I started with the big one, the complexity of the armature was a bit too much. And I wanted a more cartoon like figure. So I started the small one. The fun thing is, I forgot what I wanted to make … Yeah, I created an alien, but for what. And my project is called robot …
But it’s also practice, practice. So I keep on going, see where it lands.
I have tremendous problems in bone skin behaviour. Moving arms or legs and the wished mesh behaviour is difficult at least. And I cann’t say weight painting is a very flexible tool. But each evening I make a little progress, undoing and reverting a lot.
This time I added some eyes and did a first test on UV-Mapping.
lot’s to do !
Trying to solve Multires object baking process. I got it finally somewhat working. But the results are not that promissing.
First I got this error message “multires data baking requires multi-resolution object”. This problem went away after I applied Mirror-modifier and Armature. But now I got a half something … It’s getting difficult.
I was making a model these days which I had some problems to bake stuff kinda what you have there.
Turns out when I baked it was not in Rest position. You don’t have to apply the Armature though, put the armature as the first modifier.
Also after you apply the mirror modifier you have to unwrap again, otherwise when you get both Islands on top of each other and in the end one side of the mesh will have flipped normals
Maybe that’s your problem there…
Also make the mesh Smooth Shading otherwise the faces will bake flat shaded on the texture.
Yes, this was also part of my problems. When is the best moment to apply modifiers? And breaking the ability to change the mesh in a maintainable way.
Now I made a backup, applied mirror, wanted to animate the eye lids. But came to the conclusion I needed more vertices, but mirror is gone …
And you are right! if you don’t apply mirror at some point, your UV-Map will create many problems. As you described. So lessons learned .
I added a Multi-Res subdivision modifier. Also introducing problems while NOT applying modifiers. I need this to do some detailed modeling on the alien. Adding small details to hands, feeds, elbows, etc. And baking it, as a normal map.
And I have still discussion with myself, how to texture the alien. I want to try a procedural skin in combination with an image map with transparency.
I must say I find this a difficult process. If you see what people at Disney make, you understand how much work it is to have a character with all kinds of properties. But it’s all a learning process. And I have much more confidence in myself to solve problems. But questioning my self is this the best way to do things.
Currently I do some text runs, to see where problems arise. Before I do an attempt to go for a final configuration.
Yes, it fooled me twice. Blender 2.8 has a different option (button location) to indicate a bitmap as data and not as image. There are still some strange behaviors in Blender, working with armature. Connecting objects (eyes, teeth) doesn’t follow bones sometimes. But renders still as it should be.
So next challenge. What’s an alien without transportation …
I did a test Eevee run. Much much faster then Cycles, but now I remembered why I switched over to Cycles, because of the handling of glass-like objects.
As you can see the glass dome is less visible. The strange pixels (non aliased) of the chair inside the glass dome, the alien eye (also glass). Also the Sky environment modifier is gone …
Also light refraction is gone, which provides lighting from below. Again it’s difficult.
Pete, try using “old school” setup of gloss + transparency with fresnel as factor. Try some Blend modes to see which works best.
Refraction is overrated
Have you tested looking how the glass looks in Lookdev mode? Hdri helps a lot eevee glass
The scene is becoming more interesting ! Keep at it
It’s difficult all those render styles; hard surface, realism, cartoon, simple, low poly… end less combinations. And if you don’t have a real plan … so back to basics. “Less is more” and “Refraction is overrated”
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