Mulefa [Hex2+C6Pro]

[EricD]

This is a model I've wanted to build since reading the book, and before the movie comes out. This is a zalif (member of the mulefa species) as described in Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass, the last book of His Dark Materials trilogy (better known as The Golden Compass, since the movie came out).

"What she saw made her head spin. At first it looked like a motorcycle gang. Then she thought it was a herd of wheeled animals. But that was impossible. No animal could have wheels. She wasn't seeing it. But she was. There were a dozen or so. They were roughly the same size as the grazing creatures [the size of deer or antelope], but leaner and gray-colored, with horned heads and short trunks like elephants'. They had the same diamond-shaped structure as the grazers, but somehow they had evolved, on their front and rear single legs, a wheel. Then, as they came to a halt not fifty yards away, and the dust settled, she suddenly made the connection, and she couldn't help laughing out loud with a little cough of delight. The wheels were seedpods. Perfectly round, immensely hard and light-- they couldn't have been designed better. The creatures hooked a claw through the center of the pods with their front and rear legs, and used their two lateral legs to push against the ground and move along. While she marveled at this, she was also a little anxious, for their horns looked formidably sharp, and even at this distance she could see intelligence and curiosity in their gaze."

A number of people have tried this (Google mulefa and you'll see), and I feel most of them look too much like elephants, while Pullman describes them as lean, and a cross between antelopes and motorcycles. I'll try to be as faithfull to the written description as possible, although many details are not described. So here's my attempt...

[EricD]

The first phase is to get the proportions right. Here are a few details from the book regarding size:
- size of deer or antelope (this varies greatly, but the deer in my backyard are about 4 ft from the ground to the back and 4 ft from chest to tail).
- seedpods (wheels) are 3 ft diameter, 3-4 inch thick (whidth of Mary's palm).
- trunk is length of Mary's arm.
- horns are big enough to look sharp from 50 ft away.

The placement of the wheels is not discussed, but for balance, I decided to place one on each side of the leg, and angled the wheels so that the zalif remains symetrical, and the wheels adapt.

Here's a sketch for proportions, and a first Hexagon model to show how the parts fit together (360° Quicktime here). I know, the mesh is a mess and the wheels go through the legs! I'm re-reading the book for clues on the mulefa anatomy. next steps are:
- Figure out how to keep wheels from interfering with legs.
- Add muscle tone without adding bulk (lean but muscular)
- Make back more diamond shape.
- Make head less round, leaner.

I welcome all feedback, especially from those of you who read the book.

Eric

[Piem]

Hi ;)
Can we have more than a 100*100px image ?

[EricD]

Originally Posted by Piem

Hi ;)
Can we have more than a 100*100px image ?

You were too fast! For some reason, I can't add attachments to Polyloop from Safari and I had to edit the message in Firefox to add them. Don't forget to look at the QT movie. (BTW, is there a way to render shaded wireframe from Carrara?)

Eric

[EricD]

A little weekend update. I did a lot of pushing and pulling to find the right volume. The body is leaner with more defined muscles and bones. I opted for rhino-type horns to emphasize the center axis. The head shape still looks like it doesn't belong on that body. It probably needs a longer muzzle.

Eric

[Grendel]

Looks like you're making good progress, I saw Golden Compass but don't recall seing anything like that in their. It was in the last book you say?

[EricD]

Originally Posted by Grendel

Looks like you're making good progress, I saw Golden Compass but don't recall seing anything like that in their. It was in the last book you say?

Yes, it's in the 3rd book of the trilogy The Amber Spyglass. The Golden Compass movie covered only about 80-90% of the first book. If they continue with the movie adaptations, this part won't be out for at least 2 or 3 years. But I wanted to try modeling it before the Hollywood artists so I wouldn't be influenced by their interpretation. Some features are very detailed in the book and others are very vague and open to interpretation.

Eric

[EricD]

After spending a lot of time on the legs, I realized they looked too much like chicken legs. So I re-made them completely based on antelope and deer legs, but with the front and back legs attached to both sides of the body, since the mulefa turn the wheels to steer at low speed (at high speed, they lean like motorcycles).

I also started refining the head to give them the described "intelligent" look, and trying to get less of an elephant look.

Eric

[3webjam]

I think this is great work. Since you are working on the appearance of the legs, wouldn't you think that the top of the legs would have more muscle (especially compared to the rest of the leg)? Just an idea?
Keep posting the progress - it is such an amazing animal!

Jacqueline

[EricD]

Originally Posted by 3webjam

it is such an amazing animal!

Don't let the HDM fans hear you. The mulefa are people, not animals!

Here are a few more views with a 5'6" (167cm) woman for scale.

Eric

[EricD]

And here are some wireframes of the latest version.

I mostly worked on the legs, to get the loops to follow the muscles, and adding a little more lines around the joints to help bend them if/when I decide to rig it for animation. I removed the claws on the middle legs.

I also reworked the head, brought the eyes lower and closer together to humanize it a little more.

My next steps are to optimize the mesh (get rid of the last n-gons and triangles). Then do a little displacement sculpting to give the skin more of an elephant hide texture (do you recommend Hex or C6 for this?). and rig it for animation.

Eric

[3webjam]

Quite an adventure - still feel like an animal to me, though..... (I'll go hiding for the fans..)

The position of the wheels, are they OK with the movement they are about to make? Seems that the center legs will do the running - won't you have any trouble with these hitting the wheels while doing high speed running?

Anyway I think this project demonstrates how good you are with your art. Are you going to spoil us with a small animation when you are finished?

Jacqueline

[rickei]

This is looking pretty good Eric.

I agree with Jacqueline that it looks like the legs could get tangled up. but for me I think it is the claw that faces outward that would get in the way. I don't see any real purpose of that claw anyway.
I use zbrush for sculpting, and i haven't tried Hex or C6 enough to say which one is best. But I think the trick with either H2 or C6 is to make sure you have a good UV layout setup BEFORE you start sculpting

[EricD]

I got rid of all the n-gons and I think this concludes the modeling phase.

Thanks to Dalboris's Giraffe tutorial (merci Dalboris), I was able to make a UV map, using Hexagon's UV unwrap tool. I had to restart it 4 or 5 times because of the bugs and operator errors, but I got there.

I tried displacement painting in both Hex and C6, and it was agonizingly slow. So I decided to use a simple bump map instead. Here's a quick test render. I definitely have to rework the bump map and I'll probably lighten the bumps on the trunk.

Eric

[EricD]

Before going crazy with texture, I wanted to confirm that the geometry would play well with animation. Here's a quick test with no adjustment to the influences (that's why the horns flex when I move the head and the belly moves with the leg). It looks like the geometry will deform easily.

But it'll be harder to animate than a biped, anchoring the feet to the ground, letting the body bounce up and down with the steps and keeping the wheels in contact with the ground.

Eric

[3webjam]

Seems ver hard to me to animate - cause the wheels need to be kept straight, while the legs will need to run like horses and so......
Keep us posted!

Jacqueline

[EricD]

I finished rigging the figure, adjusted the constraints and added an IK terminator at the base of each limb and the trunk, so I can use IK for the individual members without stretching the entire figure. I used the bone influence painting to adjust the deformation, primarily on the belly, horns and claws.

Then I started a walk cycle, based on Tony White's method (The Animator's Handbook). I placed 3 boxes as guides just below the ground, a long box as the axis for the wheels, and a short box for each side leg.

1. Working at 12 fps, I began with the 3 positions where both hooves touch the ground (frames 0, 12, and 24 (which is an exact copy of 0)). I rotated the entire zalif so that the leg that pushes on the ground raises one side more than the other, to give it the side-to-side wobble. Since the entire model is tilted, I rotated the head to a roughly vertical position, and the front and back legs so the wheels were aligned with the guide and in contact with the ground. On frame 0, I stretched the right lef so the hoof touched the ground at the rear of the guide and the left leg was bent with the hoof at the front end of the guide. I reversed the leg positions on frame 12, and changed the trunk position to give it a little bounce. I copied all the settings from frame 0 to frame 24, so the keyframes would match.
2. Then, on frames 6 and 18, I lowered the entire model because both legs are bent at that stage. This adds a little up and down wobble. I raised the front and rear claws (which act as axles) so the wheels stay in contact with the ground. On frame 6, I positioned the left leg so the hoof touches the ground at the center of the guide. I bent the right leg so the hoof was high in the air above the center of the guide. Reversed for frame 18.
3. On frame 3, I bent the right leg up a little more and positioned the left hoof at 1/4 position on the guide, still in contact with the ground. Reversed for frame 15.
4. On frame 9, I positioned the right hoof just above the front of the guide and positioned the left hoof at 3/4 position on the guide, still in contact with the ground. Reversed for frame 21.
5. I checked the wheel alignment and ground contact for each keyframe and adjusted as necessary. Then I rotated each wheel on its axle 45° (I have to do some trig to figure out what the rotation should really be).

Here is the walk cycle from a few different points of view:
mulefa_walkloop_1d.mov (213KB)
mulefa_walkloop_1e.mov (303KB)
mulefa_walkloop_1f.mov (285KB)
mulefa_walkloop_1g.mov (294KB)

Eric

[sadot]

WOW this is a great and amazing job,

[markbremmer]

Fun stuff. Nice work. ;)

[EricD]

Thanks all.

A quick update with more sway. I still have to fix a little too much leg twist, but it's close.

mulefa_walkloop_2c.mov

Eric