[WIP] Rogue (x men evolution)

Serj

Greetings !

When I first came to polycount I was advised to add at least one realistic or semi realistic character to my portfolio.

However, obviously this will require SSS and realistic hair.

I chose this character because she has hair and, by design, all her skin is hidden, except for the face.

This way, I can concentrate on one element and It It will not require big texture for SSS

estimated polycount and texture  :  ~25 k tris and 2048x2048

Blocking

Finished retopology and basic detail

I will continue to update this topic as the work progresses

Thanks for looking, and please let me know what you think!

Skinner3D

The top down shadow is messing with me. Looks like she has serious issues in her armpits and rib cage. I know her concept is stylized but I would normalize her figure some or you could go the whole way and turn her into a real human character. I just don't think her current physique will look good on demoreel. If you are trying to match reference, I think the face needs reworked a bit. She was drawn with very bold lines.
I would also personally put the shin guards all the way around her leg with an arc in the back just like you have in the front. Having actually worn armor I would get severe blisters from the pointy bits near the ankle if it was designed like that.

Serj

Thank you for your reply!

She has a pretty simple neck. Maybe without a hard shadow it will look better?

As for design, since the concept is not mine, I would like to stick to it as much as possible.

By the way, I finished her hair.
It's obviously needs more tweaking, but for now i leave it as it is.

This topic was really helpful in terms of baking hair cards :
http://polycount.com/discussion/155403/baking-hair-fur-from-max-using-projection

Serj

Added detailing to the entrails of the mouth

almighty_gir

But why? The art-style of Evolution shows that their teeth are all just flat blocks:


I think you need to go back and re-work a lot of your sculpt, particularly the face. You're missing a lot of the stylistic cues from the show, particularly in the shape of the nose and jawline. You're using flat hair-planes when they have these awesome chunky shapes, etc.

Stop rushing, do it right. You've already said "As for design, since the concept is not mine, I would like to stick to it as much as possible." So do it.

Serj

almighty_gir said:

But why? The art-style of Evolution shows that their teeth are all just flat blocks:


I think you need to go back and re-work a lot of your sculpt, particularly the face. You're missing a lot of the stylistic cues from the show, particularly in the shape of the nose and jawline. You're using flat hair-planes when they have these awesome chunky shapes, etc.

Stop rushing, do it right. You've already said "As for design, since the concept is not mine, I would like to stick to it as much as possible." So do it.

Also i've said that i choose this particular character to try out realistic skin and game hair.

And i see no point of using realistic skin, when teeth are just a flat block.

And, speaking of face, I have a question : how do I make nose and the jaw as square as in the original show an yet her face still would be realistic enough to use this type of hair and SSS ?
And how do you make  "chunky shapes" with flat cards ??

almighty_gir

You can't.

You either follow the original style, or you make all of her realistic and just give her the outfit you've chosen. In either case you need to go back and redo a ton of stuff. Your choice, but as it stands right now this is just a mess of things not working well due to a huge clash of styles.

Then again, there was this one game that had an amazing sense of stylised proportions, with largely realistic/heavily detailed textures:


Honestly, i think you need to decide what it is you're trying to achieve here. Do you want to practice realistic skin and hair? then make a realistic looking character. Or do you want to make something that looks like it belongs in XMan: Evolution? If so, make a full-on stylized character.

Brian "Panda" Choi

I back up gir in so far as to specifically say that, while there MAY be a way to do what you're doing @Serj, it's just going to be a heck of a tone more time to problem solve that idea vs. sticking to the style.

I mean, maybe you're thinking of doing something akin to FFXV?

Serj

almighty_gir said:

You can't.

You either follow the original style, or you make all of her realistic and just give her the outfit you've chosen. In either case you need to go back and redo a ton of stuff. Your choice, but as it stands right now this is just a mess of things not working well due to a huge clash of styles.

I've done some stylized characters in the past,
so if I have to chose, I guess, i'll take the second option.

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

I back up gir in so far as to specifically say that, while there MAY be a way to do what you're doing @Serj, it's just going to be a heck of a tone more time to problem solve that idea vs. sticking to the style.

I mean, maybe you're thinking of doing something akin to FFXV?

I've never played FFXV, or any Final Fantasy for that matter, so I dunno...maybe.

Meanwhile :



At this point, I'm interested in what material is her costume?
Is it leather or rubber or latex?
What kind of texture should it be?

Nuclear Angel

I think you should go back some steps to the sculpt and follow some real life references if you want to improve your realistic skills. As of right now you are missing structure in the face and the proportions aren't realistic. Just putting a realistic texture on a face that is incorrect anatomically will not be a strong portfolio piece. 

So I think you should follow almighty_girs advice and go back to your sculpt but this time focus on a realistic approach finding clear references to build up the proportions and structure. 

 And as you wrote up top, "When I first came to polycount I was advised to add at least one realistic or semi realistic character to my portfolio.
However, obviously this will require SSS and realistic hair.", when you create a realistic character SSS and realistic hair is so far from being the most important stuff in that advice. What I think you should focus on is realistic or semirealistic anatomy and structure, go back to the basics and study. Once that base is solid, then you can start making really awesome characters and SSS with cool realistic hair. 

At least that is my opinion on what I think you should focus on. I do not think you should finish up this character without learning the basics or have a goal of learning those basics with this character. 

Serj

Nuclear Angel said:

I think you should go back some steps to the sculpt and follow some real life references if you want to improve your realistic skills. As of right now you are missing structure in the face and the proportions aren't realistic. 

Could you be more specific please ?
Would you mind specify mistakes that i made, so i could see them, fix them and learn not to do them again ??

In the end,
this is what this topic is for, isn't it?

Kingdan97

The issue with trying to follow cartoon references is that they're built without form in mind. There's a lot of structures in the face that aren't going to be shown through flat shaded animation. You should find a real person whose volumes you want to emulate, and focus on the planes of the face in relation to each other, instead of the just the outward curves you're seeing on those turnaround views you have. Consider Rogue's background as a southern girl, and a teenager.

She's got some real roundness in her face and around her cheeks that you're missing currently because your cheeks are pulling in too much. You're also completely missing any definition in your sternocleidomastoid in the neck forms, which may not have been pushed in the show because of how simple of an animation style it was but if it's missing on your sculpt if you're doing anything other than a strict interpretation will read as a lack of understanding about anatomy, it currently looks like it's only connecting outwards, not inwards.

I would say if you want to go more realistic, or even if you just want to get those facial volumes right go out, find reference for a real person, and try and match your volumes as much as your silhouette.

Some places you can start, google planes of the face, facial anatomy and go to 3d.sk to find solid turnaround reference that you can use to find your base. If your anatomical information isn't all there your sculpt isn't going to look realistic no matter how much time you put into it, and the fastest way to learn about realistic anatomy is to research and emulate it.

Serj

It's hard to cast off already existing work and start from scratch, even partially. But i'll give it a try.

Not sure though, how "southern girl type" looks.