen in sketchup done based on real character.
If you allow me some coments, try to keep the good topology you have, like you have in the skull of the cow, in every parts of the model. Following shapes and muscles and keeping things fluid, this will help defining the muscles and shapes of the body easyly and avoiding strange meshs if you subdivide and shadows done by incorrect triangles (and if you will export them to other apps the mapping or animation will be better too).
please see the pictures below, just quick notes i write with my wacom, and i could be wrong since i'm seeing just one side jpg.Tell me what you think.
Best regards
David
-
DacaD
Sometimes 'organic' forms do have noticeable 'creases' in them...
Perhaps Alan is simply using the direction of the splitting diagonal to mimic those - since flipping it is straightforward anyway, once it's made and can be 'rendered' as a test... -
Actually, you're both right. What I do is smooth the finished mesh...but manually with the Eraser. This enables me to leave certain lines unsmoothed, delineating the major muscle groups, folds in the neck, detail around the eyes and nose etc. This provides much-needed definition in such a low poly character.
I don't leave the lines black as on this pic. What I do next is to select the entire mesh (with Hidden Geometry turned off, so it's not selected) Then I use the smoothing dialog box, racking the slider up till those black lines disappear. However, I uncheck the Normals box, producing crease lines...precisely as in the Subdivide toolbox.
You can see the difference this makes to an untextured low-poly head. I much prefer the creased version...and it's even more effective at a distance.
-
A little hand painting in Pshop...and the finished critter.
Now to use the Remember UVs script and put it in a few different poses.
-
That's awesome Alan.
Sheep or pig next?
-
Already done pigs "Sooooeeee!" So it better be sheep.
-
Those are brilliant looking pigs, wow. Great work Alan.
-
Awesome work! The art of low poly modeling at its best!
As Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said: A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -
-
-
Wow!
-
@numbthumb said:
Awesome work! The art of low poly modeling at its best!
As Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said: A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.i love this guy - from "wind, sand and stars":
"It is as if there were a natural law which ordained that to achieve this end, to refine the curve of a piece of furniture, or a ship's keel, or the fuselage of an airplane, until gradually it partakes of the elementary purity of the curve of a human breast or shoulder, there must be the experimentation of several generations of craftsmen. In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness"now i know where the inspiration for all these boats / planes / cows come from!
-
Hi Alan,
this cow and pigs are very beautiful.
I found on the warehouse of your cows much less realistic: the plastic inflated seemed.
You put at the disposal of all your animals?
Thanks
David -
They are amazing Alan and very realistic. Great work
Advertisement