3D Octopus (Help me)

[Monkeywrench]

Thank you very much Steve! I have been studying these photos for a long time. Nothing short of eye candy. Unfortunately I've only had 1h rest Wednesday night, so I won't be modeling tonight (but I am psyched!). I will start up again after classes Friday. Thanks for slightly varying the angles, that really helps. And the texture on this little guy is stunning. Also, a facinating third picture! It's all coming together Structurally I can see how everything fits into place now.

Thanks again.




Yaay.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

No worries MW; there's a series of pics of a live octopus that I can lay my sticky little hands on, and will post shortly (we put a male named 'Stumpy' [missing several legs] in with a female named 'Slime' [don't ask], and the two of them did the rumpy pumpy for a week). 'Stumpy' was released, and 'Slime' has since layed eggs .... so the thread will be along those lines (Octopus culture). It'll be interesting to see how we go. We should have it online by mid next week; eggs are presently a week old, so I estimate 3 more weeks before they hatch.

Be more selfish! It's 's duty to edify us, man.

You are truly a most dark and dastardly, positively wicked fellow, Oh dear Right Honourable Regal-Footed Sir Dr Ummm.......

 

[um...]

It makes you great, so you shouldn't complain.

This model is going to be so sweet.

 

[chrono_war01]

This model is great.

 

[Cephkid]

A few questions...

Joints:
1)How are you rigging the mantle to the joints in the arms? I have been trying to make an animate-able octo model (with MilkShape 3D 1.7.0 ...), and keep having the the mantle stretch at odd angles.
2)How are you attaching the joints to the arms? I can't seem to get the arms to keep the image flexability in animation, and it ends up looking like a multi-jointed stick-figure.

Thanks!
(Be warned; more questions ahead. (I've been trying to do this for over a month...))

 

[Monkeywrench]

Cephkid: I'm not entirely sure, because I haven't started rigging yet. I built a small rig, but only to raise the mantle slightly, not to animate. I don't anticipate problems, but mimicking a tight tentacle curl would be impracticle and require too many joints (for a game model), so I will probably avoid that.

I haven't used MilkShape, but it sounds like some of the verts in your mantle may be being influenced by the wrong joints. Check your weighting.

We should work together on this. It's cool that I've already found 2 other people trying to bring 3D justice to cephs.

Do you use MSN? PM me your address if you do.

 

[Monkeywrench]

Thanks for the inspiration guys!

Here's a small update. I'm still working on the suckers, they will run the whole length of the tentacle when done.

Let me know if you think the gills, adsiphonal pouch, or funnel need to be shifted at all.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Oooops; still have to get rid of one of those siphons (the one poking straight at us). The mid ventral siphon & adsiphonal pouch are spot on. I hate to say this, but work is needed on the suckers .... they don't taper as is shown in one of the earlier images (that would have taken a long time to do); it depends on how accurate you want to be. More pics to follow.

 

[Monkeywrench]

lol Now I'm really confused. Is the tube in these photos not a gill? I thought they had 2 (1 on either side) and 1 siphon that runs down the back?

Maybe I've been tricked. Has the siphon been curled around and pointed at the camera in all these photos? I was following your reference Steve, I just thought that some species had overdeveloped gills (protruding tubes) but I guess that's the siphon LOL. *sigh*

Also if you're referring to the way the suckers on the tentacle stop 2/3 of the way down, I mentioned they're not complete yet.

I'm still working on the suckers, they will run the whole length of the tentacle when done.

But if it's more than that, please clarify. Thanks

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Afraid the 'tube' in the photo is the siphon; you'll not see the gills (they're inside the mantle cavity - that big lumpy sac at the back).

The shape of the suckers in cross section is quite different to that depicted in your graphic. I'm hunting around here for some old illustrations that I did .... hold on.

Here we go; same old story ... lack of flash (I have to win Lotto to get some proper gear!!!!)

The memoir (something in 1999, 280pp long; out of print; cover pic of Pinnoctopus cordiformis, with the funnel pointing straight at you), page view of suckers in cross section, and CU in cross section. I'll have to dissect some suckers to show you the real thing, but cannot be today - really have too much on right now; sorry. For a littoral (shallow water/coastal) species of octopus you really should design your suckers similar to those in Figure A (the majority of other sucker sections are from deeper-water species)

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Ooooops, and the suckers should also ALTERNATE - they are not in opposite pairs (zigzag rather than paired). That's really going to make you miserable isn't it.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Ooooops again - another important thing I forgot. The suckers in the mid-portion of each arm are larger than those elsewhere on the arm. They start off very small around the beaks, in a very loose zig-zag pattern (widely distributed), then by the 6th-7th sucker rapidly increase in size, get closer together (but still alternate), gradually increasing to the mid-point of each arm, thereafter gradually decreasing to the arm tips. Those at the tips of the arms are really tiny - smaller than those around the beaks (half the diameter). Your pic has them gradually decreasing from the base of the arm.

 

[Monkeywrench]

Ooooops Thanks Steve! You're the man.

You're right, the tentacles really aren't being represented very well at all. I've been VERY sternly criticized by a friend in the videogame industry for wasting so many polygons on them.... and they're little more than extruded boxes right now. As is, even with those crappy boxy suckers, it's still too wasteful in polys even for Half-Life 2.

So what I'm probably going to do is create a super highpoly version (for GI shadowmaps.. Cephkid and CarlS know what I'm talking about). The final model will have the tentacles removed completely, but they *should* in theory appear to still be there.

I will post updates soon.

 

[Squidman]

I have a friend that enjoys playing with Maya and Flash, I should tell him what you are doing.

Best of luck,
Squidman

 

[TPOTH]

Here we go; same old story ... lack of flash (I have to win Lotto to get some proper gear!!!!)

happy to volunteer my camera if it helps, sir!

TPOTH