3DMini: Kingdom Hearts: WAR

[Kurosagi]

Hi there.
This is my first 3D-character and also my first contest.
Here is some of my work in progress:




I hope you can give me some advice which parts need improvement.

[OneEyedJack]

I doubt I'll finish this but I took this mini comp as an opportunity to learn Softimage XSI. I've never used this app before.

So for the past two weeks I've experimented with it and this is what I came up with.


As I said I doubt I'll be able to finish this, texturing for me is by far the slowest process of all.. and the most boring.

I messed up here and there but its too late to remake the model~
Anyway. Back to texturing

(p.s I haven't found how to change the render background or how to render without using the viewport one.. (Q-key) yet.. )

Ugh.. I messed up the whole model. If I had enough time I'd redo everything. Just.. ew..

[Maph]

Japhir: Really cool texturing work man, very effective. Love it!
mradamw: Cheers man!
Duncan Fraser: Very cute, yet the red color scheme has something eerie about it. Which is good in my book. :thumb: One of my favorites at the moment.
walrus: some awesome texturing work as usual, man. I really like the color scheme you've picked for this one.
cookepuss: Thanks.
Aftermath: Oh my... I want one! Very cool work, looks just like it.
fuxer: very tasty texturing, me likes. Nice touch with the light might I add.
MBT: Cheers for the comment, I've adjusted the neck as you suggested, hope it's better now.
Baloo's looking mighty spiffy there!
Pawkfox: To change your background rendering color, you need to add a 2D_Background_Color pass output node. You can do by going to render>pass>edit>currrent pass. In the ppg that pops up, go to "pass shaders" and you'll see three empty list boxes named 'Environment', 'Output' and 'Volume' accordingly. Click on the add button of the one called 'Output'. You'll get a file dialog pointing to XSI's default output shader directory listing.
Click the 2D_Background_Color file, it will then be placed in the list. Double click that one to open it's PPG and set your color.
If you render at that point, the background color will be changed to the color specified by you in that output shader. Mind you, you need to finish the render before it gets applied, since it's a pass shader, this is executed when the frame buffer is fully filled (read: when your render is actually complete).
I'd give you some insight on how rendering works in XSI, but it's quite the complex matter and not suited for this thread I'm afraid.
Your model is looking good btw, the hair's a bit flu by the looks of it. Maybe sacrifice a bit more UV real-estate if you can spare it?

Anyway, finished the model, unless if I can add a few more alpha planes for the fur ofcourse. Onward to UV's!
2994 tris

[maddox69]

I removed some tris : firt I had 4788 tris and after I had 3248 (without the base).

[Valkyr]

I see characters from WB or other Game Studios being made. Although they may look really nice in the end. Keep in mind when making your character the competition specifics.

"Give us your best 3D rendition of either a Disney or Square-Enix based character."
"Contestants are not just limited to existing characters and are allowed to create a completely unique character."

Only reason I bring this up is because when you work in the industry if they ask for a specific character and you give them something totally different, you will most likely be let go for not being able to follow instructions and in this competition you may lose peoples votes (at least mine) for failure to follow simple rules regardless of how nice it really looks. I don't mean to offend anyone making these characters because they do look really nice.

Unless the rules have changed somewhere down the forums....too many read

and yes Draxxus I will post my character soon. hehe

[ChrisPavia]

@ ELR: No plugin needed for what you want to do, if I understand you correctly. You're not mirroring the textures, you're mirroring the character's UVs. To achieve this you model one half of the character, unwrap it, then mirror (or symmetry as Max calls it) the other half so its UV's are directly on top of the other side. Hope that's what you were looking for!

[maddox69]

Walrus : sorry I didn't answer you, it's the Joker in "the Batman".
Valkyr : Oh no ! but you've right...so I will finish this caracter but he will not participate to this competition...but I will just post it in this section Work in Progress, just to have some critics. Thank you

[Ayren]

HntrLuc: I'm impressed
Duncan Fraser: She's looking great, love the face paint. Weren't you going to give her a wolfy companion though?

[AyesDyef]

Hopefully I have enough time to finish, but I'm making Funguy from Chrono Cross, (Was thinking of making Mojo... But he's a lil too simple I think).


Funguy :P

[Valkyr]

maddox69 : I know I am crying too. All in all the Joker does look very nice. I like his face its one of my favorite renditions of the Joker. I would like to see what you would have done with a Disney Character or Square. I'm sure it would have looked really nice.

Oh I cant remember if posted which character I was working on but its Mowgli (I know others are too). I have not had time to post anything yet what with kids and all and working on actually completing it. I usually post when I'm close to being done because I have my mind focused on what I want to portray and having a lot of feedback on it usually breaks my focus into many different directions that I tend to lose track on what I was trying to accomplish in the beginning and then I run out of time in completing it. I know its different than most people that post stuff and I have no problem with feedback its just how I have been accustomed to work in order to get it done.

[walrus]

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone! Glad you like it so far. I still need to do some touch-ups here and there, rig and pose him, and then model and entire set and Brer Fox and Brer Bear and then I'll be done... Ha ha ha, just kidding (about everything after the rigging and posing.)

That's weird that I couldn't get Faogen to work - I guess maybe I do have an okay Geforce, but every time I tried to run it, I got a driver-related error and no go. (I forget the exact message, but I can reinstall it and see if anyone recognizes it.)

Ploon - Even if you want to make a major change to your sword and need to completely reconfigure your UBVs, it's not as hard as it may sounds: You can create a new version of the model, just rearrange the UVs to fit a new sword, and then use Render-to-Texture to project the texture form the original onto the new model wiht the new UVs. If you dig through the previous challenge (Sackboys), Draxxuss gave a whole step-by-step walk-through. (See? I was paying attention even though I wasn't in that one!)

Maddox - 2 notes: You need more geometry in the knees to make them at all functional, and you could also use some in the overly-low-poly hair. I'd suggest taking them from the teeth, which don't need so many: Just do 'em with alpha. And secondly, you've got 10 days 'til the end of the contest, why not start over with someone who is either a Disney or Square character, it's not too late to try (though, of course, your mileage may vary.)

Kurosagi - Welcome! Nice silhouette so far! It looks good. You look like you're way under the 3000 tri limit for this competition, so now it's time to add more in and round out some places that really need it, like the ears and wings. Good luck!

[ELR]

@ ELR: No plugin needed for what you want to do, if I understand you correctly. You're not mirroring the textures, you're mirroring the character's UVs. To achieve this you model one half of the character, unwrap it, then mirror (or symmetry as Max calls it) the other half so its UV's are directly on top of the other side. Hope that's what you were looking for!

Thanks chris well don't know if it works yet but I hope so

[ploon]

Walrus - many thanks I'd forgotten about that projection method, I'd read Draxxus post about it too! Good job someone is paying attention

[MikeBarrington]

Duncan - That is looking awesome. I think I like the short one better.

Draxxus - Yeah the Viera race has a weird foot shape. It looks like their feet have a very steep arch to them and most of their shoes resemble high heels to an extreme. I collapsed some edges to save on polys and it nailed out close to 200 tris. Now, to work on the face.

[ilegacy]

Kurosagi

Great start I like it cya morgen

[nihilicon]

I'm way behind, work has got in the way unfortunately but I'm sticking with it. I've decided to re-interpret Pumbaa as an armoured biped. Still working on concept details and the base mesh, but hell there's plenty of time! [insert nervous twitch].

[Duncan Fraser]

WOW thanks for the feedback and comments everyone, It is going painfully slow on my behalf texturing my personal characters takes me sooo long. I just get caught up on small details and cant move on until I have seen them through.

Ayren, I did intend to give her a wolf companion but thought that it could turn out to feel too much like princess Mononoke. So I created those little critter on the fly, haha see what I did there . I modeled the wolf and everything but pulled out at the last minute.

Draxxuss, the stand was actually one of the first things I made and have been wanting to change it for a while. I have been toying with the idea of turning it into a native war drum.

Just a little screen grab of my progress, I think I can get it done in time.
I think I can, I think I can

should get into some work now.

Thanks again everybody for the kind words.

D.

[Mister]

Hiya, late entry here. Ive chosen The human form of Kuzco, from the emporers new groove. Ive got the base mesh down I think.. 2976 tris so far. Still need to think on what I can do to adapt him for war >:]

a spear seems like the best suited option.

suggestion are welcome, as of course is critique. But I think its the texture that I'm going to struggle with :/

lots of good looking entries here as usual, Im looking forward to seeing how that armoured pumba comes along.

[lostclimategame]

cookepuss: haha, you suck, how dare you make a model that puts all ours to such shame no, all kidding aside, looks great, cant wait to see who it looks in the low poly version.

[segawa]

Updates!!!!!

Googled Disney snow globe yesterday and got some fun ideas for my base... I needed a break from my character...lol