Reginald the ship mechanic
polycounter lvl 5
Hey all!
I'm working on a piece for class that includes the design, model, textures, rig, and animation.
The idea for the piece is a ship mechanic, who would have to fix up ships and do some of the dirty work the occasional smuggler doesn't want to do. His name is Reginald, though sometimes folks call him Reg. He has a kind heart and a sharp mind, but he knows how to use his strength if he needs to. Occasionally he has to work on a ship in space, but most of the time they're docked in a hangar bay. He likes to keep a flight suit on anyway in case of accidents. He's an older gent and he's experienced with alien races, and every kind of ship you could imagine. His best friend is his all-in-one wrench tool that contains a welder, a wrench, a screwdriver, and several other tools he might need.
Here's the initial concept sculpt:
I wasn't happy with the santa claus look, so I did a quick paint over. Wanted him to look younger, took the glasses out, thought about adding a hat, and made some of the muscles a bit more planar. I also like the tiny ears
I did a little more exploring, painting over the model further. I'm thinking about giving him long sleeves and an optional helmet so he can be out in space if needed, but I'm not sure. Also on the fence about the hat.
I have some more work on the 3d model that I'll post when I get home later!
Crits and suggestions welcome
I'm working on a piece for class that includes the design, model, textures, rig, and animation.
The idea for the piece is a ship mechanic, who would have to fix up ships and do some of the dirty work the occasional smuggler doesn't want to do. His name is Reginald, though sometimes folks call him Reg. He has a kind heart and a sharp mind, but he knows how to use his strength if he needs to. Occasionally he has to work on a ship in space, but most of the time they're docked in a hangar bay. He likes to keep a flight suit on anyway in case of accidents. He's an older gent and he's experienced with alien races, and every kind of ship you could imagine. His best friend is his all-in-one wrench tool that contains a welder, a wrench, a screwdriver, and several other tools he might need.
Here's the initial concept sculpt:
I wasn't happy with the santa claus look, so I did a quick paint over. Wanted him to look younger, took the glasses out, thought about adding a hat, and made some of the muscles a bit more planar. I also like the tiny ears
I did a little more exploring, painting over the model further. I'm thinking about giving him long sleeves and an optional helmet so he can be out in space if needed, but I'm not sure. Also on the fence about the hat.
I have some more work on the 3d model that I'll post when I get home later!
Crits and suggestions welcome
Replies
As far as the overall proportions maybe a lengthening of the torso or the legs would help?
I was going for a similar look to Death from Darksiders 2 for the arm proportions: http://www.omnomworkshop.com/Portfolio_Death.html
I tried fixing up the proportions on that arm a little bit, and in some other places. I've got to get the high res and low res done for this bad boy by Tuesday, hopefully I have enough time...
Legs are too short, he could almost touch his own toes without leaning over. Will elaborate more when I get to a comp but generally the ends of the uncurled fingers meet mid-thigh or, on an overly masculine gorrilla man, mid knee.
Wulverblade seems to do this by having huge heads, tbh. The arms are also kinda stretchy, so they can retract to looking about knee-length, but sometimes be so long they'd touch the floor. Doesn't really translate into more detailed 3D too well. A lot of clean sweeping curves and geometric shapes, too (the arms are more or less just notched cylinders, no sculpted biceps here).
I know you weren't going for this look specifically, but a quick comparison for an explanation as to why what you've gone with don't quite mesh.
Your dude is like 5 and a bit heads wide (shoulders) and also 5 and a bit heads tall, by the way, which is kind of a weird measurement when the head's kinda skinny. Wulverblade guys are 3 by 4.
Anyway, the way you've gone with the teeny head makes matching these guys look strange. What I personally found to look a little bit more appealing was bringing everything under the chest down a little (not arms, the arms can more or less stay how they are). Really quick liquefy, a little more to the Heavy extreme. Still would have stubbier legs though. For the record, I think widening everything under the chest a little bit could help as well, this is not the only solution by any means. :poly124:
Just sorta suggestions and thoughts, you have your own ideas, and with the timelimit some revisions just wouldn't be possible. In the future, these tensed fingers also aren't idea for rigs nor actually being able to get a good read of your character's proportions/rhythm. Still looking forward to how this ends up looking in game-rez & with textures.
Maybe you could take a look at some How to train your dragon characters, they have weird proportions but look nice anyway.
On the plus side, just because I have to get this done so quickly for class doesn't mean I can't go back and fix it up later.
Alright, I wanted to keep the tiny legs, but something about these proportions makes him feel much more powerful. Bagel you're probably right about the hands being in a shite position for rigging, I was going to do some moving around once the sculpt was more where I like it, I just like having the hands like that while sculpting for some reason.
Anyway I basically widened his base and moved it down quite a bit. Did some quick folds, I know symmetry probably isn't ideal but I've got until tonight to get this feller to low res with UVs and a normal bake. Shoes are still dirty model right now, gotta go back into maya and make nice clean loops.
Yeah, the hair is giving me some issues right now. Not sure if I should go with block hair or do some cards. Trying to sculpt out some basic shapes at the moment
I'll probably come back and add some high frequency detail later, and a lot of it will be created within substance painter.
I don't want to rush it but I have to rush some of it
So, if you're curious, I got the low poly and normal/AO bakes done on time. Since then I've been doing some rigging and it's time to do a pass on materials.
Here's a render from toolbag real quick with some descent lighting. Tri count at the moment is 16k, which is a little steep but I haven't done any optimization yet.
Next steps include getting the mats done, designing the wrench, and doing some posing. I also have to do a walk cycle and a run cycle for class, hopefully I can get a lot of the character's personality into them!
Enjoy for texturing now !
I'll be doing some color tests tonight to try and decide on a color scheme!