Greeting, 3d-world stranger. In this humble place I'll share some of my works, thoughts, hopes and achievements.
Feel free to share your thoughts as well. I really like to read some valuable feedback and critical comments.
It’s looking great. The nice thing about retopology on sea creatures is that you are working mostly with cylinder cross sections. I would probably recommend to keep the number of verts within a division of 4 around a cross section, that should help if you need to join perpendicular cylinder sections like the fins to the body.
Thanks, blanchsb I'll keep that in mind.
Right between "just keep on retopologyzin, it's gonna end eventually" and "should I use particals for these shells or arrange them by hand")
Ah yes, the joys of retopology - definitely not one of my favourite tasks either.
That's a great tip blanchsb I'm also going to keep that one in my mind!
Depending on how clean retopology you want Michael, have you considered Quad remesher? Admittedly, t's not that cheap for an indie license but I do find myself using this add-on quite often if I just want a quick all quad remesh. I think they do a 1 month trial version if you wanted to give it a blast.
thanks beefkeef for the tip)
I've heard about the Quad, yes, and consider that tool as a great opportunity to save a lot of time, but - in my opinion - you should first master the skill and only then stop using it. It's a tedious path, I know, but it's fair. This way you can really say that you are the modeler / sculptor / 3D artist / know what you are doing and do not depend on anything.
But again, this is my approach, perhaps it only suits such boring persons like me)
Generally speaking, I want to make as many as eight characters after that whale. Four archetypes (slim/fit/bulky/obese) for male/female bodies. And I'm going to start with the same old routine: sculpting / retopo / textures, etc. As soon as the retopology reaches full automatism and I stop thinking where and what is better to do/joint/merge -- I'll probably buy that Quad right away.
And I can't wait for it tbh cause retopo makes me wanna puke.
Step 3: Retopo
Thanks to the audiobooks its done. Maybe I've even cut off a few verts here and there. Can you tell the difference between the sculpted versus the modeled?
Now to the sweetest part -- texturing!
@drgnclw thanks a lot!
But I think I messed it up a little. That tail feels really curly. Way too curly actually for the initial shape.
I will definitely regret it when rig time comes)
Oh, I actually didn't see that last one. Yeah, that curve might cause some headache. Good luck with it :D
Texturing is done and here is the result (cycles):
Gonna use this for the rigging:
Don't think that rigging is the most exiting part of the process so I'll skip that step and -- hopefully -- the next post will be the last one for that model.
Looking good! My wife is really into whales. I've been showing her some of these and she also thinks they're cool. Keep it up!
jammingammon thanks!
If you will be able or going to visit Moscow next year maybe you should visit 2022 Diving show exhibition. There will be lots of whales, some of my works too)
Looking great Michael, I'm loving all the detail you've got in the skin texture 👍
Friends, do you have any really REALLY effective denoising tips? That grain is killing me.
Hi Michael, are you using the denoise node in the compositor?
I find that one works much better than just enabling denoise in the render settings.
beefkeef no, I do not use the compositor at all. Maybe I underestimate it)
That;s a ruff render above. I am just trying to render a few mp4 scenes. So I wonder how is it possible to get the best / noiseless cycles rendered video files out of Blender.
Ofc I could render these scenes frame by frame and use the compositor that way. Maybe I should consider that. But it takes around 20 minute per frame in 4K and all the juice. 8 hours per second -- that's a bit longer than I've expected.
Anyway, thanks, Keith.
Ok, here is the final render of my whale. It is rigged and the animation is underway but I am not sure how long will it take to make it pretty and adorable. Plus I really want to start another one already)
So big thanks for all your comments, hope you like the result. Let's do another one!
Looks great Michael, you've really captured the majestic look of these beautiful creatures. I'm looking forward to seeing the animation! 👍
beefkeef here is a glimpse of it (or rather a test one). Sadly, I need a really good upgrade to present that model the way I'd like it to be.
But at least I like these particles so far.
And it is really great to struggle and find some "corners". Like these fins for the instance. The skeletal structure of the wale puts fin bones really close to eye sockets. So I have to keep that in mind when I rig that mesh if I don't want these eyes floating around the body. And so on)
