The eagle and some major changes to its design

After doing a lot to the snake design it was time i started to pick up on the eagle.  Alot of work has been based on its structure for animation and re-doing a lot of pieces such as the talons, tail and the wings and even the beak so as it can be easier to manipulate in the future. I have found that it has been a challnge but with a lot of percerverence i think i have prevailed in improving its design.

First off you may notice that the legs are actually seperated now. I deleted the old legs and mostly extruded shapes from the original shape of the eagle and then moulded them into shape so that they will be easier to animated and not cause any mesh stretching. The actual shape of the eagles head has been tweaked and you can also notice that i have given it eyes. The actual sockets of the eyes have been moulded around the spheres to give it a much more realistic shape. This is because all eyes are spherical. There is no such thing as an oval in the design of a biological creature on this planet. Unless you want to break down into sphecifics but lets move on.

Here is when the wings feathers had to be extruded. I used the old sign of the wings and squashed them down and then started extruding the appropriate faces. But then i found out i had to extrude them all seperately because the edges are joined when the faces are extruded all at once.

Here with the wings it has taken a fantastic shape and im really happy with how it looks so far. The actual; bone is also still intact ready for rigging to animate. Although i have been tempted to possibly use a sine deformer like on the snake but on the bridge of the bird structure shoulder to shoulder. The feather would also need to have ncloth properties and wind resistance to give it an organic look.

Here is a shot without showing the vertices. Im very happy with its outcome.

As you can see i have also done it with the tail as well. So a lot has changed in the design of the bird. With this tail design i should be able to rig the tail and move it easily whilst also hopefully applying an ncloth script.

Next im probably going to work on the face more and then start texturing before the animation. But i’ll also take a look at how to right a script for the feathers.

~ by mcosgrave on June 22, 2009.