Oddworld's Slig - Kyle Hall

KyleReeceHall

The Slig - The creature was originally designed by Oddworld Inhabitants

Here is this turntable, please watch in HD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-CPN_JJcWM

I've been working on this project for a good while now, I hope you all like it. Im a huge oddworld fan and theese things terrified me as a kid! Ive been wanting to model one for a while and I finally got around to it.

I used 3Ds max to model the pants and mask, and Zbrush for the body, Rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 2.

Thanks!

Torch

Its a cool model but your presentation could be a lot better. The pedestal and gun textures look a bit rushed. Would be cool to see a shot of high poly and wires as well

KyleReeceHall

Thanks for the reply, how could i improve the presentation? The textures weren't rushed but they are some of my first attempts at texturing metal. Ill get back to you with Zbrush renders and Wires

almighty_gir

could we see a wireframe? i'm trying to figure out where 56k tri's have gone that i can still see jaggies.

Popol

About how to improve the presentation :

- A better lighting. Search 3 point lighting on google. It's easy and gives good results.
- Change the background color. Black or white backgrounds flatten the character. If you don't have an original idea for the background a middle gray will do.

And like almighty_gir I really would like to see the wireframe because 56k is waaaaaaaay too much.

KyleReeceHall

Updates, here's what you guys were asking to see.

KyleReeceHall

Thanks Popol, for the lighting I used a HDRI map in marmoset, i thought it looked ok and that adding more light would over expose everything, but i will experiment with 3 point setups as well, as for the topology I must admit i did use Zremesher to save time, I really just wanted this piece in my portfolio, until I optimize i might remove the tri count from the image if its so bad! haha.

I was under the impression around 50,000 was standard for game characters these days. Anyway I modeled the Respirator and robotic pants in max from scratch and the body was retopoed using Zremesher over the high poly sculpt.

Zbrush also added some weird cuts into the pants when going from max to Zbrush and then back.

NomadSoul2501

Really liking this, great concept

I would work on the textures some more, everything looks very new and clean.
People have the tendency to go way over the top when adding dirt and grime and I'm not saying you should do that but as it is now, there's no wear and tear on the character at all. Maybe there's some oil leaking down his legs, you know, subtle little details that give life to the character.

I was watching a video about texture painting in mudbox the other day and found it interesting how many different shades and hues skin has: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhgR00JsFSU
You did a great job on the feel of the hide but I think some more color could benefit it well.

Cheers

almighty_gir

you could probably lose half of the polies in the arms and not see that much of a difference, if any in the silhouette. you could then redistribute some of that into the spine to help get rid of the jaggy look it has.

Shrike

A big issue i see is that your shadows are way too strong in the diffuse and they are black. Shadows are never black. If you have a yellow character, you would want to make orange / red or purple shadowing.

50000 is fine for a character, but you used like 20k on the black pipes alone. For portfolio thats fine if you make everything as detailed as possible i suppose, but then add more geo to the top of the head
For an actual game you would have to make the pipes without bevels, but I would not cut it now, as it would degrade it a lot i guess.
There are a bunch of places where you could save and where you could increase however.

Also the eye needs AO or something

KyleReeceHall

@NomadSoul
Thanks for the reply, I will look into adding some extra details in mudbox thankyou.

@almighty_gir
Yeah that's really apparent now, that's sometimes the problem with auto retop tools, Ill keep that in mind.

@Shrike
Thanks shirke I will look into making those changes.

Popol

Here's my feedback about the topology :



On the organic parts it's gonna be easy, just remove loops and add some where needed, don't be affraid to create triangles, it's totally fine if this part of the mesh doesn't bend in the opposite way of the triangle.

On the hardsurface parts there are a lot of completely useless edges. A good rule is "If it doesn't change the silhouete, delete it". These parts don't bend so go crazy with the triangles to save polygons!

And yes, in the new gen it's common to make 50k tri character if they NEED that kind of polycount. You could bring your character to 25k with absolutely no noticeable difference.

I hope it helps!

KyleReeceHall

Oh wow popol thanks for that awesome feedback, I am going to make those changes now if i can and have a wireframe image for my portfolio. You gave me some really great advice there thanks.

Also to everyone else thanks for the advice you have given, if I dont use ti to make changes to this model i definitely will use that advice in future projects.

NomadSoul2501

Hey, it doesn't have to be mudbox
I believe zBrush offers the more powerful polypainting tools, I was just using that as an example.

Keep it up, this'll turn out great!!!

LRoy

I always thought this was a cool concept.

I think you could try pushing the spec map a little further. Adding points of interest instead of an overall noise.

Fenn

Regarding the actual sculpt itself. It seems that the arms, hands, and fangs(?) didn't get as much attention as the chest and back.
To me they seem muddy compared to the chest and back. Maybe I am wrong, but when I looked up the character the detail over the whole model seemed to be consistent.

Awesome work though.

KyleReeceHall

You are probably right Fenn, in retrospect I could have spent longer on the arms, but i did try to give the whole model the same amount of attention.

KyleReeceHall

You are probably right Fenn, in retrospect I could have spent longer on the arms, but i did try to give the whole model the same amount of attention.

dreppan

Ha ha -- as the animator for the original Slig, this is great to see! Keep on ~

- Scott Easley

almighty_gir

dreppan wrote: »

Ha ha -- as the animator for the original Slig, this is great to see! Keep on ~

- Scott Easley

"Hello" *waves*

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FC4lA7BNnM"]Abe's Oddysee: Hello, Hello! Follow me?,Ok - YouTube[/ame]

KyleReeceHall

Wow thanks scott, its amazing to know you have seen this!

KyleReeceHall

dreppan wrote: »

Ha ha -- as the animator for the original Slig, this is great to see! Keep on ~

- Scott Easley

Wow thanks Scott, its amazing to know you have seen this!

Dimfist

I think everyone is spot on with their crits. You could probably make the character about 20k and then another 4 to 5 k for the gun no problem but that's not a big deal in my eyes. Some studios still need to have lower poly assets so as long as you know the workflow then you are good.
My main concern is how flat the skin is. Everyone touched on wear and tear, dirt and so forth which is important, but if you don't add variation to the skin tones then it looks plastic. If you are going for the 50 60k range you should do a PBR and that would mean doing SSS for the skin as well where you can add a lot of color variation due to blood, veins and fatty deposits.
I have yet to do a 3 point light in the new marmoset. Let me know how that goes, i think it would be more powerful then their presets.

KyleReeceHall

Thanks, Im taking all of the crit on bored especially the stuff about my topology and the fact that they might be too many maps, but im on now with updating the textures in photoshop.

I do understand the workflow and will definitely work on that stuff for my next model, for now as i say i will focus on improving the textures.

Unfortunately my marmoset trail ran out so the next renders will most likely be from max

BradMyers82

You should just buy marmoset if you can afford it. Its certainly worth the purchase price since pbr is the future of materials and its a lot easier to use than alternative game engines like unreal. But if you are going to use max, xioliul shader is really good and 3point as well. Both have are free or have free versions. Just remember your textures won't look the same in max with these shaders because they work completely differently. You will have to approach the textures in a different way, but since you are still figuring that stuff out it might not be too bad. Good job so far and add some color gradiants to that skin!

KyleReeceHall

Thank you Brad, I am seriously considering purchasing marmoset. Thanks for the kind words.

KyleReeceHall

A long overdue update to the renders!

Here are some new shots guys, finally got around to making the texture fixes and general render fixes, hope you like!