SKYLAB CHAT

[skylab]

Oh yes, Stezza, absolutely...I really enjoy classic toons, so any models you're willing to share, I'd be interested, and honored to have them! I do have Carrara...is it possible for the models' rigging to work if they are somehow imported into Poser so that they could be animated, or is that not possible? I collected a few classic toons today rigged for Blender...and I think it's okay to play around with them as "fan art"...at least that's how they are classified on Blender sites...non-commercial fan art.

I encourage those who visit this thread to click on Stezza's signature banner and browse through the thread to view all the many models that he's created

 

[skylab]

Stezza, the thing that's holding me back at this point is learning how to connect one body part to another....that is...modeling the head, then pulling the neck into place, and continuing down from there to the body. What I've been doing is modeling each part separately, and then parenting the whole thing together...it sort of works, but rigging is a challenge. If I ever learn how to connect the body parts, I'll be on a speedy slope finally...haha....I can even sculpt fairly well, just haven't yet created a connected figure.

 

[Stezza]

yep, took me a while to get to the stage I'm at..

just keep practising, that's all I have done. Most of the models in that Wacky thread I start off with either a cube or cylinder or sphere or even just a flat plain and then start growing the mesh and pulling and prodding polygons.

as for rigging... Carrara rigging won't work in Poser or DS.. I don't use those programs so don't have any idea on how to go about it.. sorry.. I guess for starters I would export from Carrara in OBJ format then import into Poser and start boning.. Boning in Carrara for me is hard especially the weight painting which is a PITA

TeddyBean is just one mesh except for the button eyes and I started from a simple cylinder.

 

[skylab]

Some Blender toons:

Marvin the Martian

Lightning McQueen

Tow Mater

Plane

Daffy Duck

Duck Trooper

Darth Vader Lego

Trek TNG Lego

Lone Ranger Lego

Numerous other Lego models

 

[skylab]

Yes, I've seen a tutorial on modeling a simple fish that I thought might be "maturity appropriate" for my modeling and rigging skills, without being overwhelming. Once I get the basic shape down, I could use Argile to sculpt some personality in the face.

Cute bear...it would be so neat to be able to do that. And it's true...we reach a plateau in our skills before going to the next level, and during that time we gather information to help progress to the next plateau. I'm at the point where my head's full of information, and the initiative is there, so any time now it could happen...haha.

I was wondering about the rigging crossing over....but the models could be exported out to .obj like you mentioned, and then rigged for Poser. So you don't have Poser at all? If you ever want to learn it, I can help with that...have successfully taught the basics to several people. Ease of animating is probably one of Poser's strengths, and I'd really like to see those features developed more.

 

[skylab]

I have an alert that says you attached a file to the teddy bear post, but I don't "see" it....hmmm, usually I can see .zip files....maybe it doesn't show .car files?

 

[Stezza]

The road runner I modelled I started with a low poly sphere and worked from there .. using smoothing and soft body selections as well as extruding to add more polygons..
this one didn't take me long at all to model.

 

[Stezza]

I have an alert that says you attached a file to the teddy bear post, but I don't "see" it....hmmm, usually I can see .zip files....maybe it doesn't show .car files?

nope .. just the image

 

[skylab]

Wow...that's really well done. I know one wonderful plus of Carrara is its quad modeling, which is Poser friendly. So....I'm looking to polish my "extruding" skills. In the Blender tutorial, they were saying to join two cubes together as the first step...and I was thinking...why not just start with a scaled, elongated shape (to do a toon fish). But in the case of the road runner above, you really have to extrude and model the whole thing, there are not many shortcuts to take...which is why it takes more skill to be able to do that. Do you use any kind of reference photos in the Carrara program when you begin modeling, or are you just roughing it out, like one would model clay?

 

[Stezza]

same with Sam

a low poly sphere to start then pulling and extruding to get the shape I need... when you get the idea of what you want it doesn't take long to rough model it then you can spend as much time as you like with details.

 

[skylab]

Okay...just wanted to make sure that I didn't fail to be on the receiving end. I've done .zips, and PDF's and .doc files before, but that's about it.

 

[skylab]

Do you find that it makes a difference if a model is low poly or a denser mesh when it comes to rigging? What causes the mesh to "break apart" under the arm pits when testing the rigging? I read something in the Poser 8 Revealed book about welding the mesh, and also something about fall off. Is it less of a problem with a higher poly model?

 

[Stezza]

yep.. always when possible I use reference images...

in Carrara I start with low poly then increase when I bone it.. adding edge loops if I remember to the joints which helps in posing.. Like I said before though I hate weight painting it is a real PITA.. dunno about DS or Poser ( both of which I have and only use as a plugin for Carrara )

I'll post Snoopy and Road Runner in a zip file in my Wacky thread over yonder for you.. help yourself to experiment and educate with

 

[skylab]

Oh wonderful...a Snoopy!! And I love anything Warner Brothers. I used to enjoy those cartoons when young, and the old Bullwinkle show, with the "Fractured Fairy Tales"...they always had rather sophisticated humor for kids, but then things weren't "dumbed down" back then. I think Anteater and Aardvark (had the Jewish accent) were part of that show...haha.

 

[skylab]

Thanks! I've logged in over on your thread and just downloaded the files. Will try loading them into Carrara in a little bit

 

[Stezza]

I did a very low poly Bullwinkle as well lol... and a Rocky

 

[Stezza]

Thanks! I've logged in over on your thread and just downloaded the files. Will try loading them into Carrara in a little bit

my pleasure

 

[skylab]

Oh my goodness...there's Bullwinkle! Nothing up his sleeve...watch him pull a rabbit out of the hat...haha...and out comes the Hivewire Lion

 

[skylab]

Snoopy is in Carrara, and has just been exported as an .obj, .fbx, and .3ds formats. So now we'll see what happens when he is imported into Poser 11.

 

[skylab]

And now he's in Poser 11 Now I'll try some rough rigging just to test the mesh.