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Here is the same character but for a different book in the trilogy when she is 12 and... getting attacked on a boat by a different alien. :rolleyes:
Crits please! Be harsh!
Right now I feel like her pose is a bit unnatural but I can't put my finger on why. The boat is supposed to be tipping as the crab climbs on and the bottom of the boat is supposed to be filled with seaweed that she had harvested, so maybe once those elements are in it won't seem so weird.
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really nice work so far. only thing i could crit about this pose is that her hands seem too close together on the oar (i would try her left hand at the very bottom of the handle), and the oar might be too upright at that point in her swing. im thinking typical samurai sword poses...at that point in the swing, the blade/oar tip would be more pointed at the ground (assuming she knows a little about smashing aliens with oars i guess:)).
also, if the boat is tipping at this exact moment, she is trying to keep her balance. maybe try bending her knees a bit more? im not sure what to say, in these situations i usually just try to get up and pose myself or imagine the situation and do some trial and error until it looks, or 'feels' right. i might even try one where she is jumping/falling forward...
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From an animators standpoint, if the crab is tipping the boat forward tow things would happpen 1) the character would fall in the direction of the tipping boat or backwards depending on the speed of the disturbance or 2) the character would compensate for the lean and continue with their movements. If the character were falling the head and shoulders would lead the movement, generally. The reason the pose looks off is that the hips are back and the shoulders forward. Move the hips towards the crab and arch the back away from it. This will also make the swing look more porwerful. Imo.
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On the other hand, you could move the arms and oar further into the strike and curl the torso more towards the crab. So you'd be taking a snapshot later in the swing. Don't bend or twist the wrists either, firm wrists, the strike is all in the arms, which should be almost completely stright on impact and start to bend as they move the weapon through the subject, not relevant in this case. Hope that helps.
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If you want to have a dynamical composition use diagonals and obliques lines to compose. This will give you the feel of movement. For more read Kandinsky book (Point and Line to Plane - basis of modern art of composition ) or anything about that. About the character, to look like she's moving, the projection of center of gravity must be out of her standing base ... like she's falling. In that way she'll be convincing that she'll really hit the alien.
Any way beautiful characters and I hope this help. Good Luck !!!
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Thanks SO MUCH for the detailed feedback, guys. Yeah, this is a challenging composition for many reasons. I will play around with the center of gravity thing. For the hand poses, I had my wife swing a stick and that's where she put her hands. This is a 12 year old girl, (the character, not my wife!) so she is just lashing out in fear and would naturally be quite clumsy about it. Also, I have a general idea of the angle, but since I haven't nailed it down yet I haven't gone in and really designed the angles of the compasition. But I can see that is probably hurting me. I'm familiar with the concept... making Vs and Ms and such with the lines and flow. Though I think I learned that from that Making Comics the Marvel Way or something like that. Maybe I'll check out this Kandinsky guy.
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Another revision.
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And here is a dude winding up to throw a lead weight.
I used Nick Z's basemesh dude as a starting point. Thanks, Nick!
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His throwing arm looks extremely small
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Well... this is just so terrible. So so terrible. My first attempt at rendering. It looks worse than those awful Poser characters on DeviantArt. I'm using Vray in Maya. It took me weeks just to get most of the technical shader stuff sorted out. And THIS is the result. Makes me want to cry. Any tips?
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Why not render in ZBrush using Best Preview Render (BPR). Then you can composite the background in after.
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I'm working on testing this out. How does that work with all the different elements though? How can I keep a consistent camera and light set up for all the different characters? And is there a way to plug in specular maps?
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I'm not really sure how to set it up for multiple characters, but to get spec you use different materials and composite them.
Check out this thread.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=074301