Santa

Artwork Works in Progress
#1

After a lot of time with tedious repetitive, and more or less mindnumbing tasks, someone at work asked me if I could do a christmas card, which means I get to use blender to model a santa if I like.
Which is a welcome break, so I started modeling.

I was kind of disappointed to find my organic modeling isn’t what i expect it to be, I kinda thought I understood most of the topology and muscleflow issues by now…
guess not… O well…

If I can’t finish this in time, I’ll just go for a “cheaper” 2D christmas illustrator card. (a few bells and whistles and such.)

images, 4 triangles so far, in the feet, couldn’t get them out so far… Rest are quads:

http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/5773/santawipyx6.jpg

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9972/santawip01bx7.jpg

ps. I modeled him on top of a base figure I made. After fattening him up loads…
I was gonna retopo over it to create a character some of you might recognise. Retopoing didn’t go so well right now, but I’m curious if you can guess which character this was supposed to turn into. :stuck_out_tongue:
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5921/screendump01tr8.jpg
Shot at 2008-07-07

#2

He has red eyes. Is he evil?

#3

No, I just chose that color because it would always make the eyes stand out while modeling. I want to complete the base first, then the clothes, eyes, rig, etc etc.

#4

some small updates, finished the body, tweaked the topology here and there, made a coat. Credit where it’s due, I had a look at Ender’s MD5Fellow mesh (http://endercomics.blogspot.com/), which is a nice clean mesh, and had a look at how he did the hand part, but I ended up also tweaking the shoulder to follow that design. It’s still not perfect, but better than what I first had.

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/1218/santawip02vr1.jpg
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/4364/santawip03zk2.jpg
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7233/santawip04cq6.jpg

#5

quick update before the weekend, not exactly top notch, not liking the boots, and I threw 2 hats away, but whatever.

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/7421/santawip05ea9.jpg

#6

Came back from vacation, and all of a sudden this christmas card thing IS priority
funny…

so updates:
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1328/sledwip01hb0.jpg
Shot at 2008-09-23
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9913/sledwip02om7.jpg
Shot at 2008-09-23
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5176/kerstscenewip02dd9.jpg
Shot at 2008-09-23

And starting to readjust Audine’s rig for the fat guy:
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3365/santawip07tx8.jpg
Shot at 2008-09-23

cheers…

#7

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/658/santawip08xz3.jpg
Shot at 2008-09-24
first rig done.
I’ll probably add some fat deformation control for the belly, but other than that, it’s done.
I like how transferable this rig is. This is the third character I’ve rigged with it, and the thing isn’t even released yet.

EDIT: fat deformation done, well belt deformation anyway, I think this one is finished, it’s not as polished up as the other rig I originally built the rig for, but it’ll do the job nicely.

#8

Wow… Great, I especially like the chariot… very nicely modeled…
His nose is a little too fat for my liking though.

#9

Nice model, as for the last pic in you first post, the proportions remind me of the proportions used in the megaman z games

#10

Are you planning on rigging the animals? Right now they look a little stiff.

#11

DEAD ON! :yes:
I have a zero artbook and blocked out those proportions. It’s currently on ice though… :frowning:
EDIT: and that wouldn’t happen to be omega in your avatar would it?

Yes i intend to do a quick rig on the animals. I hope I can get away with the messy modeling on the reindeers, and yeah the sled’s nose isn’t really as nice as it could be, kinda wanted to get it done and move on to the next prop…might make it prettier, might not…

The scene is not final, it’s just a quick block out. The houses will have more detail, there will be more flue systems, etc etc.

#12

where did you learn how to rig? (eg: rig the santa?)

  • I’d like to know :slight_smile: - it looks great!
#13

Very nice, I’ve got no idea how did u rig him (all the weird circles and arrows). Can’t wait for a complete scene!

#14

Lucky guess for me lol, I may try modeling some Zero style characters or even zx style ^^.
As for my ava it isn’t Omega in my ava, its a crop of my mecha as featured in one of my artwork link below
http://seig-verdelet.deviantart.com/art/Valkyrie-Standby-90919437
As for your Zero model, I would love to see it if you ever work on it again =3

EDIT:
Just remembered, have a look at this gallery of official art, quite kickass. If you look in the concept art section of MMZ you can find an official orthgraphic drawing of Zero and same again, if you look in the MMZX Concept art section you can find an official orthographic drawing of Vent/Aile in ZX form

Edit: Forgot the link to the gallery ><
http://blue-bomber.jvmwriter.org/media/Art/index.php?cat=2

#15

I started riggin with the BSOD introduction to character animation tutorials, then I started to pick some other rigs apart like mancandy and blenrig. Got a lot of help from jpBouza too, from blenrig fame, when I started on little_fella

Those shapes are just custom shapes for the bones, they weren’t made for him (thus they don’t really fit) but for another lovely lady I will release soon I guess.
This lovely lady:
http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/8148/screendump09um1.jpg
Shot at 2008-09-15

just for fun, a new pose
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/1984/santawip09pk4.jpg
Shot at 2008-09-24

@TheArtfullMoogle:
That’s a clear image. mecha looks a lot like omega… Never saw or played zone of the enders, I’m not that into mecha, unless it’s gundam… which can be fun.

#16

Wow, where can I get a copy of this card when it’s finished! (is it really getting close to christmas?? yikes)

I can just see santa in that scene with a whip, getting the tiny reindeer to pick up some speed.

I agree with all the rigging comments also, very nice work. It reminds me of the little stickman rig, which is insanely fun to play with by the way!

#17

Child… with pointy ears… greenish outfit… LINK!!! XD
Thats a nice elf model ^^, its all looking pretty good, I can’t wait to see the end result of all this work.

as for the omega similarities, I can see what you mean know that i look at the official art, it wasn’t intentional O.o. Though thankfully the similarites end there when it comes to the rest of the body.

#18

Nice! You’re inspirating me to make animations…
Give us a render! :smiley:

#19

It is starting to look very nice! Very interesting how beard can change the character. Until you added it he looked rather like a boy.

#20

heh, about the “elf” the original character design isn’t mine. neither is the original mesh. It was made by a guy named balade over at cgtalk.

i redid the mesh,and I’m tailoring the rig to it. I could almost claim this my sole creation for the work I’ve put into it, but well, he’s the guy who came up with the design. He’ll also do the textures for her. He’s way better at that.

By the way, like that megaman ZX model you’re doing :wink:

thanks for the comments guys!
Unfortunately i don’t know if I have enough time to make a pretty render like that. I might end up ditching the reindeer and just put santa on a plane amidst a few flue systems.
I’m sorry, but even if I do get a very pretty render of a christmas card, I don’t think you could buy it anywhere, It’s a corporation christmas card. But I’ll ask. The marketing manager ussually let’s me distribute work that has something to do with our company as she sees it as free advertising.

To save time, I’ve quickly rigged the reindeer using bone heat. I hope I get some time to make this look good. i suck at textures and lighting…