Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hello All:
I am a huge fan of Usagi, and now at 34.875 years old, I have been reading his adventures since my teen years..oh man can it be true- sigh.
well I am an avid martial artist and have perused that for 24 years now, starting when I was 10..all that is to say that Usagi Yojimbo has always been in a sweet spot for me , Stan Sakai thank you for that and such a long tradition of great stories with this samurai.

OK part two, I work in art and images- I am continually testing my own abilities with personal projects, hence the post, I will be posting the progress on a 3D image of Usagi, Please feel free to critique the work, I tried to stay true to the style and form of Stan's work, while bringing a grit that I see as I read the books, or maybe it's as I watch Kurosawa ?

I want to hear what you all think of this work. I still have mush to do in polishing , the maps but I have hit a point where I would love some community input.
There is now a full character rig on this 3D model and the next step is to make some action!!!I can't wait

What a cool project! The head appears a little out of proportion, but it is still lookin' good. How long you been workin' on it?

it's been maybe 20hrs?? Hard to say the first attempt was probly 2 years ago, then major life in the way, so this incarnation started in Dec, with a few hrs a night going in..

I think the head was too small before, let me shoot some other angles to post, and we can look at it then, thanks for the reply

http://vimeo.com/9231544
http://vimeo.com/9213394

Hello Gang:
here is an update on the Usagi 3D model. I am happy with the result so far, Steve, the turntables will give you the chance to give the hairy eyeball to proportion and costume.As a note, the version that is lit is using 123mm focal lenght, previous images were 65mm this difference seemed to tease out some warp in the image. also the deformation we are building into the head should be able to get close to Stan's facial poses for the drawn character- that's my hope anyway
Anyone who has thoughts, things I missed, crits, please chime in, I will be posting the fan fiction storyboards..for the FANIMATION..I love that coinage.fanimation..just sounds fun..
please get involved! if you have thoughts.
sorry I couldn't figure out the embed code but vimeo is cool..
Best

Steve

This is great work! The rendering itself is wonderful.

The things I notice, as a fan, are that it really doesn't look like Usagi as far as facial features go. Almost like a relative. While I can understand this is an artistic perspective maybe what is missing is the soul of the character.

For instance, if you rendered this Usagi in a construction worker's outfit (for example) it would no longer be Usagi. However, if Stan drew Usagi in a construction worker's outfit the soul or "look" would be preserved. Usagi would still be recognizable as Usagi. If that makes sense.

Awesome job man! Keep posting updates!

Thanks for the notes TinLantern..if anyone is picking up what he's putting down and has paint-overs on these posted images- I would love to get closer in the model to a spirit of Usagi. Is it as Steve mentioned the cranium shape size. I totally understand the direction of this comment about the construction worker.
I do think that some of the animation will begin to breath life in..I will keep updating

I still believe the head looks somewhat large in comparison to the body.

The head seems to be nearly the same size as the torso in your 3d model while the proportion is closer to two heads to one torso in almost all of Stan's drawings except the very earliest stories, and even then the head was still small in proportion to the body.

I love the details of your head and face, so maybe the body actually needs to be enlarged rather than shrinking the head and losing all the dtail.

http://vimeo.com/9272164
Here is the modification on the head size..scaled from 1 to .875...appreciate the feedback..I am going to start blend shapes for the head, to form more face poses..

Hello Steve T,

I really like this a lot. Thanks for taking the time to work on it. Just imagine 30 years ago this would have been impossible. Peace, maka

Maka wrote: Just imagine 30 years ago this would have been impossible.

Maka thanks for taking a look. It is amazing how the technology has changed, and just keeps getting better and better. even two years ago this was an impossible fight for me and now, the software is just so much faster more capable for the home user..it's cool

does anyone have a compilation sheet of Usagi face poses from Stan's published work, it would be good to get a sense of what other people think are the key face poses.. any takers?

So I have an update..here are some stills from the environment, the scene is moonlit on one side and fire on the other, it will all take place after a fight and my hope is to get the animated version of Usagi up soon for you all to see. I did want you to see some stills from the environment so here they are, a little dark rt now, but I am tweaking. And I would like to know if there is an iconic villain who should be the dead guy on the ground, this scene is a post fight scene, so I need an antagonist..any thoughts?
Best
Steve

OK so we made it to the next step..the environment is built out textured lighting is in progress, but wanted to share some results..any thoughts comments are appreciated.






working on some Neko Ninja as the adversary

steventaylor wrote:OK so we made it to the next step..the environment is built out textured lighting is in progress, but wanted to share some results..any thoughts comments are appreciated.






working on some Neko Ninja as the adversary

Great work so far man, your attention to detail is whats most impressive and more importantly... I would watch this Usagi show!