RELEASED Hivewire Big Cat Has Begun!

[NapalmArsenal]

Oooh KEWL!! ........ I'm waiting in anticipation!!

Exceptional work Chris!! Thanks for taking Sparky's suggestions!!

 

[Lianam]

Thanks all! Huh- this piece is in my Rendo gallery and was in my gallery at the old ArtZone. But yeah that was a long time ago now I guess

I will say I am expecting much better and bigger things from our HW Big Cat. Both Daz Big Cats frustrate me to no end. When I mean postwork, I mean I pretty much painted over his entire head, shoulders and chest and I think this piece took me about a month to do- here is one of the original raw renders for this piece,most likely done in Bryce- I did a lot of work in Bryce back then. (Bryce was my "raison d'etre" into the 3d world 2006 was a big year for me as that was the year I finally got a Wacom Intuos tablet. How did I ever survive without one for so many years I'll never understand

Laurie

View attachment 754

Wow! Wha ta difference! Good thing I have not bought the 'other' big cats yet. LOL

 

[Lianam]

Exactly ladies. So for on the UV map on the left side of the screen grab that I've shown, that is one piece now. But I started with 19 pieces to come up with that. I cut the map into many smaller pieces first along planes of the object. Then I lay them out and stitch them carefully back together and massage as I go.

Probably something similar to what you all do.

I'm planning for the Kitty results to look similar to what I did for Harry.

View attachment 4658

But I'll planning to angle out the legs like a leopard skin rug instead of straight out to the sides like I did on Harry's UVs. I think this will work better for Laurie. I recall that Lyne prefers them this way also.

Here is a better picture of what I still have to work with to finish the current UV project. Sections around the single primary piece still needed to be scaled and pieced into the single UV layout that I'm trying to create. Then I'll mirror over the object and UVs to end up with a single UV skin for the body anyway. Then I'll scale it all down to fit on the UV canvas.

View attachment 4659

Holy cats! It's not a wonder I find uv mapping the hardest part about my modeling. I thought maybe it was me being a greenhorn and too fussy, because I have this idea in my mind how it should be to texture. I don't feel so bad now. LOL

 

[Chris]

Busy day today. Paul and I visited an animal museum to take a bunch of photos for maps for current and future projects.

Tomorrow morning we're visiting a good friend of mine that has a full mount Leopard that we're taking pictures of for high res maps for Laurie. He also has a full mount of a Cougar and Bobcat that we'll take photos of next week. Gonna be sweet!!!

Here's tonight's offering. All the pieces are on this layer now that are meant to be on there. Still will stretch out the paws, but will have to do that tomorrow now. Second layer with have the eyeballs.

 

[Rae134]

Sounds exciting Chris!

 

[Pendraia]

Looks great Chris...

 

[Szark]

coming along nicely there Chris and great dialogue about ear uvmap sizing.

 

[Lianam]

Kitty looks great. I marvel at your work.

 

[Lyne]

ohhhh awwww... sniffle... I'm GLAD that Laurie will have real fur(s) to do her maps with... but VERY sad hearing about any big cat being a "wall mount"... just sayin.

 

[CWRW]

ohhhh awwww... sniffle... I'm GLAD that Laurie will have real fur(s) to do her maps with... but VERY sad hearing about any big cat being a "wall mount"... just sayin.

Yeah I feel the same way... was going to go to the Denver Zoo next week but this will give me LOT better images to work with. Which will make for better textures for our guy but I do feel sorry for the poor leopard!

 

[RAMWolff]

Yea, hate that man decided to do that to an animal that has been hunted and then stuffed. GROSS but for the sake of really good maps I guess there is something useful about it....

 

[Sparky]

Wow, I'd love to be able to photograph some full mounts for texture resources...and to have a camera that is capable of taking quality photos of those mounts, lol.

The uvs are looking great, Chris! Looking forward to seeing them complete. ^.^

 

[Chris]

Here it is with adjusted paws. Just need to set material groups, and provide a master copy that is labeled for Laurie.

 

[Miss B]

Damn Chris, that's an amazing piece of work. I'm sooooo jealous, as I wouldn't know where to begin with a UV map like that. Then again, I wouldn't even attempt to model anything like a big game cat. I'll leave that to you sir, as you're the genius in that department.

 

[Pendraia]

Lovely map work Chris! I've never mapped anything that complex but I do understand the process a little bit.

 

[Sparky]

Schweet.

 

[Ghostman]

Really nice work Chris.

 

[Lyne]

Friend told me about this TV show on national geo...
Rise of the Big Cats

gorgeous pictures ... and hey! The cheetah came from America!! whoa!!

 

[Miss B]

I didn't know that either Lyne. I never would've imagined a big game cat here except in a zoo. Then again they were probably here back when we weren't living in such large cities like we are today, and a good portion of the continent wasn't even settled at all.

 

[Rae134]

They are also the only cats that don't have retractable claws, so if you're doing a cheetah render remember to have the claws out