Now for the headress. :D

Starting to look awesome :awesome:

I have an old version of Maya, but not enough hard drive space to run it :'(

Great job on Jake, I have no criticism-- it's perfect! :D

Can't wait for the next installment.
Don't push yourself though Fierox, you do so much work.

Hey all, thx for the comments.
Yeah its pretty pointy but i think Jake's mohawk in the movie is like that.
Atleast from reference pics i used, no doubt its a little off tho, might vary a little in pics.

Had some problems keeping his mohawk hair style in place, over time it would drop down and slide down his head, really frustrating and took forever.
Found out how to use some sort of virtual hairgel to keep things in place :) So learned something from it atleast :P
Now its time to add extra little hairs to hide his scalp and make it look a little better, will be a bit less pointy then aswell.

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/20...ox-d46jz29.jpg

He will look so cool with warpaint. ;)

Agree'd

Doing a great job fierox! :)

looks so good. also, don't forget his eyebrows. keep up the awesome progress :)

Thx! the eyebrows are added rather simple, dont think ill ever make close ups so close that individual hairs are needed for it. Although i might add some extra dept and color to it.

Warpaint will be fun to add!, definatly add that when all is done. Not needed for the animation tho so dont think ill add it anytime soon.

Well all his hair is working/moving ok for now, the long "ponytail" is added aswell :)
Now its time to add some detail and all the colorfull feathers, beads and stuff to his hair.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-z...enshot022b.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-8...enshot021.jpeg

Thx, and hmmm Maya isnt that big actually, perhaps you have lots of video tutorials and other help files included.

The queue is there :)

Looks good so far.

I seriously love this! :D
You did the hair really well Fierox, it has nice volume!

looks awesome, cant wait to see this in action :awesome:

Haha yes, that was the right name for it! Just couldnt get to it when i was posting it :P

This is going to sound like a funny one here, but I feel like something is off in the region of the eyes. Maybe I am just focusing on the eyebrows, but I think maybe his eyes are too big. His eyes were the smallest of all the na'vi/avatar characters.
I could be way off on this, but think about it.

They look smaller to me, maybe the shape is off a little.

Thx for the feedback! Yes it didnt feel quite right for me aswell.
I dont think its the size of his eyes, and by that i mean the size of the eyeballs.
They are quite a bit smaller then Neytiri's.
My guess was the shape and place of his eyes was a bit off from some angles.
Was already tinkering with it for some time, youre comments made me go a bit further with it, made some bigger changes.
Also note that the eyes are almost fully open here while later they often wont be.

Below a render of Ney and Jake, both faces and eyes in the same fully open state.
Think his eyes and that region of his face is a bit better now.
But ive been looking at it too much now, ill check things tomorrow.
What you think?

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-n...eenshot024.jpg

Fantastic! :)

I think it's great. He just needs a bit more colour in his ears and the tip of his nose. ;)

Outstanding.....

Jake looks absolutely awesome! (As does Neytiri) I don't know how you do it :)

His ears seem to stick downward a bit, but that might just be the pose, I think.

Amazing as always.

I'm blown away! I like the look on your cat as your Avatar too. :)

looks great so far :awesome: Love the picture aswell :awesome: Keep up the good work :)

Hey all and thx!

Well another little update on Jake,
some small changes like a bit extra color to his nose and ears (as mentioned here, thx).
Also the items in his hair hair are added, beads and feathers. Nice to add some extra color :)
His ears might be slightly lower then Neytiri's im not sure, could be the human dna thats causing it to be a bit lower? Had a good reference of the ears so should have that right (hope so). Either way he'll be able to rotate his ears in different poses later on.

Oh and thx, she is my Begal cat Leelo, always keeping an eye on me :)

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...ox-d47mwtw.jpg

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...ox-d47mwpw.jpg

Oooh this is looking so good!
The colour of the ears and nose look a lot better now, it helps to make him look more alive so to speak.
The feathers and beads look great, the next thing to do would be the feathered headdress.

hair looks awesome. but his nose is a bit too pink, only the bottom tip is pink :P keep going! :)

Ah yeah it wasnt a good render for that, let me explain.
Remember back when you were little and you pressed a flashlight against your fingers to get that xray view. The thinnest part, mostly your fingers would get pink/red and shine through.
Same thing happens here, to give Jake a better looking skin a complex shader is used that works the same way. The light sources in the scene shine through giving the skin a softer tone. And on thin places a bit of the pink/red color.
Its alot better then just a texture or the old 3d images where skin looks really flat, cold and sharp (as often seen in games). But it does take alot of tweaking to get it right (plus im no expert in it) A complex layered material, skin :)

Below an example to get an idea:
A bright light is shining from the front right (the light's strength is always the same, the amount of light that scatters through his skin is changed by adjusting his skins properties).

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-D...eenshot030.jpg

That's amazing :)

Another step towards realism.
Also, liking the improved hair :)

Hey all,

here's a little update on what i'm currently doing.
To get a more accurate skin deformation when Jake moves i have added some muscles and bones.
I've never worked with this before so its been quite a study.
The muscles actually bulges and flexes when his joints move and push the skin in the right direction. Its all very complex but i think i learned enough to test it, hope it works!
Below an image of the muscles and bones i added.
Dont want to make things too complex or pc heavy since its the first time i use this.
Think ive added all the muscles that are most important for biggest skin deformation.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-M...eenshot032.jpg

Now ill have to start tweaking everything, hope i can show it in a test video in a week or so!

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-d...enshot032.jpeg

Wow! That last shot is kind of creepy, but so cool. lol

Looking amazing! :)

So glad you decided to take the extra step and map the muscles, it'll look great when it's done :D

That looks like a whole lot of work but very professional. Just like the video game character modelers. :)

oh wow :shock: Nice update :awesome:

that's very cool :awesome: the detail is amazing, this is going to look awesome once it's in motion

Interesting :)

I guess they are used in movement, to move the skin with more detail.

WOW:shock: this is coming along beautifully!! I agree that adding the muscle/skeleton structuring helps out a lot. Great work so far and looking forward to further updates ma tsmukan. :);)

Thx all,

Well finally Jake can move a little!
A quick pose to test the rough skin weights.
Still very rough and no facial experssions yet.
Also the added muscles arent used yet.
His skin is now rigged in the same way as Neytiri's model only rough.
When this part is working right ill move to the muscle bit and get things a bit better hopefully.
Especially the state of the muscle (bulging or stretching) that is suited for the pose.
Oh well sofar things are going pretty quick atleast :D

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/20...ox-d4cbx23.jpg

Jake looks like a surfer or... ikran makto.;) Nice work.

Standing on the back of an ikan? :D

Nice work :)