Examining the Proportional Differences between Na'vi, Avatars and Humans

Started by Skxawng, December 25, 2009, 07:07:39 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Lora Taw

true, because the animals of the planet did it quite well. including the smaller ones that use them in corridnation for difficult tasks such as climbing and jumping from tree trunk to tree trunk. and those animals were quite small. i.e. the lemur things and the small jackal sounding things (whose names in na'vi i am not aware of) if those animals with a much smaller brain than the na'vi, and us, can do it. im sure the na'vi could do it with not to noticable of a difference to their brain size

Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn

I'm not talking about brain size, the only thing I'm saying is that coordinating 4 limbs rather than 6 would be easier.
Naruto Shippuden Episode 166: Confession
                                    Watch it, Love it, Live it

Lora Taw

and im just trying to say that it wouldnt be. because that would be how they are. it would be hard to cooridnate them if you were used to 4 and then somehow attained 6

Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn

I'm not saying that they would see it as hard, I'm saying that moving 2 arms is over twice as easy than moving 4.
Naruto Shippuden Episode 166: Confession
                                    Watch it, Love it, Live it

Skxawng



"prrkxentrrkrr is a skill best saved for only the most cunning linguist"

Brainiac

Speed is a ppoor sbubstitue fo accurancy

Check out my blogif my presence on this board isn't weird enough for you.

Atanä mungeyu

Please do not ask for pirated software, pirated movies, pirated anything.
edit: wait what did i do? seriously i can't remember anything i wrote about pirating....
I haz teh DVD yaaaayy xD


nederlandse pocket guide door mij en txura tirea.

mrnapolean1

Quote from: Skxawng on December 28, 2009, 02:12:43 PM
A super defining feature on the look of an avatar is the stripes. The stripes kind of make the image come to life. For this tutorial I'll be using an older version of the image i posted before of myself. The nose needs help and there are a lot of other things that need fixing but this particular tutorial is not about those things so uh ... just ignore it

In fact, I'd say that stripes should be one of the last things you do when avatarizing oneself or drawing a na'vi, as they are heavily dependent on the topology of the face they are painted onto.

A couple basic rules I've inferred from what I've seen. First; stripes are pretty much a fingerprint. They are unique and should never be the same. Additionally, stripes are sort of like a Rorschach test, in that they are somewhat random, with symmetry, and probably infer a little bit into the character.

here's Tsu'tey, a sort of solid, traditional, by-the-books kind of guy. Notice the bold, vertical, columnar lines on his forehead, jagged (he's always the first to go to war, subtly violent)


Here's Jake. Lots of lines closer together, jagged, and coming in from the sides, meeting at the top of the forehead. I'll let you make your own inferrences


Here's neytiri. The point of focus is instead in the middle of his face. The stripes are smooth and feminine, very contrary to the war-paint esque marks that tsu'tey has.


and here's one of a happy trio :)


When thinking about the marks its also a good idea to look at tiger facial markings. cat markings in general, particularly tabby-styled  are great points of reference.

SO here's my ugly mug, bright blue and with weird proportions:



The first thing I do, is make a new layer, and grab a round brush, pressure sensitivity set to adjust the size of the brush. (this is a default brush) From there, I start by adding general marks to indicate the overall feel. 

I consider myself a complex character with quasai violent characteristics, and a fair amount of intelligence (how arrogant lol). I should also note that it is important to look at your own features for guidance.  the stripes can work really well towards your advantage in accentuating features that make your face unique.



Make sure to remember how your face folds and changes, and adjust teh lines accordingly.  Keep things arabesque, and check reference often (cats, avatars, na'vi, etc)   Seek to find a balance of detail with size and areas without detail. Nothing but detail will look bad. Too much simplicity  doesn't drive 'na'vi' home hard enough. Seek a gradient of detail, small with large.  Also remember, particularly if you are male, that the stripes serve as eye shadow.  Let the stripes accentuate your  furrows, folds.

Next, zoom in and add small details to the edges.  seek to eliminate the signature of the brush used. vary things, small details, large details ... balance. Don't be afraid to use the eraser tool (use the same brush as your paintbrush) ... Don't go overboard here, this should be a relatively quick step.  Just keep in mind symmetry, and make things a little less obviously a couple brush strokes.



Next we move onto layer blending and stripe specifics.  In this pic we notice that the stripes themselves are not simply slashes of a color, they have depth themselves.



Now, you can go right in and add some simple layer effects like inner glow to achieve a similar thing but there is subtle variation in the stripes that that just won't achieve. If, however, you're short on time and don't really care enough about detail, or are working on a small image then go use outer glow here, it'll work fine.

Me, I'm a sucker for detail.  So instead of takin the easy way out, I'm going to go in and brush the variation myself. I'll first start by blurring what I have drawn, just a little bit.  As we're talking about skin pigmentation there is rarely ever a sharp-as-a-knife transition between skin marks, so a little blurring goes a long way to adding realism. Play around with gaussian blur until you lose the sharper edges, then choose a darker blue.

I'll be using the brush that is a soft round, pressure sensitivity set to adjust opacity/flow.  I'll also vary up brush size frequently and throughout.   After I get my brush set up, I'll lock the transparency of the stripes layer. This means that if i tried to paint outside of the blue, nothing would happen.  This will keep our stripes intact.  Again - and I can't harp on this enough - look at ref throughout!



Note how not everything is uniform. Variation is the spice of life!  At this time, we've come to the end of the line as far as flat things. From here, we change the layer blending to 'Multiply'  which should look far too dark, so we then knock the opacity down. The result:



Depending on the brightness of the image, the opacity should be anywhere from 30-50% Looks pretty swell, right?  Lets make it look even better.  It looked a little too blue, so i knocked the saturation down a little bit.  from here I'll ...

Make it look more splotchy, make some of the edges fuzzy using the erase(remember toggle off fixed transparency)  and smudge tool:




Voilà, stripes!


ok i am a photoshop dummie and i lost you at the part where the face ruels are. ???

(Clicking on the Sig Picture will take you to Neobux)

Skxawng



"prrkxentrrkrr is a skill best saved for only the most cunning linguist"

mrnapolean1

Quote from: Skxawng on February 18, 2010, 09:04:02 AM
... first page of this topic has most of the 'rules' I defined

I read it 5 times and i still dont understand on how to na'visize your face like you did in your picture.

Quote from: Skxawng on December 27, 2009, 07:53:03 PM
first pass at making myself into an avatar, using the rules outlined above:


(Clicking on the Sig Picture will take you to Neobux)

Tefpakyu

He was only talking about proportions and how he made the stripes on his face, not how to do it completely. He has made a tutorial on youtube, see here: Avatarizing (1 of 4) : Intro and eye scaling
-Tefpakyu-

'Awve Tìkameie

My uncle's dog came over a little less than one week ago. I stupidly left the computer plug on the floor. That night, his dog chewed it up. So, the next morning, I go looking for the plug and I find a chewed up piece of metal. I sadly cannot purchase a new plug right now, and my computer's battery is out. I'm at my public library.

Also, I discovered this promising "small business" film company called Mirror Entertainment. It looks really promising: http://www.mirrorente

mrnapolean1

Quote from: Tefpakyu on February 18, 2010, 11:00:41 AM
He was only talking about proportions and how he made the stripes on his face, not how to do it completely. He has made a tutorial on youtube, see here: Avatarizing (1 of 4) : Intro and eye scaling

i cant do it. i guess my version of photoshop (CS2) is just too old.
i dont see any of the adjustments he used in the tutorial. :(

(Clicking on the Sig Picture will take you to Neobux)

Skxawng

Lol I use CS 1 normally (though the vids were done in CS4)

Those vids are probably the most in depth I'll ever get (there are 4 of them plus a timelapse of the last part) so watch all of 'em mrnapolean, and relax. Try not to think so much on the end product, and focus instead on learning


"prrkxentrrkrr is a skill best saved for only the most cunning linguist"

Ftiafpi

I use CS2 and can tell you for sure that all those items are in there. The only thing you wont have is his tablet and his custom brushes.

Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn

Naruto Shippuden Episode 166: Confession
                                    Watch it, Love it, Live it

mrnapolean1

Quote from: Skxawng on February 18, 2010, 06:28:58 PM
Lol I use CS 1 normally (though the vids were done in CS4)

Those vids are probably the most in depth I'll ever get (there are 4 of them plus a timelapse of the last part) so watch all of 'em mrnapolean, and relax. Try not to think so much on the end product, and focus instead on learning

i wonder how much difference there is between CS2 and CS4? ???
BTW i DID watch all the videos. 8)

UPDATE: i tried and followed his tutroial as the best i can and i still cant do it. it didn't look right.

(Clicking on the Sig Picture will take you to Neobux)

Eaite Randjam

You know what they say?  Practice makes perfect

Of course, it won't make you perfect, but it will make you better.  You'll be able to identify and fix problems with proportion.  Don't give up!

mrnapolean1

Quote from: Eaite Randjam on February 19, 2010, 11:57:12 PM
You know what they say?  Practice makes perfect

Of course, it won't make you perfect, but it will make you better.  You'll be able to identify and fix problems with proportion.  Don't give up!

The problem i have is the blueflying part and the nose part. ???

(Clicking on the Sig Picture will take you to Neobux)

Tefpakyu

Same, I'm doing a friend and I've got the nose and the brow all right ish, but it still doesn't look enough like skin :-\

I did my one using a different method so the nose and eyes aren't as good, will redo it at some point.
-Tefpakyu-