Kefka, God of Magic

Kefka, God of Magic.

I said I'd get him done this week, and here we are on Sunday morning and I present to you the Kefka Package.
Please mind the "Readme" file as well as the instructions for my advice on how to build this model.  I really enjoyed making a hanging model.  It definitely saves shelf space and looks cool rotating whenever the fan blows past it.

UPDATES: Kefka God of Magic, Dark Kain, and progress

After a long while, I've pretty much got Kefka finished.

 I just need to touch up the wings, attach the earrings, and come up with a way to suspend the model.  At some point I might come up with a stand.  But suspending the model is my first priority, a stand would just mean that it would take up more shelf space, and this model is for those who have limited shelf space.  The instructions will be out in due time...

I'll be able to move on to Dark Kain, Cecil, and another Gilgamesh.

I'm also working on another project which is looking pretty difficult at the moment.  Here is a list of the issues that I'm facing with this project which make things complicated:
1.) Nested meshes/polygons  (model has approximately 10,000 polygons!!!)
2.) Intersecting polygons
3.) Posing 100+ bones
4.) Having to decide a feasible pose
5.) Limited video memory on my desktop PC

OH AND BY THE WAY, IF YOU HAVEN"T STOPPED BY ALREADY GO CHECK OUT MARQUITECH's MODEL!!!!

In other news I think I've come up with enough information for working with FF8 models, and I'm getting closer to FF9 models...

In between working and relaxing, I've been dragging my feet with papercraft (believe it or not, sometimes I feel too tired to cut paper)  I started to play Chrono Cross so between this, that, and the other, I'll be coming up with updates this summer

After Kain...

 

Still working on Kain.  Getting him to stand is creating a problem right now.  Due to builder problems the balance is off.  Most likely those that build him will experience some slight amount of variation in the pose.  The pose was never tested to be balanced in the first place, I'm not sure how I would do that using the software that I have available...

But I'll come up with something either super glue, or using a dowel through the base of the foot.

As you can see from the picture above, I've unfolded the next project.  I changed his stance the tiniest amount.  I'm thinking of doing the sprite version also, and to be more true to the sprite version I would have him holding his naginata, however in this version I've stuck with a similar "battle-ready pose"

And sometime after that my big project will be to finish the FF8 Gilgamesh...  This will probably be a huge learning experience for me, most notably the cape is going to be a problem as will merging the separate components together.  But here is what I've got so far...

Here is the appropriate reference picture.  I'll have to make up a couple of things in sketchup(Cape, fake right arm posts) but it shouldn't be a problem.  In the end I'm sure it'll all have been well worth it.  I'm going to label this as an extended project...

In addition to the models above, I'll be working on the following...

GOLBEZ

Get him here

Here's Golbez for you all.

Its a pretty straight forward build, as usual refer to the PDO if in doubt.  Beware though he uses up a lot of black ink! Especially if you're considering his alternate costume. Either way he's 65 pages of dark colors.

Enjoy

KAIN: the posing process

 When you're doing a custom pose, you want to spend plenty of time working with the model.  If it doesn't look realistic it's going to be awkward and not look good.  Since I've taken it upon myself to custom pose the Kain models, it has taken me 3 days to:pose, take a break, re-pose, take a break, and start the posing process all over.  I even took pictures of myself in the pose in the mirror to see how my legs,hips and arms would be realistically positioned.  Of course I'm trying to keep it in line with the Amano artwork as much as I can, but there are certain limitations working with the models of course.
  Here is what I've learned so far.
   Kain is standing on one foot, with all of his weight on his left foot, and his right leg raised beneath him.  His right hand is holding his lance up next to his side, while his left hand rests at his side, and his head is slightly angled down with his hair blowing behind him.
  In order for this pose to make sense, his left leg must be underneath his center of gravity, so somewhere between his shoulder blades.  When you stand on one leg, your weight distribution shifts, and therefore your hips are going to be angled as well.  Holding your right leg up, you'll notice that your right leg will probably come underneath your center of gravity as well, and that your ankle will always (naturally) fall in line with the shin.  Holding your hand naturally at your sides you'll see that they don't fall straight, the muscles in your arms keep them from falling into a straight line, there is a slight bend.  Your resting arms clavicle will be even if not slightly pointing downward due to the weight of your arm.  The arm that holds the lance's clavicle will be close to parallel if not somewhat upright.  For the most part the right arm is just held back and the wrist is angled down.

whew that was long but based off of that I would suggest that you take plenty of time when custom posing a model, and also you should use multiple reference materials.  The "iconic" Kain poses that I used all had a profile shot of him, from one side only.  A 3D model on the other hand is more than a profile shot.

After all that, here is what I ended up with....

One thing I had to compromise was the hand.  I couldn't manage to put it in a fist of sorts, so I just put it in a relaxed pose as most people probably would when they have their hand at their side.  But I believe that I've ended up with a quality product,  time to work him in sketchup...

I

GOLBEZ Progress

I've completed the non-caped part of Golbez, I have to re-arrange the cape to fit on paper.  What i've noticed is that these large caped figures can get kinda "heavy" and hard to work with if you use cardstock for the cape.  I've been using regular paper for the capes.  So in my Exodus (that's for you Kaizo) and this Golbez model I put the majority of the cape peices on sheets with nothing else on them.  In this case, Golbez has large pauldrons, which I'll make out of cardstock, but that is all that will be on those pages, the rest of the cape layout will be printed on regular xerox paper.  I'll get it done maybe next week.

GOLBEZ Progress

24 January 2011
I've defeated Golbez, but alas he is still after the crystal...

I've been a bit busy, but I've still been trying to work on Golbez.  So far he's a pretty straightforward build.  Here is what he looks like as of tonight.

I hope to have him done by the end of January maybe.  I've been taking plenty of pictures, so hopefully I'll be able to provide better instructions upon completion.  I think I'll have to redo the layout for the cape.  Previously the cape just barely fit onto all the pages I had set up, however I had forgotten to check the page size, as a default Pepakura was on a style of paper that I don't use.  But there is a potential "problem" with Golbez' cape.  It involves the horns on his shoulder, I'm afraid that these horns are just going to have to be attached onto the cape, rather than built into the cape if that makes sense.
   I don't want to have to edit the model in sketchup and then redo the entire layout.  It's not being lazy, its just there are more models that I'd like to work on.  And depending on how bad it looks I might have to release the cape in a separate PDO.  I don't like the idea of doing that and I think I'd only resort to that if the cape ended up looking absolutely terrible.

EXDEATH

Download Ex_Death

Continuation of the Dissidia models.  He is a bit complex, but if you refer to the PDO you should be alright, build from the bottom up, and use logic.  The instructions should help, but I'd read through them first before I built it.  Any suggestions from individuals who build this are always welcomed.

EX-DEATH:: Pictures

EX-DEATH::At Last

FINALLY!!!  with minutes before January 10th I have completed my first model.  Instructions and all will be released probably later this week, but here you have it.  I know, there is a huge glare problem, and I'll re-post pictures in better light as well, but it was rainy/icy/gloomy here today, and the artificial lighting I have does not make the model look good

EX-DEATH:: 3rd Progress report

Almost there, it looks a little crappyy because its at night and I have a high lumen lamp on which exacerbates how the flaps appear (i.e. the cape).  But I've just got the head, and the accessories left and then I'll be done.

The head pieces are very small and I'm doing some edits along the way which is causing some delays...

EX-DEATH::2nd Progress Report

Day 2, its going pretty good so far.  I didn't implement as much horizontal banding as I did in Golbez, but no matter, the build is coming along pretty good so far.  I think I should have used regular printer paper for his skirt.  This is like a puzzle, I'm sure my instructions are going to suck, but pretty much looking at the PDO you can use it and experience to help determine which piece should go where.  Really all that is left is:
1. Cape
2. Right arm
3. Head

With this in mind I should be able to complete the model by the 10th. Enjoy...

EX-DEATH::1st Progress Report

Here is the result of one day of papercrafting for me, I can't figure out if I'm slow or what, but anyway here is what I accomplished.  The figure on the left is the latest one, I stayed up an extra hour just to get a little bit further than I did previously.
    As I'm building I obviously have the pepakura file open, this way I can make any changes that I deem necessary, so far I've had to add a few tabs, change a few tab's shape, and split a few of the pieces for easier building.
I'll post more pictures later of some of these examples, especially for things that I thought I'd try out.  The leg structure is working out pretty well so far.  As I mentioned in the BARTZ layout process, I don't think I like just gluing limbs to other closed limbs, I'd like to try out whether or not cutting the excess and creating a whole works out.  So far so good right?  He stands up on his own right?

I'm going to try and complete him by the 10th, but I have work for the next couple of days so I'm restricted to just working at night.  I'm on page 23 of 54 right now, and a good bit is just cape, but we'll see.  When I say finished, I would like to have completed the model, preparing instructions is a different story.  I'm confident in the Golbez layout, but I'm thinking that he turned out well because I had gone through two other models.  Exdeath isn't hard to build so far, I'd like to think I'm doing an alright job and I'm not even a great builder.  If I can manage through it, then I think you guys could to.

GOLBEZ: the layout

Whew so worked a good bit on the Golbez layout. Overall he was a pretty good model, either that or a combination of not so many intersecting polygons and working with Exdeath and Bartz have paid off. In the end I present a 63 page layout that is ready for a test build.  I kinda cramped some of the pieces in there, but there shouldn't be any overlaps or margin issues.  As far as the cape goes, I didn't lay it out as nicely as I could, but in an effort to efficiently utilize paper I positioned them as such.  The cape is still laid out sequentially  inside first then outside.  Builders should be able to look at the PDO and figure it out.

I don't know if I'll be doing any more layouts for a while, I only loaded some files onto my laptop before I left, and the only other models I have with me are Chaos and Kefka, but I believe Zinarei wants to do Kefka.

GOLBEZ: A question about size

I was working with Golbez today and got him all good and brought into Pepakura, and I unfolded him at 1.5  I had to check to see if this was correct, because it says he's 72.4 cm tall.

That is one huge foot! His shoe takes up the entire page.  I'm wondering if this in fact the right size, and if I should scale him down some.  Due to his size and the fact that he has a long cape, this is going to span many pages of paper.

BARTZ: Part 3 working in Pepakura

3rd day of Bartz...
 After finishing the model in Sketchup I moved the model into Pepakura.  Before I unfold the model, I designated the open edges.  After you look over some other people's layouts you kind of get the hang of where you might want to put the open edges. Most but not all of the work can be done here.

This being the second model I've organized the layout for, I'm not that great at working with hair.  In started to mark some edges, but for the remainder I'm just going to have to do after its all unfolded.  After unfolding I' try to organize things as I've seen other designers do, basically from the BOTTOM TO THE TOP.  In order to ease the building process I've notice people put the tabs on the top parts of pieces, which makes sense if you're building from the bottom up any way.   In the end I ended up with a layout like this.

I have yet to identify the pieces but you get a pretty good idea.  Everything is densely organized until the last 3 pages.  On pages 10 and 11, I put the face and hair respectively.  I purposefully chose to do this so that I could print the first 9 pages on cardstock and the face and hair on paper.  I noticed Namatosa uses 120gm paper and his models always look great you should check his out if you get the chance.  I don't like seeing the white parts of paper edges on my models and I think it looks tacky on the skin, so I figured I'd try this so that I could print out the face on a lighter weight sheet of paper.  "Well why didn't you do that with the hands then?" you might ask.  Well I wasn't thinking until the very end.

The next step is to number the pieces, and test build.  I probably won't test build him until after Exdeath.  But when I do I'll post pictures of the progress.

From here I might start working on the layout of another Dissidia model, I'd like to do Golbez, he's another giant sized model though.  For the Project, I want to help out and finish all the statued characters, then work on the Ex-modes/Alternate costumes.

So many projects so little time...

BARTZ: Part 2 Fixing the model in Sketchup

Day 2 of working on Bartz...

The first thing I like to do is to separate everything, literally, as you can see below I've cut Bartz in half, this helps me isolate the areas, same with Exdeath, I just move the major components apart. Then as instructed in Kaizo's FFX process video I move the double sided parts apart for easier viewing

 As I mentioned in Part 1, there is a problem with the model if you don't take care of the legs that intersect with boots.  The "Before" picture shows how the polygon extends into the boot, for this I just selected the calf and boot and intersected it with the model. The "After" picture shows that I deleted the excess.  From here I'm not too sure how I want to handle things.  If I leave things as is, I just have to glue the leg onto the boot.  I prefer connecting pieces with tabs, I feel that it forms a stronger bond.  But during the test build I'll see whether or not this works out well.

 The intersecting polygon problem I fixed was the back of the arms/armpits.  This is the toughest part for me, but as you can see I ended up reducing some of the polygons in order to make an easier build.  I think its valid to reduce the polygons, I mean honestly did I compromise the integrity of the model?  I might as well make it easy, from the models I've built so far, the armpits are the most annoying part of the build for me.  Maybe I'm not that good at it yet, but hey this is what it is.

 One of the other big problems was the fingers intersecting the thumb, and gaps in the hand.  As you can see below I have shortened the pointer finger.  This took some amount of time, I'm still getting a handle on working in 3D and flattening the end of the pointer finger was time consuming.  But as you can see I have a hand that will hold the sword,  people probably won't be looking at Bartz' pointer finger as it is so I think its OK.  I think that if I had been working with the .smd file then i might have been able to move the fingers.  Or I suppose I could have learned how to put bones into the model and then move them, but oh well save that for another day.

Lastly I combined the two major components of the model and have the model to my satisfaction. (There were several other small issues with intersections and moving/copying textures) 

Next step is to move it into Pepakura and start deciding my open faces.

BARTZ: Part 1 Assessing the situation

Alright so here is the start of Bartz. I intend for this to be an informative journey, where both I learn and successors will also learn. After bringing the model into sketchup, the first thing I did was move the sword out of his hand, this way I can get a better look at what his hands doing.

 Now that I have the sword separated I want to inspect potential intersecting polygons.  This part is important!! If you don't look for these intersections then your model won't be positioned correctly, and pepakura will think that its OK to build the model even if these exist. I'm sure you can remedy these situations after you've built the model, but hey why not take care of them in the beginning.  As you can see in this next photo, the hand has some intersections and even what appears to be a gap. this will need to be fixed, otherwise when we build his hand it won't close just right.

 I continued searching for other intersecting polygons and found some others on his shoes.  These are minor and in the next post I'll show you how to fix some of these.  This one on the shoe probably doesn't even need to be fixed, its just that the tongue of his shoe will look poofy.  I mean I have an idea of how to fix it, I plan on using the "Move" tool and leaning the intersecting side forward a little bit, and then shifting the texture across the polygon to make it look good. But I have yet to try it, so we'll find out soon.

 This next picture shows where the boots meet the leg/calf.  This part is pretty important in my book.  It was the beginning of the downfall of my try at the Exdeath layout.  As the picture shows there is an intersection.  If you don't take care of it then your model will probably want to be leaning forward a lot because the polygon for the leg extends into the face of the top of the boot, in other words the rest of Bartz' leg is hidden inside the boot.  So if you don't fix this then your layout will include that extra length of leg and you won't be able to connect your model.  this problem can be fixed as well I'm not sure the best way, but I plan on doing it in a way that there is no ambiguity of which way the leg should face, and provide good structural stability.

 The last major intersection you'll notice is in the armpit.  I'm sure I'll still end up having to "squish" the armpits into place, but I'll try and take this on as well.  I'm not sure how other people feel but because its on the backside of the model most likely I'll just reduce the polygons in the back, and not worry if the texture looks too funny.  But I should try to make the entire model look as close to the original as possible, we'll see how difficult it becomes.

So this is the start of the Bartz model, based off of my experience thus far, and what Kaizo's videos have shown me, these are some of the problem areas you want to address when looking at your model in sketch up.  From here the next step is just to intersect the faces and delete the excess (Thanks ACE!!!).  That part can be kinda complicated if you're like me and not used to working in 3D, but its not that bad.