Polybook - Aaron "The Cabbage Detective" Rudderham

So this seems to be a pretty popular thing to do, and with it keeping me accountable to actually produce content and be able to get feedback easily, I thought it'd be a good idea to start one of these myself. Lets see how far we can go.

  • Kent Trammell replied

    thecabbagedetective I'm not a gifted hand-painter, so I usually photo-reference textures like eyes. You could try searching unsplash.com or pixabay.com (for legally safe images) and either find an image that doesn't have many reflections (clean iris texture potential) or remove them with photoshop / krita.

    Alternatively you could try snapping a pic of your own eye with your phone camera. Just make sure you take the picture in a well lit area and try to orient it so there's as little shadow and reflection as possible. Same photoshop / krita cleanup potential applies.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    silentheart00 Cheers man. Not dead yet so can't be too bad, and things are coming along nicely, as long as I can get this done I'm happy haha.


    Thank you again! Hey if you need some pointers I'm happy to give them.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    nekronavt Yep that's the exact kinda design I was going for, thanks! Glad someone knows what they're called lol

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    @theluthier Hmm, never gave them a shot, I'll be sure to have a look. Maybe CGTextures too (though I think they're just called Textures now)? I've also been tempted to buy AutoEye as that seems like a really good investment, just finding the money.


    Thank you very much for your advice and your time!

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    One week left, time is getting tense, but I'm making good progress! The majority of the interior is done, save a few small details, and I'm pleased with it so far.



    Also got the character who'll be in the car, a man, and tried to pay a bit more attention to proportions. Thoughts?



    Not too bothered by the feet as you won't be seeing them but I feel the head could be a little bit too small? I'll leave that up to you, thanks in advance and happy Blending!

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective Yeah, those proportions look better, dude!  Neck might be a bit on the short side, but you're still plenty early to make adjustments.  Hard to see how long the feet are in this angle, but if your intuition is saying something is not how you want it to be, then feel free to make adjustments.  You got this.

  • smurfmier1985 replied

    thecabbagedetective good luck Aaron, but knowing you it will be something awesome by the end 😊 Keep going!

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    silentheart00 Cheers fam, many adjustments have been making and I'm looking forward to bringing this all together!

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    ssmurfmier1985 Why thanks! Won't lie I'm kinda spreading myself thin atm, waiting until now to really get into the competition, but better late than never, eh?

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    So making a car is great and all but someone's gotta drive it, right? Not done yet but what I can say is damn boy he thicc.



    Going for a bit more of a cartoonish look, as you can probably tell by the ridiculous nose, but so far I'm liking it. Also this took me about 4 hours, which may seem like a lot, but considering my first body took me like 5 days to get to this stage I'd appoint that to an improvement in skill. Or maybe I'm overlooking a lot of things and this isn't particularly good, or maybe I'm just getting less lazy. Probably one of those two. Well, thanks for having a look and I'll see you next time, Happy Blending! 

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    Eyo! So I've taken a couple days break since the competition as leading up to the final days I was pulling off 12-14 hours of Blender a day as I had to learn a lot of new things (some worked, some didn't). If you haven't seen my competition entry yet here it is:


    *bzzt* *whiiiiiiiiir*


    " -being the world's second largest car manufacturer, it's come as a bit of a shock that they declared bankruptcy mere hours ago. Their CEO, Henry Golfman, was quoted as saying, "Despite our best efforts, we simply cannot keep up wi- "


    *whiiir WHIIIIIIIIR whiiiir*


    " -tock market is aflutter with controversy as of late, due to 87% of all stocks being owned by th- "


    *WHIIIR whir whiiiiiir*


    " -our new life insurance plan you can secure the financial wellbeing of your family, starting at $1999.99 a month. Remember, we own your life, so you might as well pay for it! This message brought to you by the Blender Corporation."


    Whilst I'm pretty pleased with the car interior itself, as it contains the most detailed procedural materials I've made so far (though I think I went a little overboard with the dirt) The character is the thing that I think sticks out the most negatively. Partly because I'm not used to adding micro details and texture painting and partly because I had very little time left to do it in (gonna say it was mostly the latter to save my ego). There are also a few other things like not being able to add atmospheric touches like rain or fog due to time constraints.


    But now I ask myself, do I continue touching this up and make it the best I can? Or do I simply move on and work on new projects (or finish my old character)? It would feel rather saddening if after all this work I left it disappointed but pulling these things off successfully is going to be a challenge. I think for now I'm going to work on my first character and then come back to this.


    Have a good day everyone, and happy Blending.

  • smurfmier1985 replied

    thecabbagedetective Hey Aaron, since I'm judging I'm keeping feedback to myself until after the winners are announced (I won't lie, I don't like that part of it 😕)

    As for your question, since you've put so many hours into this in such short amount of time, I think it's a good idea to work on something else for a while (like you're planning to do). That way you can come back to this piece later with fresh eyes!! I think that would be a good thing 😊

    Keep up the good work Aaron!

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective Nice work, dude!  I would also suggest taking a break and doing something else and coming back later with fresh eyes.  I would probably spend the rest of the time touching things up and getting it as ready as I can for judgement.  Up to you.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    ssmurfmier1985 silentheart00 Cheers guys, this may be over 3 weeks later but I definitely took your advice to heart!

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    Damn... this is just getting out of hand. Right! Time to catch up!


    So simply put whilst I've encountered a few problems most of my time has been spent on my original character, and he's looking better by the day I feel.



    I then started texturing the face and whatnot. The hair needs a lot of work but for my first character I'm liking how this is going.



    Now, a couple announcements. In the next coming days I'll be working on a video game. It's just a simple voluntary fan thing at the moment, and whilst the end goal is incredibly unrealistic, I believe it will be good to get the experience working with others and expanding my portfolio. And who knows, it may lead somewhere. Another thing is that on most Thursdays from now (and possibly more in the future) I start voluntary work which could possibly slow my work down (though my God is it slow right now) but hopefully it shouldn't have much of an impact. Well that's all I have for now, love you all and happy blending! 

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective For some reason, I'm getting a Mr. Bean vibe from the face.  Good work.

    And hey!  Nothing like plunging into a fan game!  It's something, right?

  • yukino hatake(yukinoh1989) replied

    thecabbagedetective damn awesome work aaron . love how he turned out . those gloves i like them :D looks kinda like paw gloves its a really nice idea :D

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    Thanks for the responses guys! One month later...


    So yeah, I've been rather busy recently, juggling multiple projects which could lead to jobs in the future (and I will be sharing as much as I can when they're done) but I thought that I didn't have enough stuff to do so I decided to enter the CGC competition. Here's what I have so far:



    Another angle:



    Bit of weirdness going on in the wheel arches but it will be fixed naturally. Hope ya like it!

  • smurfmier1985 replied

    thecabbagedetective Woohoo Aaron is still alive and kicking! 🙌🏻 Awesome start Aaron, I’ll be watching 👀

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    Also, hey, have a wireframe turntable because why the hell not?