Hello, all. They announced today that the Indiana Jones Trilogy (well, the three they've made so far) are coming out on DVD on November 4th! Naturally, this gives me an excuse to ask for feedback about my Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) figure :-) I actually made this one well before I tried Indy (see my previous thread), and it's probably a little rougher overall. Any suggestions on what I might do to improve it? I'm especially interested in figuring out how to improve (lower) the cleft in her chin - I can't quite figure out how to do it using Victoria 1, and I'd rather not start all over again on Victoria 2 if I don't have to.

BTW, eyes are by Coleus, hair by Koz, texture is Marielle at about 75-80% strength.

Any input would be greatly appreciated, as always. Thanks. -Mike

It's looking good. Her eyes are brown, though. Not sure about the cleft. Are you trying for a natural cleft, or just to get rid of the hole that is there?

Cyhiraeth:Thanks. I am trying for a natural cleft. I can't seem to get it to the end of her chin, like Karen Allen has (see B/W picture). I can't shorten the jaw length any further and still have it look like her, but I can't find a "cleft height" dial or anything like that.

I thought her eyes were brown, too, but they're not - they're definitely at least blueish (see color pictures). Hmmm...blue-green, maybe?
Photos courtesy of theraider.net, BTW... -Mike

Well, I'll be darned, I guess you are right, they are sort of a bluish, Hazel color. For some reason my memory was of brown ;) Anyway, it looks really good.

Thanks! I've had a crush on her since I was about eight or nine years old (when ROTLA first came out), and I would've sworn she had brown eyes too...

I was wondering whether maybe I had her eye color confused with Amy Irving's, since AI was the first choice to play Marion. They really looked a lot alike, especially back then. I just checked, and nope! She's got the same blueish hazel eyes that Karen Allen does. Go figure...:-)

Any thoughts about the chin?

-Mike

Have you tried the poser magnets? What programs have besides Poser? Just asking cause quite a few progs can be used to make morphs like: Zbrush, Anim8or, Rhino..... ect I could try in zbrush for ya riggsj@ev1.net 'Jess' ya, I'd say those eyes a type of Hazel, green hazel or blue hazel or even blue/green hazel; can't tell exactly, could actually be the kind that changes colors too. Mine do that concidering what mood I'm in, or what I'm wearing. jelisa_j

Jelisa: hm, I hadn't thought of the magnets...I should try them.

I have Amapi 5.15 and Art of Illusion, but I really don't understand either of those - do you think they could work?

I appreciate the offer of help using zbrush - I'm not really familiar with it and don't have it - and I'll definitely consider taking you up on it. If I were to do so, what would you need? Just the face? The whole figure? I only ask because I think the character file is pretty huge.

That's a whole other issue I've been meaning to ask about, actually - how do you keep the file size relatively manageable on new characters? Still so much to learn...sigh...;-) -Mike

Mike, you'd need to export the head only out as a morph target and send that. Since we have all the Victoria's this won't be problem if you send it, no copyright violations, etc. -dar (Now if I could just get Jess to log in using her own ID - :P)

Only the head, huh? Sounds pretty simple. It's probably going to have to wait a couple of days, though - I'm a grad student, and I have major deadlines tomorrow and Friday. When it is ready, where do I send it? And who do I thank - Jess, jelisa, dar, the Academy...? ;-) -Mike

Oops, forgot to actually read. It's the ev1.net address, isn't it? You'd never know that I'm an English major, would you? -Mike

heh, yes, the ev1 address is fine, that's my sister Jessica (who has promised to remember to log in to her own account next time).

Ratteler: you're definitely right about the jawline. I wasn't entirely happy with that to begin with. It'll take some tweaking, obviously. I also agree that in these photos, at least, she does not have cheek dimples. However, I think she does have slight ones - more apparent in some more recent photos. Still, perhaps I should at least tone these down?

I also agree about the eyes and brow, but I wasn't aware that I could change the slant of either. Not quite sure I'm following you about moving the rest of the face back - how do I do that?

Thanks for the tips - I'll try 'em out soon. -Mike

Very, very interesting. Re Vicky 2: I'd rather avoid that if possible, as this took me many, many hours in Vicky 1. I don't have Lightwave, but I'll see what I can come up with...if all else fails, maybe this'll give me an excuse to get it. -Mike

yup, its fine to send me the whole head, but not actualy neccessary I think. Since I can use Victorias head, make the chin morph and send it to you. And is it my imagination, or does she have a sort of dimple under her lip? Anything else besides the chin you see that you can't do with V1 morphs concidering any comments above? oh, and have you vistied Morph World? Traveler still has some morphs up to use on Victoria, might be some in the packs to help. http://www.morphworld30.com/index.html Jess

Ratteler: thanks for the tip about Roxanne. I do have Vicky 2, but I'd rather not start all over if I don't have to.

Jess: I'd never heard of Morph World. Just headed over there - very cool. I think you are right about the lip dimple, too. If you'd be willing to make the chin morph and/or lip dimple, that would be terrific! Probably the easiest address to send it to is oidupaa@yahoo.com . Many, many thanks in advance. -Mike

:) was the spot for morphs some time back, still is in a way. as you can see by the cd archive he had a lot up. Also any downloaded free victoria characters and use cr2 editor to copy over the morphs, usually there are no hitches with included morphs. Yup, will do. Jess

Jess: got your morphs today. Wow! It'll take me a while to play around with these, but I'll post results when I have 'em.
Thanks :-)
-Mike

:) YW! understandable and I'll be looking forward to it. I'd say I've been using poser for about 4 years, but boy do I wish they had zbrush back then, you can make morphs with any program, even TS, but Zbrush is the best morph tool I've ever come upon. It so much like modeling clay without the fuss and I'll don't feel bad at all about starting a over or have to buy more clay cause I don't want to G < ok end rant. But it wasn't that hard, nor is using magnets in poser, once you get into them, it just gets easier and easier. Magnets do have limits though, I've not been able to get fine details and some things you have to use so many magnets, I loose track; which is why I've had to look elsewhere. True Space is such a round about way of converting it back I had to give up on it. By the way in case you didn't know, Caligari is giving away TS3.2, a good tool to supplement Poser and Bryce: http://www.activeworlds.com/products/truespace.asp its like 20 mb so make sure you've the space for it, even if its just so you can archive it on cd. It'll be the TS All link you'll want. sign up, write down the number you'll need to use it (put in safe place), bookmark the download page (just in case) but under no circumstances link other poeple to it, cause unless they have a register # they can't use it. Download it. Jess

Jess: thanks for the tip about TS3. I use a Mac, but I wonder whether I might be able to run it under Virtual PC...-Mike

In case anyone is still keeping track, I've kept working on this on and off for the past month. I've done a fair amount of redesigning of the face - not so noticeable here, perhaps, but very noticeable in side view. I've changed the eye color somewhat and tried to give the pupils more of a sense of depth. Still working on tweaking the shape and depth of the eyes, though.

The biggest change, of course, is the texture. I've spent the bulk of my time creating an entirely new head and body texture (the first body texture I've ever done, and only the second face texture). Still needs some tweaking here and there (seams, mostly), and I need to find a way to add a light dusting of freckles. But I think it's a step forward overall. I'm not sure how much more work I plan to do on it right now, but I thought I'd give you this update as a way of thanking you for all your help.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the texture is not based on Karen Allen, but on another actress (if you can figure out who I'll be very impressed :-) ) - couldn't get a detailed enough photo of KA. -Mike