Got a little carried away toying about with W3D. Model started as a sphere. Model sectioned in W3D exported as Obj file. The mouthparts consisting of mandibles and leg feelers connected to the head were modeled in 3DSMax for ease of modeling. Mouthparts rescaled and repositioned in Wings3D and exported again as an obj file.

Obj model was brought into UVMapper Pro for mapping. After mapping the individual maps for the head, eyes, mouth parts, forelegs spiked claws and outer set of wings were brought into Photoshop for texturing design and supplying diffuse, specular and bump maps.

The model was then imported into Bryce for texture application and rendering. The model was rendered out in passes consisting of diffuse pass, specular pass, and reflection pass together with object masks of the praying mantis.

All render passes were brought into Photoshop for post processing where the different passes were composited together and the composite of the mantis was selected by virtue of the object mask rendered in Bryce. An image photo provided by 3DSMax called Meadow1.jpg (Royalty free) was used for the background to play around in. The image was then imported into Painter to composite the wild grass in the left forefront.

Excellent job...Superb Modeling and the texturing and the Lighting composite is so top Notch and is very much a superb piece,But man that is one HUGE Mantis compared to the Grass around it...

Heheyeah, I read somewhere that they can grow to 6 inches, I then thought that if I try to get that low in the grass look it wouldnt look so much like a giant monster mantis. I didnt want the mouthparts to go unnoticed so I went in tight. Thats why I placed the grass up close for the sake of scale. Oh well, guess it needed more. Thanks for the comments.

No seriously this is an Awesome Piece and you sure could go for the "Moster Mantis" Theme...Now this is seriously real in a Mantis way.

"The Beginning of the End" (google it). Organic modelling is very hard for me. This is excellent work, Quest.

I did a mantis before myself. Never got around to UV mapping it. It is one of those things that sit on my hardrive waiting for me to find something to do with it.Did a Dragonfly and a wierd tick thing too. Insects are different. They seem to need a mix of organic and mechanical modeling.

One super Mantis.

Mantis good!

LOL @ TJ, "The Beginning of the End" 1957 movie about the story of giant grasshoppers accidentally created at the Illinois State experimental farm. Ack! My storys out and my identity exposed.

Ok, Ive given it another whorl maybe this is a little better.

Alrighty then: where did this quote come from? "Every preditor is the prey of something else" Actually I think that all the mantis needs is some sort of prey (hopefully of the non-rodencia type) or some other sort of interaction with something.

oops, sorry, lol. I was thinking about, "The Deadly Mantis". :^)

Excellent job of modelling Quest!!!!!! 8)

nice model, of this praying grasshopper.

LOLoriginally I was just going to post the W3D model up just to show it off all by itself. That was my original intention and be done with it. Then I decided to throw a quickie impromptu mock-up background but the render had no direction to it. Granted, the scaling was off and I came back to add reference wild grass to aid. But yeah, Bikermouse points out the obvious, the mantis needed something to interact with. So now, Ive gone back and provided our predator mantis with a possible scrumptious meal. A nice fat and juicy butterfly. Ill not be made privy to this cannibalistic act, this is where I draw the line. I did not want to have the mantis popping off the butterflys head in one quick bite from its powerful mandibles and watching all its little guts spill out all over the place.

The wings of the butterfly is a terrain. After creating the butterfly I posted the original image on a 2D plane and positioned the butterfly model where I wanted it to be, this way, I could capture the transparency of its wings and later be able to composite it back onto the prior rendered image.

Tah dahattack of the deadly mantis. LOLthe praying grasshopper.

Excellent! I'm so glad I've gotten to see this finally, after all that talk, :^D Wow, it looks so good. I like the second render with it surrounded by grass better. Gives it a better scale, plus they like to be camoflauged so you wouldn't normally catch one out in the open. Unless, it was a monster mantas looking for little humans to attack!!! ;)

Ah poor butterfly!

it starts out so innocently..simple program, 'I'll try this'..and before you know it..Ka-ching!..we got another one..;)
6" praying Mantii? I've seen them up to 10" in NC, up close and personal..;)

Mmmmm...butterflies.

Awesome work...

Message edited on: 02/28/2006 13:25

Excellent modeling and composite render Quest!! Wings is fun to just mess around with,lol. You might even find that its inherent simplicity makes it a useful adjunct to 3DSMax. I find your workflow on this project very interesting because you used five different apps to achieve this superb result.

Hmmm, five different apps for one render. That sounds like something Pakled might do.;-)

Excellent job, and well explained! I just wish I had your talents!

Errmmm.. for the pics with the butterfly, shouldn't it be a "Preying Mantis"? :-))

Cheers,
Diolma

Any chance of it being rigged for Poser?
(expected answer = "Naah.")

Message edited on: 02/28/2006 15:27

Yeah, thats a great idea Diolma! Rig the mantis for use in Poser! It wouldn't be very long before we had a slew of NVIATWAM pics,lol.

Diolmanaah! LOLfirst, thanks, I take that as a compliment. Let me just say that Im sorry but I didnt design the model with Poser in mind. If I had, I would have segmented and named the groups differently for easier attaching and tuning of the rig. The model is almost 9MB big (without the texture maps). I would have streamlined the poly count down manually and by putting it through Polygon Cruncher in 3DMax before applying uv mapping. To do this now, even without re-segmenting and proper name grouping would mean losing all uv mapping and having to re-uv map the model but I didnt document how each group was coordinate aligned (x,y,z axis) and/or if rotated or the map was applied interactively rotated about the group and so on. So I would have to try and remember which map coordinates and what type (planar, cylindrical, spherical, polar, boxed I experimented with them all for the best fit) type of uv map by trial and error and seeing if the present texture maps fit. Not to mention that Im not that proficient in Poser and it takes time to rig a prop mesh first to a skeleton and then fine tune the joints and rotation order, then assigning IK chains it would take me several hours of often frustrating work. But if you, or anyone else would like to give it a try, Id be more than happy to offer the mantis as a freebie and you can do the rigging. The only thing I ask is that you share it with others as well and put one aside for me. LOLDanamo NVIATWAM? Yup, this one only took five. All are part of my toolbox. I use whatever I think makes it easier for me to accomplish the final result and the tools are not always the same. Now, for the ones I didnt mentionwell, lets just say there are many. ;)

Message edited on: 03/02/2006 01:28

Alas, my rigging experience is limited to "toe in the water" stuff. I intend to get into it someday tho. One of the advantages of insects is that they don't have any "soft" bits, so no need for fall-off zones and all the trouble they cause. But I get your point:-)) Ah well, it was just a shot in the dark.. Might try modelling one myself, just to prove to myself I can't do it. (Diolma exits, stage left, mumbling something that sounds suspiciously like "here a sphere, there a sphere, everwhere a sphere, sphere") ..... Cheers Diolma