[meta] 3D modeling - one Goddess found, (mumble) to go

[Mark Skarr]

No one makes a useful helmet like that*.  I've got one that, outwardly, looks like it would work, but the UV (the way the mesh wraps around) is horribly distorted.
I know this isn't right either, but, this, so far, is the best I've been able to cludge together.  I may throw MonkeyFist on this to see what he can do.  This looks more like a beaky marine/flight helmet then a motorcycle helmet.  I'm doin' what I can.
* Edit: That I can find.  Each time I do, I run into the problem listed above.
Edit 2:  The moment I shoot my mouth off like that I find this.  If you click on the 2nd picture underneath, it shows a more detailed view of the helmet.  Would that be a good start? 
Edit 3:  MonkeyFist has found a few potential helmets and we're looking at all of them.  Updated the helmet before I go to work.  
Edit 4:  Purged pictures we're not using from my photobucket and Yuku galleries.

[Bob Schroeck]

If you click on the 2nd picture underneath, it shows a more detailed view of the helmet. Would that be a good start?

Indeed it would.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Black Aeronaut]

Yup, what Bob said.

[Mark Skarr]

All right, here's the new helmet.
Edit:  Purged pictures we're not using from my photobucket and Yuku galleries.

[Bob Schroeck]

Bingo! Perfect shape. And is that Skuld's reflection in the goggles?

Okay, refinements: The UN symbol should be about half to maybe 2/3 the diameter it has now. And the marbling is reversed. The majority of the helmet should be a grey matching his leathers, with white marbling -- just swap the colors you have now, and that should do it. (That's probably my fault for not specifying it properly.)

On further examination -- the domes look like they're of a piece with the helmet. Can you put some kind of visible seam around the joint? They can be twisted to activate external speakers.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

Good.  Step one accomplished.
No.  No that is not Skuld in the reflection.  She's someone . . . else.  She's someone I don't talk about much because I'm not interested in sharing copyrights with other companies.  However, here, that isn't a huge deal.  Her name, like the flower in her hand, is Rose.
Fixed the UN symbol and reversed the marbling (both easily done).  The domes are sitting in housings.  I used that model specifically because it would be more obvious that the domes are sitting in something to allow them to turn.  They're actually a ball turret from the Heavy Battle Tank construction kit.  I figured it would need some sort of housing, especially if the antenna is on one of the domes.  Don't want people getting their eyes poked out when Doug starts headbanging.  If it's still not obvious enough, I'll see if MonkeyFist can put a "gasket" around it (he's much better at stuff like that than I am).
Edit:  Updated the picture after 1:20 in engine.
Edit 2:  Updated the picture after 2:00 in engine, before I head to work.
Edit 3:  Purged pictures we're not using from my photobucket and Yuku galleries.

[Bob Schroeck]

Whoa. That grey came out a lot darker than I expected. But everything else looks just wickedly cool.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

Actually, I toned down the glare from the glossy covering (which helps lighten it), so it's much darker now.  I can always "brighten" it back up a bit.
Can you see the housings, or would you rather I see about putting a gasket on the domes?

[Mark Skarr]

I increased the film speed to brighten the helmet up a bit.
Edit:  Purged pictures we're not using from my photobucket and Yuku galleries.

[Mark Skarr]

Curse you, my brain.

That's a Rose.  Now that I've done this, I have to write it all up.  Curse you, brain.  Curse you.
(Rose statues are done when a Rose dies.  Now I have to figure this all out.  Sometimes I hate my brain.) 

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, yes, I can see the seams/housings now. And the color looks more on the money. The antenna's still a little to stiff -- it's a thin flexy thing, not a walkie-talkie rod.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

I went on an ethnic cleansing and purged, both from the thread and from my galleries, all the pictures we're not using.  I still have them, on my hard drive, in case we need to reference them, but my "work space" was getting cluttered.
Thinner, more flexible antenna:  Check.
I also noticed that the UN symbol was a little lopsided, so I went in an tweaked that.
Here's the helmet, with the new antenna, after 25 minutes.
Edit:  updated the helmet after 1:20.  Is there a font that you want to use for "The Drunkard's Walk" and "The Drunkard's Stagger"?
(I know, the question mark goes inside the quotations, I did that on purpose.)
Edit 2:  Updated the helmet after 3omething.  It's at 2k samples, so I'm ceasing the render.
I ask about the font so, when we want to do something like this, we can make them all look uniform.

[robkelk]

Is there a font that you want to use for "The Drunkard's Walk" and "The Drunkard's Stagger"?

Three years ago, I considered how large a part of the story the music is, and suggested http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Rolling_Rocker.htm]this one. Bob never said "no"...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mark Skarr]

Like so?
MonkeyFist is on an epic quest for an Oh My Goddess! themed font for me.

[robkelk]

Like so.

Since this particular version of Oh My Goddess! has a fair bit of In Nomine influence to it, we were thinking http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Magna_Veritas.htm]this font was appropriate... but that isn't any good as a more mainstream OMG font.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

Helmet looks good, if a shade dark -- but that's probably the lighting.

I've never established a standard font for anything to do with DW. In fact, as the http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/dw13.shtml]DW13 page will show, I've been toying with individual fonts for story titles. As far as the Rolling Stone-influenced font is concerned, sure, go for it. And I might use that IN-flavored font to create a new page title graphic for DW5...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

So.  Something like this?

[Bob Schroeck]

It's not "A Drunkard's Walk", just "Drunkard's Walk", but otherwise, wow.

The helmet's definitely too dark in that image, though -- take a look at my avatar. Its base color should be closer to the shade of Skuld's blouse than to black.
ETA:  Gah, should have done this days ago instead of quibbling with words to describe the shade:  In RGB, #C0C0C0 (192/192/192); or Hue 255 Sat 0 Light 192 -- that's pretty much the right shade for the base color of the helmet.  The "veins" of marbling are a few shades lighter:  RGB #D3D3D3 (211/211/211), Hue 255 Sat 0 Light 211 (though feel free to lighten them further if needed to make them visible by contrast).
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

The first version of this helmet was actually darker than that.  It was running 8e8fad (142/143/173;H238/S18%/B68%) with variations biased by sky and lighting.

C0C0C0 (192^3;H255;S0%;B75%) is actually the gloss cover I was using for it.  The Veins have to be running at 255^3.

Regardless, I've resampled the texture to (184^3) and have thrown it in the engine to see what it looks like.  When I have a useable sample, I'll post it.
    
This was the original texture ^; anyone can invert that to see what it would look like                    This is the new, inverted, severely "bleached out" version ^.  I don't know if we'll be able to see the marbling.
Edit:  Clicked Post instead of Preview, because I'm stoopid like that.  Just wanted to say: I've had to push my 3d skills to new levels for working on this, and, honestly, I've never been happier.  Thanks for working with me on this.  It continues to be fun and, hopefully, this is just the beginning.
Edit 2:  Good News!  I'd been having trouble with my rendering engine (LuxRender) not fully ignoring zones I set to "Null" (similar problem I'm having with Silverbolt).  They have a new release and that fixed it.  YAY!  I'm very happy about that.  So, I had to restart the helmet, but I'm happy doing that seeing that it's fixed.
Edit 3:  New Helmet!
Edit 4:  When I bump up the glossyness to anything approaching reflectivity, we lose all detail on the marbling.  (That's actually why Rose is in the picture, she's my reflectivity test)

Edit 5:  Apparently, part of my creative process is shooting my mouth off.  After making my statement in Edit 4, I goofed around with the settings and got this:

It's still too early to tell, but I can see some marbling, and I got a mirror-finish on it to boot.

[Mark Skarr]

That previous post was becoming too messy to keep updating.
I goofed around with the lighting some more and got it to look like this:
Edit:  12 hours later and voila.  Is that better?

[Rod.H]

I don't know, about the helmet; the last one looks fine. But the group pic...Belldandy looks a bit off to me, might just be the expression on her face or lack there of.

[Bob Schroeck]

Agreeing with Rod, the last render looks to be exactly on target. And on Belldandy, now that he brings it up. Maybe it's the expression -- Rod, closed mouth smile instead of open? Slight head tilt? Slightly crinkly eyes? What do you think?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Rod.H]

Well, it's Urd that's doing the open mouth grin, which with a closer look doesn't seem to affect her face the way you'd expect it to. Her eyes.... red-purple catseyes?

I'd say Bell, needs more of a smile on her face, a shine in her eyes and a good smidge of looseness in her stance. Something that they all could probably do with, and is possibly something difficult to implement without using motion capture. Although that's something the Kinetic hackers are working on.

Apart from that and their eyes not seeming to be looking at the cameraman, I can't see anything else springing out at me.

[robkelk]

Slight head tilt?

That is one of the easier fixes for Barbie-Doll-Pose Syndrome...

looking at the cameraman

...and that's the other easy fix. I've learned from taking photos in the Really Real World that people's eyes tend to follow the camera even if they don't turn their heads to look straight at the photographer.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mark Skarr]

Each of the eyes are watching the camera, it's a very simple procedure in DAZ to have the eyes follow a camera.  As has been brought up before, magna gives forced perspective, 3d doesn't.
Urd's eyes are just smaller than everyone elses, but I'd been meaning to bring that up.  I've seen Urd's eyes run the gammut from almost the same blue as Belle's through violet, then to purple and to red.  I had just picked one of the more common colors, but, it's an easy to fix to change.  What color do you want?
As for Urd's smile . . . that was just Holly's smile, I never closed her mouth.
So, here is the render I was working on after 10 hours.  I've "tilted" Belle's head and tried to work on her smile and eyes, but last time that ended with people saying she looked older than Urd, so keep that in mind.  I've also closed Urd's mouth and thrown the updated scene in the engine.  After a couple of hours, I'll see if it's somewhere that's useable.
Edited 3 times, because the fora are haunted and the IMG keeps coming back!