How to?

[Hannawolf]

Hello all! Brand new to the forums, but I have quite a bit of gear between here and the actual Daz site. I have a project that I've been bandying about but I don't really have a clue where to start, to be honest, and I'm looking for tips, suggestions, etc. I apologize in advance if this isn't the right forum.

I roleplay at a site, and all the characters are werewolves, but they're not your typical werewolves, and none of the existing werewolf models quite fit the bill. I started playing with making a new one for personal use to (attempt) to draw characters, but I kind of want to get to the point where I can just make 3d models for people, with their horses or whatever, to use as references.

I've played with Sculptris but I've not done much in it, and I have not the first clue about rigging or anything else, so ANY advice is welcome.

To give an idea of what I'm going to be trying for, one of my characters, albeit not an upright pose: http://i.imgur.com/v3UkDTY.png I can't find any nakey pictures of my boy charrie that I actually intended to model first, because I suck at keeping my pictures organized, but I'll add that in. This character's based on a rough collie; he's a wolf, but the shape is essentially the same.

 

[Hannawolf]

More characters to be shown, to give an idea of range. I absolutely <3 this artist's rendering of the werewolves. This was meant to be an edit but I took too long.
(c) San: http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/904/lRXU4S.jpg
(c) Lorraine, San: http://i.imgur.com/7Lkq6f2.png
(c) San: http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img538/4994/3qUeSG.png
Annnnd a boy. I need a boy. *searches thread for boy*
(c) Mel, San: http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img633/390/HIkyzA.png
(c) San: http://i.imgur.com/owfQExN.png

 

[Alisa]

Hi, Hanna

First, welcome to HiveWire!!

If I understand correctly, you're wanting some input in creating figures like the ones you show, correct? I moved this thread to the 3D Content Development forum. If I've misunderstood what you're after, one of our Community Volunteers or I can move it to another forum where you're most likely to get help

 

[Hannawolf]

Thank you! And yup! You've got it right, I'd love to figure out how to model figures like those from the ground up. Thank you!

 

[Alisa]

You're welcome

 

[Miss B]

Welcome to the HiveWire forums Hanna. Unfortunately, I'm not into "character" creation, so can't be of much help, but I'm sure there are several folks here who can, and would be willing to, offer you some help.

 

[Pendraia]

Welcome to the Hive Hanna! Great images...you probably wouldn't need to know rigging if you're doing a morph using either Genesis or the Hivewire characters as a base but you would need a firm grasp of a modelling program to do something that complex. I've done simple morphs but nothing as complex as those images...so I'm going to advise start small...maybe start by seeing how you go with setting up the ears for example and setting goals for yourself.

Something like:
1. Work on ears
2. Work on Nose/mouth area
3. Work on paws

If you do them separately and import them as individual morphs it will give you more flexibility. For example you might use the legs with all the characters but you might have a choice of two or three ear morphs. Looking at those pictures there are different shapes. Also the nose is more exaggerated on some images than others. You might want to start with one that is less extreme as it would be easier to do and then you can build the more extreme one of the first one. Hope this makes sense please ask if there's something where it doesn't...

Also if you're doing this for personal use you could check if there is a no ear morph and dial that out before sending the character to a modeling program as this would make it less work for you.

 

[Hannawolf]

Thanks Miss B, and Pen! Using Dusk/Dawn would make things a lot easier, because the thought of building one from scratch was daunting. I was thinking about using Dusk to start with, and modeling my main character. Legs are pretty similar across the board, so you're right in that they can probably be used across the board. How are morphs designed and incorporated though? If I eventually did start making these for people I might want ears folded back against the head, for example, or a growly muzzle.

I feel relatively confident -making- the nose/mouth area except for if I have to make each individual bit and stick them together, like Chris made for the new big cat model (upper teeth, lower teeth, etc), the rest of it I'm a little less sure on but I've tried doing it before. Morphing Dusk/Dawn is far easier than what I was going to do. I was going to attempt to model a wolf's skull and then filling out on top of that.

 

[Pendraia]

Are you using DS? If so it's a case of using Morph loader...depending on if you're using Sculptris or something else would depend on how you do it. I use the bridge from Zbrush.

I would find the mouth area quite daunting as to do it properly you would need to reshape the teeth and tongue area also...thinking about it some more just in terms of ease to create I would think ears, then paws then mouth area...

 

[NG Artplay]

There is a figure very similar to that female image you shared already on the market. It's an older item though and is a morph of Aiko 3. I'll link to it anway so you can see it. There were a lot of add-ons made for it too.

Morphing an existing figure might be more doable for you if you don't know how to model. Just a suggestion. Hope it helps.

Furries Bundle

This will go on sale after it's moved to Daz 3D but no one knows when that will happen.

EDIT - it does require this set to work:
Melody and Micah Bundle

 

[Ken1171]

I think Sixus1 has an entire collection of creatures, to include werewolves. Maybe you don't need to create a new one after all. ^^

 

[Pendraia]

His more recent figures don't work in DS so it will depend on wht program they use...

Great thought NG! I had forgotten about Micah and Melody...

 

[Hannawolf]

I do use DS, yeah. I'll check out those other figures though, that may indeed be an option! After looking, the only issue is that they aren't digitigrade, and our characters are. I don't know how easy they'd be to make digitigrade, but I can maybe play with them next time I can afford them.