Nich Zuhoski

heres the thread, i think..

so i guess ill post my first pass at my first concept..

i've wanted to do a fish-like character that needs a bubble full of water so it can breath while walking on land..
i may give it robot arms instead.

this isn't my only idea, but since I'm terrible at concepting, there's a good change i'll do something along the lines of this..

[img][/img]

You have a pretty unique idea going here! I would say that you are far from 'terrible' at concepting C: From this I'd say you're strong at it. Do you have a Sketchbook thread somewhere (conceptart?).
My only critique is that your lines are very sketchy like you're going over and over them. A good way to practice being brave and getting it in one fluid stroke is doing timed gestures (1 min, 30 seconds). Something that I need to practice as well! XD
Hope to see more of your work!

Nice! I like the hybrid concept. I think you can pull off the organic-meets-hard surface look. Futurama did a joke like this guy if that helps any....

Nich, this has a wicked silhouette. The water bubble is friggin hilarious for him to be able to walk on land. I think your idea of robotic arms is an awesome idea, although, the placement of his arms seem to make him unbalanced. Maybe give him a set of hind legs or some training wheels. . I can't wait to see your 3d work of this land-bound fish!!

Thanks a lot for the suggestions everyone! they really help.

i cant believe that futurama did this already? i have had this guy in my head forever...
ill have to see the episode.

yeah i agree about the legs too, i had originally planned to put them where his side fins would be, i dont know why i didn't

more progress soon!

update!

ok, i took a lot of the advice that you guys gave me (line quality still sucks cause of the tablets tricky..)

but here is what i got

i moved the legs and changed them to where the fish thing wont walk, but kindof crawl..

i am coming up with a back story which ill post up later

[img][/img]

I love it!!!! try him with longer legs and give him arms....maybe

lol i love how his angler thing is bending in the bowl!

Hokay, here are is the start of the model.. im still not sure about if it'll have robotic arms or flesh one.. anyway, heres what i got so far[img][/img]

Great start Nicky Z.! You've set the precedent for everyone to follow. The flow looks good so far, but you have plenty of time to accomplish your objective. I'm ecstatic about your progression.

thanks dude!
haha you say plenty of time.. i say ONLY 2.5 WEEKS! haha
yeah but im wanting to get the base done as quickly as i can so i can have plenty of time for the zbrushing and the dreaded textureing.

ok, here's some more progress, almost ready for zbrush. its somewhere around 5000 tris, without edge loops on the hard surface stuff, and 0 tris. wew[img][/img]

wow! You've been really busy! hope I can keep up D:
He's looking really awesome so far

Nice work Nichy Z!

Not much to nit pick here...

Thanks for setting the pace.

finally to the really fun part! this isn't nearly as far as ill be taking the zbrush, just the beginning.
most of the hard surface stuff is in zbrush just for these beauty shots. [img][/img]

Wow man! the zbrush is coming along nicely! I really like the horns coming off the elbows and brow ridge of this creature. Really gives it personality. Can not wait to see the progress on this fellow.

this may just be the stupidest question ever, but how are you zbrushing him with the hard surface stuff on there?

Thanks urchin, I hope to see your stuff soon too!

I went ahead and added some teeth to my character, which ill post later on when i make more progress.

To answer your question Curry, after you have finished your base mesh in Max, including props. You'll need to attach them all together so it's one object, then center the pivot. After that, separate each object out again (leave them in groups that you want zbrushed together (in my case i left all of the horns and claws as one object)

Once you have them all apart again, there are two ways to do it.

First way is to select everything, then export selected.. obj, blah blah. then in zbrush, go it where it says IMPORT, then select the .obj, then go to SUBTOOL, then hit GRPSPLIT. if you did it right, it will automatically divide it out to the separate objects that you made in max, and make them each a different subtool (which are like layers in photoshop).then just select a subtool, then work on each one.

Second way is to export each object from max seperatly, then import them one at a time in zbrush. to do this, import the .obj like before, once the first one is in, select the ZSPHEAR, (Which will replace your object in the viewport) then import the next object. Once the second object is in, go to the original one. With the original one in the viewport again, go to SUBTOOL then APPEND then select the second piece from that new window. this one is a bit confusing, but its a better way to do it because sometimes the first method doesn't want to work..

anyway sorry of this is a bit wordy, but if you still cant get it to work, just let me know and ill be happy to help

thank you for that! I'm sure it'll be super handy when I get to the Zbrushing!

Off-subject: Did you see Wall-E yet?

yeah like i said, im happy to help if that doesn't clear it up for you!

Oh yes i saw it, i went that night, and i loved it!
the little crazy sweeper bot was the best

heres a quick one with the teeth/gums added. unfortunately thats about all the progress i made today, and tomorrow's looking like it'll be a busy day at work.. so i may not be able to work on it until monday night or tuesday..[img][/img]

Nich, your character is looking downright awesome! You are an inspiration to us all.

The base mesh was great, and your ZBrush work is looking beautiful so far. As of now, my only critique would be to push the detail on his flesh further to get a strong normal cast from your high poly. Great work, though, and I'm loving his teeth! I look forward to seeing this character progress.

I concur with ChedWards (Terrorcouple). Keep pushin'

Thanks for the comments guys!

Welp, i was actually able to get quite a bit of detail work done in him. the high is mostly done, so hopefully the next posts i make will be normals!

[img][/img]