chillyche

You're going to want to use a particle system effect, such as CC particle world or, if you have it, Particular.

Here's a good tutorial for how to do wild stuff with particle world:

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/soul_removal/

You'll have to adapt it to the proper look.

Feel free to use the Add transfer mode (ink mode), glows, and any combination of star filters you want.

If you have any of the Trapcode plugins, you're gonna be golden with this.

Post a still of the effect you're refering to, and I'll tell you the best way I know how to do it in AE. I've got 9 years experience with the program. And have recently turned my attention to making Macross-y things.

Hey, Wongster's back. I checked out your website about a year ago. Cool stuff.

Did you rig these guys with a skeleton? Are they FK/IK rigs? I'm so curious.

I have a couple of high poly ones Turbine and Chrono, but you'll have to ask them - I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind, but....fair's fair. Btw it's looking very nice

Well, we were hoping to populate the distant background with some lower-poly models. We are working on some nice smooth hi-poly ships for detail shots, but for background elements we could really work with low-poly models. We could also build some medium poly ships around low-poly models.

Chthonic -- would the best way to contact Turbine and Chrono be through their MW accounts, do you think?

Hell if I could make a profit off this stuff, my ass would be sitting in this comfortable chair of mine infront of a computer screen busting the moves on anything I could get my hands on.

I just want fans to know there's something else out there and it isn't clash of the bionoids nor is it Robotech again and again.

Folker was in Robotech

The voice, it'll be different, hence why Kudama will be putting his voice into the HIdef version of Episode 1 as well.

But you're all going to have to wait until I have something to show which probably wont be long, this new VA is very jazzed to try this role.

I, for one, will continue to watch even if characters are replaced. We don't have much alternative, and though it may be hard to get used to a new voice, a good actor can sell it. I got used to the new Dumbledore. I never got used to the Ranma voice when VIZ switched VAs. If I could get my hands on the rest of the series would I watch it anyway? Hells to the yizeah.

Any chance the Aria team can use those Zent and UN Spacy cap ships? Looking at that Zentraedi fleet video had me imagining big things.

That is, considering he knows it exists...

In principle, at least.

Sign me up as well, I'd love one and gladly pay for it. You should make a profit on this though, considering how much work you put in for it. I for one would actually feel better if you made something for yourself out of this.

He SHOULD make a profit for his work, but that whole pesky intellectual property law thing gets in the way sometimes. I'm sure Shoji Kawamori is somewhere thinking HE should make a profit on this thing.

Brianw76 - sorry to hear about the computer , but fix it and starrt on those models

Thouhgt I leave th enew year with a update .... I need work on coulors , next year ..

Have good new year everybody

Wow. Drool.

disregard this post,

you already have access to people with improved versions of the models I converted from Bothec...

I just noticed your collaboration in the HW2 thread...

Continue business as usual...

Although, we could definitely use some of those Bothec models as placeholders and low-poly stuff until the final models are finished.

I blew up my computer doing my final for character design class. I haven't been able to touch 3D stuff all break. But I did get some time to play that Macross game for PSP. I have a quad core, dual video card machine coming tomorrow so I can warm up with 3D Studio Max before school starts again. I hope I'll still have a chance to work on some Macross models before my break is over.

Brian -- 3ds Max, eh...?

Interesting. Never heard of it, but I'll have to give it a try and see what happens. I'm not a Photoshop expert, so I don't know all the many different ways to achieve the same result. I just went with the multiply feature because it's the least number of mouse clicks to make it work

Yeah, using layers is also really easy to understand, especially if you leave the work and come back a long time later. two years ago, though, around this time, I did an 8 page comic for a friend, and page 1 and 2 I did using layers, and pages 3 - 8 I did with flats, and they took me between half and a quarter of the time, a lot of the time saved being just from the computer lagging less. Blew my mind.

It's also a technique that works with any level of shading design, be it toon shading, Battlechasers shading, or photorealistic. I haven't really done much coloring since then, though.

Update

Zentrandi Fleet Combat Vid

Looks awesome.

My coloring for the Macross Mecha Manual is two part, but I use Photoshop CS for all the image work.

1) I scan the original black and white line art in 1,200 DPI grayscale. After rotation adjustments, I perform a linear burn and then a linear dodge to make sure the line art is a solid black that retains the necessary detail and the anti-aliasing to ensure the lines appear smooth.

2) With the line art finalized, I build a PSD file in RGB format. Working in layers, I use the multiply feature and add color layers as necessary. You can quick color the art using the wand to select an area to fill and then using the fill tool for color. I build the cartoon shading by creating another darker color layer on top of the existing color layer. Some colorists prefer to build shading using the brush so they achieve shadows with that "3D gradient" look, but I prefer the "toon shade" look that we've all come to know and love in nearly all the Macross anime shows, even Frontier to a degree. I made an exception for some (the Hollywood Amusement Ship is brush shaded rather than cartoon shaded. I felt it worked better for such a bland, spherical design)

That's about it. There's not much to it. The only downside of building pictures this way is they can be quite large. Some are as much a 7-8 megs in size.

Have you ever heard of "flatting"? I used to do all my old coloring jobs like you've descibed, with layers, but then I discovered the technique of using flats. The idea is that you basically create an extra channel in your RGB/A channels with "flats" -- that is, blocked in versions of where the different colors will be. And... er... I suck at explaining this... lemme find a link...

http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/html/channels2.html

Not the best tutorial on the topic, but should give you the basic idea. The end results will be indistinguishable, but your filesizes will be drastically reduced, as rather than multiple layers, you only need one layer and one extra channel.

Yeah, I couldn't unzip it either. Oh well, I have the WMV, that'll do for me.

Those launch arms, strike pack, and rocket booster are awesome. Chillyche, is he working with you on your project? That's some great stuff.

Rodavan is in the upper echelons of MacrossWorld modeling. He has kindly contributed to Aria.

Rodavan -- if you keep making models we need in Aria, I'm going to have to offer you an official position! I always just assumed you were too busy.

Here some updates on the Launch arm

Wow.

Totally honestly, the art conveys the story. Some of the pictures are funny. It's obviously not the most refined line art I've ever seen, but you're not attempting to deliver that. As long as the story remains interesting, I would probably continue to read this. Simplistic art, also, can be powerful. Not that I'm suggesting that you are making digital equivalents of Mike Avon Oeming's work, but I was first attracted to the excellent comic POWERS because of Oeming's simple artistic style. I only later discovered that Brian Michael Bendis was a talented writer, and as POWERS developed, I also learned to appreciate the nuance in Oeming's art. Off topic. Sorry. My point being, if you tell a good story, the simple art won't necessarily HURT it. If you really worked with the composition of the shots a bit, you might be on to something.

In fact, even though the art is frankly not something I personally would write home about, I would prefer to read this in comic form than illustrated novella form.

Some people read webcomics that are made from only a small palette of panels. Think about that Dinosaur one (I don't know the name) where the panels are the same pictures EVERY TIME, but with different text. That's effective.

At the same time, if you can do better with hand-drawn art, I would love to see that stuff.

Ultimately, you've created a story which has intrigue (even if it may mess with canon a bit), so, I'm still interested in what you present next.

But, my honest assessment is that if the story lags, the character aren't won't pull us through. But, I'm such a stickler for story that when I read J. Scott Campbell's "Wildsiderz" even HIS art couldn't get me past a single issue. So. THat's where I stand.

I concur with Vinnie and Hikuro. Though, I'd really prefer to keep my jeans out of the equation.

That's cool. If the VF-25 is a 2059 update of the VF-1 (I know that there is a complex lineage for the development of that fighter, and it's transformation is like part VF-1 and part YF-19, and so forth, but I mean that the VF-25 is clearly meant to suggest to an audience the VF-1, and retain a classic feel while remaining new, and plausible in 3D space) then I think this bad boy is a great update to the VF-4.

I would consider this a mashup, like Blue Eyes meets Bed Stuy, or the Gray Album. Where the two source materials are clear, but compliment each other nicely, rather than considering this a brand new design. That's my take.

Plus, your art is slick.

Thank you Mr March

Got home , got to redo some stuff , after seeing valk added some things will have to be re-done.

Rod -- For some reason PMs aren't working for me. Just wanted to say: got it. Thanks!

..."I need scissors! SIXTY-ONE!"

You know, the content of this discussion should be a rule or something: "If someone says that they don't like it, ask why. If they continue to rip, the others will take care of him. Either way, take it with a grain of salt and take what you can learn from it."

Seems pretty reasonable to me.

^_~ Don't count SeminNV's version out yet... His is really nice and is transformable...

Oh, I hadn't seen the texture yet. Cool.

Anyway, anime's right. TOO MANY 90 DEGREE ANGLES!

Wha?! I'm deleting my posts!

Seriously, though.

On the one hand, I actually agree with the both of you. When you put your art out there, not everybody is going to be nice to you about it. Sure, there are ways to critique somebody's work that encourage them, and that's what a good teacher or mentor can do -- challenge you without crushing your ambition. A good student has to be able to take these critiques, and understand they're not personal attacks. A professional has to be able to take all sorts of name calling and sh*t-slinging. And, for crying out loud, posting this on the internet has got to be the easiest way to open yourself up to name-calling. Anybody ever read youtube comments? If Hawk runs for cover when somebody says, "eh, I didn't like it," then that's going to be a short-lived art career. If it's just a hobby, then Hawk might want to think about who the work is shared with. Whether or not I feel like this is a community where we should all try to be nice and foster each other's creativity, it's still an open, public community where people are free to disagree with me on that, and say whatever the frak they want.

That said, I also realize that MW is a kind of community, and we don't have to enable or coddle people who can't take criticism, but at the same time, perhaps we should think about how we approach that criticism. Sometimes people just want to show their work, and they're not looking for somebody to tell them everything they did wrong. Or sometimes people want a critique, and we can come across as know-it-alls, or holier-than-thous, or whatever. I mean, at the end of the day, we're talking about transforming planes and galactic fairies and things, so it's all make-believe, and if somebody gets something wrong, it's really our opinion if it's wrong. I mean, science might have something to say, but it's fantasy, and people can choose to throw science out the door if they want. So, I dunno, I guess what I'm saying is that this is a community, and we can be nicer -- I'm not asking us to put on kid gloves, but I don't want to ask everybody to grow leather skin, either, if you know what I'm saying. I work as, amongst other things, a youth media mentor, and I constantly have to find creative and effective ways of motivating the youth to improve upon their work, without crushing their spirits, to critique it without criticizing it. Sometimes, I have a kid who takes the world so personally that nothing I say or do won't be seen as an attack. That, at the end of the day is THEIR problem, and I'm not responsible for it, but as a part of the community, I do try to recognize that and take it into account. I take that same mentality to the community here, which is that, if I can't figure out how to say it in a positive way (even if I think the work could use improvement), I tend to just shut up about it. Because, honestly, I don't need to offer my opinion on everything.

And for the record, I think Hawk over-reacted. But I also think that Kris was a bit harsh, but I know that that's Kris's steez and there's no harm intended. So, let's all "let bygones be bygones and let the good times roll."

Word.

Also, the Blitzwurfel is so stealthy... it takes a cue from Solid Snake's ultimate stealth design -- the cardboard box. 90 degree angles or not, suckas!!!!!!

LOLZ !!!!!eleven!!!!!!!

WHAT>!?

You know what I'm saying?