The Midget's works in progress.

themidgetthemidget Posts: 287
edited April 2018 in Art Studio

A number of years ago I created a character in Gimp and posted it on Gimp Chat forum.  One of the members (who is now my wife) said I should write some story about her.  At the time, I didn't but later I created another character called Sharadil and the story took off.  My imagination also took off and the story is unravelling far too fast for me to keep up.  I thought I would try to recreate these characters in 3D.

http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6860&hilit=daemon+warrior#p86340
http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7002&hilit=sharadil#p88542

At the moment, Loga has an entire dragon parented to her.  The wings aren't entirely right for her and I will want to create my own.  She also needs
shoulder armour, a staff and some clothing accessories.  Any suggestions are welcome.

 

 

 

Loga Is coming 3.jpg
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Fire Magic.jpg
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Post edited by themidget on
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Comments

  • BeeMKayBeeMKay Posts: 7,019

    What generation are you working with? If you want pre-made Dragon-like wings and work in G3, you could try

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287
    edited April 2018
    BeeMKay said:

    What generation are you working with? If you want pre-made Dragon-like wings and work in G3, you could try

    Thank you.  I'm working with Genesis 2 so that I can use my version of Face Gen Artist.  If G3 uses the same texture forms, maybe I can transfer the morphs, or maybe I can find a way of fitting the wings to G2 anyway.  First I'll need to save a little money though.

    Post edited by themidget on
  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    Putting Loga on hold for a while because I'm having a flood of ideas.  Here is one of my new ones and a cape I am making for her.

     

    Wajeh First Render.png
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    cape question.jpg
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  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    Been a bit lazy so I thought I would just play around with textures for now.  The cloak needs more work and I'll need to design some accessories.

    WahjehWCloak01.jpg
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    WahjehWCloak01a.jpg
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  • BeeMKayBeeMKay Posts: 7,019

    If you load the wings without the character being selected, move them into the proper position, and then simply use the "parent to-parent in place" function, to parent the wings to the chest of your character, you should be fine. I use wings from other generations on my characters a lot, and it usually works just fine.

    Good work on the cloak! Do you pan to use dForce on it?

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Great job on the cloak and welcome to the art forum!

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287
    BeeMKay said:

    If you load the wings without the character being selected, move them into the proper position, and then simply use the "parent to-parent in place" function, to parent the wings to the chest of your character, you should be fine. I use wings from other generations on my characters a lot, and it usually works just fine.

    Good work on the cloak! Do you pan to use dForce on it?

    Thank you.  Yeah, that's my plan but I still have to learn how to do all this.  I'm totally new to all this.

     

     

    Great job on the cloak and welcome to the art forum!

    Thank you.

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    Further progress.  Made a belt and a staff.  Still need to read up on turning objs into dynamic clothing.  I have downloaded a tutorial that doesn't look too difficult.

     

    Wahjeh Belt.jpg
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    Wahjeh Staff.jpg
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  • BeeMKayBeeMKay Posts: 7,019

    Looks good together with the rest of the ensemble. :-)

    There's a very good and thorough thread in commons that also has a lot of good examples about dForce: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/208141/how-to-use-dforce-creating-a-blanket-draping-clothes-on-furniture-and-much-more#latest

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287
    BeeMKay said:

    Looks good together with the rest of the ensemble. :-)

    There's a very good and thorough thread in commons that also has a lot of good examples about dForce: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/208141/how-to-use-dforce-creating-a-blanket-draping-clothes-on-furniture-and-much-more#latest

    Cool, thanks for the link.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169

    Wonderful progress on your character.  Looking forward to more.

     

    themidget said:

    A number of years ago I created a character in Gimp and posted it on Gimp Chat forum.  One of the members (who is now my wife) said I should write some story about her.  

    Heading over to the Gimp chat forum now.  wink  Great story.

     

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287
    Diomede said:

    Wonderful progress on your character.  Looking forward to more.

     

    themidget said:

    A number of years ago I created a character in Gimp and posted it on Gimp Chat forum.  One of the members (who is now my wife) said I should write some story about her.  

    Heading over to the Gimp chat forum now.  wink  Great story.

     

    Thank you Diomede.

     

    I have now learned to use the transfer facility to make the cloak conform but this has shown up problems with the mesh.

     

    Mesh Problem.jpg
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  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    Having another go at making clothes.  I just watched a video on Youtube that showed how easy it should have been but I didn't know this and took the long way, extruding from a circle.  Still, I'm learning a lot about Blender now.  If I get good I'll start giving stuff away.

     

    Shirt.jpg
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  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    The mesh is a bit messy and I need to learn how to seperate parts of it to be mapped differently.  The smoothing modifier messed up the sleeves, perhaps because of the low resolution.  When I have tidied up the mesh and made adjustments I will subdivide a few times then add detail in sculpt mode.  Here's what the obj looks like so far rendered in Daz with a pattern.

     

    Shirt Test.jpg
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  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Will be watching with interest.  Modelling is something I would like to learn.  Okay, I started to learn and then got too busy lol.

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    Will be watching with interest.  Modelling is something I would like to learn.  Okay, I started to learn and then got too busy lol.

    I know the feeling.  I manage to squeeze a couple of hours of computer time in each evening and some of it has to be light play.  Modelling can get quite intense and there is so much you have to remember.  Not for the faint hearted!

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    NEW CHARACTER

    Was messing in Blender anf FaceGen Artist and created this morph

     

    NEW SHIRT

    Now this is a much tidier mesh. Tried the easy way this time and started with a cylinder.  Also, I used Blender's mirror modifier to cut my work in half.

     

    Baraleh First Render.jpg
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    New Shirt 01a.jpg
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  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    I've been working on two Blender projects, creating clothing for G2F.  The shirt is coming on nicely now and I am presently working on details and UV mapping.  The cape is a remake of the previous one but now that I am a little faster at modelling, I have more time and energy for details and embellishments.  The clasps here are a Julia fractal that I created in TieraZon, colour adapted in Gimp and used as height maps in Bryce's symmetrical lattice.  I then exported them as obj, UV mapped them and imported them into Blender.

     

    New Shirt 01b2.jpg
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    Shirt test 02.jpg
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    Cape.jpg
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    Cape Clasps.jpg
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  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    Haven't got much further with this darn project because mesh problems are giving me a headache!  It looks like it has potential though - perhaps more than I have patience to find.

     

    New Shirt coming 2.jpg
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  • RakudaRakuda Posts: 931
    themidget said:

    NEW CHARACTER

    Was messing in Blender anf FaceGen Artist and created this morph

     

    NEW SHIRT

    Now this is a much tidier mesh. Tried the easy way this time and started with a cylinder.  Also, I used Blender's mirror modifier to cut my work in half.

     

    Great work! Facegen is a lot of fun. Don't know what I would do without it! Wish I was better at clothing like you seem to be. I just can't find time to delve into Blender yet.

     

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287
    Rakuda said:
    themidget said:

    NEW CHARACTER

    Was messing in Blender anf FaceGen Artist and created this morph

     

    NEW SHIRT

    Now this is a much tidier mesh. Tried the easy way this time and started with a cylinder.  Also, I used Blender's mirror modifier to cut my work in half.

     

    Great work! Facegen is a lot of fun. Don't know what I would do without it! Wish I was better at clothing like you seem to be. I just can't find time to delve into Blender yet.

     

    I'm still struggling with clothing, I'm totally new to 3D modelling.  I use mainly Wilmaps free stuff to pose my characters at the moment.  Facegen is a lot of fun and I hope one day to have the pro version.

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    Trying a simple waistcoat.  I seem to be getting the details OK but the basic waistcoat still looks boxy.

     

    Waistcoat.jpg
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    WaistcoatDetail01.jpg
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    WaistcoatDetail02.jpg
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    WaistcoatDetail03.jpg
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  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Speaking as a female, the waist coat needs to hug her figure a bit more, that should help with the boxiness.  How to achieve that, I have no clue though lol.

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    Speaking as a female, the waist coat needs to hug her figure a bit more, that should help with the boxiness.  How to achieve that, I have no clue though lol.

    Yeah, in my efforts to not exaggerate curves I err the opposite way!  Blender has a shrinkwrap modifier so I'll have a play with that tomorrow.  Thanks for the advice.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169
    edited May 2018

    You are making great progress with your clothing models.  Excellent attention to detail and style.

    If you want some additional reference material for general modeling techniques, there is a webpage for polycount. It has special topics on things like limb topology that give tips on modeling to allow for bending joints.  You will find a discussion in the following thread, including a link to polycount.  Hope it helps.

    Keep up the great work.

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1651626/#Comment_1651626

    EDIT: see this reference page.  Make sure to scroll through whole page for guides to transfering from areas of lower resolution mesh to dense mesh.   http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Subdivision_Surface_Modeling

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169
    themidget said:

    I've been working on two Blender projects, creating clothing for G2F.  The shirt is coming on nicely now and I am presently working on details and UV mapping.  The cape is a remake of the previous one but now that I am a little faster at modelling, I have more time and energy for details and embellishments.  The clasps here are a Julia fractal that I created in TieraZon, colour adapted in Gimp and used as height maps in Bryce's symmetrical lattice.  I then exported them as obj, UV mapped them and imported them into Blender.

    Wow - now that is a really cool workflow that I would never have thought of.  Excellent idea and execution.

     

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287

    @Diomede - Thank you for your comments and for the links.  I used to do a lot of fractal work and was always fascinated by the symmetrical lattice Idea for extruding. Mathematical art fan Tim Hodkinson wrote an article that included one of my pieces here: http://orbittrap.ca/?p=2476

  • WandererWanderer Posts: 957
    themidget said:

    Having another go at making clothes.  I just watched a video on Youtube that showed how easy it should have been but I didn't know this and took the long way, extruding from a circle.  Still, I'm learning a lot about Blender now.  If I get good I'll start giving stuff away.

     

    @themidget - First, I'm sorry I didn't stop in here before. I like seeing your progress on this character. I think it's interesting. I hate to ask since it's been so long, but if you remember the video you watched, do you think you might be able to link it? I'd love to see it.

  • themidgetthemidget Posts: 287
    Wanderer said:
    themidget said:

    Having another go at making clothes.  I just watched a video on Youtube that showed how easy it should have been but I didn't know this and took the long way, extruding from a circle.  Still, I'm learning a lot about Blender now.  If I get good I'll start giving stuff away.

     

    @themidget - First, I'm sorry I didn't stop in here before. I like seeing your progress on this character. I think it's interesting. I hate to ask since it's been so long, but if you remember the video you watched, do you think you might be able to link it? I'd love to see it.

    Sure @Wanderer - here :

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=aUgunJ5o3Qg

     

  • WandererWanderer Posts: 957

    @themidget - thanks!!

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