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Caligari Community Forums: Artwork in Progress: Archive: pre 2002: Another one from the dino nut

Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Wednesday, April 11, 2001 - 05:22 pm Just thought I'd pop this on. It still has a few problems with texture & seams, but it's getting to a point where I'm starting to like it. These are "Kentrosaurus", a type of stegosaurid from Tanzania.
Geoffrey P. S. Corney (pisigma)	Thursday, April 12, 2001 - 03:59 am that's pretty nice looking!
Thom Bleasdale (tommy)	Thursday, April 12, 2001 - 03:28 pm Yeah, keep it up!
Jason Yang (gopheryang)	Friday, April 13, 2001 - 04:04 am Excellent work! More detailed texturing on the eyes and perhaps more obtruse to bring out this essential element of living creatures."livly eyes"
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Saturday, April 14, 2001 - 04:23 pm Thanks for everyone's comments. I did a test render of the head of another dino today, so I thought I'd drop it off. This is a small carnivor called an ornitholestes. All I've modeled so far is the head. The texture map needs some more work, and so does the bump map. Also, the eye will be darker & veinier. Hope you like it (I'm also going to reshape the eyelid). ~Brad
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Wednesday, May 02, 2001 - 04:24 pm I've gotten a bit further along with the ornitholestes, so I thought I'd drop in another render of the model. Still some work to do on maps and seams.
Kendall Crews (kai3d)	Wednesday, May 02, 2001 - 05:21 pm WOW! That's really really really good! That's like Jurassic Park quality! Puts my attempted raptor to shame... Keep it up!
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Wednesday, May 02, 2001 - 09:56 pm Wow, thanks, Kendall. Actually, I'm looking at it now and cursing the flaws. The right leg is waaaay too low on the pelvis. Plus, I haven't done a bump map for the legs, so they look a little flat. I tend to use skeletal diagrams or photos of mounted specimins when I do my dinos. I fudged it a bit on the legs and right now that's my real annoyance (that and a toe on the left leg which extends back quite a bit further than it should...) Thank you very much, though. The finished piece will be composited into a real photographed scene. Hopefully I'll have it done by the end of the week. Thanks again. ~Brad
cliff mellangard (tap)	Thursday, May 03, 2001 - 07:20 am Darn that last one looked good i almost runed away from my computer there. Really nice work with the veins and the skin bumps and textures. The only thing is maybe a tiny tiny bit more shine one the skin not to much. Hopefully one day will i be able to make such as nice darn dinos as you.
John P. Sullivan (jpsofca)	Friday, May 04, 2001 - 12:35 am Great work to you Brad! Watching the Survivor finale, they aired the commercial for Jurassic Park III! Maybe you can get those models looking alive by the time they need models for JP IV!? Anyway, for tS5's ability, you've done quite a job! I've been wanting to do creatures (of any sort) for some time now, but I guess I've been lazy -- but then again, I am a working student -- so for what it's worth, great job! An awesome animation is just a few steps away, now! Have fun, -- John
John P. Sullivan (jpsofca)	Friday, May 04, 2001 - 12:39 am Oh, and by the way, if they take my suggestion for NUMERICAL INPUT for EVERYTHING, as well as the 'MIRROR ON X/Y/Z/Combos of the three' suggestion, getting those toes right would be simplicity! P.S. This subliminal message was deliberately intended for the Caligari employees! -- John
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Friday, May 04, 2001 - 07:06 am Thanks again, folks. I just wanted to mention that this is TS 4.3, not 5. As for the toes, that was just a goof-up with the metaballs. I've done the composite of the dino into a photographic scene, with a tiny bit of touch-up paint to hide a couple seams that I just couldn't get rid of. These scenes are for a book I'm working on, so I'm not afraid to paint 'em like a madman if I have to. This one needed only the slightest amount, which was nice for a change.
WG Moore (willthegeek)	Friday, May 04, 2001 - 07:43 am Absolutely beautiful, Brad. The dino really looks a part of the scene. The only thing that came to mind, and it is not important, is the size of this guy. There is nothing to give an indication if he is amoung the smaller lizards except the tree, which could be any size. Again, that is really excellent work! Regards, WTG
Todd Williams (chesterdesmond)	Friday, May 04, 2001 - 09:19 am Very nice work..I really like the lighting in the last one, is that a projector light?..Out of curiosity how many polys are in one of those dinosaur models?? Keep up the excellent work...
Sean Clark (7son)	Friday, May 04, 2001 - 09:25 am Very cool! How do you seamlessly join the limbs to the rest of the body? Sean
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Friday, May 04, 2001 - 10:38 am Hi, folks. Tod: Yeah, it is a projector light. I made a gobo by rendering a plane that had been painted with Perlin Noise. That was used as the projected image. As for poly count, I usually go nots with the metaball resolution, so there's far, far too many (I'm not sure of the actual cound 'cause the model is on a different computer from the one I'm writing on). Sean: I mentioned, I think, that I couldn't seamlessly join the parts. I cheated & used a paint program, but as I said, this is for a book, and painting out a seam in 10 seconds is a lot more time effective than trying to erase the seam on the model.Sorry... not much help there. However, I was vert careful to match up textures and bumps, and that helped quite a lot. WG: Ornitholestes was about three meters long. I know there's not a lot to compare him to... I was hoping the ferns would help somewhat. Thanks again for your comments & suggestions, folks. All the best. ~Brad
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Friday, May 04, 2001 - 10:42 am Eeep... excuse all the type-os in that last post. ~Brad
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Friday, May 04, 2001 - 02:42 pm ..and to add another correction, I meant that it was 2 meters, not three. Well, there goes my credibility.
Michael Brennan (mbrennan)	Tuesday, May 08, 2001 - 01:07 pm Well...it sure is strange that the last image looks exactly like the one posted by "Bob Cratchett" in another thread. Albeit the dino has shreds of flesh in it's mouth. Are you in fact Mr. Cratchett, Brad? If you are, great work, but you've blown you're alter ego in here!
Michael Brennan (mbrennan)	Tuesday, May 08, 2001 - 01:27 pm By the way, the thread is entitled "I know it's not much, but..."
Ian Kirkley (cthulhu)	Tuesday, May 08, 2001 - 02:34 pm I just think Bob ripped off Brad...
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Tuesday, May 08, 2001 - 04:19 pm I saw that one just today. I have no alter ego, and I'm not Bob. Actually, I got a bit of a kick out of his postwork on the render. I'm guessing the meat was photoshopped into Bob's "interpretation" of my work. Anyway, Bob, if you're reading, I'm not at all offended. Have fun. That's why we're all here in the first place.
bob cratchet (morpheusii)	Tuesday, May 08, 2001 - 05:14 pm I guess you've heard imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? I've been following your work, I'm jealous!
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Tuesday, May 08, 2001 - 06:42 pm I've heard it, and I'll take it as such. No need to be jealous, though (and I do believe you were kidding there...) just have fun with the stuff. I'll hopefully have a lot more images for anyone to play around with as they wish soon. ~Brad
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Tuesday, May 08, 2001 - 06:48 pm Incidently, I should add that the images are getting better, but they're not going to be getting me into ILM anytime soon. still, thanks for the compliment.
Michael Brennan (mbrennan)	Wednesday, May 09, 2001 - 06:33 am Well, I'm glad that is settled. Brad, your work is outstanding. Are you planning (or have done) any animations with your dino's? If so, please post. Bob, I am glad to see your image postings, rather than read your comments about other's postings. Sometimes I would certainly feel a bit offended by them were they directed at me. Great effects on the Hendrix pic. Please accept my apology, and keep up the terrific work. Brad- please give a little insight to how you painted the dino's eye. I've been working on a cat shaped eye, but can't quite get the cornea to look like the real thing. Do you know where I can find bitmaps for eyes that I can apply to the cornea?
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Wednesday, May 09, 2001 - 07:28 am Michael: I usually unwrap a sphere mesh after creating an object shaped like a pupil,painting it matte black, and boolean-subtracting it. This way, when you unwrap it, you can see exactly where your pupil will be. Then, import the unwrapped bitmap into a paint program. Have some photo reference, or if you get a good enough photo, say from a magazine like "Cat Fancier", you could take that eye and clone details directly from it onto your bitmap. My eyes are usually pretty low resolution if they're going to be seen far away. Something I've tried (but can't remember if it worked) is to create the eye sphere, make it matte, and then surround it with a super glossy, high-refraction sphere. I'll give it a try and post whatever I get on this thread. As for finding bitmaps, the best bet when you're looking for something specific is to either scan bits out of books and magazines, or maybe look up veterinarian sites. ~Brad
Brad Proctor (rotcorp)	Wednesday, May 09, 2001 - 08:24 am ok, it's fast and dirty, but here's one quickie cat/dino/monster eye. I did the whole boolean/unwrap thingy, painted a quick map and applied it to the eye sphere both as a texture and a high amplitude bump map. Amb: 1, diffuse: 1, shine: 0, rough:0, mirror: 0.45, transmis: 0, refract: 1 A clear corneal shell was applied, colored the default grey, made partially transparent, then given the following properties: Amb: .12, Diff: .67, Shine: 1, Rough: 1, Mirror: 0, Transm: 1, Refract: 3.32 Not a great eye by any means, but I hope it helps somehow. ~Brad
Michael Brennan (mbrennan)	Wednesday, May 09, 2001 - 08:52 am Yes it does, thanks for your help.

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