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[jotapeh]

In this thread I post scans of sketches, Illustrator WIPs, etc. Acceptable responses to this thread:

• Criticism
• Paintovers
• Praise
• Lulz
• Pokémon

In specific if you could comment on the weakest sketches and suggest areas of improvement that would be excellent. Domo.

[jotapeh]

First sketch, buncha doodles I did yesterday over the course of the day. Lots of napping in between.

[mankoon]

I see you like to study poses but your lacking some foundation in anatomy. It will take forever if you continue to guess muscle structure so why not do some gesture drawings? They are quick and harmless. You can check out Posemaniacs.com and do some 30-second drawings http://www.posemaniacs.com/?pagename=thirtysecond.
Sure it's not real people, real people are waaaay better to study but this is a good place to start especially because their skin is off and you can see their inner workings.
You're strongest doodle is probably the "yes" guy because your lines were more confident and his gesture is stronger. He's also totally like "yes!"

[Derek]

Edit Paintover of my favorite character on the page, Snakeman:



1. ANATOMY! ANATOMY! ANATOMY! (Imagine a sweaty Steve Balmer saying this.)



2. Draw BIG! One character per sheet of paper. Big and bold and confident. Don't get scrunched up on the page.

I see a lot of promise in your figures, though. They're fun to look at.

Check out the Gestures Workshop we did a while back for more tips/examples:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=2960.0

[jotapeh]

Thanks mankoon & Derek, I really appreciate the tips.

I have not been studying poses/gestures/anatomy for long, but I did start this gesture drawing thread earlier when I couldn't find the workshop thread that Derek has now resurrected and moved (thanks dude!)

I'll keep at it. I haven't had a lot of time recently to art it up but I will work on some this weekend, hopefully I can get a scanner too.

edit: One question, when I 'study anatomy', what exactly should I focus on? I have been sketching poses for a month and a bit now, but should I focus on something else too?

[BlueSweatshirt]

Imo, picture > scanner. Tracing over a picture in a drawing tool is much more effective for converting to digital.

You should focus on the sex parts!
... lolno
Well, maybe.
When I was learning, I'd look at both pictures of real people and others' drawings of people to get an idea of how the contours of the body can be put down onto paper convincingly. I would take a look at a few things, make some mental notes, and then try a new drawing. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum!

[Mortimire]

Hey, I saw you needed help with the beef, so I made 'em look like he could wrestle a bear.

Sorta.



It's not the greatest job, sure, but it should give a gist of things that would be a good thing to spot out now. Such as nose holes in the snout.

If you need more help (because we all do), I got structures and beef tutorials that should really help out.

Oh, and it came from this comic. 'Course, you could've figured that out yourself, but less hassle this way.

Oh, and the hands are kinda awkward, but I'm gonna assume that's done on purpose.

[Derek]

Ooh, those are nice tutorials. Thanks!

[jotapeh]

This is a completely different thing, but I figure I should keep my crap in my thread!



been trying to make a low-poly santa claus to learn blender. i feel like i'm sorta getting places but a lot of blender stuff still mystifies me. crits welcome

[Ted Martens]

Hey, man! Thanks for sending me to your workshop thread. His glasses are look'n good and it looks like you tucked in that point that was on his belly before

Here are a few general tips for learning 3D modeling:
- The lower your polygon count the easier your model will be to work with. It looks like your model is really low-poly, so that's good!
- Texturing and UV unwrapping is a tough concept to learn. It's best to wait until after you have a solid understanding of modeling. To start off, coloring polygons with solid colors works great. Just a warning because it can be a stumbling block.
- Eventually you will want to make your models out of one mesh (or close to it) rather than many separate shapes/meshes. This is to reduce depth fighting issues when it's brought into a game engine. To start out, though, creating separate shapes that overlap is a good way to learn how to position shapes relative to each other, navigate within the program, and the basic tools that you'll be using for everything (move, scale, rotate, select). It looks like you're getting these down

Here's a mockup of a few things you could try out if you want:
1) a larger beard for that iconic 'Santa' look
2) simple box for a nose on top of the beard
3) The legs could be closer together
4) advanced: a waistband extruded from his belly. You'll need to slice the polygons around his belly into that shape first.

[jotapeh]

Hey cool! Thanks a lot. I did have some crazy problems with the hands flying everywhere and other issues when I brought the model into Unity. It made me sad.

I was parenting meshes (head, hands) mostly by using the parent to 3 vertices method in Blender. This worked well for the simple animations I was doing while learning rigging, but it seems like Unity doesn't like this at all!

Also I'm not sure how (if I used a single mesh) I would make stuff like the hands and head different colours from the rest. I think I need to learn more about textures/materials maybe?

Also - How do people normally set stuff up like eyeballs, buttons, hats, jackets - stuff that clearly sits on top of the mesh but follows its parent mesh nicely even in a game engine?

Will post more pics soon, Blender just kabloomed on me so I'm gonna restart and try something new/simple

[Ted Martens]

"Also - How do people normally set stuff up like eyeballs, buttons, hats, jackets - stuff that clearly sits on top of the mesh but follows its parent mesh nicely even in a game engine?"

It depends on how Unity can read it. You'll have to find that out. It may be that you do the actual parenting of separate animations within Unity. I haven't done much animation for engines.

"crazy problems with the hands flying everywhere and other issues when I brought the model into Unity."

I could be wrong, but you might need to freeze the transformations of the mesh before exporting. I do that in Maya when things aren't located where they should be in-engine. Try exporting after doing this: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?153391-Freeze-Transform-in-Blender&s=792f78cf10f17baab0e6956b40d354d4&p=1512320&viewfull=1#post1512320

If that's not the issue, it could be that Unity isn't recognizing the parent/child relationship. You might take a look at that one Unity demo with the jetpack-robot model and see how they've rigged up his animations.

Exporting for an engine usually has unforseen quirks. Try several different file types.

"Also I'm not sure how (if I used a single mesh) I would make stuff like the hands and head different colours from the rest. I think I need to learn more about textures/materials maybe?"

You do this by selecting polygons (aka faces) and then applying a material to them. Not every attribute of a material will export to an engine, but the base color should export fine.

[jotapeh]

Ah - neat! Ok.

I went at something a little simpler this time. I know you said to avoid UV mapping, but I just went through an extensive set of tutorials on it this morning, so I went ahead and tried it anyway. In the christmas spirit, a couple gifts:



The boxes are all one mesh - the 'lid' is extruded underneath and back out again - to give you a better idea here's a screenshot of the wires in ortho



The ribbons are all separate pieces that sit on top. So, that's probably bad. But would love to get feedback on this. Gonna go back to Santa and try to make the edits you suggested.

Also - thanks a million - your advice is invaluable!

[jotapeh]

More stuff. Low poly deer.



Trying to figure out poles, face loops, and how to make it look a little less 'square'

[jotapeh]

This is probably easier to critique. Ortho wires for deer.