First round of Mark 7

So took my first pass at real vertex (in particular displacement) modelling. Fixed up the shoulder blade area to satisfaction. An unforeseen side effect of displacement has been a substantially increase in memory usage with the model. Which I get while I'm displacing, but this effect continues once I reintegrate the changes into the Vertex mesh. The way I understand it once I use the memory to go through with reintegration (man does it slow down the computer) this should make the changes permanent, and the computer shouldn't have to track them beyond the mesh (which isn't too memory costly in proportion to displacement). In good news I have some money from my B-Day and a 1 year inspection coming up for my computer. I'm going to double my RAM to try and combat my recent memory issues with this and environments. I also played with the skeleton rigging to see how far I can push it. This is NOT the shoulder improved model. Anyways the battle goes on.

Posing for success

Alright so today's toil all added up a few minutes ago when I played with my skeleton rig. Turns out I got a LOT done. Apart from the feet posture (which admittedly throw off the effect, but this was a 5 second play around with everything) I think it is getting there. Next steps include displacement modelling (veins and wrinkles), and trying to figure out UV map alignment.

Reinventing the Wheel errrr Corythosaur

So with an entire afternoon to progress on my Corythosaur what did I get done?

I just repainted it! Grrrrr...



Okay that is a lie. I actually put a lot of work into remodelling the leg for rigging and posing this guy. That than required a tweak to the leg shader, which got me thinking I should do something with the tail. Which of course lead too a shader chain reaction as I than needed more striping everywhere else. I also got around to fixing the crest's texture like I'd meant too. Very please with it.

The Beginning of Mark 7 Modelling!

After years of threatening to take up Vertex modelling in Carrara, I've finally summed up the courage to attack this whole new frontier of of the program. Why am I afraid? The modelling type I'm very familiar with, Spline editing, occupies a mere 35 pages of the Carrara manual, Vertex takes nearly 100 pages! I've spent many years practising with splines, to the point I think I can safely say I'm an expert. So the idea of tackling something I basically suck at, is not thrilling. However it is necessary at this stage of my artistic development.

While I'm far off mastering overall Vertexing, after a day of tinkering I've got a solid grasp on Displacement Modelling (a subset of overall Vertex modelling in Carrara). It is basically a means of painting on or off model surface. While it won't solve all my fine detail needs, it is a perfect way to add veins and flaps.

This is not a final version of of my Corythosaur. However expect something very similar in the final version.

Hadrosaur Revamp

So a quick question to other artists (especially 3Ders). How long is it before you view any piece or model you've created as obsolete and embarrassing? For me it seems to be at max 1 year before my stuff look ridiculous. I guess that is complementary in that I'm constantly improving, but kind of sad in that I'll never be my best. My latest case study... My Mark 3 Corythosaur. I can barely bring myself to post this. Now granted even when I constructed it in 2009 I wasn't fond of it. Now it is just pathetic... It was way overdue for a make over.

Here is the new Mark 5 version. I'm so far quite proud of this one actual.

The moral of the story is one should take the time and sit down to apply their best effort every year or so.

Any feedback?