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Edit: After making this post, I began wondering if I might have violated a forum rule regarding sequential posting. I checked, and I am in violation. Looks like Snarky will be contacting me, along with the lawyers for one game developer and several actors, with a few photographers thrown in for variety. Sorry folks. It should not happen again. I'm also changing the image I'd put in this post with a later one along the same lines.

Regarding copyright:
If you just use the photograph as a loose reference, there's no copyright infringement to speak of (virtually impossible to notice, literally impossible to prove).
If you just manipulate it a little, or reproduce it very faithfully so that we're talking a derivative work, you have infringed the copyright, but there's no chance in hell anyone would notice it, much less care. Unless perhaps it's a really unique and famous photo, and it's very obvious that you've stolen it, and you're making lots of money of it. Then maybe you've got a problem.

I don't know. I'm still concerned, particularly after looking at Eric's and calicoreverie's posts. I cobbled this together using both FaceShop and MakeHuman.



Worked, but won't stand up to close inspection. The censoring was an attempt at humor.

In the hands of someone who actually knew what they were doing, seems this stuff would be likely to get a person in trouble.

Wonderful stuff, Mr. Gilbert! Can't wait. On the downside, I'm afraid, the Gary Cooper'esque Joey is the Joey I see in my mind's eye. I think he could take the Joey is these shots.   ;-)

@Anian - Played with MakeHuman and wish I'd encountered it years ago. Impressive. One thing, in particular, it seems to play exceptionally well with Bryce 7 regarding bringing in a fully textured obj file, although with a few missing things (like hair and bikinis). I also pulled the obj into Anim8or, which was less successful. I believe what I'm seeing in the mesh in Anim8or may be the defects you mentioned that needed to be fixed. I see no such problems in Bryce 7; the mesh looks perfect to my, basically, untrained eye.

Many thanks for mentioning the program!

Edit:

@Calin Leafshade - Anian suggested MakeHuman. I've been playing with it, moving different figures into Bryce 7. Came up with this oddity:



Almost as terrifying as Mr. Gilbert, perhaps? The figure was nude, but I suspect the UVMap got wrapped improperly. Pretty effective, but I couldn't have made it happen if I'd wanted to.

@Anian - Thank you. Appreciated the information!

Edit:

@Anian - I downloaded MakeHuman and will take it for a spin. It looks interesting. Tons of download buttons on that site, none of them taking you to the program. I eventually found it, but not without acquiring two additional, unwanted pieces of software along the way.

That's terrifying.

He might be feeling just like that, what with Blackwell 5 in the works.  ;-)

@Eric - That's interesting. Take me a while to look at all the parts.

I actually am getting lost in the "profile" portion of the FaceShop process. It might improve the output I'm getting, if I can figure it out.

Edit: Decided to include the link to the FaceShop website: http://www.abalonellc.com/faceshop-pro.html 
      It is also available from DAZ and integrates into DAZ Studio. I've been using it as a stand alone application.

@Calicoreverie - That was also interesting. Googled it, and spent some time reading a few of them.

This is an example from FaceShop. Actually, it isn't the best one I've gotten today. Something off with the shape.



All would require either texturing or UVMapping, but it still seems pretty slick, to me.

Hopefully, WadjetEye's lawyers won't be contacting me. Took a while to get the animated gif file when I previewed the post. Sorry about that.

I downloaded FaceShop this morning and have been tinkering with it. I am impressed to this point in time. Any pros or cons to this program?

Two specific question regarding using photos as the basis for the model. If I use an internet photo and managed to get a face that actually looked like the person, are there copyright issues? The second, related question is if I texture the model with the image am I also at risk for copyright issues?

Another question for you experts. Can you clarify the terms shaders and textures? I'm reasonably sure I don't know which is what, or what is who. Appreciate it.

Good stuff. Not an easy decision.

Oraxon, Gameboy, Eric.

@ Minimi

Thanks for the suggestion about Digital Tutors. I'll check them out. I'm not making much headway with Blender. I've been using Hexagon, lately, but no bones/rigging in Hexagon. I have some of the same issues with Hexagon that I'm having with Blender, in that the tutorials for both use so many shortcut keys, not all of which are mentioned by the teacher, so it doesn't take much to get lost. I may also just be dense.

I'm new around here, but "welcome back" anyway.

@ Selmiak - Yeppers, only the cat stomping across the keyboard late one night is partly to blame. Took her fewer keystrokes to make the change than it has ever taken me.

@ Khris - Correct, if that was a question. Right Click on desktop -- Personalize -- scroll down to Basic and High Contrast Themes and pick Windows Classic. But, you knew that already, I'd guess.

The sPatch modeler. I still use it, and it still installs and runs on this Windows 7 system. I do have to jump through some hoops to get the models out of sPatch and into some of the other programs, since it only exports to a couple of file types. An endearing quirk...

Very much nit picking, since I like the image. Wondering if the Aztec had axes capable of "sawing" that straight of a line on the log ends near the fire pit? I'd guess they could, indeed, use a hand axe to trim a straight edge, but would they have done it for a simple seat around a firepit? Just curious. Must be the frustrated Boy Scout in me.

I rerolled several times, but this one seemed inspirational.

[imgzoom]http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o756/jwalt10705/titleBlitz_zps2e4f246d.png[/imgzoom]

Cat influenced me to include the butt crack. If you find it offensive, talk to her.

Edit1: Cat corrected my error. The blame is mine, and mine alone.

Edit2: Since Extra Credit was available, and since I had a few things floating or perched around the house, here's an "in game" screen.

[imgzoom]http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o756/jwalt10705/vikChickenPng_zps8874b495.png[/imgzoom]

Didn't happen to have any seagulls, but did have a few chickens. Please don't ask for the plot synopsis, because I don't have a clue.

@Mods

I do understand what you're saying, since I've been trying to move things into and out of Bryce, with textures attached, and I haven't figured it out, either. Not a Bryce expert (not an expert at much of anything), but, for a plane object, I'm wondering what would happen if you brought in a 2D Picture Object, loaded the texture image you wanted on the 2D surface, and then copy/pasted that material on the plane. I've done something similar a few times recently, although not exactly for the same reason.

@ Mods

While this isn't the Critics Corner, I'm inclined to say this looks pretty inviting to me. I'd suggest you play in the Material Labs with the scaling on the street texture. For example:




       

@Armageddon - Thanks. I'll snag the book next time I fire up the broadband. It was too big; I'm on a dialup at the moment. I'll add it to the stack of stuff I've accumulated to read about Blender.

@Problem - Anim8or also has the envelopes, but for that first model, I was having issues with them, so I tried weight painting. The envelopes are working better, now, with the second one. I gave up on the first one, but learned some things in the process.

@Anian and Armageddon

I'm going to take a look, in a bit, for rigging and skinning tutorials in Blender. I've made two figures in Anim8or. I eventually abandonded the first, since I'd made a number of mistakes along the way. This is the second, and I'm in the process of weight painting, which is proving pretty tedious.



If Blender has a "better way" to skin this stuff, it may be enough to get me to concentrate on Blender. I've appreciated the feedback you've both given.

Apologies about the image. Just noticed it's a jpg.

Edit: Well, I viewed two tutorials using Blender to bone and skin a model. Looks like I wade into Blender. Still, Anim8or did clarify several things for me.

Jaffles is correct.

I found a link to the trailer that lured me in.

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/i13zt1/maabus

Watching the trailer makes me wonder why it appealed to me so much back in the day. Gribbler's adjective seems to sum up both the game and the trailer.

@Gribbler - It had a great trailer. That's why I bought it. The game wasn't nearly as good.

@Kconan - Nope.

Edit: Possible hint - A Windows 3.x game.

The Press Says
Entertainment Weekly Jul 21, 1995   A-   91
PC Gamer Jun, 1995                     55 out of 100   55
PC Games (Germany) May, 1995   47 out of 100   47
Joystick (French) Jun, 1995    40 out of 100   40
High Score Aug, 1995            2 out of 5   40
PC Player (Germany) May, 1995   36 out of 100   36

Since I have recognized precious few of these, I thank you for the easy one, and for the party snacks. Here's mine:



If you don't recognize it, consider yourself lucky. It was one I really regretted buying.