#Cartoon Char. Skinning
14 messages in this thread
I downloaded a animation file called SKIN KID some time ago. It has the words
"by Glen" along the bottom. Anyone know who this might be? I've spent
countless hours trying to replicate a talking cartoon head similar to skin kid
and I just don't get it.
When I try to create cross-sections, the lofter insists that I use the same
number of vertices and polygons for each section (imagine that). And of
course, if I try to create each head by using booleans then the skin and morph
features won't work because of a discrepancy in vertices. Can anyone help?
Stephen,
I made the kid a while ago. It was made by lofting a head with the mouth
insides pulled out. I then pushed the inside mouth bit back in (like how a sock
puppet's mouth is pushed in). Then I copied the head and moved Verticies around
till I had the next mouth shape. I continued like this till I had all the mouth
shapes I needed for Lip-Sync.
I hope this makes sense. If not, drop me another line.
Regards.
Glenn Melenhorst Zephyr.
Glen,
Bless you for responding, you may just have saved my sanity 🙂
I'm still unclear though how you lofted the head with the mouth insides pulled
out. Does this mean he looked like he was throwing-up his insides before you
pushed his mouth back in? Also, did you use the deform/fit function to create
the initial head or was it lofted from a stack of cross-sectional objects?
I'm kinda green on using some features of Compuserve. Would it cost you
anything, and would you be willing to upload the .3ds file so I could study it?
My purpose in understanding this is so that I may create a cartoon short
entirely using the computer (3Dstudio, Animator, Director, and Photoshop), and
using this method of head creation is really key to the look I'm after. The
alternative is to map an animation of the expressions and mouth movements. Not
much of an alternative at all.
I admire your inventivness. Thanks again for responding and for sharing your
ideas.
Sincerely
–Steve
Stephen,
PMJI, but you can create the mouth for a head control hull easily. As Glenn
said, just design your mesh where the mouth's contours are mirrored….you
create a hill instead of a valley….or just create enough vertices in that
area, they don't really have to be pulled out from the face's planes. Then just
pull those vertices into mouth shapes for morph targets.
You can construct a more complex head best by creating some vertical
cross-sections to place on an circular path, or perhaps using deform/fit to
generate a path for a stack of horizontal cross-sections. For a less complex
cartoonish head, very coarse cubic geometry can be used for the control
hull….literally a stack of rectangles. Just design-in enough resolution to
form the mouth and coarse features of the head. Only very few vertices are
required for the mesh, making deforming the head very manageable. Then let
Skin.axp do it's thing by producing the smooth & graceful features.
Regards,
BILL
Stephen,
<<I'm still unclear though how you lofted the head with the mouth insides
pulled out. Does this mean he looked like he was throwing-up his insides before
you pushed his mouth back in? Also, did you use the deform/fit function to
create the initial head or was it lofted from a stack of cross-sectional
objects?>>
That's right, You can create a guy throwing up his guts and push them back in,
but now that I think about it, I created the skin kid a little differently. I
Lofted a surface of revolution so I had a vase shape on it's side. I then
pushed and pulled the verticies around till I had a head, with the mouth of the
vase being the kid's mouth. I hope Gary will upload the mesh so you can play
with it. Feel free to use it if you like as a starting point for your work. I
am impressed that you are making a cartoon short. It's something I would love
to do. If I only had the time…. <g>
Regards.
Glenn Zephyr. PS: sorry the reply is late…a lightning strike took out my
modem Boo Hoo!
It'll go up today, Glenn. Thanks!
– G
Thank you, Glen. This is going to be great!
–Steve
Steve, since Glenn has given me his OK, I'll email the skinkid to you and I'll
also upload it to the forum. (I'll have some time to do this late Monday.)
– G
Thank you very much!
–Steve
In addition to what Glenn said, I'd be happy to upload the actual project file
here to the DL's (if that's ok with him). That might help you visualize what
he did better.
Glenn?
– G
If this is okay with Glen, I would love to study how he achieved this look.
Please do upload it.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
–Steve
I'll send Glenn an email asking his permission.
– G
Thank you.
–Steve
just a quick reply if it helps. to HELP guarantee an equal number of vertices
and resultant faces, reset path to default in LOFTER and reset DEFORM/FIT if
you're using it for each cross-section you're using to make a mesh object.
Also, you'll have reset the shape and path steps to however many each time.
p.s. I'm not MIKE BRYANT so don't ask further questions of him. I hope to be a
novice net surfer in the near future and get on to the 3d studio forum. 🙂