Ok everyone, the holiday card that you’ve been reading about is finally complete and ready for you. You can check it out at: ’tis the season holiday card or browse my Zazzle Store just use the link at the right.
For now here’s a look at the finished design.
As I worked on yet another bow for these presents I started wondering, where do I stop. Is this enough, maybe? With the different possibilities and ideas for the bows, I could go a bit overboard and keep making more. This would not allow me to get this card ready in time.
Originally, I wanted to have the card ready on December 1 since I will be putting it up on Zazzle. However, after reading something, and I forget what it was, I realized, that December 1 is a few days too late. So my current aim is to have it ready for Friday. I don’t know how that is going to go as I think the biggest challenge will turn out to be how much time it will take to render. I’ve done a couple of tests and don’t have all the pieces or lighting, and already it looks like the final image may be my longest render yet. I’m not quite there yet though. I still have to put it all together.
I finally finished the last bow, or what I will call the last bow, for this project. I could do a couple more but I will call this enough. I think it will work out just fine. Really, I probably have more bows and presents than I may need but I wanted variety.
The last bow I did get a little carried away with at first. I had one too many loops in the middle and it didn’t make it look right. So I removed it and fluffed out the other inner loops and that made it much better. Once I added it to a package I saw a couple of other areas that I could ‘fix’ and did really good to not go in and keep adjusting.
This bow is started from one of the base loops of the first bow. The shape was close enough that it cut some of the work in getting it right. However, it didn’t eliminate it. The loops look just a bit different and tighter since they sit on each other where that first bow is big and open and loose. There was quite a bit of tweaking to be done for each loop. So first I took the base and got it shaped the way I wanted and then I copied that and re-sized it
some to fit inside the first loop. This required not only the scale tool but also the rotate tool since I needed to make the second set of loops fit on top of the first. I really need to play with adjusting rotation points. I think it would make things so much easier. Anyway, the same process was repeated for the next loops. Each time I started by copying the loop I had just finished. That way I was already part way there with the rotation part and often the loop shape was closer to what I wanted.
Once I had all the loops in place I did go back and have to adjust things even more. I tightened up the space between the loops so they didn’t show big gaps. This sometimes required more manipulation overall to fix the shape and make it fuller and not as pointy. The whole process of getting this bow right required a lot of line manipulation instead of points. That made things go a little faster. Though probably not by much.
With the last bow finished I decided to add a few more present shapes. A couple got
ribbons and a couple didn’t. Again, the idea being to go for variety. So here’s all the presents with their ribbons, or not, and bows.
And it was finally time to start putting everything into one file.
First I saved each present as it’s own 3ds Max file. Then I had to go back into the file for the card from last year and save out the tree with it’s snow, to a separate 3ds Max file. I also saved each of the ornaments from that file to their own files. The snowman is already it’s own file so nothing to prep there. It did take me a minute to figure out how I needed to do this to get what I needed. The export option was only for external non-native 3ds Max files and that really wasn’t what I wanted at this point. At some point I may go back and make everything .obj files so they are more transportable but the reasons for that belong to a different post.
Getting everything into a new file turned out to be pretty easy. I just started a new file and then under import there is an option to merge from an existing 3ds Max file. That worked like a champ and I was able to get everything for each object, which really consisted of their locations, any modifiers, such as turbosmooth, and their materials, which was especially good for the snow and the ornaments. I did a quick test render to see how things were looking and it turns out that the tree and the packages are well proportioned to each other. That was lucky. The snowman is going to need a little scaling up, though maybe not too much. And the ornaments will need scaling down.
For the ornaments, since I will need a few copies of each, I am thinking of using instances instead of copies. This should work since I will be only adjusting placement and rotation once I get them scaled down. By doing that it should help with performance and file size.
At least that’s what I’ve read. But I’m not sure how it will work. It would be nice if I could do that with the presents as well, at least a bit. But think that may depend on if I can get different materials on the instanced items.
So here’s all the pieces in one place, minus the ground and the back drop. Next up, to get everything placed and staged to take that final still shot for the card. I’m getting close.
Don’t forget to check back to find out how it turned out and what I work on next. Remember, Sticks is waiting to be rigged and Greezbly is wanting me to finish up as well.
There was a point this past week where I wondered if I had bit off more than I could chew. Not so much with the Holiday card idea in general, just with the one particular bow I worked on.
If you read last week’s post you know that I’m working on models of presents and bows to go under the tree for the Holiday card scene. And even in spite of the amount of time it was taking to make the bows, I was pretty pleased with the progress I was making. That was until I decided to tackle one of the more involved bows.
At the beginning of the week I got to thinking on how to make those bows that have that triangle, cone in a flower shape look to them. First I had to work at how they might be built in the real world using ribbon. I didn’t have any ribbon to play with so I used duck tape. I cut a long piece, folded it in half so it was stuck to itself and I had a ribbon like thing to play with. Hey, it works. So I figured out how the bow might be created with the right type of fold but I didn’t think I could make it do that in the computer. I now may have a couple of ideas of how to do that but I’ll have to get back to that in a moment. So since I didn’t think I could figure out how to get a shape to fold the way I needed to I tried to figure out how I might make the illusion of that.
Since the shape of the petals of the bow were to be a bit cone shaped I decided I would put a bunch of cones together with an extra edge sticking out to attache them to each other. I went with the number of cones that I thought were right and would make for a full looking bow. So I have 8 petals. I’ve learned since, after a bit more experimenting with the shape that that may be too many. Again, I’ll get back to that.
Once I had the bottom group created I decided that was too sparse and I needed to fill it with more in the middle. So I duplicated what I had and then scaled it down to fit, rotated it, and did some angling with it using the soft select tool on the points. That 
allowed me to get most of the second layer of petals to fit inside the first layer of petals without too much penetration of the petals. This still wasn’t full enough so I did it two more times for a total of 4 layers. Looks very elaborate doesn’t it.
At this point the basic part was done and it was time for the refining and clean up. I needed to adjust the various petals so they weren’t penetrating each other and there was clearance. I also wanted to add some randomness to the look of the petals with some
squishing and bending in them. I’m hoping it will show up once a nice material is applied
and the lighting is setup. The only thing about this is that with 4 layers and 8 petals each there were a lot, well 32 to be exact, of petals that needed adjusting and tweaking. This one bow took me most of the week to create. It looks pretty good I think.
So now I have 3 bows and 2 packages. I think they look really good so far, now a couple more packages and one or two more bows.
Ok. So, how could I make that bow more the way it is actually made, and how many petals do I think it really needs? Well, first, I was playing with my duck tape ribbon again and figured out that the way the ribbon has to fold to create the look I was thinking of, really only allows for 3 consecutive petals per layer. I looked at a bow in the local store and found that there are only about 5 or 6 of those type of petals and two loops on the inside. So clearly, I made too many petals.
Along with the realization about the number of petals was the revelation of a couple of ways I could have made the ribbon fold the way I want it in 3ds Max. The first way is that I could have set the pivot point to different loops and then rotated based on that. I don’t usually change my pivot from the view or from the center of the object I’m working on. So this didn’t really occur to me to do until I read about the concept in a book called “Computer Graphics for Artists”. The other way I could have done it, also mentioned in that book, is the idea of basically rigging the ribbon and then using a bone system to twist and turn things to the shapes I needed.
By the end of this particular bow I was pretty much mentally mush and tired of working on bows and needing a break and some play time. So I mostly took the weekend off from working on presents and bows. I finally got a bit of interest back late Sunday evening
and did start work on another present but I don’t have a picture yet. I may take things a little lighter this week so that I can hopefully be ready to work on a lot of projects while I am off from the day job next week.
Yep, another day job vacation coming up all week next week. It is also Thanksgiving week in the U.S. next week and I do not have big plans so I am really looking forward to the time to get things done. Especially the Holiday Card. That will be my priority since I want it done by December 1. Unfortunately, when I hope to get lots done during a day job vacation, I don’t, I usually spend the first 4 days just goofing around and not getting much done. I’m hoping by getting some of that started early, I will be a head of the curve and only have a day or two of that and then lots of productivity afterwards.
There is still this week coming up before that vacation time though and I might surprise myself and get much more work on the card completed, or at least everything modeled so that all I have to do is assemble things. That would be cool. So you might want to check back and find out how I do. Do I spend too much time goofing off or do I find inspiration and motivation and get lots of modeling done.
I have been really focused this week working on the parts and pieces for this year’s Holiday Card. If you remember, I pretty much finished the Snowman, well modeling him. There are a few more things this scene is going to need and I have worked on that all week. Really. I didn’t touch Greezbly, the Alien. I didn’t work on the rigging for Sticks. I just worked on parts for the Holiday Card scene.
So what else is going in the Holiday Card scene? Well, a tree. And the Snowman is going to decorate it. And I think it’s going to need some presents. Which is what I have been working on all week. The first one was pretty easy. I did a box with a lid and put a ribbon around it. Not too hard. Though I did do some adjusting and tweaking so they don’t look like perfect crisp square type things. That’s just not right.
Of course after I got the first present with the lid and ribbon made I decided it needed a bow. This took a bit of thought. But it turned out to not be too bad. I started by creating a shape that I figured I would be able to use as the base. I figured I could copy it and rotate it a few times and put them together to make a ribbon. I have to say, I got it made and then had to stop to go to Taekwon Do class, and I was giddy. I was so excited that it was going to work. Yes, a little geeky. Still very exciting.
When I finally got back to working on the bow I tested the idea I had, copy and rotate and see how it was going to look. It’s a good start.
But it was a little skinny. So I widened the ribbon and then set about shaping it nicely. It took some work. I wanted it to really look like the parts were overlapping each other and not to break through each other’s surfaces. So lots of tweaking. But I think it came out pretty good.
I decided to put it all together, the present and the bow. And I changed their colors to something that looks festive. I haven’t applied any materials yet.
Next up was a long rectangular type present. With a ribbon of course. It was pretty easy. Though I did have a little weirdness with one part of the ribbon. I got some points moved wrong which caused part of it and then the lighting in the modeling view seems to have been the other part of the weirdness. But it came out nice in the render. Again, I just applied base colors to the box and the ribbon, I haven’t applied any materials yet.
Then it was time for the ribbon. With the size and shape of the box, it really called for a good size bow with nice long tails. So I went back to that base shape that I started with. First I made it nice and wide to match the ribbon on the long box. Then I had to figure out how to get it to look like a bow, like tying a ribbon bow. I know that makes so much sense. Anyway. I started by first adjusting the angle of the loops so that they weren’t straight across. Then it went a little crosswise. At first I tried by creating a gap on the bottom part of the loop and using the in between surfaces to create the tails. I was a bit disappointed to
discover that was not going to work out right. To get everything to look right, angled correctly and so that the crimping would be right the tails had to come from the top of the loops.
I seriously did not expect working on bows to take nearly so long to create and get just right. I think I spent 3 or 4 hours getting that second bow just right. And I tried to be smart about creating it, working from a base shape and all that. It just takes as long as it takes I guess. Once it was done I moved it into place and changed the color to match the ribbon.
So here’s the two presents with their bows. I think things are coming along. I still have one or two more style of present boxes I want to create and a couple more style of bows. I think once I have those done I’ll have a nice number of choices for mixing and matching. At least hopefully.
Of course, I did have to take some time away from the modeling to attend the reception at FuManchu Cupcakes in Charlotte. It was a really great night. There were cupcake samples and wine and music. And there turned out to be a pretty good crowd. That was nice. I got to see me art on the wall and that was really cool. Oh and I picked up a few cupcakes for later.
As I said, I have a few more presents and bows to create before I’m ready to put everything together. I expect that’s what I will be working on this week. I might take a short break and work on Sticks a bit. I think I needs the break from Greezbly so I can come back to the coloring issues with a fresh brain. So plans for getting back to other things, it will just depend on how quickly the parts for the Holiday Card get modeled. Though I may find myself taking a break to do some painting. You’ll just have to check back to find out.
An Alien and a Snowman walked into a…wait…wrong story.
An Alien and a Snowman knocked at the door…
Well, that’s a bit closer, I suppose, if you consider they are the only projects I really worked on this week.
I did spend a lot of time working on the Alien, Greezbly. Once I got his clothes separated off, then I was ready to do a bit more refining and detailing. I polished some surfaces to get them smoother and the edges crisper. It has taken me a few tries to find the polish brush in ZBrush useful. In this case it worked well for some of the trim on the shirt. Along with the polishing I tried to add a bit of detailing to give the idea of some wrinkles at the joints and a little sag at the knees. Just to add more detail.
Once I had that detailing add, I decided to use an alpha to get more texture on the skin. Of course this lured me right into starting the polypaint process. One squirrel leads to another. I got half way through the polypainting and had to stop for a bit. I wasn’t terribly pleased with how my color choices were working out. Here I’ve got the face, hands, and shirt painted and just a glossy/shiny material on the pants and boots.
Even though I wasn’t excited about the color direction I went ahead and finished everything. I added some lights and did some test renders. I got all but the floor pass. It turns out, I didn’t have the floor turned on. So I tried it again with the floor on. It was a good thing. The floor pass was useful. It added just a bit of light to the lower areas so that the feet weren’t lost in the dark. Now I understand part of the reason so many people model their characters on a base or platform. You can use contrasting colors on it to get a better balance.
Here’s where I’m at with Greezbly. The first is just a straight image export from ZBrush and the second is the composite done in Photoshop. I still want to add a bag sort of thing and I’m not entirely sold on the colors so I may easily obsess over Greezbly again this next week.
Of course I do have other things to work on and tend to this week so I may have to temper the alien obsession a bit. This Friday (November 6th) is the reception at FuManchu Cupcakes in Charlotte. It’s from 7pm to 10pm. If you are in the area stop by and have
some great cupcakes and enjoy some really fabulous art. Yours truly will be there.
Now back to last week’s adventures. The Snowman. I finished modeling him. He was a lot of fun to work on. Probably because I’m really pleased with the way he’s turned out and he wasn’t much of a struggle to get right. Though I did have to do some work on the stick arms. At first, the angle I had them at, as well as a lack of bend in them, made him look really creepy. 
So I adjusted the overall angle of the arms and offset them a little and then I adjusted the bend where the elbow would be and made a few more tweaks to the hand type area. This helped quite a bit and made him more friendly than creepy. The next trick was to add the scarf. Since I’m in 3ds Max for the Snowman, and what will be this year’s Holiday Card, I had to figure out how to create a cloth looking scarf using box modeling. It turned out to not be that hard. A torus for the base primitive and a few faces extruded and then a few more and I was off and running. Getting it to lay nicely down the Snowman’s body took some patience and tinkerling. And the fringe. I had a rough idea of what to do there but when I 
went to do it, it didn’t work out the way I wanted. I had to add quite a few edge loops to get the a nice set of polygons on the end so that I could bevel them out long. This worked except they were attached to each other. I ended up doing half of them first and then angling them a little off from the straight out direction so they would have some distance between themselves and the next batch. It worked like a charm. Edge loops around the ends of the fringe help to keep some of the shape.
I did get to work on Sticks a little this week. As I expected the next few videos were on rigging the eyes. But I watched through them anyway. It was a good thing I did as there was some additional clean up in moving items to different layers, that was covered.
So I did the clean up and continued to watch the videos. I finished with the eyes and now it’s on to more of the facial controls. The tutorial I am using is designed for a character with eyes and eyebrows. Neither of which Sticks has. So I’ll be watching more of the tutorials until I get the the arm rig when I will start to work again.
There is plenty more to do. With my Snowman modeled I’m ready to start on the packages. And of course I’ll probably have some updates to Greezbly. And let’s not forget the reception at FuManchu Cupcakes. So check back for more news and updates.
