jklind

Almost...

Finally got around to cleaning this one up! I debated inking and coloring this, and making it a paid post - April starts next week, and it could be fun to do some raffle images. Unfortunately, my boss could call at any time, and I could be swamped with work again. Plus my nieces will be here for their spring break starting next weekend, so drawing pinups won't be much of an option.

All coming together

Not a whole lot done today, but then technically there's not a whole lot left - I added controls for her clavicles and pelvis, attached the pieces together so she can be moved as a whole... and that's it. Once I get her neck, head, fingers, and feet rigged, her core rig will be more or less finished!

Legs

Lazy day, today - Violet's legs are about 90% done. A couple minor fixes, then I need to rig her feet, and then the hardest parts of her rig are done. Until it's time to rig her face. Apart from that, I finally got around to scribbling this Daisy image I've had stuck in my head the past couple weeks. I don't know if I'm going to finish this one, or if I'm going to save it for when Daisy is rigged... I kinda want to skin her model and put her in this pose, just to see if she can actually rea...

Progress!

After all of the problems I had yesterday, Violet's arms are finally (mostly) rigged! Hopefully the legs will go much easier... Since I'm likely to run into problems with this script again in the future, I made sure to document everything that went wrong, and what needed to be done to fix it. Sooner or later I'll need to update the script, but I can't say I'm looking forward to that. One thing that confused the hell out of me was a cycle warning on the controls for the twist joints on her ri...

Vaguely Familiar

If you've ever used 3DSMax for animation, this may look a tad familiar... For the majority of my career, I've used 3DSMax's Biped for character animation. It's far from the greatest rig out there, but it has something Maya doesn't - an integrated, easy to use pose manager & mirroring system. Also hybrid IK/FK limbs, and a nice pivot-switching system... There are quite a few free pose manager scripts available for Maya, and some of them do mirror poses, but the mirroring isn't always perf...

Nitpicking

I've been thinking about this one for a while, and it's something I'll have to decide on before I start modeling her expressions - should Vi's nose and mouth be raised up a little?

These are not expressions

This is one of those things that is more trouble than it may appear - the mouth corners. A trick I learned from the Malcolm rig is to have the corners weighted to special joints, which are constrained between the jaw and head. When the character smiles, the joint favors the head. When they frown, it favors the jaw. With this out of the way, I'm that much closer to rigging Violet and modeling her facial expressions. On a different note, it's looking like I'll have next week off, and I feel t...

Violet's eyelids were one problem, her mouth is another. Getting the weights just right is not just a pain, but nearly impossible. Normal mouth ranges might be okay, but on the off-chance I need her to unhinge her jaw like this, some extra bones or deformers might be needed...

Solving one difficult task with another

You know a task sucks, if you would rather spend time writing a tool to do it for you, even if writing it takes just as much time (or more) than doing it by hand... Before I start rigging Violet, I wanted to be absolutely sure that her eyelids would work. They didn't. I knew they wouldn't, but I hoped I was just second-guessing myself. One reason I was second-guessing myself, was because of just how her eyelids would need to be tested - first I would need to rig them. That would be a tediou...

I haven't yet decided what I'm going to work on today, so here's a look at some of the shader work I did last night, after messing with her pupils. Getting just the right settings was/is a pain, but that's a rant for later...

Dem Eyes

I should probably get Violet's rig started, and maybe block in some animation, because otherwise I'm reaching the point where things stop being fun for me - texturing and shading. Vi's eyes are going to be tricky in a number of ways, starting with her pupils - her eyes aren't spherical, so her pupils can't be sculpted in. Not if I want to keep them circular... Instead, they're projected on. Daisy and Rose also used projected pupils, but this time I've added displacement to the mix, to push th...

Problem - Daisy can't reach the service window between the bar and kitchen, and probably a few other things. Solution - a track ladder!

The server counter is now fully blocked in, so now I'm moving on to the surrounding area

Serving Counter

Sooner or later, I'm going to need an environment to pose my characters in. I've decided to start with the serving counter, because I think it might be the most difficult part.

Taking a small break from Violet, I decided to focus on one of the props for Daisy's Diner - a stackable cup/plate rack. I put way more effort into these two pieces that I probably needed to - around 7 hours. If I'd outsourced this, it might've cost me around $200-300. $200-300 for a glorified crate, when the real thing costs closer to $20...

The American Way

I actually am looking to outsource some tasks, so naturally the question is how much it's going to cost me...

Violet hair test

Vi's hair is finally to a point where I can test out the rendering. The first problem is some hair poking through her ear, which may be an easy fix. The hair is also a bit jagged in some areas, which I've found can only be fixed by smoothing the source surfaces before I extract the curves... which will also give me twice as many curves. I can't decide what's a bigger pain in the ass - the shading or the render settings. I may need to install a proper hair shader, because paintFX is too limi...

Hairy Situation

There's a difference between knowing how something is done, and knowing how to do it yourself. Case in point - I've seen plenty of examples of hair setups for both games and films, and yet I don't know exactly how to create one for Violet or any of my other girls. One thing I'm trying - which had better work, considering how much time it's taking - is creating dozens of interior surfaces to fill out her hair volume. Once these are all finished, I'll extract curves from the edgeloops, and use ...

Climb down animation

Sometimes a client wants something... less dramatic than what you turn in. Personally I like this version more, so here it is. Minus their character & ladder models, of course.

Snap Crackle Pop

Another something for me to clean up, when I have the time

There's Something About Mary-Anne

I may not have time right now to work on my characters, but I can at least review the hell out of them for later. I've already been doing this with Violet, Daisy, and Rose, but now I'm also throwing Mary-Anne into the mix. Mary first problem - one I'd already started correcting years ago - is that her limbs are too long. On the left side of the image, I've reduced their length by about 8%, and the size of her hands and feet by 10%. Another major problem is the curve of her spine - she needs ...

Done, for now

Violet's skin weighting is more or less finished, at least from the neck down. There are some areas that could be improved, but I'll have to make note of those for later. I've got my next freelance assignment, so Vi is going on the back burner for the next couple of months or so.

Violet's skin weighting is going smoothly, so far. One thing I'm testing out along the way, are helper joints. Skin weights alone aren't enough for natural deformation, and often pose-space deformers are used to clean up the problem areas. Rather than use a special deformer, I've decided to try using extra joints to correct these areas. The results may not be perfect, but for Violet they may be good enough.

If I did change Daisy's hair color, I'd probably have to change her clothes as well, because red hair doesn't mix well with a pink uniform... Good thing the change will only be for a one-off, because as much as I don't like her as a redhead, I like the blue uniform even less.

New Look?

I have a potentially non-canon comic planned that toys with Daisy's design a bit, but this will have to do for now. Her being a redhead would make sense though - her mom and aunt are redheads, and Rose is a strawberry blonde... The smaller breasts could work, as well. Here they're, what, between half and 3/4 or their usual size? And she'd probably still be my bustiest character.

Vi's model is inching closer to being done, now that her shoes and teeth are in place. The next step will be to make sure everything is UV'd properly. I'll need to get started on her color maps sooner or later, and that's one area where some patron participation could be fun - what comics should she have shirts for?

Vi's hair is now at least blocked in. I don't know how well these solid shapes will render, so I may need to look into either dynamic hair, or textured polygon strips.

On and off over the past couple of weeks...

Violet's model isn't done just yet, but it is far enough along for me to review the hell out of it.

A couple hours of cutting and point-pulling, and Violet's head is starting to take shape! :)

Violet's model sheet is more or less finish, so now I can get started on her model. Her base mesh is in place, so the next still will be to sculpt the rest of her in Zbrush...