here ya go :attn:

Some of the objects have been frozen, Back Shell, arms ect... :beer:

Nice and clean, looking forward to seeing him up to some antics! :attn:

cheers m8 !

yeah, i cant wait to get him movin, ive started doing wee dances around the house LOL just thinking of how he will move :attn:

Ill get a render up 2night, I promise :beer:



By the way, Great AVATAR ! :attn:

ohh well !

here is the final character (only a we belt to make for him, and some scars ect..) but ill leave this till later, ill start on the wee guy now !

Hope u guys like it :attn:

The eyes actually turned out as if they have pupils with the way the reflection is, this was an accident to be honest, and ill need to adjust the specularity to get ride of this, i wouldnt be able to control this effect throughout the entire animation, all i want really is a we highlight on the eyes, but left it in here because i thought it was pretty funny, Looks like he is OFF HIS HEAD !



:beer:

Hi guys :p

Here are the final characters :attn:

Im thinking of a few things i can model to add to them ect.. but this is basically the final things, everything else added will be actual models, Knnifes stuff like that.

Hope u guys like it, Im really happy :p

Not goin to waste any time, ill get them rigged over the next 2days, then i will get right into animation :beer:

*Ohh, Check back for updates on the opening shot boiler room. Ive started working on the textures and ill get this scene up as soon as its done :p (Hopefully by monday)

Looks great Fraser! I take it you are still doing the accessories for the roaches? Because right now its hard to tell the difference between which one is butcher than the other.

yeah, probably, ill see how they look in the scene, the wee guy (grey one) will be 1/2 the size in the final scene, so that will be a drastic difference :p

But yeah, id like the big guy to have some stuff. But i want to start animating and stuff, adding a waste band can be done at the end or mid way throu animation, Main Job the now is to get the scene built where they live and also finish of the boiler room :p

Must be done by next Tuesday :beer:

Ok, well over 300ppl have looked at this thread since i posted my final characters, and 1 reply :blush:

So i thought id add stuff to it..... make it better :p

here is a wee update of the older 1 called Slim. I wanted him to look slightly different and also a bit tougher beeing Ex-Millitary.

So i added 2 red stripes that flow over his head and down his shell, this is sorta like an adult things, as they get older they develop more attractive colours, and also the tattoo, sorta like a army tattoo, Bad ASS ! lol

:beer:

way cool!! he does look a bit more roughed up.. great work indeed!

//Matt

Have to agree ... this is really shaping up nicely...

Cheers guys, im workin on the actual living space the now, this is where the actual climax will happen in the animation, so its got wee things like, there beds and some of their fav toys and stuff, i have to make each part of the room match up with each characters personality, so for Slim it will be millitary type stuff, im goin to have some Termite Heads on a stick and also some military gear, as well as lots of Scottish history refernce as posters, and then for the younger Noodles, he will have posters of Turtles, Power-Rangers and also other cartoons and comics ect..

Nice...
 

Looking good ma man...all we need now is some animation...get a move on! lol, like i can talk!

Ive been workin on Art work that last wee while... Im back workin on my CA4 for the next we while :attn:

Here is a we render of my GBA with a game on the screen, just tweekin textures ect.. (even thou i know they will have to be changed once there in the final scene)

Ill get more up soon:beer:

ooowwhh! very nice, looks much better than before now that you have mario kart screen shot on it, looks very realistic now. whats your next plans for the project now?


Ps. please, i told u weeks n weeks ago to stop saying 'we' everything, because it should be 'wee'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :headbang:


arrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!...its irratating...anyway back to work, trains got cancelled today cos of weather so its just me and the computer today!

cheers, the next plan is texturing, ive finished the living area and got all my photoshop files mapped out ready for texturing. So ill work on that 2day, and also work on lighting, so maybe be a day or 2 before u see some final renders up here. Ive also got to finish of my boiler room scene, so i might jump between both and hopefully be ready for texturing the boiler room within a few days aswell

:beer:

* I didnt go in aswell 2day, been hit with the cold, Runny nose, headache ect.... But still i cant stop, got to battle on :(

hi guys !

Im workin on the lighting for the living room section, this is were the animation comes to an end and u see the characters. Just trying to create that beem of light that comes of of a screen, if any1 has gd advice or even a link to a tutorial i would be very grateful :p

Well let me know what u guys think.

Ill get a couple of shots up of other views soon

:beer:

Looking sweet there Davie.

For the light from the screen, volumetric lights are your friends - place the light behind the screen and set the cone height and base to get the correct positioning for the light beam - you'll probably need to use a gobo to get the correct screen proportions.

see to use the volumetric lights, id have to make a hole throu the entire screen then put that in a new layer and then tell the light to exclude them wouldnt i ?

also, what is a gobo....

With spotlights beeing round if i put the light behind the screen wont i get streeks coming from the outer edge...

nicely detailed toys, maybe work on the lighsaber more.

Not necessarily. You could make the screen object single sided (as is the LW default) to ensure that the light can shine through from behind it.

Gobo is a lighting term - also known as a 'cookie cutter'. It refers to a mask placed in front of a lamp to 'shape' the light that comes through it. By making a gobo with a cutout the shape and size of your screen you can mask off the light that would spill out to the other side.

The best bet you would have for a reasonable result I'd say would be to parent a large box to the Nintendo screen, and make it 100% dissolved for the animation, then pop a volumetric spotlight in there and dissolve out all the parts of the scene that won't be affected by it to help speed up the render. Then render it in a separate pass and composite in post...

I have a question, with most of the light coming from my screen, for the animation there will be actual game footage on it running, is there a way to project that movie back into the room and onto the characters ?

I was goin to do it with 3 point lights in front of the screen that i was goin to animate changing colour to ruffly match the action on screen so that the characters have actual light changes on their skin, but i was just wondering if lightwave can use a movie and can actually project light from it.....

hi, here is a wee screen before i turn off for the night.

This is alot closer to what i want, i want the game-boy and main characters to be the real focal point of this scene, if the light catches we bits here and their like the monopoly board ect.. then fine, but even if some of the other modelling bits dont get seen im not 2 bothered, they might catch a bit of reflection in some shots to help give the impreshion that their is depth and alot of junk lyin about.

The only thing im gettin annoyed at is the glow from the TV. I think the light path on the ground is prety good and the light hittin the lower section of the gameboy, but im not getin that feeling of light beeing forced out into the room.

Im really strugling with volumtrics aswell, :( :( :( :( :(

If anybody has came across a tut for screen ect... i would love to have a read throu it, im lookin mayself aswell the only 1 i found was this 1

http://www.altyna.com/lw/specrefl.htm ( but it seemed a bit wierd, but im not very good at lighting so i was a bit lost )

Any help would be great, Have a feelin i might have to go buy a Lightwave Lighting book ....... Only thing is their damm expensive, £56 or somthin

Cheers in Advance

here is an updated shot, this is pretty much what i set out to achieve it terms of lighting. Its really just we things texture wize i need to add, dust dirt ect.. because the light only hits a small focal point on the floor ect.. this actually makes texturing a bit easier, means i can focus on a small section.

Im just goin to start on the boiler room scene, this should be a lot easier. Lighting a dark scene is soo much harder than doin a lighter scene, so i should be able to shoot throu this pretty quike, I need to start animation at least this comin week.

Cya later :beer:

* Also the scan-line effect is somthin my whole animation will have, so ill start adding it before i upload to help give a better impression of the final result

scan lines?... really?...:confused:

yeah, u know, so it sorta like its lookin throu a wee camera. Wont be at the start, but will come in after intro.... I think

Ill do all this stuff at very end, easy to add

*Ill update the shot in my next render, Mario-Kart isnt goin to be on the screen, so ill get the proper game on it for the next render :)

fair enough, your animation, your call

i just checked back over my thread their, i see i didnt post any of my other renders with this effect applied, ill dig them out and let u guys see them, Also reminds me ill need to show u some renders of there living bit (behind the camera in the above shot) and the entrance to their living area... So ill get that up aswell.

For now thou. Its building and texturing the boiler room. After that its the home straight, animation and all the wee Patricle effects.

Hmm... must admit - the scan lines effect isn't doing anything for me...

Well..... Ill let the comments build up from now till editing. Ill post 2 versions of every final render i do know, and ill see how ppl react to them. I think scan-lines works better in a moving animation from the quickshade tests ive allready rendered. But i'll see how the comments go from now till the end, its an easy thing to remove or add. I still dont know how it wil look with the characters in it yet, thats the big 1 that will tell me stright away what to do.

:beer:

Post some links to test animations. Like you say, adding the scanline effect to a moving image might pass muster better than in a static one...

i would post wee tests but i always like to keep the animation and that pretty close to my chest till its all done. So u will have to wait another 5-6weeks :(

lol, sorry but its just the way i usually work. Ill get some renders of my boiler room up soon as !

here is a wee render of the boiler room. Its pretty small but its just a wee Fprime test.

Ill hopefully be done in a day or 2, so ill get bigger full rez shots up :attn:

Cya Soon :beer:

* The thing isnt complete, somethings havent even been textured. Just lettin u know lol ;)

Nice. It's got that realistic aspect to it, which I like. But isn't really what I was expecting. I think this ultra realistic set is a bit off to convey the fun side of the story. With this scene seen I would expect realistic characters. However with the story told I expected something much more lighthearted.

If you look at toy story, a bugs life etc, you see that sets look good, but they don't look realistic. I expected that kind of thing from you. Maybe I got it wrong, maybe you are trying to push cartoony within realism. But it means that alot of physics of real life has to be considered. You can't really squash and stretch the animation much. I dunno. Just that I expected a whole Ice age feel.

ehhh, sorta know what ur gettin at...... Toy Story, a bugs life ect... do have more cartoony environments. But their are no rules set in stone that thats the way its meant to be.
(im tryin to remember the animations i watched last year, all short films that blened cartoon characters with more realistic environments, ehhh... just cant put my finger on them the now. but i try and get link for ya soon)
Its all about how they blend together and im 150% confident that this blend will work like a charm and the flow and style will look so natural all the way throu. This has allways been the way it was meant to be done, so nothin has been spontaneously added or whatever. its all goin as planned. ;)

More updates comin soon :beer:

Na there are no rules. But target audience usually decides on the appropriateness of appearance.

You need to show me the examples, because I fear that you have a lot of different visuals to sustain continuity within your animation. I just think it's one of the most important things in film making if not the most important thing.

yeah, ur right, but like i said the flow of my animation and look will work great. Everythign goin as planned ;) And it has continuity. I see the screens blend perfectly.....It would also help when u actually see final renders

Trust me ! Im not goin to get it wrong :beer:

modest as always eh Fraser ;)

lol !

I guess come may 5th ill eather be eating my own words or very happy with the outcome.

just threw 2gether this wee board of pics from different stages of the journey. It was to help me get a feel for the way it was lookin, but i thought id post it.

I dont think my other scenes, under the floor are very cartoony. Yeah they have toys. but most of the textures were made from photo ref i took or from net searches. I also think the big render at the bottom has a very... i dont know how to say it. but its not really cartoony.

I think the environments go pretty well 2gether. But let me know what u guys think.

Hopefully i can get this thing done 2morrow (just need to think how i will od the carpet.) then its just onto the final scene, which is alot simpler. ill be recycling another scene for this bit. So just lighting ill need to work on for this bit. Then its animation. Woohoo !

:beer:

Well, your scene inside the boards felt very cartoony due to the colour, and the toys dont look very dirty at all compared to your boiler shot, so thats what gives it the cartoony effect. And the night vision. Well you know how we differ in opinion there. :p Thankfully you didnt use obscene playing cards though.

It looks good. Just not as light hearted as i expected. I suppose the pitch of an idea will usually be different to one persons mind to anothers.