Most Poser Twi'lek enthusiasts know, we have two choices for lekku, both from PhilC. I found a third option from Jarok, no longer available on the internet.

Anywho, been learning Cinema 4D but not having much luck with modelling new lekku and lekkuwrap.

The idea was this. Create a nicer set of lekku, then release multiple style lekku wraps over time. I know of at least 8 different lekku covering types, and I am sure there are more.

So since I can't do it myself, I am asking if there is anyone interested in modelling this. It would be a very used freebie, and could lead to other collaborations.

Let me know if anyone is interested.

Well i wouldn't mind donating some free time but i will need help in making the stuff poser compatible. This is what i'm currently working on (as an example of my work):

Can't even be bothered to reply eh ? Well good luck with the project then mate.

Sorry about that. Was just waiting for more replies to gage overall interest. Was also talking with some other Twi'lek artists about co-operatively funding the project.

So it's not about "not even bothering". Just trying to get all the ducks in a row so to speak. 

Any help is welcome. I don't know how to make stuff Poser compatible, so we'd have to figure that out together. 

I'm also sorry for over-reacting. Been a brutal few days at work and it was lack of sleep and stress talking. Feel really stupid about my previous post now.

Anyways if you are still interested then point me to some nice refs and i'll get started on this. We can figure out the poser stuff later. Also i'm assuming that you want to go for V3 or V4 first ?

V4 was the only requirement for my use. Anything beyond that would be up to you. I am without time right now to give full examples, but you will find many examples among the screenshots here:

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=your_stuff&user_id=7323

I too have been seeking a nice lekku conforming or otherwise.  It seems a lot of quality Star Wars stuff is hard to come by.  Fear of George Lucas sicking you with a gungan movie I suppose.

I wonder if the 7 year difference in posts is going ot be any issue here? LMAO!

What do the things you're talking about look like?
I don't know what to look for in the link you gave :(

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
BadKittehCo Store  BadKittehCo Freebies and product support

Attached Link: http://images.google.com/images?q=twilek

> Quote - What do the things you're talking about look like?

They're the head "tentacles".

I would be interested, I use 3DS Max and I could probally do some work on them with that. However, there is a limit to what I can do, i am a fairly new user for 3DS Max. 

~Hutton~

Looks like a good candidate for some cool easy-pose rigging :)

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
BadKittehCo Store  BadKittehCo Freebies and product support

Well if anyone is still interested in helping, I am more than ready to see this made available for the community.

Count me in for sure. As i've said, I'm not brill, but I am more than up to doing a challange, and i like to think I am a quick learner. 

~Hutton~

Alright, well the first step for you to test your skill ability would be to make a simple tentacle type thing, and see if you can rig it with Poser compatible bones. If you can do that, then we're in business!!!

ive attempted something like your asking before.
but i made a displacement map and texture for PhilC's oola lekkus instead of a mesh for the swg style lekku wraps.

ive looked to see if ive still got them some where but my texture files are a mess and i cant remember what i even called it.

ill see if i can make them again, as i play a twix in swg i know roughly what your after.

Which figure(s) do you guys want this for?

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
BadKittehCo Store  BadKittehCo Freebies and product support

Quote - Alright, well the first step for you to test your skill ability would be to make a simple tentacle type thing, and see if you can rig it with Poser compatible bones. If you can do that, then we're in business!!!

My understanding is that this would be for V4 (v3/aiko fits could be made later if need be).

I've had some success with poser rigging and the grouping tool (though admittedly I've still got a lot to learn). Once an OBJ/prop is modelled I could attempt to take it from there if need be.

The strong do as they can while the weak do as they must.

Alright, let's open it up then to the entire community as a project. 

Here is the dream:

The SCI-FI TENTACLE (avoids copyright issues)

A single tentacle, with bone rigging, in Poser. Base model is V4, with hopeful fits for V3/A3/M3 at some point. 

Why a single tentacle? It gives it much more use to the community. One of the morphs of course is a default "two tentacle attached to head" which looks oddly like Star Wars lekku :)

What other morphs? 

• tapering - how thick to thin it goes from head to tail. 
• fatness - how fat is the lekku overall
• pointy - are the tips pointy or curved
• length - how long are they
• head curves - various morphs for wrapping the lekku around the head in various style, much like in SWG. There are many reference photos available if needed
• suction cups - for those wanting to use it not as a lekku, might be nice to have suction cups on your tentacle

There is of course, a merchant possibility here as well. A lekku wrap set. I know of 6 different lekku wraps that are common for lekku, with many reference pics, that could be created as a merchant set for the sci-fi tentacle.

This project has been something approached on and off since the early days of V3. It would be REALLY nice to finally see it get off the ground.

Quote - Alright, let's open it up then to the entire community as a project. 

Here is the dream:

The SCI-FI TENTACLE (avoids copyright issues)

Actually, I dunno if George Lucas can chase you for that... he's not the only one to have used such a concept in a movie.

/P

ive done a very basic lekkuticle to see how many bones would be best.

this is a basic taperd cylinder with 20 bones in it.

its easy to drag around to fit and get some drapes. not sure if more bones would be better or if 20 is enough, 
as i said, this is a test .

im including the lekkutilcle for you to try, just bung it in your charecter folder and i hope it works cos ive never uploaded a poser object before lol

http://www.freewebs.com/diaxus/twix20%project.zip

Nice work Diaxus.

Sorry, i'm gonna have to pull out. Too much real life stuff. However, if you need help testing things or whatever, I'll lend a hand. 

Sorry!

~Hutton~

ive been thinking about certain twix helms and head dresses, it may be easyer to make some of those head dress's and helm's with lekkus attached to them rather than a set of lekkus and try to fit stuff around, something like Maya did with her hairs with hats.

btw, i love this thread, its made me want to do something again, and its been such a  long time since i posted anything to a forum or comunity, last one i think was cybertown where i actualy created and posted stuff

I can see certain benefits to the head dress approach with lekku attached. Problem I see there, though minimal, is you then have to re-apply your lekku morphs and textures every time you switch head dresses. Not a biggy really.

Was playing with your lekku. They are a really nice start. Not as smooth as I would like, but for a first go, they are phenomenal.

Quote - Most Poser Twi'lek enthusiasts know, we have two choices for lekku, both from PhilC. I found a third option from Jarok, no longer available on the internet.

Anywho, been learning Cinema 4D but not having much luck with modelling new lekku and lekkuwrap.

The idea was this. Create a nicer set of lekku, then release multiple style lekku wraps over time. I know of at least 8 different lekku covering types, and I am sure there are more.

So since I can't do it myself, I am asking if there is anyone interested in modelling this. It would be a very used freebie, and could lead to other collaborations.

Let me know if anyone is interested.

 

Might be able to help out myself, only one small problem lol....  Don't have a clue as to what Lekku is, so I'd need some reference pictures. 

Stepdad

Attached Link: http://images.google.com/images?q=Lekku

> Quote - Don't have a clue as to what Lekku is, so I'd need some reference pictures.

See attached link.

started some ideas on headwear. again not finished (becoming a habit lol) but along the right lines i hope.

(the V4 cowl is used aswell) and has a basic material used for test

Again, fantastic start. I think the twi'lek lovers will be impressed. I know I am. 

Here's some of the more common head dresses:

http://www.thereddoor.net/swg/swgskill/skillclothes_images/screenShot0077-01.jpg

http://www.thereddoor.net/swg/swgskill/skillclothes_images/screenShot0081-01.jpg

http://www.thereddoor.net/swg/swgskill/skillclothes_images/screenShot0084-01.jpg

http://www.thereddoor.net/swg/swgskill/skillclothes_images/screenShot0085-01.jpg

http://www.thereddoor.net/swg/swgskill/skillclothes_images/screenShot0086-01.jpg

Just for more reference.

The other important thing for this is lekku markings. The UV map will need to be good for users. Lekku can be striped, spotted, blended, and have no markings at all at times. Please keep that in mind also when making the UV map for texturing please. :)

Quote - The other important thing for this is lekku markings. The UV map will need to be good for users. Lekku can be striped, spotted, blended, and have no markings at all at times. Please keep that in mind also when making the UV map for texturing please. :)

Fantastic work so far Diaxus, I haven't had a chance to try out the first file but I can't wait to (perhaps later tonight). I would concur on the UV map. One issue with the existing lekku figures out there is that the UV map was done in such a way that if you added marking or letters to the texture they would get smaller and smaller the further down the lekku you went, which made it hard to keep a consistent pattern from end to end. I'm not sure how to correct something like that on a mesh that itself would be tapered at the end, but it's something to think about.

The strong do as they can while the weak do as they must.

ive now done a 40 boned version of a lekku, its much more softer when moved (especialy if you use every other bone in one direction) and has much better drape. but it can get out of control quite quickly if drag moved. ive tryed to UV map it, but i dont think it worked correctly so ive added a basic texure that is seen in the pic, i will try to re map it later whan i have all small glitches out of it (theres a couple of polys gone astray i noticed)

im thinking ill be going with this lekku instead of making another, and just work out a few things with this now (including the stray polys)

mainly ive got to work out how to attach this to the head.?

is it worth making a skull cap and parenting two lekkus to it to fit V4 ( similar to philC's set), that way the lekkus can be detached for hat/helm fits? this could be a pain to get textures to fit and alot of morphs may be needed to created to fit all of V4s head shape morphs?

or

try and make a V4 head morph that will shape the head into a more twilek shape so the parented lekkus will have a more natural fit? 
if this is the best way, then i made need some help, i know i can alter V4s head mesh , but im not sure where to go from there, save morph i think , but injects im realy not sure how to do.

anyway, heres the file for lekku2 to play with again

http://www.freewebs.com/diaxus/lekku2.zip

Wow, fantastic work so far! I see what you mean about the amount of bones. If anyone knows how to apply "ez-pose" stuff that might help things out.

As for the head, the benefit of a PhilC style skull cap is that you can more easily transfer the lekku from one figure to another by just adjusting the skull cap instead of making morphs on each different character (V4, V3, Aiko, etc). There's no real need to inject V4 or V3 morphs into it that way either, as few morphs affect the mesh above the forehead.

Would it be possible to make the skull cap and lekku one piece a la PhilC's model?

On the other hand, at this point perhaps it would be easier to make different skull caps/head wraps and just parent the lekku to them?

In any event, again, superb work so far.

The strong do as they can while the weak do as they must.

I agree. Fantastic work!

I am really fine with them being free or parented to the head, as there is no one correct position for them. They are as personal as haircuts to humans. Some have them hanging almost vertically, others have them sticking out on an upwards angle.

What really will make this downloaded a LOT is the flexibility. The ability to choose those morphs we talked about earlier. Fatness on head, taper, etc etc.

But geez, this is fantastic. Had to say it again!

ive managed to style a skullcap from spawning a prop of V4s head, this is the only way i could get anything to fit that looked as good as i wanted.  i recon as hair skull caps have to be done this way, its not against copyright against DAZ

so cos is a spawn of the mesh, the head textures fit perfectly 8)

the prop is special proped to the head so should fit straight away ( i hope)

with a bit of fiddling the lekku2's can be attached in quite a few different ways to the skull cap and still retain some degree of naturality.

also ive found the lekkus map size fits inside most V4 head textures, so with psp or photoshop, you can crop the head texture to fir the lekku map and have the same rough skin map ( a handy random find)

ive still got a bit more work on these to be good enough to put as a freebie for general download, but im getting there

file down load as normal,

http://www.freewebs.com/diaxus/Lekku20%project.zip

It looks great. I'd love to try it out but the link doesn't seem to be working for me.

The strong do as they can while the weak do as they must.

this should work now i hope

http://www.freewebs.com/diaxus/lekkuproject.zip

I can't seem to get either link to work either. Maybe you are just tesing us :P

sorry its not working correctly, it should work? ill get a friend to help work out why there not working over the weekend. im not used to uploading stuff, maybe a realy esay fix but i aint giving up on this, and more content may me added to the upload when it works.

again sorry its not working correctly (realy Fs me off)

If you want to email it to me, I can host it for you.

Ok, this should be the right link: www.freewebs.com/diaxus/lekkuproject.zip

It works now, thanks a bunch!

The strong do as they can while the weak do as they must.

I did not seem to have a problem with phile's I just played with it until it looked right which did not take much time I also parented it to another vivtoria figure with slimmer morphs I may have over morphed her.

PhilCs lekku sets are perfectly fine, and this thread is not saying there bad or anything, but the orginal post asked for a set of new lekus with a blank head and more poseable to be made for a set of head wraps that could be made  for them with out any other head adornment.(or that the way ive interpreted them)

this way we can make more stuff for a set that we can come up with, the set im working on i hope will be used by other artists  just as much as phil's set.

admitedly i have gone astray from the idea for lekkiu wraps with whats poss going to be a 3 part lekku system that will make texturing and templating a bit harder than i first thought.

nice pic btw

I was very happy with the lekku set PhilC made for me. No complaints. Just hoping that this new project will give us something a little more 'smoothed', with more options for headwraps etc. 

Just a natural evolution is all. PhilC will always be a great one in my books.

Chimera just pointed out the existence of this thread to me!  I am very excited to see the work going on in here!  Hopefully I'll have a little more free time in the near future to hang around and provide feedback.  Everything I've seen so far looks quite impressive!

¤~Giolon~¤

¤~ RadiantCG ~¤~ My Renderosity Gallery ~¤

Did someone mention they wanted EasyPose?

Quote - Did someone mention they wanted EasyPose?

Sweetness! If you have a place to host that/make it available i'll see what I can do to add a taper/thinness morph.

The strong do as they can while the weak do as they must.

Quote - > Quote - Did someone mention they wanted EasyPose?

Sweetness! If you have a place to host that/make it available i'll see what I can do to add a taper/thinness morph.

Not quite done it yet.  I intend to have the morphs ready to go, and possibly one or two extras.

ive had to take the skull cap off, found out i cant use any part of a daz charecter including mesh from polys, so ill work on another. if youve already downloaded it, not alot i can do lol

So this is where I'm at now.

I did a complete new mesh and boned it, then set it up for EasyPose.  Obviously it's not entirely smooth near the tip, but as long as you don't go for extreme closeups in extreme poses, it's not bad.  You can't see it in this image but the base extends for a bit inside the head and is rounded so there's some flexibility in positions.  Also not visible in this image is that it's been cylindrically UV mapped.

Also, I did an ear morph for the V4 head.  I've looked at enough pictures from Lucasfilm and associated material that makes it clear the female Twi'lek ear is a cone (as opposed to the human looking male ear).

Next on the agenda are some headmorphs in ZBrush.  I'm thinking at least two, probably three, as there are significantly different assorted headshapes that have been portrayed.  They're almost as bad as Klingons.

It's too bad about the daz thing, though I suppose any kind of head covering could be made or adapted instead of using a skin cap. Failing that and aside from making a skin cap from scratch, perhaps magents could be used to change the V4/V3/whatever mesh itself?

Great work keith, I don't think any of the existing lekku sets are that smooth near the tip anyways. The ezPose system definitely makes for some new possibilities with lekku, I look forward to seeing more as it progresses.

The strong do as they can while the weak do as they must.

Here they are with basic texturing, as well as showing the ear morph.  No other morphing done on the head, obviously.

Alrighty then, in a fit of over-eagerness, I did yet another complete rebuild.  Seen in the picture is the brand new Twin Lekku model.  Both tentacles Easy-Posed, and parented to a small object mesh that sits inside the model's head.

They are displayed on my brand spanking new Twil'Lek head morph.  Unfortunately the merger of the head and the tentacles isn't going to get much better. The back of the head has a lot fewer polygons than the front so it's not easy to get a neat junction like you can with, say, the DAZ horns and associated morphs.  The only way of making it seamless (or close enough), short of massive polygon pushing on the head (which I have not the time nor inclination for) would be a skin cap.

Still, it's not too bad and if someone did want to make it look seamless in post, it's a lot easier now than my previous version.

Ok, really liking all the work being put into these models! Wow.

Keith, your brand new twi'lek head morph. I respect your view on the whole ear morph thing, but there is a school of camp that believes it's more a cultural thing that they cover their ears. I belong to that camp.

Is it possible for you to make the ear morph a separate morph from the head morph? I can see value in having it of course, but wouldn't want to be forced to use it.

As for the head itself, it looks fantastic from both authors!

I am really really glad this thread finally got attention. Tremendous results. 

PS Keith. That's a nice looking N'Varra Wren in your preview up there (the grey twi'lek)

Quote - Ok, really liking all the work being put into these models! Wow.

Keith, your brand new twi'lek head morph. I respect your view on the whole ear morph thing, but there is a school of camp that believes it's more a cultural thing that they cover their ears. I belong to that camp.

Oh, I did too until I looked at the still images from the various films.  There's been a variety of actors who've worn the costume, enough to get a decent range of variation, and the one thing they have in common are the ear bumps.  Most importantly, and what finally switched my opinion, was that they all (when not obviously covered by something) have the exact same texture and colour as the rest of the skin of the chracter.

Of course the morph is on its own as well.

There aren't enough Star Wars items....especially clothing/armor....that work with poser or Daz....I'm glad to see the attention this post has gotten. Good luck with the project guys, can't wait to see the finished product!

Okay, I'm pretty much done for the moment.  I've got two models completed.  The single tail, with its more streamlined front end, is the easiest one to use with minimal head morphing.  The twin tail (the one on the top in the attached image) needs some signficant head morphing to look like it belongs but, on the other hand, the two tails are already there in place.  As I mentioned before the single tail is cylindrically UV mapped, so it's texture-ready.  The twin I haven't run through a mapper yet but it shouldn't be too hard.

I have to say this little project was fun: I finally used the Setup room and used software that I've had hanging around for (literally) years but never really bothered with until now.

Quote - I have to say this little project was fun: I finally used the Setup room and used software that I've had hanging around for (literally) years but never really bothered with until now.

Excellent work, I (and I'm sure everyone else) appreciate the effort you've put into this project thus far and I'm glad you had a chance to try out some new tools.

The strong do as they can while the weak do as they must.

I tweaked the headmorph a bit more to get a bit better blend.  Test render (with human ears, for Warangel) is here.

Well, I got me a Zip file with the figures, a set of INJ/REM poses for the ear and head morphs, and the texture templates for those of more artistically inclined than myself.  Now available at ShareCG.

Well we all know what I will be playing with when I get home tonight.

Looks really good, thanks Keith!

Sweetness, thanks a bunch! I can't wait to try it out.

The strong do as they can while the weak do as they must.

nice work Keith (god i hate that name as its mine aswell lol)

work has kept me away from this project for more time than i wanted, but im still working on my boned version linked to caps.

i hope this thread keeps alive even though keith has uploaded already

Stupid question...long day...how do we go about matching the lekku to the skin textures? Did the zip have the needed files?

Quote - Stupid question...long day...how do we go about matching the lekku to the skin textures? Did the zip have the needed files?

You're on your own for that one.

(As an aside, haven't had much time to work on it: work, travel, conferences, cutting potential multibillion dollar deals that change the political landscape of large chunks of North America...)

Matching the textures IS a bit tricky, but can be done if you have a bit of Photoshop experience. I was fortunate, as my custom N'Varra Wren textures are saved in PSD with layers, so it was pretty easy to move everything I needed onto the lekku template.

I am still trying to work on a better displacement map to do those smooth rings they appear to have in the movies, and hopefully for Keith to start taking some morph requests and lekkuwrap ideas (when he's not so busy with real life.)

Well...I wasn't sure if the files we needed to texture them were included in the file...I guess so...

Quote - Well...I wasn't sure if the files we needed to texture them were included in the file...I guess so...

Acebris: The template for the lekku is in Templates/Northwatcher/Lekku in the Lekku Package zip file from ShareCG.  There is a template for the single lekku or double.  You can paint them with any texture you like in your favorite image editing tool.

Thank you! This has been something so many have wanted for soo long!  I just downloaded it and am so excited to try em out. 

~Crystal

Ah...I see them now...thanks

By the by, the reason for so many subdirectories when they don't appear to be really needed is because I wanted to practice what I preached.  I've been complaining so long about people distributing what I view as crappily organized files that I did it that way to make stuff easier to find if for some reason you unzipped straight to an existing runtime.

Newbie here, with another approach that I stumbled into.

  In Poser 8, you can go into the materials room and pull up your basic windows, then select "browse" and find the texture file for the character you're placing the lekku on. It sounds crazy, but it actually works, and the shading on the character texture map actually creates the subtle skin tone changes which are like the markings on twilek lekku in the movies and comic books. Just don't use the facial texture map...that looks wrong on so many levels. I've used torso, arm, and leg texture maps and gotten a variety of subtle patterns.

  Then go into the advanced materials room and change the color palette on the skin tone. save the color in "customer colors" and apply it to all parts of the character.

  It actually turns out really well, and the extremities for the arms and legs aren't descernable because the attach to the smaller end of the lekku.

  I used this technique on my image "Ta'tyana TEST IMAGE" (see above). The skin texture and character are Lilah for V4. All I did was apply the skin texture from the torso texture file and change the color in the material room. No post work at all.