Cthulhu Head

[Dutch]

I've been making stuff here at Q1 for a respectable amount of time, you and your mod haven't seen the last of me.

Haha good to hear.

@more monsters - You need a Gug

You've gotta be shitting me. You and I are on the same page man. I was thinking about this exact same fucking monster today. I was even looking at that picture. Yes, the Gug is on the list. My only concern was I didn't want people to think I was ripping ideas off Kell's Quoth mod, but mine looks radically different in my mind so far. That, and the Gug really isn't exclusive to anyone except Lovecraft.

[MadGypsy]

I've been wanting to model the Gug forever but the fact is, I am really really slow at modelling bodies. I've seen so many tutorials on body topology and all of them have a little something different about the edge flow. It's almost like no one really agrees how body topology should be. I've seen shoulders alone modelled 3 or 4 different ways when it comes to a) connecting the pectoral muscle/armpit and b) the method for simply creating a shoulder.

Anyway, I'm rambling, the point is - I get far on body topology and there is always something (or many somethings) that look weird to me. I wind up spending way too much time trying to get everything to look good and then I'm so sick and tired of the model I just stop.

If I could get past the "fuck this" portion of modelling, I could probably make an awesome Gug. That's another reason I was so specific about making a Cthulhu head. I figured the head is just enough work that I would feel like "fuck this" right about the time I finished, and I was right cause right now, the last thing on Earth that I want to do is work on this head.

I like it though. I think I did a pretty good job. It's not easy connecting a squid to the back of a beings head and making it look believable. I think It will look even more believable when an excessively muscular body is attached. Mostly because the big body will make the big head look smaller.

Oh right, there is another reason that bodys tend to piss me off. I'm thin and very muscular for my thinness. For some reason no matter how much I try not to do this, I always wind up modelling my own body.




notice how both of these models have almost identical proportions yet they are not the same mesh at all. That's because they are more or less, my proportions. I could show you more models that I have made with the exact same proportions, these are just the ones I could easily find posted here, without having to search harddrives and upload stuff.

Actually, I had to consciously fuck up Cthulhu head so I wouldn't start modelling my face.

edit (remembered this one)



look at the bicep, muscular and thin. Yet another proportioned after me model. Funny thing is, I don't use myself s a reference, I don't use any reference.

lol - if I made a game it would just be a bunch of my body with random heads attached fighting each other.

[Sza]

He looks almost the same than the q2 soldier. Nice.

One question: Can you help me a litlle bit with my mod?

[MadGypsy]

Can you help me a litlle bit with my mod?

Maybe, what exactly do you want me to do and how soon do you expect to have it? In about 1 hour I am going to work on an idea I have which is related to sitephyre, it's not a huge thing but I intend to code it out from one end to the other before I start anything else. The bottom line with Sitephyre is, I have the core functionality complete (or mostly) and that core functionality is very versatile, so, I want to start creating more specific things with that core, eventually plugging it all together to accomplish the whole. I've taken like 2 or 3 weeks off from my project and it's time to get back on it before I start having problems remembering the scope.

In short...maybe I can help you but it could be a month or more before I even consider it. Another thing to note is, I might not be as good at some things as you may think I am. For instance, don't look at my Cthulhu head and think "Oh Gypsy is a good modeller" cause I am not a good modeller. I am a good head modeller. I'm also not a good QC programmer, I am just a programmer/scripter and the language is irrelevant. See what I'm saying? I'm not a pro (or maybe even good) at any of this stuff, my potential is super high though. Technically, I could probably make one of the most elite character models you have ever seen, it would just take me the rest of my life and cost me 1000's of dollars in monitor replacements for all the times I completely lose it.

random fact: There is a sticky note on my notepad that says "Please don't destroy me." I get soooo fukkin mad, sometimes. I'm waiting for the day where I move from here so I can walk into T-Mobil with a hammer and their shitty dongle. It is my life's dream to smash the fuck out of it right in front of them, walk out the door and never give them another cent.

Can you believe I called customer support to complain about their shitty service and the guy on the other end was like ignoring my complaints and trying to sell me more T-Mobile garbage? I'm telling him that "I HATE T-MOBILE!" and he's like "You should upgrade to blah blah blah it's only double what you pay now..."

Rage ensued.

[Sza]

Hmm, so you have already forgot. I need only a perfect stand poses for every q2 monster so i could make high poly skins for these using a mirror function. Idk how much time you will need for this but for me (if i do this) it will be damn much longer because i know not much about 3d max or blender.

@T-mobile I had a similar situation but with other company... This bitch (woman) have ignored me 5 or 6 times after my first call, and i wanted to change some things in my contract... Dont forget i must wait everytime fucking 20 or 40 minutes till someone pick up the phone, and it cost money. I have simple noticed the name and reported this naughty bitch to another worker which have changed my contract in 1 minute.

Update: I thought last time (today) about my mod. The peoples "here and there" are not interested any more... you know why... so yeah, fuck my mod. I started already to work together with some people on a other project. They understanding me good and having very much respect for my skills so may be it will make more fun.

[Tea Monster]

Can someone explain to me why it's taken all this time to get a Lovecraft creature set (back) into Quake 1?

Nice models guys.

[Guest]

hehe must be because artists are never satisfied... and I'm one of them!

Can someone explain to me why it's taken all this time to get a Lovecraft creature set (back) into Quake 1?

Nice models guys.

[MadGypsy]

@stand poses - Sza, buddy, we both know there is no way in the world I'm gonna go through all the characters for Q2 and create stand poses for them. I can't even finish one model...

@respect talents - I totally respect your talents. You are just so stuck on not letting anyone suggest anything that the only thing to do in your threads is tell you you are doing a good job and move on. This gets boring, man. So what really happens is people look at your pics and don't leave a comment at all, cause they don't want to just keep repeating "good job".

Any thread/mod/project that doesn't allow for suggestions will die this death. If your new project isn't open to suggestion it will also die this death. Maybe you shouldn't even be the guy to post about your new project. You need a team member that can take a little criticism and suggestion and actually consider it.

I know what you may say. "My mod was an exact retexture of the originals". Ok, well then what's the point in making a thread about it? The only thing to tell you in that thread is good/bad job. It's impossible to form participation if you limit it to a "yay/nay" vote.

I wish you luck on your new project. I hope you loosen up and lose the chastity belt. Your stuff is really good, Imagine how good it would be if you made an effort to appease your audience (ie, the people that are going to actually play your mod)

Look at SMC - tons of participation and tons of listening/considering on Sevens part
look at RiftQuake - tons of participation and plenty of listening/considering on Dutch's part
The same as the above could be said for Talisa and I'm sure more people/mods.

All of these people are excellent examples of how to maintain a participatory audience.

[bluntz]

Burnout is all too common on something like this project and is why I asked for a backup of the simpler rig before you go postal
If you have something else to take your mind off it then by all means break off and let the stress flow.I am the same way I always have to have 3 or 4 projects going or it quickly becomes work and looses its appeal.In fact one of them has to be something involving my hands.
At the moment it is hot rodding an old minibike and a big bore Yamaha IT 465.
If you have not seen Angela Guenette's topology work on Sintel, I would suggest having a gander at her methods.I am sure you will find something useful for your project.
I applaud your efforts and admire your work,this is not a critique but just an attempt to help you avoid the ragequit we see all the time around Q1.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN-GnqSKCgU]1/7 - Facial Intro Topology - Sintel - YouTube[/ame]

[MadGypsy]

Woooooah - even just the video still is incredibly informative. I see a lot of edge loops that I am pretty familiar with but, her model is like 1 subdivision higher than mine.

@backups - I have like 12 or 15 forks/backups since the beginning

@rage - I didn't actually rage too bad on my head. When I started pulling the torso out of the neck (hidden in my images) is when I started really getting annoyed. The part that I thought was going to be the hardest about the head, turned out to be one of the easiest (tentacles) so that was refreshing. I'm sure I could make the tentacles much harder by simply adding definition but, I never intended to have a poly density greater than what my images contain.

@4 or 5 projects - we are peas in a pod, man. I don't need to tell you that though. How many things did I make between parsing delimiters and seriously parsing the hell out of some delimiters?

@critique - it's welcome if you have some. I mean that. I made a pretty involved head and I think it looks pretty good but, I know I'm going to look at it in 3 months and start hating things about it. Actually, I already hate the head plate. I was thinking it could be removed and a detail could be wrapped through the brow and around the underside of the tentacles to imply that the squid is somehow a parasite, then the 3 long globs of squid that form the brows and "crest" of the squid could be turned into the new headshield with the implication that the "shield" is technically an exoskeleton.

I also think his goatee either needs to be reconsidered or completely removed and replaced with a long, thin, clefted chin. Actually, after describing all of that, now I want to go check it out.

Edit I posted the image so it's easier to envision what I am saying. This is the same "final" image that I last posted.


Will Gypsy come back with a better model? Will Kalmarians sport a clefted chin? Find out on the next episode of Cthulhu Head! {audio: TARDIS departure}

[Dutch]

Can someone explain to me why it's taken all this time to get a Lovecraft creature set (back) into Quake 1?

That is a good question. I like how Lovecraft always gave pretty good detail on his creatures. I'm kind of a fiction writer myself and I always kill readers with detail, so I appreciate this. It gives everyone a familiar idea of what the monsters look like, despite variations from one model/drawing to the next. I mean, type in Gug on google images and they all look a little different, but all tie into the main features Lovecraft detailed.

I was hoping to steer my mod in a bit of a new direction for monsters. I definitely want to include Lovecraft creatures like the Gug, Cthulu, Shoggoths, and a new rendition of Shub-Niggurath. But I'm a huge fan of Tolkein, and I can already see some of his demons making their way into the mod.

I was thinking it could be removed and a detail could be wrapped through the brow and around the underside of the tentacles to imply that the squid is somehow a parasite

I like the sound of that a lot. Would add the grisly factor in.

[Sza]

@respect talents - I totally respect your talents. You are just so stuck on not letting anyone suggest anything that the only thing to do in your threads is tell you you are doing a good job and move on. This gets boring, man. So what really happens is people look at your pics and don't leave a comment at all, cause they don't want to just keep repeating "good job".

Any thread/mod/project that doesn't allow for suggestions will die this death. If your new project isn't open to suggestion it will also die this death. Maybe you shouldn't even be the guy to post about your new project. You need a team member that can take a little criticism and suggestion and actually consider it.

I know what you may say. "My mod was an exact retexture of the originals". Ok, well then what's the point in making a thread about it? The only thing to tell you in that thread is good/bad job. It's impossible to form participation if you limit it to a "yay/nay" vote.

I wish you luck on your new project. I hope you loosen up and lose the chastity belt. Your stuff is really good, Imagine how good it would be if you made an effort to appease your audience (ie, the people that are going to actually play your mod)

haha have you ever seen that ID foken software have asked people how should look doom 3 or q1? There was much people which simple wrote bullshit in my thread. I have wrote many times that the textures will looking other in game as in the editor... I have wrote many times that this is an alpha version and many things will change... Some peoples have showed me some ugly screens from Berserker and tryied to tell me that the gfx is better I have wrote about the limitation too but some people still dont understand... i have even extra tested q2b and even the lights are almost same fucking dark... Still to hard to understand? I feel and know very good when someone is jaelous or a troll! BTW: My fucking mod was not an exact retexture of the originals... May be you should play first instead to write some fantasy.

Next thing (first or a second day in the forum): The arms was placed bad in the first person camera and i knew it so why seven i telling me that? Am i fucking ape or what? It was very easy to see! I am a fucking perfectionist so there is no place for such a mistakes! You was not very gentle too (at the first day)...

Like i said. I take good ideas to my heart but not if they are bullshit.
Sry, but i hope you fucking understand! I dont want to write 1000 times about it because i start thinking that you are playing some fucking games with me.

I have worked (as a gfx designer) 3 or 4 years in a dev team with 4 other people and we have argued maybe 10 times! Think what you want but i am not fuckin guilty for this what happend.
Sorry for the off topic guys. It won't happen again.

@stand poses - Sza, buddy, we both know there is no way in the world I'm gonna go through all the characters for Q2 and create stand poses for them. I can't even finish one model...

Now the topic

No problem i will make a perfect stand pose in a mud box. It will be not perfect but i think it will be enough good. Just give me 1 h. Your model looks bad ass but idk if quake 1 i a suitable place for him. I cant say much because there are no textures on it so... Keep it up. I want to see the space bob marley some day

[Tea Monster]

I was going to suggest what Sza said, but he beat me to it.

Get a basic stand pose and Frankenblender it together.

[Sza]

Sry but i dont wanna do off topic. But how? I have searched for some tutors and they was good but it was not what i am looking for. MD2 is like to dig in a 300 years old and empty gold mine. I know only the MB very good but blender? I can make/fix with 3d max some simple uv maps and some other things. The only program i know very good is the mud box. I can put there the weights and move all body parts. I have never build a model from scratch using 3d max or blender. May be there is a special plugin or script for the 3d max or blender which helps to make a stand pose automatic? I will search today a litlle bit (once again)... omg

[MadGypsy]

haha have you ever seen that ID foken software have asked people how should look doom 3 or q1?

Lol, no doubt. Now all you have to do is become a professional game design company and your argument may hold some weight.

@stand pose (Sza's last post) - not as easy as you thought, was it? I want to be clear about something. It's not that I don't want to help you. I know that I will flake out long before I ever finish. So, what's the point? I could say right now "yeah, sure man. I'll pose everything up for you" but then I wont actually do it. Even if I wanted to help you with all of my heart and soul I know I wont finish.

This is what is more realistic. I would tell you i want to help. I would then try to help, and halfway through the first model I would quit out of sheer boredom or possibly frustration. I would then come back to you and tell you that I'm sorry but I (suck at/hate) this and don't want to do it anymore.

So I'm just saving you a lot of future frustration and disappointment.

@stand pose (TeaMonsters last post)

I was thinking of throwing clonemans body on it, subdividing it and giving some sculpting a shot. Really the only thing I feel I should sculpt is the muscle. I can model in my own armor with box modelling techniques