*UPDATE* Jake And Jack: Down By The Pond

Artwork Works in Progress
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Alright, Since Marty The Camel Is done, Ive come up with this new idea for a short. If it doesnt work out, hey, Ill have some nice models, if it does, Ill have a(hopefully) nice little short.
SO…
StoryLine:
A youngish turtle(Jake) Is washed into a foreign pond(not like out of country, just a new one). Hes fairly happy, its a nice little place. But things arent all peaceful, as he soon finds out. The Pond is home to a hermit gremlin(Jack) whos a stringy froglike guy, who will stop at nothing to get his home back. Or at least, so he can have it to himself. So, thruou out the story, he and jake battle it out, pulling guns, mallets and whatnot out of thin air, all leading up to the suprise ending…

Its not an extremely unique storyline, but it should be good.

so, problems:

  1. Water. This does take place at or around a pond…I plan on cheating with sound effects, who knows If youll ever even see the water(ok, you will at least once)…

  2. Lighting. Ill be trying to get the best outdoor lighting I can, yet give it a softer look(where needed) to retain the tooniness.

  3. Comp Nodes. I want to have a good general soft warm look, but not with tons of blur or anything, Ill be screwing with nodes a lot towards the end.

  4. Ill be doing this without voices(except for grunts, screams, etc) so Ill need some good music…fun >:P

Those are the major hurdles for this project.

Alright, Ive started by modeling Jake(Ill put up his concept art soon). Hes turning out almost exactly like the art, and therefore, how I wanted him to. The modeling shouldnt be a problem, nor should the rigging(NOTE: he’ll be walking on two legs a lot, but I want to make it possible for four legs as well),
But I want the textures to look really good. Obviously, procedurals wouldnt do, so Ive been practicing on(partial) Uv mapping. It took me a while, but ive got down hoe to blend UV and non UV maps together(aplha), so I can probably do this realisticly now.
Jake will be green(duh) probably a foresty color, with minro UV on his neck and head. I plan to completely hand paint the shell, and legs as well(at least a bump map for the legs).

Alright, heres a clay render:
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/1190/jakeprogress1bl6.jpg
Thanks for looking, All C&C welcome…Sorry for the looonnnggg first post,want to get it all out there.
peace
Drew::cool:

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UPDATE! The modeling is done…
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/6800/jakeprogressclayfinishejo0.jpg
All C&C welcome…
Drew

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His front legs look a wee bit bowed, kinda like they’d be hard to keep that way.

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Yeah, Ill be working on that, your right. Ill be setting them up to be easier to animate as arms rather than legs…

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Havent gotten around to fixing those legs yet, but Ive almost finished the texturing. Ive been messing wiht the nodes a bit, trying to get a result that softens, with out ruining the picture. Ive been getting closer, and used the nodes in this picture:
http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/4903/jaketextured1qe4.jpg
All C&C welcome and wanted…feedback please!
peace
Drew

1 Like
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Oh, By the way, Ive hand painted all the textures in Photoshop, then UV mapped(most of) them to the mesh. This is my first time doing this, how does it look?
thanks
Drew

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awsome uv mapping skills dude.I love the way you quickly adapt to new situations so fast!:eek: :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Thanks man, It turned out(especially the shell) a lot better than I thought it would…
Ill be rigging him up, and then putting the final touches on the textures tommorrow, but all C&C still wanted…

9

Looks like Yoshi. :smiley:

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yeah, definate yoshi look alike :slight_smile:

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I think it’d be softened better if you didn’t actually use blur. There are better ways to make soft lighting. Gentle AO, buffer shadows, area lights. All kinds of crap. Colour ramps, normal mapped textures…

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good point, been messing more with that kind of thing lately…