Cable (Nathan Summers)

Di$array

****UPDATE****

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Hey guys!!

A while back I took part in one of the polycount's art jams, where the subject was Comics. At that time I had a few days free from freelance work so I could only produce a bust of Cable rather than a full character, which is what I wanted to do.

But since I've got some free time now I've decided to go ahead and make him my primary project. So I get the chance to recreate his Marvel NOW! look in the full glory of 3D with him rocking a badass eye patch and a beasty robotic arm.

So for those of you who are not familiar with Cable I'll give you a little backstory.

Basically Cable or Nathan Summers is a time travelling son of Cyclops from X-men whose birth was orchestrated by Mr Sinister. In his early years he was infected by a techno-organic virus which would slowly consume his body if not for his psionic powers which he uses to keep it at bay.

He also formed a special ops squad of X-men that "deal" with threats before they become threats.

So, below this is basically the appearance of Cable as he's found in Marvel NOW!.


I'm currently in the process of blocking in equipment, as well as the robotic arm. There is some section that I still have to import in but the images below gives you an idea of my progress.




Cheers for looking and if you have any crits or comments please feel free.

Di$array

Update from me.

Di$array

So I decided to add some colour to the piece to see how it's all coming together. I've also rejigged the layout a bit here and there but it's progressing well.

TheQuietPotato

Don't really know anything about Cable so can not comment on that, but the sculpt looks like its coming together very nicely. One bit I am not too sure about is cloth behind the knee pad where it changes from black to grey. It just struck me as a little confusing.

Di$array

Hey Potato. I can understand what you mean but it is infact separate material. I've got a load of cable and X-force comics on my desk for reference but i'm having trouble finding a image online to show you. The closes one I can find is this one.

StrongRum

Hey dude this is looking cool... its going to look cool once it is textured but I think the mechanical hands are looking too spindly.

Di$array

StrongRum wrote: »

Hey dude this is looking cool... its going to look cool once it is textured but I think the mechanical hands are looking too spindly.

Hey Kavi.

Yeah I see what you mean. Some of the reference images have a quite thin design whereas some are bulky. So after your suggestion I had a play about with it and from a distance the bulky fingers read much better and readable, so I'll go with that design. Cheers.

So here is an update and I've added additional detail.

Di$array

Well I've completed my Low poly of Cable as well as his battle arm. It currently clocks in around 20k since the arm includes some intricate pieces. Since then I've bake out the Ambient Occlusion for the main body and applied a base colour to see how everything is coming together.

As for the battle arm I'm still playing about with the UV layout, seeing which aspects benefit from more texture space for any close up shots I may do.

ysalex

looking great, you've really put a lot of work into this.

Looking forward to seeing the low-p arm.

Di$array

@ysalex, Cheers pal and yeah, I feel theres a jump in skill from my last piece, so thats a positive.

Well update from me. I've found a happy medium with the arm layout so I've baked out the normals, AO and base some base colours.


So roll on texturing

GenericGoodGuy

From what I understand about Cables lore is that he doesn't wear a robotic suit/arm like yours but his arm is actually mutated into a metallic form, he uses his incredible telekinetic power to hold back the virus from spreading. Your version just looks like he's wearing a robot arm harness. If that's what you're going for, good job.

Di$array

Hey GenericGoodGuy, I'm basing this piece off his current appearance in the X-Force comics. Where he has been cured of his techno-organic virius and needs the aid of a robotic battle arm.

I have an update on my texture work for Cable. It's coming along pretty well, but if you see anything I've missed or any suggestion give me a shout please.

leslievdb

very clean work ! cant wait to see this in a badass pose

sziada

Ravenslayer wrote: »

very clean work ! cant wait to see this in a badass pose

Its a pretty bad ass T-pose he has there man and I yeah I agree I can't wait to see the final product

Scythe

lookin good mate

Di$array

Cheers guys. Appreciate the support.

Well I finally got round to rigging him and after a range of poses I settled on less dynamic one since it suited Cable's character more as he's a reserved, stoic archetype. The main problem I have with him is that he’s missing a big arse gun, which may add a lot more to the piece with him holding it over one shoulder or what have you, but I kinda want to move onto my next piece. Either way I knock one up sooner or later and added it.

Anyways,

Texelion

Nice presentation. I don't know this character ( not really a marvel fan ^^ ), but yeah, if you got some time in the future, a nice gun and maybe a pedestal could be cool.

Also, I'm not sure about that but I see a lot of pre-baked shadows on the flat ( bent normals maybe ? ), well it looks good, but it can be bad if the character moves or if the lighting changes. I had the same probleme with my previous character Abbey Chase ( Danger Girl ), I had a lot of prebaked shadows under the arms, and I only realised it when I posed her... just to say, it's not always a good idea to put to much baked shadows ^^.

Ged

raelly good work! I feel like there could be a little more material definition as it all looks fairly matt finish or maybe we just cant see it easily in a still shot.

Joker_47

Nice ! But i have a feeling what model a little dark , maybe it's light positioning , maybe it's just me ) anyway great job !

PhoenixWolf

great presentation

Di$array

Cheers for the feeback guys and I'm glad to like it. I'll defenityly tone back the Ambient Occlusionon my next piece Texelion, kinda ran into those problems when I was rigging. I hear you loud and clear Ged and reworked the spec map for him, Hopefully the material reads alot better now.