digital actor

# 1 04-07-2006 , 03:06 PM

Registered User
Join Date: May 2004

Location: Utah, USA

Posts: 369

I'm working on a short sci-fi movie right now and July is modelling month!! This is the month I'm using to model as many of the creatures and spaceships as I can to try to stay on schedule.

Yesterday I started working on a digital actor to stand in for the real actor during scenes that require "unusual behavior". The picture below is what I've come up with after about 5 hours of work. It's no prize winner but in the movie it will never be featured in a close-up so, it will work work for it's purpose. Today I'm going to make the body, paint it then figure out how to put clothes on it.

user added image

Here is the wire frame and the model without the maps
user added image

If you want to see the model rotate 360 degrees then click here . This is a 500kb quicktime video clip.

Like I said, the model isn't perfect but I think it will work!

Last edited by Velusion; 04-07-2006 at 03:20 PM.

Quote

# 2 04-07-2006 , 03:48 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2004

Location: Cleveland, Ohio (USA)

Posts: 1,541

hey velusion pretty good work so far. i know you said it's not perfect and it won't be on screen for very much, but you'd be surprised what people notice and what they don't even if the model is on camera even for a second or so. it's not that they'd be able to point out the problem, but that they would know something doesn't seem right; which causes the effect to lose its realism.

the only problem i've got with the model is in the lower cheek area... he looks like he's got bloodhound flaps or there's a high powered fan blowing his skin around or something... if you look at your profile view of your actual model he doesn't really have anything protruding out to that extreme... if you scaled in that 'sharp' part of the lower cheeks in a bit i believe you'd be able to get away with a lot more.

Accept no substitutions.

Quote

# 3 05-07-2006 , 02:38 AM

Registered User
Join Date: May 2004

Location: Utah, USA

Posts: 369

Thank you, Neostrider.
Even though this model will only be seen from a distance, you're right. The cheeks were a bit like a bloodhounds and that's why I changed them. I spent about 10 minutes smoothing and making other adjustments. Thanks to you're comments, the model looks much better now!

By the way, I checked with a company called Cyberware and they told it they could scan my actor's head. It takes about 17 seconds and costs about $300 to $400 dollars (I can't remember the exact quote) but, you have to send the actor to them. I'm going to keep that info on file for a future project but it was cheaper for me to create a basic model for this one.

Quote