Hey, programr art

So...I seem to have bought me a copy of 3DSMax and dropped in some of the models I have from Milkshape and did some goofing around. So I've got me a smoothed up ninja and a little bump mapping for his sword. Unfortunately, I got a little ahead of myself in the conversion process and now have to do some re-uv mapping for the ninj. Still feel like I need to fix up the belt/hip region but I'm not sure what to do there, as evidenced by the fact that all my pencil and paper drawings get kind of fuzzy. Also, now that the sword is rezzed up and such the colors seem kind of funny. And that handguard thing I need to flat out replace.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Yeah, so - I guess I am cheating on the model - it's been smoothed to ~8000 polys using the MeshSmooth modifier of 3DS max. The original which I mostly built in Milkshape is ~2700, which I think is still kind of high for the level of detail involved. At least I've been looking at some other models and they seem to be doing quite a bit more with way less poly.

Some of it is the result of how I built it - I took the model that's in the released version of the mod (built entirely in Milkshape), and auto added more faces to smooth out around the shoulders, add the "bloomer" pants, sleeves, and I think I wound up adding quite a few more faces than neccessary. Switching to hands with fingers instead of fists didn't help either, but I think the fingers will be better in the long run as long as the rest of the model doesn't go overboard.

I have some pictures of real sword hand guards that include some more rounded designs - kind of a four leaf clover look...

Below are some pics of the differences between the 2700 and 8000 versions.

Actually, I should also have a picture from behind - since the mod uses third person, you wind up having to view your ninja's rear end pretty much all the time you are running around.

So I could say all kind of humorous things about that but I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader.

In all seriousness, I did have a lot of trouble finding good photos/sketches of how the sword might attach to the back (whether in real life or cartoon) - most of the time in movies, etc, it's all from the front. Right now I'm trying to make it look like it's just kind of strapped on from around the front.

Is the impracticality a question of transport, or drawing, or both? Or something else? I suspect in the movies/theater that it may be harder to do stunts with the scabbard on the side - although in any position you'd probably have to lock the sword into the scabbard or even just take everything off for the purpose of doing the shot. Just a guess.

Really, I should have said "live action"...the thing is, the whole notion of a "ninja" is so highly romanticised, my idea is to try and make this ninja somehow fit in the middle of all that (the "generic ninja" - no funky armor, no rock and roll headbands, no spiky hair, etc.), then people just kind of read into it whatever they think...but even trying to make it generic and just going by movies/tv/comics/games there are still all these choices - back versus side carry, hood style, pants/sleeves, etc.

Ninjas are a sure thing no matter what.

Skin ahoy!

Skin ahoy!

Remapping this thing was a pain and a half. I feel like I just lost 1d6 SAN.