A few weeks ago, I was going through some reference artwork folders and ran across Frank Frazetta’s “Dark Kingdom” painting (which also graced a Molly Hatchet album cover) … and felt inspired to do a version of that painting using my take on “Hunter” from Quake III Arena that I built a while back (built as a “single-skinning” exercise using Sub-d’s). Just a fun “saw-sharpening” exercise 
And for reference, here is Frazetta’s Dark Kingdom:
And “Hunter” from the Quake III Arena game:
You did a really nice job on the helmet, taking the basic form and adding convincing detail to it 
good work!
Interesting… i do remember of an camera tracking scene walking through some wood made with animation master which did used this character… not with that gauntlet or shoes (which an animation which would need an update wiggle bones addon… nowadays) but didn’t know that about Quake… the wings on the skull are a pretty signiture feature… ahem and some other parts 
… but of course i can’t find this anymore…
So, I used to interact loosely with Paul Steed - the id Software character artist who designed some of the Quake III characters (if not all of them). At one point, I ran across a painting by Simon Bisley of a character from his “Full Cirkle” graphic novel series and was struck by the similarities. I semi-joking mentioned to Paul that Bisley had ripped off his design - but he corrected me and told me that HE had actually been influenced by Bisley’s design. I like Bisley’s design as well and built another model based on his character - and that’s the one in the animation you mentioned. You can see it part way down the page on my site here.
That animation, BTW makes full use of Animation Master’s dynamic bone system - which was far better than any dynamic bone system I’ve used since then. It blows me away that it was as powerful as it was and yet it’s been 15+ years and no other software has been able to replicate it - but AM’s character tools were amazing - they were way ahead of their time. I still think that rigging and animating in AM was by far the easiest process I’ve ever used.
Ahhh yes… that was it … i almost buyed Animation Master back then because it wasn’t too costly but was a little surprised because it was so unknown… And it still is on the market: Hash (Inc) Animation:Master
… last update in the Forum:
I used AM for years … but finally gave it up because the renderer was just getting old and had too many teething issues. Still, their rigging and animation system are what I miss, by far. They were doing Non-Linear Animation when most companies were barely doing animation. Their keyframing system, smart-skinning (bone-driven morphs), constraints, dynamic bones, and suite of tools like “Copy-Paste Mirrored” … Stride Length … walking along a spline … etc, were so simple to use. “Actions” (their NLA components) are still unmatched in the industry - nobody makes anything that approaches their ease-of-use. Their system of “Shape Keys” (not what they call it) is STILL unmatched in the industry - the shape keys were NON-linear and you could mix bones and vertex animation, and you could put an animation - like a complex hand motion, or a complex blink that included bone and vertex information on a slider in just a couple of clicks. I still can’t figure out why no one hasn’t just copied their system (hint, hint Blender). Getting great results was very direct … unlike every other package I’ve ever used. I know multiple people who got jobs at Pixar, Blue Sky, and Disney Animation from their work with AM, and if you ask them, they will STILL tell you that animating in AM was easier than anything else.
It does have it’s down-sides, though. The material system is not advanced. The texturing can be a bit bizarre, and the modeling is a whole different paradigm (Splines are NOT Sub-d’s - they require their own modeling mindset). Some of the graph editing is kind of “meh” (but Blender’s graph editing is weak, too). The renderer is way, way outdated, and AM doesn’t play well with most other packages or renderers - which is a huge shame. I’ve exported animations and meshes out of it, and they will work - but you have to do a lot of clean-up.
Anyway, I do love Blender for it’s own strengths … but secretly I do wish they would update the animation system to be (IMO) more powerful, easier to use, and less arcane.
I featured you on BlenderNation, have a great weekend!
Thanks, Bart
Thanks, Joseph - it comes from years of translating vague 2D concept art into 3D models that make sense - lol
