I’m excited for Toy Story 3! So I decided to try my hand at making a Buzz Lightyear. Its definitely nothing compared to Pixar’s render. This is actually my first render I’ve ever done like this (with a character and suit and stuff), so I still have a lot to learn.
I plan to keep working on it. There are some details I want to add in, like all the buttons and straps on his suit. I want to animate it as well. But before I did that I wanted to hear some feedback on model.
Any kind of tips and tricks and advice are welcome! I’m still very new to this, so any kind of advice will be a big help!
the shape looks good - i like the joints and the wing-case however, the fact that the model is currently set Smooth causes a bit of interference when trying to look at it…maybe you could try a Solid-shaded render? might help
Proportions are great. Can’t comment there, but your modeling needs a lot of work. Try adding more geometry; your model is far too simple. I suggest you learn the basics (extrude, cut, edgeloop) before you dive right into a more complex model like a character.
You mentioned “weird modeling”: well i noticed that it looks like you have a lot of triangles on the lower part of the legs (calf area) try to avoid triangles at all costs.
For a first model, it is very good though. Farrr better than my first model.
The triangles you’re seeing in the leg, come from the sphere I used for the ball joint. Otherwise, I just counted four triangles. I heard about how you should stay away from triangles so I’m trying to do that. But I guess the sphere ruins that for me… Those other spots on the leg, aren’t triangles. Is it bad that they look like triangles in the picture?
So are you saying to add more faces? I’ve been trying to keep it simple, because I thought a high face count was bad.
well, hi-face (or hi-vertex) count is bad when you’re starting the project, i think - usually, the vertex count rises with the evolution of the project. usually, you should start with a simpler shape, then refine it…though i’m not much of an expert it does work fairly well though, if you don’t get lost in the refining (which i’ve done sometimes, it’s a pain)
I’ve worked on my Buzz some more. I think I’m done modeling it, unless there is something extremely wrong with it that you guys point out. I’m sure the mesh is a mess. I worked to get rid of all of the triangles I could find, but in the process I made poles. So I imagine that my topology is bad. I know that the armor is too low and some of the buttons are as well, but I’m not trying to be perfect. I think I now have too many faces… (Face count is now at 72846…) I also have no idea how to make eyes. If anyone can give any hints it’ll be greatly appreciated!
Please tell me what you think! I probably won’t go back and fix the mesh if there are problems with it, but any kind of information I can get to prepare for the future will be great!
No offense, but your renders more specifically the wires are bad. Again sorry for such a harsh statement, but it is what it is.
This should get you going on those wires! http://vimeo.com/5659666
This will get you going on the lighting http://vimeo.com/7171194
The model itself looks a bit chubby i think, but maybe that is just me. Othewise it look ok, from what i remember he looks like. are you modeling in parts at all? if not you should consider that. I dont have references but is the backpack thing a separate object from the suit or not?
You can also try to color him, and see how he looks colored, sometimes when you color you see problems with the mesh. Oh and uh smooth him out.
Yeah sorry about the renders. And don’t worry about the harsh statement; no offense was taken. If it looks bad, then I need to know. I’ll definitely take a look at the tutorials. (And thanks for the tutorials, both DDD and QS Dragon!)
I made him pretty rectangular, and I’m wondering if that’s why he looks chubby. What do you mean by modeling in all the parts? I have the eyes as a separate object, and I had the upper arm, forearm, lower leg, and ball joints as separate meshes, but I joined those to the main mesh. His back pack I modeled from the original mesh. Will having the joined meshes mess him up when I try to animate him?
Thanks for the help!
EDIT:
Okay I looked at the lighting tutorial and this is what I did. It should be better, but I didn’t do the wires. I’m feeling kind of lazy, and I want to try and color and rig it. Does anyone have any hints for coloring and rigging?
Well by parts i mean, if it is a “part” in “real life” then it should be modeled separately. Now this ofcorce doesnt hold true for everything, it is more like a guideline statement. So what you did with the legs and arms is exactly what i mean, because they are different parts/pieces of his armor/space suit, even if they are all joined.
I guess the backpack thing is the only one that is joined/connected with the body, and if that is how it is supposed to be that cool, but if it is a separate object, then i advise you to separate it from body.
About the rigging, i usually combine all the parts into one mesh too, so for example if you saw my ironman model that i am working on, i have a file for the mesh with all the parts and (i decided to rig b4 completing the mesh, which actually helped me with modeling joints) a separate file where to wich i appended(Shift F1) the parts, joined them into one mesh (ALT-J and thats all, i dint connect them or anything) and rigged the new mesh. So by what you said, i guess that is what you are doing.
I think I followed what you said. I’m pretty new with everything. So basically what you’re saying is to make different parts in separate meshes, then join together with the final mesh?
And I also edited the post above with some more shots with the lighting tutorial.
Looks a million times better. Yes to your question. About coloring, try it out yourself, and post your results then we will have some thing to critique.
Hmm… I’m having some trouble with the eyes. I’m trying to follow the Pixar Eye tutorial that was recommended (Link) and I was watching the video on how to create it (Link), because the wikibook tutorial doesn’t really give steps. However my results are more than favorable. Everything works until I try to join the meshes. My results are in the pictures attached; named eye before (before the joining) and eye after (after the joining). I don’t think I did it wrong because the movie’s eye did something similar. But it seems like this tutorial is recommended by a lot of people. So it makes me what I did wrong. Can someone give me some advice?
EDIT:
Sorry for the poor rendering, I’m just trying to show my problem. And looking at the pictures, I feel that the pupil, iris etc needs to be bigger. Does anyone else agree?
however, the fact that the model is currently set Smooth causes a bit of interference when trying to look at it…maybe you could try a Solid-shaded render? might help 
