This chap has gone through some big changes in the last few days… But this is where I drawe a line under him and say time to move on.

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Project-Palitoy is supported by:

.. both in thwe story AND the fact that its a pretty bold statement there at the bottom of the poster, what with me stating a release date and all…..

So, I changed the Length map on the hair so that it is shorter at the edges and then gets fuller as it leaves the hair line. Changed the colour of the har and tweaked the eyes a bit.

I like this look.

The rookie is young and niave, but the entire crux of his role in P-P is his demise to become the betrayer. This process starts with his abduction when a mission goes awry (Project-Palitoy: The Chase). The degree of this double cross becomes apparent in Project-Palitoy: Betrayal at Blood point. But when we first meet him, I want to suggest a little bit of a hidden depth and darkness that whilst not providing a clear sign post of whats to come, it certainly lends itself to his manner and the cockyness that lands him in such hot water. A small chip on his shoulder (quite literally.. I may actually model it in), it soon becomes apparent that his youth is too big a liability and it costs him dearly…

As soon as I am happy with the basic look and feel its time to build the blend shapes just as I did with AM and then rig the face for animation. Get the head on a body (already made) and then test.

I have been sat here trying to remember the exact way I did the blends for AM. I think it would just be easier to bring the original blend heads from AM into the new head scene and the build up the blends using the original AM head for reference.

I also need to add a few more shapes to both models as the new script breif will require some quite specific looks and frowns that I think the current set of shapes would be hard pushed to acheive without lots of twiddling… so I am going to build those in afresh.

So, someone today commented on that “Thats not Action Man!”

Well, he was of course correct, its not. Its Atomic man, younger, also known as Mike Powers in the US. But it raised a valid point.

Once the head is complete, I need to really eek out some finer cues that this is a different character. Of course, fanboys will know straight away, but anyone coming to this new wont, so I have to come up with two contrasting yet complimentary looks for the two characters. This will be acheived not only in uniform, but also in voice and motion (mocap).

So, I know what I have to do, and Im just about finding the time to do it.

I have made a few tweaks to this one. a squarer chin, more defined brow at the top of the nose, thinned the nose a little and a slight push back on the punctum area of the eyes.

Atomic Head from Craig Crane on Vimeo.

I am of course wondering though is a change of hair color may help avoid any confusion…..

So, looks young, as intended. Hair is a smidgen longer than the real one, because I want him to appear wet behind the ears, so when he is taken, it has more impact both for the audience and A.M.

Rendered in Mental Ray using my Daylight rig setup

Thought I would get these done before breakfast…

Eye patch wont be in The Chase. But this is the clean scan back in Maya.

Now I just need to tweak some seams, and then rig the head and plonk it on the AM body rig waiting for it….

The finer detail of the original sculpt has been over looked as this wont be visible due to the hair that the will be placed on the head.

I beleive that in the US market, he had just a painted head, but in the UK he was flocked and made “Atomic!”

Atomic Man Head from Craig Crane on Vimeo.

Been tweaking and then more tweakin.

As you can see, the right eye is missing because he had this weird morse code eye in there but for PP I need to ensure he doesnt. So, I will probably mirror the left side to the right, apart from the hair as he has a very distinct hair line…

So, here is a pre atomic Atomic Man, who from now on shall be reffered to as The Rookie.. because thats what he is in the current version of P-P.

Im moving over to vimeo…

UniformTest_004 from Craig Crane on Vimeo.