Here we go again. 
By popular demand (actually Holly demanded it) I'm going to start a WIP thread for my newest 3D project. I started talking about this project over in the Carrara and 3D forum, but now I'm moving it over here.
This is the final alien character I have to recreate for the New Worlds Project. I've been doing some work for them for the past year, and I've saved the best (most difficult) for last. This will be my third attempt at getting this character right.
When I started working with the New Worlds Project, I was by no means a figure creator. I'd never modelled anything more than clothes for the various characters I'd created for use in Carrara and Poser. The last two New Worlds aliens I worked on required me to become a figure modeller no matter what. This last figure is proving to be the most complicated of all, at least for me.
I anticipate some difficulty when it comes to rigging. You'll see why as the project progresses. I know very little about rigging beyond basic human biped figures. This figure is going to be bipedal but not very human. I'm going to be rigging in Poser because, while rigging in Carrara is simple and easy, weight mapping, in my experience, is not. And since I also anticipate using the figure in both Poser and Carrara, I'm going the Poser rigging route.
I'm modeling the figure in Silo. I switched to Silo from Hexagon. I loved Hexagon, but I had issues with it which are never going to be fixed, so after a bit of research I decided on Silo. I find Silo extremely easy to navigate and very robust and stable.
I will be using 3D Coat for UV mapping and perhaps some 3D painting. I used 3D Coat to UV map my last creation for New Worlds. It was the most fun and trouble free UV mapping I've ever done.
Carrara is going to be the final program I will use in this project. I like Carrara's ease of use. It's just plain fast. I'm also much more familiar with Carrara's shader system, and I like the results I get with it. I also like to render in Carrara. I can get superior results in Poser also, but Carrara, once again, is just fast with much less hassle.
That's the background. Comments are welcome and appreciated. As soon as I can figure out how to add images to my posts, I'll get started
Like I said, I'm modeling in Silo. New Worlds supplied me with a few reference images of plants, but the rest was up to me. I decided to go for a biped with the most sensitive parts (brain and whatever other life giving organs the creature needed to survive) protected in a sort of shell like covering.
This is the beginning shape.
Holy cow! It worked. I'm using the Opera web browser, since Firefox and Palemoon don't seem to agree with the 'Attach file' button.
I made a few refinements to the beginning shape.
I wanted to take the rough model into 3DCoat and convert it to voxels for sculpting. That didn't work so well. My skill with my new software is lacking in the sculpting department. I think I will eventually be able to do it, but I don't have the time now to stop and come to grips with sculpting. I need to finish this project.
Since the sculpting idea didn't work, I brought the model back into Silo. Silo is a great little modeller. I've really been able to expand my modeling abilities since using Silo. Like I said before, Hexagon is how I learned to model, but it just wasn't working well for me. So far, Silo has worked almost flawlessly.
Here's the next step for my plant man.
Next, I started working on the arm area. This figure is supposed to be able to use its plant like parts in a variety of tasks, so I thought it would be a good idea to create a variety (small) of arm/tentacle type things to accomplish this.
I added what I hope to be very flexible and multi use arms with something like fingers on the ends.
I know this all might cause me a great deal of grief when it comes time to rig in Poser, but the long arms and tentacle like structures just seem right for the figure. If I can't work the rigging in Poser, I am going to experiment with the Pose tool in 3DCoat. If that works, I can always pose the figure for action shots in 3Dcoat and export the posed .obj to Carrara. We'll see what happens.
Here's my plant alien with his new pair of very flexible arms.
Next, I began work on the legs. I used Silo's topography tool to add some geometry for vine like structures starting at the feet. I extruded some of the existing geometry to meet the new geometry somewhere in the middle of the leg.
I decided against extruding all the way down the leg because the farther out you draw the extruded geometry the more distorted it becomes. Using the topography tool along with extrusion worked very well. I connected both bits of geometry with a bridge.
I modeled the vines for both legs without using symetry to give the vines a more natural (for an alien plant creature) look. With both legs done, the arms were next.
Here's a view of the completed look for the legs.
Next, came the arms. I used extrusion for the arms, stopping at what would be about mid forearm. At this point the extrusions began to get a bit contorted, so I stopped there and connected the extrusions back to the main geometry with a bridge.
I did the left arm much the same as the right. With both arms complete I could move on to filling the central cavity with the guts of the thing (so to speak).
You are not permitted to reply on this forum.
Saving...