<QuestionBot> Moderation is now on
<DAZ_Biggie> He everyone and welcome to this week's Featured Chat with 3D Universe, the one, the only, Steve Corder!!!
<3D Universe> Hello all - welcome to this chat!
<DAZ_Biggie> To ask Steve a question, click on the QuestionBot on the right hand side of the chat window and send your question as a private message to the Qbot.
<3D Universe> OK, to start off today - I'm going to show you a quick and easy tutorial...
<3D Universe> In this tutorial, I'm going to wizz through the creation of a toon flower scene. The modeling is pretty simple, and can be accomplished in most modeling applications...
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<3D Universe> I start off with a simple plane. This is going to be the ground in my final image, so I create it with enough divisions to be able to shape it nicely.
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<3D Universe> I set the material color to a basic grass green, and push a couple of the polygons around to form nice flowing ground bumps.
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<3D Universe> Onto the flower - I start with the stem which is a simple extended cube with a number of vertical divisions.
<DAZ_Biggie> To ask Steve a question, click on the QuestionBot on the right hand side of the chat window and send your question as a private message to the Qbot.
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<3D Universe> I make extra cuts near some of the divisions - this will be where my leaves will branch off. I've also defined the stem by giving it a little bit more shape.
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<3D Universe> I now extrude the parts that will form my leaves. This can be done at once on both leaves, or I could create one leaf and copy it.
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<3D Universe> I now extrude the edges of the leaves to create the main shape. I have also moved some of the polygons around to better define my leaf shapes.
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<3D Universe> A few more slices are made to further detail the leaf shapes...
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<3D Universe> The new slices are pulled up to form the leaf blades...
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<3D Universe> I now scale the ends of the leaves, and apply a bend to each of them to get them to droop nicely.
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<3D Universe> I have now scaled the stem to fit my ground plane, and I've subdivided both the ground plane and the stem to see how my final model will look.
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<3D Universe> Now, onto the flower head. The main flower is simply a squashed ball.
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<3D Universe> Now to create the petals. I start the petal as a scaled cube with several horizontal divisions.
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<3D Universe> I move around polygons to get a round shape to the petal.
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<3D Universe> Two slices add enough detail to be able to further shape my petal.
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<3D Universe> Some more polygon-pushing, and a bend, and we have a nice petal! I've also applied subdivision to check the petal.
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<3D Universe> I now adjust and scale the petal to fit onto my flower head. I also twist the petal slightly so that each final petal will overlap the one next to it.
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<3D Universe> Tah-dah! I have a pretty flower with 6 petals.
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<3D Universe> Finally, I position the flower onto the stem.
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<3D Universe> I now subdivide my model and export it to use in Poser.
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<3D Universe> Here's my final image rendered in Poser 6. I used a simple gradient with a Photoshopped cloud to create the sky, and imported it as a background image.
<3D Universe> Now, I just add a really soppy message, send it to my wife, and score big points... *lol*
<mors_d> where do you draw your influences from?
<DAZ_Biggie> To ask Steve a question, click on the QuestionBot on the right hand side of the chat window and send your question as a private message to the Qbot.
<3D Universe> I am influenced by many things. I love the style of companies like Disney, Pixar, Blue Sky, etc. but I also tebd to watch people to get my ideas
<3D Universe> tebd->tend (spellings not one of my skills :-))
<3D Universe> I also love seeing other artists take on characters and animals, and I try to constantly challenge myself
<maartenvs> Dear Steve, may the models that you offer for free on your site be used for commercial renders?
<3D Universe> yes, all of my freebies may be used for any type of render/video. The only restriction is they may not be redistributed partially or in full though.
<3D Universe> In other words, you cannot give a copy of one of our freebies to a friend, but you can render you heart out, and do whatever you wish with those renders :-)
<DominiqueB> hi Steve, I would like to know what you t hink of Poser's setup tools, and what improvements would you like to see?
<3D Universe> I often think that my universe would be totally screwed up if I didn't utter the words "I HATE POSER" at least once a day :-)
<3D Universe> Although the concepts behind Poser's rigging room are sound, I do think a lot could be improved and redone.
<3D Universe> I find the interface really clunky to work with, and would love to rather use a quicker interface like Daz Studio to rig my figures
<3D Universe> Improvement - I wouldn't know where to start. The setup room regularly crashes on my *lol*
<3D Universe> Having said all that, I have learned to dodge some of the craters when rigging a figure.
<Poukibear> Hi Steve, I love your Universal Texture Convertor. Will you be creating a Victoria 4 plugin for this?
<3D Universe> *lol* I wondered who would ask that one :-)
<3D Universe> Yes, we are in the process of developing a UTC V4 plugin, and even have a working version in the currect version of UTC...
<3D Universe> ...however, due to the changes and improvements in V4's UV layout, we felt that using the existing UTC interface was somewhat tedious. With V4's new layout, several texture maps needed to be created for each body part.
<3D Universe> We therefore decided to rebuild UTC from the ground up to work easier with the newer generation figures. We are also looking at releasing a Developer Kit to enable 3rd party people to creat their own plugins.
<3D Universe> Obviously, rewriting UTC has delayed things somewhat, and at this stage we can't give an expected release date of the update and UTC V4 plugin
<3D Universe> ...but, we do promise that the new UTC will be filled with as many of the features you want as we can fit in...
<chickenlips> how did you make those petals stick to the sqaushed ball
<3D Universe> I throw them really hard :-)
<3D Universe> They are actually simply positioned around the central ball - they are not connected at all
<katibabi> What toons do you have on the burner for the near future?
<3D Universe> ah, that would be telling...
<3D Universe> ;-)
<3D Universe> We have a few toons that have been shelved for a while that we'll be finishing off, like our owl , squirrel and toon town
<3D Universe> At the moment, we are dividing our time between several projects, so actual product is rather slow :-(
<3D Universe> The UTC rewrite is taking a lot of that time too...
<Cdlzt> is the toon squirrel just the start of a woodland toon theme?
<3D Universe> Possibly - we did have plans to create a similar rabbit, mouse, beaver, etc.
<3D Universe> We'll see what happens...
<Cdlzt> is there any news on what happened to the toon owl and the toon town?
<3D Universe> ^^^ See my reply up there - we are planning on finishing both of those off when time allows.
<soulscreamer> hi steve! What software do ya use and why do ya prefer that over others?
<debb6425> Hello and thank you for speaking with us... I wonder, what are some of the programs that you utilize?
<3D Universe> Currently I use LightWave for most of my modelling. I have been using LW since version 7, so I sort of know my way around it.
<3D Universe> I have found nothing that beats UV Layout for UV mapping...
<3D Universe> ...and I use Photoshop CS2 for creating textures
<3D Universe> I also use a stack of other little utilities, like EasyPose Underground and a few of my own custom-written ones...
<3D Universe> I have yet to find one program that does it all in the way I want it to be done...
<KindredSpirit> Do you find that some peope look down on Toon art as being not quite as good as traditional modelling?
<3D Universe> I definitely used to find that certain people looked down on toon art and toon products, but I think with the ton of CG movies hitting the big screen these days, there is more appreciation for toon stuff.
<3D Universe> I believe this trend will continue, and toon art will get bigger and bigger.
<3D Universe> by CG movies - I mean Toon movies like Bugs Life, The Incredibles, Meet the Robinsons, etc.
<DAZ_Biggie> To ask Steve a question, click on the QuestionBot on the right hand side of the chat window and send your question as a private message to the Qbot.
<SndCastle> what advise would you give someone just starting out.
<3D Universe> My advice would be enjoy it... don't get down when not everybody likes your stuff...
<3D Universe> ...do what you enjoy and keep pushing your boundries so you don't get stuck making the same products over and over again
<3D Universe> Also, don't try to become a clone of someone you think is successful. You can be successful and original
<smedleyx> Did you get formal 3D/art training, if so, where?
<3D Universe> Apart from taking art as a high school subject, no - I haven't had any formal training.
<3D Universe> I have learned everything the hard way with many mistakes, but I've loved the learing process...
<3D Universe> SOmetimes, I wish I'd done some formal 3D training to give me a grounding, but then I might not have ended up where I am now, so it's all good...
<3D Universe> Believe it or not, I actually studied electronics... like I use any of that now!
<ratscloset> What is your Favorite Figure you created? What is your least Favorite or the one you were not pleased with the outcome?
<bernards> What type of subjects do you find lend themselves to being turned into toons?
<3D Universe> At this stage, my most favourite is my Toon Croc closely followed by the 3 little pigs. I had such fun creating those products!
<3D Universe> My least favourite at this stage would probably have to be Staci. I'd love to have another go at her, as there's a lot I could improve on now...
<3D Universe> Almost anything can become a really great toon. Creating animals with personality can be fun, but even a tree can be toonified successfully.
<3D Universe> I can't really think of anything that I couldn't imagine toonified and bursting with character *lol*
<DAZ_Biggie> We've come to the end of our time together with Steve, but I understand he's going to hang out once we turn moderation off to answer a few more questions...
<DAZ_Biggie> Thanks for coming, and Steve, THANK YOU for your time with us!!!
<3D Universe> Thanks Daz for putting this on, and thanks to everyon who took the time to take part
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