Hi All,

I've decided to attempt a project I had kept putting off for a long time... This will be my attempt at a manga style male figure to rig in poser to be the same style type as Saint Seiya / Cassurn / Code geass /... long thin stringy anime type.

He's about 5.3k polys right now... I still have to do the inner mouth/teeth/tongue modeling and then finger/toe nails...(and then the uvs for them) but the rest of the uvs are all set up.

After those items are modeled I'll divide and detail, paint and bump.

it might have taken a bit more time than other projects for the time but it will be worth it (me hopes). Just think of all the cool armor/clothing types later on! Weeeeee!!!!..... i'mageeek. BUt I figured I needed to make a figure to go along with Manga Doll!

EDIT: As of writing this I have the other items almost done..... He's up to 50k right now (not shown).

Hmm,looks like the image got squished even though I resized it down... I don't know why. I'll try to fix that next update.

Nice work.  

Looking good, but you may need to do some subdivision on the penis, it looks a bit angular at the moment.

On a more serious note, I suspect that modelling the mouth open, as you have, will turn out to be a good idea.

haha lesbentley... I didn't know where I might post this online so I decided to cover up. More coming soon!

Question: What do people prefer... Legs or Thighs and Legs? I'm cutting up my figure now and was thinking about what to do. I personally like the thigh/leg option for more control. But everyone is so used to V4 that I'd like a second opinion.

Update:

This is the final res of my new figure. He's been UV'd, detailed, cut up, has the internal names and is about ready to start the rigging process in poser. I think I'll start doing this tomorrow or the next... this way I can paint textures when I want to take a break from rigging!

Let me know what you think! This time he's uncensored....

I know he's a bit heavy........ 113,000 polys. But that's how I roll.

right click and select "view image" to get a non squished version.... I don't know why this is happening.... it's set at 800 width, but didn;t matter when i sized it down...

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/media/folder_9/file_420310.jpg

I just wish everybody would STOP subdeviding.
At 113.000 poly's you WILL run into SERIOUS rigging trouble.

Why??
There just is not enough room for the vertices to go to.

Stop subdeviding and concentrate on quality rigging. 

I've rigged tons and tons of figures... I have no issues at all with falloff, weight maps, bulges, etc... With high poly count models. All of my figures are 60-120k. My figures are heavy cause I list to use displacement maps (higher count renders better disp maps in my experience in maya) and love to go crazy offering tons of morphs. I would rather error on the side of offering "too many options".

But still, no rigging issues. Ever. I don't understand what you mean by "no room for the vertices to go". Please explain. Also... I think my rigging quality is pretty refined...

Is the figure going to be weight mapped, or have a traditional rig?

phion, to get non-squished img in this forum, paste following code in fsck editor (text entry box) after clicking "html" in upper left:

this will show thumbnail of proper proportions but reduced to forum width (600 px). then when they click img, it will go full-size.

Ah, thanks miss nancy.

Lesbentley: I think I'll be doing both. I will rig traditionally, like I always do, do the falloffs and buldges, morphs/etc... Then save. Then I will work that figure into a P9 only version with weight maps. That seems like the best way to do it in my head. I don't think I will to a weightmapped daz version (cause I havn't done it before yet, maybe I could try it) but at least the regualr rigged version will be daz friendly.

I'm still waiting to hear if anyone has a logical pref: Leg or thigh and leg.... I think I may just go leg. I think I will move the hip up a notch to the ab area to give better pelvic movement.

Too late. I've started the rig (finished adding bones and naming)... I've gone with just the leg, not thigh leg. Any oddities from sitting/extreme movement will come from jcm or weights.

So moving on to more long term items I would like to ask everyone about...

1. I have not really ever made a real "kickass" material or skin shader for my products. Most are good, but nothing jaw dropping. Anyone have a skin shader tutorial? I've looked at the tut section here before but never really found what I'm looking for. I mean, I see theads and what not, but mostly I see things I never use plugged in to other things I don't use over and over again. I realize this just means I need to try them out.... Mind you I get 80% of the work done by texture and bump or displacement... but I need that extra "I don't know what" (dr. evil ref).

1. Should I even bother with a backwards friendly version? Should I just do a p9 version and not look back? I'd like to hear from people.

1. I'm open to additional suggestions, I'd like to hear from people what I definatly need to include with him! (beyond hair and a pair of whitie-tighties)

The model is looking really fantastic, I really like the style you're going for. 

About compatibility with older versions of poser, It would be a shame to limit the possibilities given by Poser's weight mapping, I would personally aim to the newest technology available. However, I'm not a vendor :P

Yeah. As I'm adjusting the falloff zones here I am seeing the limitations I'm putting on myself by not just saying "the hell with it" and going p9 only.

I'm still interested to know if anyone wants a p8 or below version... I'm thinking I might save myself some time if I just go all out P9+. It's hard not to justify a "only the best" version... going backwards to a p8 version is forcing me to see a now "sub-par" possiblility, which I do not like one bit.

So unless someone can give a valid arguement (and soon) he will be a p9+ only, ie. no daz either.

Wireframes were requested somewhere else, so i figured I'd post them here as well.

flex test 1... about 60% of the weight map done. no jcms yet. just an update.

it's looking impressive IMVHO.

the upper arms look very strange to me, the legths, musculature and ratio to the lower arms looks very odd. Is that an anime style thing? the joins of the head/neck chest also looks a little odd, but works stylistically

As far as mesh desnity affecting displacement. Absolutely no difference in poser /ds/bryce/carrara.  I've made incredibly detailed displacements on a single poly. Its all about the textures there.

also something to remember .. in poser every morph adds the file weight of the origial obj again. So if the figure is 1 meg, a figure with 3 full body morphs is 4 megs.  For this reason alone a lower polycount version might be a good idea

Lyrra

As for proportions, yep, it's an anime/manga thing. If you google some anime like "Cassurn" or "saint seiya" from my original post, you'll see!

I took a pause from rigging today to work a little on the skin. Again, no texture yet, just shaders. My lighting isn't that great and still needs a refine (and qualities on render settings low too)

Guys, don't forget the nudity tags for any additional nude images.  Each post needs to be tagged if it contains nudity.   ~ Thanks

Very sorry about missing that one!!

Looks good.

Quote - Very sorry about missing that one!!

No worries, it happens.  :)  

Wow he really looks impressive! I love his look :D

I would love to do some cloth for him.

Quote - Wow he really looks impressive! I love his look :D

I would love to do some cloth for him.

I agree, looks like nice character.

Quote - No morphs yet.... Still working on the weight maps... As you can see, I've made the eyelids and brows weightmapped as well as other things.

I like the fact that you used bones in the face instead of morphs. To me, the bones give you a little more freedom with the expressions. They will also cut down on the morph bloat. If you can get away with a standard sphere zone on it, it cuts the weight map out as well.

A little food for thought:

You can do about the same thing as a fbm with bones. Not that it is a good idea to do so simply because of the number of bones involed, but it drastically cuts down on the characters file save size. Morphs with bones also seem to work better as far as joints that are morphed versus joints that are not when bending them.

Quote -
At 113.000 poly's you WILL run into SERIOUS rigging trouble.

I have rigged characters in Poser that are close to half a million polygons just on the outer skin, and they bend fine. I will have to consider that statement disinformation based on experience.

Thanks vincebagna and shvrdavid...

I thought I'd give a simple facial rig a try. So I am using the eyebrows, and eyelashes as controllers for movement, as well as other controllers that you cannot see in renders (but can clearly see in my original images)... I have them for the ears and I'm trying out ones for the cheekbones. Other more obvious ones you see at the tip of the tongue and the penis are for movement, which I have/will add(ed) master dials for simple repetitive movements. I've also taken the time to do the same thing for the hands, ie Fist, Spread fingers, fingers together....

I'm still taking suggestions. So anything you suggest might just make it in! I took some time out today to start a color map. I havn't gone into any detail, but I want to see how this material is comming out so far, so I thought it time to give him a bit of color. I will add more detail once I'm ready to do the bump at the same time. I'll post once I have a chance to open poser, add them, and render.

This looks pretty cool to me, and I love the way he bends.  

That's looking really good.

I have never really been interested in manga or anime (I know, I know, whats wrong with me?), but I am definitely beginning to see the appeal of this figure.  He really does look like he bends very well.  He looks very promising indeed.

I'm impressed!  Can't wait to see the final product.  Very, very well done.

Great job!  Nice back muscle definition.  some modellers dont' worry much about the back but I think the back is very important.

I'm still working on Manga Man, making him the best he can be. I'm about done with the rigging and weights (i think), now it will be on to finishing the texture / bump maps... and then to morphs.

It's just been to hot to work, so I've taken a small break. I'll be posting more again soon!

Excellent! Hope it cools down so you can get back to work on him.

testing FBM... this is 2 fbm on top of each other... wip

I know it's been awhile for an update... i had to work on a few other items.

How's he going? Any news?

I had to take a brief pause on this guy to work on something more "mainstream" to my, hem "other" store.... i have started again on him this week, though I do think I have to redo his full body morphs. Something when wrong in the mesh vert order on his head. So, I have to redo a few things. Small set back, but as soon as that is finished I just need to get get started on something for him to wear!!

Anyone have a good idea what kind of clothing he should have? If he were to be released with ONE type of outfit.... what would you have him dressed like?

Just ONE outfit? Argh... decisions.... :)

I think I'd most like some kind of military-type dress uniform. With a long coat, definitely!