Stablehand: Brownnose

This is an example of an idea I just really randomly got and then created on paper in probably less than ten minutes. It's the brownnose! Its... nose is brown. And it's incredibly cute, but once it starts following you, it's never going to leave.

I see Mega-Mierundaro as having a very uneasy relationship with them, with them making Arkturuse look like some kind of crazy cat lady as they just kind of wander in and he doesn't want to cast any of them out because they're just so cute! but everyone else alternates between welcoming them and finding them super-annoying. :p

And before you make fun of it, I've already got you covered:

(Actually, I made this picture when a random verb generator was giving me terrible suggestions for MB names.)

Also, here are some renders of a basically finished Obtruder model:

3D Observer from start to finish

Well, I've already done one of these posts on both Yanhas, and now it's time for an Observer one! Excited?

Not really?

Eh, here we go anyway.

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Original concept for the Observer.

Attempt at a colour palette for the Observer.

A very rough start on the Observer. (“Pet” form; I’m going to try to make “boss” form a shape key if I can)

Fudge inside-faces all the way to hamsandwichland

In which I fly into a rage about inside faces and momentarily become Equius Zahhak.

Observer in progress.

Not sure how I’m going to handle the patagium, but I think I might add it as another mesh, maybe. It would probably be easier to blend into the body that way.

Then again, I could actually wield inside faces to my advantage, and get the best of both worlds. Hmm… I think I might do that.

That, by the way, was not a very good idea. It worked, sort of, but wasn't at all necessary.

There.

It still looks really “bluh” but I got the patagium there at least.

I extruded the middle of the snout to start creating a mouth and the Observer suddenly took on a rather goofy grin.

Wow, this thing’s tongue-hand sure looks oddly like a snake now.

I was goofing around with the procedural texture maker again trying to make some veins for the Observer tongue with the Voronoi Crackle algorithm but

Instead I made this. :p

This rather beautiful texture unfortunately got lost when Blender unexpectedly crashed, along with the one I was intending to make. Which is a real shame because I think it was pretty much the most perfect tongue vein texture possible from procedural noise, and even after a lot more fiddling with the same options (in a program that always uses the same seed for noise) I couldn't recreate it.

Whoa, you can display your mesh with wire over the top.

Convenient, but also makes me feel like I’m in some cartoon and it’s TIME TO VOYAGE INTO CYYYYBERSPAAACE.

I swear this green net effect is reminding me of an Animorphs book cover but I can't find it

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That's all so far, unfortunately.

Yanha the Insulator, from cube to finish

A while after I made clay-Yanha I decided to make another Insulator, but this time in Blender. This one was more meant to be a generic Insulator, though as of right now I don't see Yanha having many structural differences from the norm, so I was kind of meaning to just use it for Yanha too with a different texture.

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Going to try to build and animate a 3D Insulator in Blender. I've never used armatures before, so this might not be easy.

Also I have no idea how I'm going to get the legs to flop like a tiger but the middle to be fluid yet dense like a snake.

Well, the Insulator is starting to look Insulator-like now. (Thanks to SH whenever I use that construction I can't stop finding it funny)

It's funny, I had the perfect colours for the Observer but I don't really have good colours for any other mystery beings.

Well, I'm making progress. The shield is done and the middle part of the body is mostly done, but the rest needs some work.

Currently I'm working on the front legs.

Ok, I think I'm leaving this thing's feet alone for now.

I'm probably going to scale the front legs up a bit and use that scale for the rear legs; the proportions are looking a bit weird.

Tomorrow, though! Need to finish my program for Java class.

A slight close-up of the shield, with the feet done-ish.

Ears. Think I may need to fix their angle but I like the shape.

Feet.

Now they actually almost look the way I want them to. Still look kind of weird from some angles though, may end up messing with them some more.

Aaaaaah why is it reminding me of a terrier all of a sudden

A nice turntable of the Insulator before I try to fit it with an armature and animate it. The 3D cursor photobombed it a little, but... I'm okay with that.

Plus, a tentative attempt at a colouration for this beast. The palette isn't completely final, but the pattern is probably roughly so and I also imagine individuals' colour palettes varying a little within the general theme of "Verity-green-and-brown".

(Also, you might note the tail isn't done; I plan to actually put a transparency map on it so it fades and create the water effect over it with particles so it actually moves.)

Duuuuuude

Weight paint is like... an aurora

what in heaven's name have I done

Whoa, hemi lights look a LOT better than the other lights I was trying to use.

It's a shame you can't see the spots as well now that everything is shaded properly. I'm going to try to make an actual texture today* so you can actually see this thing's colours and patterns and I will finally have a "de facto reference" with correct colours, proportions, and everything, for the Insulator.

I'm also going to make a Yanha skin using the same texture map so you have a reference for Yanha specifically. (English: After I paint it with olive and viridian, I'm also gonna create a blue and white version.)

* An actual texture, like, made in GIMP, instead of Blender vertex paint, which is what you see here. it's pretty good for very quickly and sloppily colouring things, but it's really... low-resolution, I think is a good way of putting it, so you can't really paint designs that are the least bit detailed with it.

After a lot of confusion and fiddling, I ended up with this.

This is what a UV map looks like, folks.

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That's all I have for now, but I'll edit the rest of the process in when I finish the texture. If and when I animate something with this model (which I plan to!) that will get another post.

3D Eventuator, from start to (for now) finish

Concept art of the Eventuator.

Maybe a little less than half done?

There we go!

Booleans were giving me trouble with weird errors and weird results on the front legs, but after I deleted and recreated all the face fills on that part I could boolean just fine.

Booleans sure are weird.

Rectangular prism to array, array to boolean, boolean-difference’d mesh along curve. And all of them are modifiers, so they live update if I tweak them.

Blender rocks.

Apparently, it’s really hard for me to find a square-ring shape I like, but I think I like this one.

Sort-of final render of the Eventuator!

Final until at some point in the future I try to texture/animate it and it has to be tweaked, anyway.