The Resurrectionist, Take Two
patience55
Posts: 7,006
As some may recall sometime back I took a stab at a modeling tut type of thread in here using the book "The Resurrectionist" by E.B. Hudspeth. Aside from getting somewhat overwhelmed by the task, a few things happened along the way which is why I ceased posting to it for the time. Mainly because in researching for some more ideas and/or pics, I made the discovery of the horrible fact that there do exist some folk actually doing such horrendous things to very real animals and people. Obviously the memory of the global flood days has grown dim to some, DO NOT DO THAT. Fantasy is one thing, not to be confused with reality, 'k folk. Big Wall ;-)
It is possible to purchase and/or kitbash together most if not all of the figures using products available at Daz3d ... [or of course some of the other places wherein they might also be free, such as Turbosquid - there's often a skeleton or 2 over there].
However we like to model and make stuff ourselves too so if there is still any interest I may start this over again.
Any interest?
And PLEASE, if/when anybody has a better idea on how to model something, feel free to say so! I'm neither a professional nor an expert. ty.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Lots of views, no replies so, okay ... no more tuts.
fact is anything horrible you can think about or someone has wrote about is most likely being done by somebody.
Not sure what you want people to comment on, not read the book
Oh, whether or not they were interested for me to continue with the modeling tut project in here.
It's a very interesting book [lost the thread long time back ... buried somewhere in this forum] wherein one has people with wings, dogs with many heads, flying horses, some slinky things ... you know ... all those nifty characters for hiding in dark places ;-)
Hi Patience :)
I've not read the book, nor seen your previous attempts. Any tut that shows folks new techniques is welcome, so I say go for it!
Also, remember, it's a busy time of year with the coming holidays and work and families, etc. You can't always judge a day without replies as a lack of interest. I think most people would welcome tutorials of any kind.
Okay ... I'll put it back on the burner and see what happens.
A Google image search is here for those who missed the book HOWEVER if modeling seriously, like, please buy the book.
[and carefully about clicking on images from image searches, it's a different approach to websites and some are attack sites. It is better to copy the link, sort through it to find the real website and approach via the front door - checking with WOT or something of course as one would usually do for web-surfing].
I have the book and permission to post something of the images for purposes of the tutorials, so not to be overly concerned about idea-pictures.
The approach taken in this book is a little different than some readers may be used to ... it is really a book of fiction. Made somewhat to appear as a book of fact. For those into serious modeling, it is of interest in that the author has some excellent drawings of muscle structures as well as the skeletons.
The main programs I'll be using are Hexagon and D/S4.6.
First up will probably be "The Egg" ...
It is interesting and the anatomical drawings are convincing. I know its fiction, but the idea of a 6 limbed vertebrate is still fascinating. I've heard the suggestion that dragons might be more than mythology, but I have always dismissed that as a biological impossibility. I'd be more inclined to believe fire breathing had evolved as a trait than another pair of limbs in a single vertebrate species.
There's a series of books that began with Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials that has a similar approach.
Ah yes, now I remember...:)
I have always held that mermaids should have dolphin flukes and not fish tails because they are air-breathing and an up-down instead of side-side swimming stroke would be more appropriate to their half-human shape!
In fact, 4 years ago, when I still had ambitions of being an animator, I did this video. At 20 mins per frame, it took about a month, rendering overnight, to get it done ! That took care of that ambition :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0iIn5Etk0A
I'm far too practical to be an artist :)
Maybe it would be helpful, if we can get a link to the former thread with the old tutorials. This will help the ones here, who have no idea, what you'e talking about, like me. I didn't knew the book before the last five minutes, but what i see looks very interesting. YES! I would like to see more tuts.
Mod, this can be deleted, ty.
Mod, this post too could be deleted, ty.
I have already looked for it ... seems to be very illusive which may be just as well.
Okay ... Part One: The Egg.
After spending a day with a sphere and various ways of adjusting the mesh to accommodate this program and that, decided it was time for an executive decision. Narrow beam to model for "one" program. To get a nice egg in D/S, use the Sculptie Sphere. The image of the egg goes on the back grid in Hexagon as a reference image. Toggle transparency on and have faces or lines selected [so it is transparent] and reposition the sphere to the image. Then resize, reshape it accordingly. I find it helpful to have it half way through the grid image. The manipulator, sometimes at 'world', sometimes at 'selection' ... whichever angle gets the most helpful position.
Then the sphere is re-centered to zero EXCEPT to pull it up to the floor. D/S will place the manipulator at the bottom of the .obj irregardless of whether the .obj lands on the floor or half-way through it. Apply a Shading domain and match the material's name to it. Test export.
Wash .obj. Test next export. Remake uvmap. Test export. Make prop. KEEP .obj file for Part Two :-)
The rest of the pics for Part One.
Thank you. That's look like a good start.
You're welcome.
Today I've uploaded a basic brief tutorial on the topic of uvmapping a cube. Nothing to do with beasties, but useful stuff.
DA Link
edit to add texture image.
Genuine eggshell colour ;-)
Part Two is in the editing basket ... we break the egg in half!
Part Two: Splitting the Egg, Thickening the Egg without loosing the uvmap, Splitting that Egg.
In modeling in Hexagon, one does have to keep in mind the program in which they intend the item to be used.
Not all 3D programs read the same file, the same way.
Legacy rigging for non-clothing items is a breeze in D/S4.6. One can still use the old fashioned grouping methods which I've used in this tutorial so far.
Rigging for clothing requires no groups in Hexagon, just one solid mesh.
Triax rigging also requires some work on the .obj file IN D/S before trying to rig it in the Figure Setup Tab.
You realize of course that in following these tutorials, we expect to see a zillion free eggs being offered this spring!!!
There could be split-apart counting toys for the K4 and kin ...
Patterned eggs for those nifty baskets ...
Eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner ... a certain detective was noted for having a hard boiled one in his pocket ...
Eggs for nog ...
Wood eggs with delightful patterns painted on them ...
Beautifully decorated eggs which open to reveal carriages/figures/scenes/etc ....
The eggs of a Harpy would vary in size depending upon which breed of Harpy laid it of course.
And considering the colours of all the bird eggs in the world, solid or speckled, most any colour.
The term "candling" refers to the holding up of an egg to a candle to check for blood spots. Eggs meant to be eaten are not to have blood spots in them.
So for rigging, keep D/S3 with the tools if you have them.
Harpies at feeding time ... now there's a render waiting to be made lol ... yuck.
And the last of the lot for today ;-)
Hope something was of use to all reading.
Very nicely done Patience. I miss some of DS3 tools, especially the PP2 (Poser OBJ converter/exporter).
Great tutorial, I would have gone about the mapping differently, but that's me.
Thank you :-)
The PP2 converter script that works in D/S3 works up to D/S4.6 AFAIK although [at least on my computer] in 4.6 the bottom links to okay to convert or trash cannot be read ... but their link is still there so I just select one and if I guess right, a prop is made. HOWEVER, these props no longer, consistently, work as desired in Poser. So, back to the drawing board anyway. I have Poser ... and the experts took the information and did not get back to me any solutions so ... the convoluted work flow is to make the PP2 prop in D/S using the script, load that in Poser ... then import in the original .obj file using a variety of settings until one gets an import that matches the desired size of the script PP2 file. Clear the scene and import in the original .obj file in Poser and make the prop there. The entire work flow has to be repeated for every single .obj file. There are days when even I do have patience for all of this. Poser also reads .obj files differently than D/S does ... it may need to have the faces flipped. BUT, not always the entire lot as flipping them all, can cause others to not be seen unless rendered. That things may not show until rendered bothers some folk [me included lol ...]
The uvmapping, feel free to show how you would do it if you would like to.
To get the first seams cuts, I did make use of another program to see its suggestions. I decided to use them here too to show that seams do not always have to be one line loops. The advantage can be [not always of course] that if one is looking for a seam line on the finished item, hopefully they never find one lol ...
Hi Patience :)
About the invisible faces in Poser - I did some asking around and found that in Poser 9 and later there is an option under Render > Settings>Preview to make back faces visible. I only have Debut for the occasional testing, so can't verify. This may help you?
Thank you ... I'll check. With other models I've shared, feedback from some ardent Poser users indicated that it was a matter to tell Poser to flip normals on import. Normally I have more problems with this with "mixed meshes" [part my work and part of works by others made in different programs like Blender, Sketchup, etc.] One day I'll figure it out that is no such thing as a short cut for making .objects work between these 3 or 4 programs.
Have been contemplating the next step here ... the winged figure.
Without trying to overwhelm myself this time lol ...
One bone at a time ...
Or, ... oh yeah! hehehehe ....
YOU'RE RIGHT!!!! Thank you :-) At least for the model finished today, this worked beautifully. Who'd thought a program would have a default hide the goodies checked but anyway ... one can see both sides sides of the wall ;-)
Okay! The Ostrich feathers arrived in great condition so we can have some free feather textures :-)
Amazing what can be bought on eBay ... and yes it came in bubblewrap lol ...