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Has Anybody Got The DAZ Mil Big Cat (Or DAZ Mil Big Cat 2) To Look Mean ?

3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,720
edited December 1969 in The Commons

Just that - Has Anybody Got The DAZ Mil Big Cat (Or DAZ Mil Big Cat 2) To Look Mean ?

(And if you have - how did you do it?)

This is about the best I've managed so far ...

TigerIDL.jpg
686 x 515 - 63K

Comments

  • icprncssicprncss Posts: 3,694
    edited December 1969

    For one thing the retractable front claws are too short and too small. My five pound domestic shorthair's front claws look more menacing than those do. I hook my finger under his fore paw and get him to extend his claws, those little fishhooks curve around my finger.

    The paws also look too small. I've only been in close proximity to a Siberian tiger once (she was sedated) but at nearly 600 pounds, she had fore paws the size of dinner plates.

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,998
    edited December 1969

    icprncss said:
    For one thing the retractable front claws are too short and too small. My five pound domestic shorthair's front claws look more menacing than those do. I hook my finger under his fore paw and get him to extend his claws, those little fishhooks curve around my finger.

    The paws also look too small. I've only been in close proximity to a Siberian tiger once (she was sedated) but at nearly 600 pounds, she had fore paws the size of dinner plates.

    I tried here ;)

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited December 1969

    SimonJM said:

    I tried here ;)

    Ha!! I just cracked up. Oops, sorry. I mean very scary!!! I wonder if they ship to the US? :)

  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,720
    edited December 1969

    SimonJM said:
    icprncss said:
    For one thing the retractable front claws are too short and too small. My five pound domestic shorthair's front claws look more menacing than those do. I hook my finger under his fore paw and get him to extend his claws, those little fishhooks curve around my finger.

    The paws also look too small. I've only been in close proximity to a Siberian tiger once (she was sedated) but at nearly 600 pounds, she had fore paws the size of dinner plates.

    I tried here ;)

    LOL - that tiger looks more smug than mean! I think he's taking the leftovers away to put in the fridge... :)

  • Design Anvil - Razor42Design Anvil - Razor42 Posts: 1,239
    edited December 1969

    I've had a few attempts, this one probably looks the meanest.

    TIger_War.jpg
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  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,247
    edited December 1969

    I did this one a couple of months ago .. just used lighting to get it the way I liked.

    He-Man_and_BattleCat_small.jpg
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  • McGrandpaMcGrandpa Posts: 464
    edited December 1969

    Here are two I rendered in 2008. To me, it is quite the trick to get the DAZ MilBigCat Siberian Snow Tiger to look anything but pure psychotic! Note their eyes generally are large, round, with round pupils. Not slitsl There is a morph I use a lot. 'Snarl'. Generally it exposes teeth and scrunch up the nose and face a bit. Selecting the nose and scrunching it even more helps that look. I haven't got down to installing most Animals in my Runtime yet, but need to get all the horse and big cat stuff done so I can re-create my 'taurs!

    HIH!

    McG.

    15-Shiloh_Tigers_04b_Forest_Ruins.jpg
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    Bladerune_02a.jpg
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  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,720
    edited January 2015

    That's an interesting point - are 'psychotic' and 'mean' the same when referring to a big cat's expression ? :D

    It's dawned on me that I didn't really know what I meant by 'mean', and there are many different facial expressions that could fit the bill:

    - My picture (in the OP), Stezza's (#6), an the tiger on the viewer's right in McGrandpa's second image (#7) are an open-mouthed, roaring, "I'm gonna bite your arm off!" type mean.

    - SimonJM's (#2) is a smug, "I've just bitten your arm off!" type mean.

    - Razor42's (#5) is all in the eyes (and possibly the flattened turned back ears, a sort of menacing stare type mean.

    - And the tigers in McGrandpa's top image (#7) and on the viewer's left in the second image (#7) do have a sort of psychotic eyed mean to them.

    But none of these really capture the sort of 'mean' I see in my head. What I picture is all in the nose and upper lip and is a snarling, jaw closed, bared fangs type mean. The second from right image in the top row, and leftmost image in the bottom row of the attached Google Image search ("tiger snarl") are pretty damn close to the 'mean' I'm thinking of...

    (but some of the others look even meaner!)

    snarl.jpg
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    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • Design Anvil - Razor42Design Anvil - Razor42 Posts: 1,239
    edited December 1969

    Now I think I know what you "mean" :)

  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,720
    edited January 2015

    Just cross-posted with Razor 42 - LOL, I like that!

    I tried McGrandpa's 'Snarl' and a bit of nose-scrunching ('NoseWrinkle' I assume?). That's definitely taking us into the right ballpark. But the 'Snarl' morph opens the mouth as well, and neither seems to raise the sides of the upper lip enough to bare the fangs. So I tried using some of the phonemes.

    Any comments (I have a few, but I'll wait to see if anybody else has the same thoughts)?

    Anybody got some good morph settings that they're willing to share?

    (I still think that a DIY morph target or two might be the answer...)

    4tig.jpg
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    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • Design Anvil - Razor42Design Anvil - Razor42 Posts: 1,239
    edited December 1969

    I think I like the third from the left best, but it may be to do with the front on angle to. The last looks a little like its watching something hungrily.

  • McGrandpaMcGrandpa Posts: 464
    edited December 1969

    Hmmm. With the MilBIGCats, lifting the head up a bit where it seems to be sighting directly down the line of its nose definitely gives a clearer view of its eyes. And with the eyes open wide and pupils narrowed to a tiny dot, snarl up a lot with mouth open and teeth bared as much as possible give the animal the fiercest, meanest most psychotic (KILLKILLKILLKILL!) look. Like my take on Frazettas Dian of Pellucidar puddy tat on our right.
    In answer to 'can a cat be said to be psychotic?'; I reckon ANYTHING can be said to be psychotic if it looks like it's gonna kill someone! So yeah a bullet, car, human, snake, cat, comet or falling tree could all be psychotic in MY book! :o)

    McG.

  • icprncssicprncss Posts: 3,694
    edited December 1969

    Can you be a bit more specific on your definition of "mean". Vicious, generally animal is in a perpetual bad mood, annoyed, stalking or hunting?

    If you have a zoo near you with big cats, take some time and observe them. Watch the ears and body positions. They are good indications of mood. If you have a domestic cat or know someone who does, spend some time watching it. My domestic short hair will crouch on a high shelf, glaring down at everyone with his fur all puffed out when he's really annoyed with something.

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,613
    edited December 1969

    McGrandpa said:

    In answer to 'can a cat be said to be psychotic?'; I reckon ANYTHING can be said to be psychotic if it looks like it's gonna kill someone! So yeah a bullet, car, human, snake, cat, comet or falling tree could all be psychotic in MY book! :o)

    "I did take the antibiotic, but it was self defense, I swear!"
    "Then what's this anti-bacterial soap doing in your house? I submit this person has a psychotic need to kill germs!"

  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,720
    edited January 2015

    I'm finding it impossible to get a closed-mouth snarl with the existing morphs, so it's looking like a custom morph target may be the way to go for that.

    But if I forget about the closed-mouth part of that, then McGrandpa's suggestions from post #12 are looking good.

    McGrandpa said:
    ...lifting the head up a bit where it seems to be sighting directly down the line of its nose definitely gives a clearer view of its eyes....
    Tiliting the head back (or adjusting the viewpoint) so the eyes and nose are more or less level (attached image, left) seems to work nicely. It also creates an impression of being below the tiger - not somewhere you really want to be!

    McGrandpa said:
    ...eyes open wide and pupils narrowed to a tiny dot,...
    I tried a few of the eye morphs (there's quite a few to play with), but setting 'EyesSmall' to a negative value was the one I liked best. I couldn't see any way to change the pupil size though?

    McGrandpa said:
    ...snarl up a lot with mouth open and teeth bared as much as possible...

    There's something about the 'Snarl' morph (something other than the fact it opens the mouth) that just doesn't seem right to me, although I can't put my finger on it. I'm still playing with it in combination with other mouth/lip morphs, and this is the mix I like best so far.

    ...Like my take on Frazettas Dian of Pellucidar puddy tat on our right....


    I thought something about your picture rang a bell, so I Googled "Frazettas Dian of Pellucidar" - I haven't seen that picture in ages!

    In answer to 'can a cat be said to be psychotic?'; I reckon ANYTHING can be said to be psychotic if it looks like it's gonna kill someone! So yeah a bullet, car, human, snake, cat, comet or falling tree could all be psychotic in MY book! :o) McG.
    To me the epitome of psychotic is Danny Vermin (in the movie "Johnny Dangerously") - he's even got the parking permit to prove it! :oS


    Regarding the attached image - I was quite surprised (and pleased) about how the tiger's head looked from other angles. All my previous attempts have looked okay-ish from one specific angle (usually head-on - e.g. the three tigers in my "Pussy Galore" here at DAZ) but rather ridiculous from any other angle (e.g. the jaguars in my "Catwoman" - not in the DAZ gallery, and no link here, due to mild nudity).

    One thing that struck me about my tiger renders in post 10 compared to the "tiger snarl" photos in post 8 was that the tiger's nose and snout looks far too large and broad - that's why I used the NsBrdgThin morph in the images with this post.

    YellSnarl.jpg
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    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • 3dcheapskate3dcheapskate Posts: 2,720
    edited January 2015

    icprncss said:
    Can you be a bit more specific on your definition of "mean". Vicious, generally animal is in a perpetual bad mood, annoyed, stalking or hunting?

    If you have a zoo near you with big cats, take some time and observe them. Watch the ears and body positions. They are good indications of mood. If you have a domestic cat or know someone who does, spend some time watching it. My domestic short hair will crouch on a high shelf, glaring down at everyone with his fur all puffed out when he's really annoyed with something.

    I think I realized yesterday that I hadn't specified what I meant by 'mean' in the OP, and I think that's now covered in post 8. It's really that sort of ears-down snarling type mean I'm after (I guess something similar to the snarling, hissing aggression you see when two tomcats first come face to face... ?) :)

    P.S. I just realized I hadn't commented on your first post in this thread (I think I was distracted by SimonJM's response to it! LOL )
    I totally agree about the size of the claws, they look pitifully small. And after Googling "tiger paw size" I agree on that too. Here's another render for comparison - Mike's hand and KrazyKat's paw are the same distance from the camera.

    Render_1.jpg
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    Post edited by 3dcheapskate on
  • McGrandpaMcGrandpa Posts: 464
    edited December 1969

    You do realize you have a cock-eyed puddy tat there right? And with its tongue lolling to the side like that, he looks every bit the prankster, not vicious at all. Heh! :o)

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