Modeling with Blender

DarkHououmon · **on:** July 06, 2012, 12:37:57 PM

Lately I've been learning how to use Blender via video tutorials. I haven't finished them yet, but I decided to try to model an alimon. Here's what I have so far:

It's going to be a challenge to get the legs in and the jaws right. I can't imagine how hard the teeth part will be.

Kor · **Reply #1 on:** July 06, 2012, 05:45:56 PM

Looks good so far, though I'm no expert. Don't try to much at once. Hopefully there are places where you can get tips from someone, or more then 1 person. That may help.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #2 on:** July 06, 2012, 08:11:55 PM

This was done after I watched some video tutorials from a free online Blender course.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #3 on:** July 07, 2012, 07:55:39 PM

An update.

Kor · **Reply #4 on:** July 07, 2012, 10:08:32 PM

Looks smoother and an improvement. Congratulations.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #5 on:** July 08, 2012, 10:37:31 AM

Thank you.

I need to figure out a way to effectively connect the legs to the body. At the moment I just moved them in close enough to "sink" into the body.

Mumbling · **Reply #6 on:** July 08, 2012, 12:14:33 PM

You've got more patience than I do, DH! After watching several video tutorials I was so tired of all the information I gave up on it already. The model is looking great!

What do you want to do with these models?

DarkHououmon · **Reply #7 on:** July 08, 2012, 12:32:41 PM

Thank you!

And I'm not sure yet. One thing I may do is do some animations with it.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #8 on:** July 08, 2012, 06:22:42 PM

I made some minor changes to the neck and leg. I also adjusted the jaw a little, made the shapes for the nose, created two fleshy "pallets" or whatever they're called to make up the inside of the mouth, added in some teeth.

Littlefoot Fan · **Reply #9 on:** July 08, 2012, 08:25:03 PM

That's really good! I've taken a few classes on 3DS max and let me tell you 3D modeling is no joke, it requires a ton of patience and extremely diligent work. It's definitely not for just anyone, and I find it quite amazing how you were able to take the time to learn the program through only online tutorials. Keep up the great work!

Pangaea · **Reply #10 on:** July 09, 2012, 04:21:28 AM

Wow, Kacie, that's amazing!

If Iris said she didn't have the patience for 3D computer modeling, then there's no way in heck I'd be able to do it,

: so I have a lot of respect for your skills here.

The legs and feet look really good, and the detail on the head and neck is fantastic! I wish you luck with the teeth; do you think you'll eventually be able to make them look more like the teeth in the drawing?

Quote from: DarkHououmon,Jul 8 2012 on 05:22 PM

…created two fleshy "pallets" or whatever they're called to make up the inside of the mouth…

I think "palates" is the word you're looking for. That's the term for the bony roof of the mouth, anyway; I don't know the technical term for the "floor" of the lower jaw. But we know what you mean.

If you don't mind me positing some constructive criticism, do you think the front of the muzzle is a little flat? Obviously the alimons are your own creation and you can model them as you wish, but all theropods that I know of have skulls that, when seen from above, taper to a point at the end of the snout. (As far as I know, this was so they could more precisely pick and scrape scraps of meat from a carcass after the majority of the flesh had been removed.) My interpretation of your alimon designs is that they're intended to be more realistic than the designs of LBT's dinosaurs, so I thought this might be relevant. In my opinion, the thighs should be broader, too, especially at the top. If it helps, by the way, I read recently that dinosaurs were probably a lot fleshier than they are usually illustrated, and that much of the leg above the knee would have been encased in the body wall. (I found some pictures of a plucked ostrich carcass that shows how this might have looked, but they're a little gruesome so I wasn't sure about posting the link here. Let me know if you'd like me to give it to you.) The knees of your alimons are positioned lower down than an ostrich's or a real dinosaur's, but the point still stands that you could probably get away with burying most of the alimon's upper leg in the torso if it would make it easier to model the leg-body connection without it looking awkward.

Sorry, I hope none of my critique offended you.

Keep up the great work!

DarkHououmon · **Reply #11 on:** July 09, 2012, 08:40:22 AM

At the moment, since I don't know how to connect the leg to the body, moving it further in makes the thigh disappear and it looks like the leg just jets out of the body, not exactly realistic, which is why I have them positioned as is. I do plan on making the legs a little bigger, especially the back legs which I think are a little too small.

Calf is a little too thick I noticed. Not sure if I'll modify the position of the knee, though. It looks fine to me. Moving it higher would look too strange to me. I also looked at some skeletal reconstructions of dinosaurs by Gregory Paul and the position of the alimon knee appears to be typical. Some of them even to appear to have their knee positioned lower than an alimon's.

As for the head, not entirely sure what you mean by tapers off. Care to show an example of what you mean?

I did try to give a groove to the alimon's head, but I'm not 100% used to Blender's controls and I wasn't able to achieve it the way I wanted it. I do sometimes make adjustments to the head shape, and I may do more. The lower jaw definitely needs some work for instance.

I did finish the teeth. I'm not able to make the front part of the jaw look "toothy" enough because then the inside of the mouth would look weird if you were to see it. I have attempted to make adjustments but that's the best I can make it look.

All in all, I'm not expecting this to be perfect. It's my first model and it's more of a learning experience. Not sure what I'll model after this. Maybe I'll try my luck on an actual dinosaur species.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #12 on:** July 09, 2012, 04:47:53 PM

I finished the teeth, added in the tongue, made the thighs bigger and a little wider, cloned and modified another back leg so now there's 4 instead of just 3, and a few other modifications.

I pulled the legs out from the body for further modification. I have not yet figured out how to attach them without it looking weird.

I also took a screenshot from this position so I can show the unusual mark that appears on the right side of the model. See those dark lines? I don't know what's causing them. I don't know what I can do to get rid of them. Nothing in the wireframe seems to show anything unusual.

Pangaea · **Reply #13 on:** July 11, 2012, 01:34:53 AM

Quote from: DarkHououmon,Jul 9 2012 on 07:40 AM

Calf is a little too thick I noticed. Not sure if I'll modify the position of the knee, though. It looks fine to me. Moving it higher would look too strange to me. I also looked at some skeletal reconstructions of dinosaurs by Gregory Paul and the position of the alimon knee appears to be typical. Some of them even to appear to have their knee positioned lower than an alimon's.

Oh, maybe you're right about the position of the knee. Sorry, my mistake.

(Dang it, have I really gotten this rusty with dinosaur anatomy? :blink:

) And the legs do look better in the updated model.

(Maybe it's just the angle, but the teeth look better as well.)

Quote

As for the head, not entirely sure what you mean by tapers off. Care to show an example of what you mean?

Sorry, maybe "tapered" wasn't the best word to use. It's kind of difficult to describe, and it's easiest to see when looking at a skull from the top. What I mean is that theropod snouts usually become narrower at the tip, regardless of how deep they are. I found an image showing a number of ceratosaur skulls of various genera that I think demonstrates this fairly well. Compare the snout tips of the skulls to the muzzle of your alimon in top view:

From above, the alimon's snout appears squared off, while the ceratosaur skulls are all pointed or rounded out (to varying degrees). In all of the latter cases, the skull is narrower at the tip than it is farther back; that's what I meant by "tapering". I found some pictures of Acrocanthosaurus, Velociraptor, and Tyrannosaurus that further illustrate this feature. The drawings I've seen of your alimons seem to show more realistically rounded muzzles, so I'm guessing that this particular detail has more to do with the fact that you are still in the process of learning how to make an accurate 3D model of a 2D character drawing, than any sort of error in anatomical accuracy on your part. In other words, this is probably something you'll eventually work out as you become more experienced with the modeling software. Considering that I know absolutely nothing about 3D character modeling, it occurs to me now that mostóif not allóof my suggestions regarding this particular medium would not be particularly useful beyond simply drawing attention to possible areas of improvement.

Sorry for any confusion. Good luck on your continued work with the modeling software.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #14 on:** July 11, 2012, 07:49:02 AM

I looked and the only thing that appears to be a rectangular shape is the palate that I inserted in there to attach the teeth to. It was hard enough just to get it shaped to look good in there; not sure if I could make further modifications.

The shape of the muzzle comes from my drawing style; I tend to make the front end of the mouths a little big and then have it narrow in the middle. I don't think I'll be making further modifications to the mouth because the teeth were a pain to get right. I could try making all the objects the same so I can just box select the end, but that would have to wait until the end.

Plus Blender slows waaaaayyy down when I make all the objects the same. :blink:

I would post a new picture of my progress but there isn't too much. Mainly the changes I did were adding the "fleshy corners" in the mouth and added eyelids (the eyes are closed now). I am trying to figure out an effective way to attach the limbs to the body without it looking strange.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #15 on:** July 15, 2012, 12:29:58 PM

Here's an update on my progress.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a way to connect the legs to the body without the indention showing. So for now I'll live that be and call this model finished. Well except for the coloring. Yes there's some mistakes, such as the back legs are slightly longer, and there's some asymmetry going on. But at least creating this model has given me experience.

Not sure yet what I'll model after this, to be honest.

Mumbling · **Reply #16 on:** July 15, 2012, 03:01:54 PM

This is very good for a first model! Wish we had you for our LBT game project back in the days..

DarkHououmon · **Reply #17 on:** July 15, 2012, 04:49:25 PM

I wish I had found that Blender tutorial thing back then to help me out. I had wanted to contribute models to the game. It's much too late for that now since Action9000 closed the project, unless there's a chance that someone else picks it up and continues it.

TJSoundSource · **Reply #18 on:** July 15, 2012, 06:52:50 PM

Action9000 here.
If anyone wants the 17000 lines of client code + ~1000 lines of server code, I still have it laying around. If anyone finds someone crazy enough to fight with it, it's all theirs. It's probably easier for someone to just start a new project than to try to figure out my mish-mosh of code, though.

Mumbling · **Reply #19 on:** July 16, 2012, 05:06:18 AM

I would know how to work with it but I'm not going to revive it, sorry.