humans do smile with there eyes not only there mouth
you could try looking at some images on the web of “cars” all the characters have mouths but if you cover them over when you are looking at them it’s easier to see what makes the eyes smile.
just had an idea from looking at some pics (about the crossing over of the eye lids)
the characters look like theey all have there eyelids connected as one mesh - easier for them cos they are flat - it might work with a spherical eye but it will be really hard to animate
Thanks for the suggestion, waylow
I will try your suggestion as soon as I’m able, Zoup
I must say, it’s interesting seeing the progress from one end of the thread to the other, and I’m really happy. Now it’s almost to the stage where I can’t keep calling him The Plastic Cube - He needs a name…
The eyelids look great, they add a lot of personality. For the brow, I don’t think modelling in any more detail would ‘help’ the character. I’d perhaps make shape keys (small ones) to slightly tweak the middle of the top edge of the cube body (up/down/creased in) when he is really mad, sad, etc.
Thanks for the reply Oneman.
I was more interested in canvas styled overlay and how it bleeds into the3d art.
There might be a way for rpgsimmaster to animate this look in blender w/nodes.
Hi Guys,
Thanks for your comments - been busy this past week so haven’t been able to update the character @OneMan: Thanks for the name suggestion - I’m seriously considering it @BenDansie: I’m thinking the same sort of way - a few minor adjustments (perhaps to his hands/feet, which are each only 12 vertice meshes) and then see if I can rig and animate him…
Everyone else: The image of the flying cube was GIMPed - Smudge tool, then GIMP’s canvas effect! So simple, but soo cool, as you have agreed. Unfortunately I haven’t figured out how to reproduce this in nodes… yet (I’m thinking there is a way, but more on that in later posts :D)
BenDansie: On your earlier suggestion on softening the edges… Well, as I said, I couldn’t get ramps working… and it turns out SSS doesn’t work on my character either, despite all odds - he doesn’t want to appear soft, it seems:
Which is really wierd, so therefore I’m not gonna bother with trying to soften his edges anymore…
Well guys, I figured out how to do the canvas effect with Blender Nodes! It’s really quite simple, but gets a nice render result…
The first thing is to use a blank white image in GIMP, then go Filters > Artistic > Apply Canvas, Invert the colours of the resulting image, then save it (such as Canvas.png)
Then go to Blender, and copy my nodes setup. (The second input is an image input, which is where you load your canvas file)
This has actually been somewhat of a learning experience for me - despite the relative simplicity of the project, this is the first time I’ve actually used nodes and constraints for anything other than just tests… Thanks guys.
You can do it with Blender’s procedural textures, I don’t remember which one off the top of my head, and a texture input node, but that is slower than the way you just did it. I’d stick with the method that you’re using. Procedurals get recalculated on every frame.
I really dig AndyD’s lip-sync video…the way his character sort of talks out the side of his mouth. I think that would work well here.
@fudje: I tried the Dilate node, but it didn’t quite do what I want - I’m going to try Dilate or Blur with a matte (Also from Gimp) overlayed on the Scene, before it adds the canvas effect…
@RamboBaby: I decided to drop the mouth for now… But who knows? It may come back yet…
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the dilate node does not dilate/erode as the name suggests. It should work off intensity values such as alpha (or Index) and simply scale the non-zero value pixels outward or inward radially. This is the way it works in After Effects and it works well. What this node does in reality is pin the due north, south, east, and west non-zero pixels in place and set them as maximum/do not cross boundaries / scale everything in relative to here crap - leaving you with these retarded, useless, distorted, square and diamond shaped masks. I don’t know who came up with that node but it is utterly worthless. All the others work great though.
Don’t forget to use a 3 point light set up to get a painted look in Blender.I got some interesting results by putting a dome over the scene, dupvert a hemi light(low setting) around the model,and add some contrast with nodes.
Still can’t get a good looking erode like the one in gimp, but the canvas still looks good.
They’re actually not that hard to do… Mine is made of two meshes - one is a UV Sphere with a transparent front for the cornea, and a second mesh behind that is only part of a UV Sphere…
Here’s a link to a source file, but I recommend you try make some eyes yourself, to help you learn…
