Low Poly Penguin Scene

Uberren

Hi everyone.
I've been working on a little project to help build up a portfolio. I really enjoy low poly modelling.

Anyway, I decided to try and throw together an arctic scene with a family of penguins and would really appreciate some feedback.

Stuff like what I can improve, what should I do next with this? A lot of the work I've done ends at just creating a diffuse map so I would appreciate some guidance as to where to go next with this.

Say if this was to be put in a mobile game for the DS or something, what is the workflow for such assets in general?


block out before I take it into probably Unity.

DWalker

First, keep in mind that penguins are from the Antarctic, despite what Mr.Larson might think...


Next, your penguins are a bit too stocky. While they tend to bulk up a bit before winter, they're generally fairly slim.


As far as going forward, I'd recommend a more dynamic scene. Penguins in general are known for their antics, whether sliding on the ice or chasing fish in the sea.

Keep in mind that the snow often has a bluish cast to it, which should help to separate the penguins from the background.

Uberren

Sorry for the really late response, I got caught up in something else and had to put this on hold for waaay longer than I wanted.

Thank you so much for the feedback. Yeah, my penguins do look abnormally fat; even if I were to say they were puffing themselves up for the winter they would still be quite obese. So I decided to tweak the adult mesh and change their pose to that dignified, upturned nose posture you linked :P

I've also decided to redo the baby penguin from scratch as its proportions were too far off for me to want to push the vertexes around to get them right. That being said, I may even rethink how I'm modelling these entirely and try to get more detail in with the adults, specifically their feet, as mine looks really lazy at the moment.

BradMyers82

haha, cute! mainly you need to work on painting some lighting in your textures. There simply isn't any besides the bit on the toes. Start digging thru the textures in this thread and see what other people are doing. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41232
I realize some others don't paint MUCH lighting in there diffuse but there is usually something... and I personally feel that people should paint a lot of lighting in there textures when using diffuse only. Quake character textures are good reference also.

Uberren

Thanks Brad I will keep that in mind when I begin to texture my redo of the penguin. I have always wanted to try and go for that pixelated look but I have not been met with much success...perhaps I will give it a go again.

Anyway, here is my redo so far for the adult:



It's pretty tricky to find consistent reference images for this penguin because of how much their body squashes and stretches all over the place, particularly around the neck. lol
But I'm much more pleased with the way this looks so I will begin unwrapping now.:)

DireWolf

I think the chick is looking kinda creepy right now... I'd go for a rounder shape myself.
Something like this http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w262/cyndelouwho22/Critters/517117grkpbyjcvm.gif

Uberren

Could you explain exactly what it is that makes it creepy?
I do agree something looks a bit odd with it...perhaps it's the abnormally large head with the dead looking eyes.

That gif made me chuckle.

DireWolf

I'm not sure. Looking at him a bit longer I agree that his head does stand out in a weird way.

Uberren

After messing around in Maya and trying different ways of unwrapping the penguin, I settled on one and tried to tackle that pixelated style I like a lot. I quite like how it looks, just want to know what you people think
I think I may give a shot at rigging it as well.





One last thing. To get that last effect, I turned the Incandescence all the way up. I was wondering if this would have a negative effect on something later on. It is the only way I know of right now to get that smooth, yet cartoony. Could someone show me another method of achieving this look? Or is it fine the way I am doing it right now?
The screenshot is from the Maya viewport.

Brian "Panda" Choi

You're gonna be a slave to whatever shader system you work with if making a game, so this Maya viewport adjustment is fine, especially considering the fidelity of this character if all you can actually do now is beauty shots.

Uberren

Alright, that's good to know. Thank you
I'll move on to the chick next then.

Uberren

Okay, finished the chick:



And the two together:


I'll be starting on a new environment for them, since my last one was a bit stale and boring imho.:shifty:
Not sure if I will try making a modular landscape or not. I've never actually made a modular landscape... so I guess I should in the name of practice.:)

Please let me know if you see something wrong with my models so far, btw.