Elven Swordfighter Lass

Lord McMutton

Decided to take a break from not doing anything at all and sketch up a character. The limb proportions are rather influenced by Darksiders:



After finishing her, I then felt like modeling her, too. This resulted in a few changes to the design, particularly the bandanna:





Body's around 3,000 polies. Face is about 1,700.

Lord McMutton

Just about done with the face and skin.




I may actually give her red hair instead:


Any opinions on that?

wolver

i thought she was supposed to blind at first with those eyes, shes needs irises and colour. i vote green to bounce of the purple and red : D
im not sure about the tats, the face was working as area to rest the eyes for me, but its hard to say really until the rest is done

Lord McMutton

Worked on the eyes a bit more. And tried out a few shades of green, but it didn't seem to fit, so I just went with red.

Lord McMutton

Got some textures on the armor, as well as rigging 'er up:

Lord McMutton

Finished the diffuse textures:

praetus

I like the style you have going on for textures but I can't help but feel like the colors are all over the place. I think you need a more cohesive color scheme to make this character shine. While I doubt that you're going for the Dota style, I think that their art guide has some good information on color distribution. http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf

almighty_gir

colour theoryyyyy!

http://theback40k.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/little-color-theory-part-iii.html

i mirror Praetus, the design itself is really cool, but the colours aren't helping the piece.

Lord McMutton

I see what you mean. Perhaps something like this?

almighty_gir

way better man!

praetus

Yeah, that is way better than before.

HntrLuc

Hey man cool stuff!

I think the color changes are an improvement, but I worry the headcloth isn't as interesting when it's the same color as the rest of the clothing.

I think I personally prefer your concept colors with pale blonde hair and a deeper red for the headcloth (matching the deeper red you've used on the skin, instead of the previous red cloth color).

I also think this piece could really benefit from some stronger AO, directional, and focal lighting. Not really sure if that's the look you're going for of course. But i've done a quick paintover, i hope you don't mind.



Basically, just added in a stronger AO, directional light with some shadows, and some additional lighting to bring your eyes to the focal points (chest/head area) by just keeping those areas brightly lit, with light info getting darker the further away you get (down limbs etc).

I did most of these changes on an overlay layer using various lights and darks to adjust the lighting.

I think this helps retain readability of forms, especially from a distance.

Lord McMutton

Man, I would follow the hell out of that paintover if that were what I'm going for. But I'm actually planning on doing maps and stuff for a semi-realistic rendering.

I tried out the original color scheme, but I feel like this one's a bit better; the red hair seems to frame the face better and stand out more:


And I kinda-sorta followed a tutorial for some SSS, but it's a bit difficult having to figure out which colors to use for a skintone not grounded in reality:


Do you guys think it makes sense for purple skin to have a yellowish specular? Since it's the compliment, like how Caucasian skin usually uses blue.

jmt

Are the markings above her eyes supposed to be eyebrows? If so, I think a shape/color like this would be much more appealing. It sort of looks like a unibrow right now, and the hair color doesn't match. Also, the one big clump of hair in the middle of her face is kind of distracting. Maybe add some pink or purple to the lips. The eyes also look a bit blobby and weird up close.

The skin/hair colors remind me of mouse from reboot.

Lord McMutton

Thanks for that. Eyebrows and lips addressed, plus more shader work:




(Don't mind the fugly normal seams)

Lord McMutton

Just about finished with her shader work. The next steps include the sword and the base.

praetus

It's looking good. One thing I just noticed though; the plates on her knees have no depth to them. You should add a shell modifier or something to make them look like they're not paper.

Lord McMutton

Ah, right, I forgot about that. Will do, Praetus.

Finished the sword:

Bigjohn

She definitely needs irises.

Edit:
Sorry, I'm an idiot, I meant Pupils. She definitely needs pupils.

Wex

I think the hair and skin shaders need work. The hair looks like metal chunks and the skin looks too translucent and wet, like a tree frog. I agree the eyes would look better with pupils.

Lord McMutton

Ah, pupils. I was a bit confused. I've went in and redone the hair's alpha and specular. I've reduced the specular on the skin. Does that fix it, or is it the SSS?



Also, as an experiment, does she look sadder with her ears like that?

FullSynch

Yes and I think the pouty look works great. The eyebrows need cleaning up though, I would get it as close as possible to jmt's paint over. It looks like some normal mapping shenanigans.

Lord McMutton

There we are; eyebrows have been cleaned up. And with that I think I'll call her done.