Stegosaurus Model WIP, Constructive Feedback Welcome

jadekaiba

I am creating a stegosaurus in 3ds Max to be later rigged and imported into UDK.

I used the following image as a reference and blocked out the shape before starting to create the base mesh. I hope to use the base mesh for a high poly sculpt in Zbrush and project this on to a retopologised low poly game mesh.

Reference Skeleton


Reference Concept (based on above ref and various reconstructions)


Below you may see the base mesh so far as it is and with Turbosmoothed applied. I will fix the symmetry seam as I finalise the mesh but one concern I have at the moment is the girth of the stegosaurus body, as I have found little reference for this but the reference seems too thin.

Stegosaurus Model


Stegosaurus Model (with TurboSmooth)


Stegosaurus Model against Reference (To show the reference girth)


Feedback on any potential problems or fixes would be appreciated.

Thank you for viewing. I hope to check back and update regularly as I progress.

jadekaiba

Sorry for the lag in updates, here was the latest smoothed and shaped mesh before I began to attach the legs to the main body.

As you can see, I added the rest of the plates and the thagomisers (spikes) at this point and began to extrude out the toes, five at the front and four at the back as my research states. I generally adjusted the shape as well, such as making the legs taller to fit the bone structure.

Progress Part 1


Progress against reference


Next I began attaching the legs to the body after a little adjusting of position and indents of the polys around the leg area to create further loops for animation and general shape.

Progress Part 2


I have yet to cut the eyes into the face and fix the mouth, as I know it's far too small at the moment and doesn't follow the reference. Any other suggestions and feedback would be appreciated

DWalker

The legs appear to be stuck-on, rather than flowing from the body, making the hips and shoulders far too wide. You already have a decent top-view which shows the correct dimensions.

You seem to have run into problems when tessellating the model, losing the definition of your base mesh.

The plates - at least for this version - are not vertical, but angle to the sides - again, use your top-view to get the correct orientation. (Those silly palaeontologists have changed the arrangement at least 3 times in my lifetime and STILL aren't happy with it...)

Given their size, the head of a stegosaurus really is quite small, but the cross section is almost square at the widest point. The mouth is also longer and narrower than in you original mesh, and the tessellated version made it even shorter and rounder.

You should remember to use your reference image at all stages, not just during the initial rough layout, and remember to check all views, not just the side. (Whenever possible, try to get a 3-view; some details aren't readily apparent from just a top & side view.)

VelvetElvis

I wouldn't worry about the armor scales and details like the spikes on the tail until you are 100% done with your body. As you modify the body, you'll have to either modify or re-do that work.

The legs coming from the body need the most work, they look like Rex's from Toy Story right now. It looks like you have a good base mesh to start with, it just needs refinement before you move on to the smaller details.

jadekaiba

Thank you to those who have replied, I really appreciate it. I have tried to make the stegosaurus' head longer and thinner and shaped the legs a bit more though I am still adjusting these as we speak, as I only just got a chance to read this feedback and know that they still need some work.

As for the plate rotation, I will definitely rotate them once I am happy with them. I just wanted to be sure they were all shaped and in place before going any further.

Here is the model so far:

Without smoothing


With smoothing


Close up of head (eyes, nostrils, teeth and tongue)


Thank you again for taking the time to view and critique my work. I hope to provide more updates soon.

EDIT
Here's some further leg shaping:

nosyT

The legs stick out wayyyyyyywayyyy out to far...

jadekaiba

Okay, I'll try and move them in a bit more. I was starting to shape the back ones in a bit further but I'll try moving the whole lot in and re-shaping it after.

UPDATE: The bottom of the legs is now further in, I'm just shaping the underside around them and then I'll go back to the top.

terry1337

u really nead to pay more attention to anatomy how everything is connected and start lowpoly and dont rush towards high poly until u really nailed the anatomy GL

jadekaiba

Thank you, I'm just pushed for time, as I must have the high poly and game mesh done for the 15th. I'll do my best to fix the anatomy before I move on.

terry1337

this might help

jadekaiba

Thank you so much. I couldn't find any muscle studies for a stegosaurus and was going by a combination of existing stegos and animals like elephants for the legs so this will be a huge help

jadekaiba

Right. I've adjusted the leg shapes further and generally tried to define bone an muscle structures from the reference above. Here is my sculpt so far, as well as a podium I have added for the final presentation of the model.





I plan to further refine the anatomy of the feet and back for example before adding wrinkles and scales to the skin through alphas.

jadekaiba

Here are a few renders of the current high poly sculpt and low poly mesh so far.

High Poly Renders






Low Poly Render Turntable
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H68NUZgZkj0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H68NUZgZkj0[/ame]

jadekaiba

Here are a few renders of the polypaint. Textured low poly mesh to follow:

jadekaiba

Texture Maps (Projected in Xnormal and manually edited with brushes and Adjustment layers)

UVs


Diffuse


Ambient Occlusion (Multiplied with Diffuse in UDK, see below)


Specular


Normals



Material Setup in UDK

KyleJensen

The visible ribs make the stegosaurus look extremely malnourished. Take a look some of the megafauna we have today like the rhinoceros or elephant. Neither of them have visible ribs because they're not just skin and bone.

Even smaller, skinnier animals like antelope and deer don't have visible ribs as long as they have plenty to eat.

jadekaiba

Damn... I did wonder about that. I think I have it on a layer in Zbrush so I could go and get rid of that layer and remerge and reproject the normals.

For now atleast, here's the version I'd already got into UDK. There's some renders and videos of a turntable and some gameplay if you'd like to give any further feedback on that while I go back and look at the sculpt. Thank you for your time.

UDK Renders













LP Stegosaurus Turntable
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Db3jcQuia0"]LP Stegosaurus in UDK, w005052a - YouTube[/ame]


LP Stegosaurus Gameplay (PC and NPC)
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H--Qe3efDgk"]LP Stegosaurus UDK Gameplay, w005052a - YouTube[/ame]


NPC Test Installer (UDK Required)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53092550/AdModGame/StegoTestUDK.rar

Shiniku

I would strongly recommend repacking your UVs. The idea with UV packing, especially for games, is to use your space in the most efficient manner possible to get the most out of your resolution. You have a lot of gaps and poorly utilized space in your UVs, it looks like you may have used an automatic unwrapper or UV packer which can sometimes provide a good starting point, but you should always optimize further manually.

Also, holy shit! 7249x4077 for those UDK screenshots you posted? Big images are nice so we can see the detail, but I think you went a little overboard, I'm on my laptop and those images are causing my computer to chug as I scroll by.

jadekaiba

I didn't use an automatic UV Packer, I was a bit sloppy with those unwraps and was zoomed out quite a bit as I did it which wouldn't have helped to see the spaces. I would like to fix some issues with the textures anyway so I may as well go back and sort out those UVs while I'm at it. Thank you for pointing it out.

And as for the renders, yikes! They weren't supposed to be that big! I went by a tutorial for decent renders but I must have input the wrong multiplier number or something because they were meant to be high res but definitely not that high. Sorry about that ^^'