Retro Pinup Space Girl
polycounter lvl 7
LATEST UPDATE:
When I work, I usually follow my concept 100%, but for this project I wanted to have a little fun on my own. I've never made a final product using hard surface techniques in Zbrush, so my process has been very loose so far.
Here is the original image that sparked my interest in creating a "retro"-style space girl. I like that it wasn't overly sexual, but still sexy.
I drew my own concept to better flesh out the shape of the helmet, again... very rough.
As you can see, I am using elements from these concepts, but I've strayed A LOT from the previous concepts. I've got a library of inspiring space pin-up girl images that I've been pulling ideas from as I go. The Rocketeer has also been a big influence on the creation of this character. I doubt I'll jump into another character without a fully developed concept again, but like I said: this was just for fun. I'll update this thread from time to time as I polish this character. Feel free to follow along.
When I work, I usually follow my concept 100%, but for this project I wanted to have a little fun on my own. I've never made a final product using hard surface techniques in Zbrush, so my process has been very loose so far.
Here is the original image that sparked my interest in creating a "retro"-style space girl. I like that it wasn't overly sexual, but still sexy.
I drew my own concept to better flesh out the shape of the helmet, again... very rough.
As you can see, I am using elements from these concepts, but I've strayed A LOT from the previous concepts. I've got a library of inspiring space pin-up girl images that I've been pulling ideas from as I go. The Rocketeer has also been a big influence on the creation of this character. I doubt I'll jump into another character without a fully developed concept again, but like I said: this was just for fun. I'll update this thread from time to time as I polish this character. Feel free to follow along.
Replies
Yep, good point. Adding a connecting neck piece to the torso is on my to do list. I'll try to make it look believable to bear that weight.
In terms of the sculpt, not sure if those are the final block out for the actual shoulder pieces, but they could stand to be bigger if they are.
Which would be shame.
Just sayin'
It needs to start at the area of her ears and end at the shoulders +-
Yours is starting at the shoulders and ends at her hips / butt.
Also, thank you for all of your previous suggestions. I scaled up the size of her shoulder pads, created a connecting point from the helmet to the clavicle, and moved the jet pack up a bit & scaled it down.
Maybe since it's a pinup give some sexyness to them with some heels(even if it's probably impractical for a spqce girl but... Who cares about that)
I feel better about these boots. I've given her some armor on here shins to match the braces on her forearms. I think it'll create a better balance overall. Having all the armor on her upper body could make it look a little top heavy IMO.
If you see anything unattractive or anatomically incorrect, please point it out. I've been looking at this face for too long and can't tell anymore.
Well for now she looks like she's holding her breath, you should rework the cheeks area, make them a bit less pronunced. Now, i don't know which type of face you're trying to do, but in the concept she looks kinda cute. Here she doesn't look bad, but she's not cute yet.
Don't hesitate to make placeholders for the eyelashes and a bit of make-up too, it really changes the way you look at her.
The nose is really important too, look at the one on the concept, it's curvy and pointy, cuteness +5.
Good job on the progress, she's shaping up nicely!
Her face is a little blobby, the cheekbones are the main contributor as others have said.
Here's a quick and dirty paintover/redline I threw together during a break at work, I hope it can help you a bit.
The eye area kinda needs a rework, but I can't give too many pointers since I'm not very good in this area;;
Maybe have a looksee at this since it's looking a little squishy, and this really helped me clean up that area even if I'm personally not quite there on the forms yet, haha;;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA4QziHEk8E
@Texelion: You were so right. Makeup makes a world of a difference. She's a new woman!
Thanks for pointing that out @dwbowes, I knew there was something weird about her cheeks, but couldn't quite put a finger on it.
Here's an update, let me know what you think!
the eye shape is off, it is too uniform like an oval. there are subtle shape changes in the eye shape that you need to look for. to start, i think the tear duct is too small. you also need to work out the shape and thickness of the upper lid. an average eyeball is anywhere from 23mm to 25mm in diameter. i'd get your model into your 3d package of choice, create properly sized eyeballs and work outwards from there. once you get the eyeball placed properly, take some care to get the top lid to adhere to the shape of the eyeball.
one other thing that sticks out to me is the shape and thickness of the outer portion of the nostrils, they feel very thin instead of soft and fleshy
start with things that you know for sure, like the size of the eyeball, get that locked in and work out from there for now
Here's what I mean:
Hope it helps!
Also, @FloreneceThibault, thanks for pointing out the alienish head shape. I matched up my model to your linework and it looks much better now.
Here is another update on the eyes. Better?
(the slight expression was just for fun of the render)
Once I get these perfected, I'll move on to polishing the finer details of the face and then some hair concepts.
She's a bit too masculine atm.
nice face with character... i dont think shes too masculine
and i also think womens faces dont have to be 100% feminine :P
Some additional additional notes, I don't think this looks masculine in the slightest, and I don't like that some basic form errors and features that inadvertently make parts of her look older are immediately labelled as "masculine" instead of just a little incorrect or mismatched.
I mean, damn, when a female character looks a little odd, the solution isn't "make her more feminine". Ya gotta look deeper.
As long as there's nothing too glaring with this update, I'm going to start playing around with some hair concepts.
the nose still feels a bit blocky and not quite fleshy enough, especially from the front view, the nostrils look somewhat sharp on the under sides. also, take a look at your lip corners, i'd like to see them pushed back on the z-axis and then pull the flesh out above and to the side of the corners to create some fleshy tissue. the corners should tuck back and under flesh at the corners. one last thing is the neck, it is creating a sharp indent at the sides. that should be more linear and straight. the sternocleidomastoid does run from behind the ear to the front of the clavicle in the center, but it doesn't indent like you've done on yours
you've made some great progress on the eyes in a short amount of time, keep plugging away at the other features and it will continue to improve. nice work
I THINK I'm doing what you're suggesting.
-I agree about the eyelids, they looked a little too clean and like they wouldn't have had enough skin to close. I masked and inflated the
area above the eyelid to make it look more like skin overlapping. I tried to make the eyelids look more fleshy by adding some thickness to them - not sure if I achieved it or not.
- I saw what you meant about the blockiness of the nose - I THINK. I rounded out the edges of the nostril and lowered the part that's closest to the face for a mousier look.
No matter how much thickness I try to add to the nostrils under the nose, it still looks a little sharp from the front. (lighting maybe?) I included a render from under the nose - does this look like an improvement?
-The mouth was a super subtle change. I wasn't confident with any of the changes I was making to it. She looked like she had botex injections if I made it too dramatic.
- Yes, the neck was completely off. With all the other features I was fixing on the head, I never really payed it much attention since the very initial dynamesh. Plus I figured most
of it would be covered up by the helmet. I straightened it out like you mentioned as it was long overdue.
Does this pass as anatomically correct or am I still missing the mark?
@skodone: I liked the natural face too for a few reasons, but I think she looked too old, and something was a bit off. I like the new face more as she is a bit more attractive and
I think it'll pass as a better pinup girl. She'll have an expression in the final final and I intend to make some subtle changes to her features so her face isn't so perfectly symmetrical.
Also, I'll have a rough hair concept posted soon. I'm working on something like this. This short style will
work best since it needs to fit in the helmet.
:poly142:
...and a side view
The last place I left off was the hair, but I wasn't liking how it looked - so I'll be trying something different. If I still can't get it right, I'll post it for critiques.
Does anyone have suggestions for modeling hair in this style? In my first attempt I used planes to build mass, but this time I might try modeling out the shape as a dense mesh and adding a few planes with transparency throughout.
Also, this may be a dumb question, but is there a way to render quads only in marmoset?
Looking good, though, dude.
I fixed the normal issues I was having around the mouth and eyes. I'm getting a better result with the skin shader as well. I have yet to map the eyelashes to planes, so I'll do that next before moving on to the rest of the body.
Freckles might make her look dreamy. Out of all seriousness.
Freckles. Please. that's a fantastic idea. If not, a mole or two (beauty-mark style) would give her a little more interest. Maybe a little hint of blush, too.
Next up, can we see your spec and gloss maps, too?
And finally, take this. Consume it (the whole thing, video included).
http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/character-setup
It should give you an idea on how to make those pores more prominent without fucking your normal maps (pardon my french), and show you a proper spec/gloss guide for skin/humans.
On a specific-to-your-piece basis, her lips and caruncle area need more gloss. Does she have an AO map? It all feels a little soft and squishy with some undefined areas right now, some of it is because there's not AO where I'm expecting it, but some of it is def your lighting and skin shader setup. Easily fixed.
BagelHero: I've been watching that video over and over while making this character and I can't seem to match their results with the same settings. Around the 46 min mark, they start talking about gloss/spec maps. The British guy talks about using ONLY a gloss map and using a flat value for the spec - so that's what I did.
Here is a close up of what I have for my gloss. I got the base by copying my normal map green channel.
Feel free to paint over it or suggest any alternatives. Just a side note - When I bring this map into Marmoset, the thumbnail doesn't share the same values. The tones seem much lighter - does anyone know why?
Here's what I mean: