Jose Vivas - FMP Review and Critique
Hello, I am a student at Hertfordshire
University and I will be using this thread to post images of the progress of my master's final project
consisting in 2 alien characters. These characters are part of a group project;
you can find the group post here with more information about the group project.
Please, feel free of leave comments and feedback.
I am a bit delayed on posting my progress here andI have a lot to show, I suppose it
would have been better posting from the beginning so I could have used the feedback
on the go but I have been very busy and I have been putting it off till now.
My first character is an Alien minion. It is going to be the more common alien
found in the game it is kind of brute and it is based on melee attacks. It also has some glands that allow it to spit acid through its mouth.
This is the Concept art with different colour variations:
We decided to use the blue-purple one.
Modelling in Zbrush:
I started my modelling experimenting with methods of building volume quickly instead of starting from a sphere, in the case of the body I used instert cylinders and I tried spheres for the head then I used Dinamesh to merge all together and blend the shapes with smooth and claybuildup . I found spheres easier to use because is easier to control.
I build the torso, the head, the arms and the
legs in different tools so I could work better with dinamesh, then when I had a
proper proportion and shape I merged it with the rest of the body. I struggle a
lot with the proportions and positioning of the jaws as I wanted that the model
could open and close the mouth fitting in the face.
Once I had the general shape of the body finished I started with the rest of
elements like the nails, horns, tooth, spine,…
With the general shape done I started to put detail using the standard,
Dam_standard, and inflate to create the wrinkles and veins, then using an alpha
that I found here (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?158570-MeMania-s-Sketchbook/page3)
made by David Biggs I added pores and bumps with the inflate brush. I also used
this alpha to make the bony elements like the spine with a bigger brush and
alternating zsub and zadd. For the rest of the details I used the same brushes
(standard, Dam_standard, and inflate).
This is the final result in Zbrush:
And this is after retopologize it. In order to do so I used Topogun.
I have already baked the maps in substance and I am ready to start texturing it
Replies
The second Character, the alien leader, is going to be an unique alien character that has psychic powers and commands the other aliens. I wanted it to look more slim and fragile compared to the minion but sharing some attributes like the horns, the protruding spine the number of fingers, ... It has a gelatine-ish mask over its face that will be semi-transparent.
This are the concepts arts with different colour variations
The group decided to use the black one (the last one) but probably with a white mask instead of red.
I had the head already modelled from a previous research on the creation of the pony tail, so I started from there creating the body, the legs and the arms more or less in the same way as in the minion. The process was very similar to the minion using the same techniques and brushes. I found it easier to work on it because it was more humanoid and it has less limbs.
For the detailing I used the same brush I used to make the pores in the minion model and used the same process of using the standard, demian standard and inflate to create the skin folds and wrinkles.
This are the final results in Zbrush:
And this are the result of the retopology in Topogun:
I feel I increased a lot the polycount due to the pointy and curved elements like the tooth, the spine and horns, but I think I couldn't do it in other way. For future project I will try not to add so many pointy and small elements to have better control on the polycount.I still have to create the cards for the ponytail but I will do that after texturing the model as the ponytail may be optional.
I followed the same minion’s process and created the UVs in RoadKill and then exported them to Maya and improved them with the unfold tool. As with the minion, I divided the body in three maps and used different materials to have more resolution and to work properly in substance with different layers.
I have modified the UVs and materials to paint them better in Substance as Substance don’t allow painting more than one material at the same time thing that can exaggerate seams even more. Therefore, I had to put in the same material the arms and the body as there is a very visible seems there, so if I can paint over the seams at least I will be able to try to correct them. The other two seams of the body are quite hidden in the folds of the leg and between the head and the neck.
I have continued painting the textures in Substance Painter following the colour of the references but adding more details like the stripes along the arms and the legs, and adding more textures combining several smart materials layers. In both my case I used Skin Feverish for the thick skin changing colours and values, Skin Face for the soft and shiny skin parts, and a mix of some layers of Machinery, Steel Painted and Plastic Used for the horns and the Spine. I also painted by hand some parts making at least three colour layers: base colour, shadow and light, normally using a very low flow to get a good transition between colours. I added finally some details like veins and wounds.
After texturing the minion I did some tests to look how would it look with blood over it. If finally I use the blood, I will improve the material as it is only a basic red colour/roughness layer. This is the result of the minion:
In the case of the alien leader I have separated the mask, the eyes and the tube connected to the face as they caused me artifacts in the AO and Normal map, so I will work on them separately. Also I still have to do the ponytail. This is the result of the Leader:
Now I am going to fix the scale and position and some issues I have with some horns that don't fit in the textures. I will also paint the textures for the rest of the Alien leader's elements and make the ponytail. Next would be rigging the characters, I will have to see some tutorials as I dont have too much knowdlege on how to do it
This is the material I have made (with some help ;P) for the mask:
The wrist articulation is going to be impossible to fix as it has a bone exactly in the articulation and it has to turn to fit the hand, ... but it has to be parented to the forearm because I designed the model in that way (I didn't know I would have that problem). As there is an IK handle constraining the forearm it can't turn properly and therefore, it doesn't match the hand orientation, ... I will try to make animations that don't show this problem too much. I have also problems with horns cliping each other but it was something that I already knew was going to happen, same solution. In future projects I will try not putting bones or elements in articulations as they have been a pain to work with all the time.
Finally, I have posed the model to find deformation problems and other issues like disappeared horns and bones out of place as well as not working controllers.
Thx a lot for the feedback, I very appreciate it
. You are right the roughness on the minion skin and horns
looks very similar, I think in the Leaders looks better. The belly and the skin
has a different roughness because I would like to make the belly very slimy but
I think you are right, it should be a bigger difference between both types of
skin. I tried to add a colour gradient in the horns; maybe the detail is lost a
bit because they still are a bit dark. I probably add those changes in
the future but as I have to submit everything in a week and I don’t have more
time to work on the models I will not change it by the moment. Sorry for not
answer you before but I have been very busy xDD. Again, thanks for the feedback
.
I have done a lot since the last post. I have make the hair for the alien leader in Maya with xgen following a Adam Skutt's tutorial (Link) and using the hairstrip brush on Zbrush made by Michael Dunnam (Link) to make the hair cards. I have rigged the alien leader and animated both characters making an idle and attack animation for both characters and a walking animation for the leader and a running animation for the minion.
I have also set all together in Unreal. I am still messing with the hair material because I can't make it look good enough. I have borrowed a material from my group mate Ryan to improve it a bit but still don’t look good. I think I have to redo the textures to make them denser as it looks very hollow at the end of the ponytail.
The attack animation for the leader has also a problem in the legs that I haven’t been able to figure out how to solve. In Maya all looked good but when I imported it to unreal the legs started to shake. It only happens in the leader's attack animation: S. I still have to try to key the leg joints in all the frames to see if that works and they stop shaking...
I also make a cut arm prop to place in the scenario by reusing the minion model and textures and creating a new one for the arm section and bone. I still have to create some colour variations in the minion’s textures to create a bit of diversity. I basically enter in substance and change colours everywhere. I also have to create another prop repositioning the minion to look like it is dead on an autopsy table. I hope to have all done for tomorrow.
I have made a video with the current state of my project. I will borrow an environment from one of my awesome team mates that are doing the scenery for the project to record a video of the alien characters for the final submission.
In my opinion, you should remove the red tail from your alien leader. It's a bit... Strange to see a tail on an alien.
One more time, good job
hehe, well I put a shorter tail in the Leader design to have a resemblance with the minion alien. Both have similar characteristics to give the sensation that they are part of the same specie. Also there are a lot of examples of aliens with tails