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
Shader Ops is like 40% of Carrara shaders for me. LOL
Haven't had a chance to play with Shader Ops much (just the fake fresnel, that was fun). I've figured out the basics of Anything Grows, though.
ANYTHING GROWS IS GREAT!
I'm still working on how exactly I'm going to use it with this project, but so far it looks promising.
I'm going to be working on UV mapping in 3DCoat next, but I'm anxious to get back into Carrara to play with Anything Grows again. I've been growing things on all sorts of things in Carrara. It's too much fun.
I need to calm down.
Model some Camomile with it. Then you can make Camomile tea. That'll calm you down! 
Eyesee (jedi Tea Master - Keep Calm and Drink Tea!)
No! No camomile.
Forget about calming down. I need more plugins...more plugins! 
Sat down last night with 3DCoat to UV map the figure. It turned out great.
The imported figure came in, of course with no map.
I've only hadd experience with UV mapping in Hexagon and Silo. I've not used Carrara's UV mapping function because it's in the modeling room and I'm just not comfotable there. Not bashing Carrara's functions, that particular room just doesn't fit my brain.
For me, Hexagon's UV mapping was very hit or miss. I could never get what I would call a consistently good map from Hexagon. I attribute that to my skill (or lack of) and Hexagon's quirks. I did learn the basics of UV mapping in Hexagon and for that I'm grateful.
Silo's UV mapping is much more consistent and stable than Hexagon's. The maps I've turned out with Silo have been pretty good, although Silo has it's own quirks.
The first time I used 3DCoat, I was floored with how easy and fast it was. I was never a fan of the UV mapping portion of any task, but 3DCoat has changed that. I know I must sound like a commercial for 3dCoat, but I can't help it. If I never learn to do anything else but UV map in 3DCoat, I'll consider it money well spent.
It took 25 minutes from start to finish to UV map my alien. I can only compare it to Hex and Silo, but that's pretty fast far a figure like the one I'm working on. And the map came out very nice.
3DCoat allows you to create new UV sets as well by selecting UV islands and assigning them to a new set. I'm going to move some parts around and create a couple of new UV sets to make texturing/painting easier.
You can't tell from the image, but the checker pattern on the UV mapped figure is very even throughout the model, which means no texture stretching. Yay!
Anyway, one more step done. I'm anxious to get past the texturing part, so I can get back to playing with Anything Grows.
OK, spent some time last night playing with 3DCoat's 3D painting ability. No pictures, sorry.
After I separated the body parts into their own UV sets, I was able to figure out how to paint on selected sets while excluding others. That made painting some of the more convulted body parts very easy. As a matter of fact, I did a lot of the painting right on the UV map in 3DCoat. 3DCoat's paint tools and layers are very similar to Photoshop's (and just about every other paint program out there), so the painting in general was a simple process.
I also like being able to paint bump, diffuse and specular maps all at once.
Since my tests turned out well, I plan to sit down tonight and get busy on the real thing.
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