Adam Jensen

Mitchellangelo

I am just getting started creating this awesome character from that Deus X Franchise. This is the concept design:


I've gotten an earlier start on it than I thought, but here is what I've got so far. I want to knock out the anatomy before I start anything else. I feel like I've learned a whole lot from your critiques on Etta, so any feedback you can give is great!


I am using Adam Jensen's voice actor, Elias T, as reference for the head. But I couldn't for the life of me find a profile picture.

Nekhro

Mitchell Sturtevant: Thank you Nekhro
Nekhro: No problem Mitchell

Mitchellangelo

What now, Nekhro?... Well do you have any feedback?...

Nekhro

That was for the profile picture i uploaded with my comment..

Brian "Panda" Choi

Define your calves more, the muscles are just reading as one big mass.

Clavicle needs fixing, there's a couple of corners you missed.

Good start, keep rolling. Put your reference imaage into Spotlight in Zbrush and pop back and forht as you're sculpting the face to make sure you're nailing the major forms.

Also, drop down a subdivision. Your big proportional forms don't warrant the detailing of the abs and pecs, and the detail on the face, that soon. You might be better off breaking the head bust into a separate subtool since they'll be separate anyways.

Mitchellangelo

I thought so. That's what I did with Etta. After all the head is really the only thing that's going to be seen. The body is just going to be used as a base mesh for the clothing.

Mitchellangelo

Oh sorry Nekhro. Yeah that is a nice profile pic, lol. I just didn't get what you meant.

Mitchellangelo

Okay, so the robotic arm is being worked on right now. Don't worry I PROMISE you it's not done. I have the forms created, but now I'm going back in and cleaning everything up. But I was just wondering if you had any suggestions, as far as making the forms better or for the clean up process. This is such a challenging model because this cybernetic arm looks very natural.



Again, here is the reference for the arm:

Mitchellangelo

Here is my latest work done on Adam's Robotic arm. I went in and cleaned it up and added some extra details. PLEASE give me some kind of feedback this time. I know you're all busy and everything but I really need your feedback. I can't make it look better if I don't know what's wrong.



Once again here is the reference:

nickcomeau

It's still looking very soft. Have you considered doing a retopo to get nice hard edges, clean divots, etc.? Something you might want to consider before going too much farther. You have a good base to do the retopo now that you could then later go up in subdivision levels.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Yea retopo your hard surface pieces. You'll want a clean mesh.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkzopwqcFevZ2zkL0O7svqvUr8nNKY0Q4

Mitchellangelo

Yeah that's the main thing I was afraid of with sculpting all of that detail into the arm. It's difficult to create manmade objects in ZBrush. While I was working on it, I kept having brief thoughts of modeling the obvious metal parts in Maya.

But I didn't think about retopologizing it. That might work! I actually retopologized the arm before I added all of the detail on (that was foolish). But now that the details are added I can retop it knowing what needs to be hard. Thanks

Mitchellangelo

Here is the latest work on Adam's robot arm. I retopologized all of the metal pieces, and touched up all of the internally-wired parts that seem organic. I think it looks a lot more like a hard-surface model now. What do you think?

nastobi123

Wow those are some nice arms. I like that it contours the muscle parts. Its awesome man !

Mitchellangelo

Thank you nastobi123. Unfortunately this isn't my concept though...

Artlekks

I think the Brachioradialis should stand out more (cleaner edges) as well as the elbow, right now it doesn't look like the concept and it feels a bit off

Mitchellangelo

I guess I see what you mean. I'll give that part another look. Thanks Artlekks.

Mitchellangelo

Here is a clothing status report on Adam. I personally think he's beginning to look pretty cool. Do you think the jeans look believable enough? This is my first time simulating wrinkles and folds in clothing in ZBrush. And do you have any feedback for the uniform as a whole?

Mitchellangelo

I definitely need your feedback on the hair. Hair can be very challenging to sculpt and I'm not too sure about this sculpt. What do y'all suggest?

nickcomeau

You're thinking about the hair too much as individual strands of hair and not as ribbons. Hair clumps into thicker segments, start there maybe? Also, the head and arms don't look to proportion with the body, they're quite small.

Mitchellangelo

<sigh of relief> thanks nick. I thought I was going to be ignored again, lol. Yeah, short hair can be especially hard to do. And I can size up the arms and head just a tad. By the way, do you recommend any specific brushes for the hair? I used the Clay Tube Brush and the Slash Brush.

kornetic

heres a really good tutorial for sculpting hair.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127527

krz

I think proportions-wise, your model is more bulky than the concept your showed us. To me Adam is quite slender and your guy has more of a muscular, brute type of feel to him. I would try to narrow his features a bit, especially the waist and his legs.

The rest is coming along nicely.

Mitchellangelo

Thanks kornetic. I'll be sure to check out that tutorial. It seems like there is just no right answer for sculpting hair.

Sorry Krz, that picture is pretty old. I've done some work on his silhouette. I think I've slimmed him down quite a bit:

SuperFranky

How do you feel about constructive and harsh criticism? I don't want to make someone upset by posting a wall of text, so I'm asking if you want it

Mitchellangelo

I appreciate your consideration SF. I would rather have you come clean with whatever I need to fix. But just tell me specifically what needs to be fixed and how. Just saying "it's off" doesn't help much.

TomGT

I'm gonna just point out something different since SuperFranky sounds like he's going to unload his own arsenal of constructive criticism on you haha.

The "frameless" built-in sunglasses on the final design on Adam Jensen (not the ones you posted) is one of his better known traits. Of course this is up to you. Though he also has that chip on his left forehead even on the designs you picked, which you seem to be missing.

Also one of the first things I noticed in his proportions is the forearm, it looks too thin on certain angles. Might wanna look at how the flexors on the forearm work, because they are real tricky to convey. It also would help a lot since Jensen does have that muscular-fiber look on his augmentations.

Otherwise I'm liking how you're handling the silhouette. Keep it up!

pior

As far as facial references are concerned you might be better off using pictures of Jonathan-Jaques Bellet

Mitchellangelo

Thank you TomGT. I'll see what I can do about those sunglasses. But I didn't think they'd be too much of a focus compared to the overall design. As for the hexagonal dent on his face, I was going to put that in during texturing and painting. I'm glad the silhouette is coming along.

Mitchellangelo

Thank you Pior, for the reference candidate. Are you sure he didn't base Adam's character design off of himself? haha.

Yeah I was recommended to do he voice actor but he looks a little different from Adam.

Mitchellangelo

Sorry, y'all probably think I dropped off the face of the earth. Here is some texturing work I've done on Adam. I just thought I'd open this up to the floor. Any feedback is accepted.

Amaury

You skipped an important part on the face : secondary forms. You shouldn't think about polypaint or pores until you nailed them. They are very important because that's what brings personality into the face.
It doesn't look like there's any bone or muscles or fat underneath the skin. Try to define those anatomical features according to the concept by dropping a few subdivision levels and then go for surface detail.

The body lacks gesture, rigger may not appreciate it but you can still make it straight later and it helps to find the right overall feel.
Also I don't know if he's wearing drop-crotch pants or if his legs are too small but you might want to fix it.

Mitchellangelo

Okay Amaury. I'll work on all of those features on the face.

I thought it is more convenient for a rigger if the model is in a neutral pose.

Mitchellangelo

I did some work on his face since yesterday. Now hopefully it looks like he has secondary form to his face. He almost looks like a child in that last one.



I went back to the reference photo of his face and tried to incorporate features true to the concept art, such as the scar over his left eye.


I also brought his arms down in a more relaxed pose. Hopefully he doesn't look so stiff, and hopefully this would make it easier to rig.

skodone

you got a great ref for an overlay there i can easily see your forehead fI is far too narrow and too long compared to the ref, its wider there
lips have a different form and your glasses are smaller

Neox

just rotate your camera to a similar view in zbrush, then go into movie > timeline > show set two keys in the timeline when you rotate around your model just click one of the keys and you are back on your reference view

take a screenshot, bring it to photoshop and overlay your reference, toggle the reference on and off, you will see straight away that you are far off. not sure what you did to make it look closer but you still got a long way to go.

Mitchellangelo

Okay, I'll work more with lining up the face with the reference image. And Neox I will try that trick of using the movie and timeline trick. Aligning the images is always the best way to be dead on to the concept.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Really, really check your head shape, especially around the temples and the jowls. You've got really unnatural angles and slopes that don't exist on the in game model, or any of the real life references.

Besides the references you have right now, compare your head against existing head sculpts, especially in various non typical views, especially from birds eye, to make sure your head makes anatomical sense and that the forms aren't super weird.

The armor looks nice and clean. GJ with that.

If you're going to have the hair as one solid mass, you might do better to spend more time defining the hair better. Right now it's reading muddy. As a quick possible way, http://www.dantozer.com/sites/g/files/g851711/f/201309/c_Templar_13_09_16_02.jpg

The pants folds don't have the variation it needs. Sharpen and pinch the folds where they would be pinching and sharpening on peaks and valleys. Look at existing tight fitting cargo pants for reference. The fold "lines" splay out and pinch towards anchor locations.

Your eyebrows are flowing in the wrong direction if we're being super particular about anatomical accuracy: http://www.scottsdaleinstitute.net/images/eyebrow-diagram-large.gif

Mitchellangelo

Thank you for all of those references Brian. Yeah right now it seems as though the head is the biggest fix right now. That's a good hair sculpt reference. This is going to be a little different because his hair is sticking up, but it can be done for sure.

I'm glad the armor is looking good. I will go back to the jeans and work on those pinching details on the folds. Also thank you for the eye brow image. I think that will really help to.

Neox

just a very quick liquify pass, no overpaint (which owuld really be needed), this by far not all that should be done. ideally you would remove the hair, beard and sunglasses for now. and get the overall anatomy right. Before you add scars, symbold or pores

Mitchellangelo

I've done some work on his face. I practically spent the afternoon on it yesterday. For some reason, the part that's giving me the most trouble is that crevice on his cheek on each side, by his mouth. I can't seem to see how that fits the anatomy at all angles. Hopefully his face is coming along okay.



"Come with me if you want to live", just kidding