Cartoon African Baby Elephant - Page 2

Schmung · 17-03-2010, 02:58 PM

Surely easier to bake it all down to the lowpoly, then rescale the feet afterwards? The stretching will be minimal and you don't have to faff with changing your UVs or anything.

Edit : Check your vidcard temps. It might be cooking itself.

Benjyshwa · 17-03-2010, 03:03 PM

Really nice sketches, I think your model looks quite a bit different form your sketches though for instance your model appears to have quite a fat neck/head. Looking at reference and your drawings it looks like on your model the head starts to come straight out of the top of the front legs, where in most images I have seen the baby elephants have a 'neck' like this image.

Unless I've been looking at a different species of elephant :S

gammaslam · 17-03-2010, 04:50 PM

Agree about the neck issue. Also, the title is "Cartoon African Baby Elephant". The elephant doesn't look too cartoony. Legs could probably be shorter. exaggerate some features. I would take a look at the baby elephant in Ice Age and see what they did right and why their baby elephant is so cute.

t_hawkins · 17-03-2010, 05:47 PM

Thanks dudes,

Schmung: Already rescaled now, I've checked the checker and there's minimal stretching. I can't ever get the high poly into max so I've been using Mudbox to bake out the Normal maps which is pretty decent if you play around with the settings.

Where would I look for the Vidcard Temps and how would I know if they're "cooking"

Benjyshwa: Thanks for the critique. My character turns didn't quite work out as well as I'd hoped, but they were good for a rough guide while modelling. I also modelled the mouth open so I could rig it up with a morpher later on. More to the point though this is supposed to be a hyper-realistic/cartoon character and therefore will never look exactly like a baby elephant. However, having looked at him I do agree with the lack of neck and the head generally being too big.

So I've scaled the head down and moved the bottom of the neck up, along with more changes to the legs which I've made longer. I'm pretty happy with the changes and there's minimal stretching.

Here's a few screen-shots with a tester 1024 normal map applied to the edited model. There are some errors in the normal map but the sculpt isn't quite finished and I haven't done my usual clean-up to it in PS as there's no point in doing so.

Any more comments/critique is welcome as always.

=]

Schmung · 17-03-2010, 06:08 PM

Looks great with those changes. Can't wait to see it with a diffuse map as well.

The Ati and Nvidia control panels should both have a facility for monitoring temps. If you'd rather, or if you just have the display driver and no control panel then you may wish to use speedfan.

Of course, it could just be that you did what I did just after posting and manage to loosen your DVI cable with an errant knee before panicking utterly and reaching for the power button before realising what it is you've done.

t_hawkins · 17-03-2010, 06:43 PM

Thanks dude, it's coming soon.. I'm back to more sculpting at the moment, still lots of detailing to go.

Cool, thanks for that.. My computer seems fine for the moment, I think it might be a driver issue though so I've just downloaded the latest one's from the nVidia web site.

Haha, that might have been a possibility, but it seems unlikely as I have two screens and the issue was across both of them.

Anyhoo, here's a quick Mudbox update.

Polygoblin · 17-03-2010, 07:07 PM

Looking much better with the changes made. Makes the rest of the proportions fit, ya know?

Quote:

Originally Posted by t_hawkins

I can't ever get the high poly into max so I've been using Mudbox to bake out the Normal maps which is pretty decent if you play around with the settings.

Ever try using xNormal? It easily handles the high-res, bakes great normal maps (quickly), and bakes other things like AOs at the same time. You can learn how to use it in 15 minutes. Someone suggested I try it, and I'm glad I did. Best of all its FREE

Quick question : I know you want hyper-realistic/cartoony, so do you plan to make some long and dramatic eyelashes? Could definately "cute-ify" the little guy up a bit

Hope this helps, and keep with the updates.

t_hawkins · 17-03-2010, 08:00 PM

Thanks man,

Yeah I downloaded it but I don't really know how to set it up. I doesn't seem to want to work. However, it did give me some tools in Photoshop randomly which has allowed me to get pretty good AO and cavity maps, which are converted from the normal map.

Thanks for the suggestion, I have drawn those in some of my sketches so I probably should try that out.

Cheers, not much to update at the moment; realised I hadn't eaten anything since lunch so I've only just got back to work.

Benjyshwa · 17-03-2010, 10:52 PM

Eating is for the weak! (how stupid does that sound?)
Xnormal is a pretty damn good program, it's really fast all you need to do is load a high res obj and a low res obj with UVW's and it bakes everything! pretty fast too! Well unless you're baking AO which takes a while regardless... Great sculpting, you are indeed an artist!

t_hawkins · 18-03-2010, 04:40 PM

Haha, eating is definitely for the weak.. I think.

I tried using xnormal, it seems pretty easy to use, however I everytime I tried getting my meshes in they didn't have any UV's.

Either way I just decided to get them from Mudbox, I got a couple then composited them together to get the best map I could, which I then got my cavity map from using Xnormal.

Here's some images of the final sculpt and Normal Map I got.

And the normal map, still needs cleaning up a bit but it's looking pretty good when applied to the model.

Oh and here's the ambient occlusion I baked out in Mudbox. It's resized to 1024 for web but I'm actually working at 4096 so I can resize once I've finished my textures.

17-03-2010, 03:03 PM	#12 (permalink)
Benjyshwa Senior Member 192 - 34	Really nice sketches, I think your model looks quite a bit different form your sketches though for instance your model appears to have quite a fat neck/head. Looking at reference and your drawings it looks like on your model the head starts to come straight out of the top of the front legs, where in most images I have seen the baby elephants have a 'neck' like this image. Unless I've been looking at a different species of elephant :S Last edited by Benjyshwa; 17-03-2010 at 03:21 PM.

17-03-2010, 06:43 PM	#16 (permalink)
t_hawkins New Member 55 - 10	Thanks dude, it's coming soon.. I'm back to more sculpting at the moment, still lots of detailing to go. Cool, thanks for that.. My computer seems fine for the moment, I think it might be a driver issue though so I've just downloaded the latest one's from the nVidia web site. Haha, that might have been a possibility, but it seems unlikely as I have two screens and the issue was across both of them. Anyhoo, here's a quick Mudbox update. Last edited by t_hawkins; 17-03-2010 at 06:44 PM. Reason: .

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17-03-2010, 02:58 PM	#11 (permalink)
Schmung Senior Member 180 - 38	Surely easier to bake it all down to the lowpoly, then rescale the feet afterwards? The stretching will be minimal and you don't have to faff with changing your UVs or anything. Edit : Check your vidcard temps. It might be cooking itself.

17-03-2010, 04:50 PM	#13 (permalink)
gammaslam New Member 12 - 0	Agree about the neck issue. Also, the title is "Cartoon African Baby Elephant". The elephant doesn't look too cartoony. Legs could probably be shorter. exaggerate some features. I would take a look at the baby elephant in Ice Age and see what they did right and why their baby elephant is so cute.

17-03-2010, 05:47 PM	#14 (permalink)
t_hawkins New Member 55 - 10	Thanks dudes, Schmung: Already rescaled now, I've checked the checker and there's minimal stretching. I can't ever get the high poly into max so I've been using Mudbox to bake out the Normal maps which is pretty decent if you play around with the settings. Where would I look for the Vidcard Temps and how would I know if they're "cooking" Benjyshwa: Thanks for the critique. My character turns didn't quite work out as well as I'd hoped, but they were good for a rough guide while modelling. I also modelled the mouth open so I could rig it up with a morpher later on. More to the point though this is supposed to be a hyper-realistic/cartoon character and therefore will never look exactly like a baby elephant. However, having looked at him I do agree with the lack of neck and the head generally being too big. So I've scaled the head down and moved the bottom of the neck up, along with more changes to the legs which I've made longer. I'm pretty happy with the changes and there's minimal stretching. Here's a few screen-shots with a tester 1024 normal map applied to the edited model. There are some errors in the normal map but the sculpt isn't quite finished and I haven't done my usual clean-up to it in PS as there's no point in doing so. Any more comments/critique is welcome as always. =]

17-03-2010, 06:08 PM	#15 (permalink)
Schmung Senior Member 180 - 38	Looks great with those changes. Can't wait to see it with a diffuse map as well. The Ati and Nvidia control panels should both have a facility for monitoring temps. If you'd rather, or if you just have the display driver and no control panel then you may wish to use speedfan. Of course, it could just be that you did what I did just after posting and manage to loosen your DVI cable with an errant knee before panicking utterly and reaching for the power button before realising what it is you've done.

17-03-2010, 08:00 PM	#18 (permalink)
t_hawkins New Member 55 - 10	Thanks man, Yeah I downloaded it but I don't really know how to set it up. I doesn't seem to want to work. However, it did give me some tools in Photoshop randomly which has allowed me to get pretty good AO and cavity maps, which are converted from the normal map. Thanks for the suggestion, I have drawn those in some of my sketches so I probably should try that out. Cheers, not much to update at the moment; realised I hadn't eaten anything since lunch so I've only just got back to work.

17-03-2010, 10:52 PM	#19 (permalink)
Benjyshwa Senior Member 192 - 34	Eating is for the weak! (how stupid does that sound?) Xnormal is a pretty damn good program, it's really fast all you need to do is load a high res obj and a low res obj with UVW's and it bakes everything! pretty fast too! Well unless you're baking AO which takes a while regardless... Great sculpting, you are indeed an artist!

18-03-2010, 04:40 PM	#20 (permalink)
t_hawkins New Member 55 - 10	Haha, eating is definitely for the weak.. I think. I tried using xnormal, it seems pretty easy to use, however I everytime I tried getting my meshes in they didn't have any UV's. Either way I just decided to get them from Mudbox, I got a couple then composited them together to get the best map I could, which I then got my cavity map from using Xnormal. Here's some images of the final sculpt and Normal Map I got. And the normal map, still needs cleaning up a bit but it's looking pretty good when applied to the model. Oh and here's the ambient occlusion I baked out in Mudbox. It's resized to 1024 for web but I'm actually working at 4096 so I can resize once I've finished my textures.