A base for future horses

[dragaodepapel]

Well, putting airplanes and buildings on the side for now

I need to make some unicorns, dragons ans other great creatures until September, 27, to participate as seller on a sci-fi fans conventions.

And I think a lot on how to make diferent horses like an pure unicorn, a dark unicorn, a pegasus, a nightmare and some "armored" horses from medieval era, in less than 5 weeks.

The solution: use of bones from 3D Studio Max

With the resources of the software to make animations, I made a base for a draft horse, put an esqueleton, then change the pose of the horse to something near that I want. Minor changes I make by hand.

Some pictures of the work:

- Start of the model. Planes with the views of a horse (obtained from Poser):


- The finished base model, with the Simmetry applied. When a model is symetric, I make only a half of it, then apply the modifier:


- A quick test on Pepakura:

[dragaodepapel]

- Then the squeleton of the horse:


Now I need to correct some problems with the bones and their envelopes, but not a hard thing.

- And another quick test on Pepakura:


Now I hope to make the textures, that need to be almost realistic textures, so quickly like I made the base model.

And, of course, add ears, wings, and other elements

[Gharbad]

I haven't seen animals in CAD before, pretty neat :D

If you're interested, I built a horse kit last year:
Husarz (Polish heavy cavalry)

[Stev0]

Hey ... is that Max 9?

[dragaodepapel]

This is Max 2009 32 bits.

I have an old computer, a Pentium HT 3Ghz (1Gb RAM, GeForce 5 256Mb), and it's runs nicely

Tonight I will work in the basic texture of the horse, that is the eyes, nose, shadows and highlights fos muscles, basic of the fur. With that I can change only the colors to make a lot of unicorns!

Maybe I start a farm for unicorns!! :D Of couse, dragons too. I need a paper dragon, that is the name of my company

[Stev0]

I have yet to play with 2009. I only briefly played with the 30day demo of 2008.

Using bones to deform the mesh for posing is a great idea. Much better than a static and boring pose.

[dragaodepapel]

I played the older versions, 5 and 8, with the student licence. I don't know why the version 8 have a poof performance on my computer. The screen don't redraw.

But I bought this 2009 and I'm very satisfied with it. Of course, when I need to render something more complex I need to use another computer. But, for my paper models projects, it's going very well.

Yesterday I started with the skin. I dreaming with a very very good texture, but, but... first, I'm not a good artist yet, and I have small, very small time to make all the models I need.

First I get the model and apply the UVW mapping. Then I selected the edges to start the Pelt Mapping. This form of mapping is excelent for organic models. And I'm surprised that my first attemp on it to get a mapping gives a result very close to the mapping of Poser horses



Then I started the painting on Photoshop (CS2). The fur is hard to make. And reading a lot of tutorials later, I make that:


And a quick render on Max, and I get that:



Well, I'm using now this color to see the work, but I want to desaturate it to make a template. When I need colors, simply put the colored layers above this base.

I make the same thing in skin templates for avatars of Second Life (and it's sell very well :D).

For the first horse for producing, I'm thinking to make a Gypsy Vanner unicorn! The colors and the featers of this breed will be a very good testing. Or maybe a very well detailed Nightmare.

(And I'm thinking here if someone will want to buy my unicorns :D)

[dragaodepapel]

More news from my horse

After a lot of fight with the texture, I get a result. It's not that I want, but, this is my first horse. Next will be better.







Sugestions are welcome!

[dragaodepapel]

Then, I put it on a pose, and start to create the parts on Pepakura.

The problem of this model: a lot of small parts!!!

I'm thinking that my horse is a wrong idea :(

[Stev0]

You may have to simplify much of your design. From a quick glimpse I can see that there are some parts of the mesh that you can do without.

Also I noticed that there are some proportional issues with the head and body.


Here is a good reference as an example.