Making blobby characters

cecilia.robinson

I am commissioned for some art for a wonderful RPG Solar Echoes and I need to create several alien races. What makes me feel awkward is that I have no idea of how to create blobby characters to represent the Omuls. They are quite ameba-like with jelly bodies. Are there any morphs for that effect? I don't have Zbrush... Somebody help please!

TobiasG

You could use primitives, a sphere if you have nothing else, and go at it with a bunch of deformers. Then add some glibbery texture, probably with strong displacement settings. Depending on the result, more or less heavy postwork.

Possibly you could do something in Blender (free) too, but I have no idea how :)

Scott Livingston

Are they sort of humanoid, or completely amoeba-like? If humanoid, you might use Muck as a starting point: http://www.daz3d.com/muck-for-genesis
This might come in handy, too: http://www.daz3d.com/subsurface-goop-shaders

cecilia.robinson

Scott-Livingston said:

Are they sort of humanoid, or completely amoeba-like? If humanoid, you might use Muck as a starting point: http://www.daz3d.com/muck-for-genesis
This might come in handy, too: http://www.daz3d.com/subsurface-goop-shaders

Good idea regarding the shaders, sadly, Muck won't be useful as the Omuls are completely ameba-like. They can grow limbs as it suits them, but they don't have faces or something similar.

You could use primitives, a sphere if you have nothing else, and go at it with a bunch of deformers. Then add some glibbery texture, probably with strong displacement settings. Depending on the result, more or less heavy postwork.

Possibly you could do something in Blender (free) too, but I have no idea how :)

Deformers on a primitive... That sounds interesting. Do you know any tutorials about deformers? I use primitives, but deformers are a new ground to me.

FirstBastion

Have a look at sculptris, it could help with this.

TobiasG

cecilia.robinson said:

TobiasG said:

You could use primitives, a sphere if you have nothing else, and go at it with a bunch of deformers. Then add some glibbery texture, probably with strong displacement settings. Depending on the result, more or less heavy postwork.

Possibly you could do something in Blender (free) too, but I have no idea how :)

Deformers on a primitive... That sounds interesting. Do you know any tutorials about deformers? I use primitives, but deformers are a new ground to me.

Sadly, not really. I learned a few things from s tut on deviant art on how to make water (you use the D-Former tab in Daz Studio), but I'd really like a detailed tutorial myself.

Basically, you shrink and resize the deform field so that it only affects the area you're trying to deform. With Edit Spline, you decide which sort of deformation you get, and then you pull at the deformer.
If you start with a primitive sphere, you can make it pretty pancake shaped by reducing the y-scale.

cecilia.robinson

TobiasG said:

cecilia.robinson said:

TobiasG said:

You could use primitives, a sphere if you have nothing else, and go at it with a bunch of deformers. Then add some glibbery texture, probably with strong displacement settings. Depending on the result, more or less heavy postwork.

Possibly you could do something in Blender (free) too, but I have no idea how :)

Deformers on a primitive... That sounds interesting. Do you know any tutorials about deformers? I use primitives, but deformers are a new ground to me.

Sadly, not really. I learned a few things from s tut on deviant art on how to make water (you use the D-Former tab in Daz Studio), but I'd really like a detailed tutorial myself.

Basically, you shrink and resize the deform field so that it only affects the area you're trying to deform. With Edit Spline, you decide which sort of deformation you get, and then you pull at the deformer.
If you start with a primitive sphere, you can make it pretty pancake shaped by reducing the y-scale.

OK, I will try that and - if the commissioner allows - provide some designs of what we're trying to achieve. Thank you to all for your help.

DigiDotz

You could try metaballs in Blender

add the metaballs and move them around then then convert to mesh and texture

cecilia.robinson

martClut said:

You could try metaballs in Blender

add the metaballs and move them around then then convert to mesh and texture

MartClut, it looks unbelievably close to the alien, thank you! The bad news is I never used Blender, so it is unlikely I will learn it to an acceptable extent. Do you know of any presets similar to these?

WendyLuvsCatz

Carrara and Bryce do metaballs too
if nobody else whips you up one I will later, cannot now busy rendering

WendyLuvsCatz

http://www.sharecg.com/v/79204/view/21/DAZ-Studio/blobby has 5 morphs

cecilia.robinson

wendy♥catz said:

http://www.sharecg.com/v/79204/view/21/DAZ-Studio/blobby has 5 morphs

Thank you so much, Wendy! I will show it to the commissioner, I think he will like it!