Alien Horse - WIP 01

EEEnt_OFFICIAL

This is a WIP model of an alien horse creature. I started with a low poly sculpt and built topology around the sculpt. I don’t do retopology often so I would appreciate honest feedback on aspects such as the edge loops. I would greatly benefit from it.

Since I was using a mirror modifier I only saw that my model had 7k triangles but after exporting the whole model I noticed it was a full 15k triangles. Whoops. As you can tell this model wouldn't be suited for mobile devices; it was made with AAA games in mind.

Modeled in Blender.

model

EEEnt_OFFICIAL

I'm bumping this thread. If you have any helpful criticisms on the model's topology please let me know!

Skinner3D

 Unfortunately the only way you can get away with alien physiology is to not call it by any earthly terms. Labeling it an alien horse makes me want to see mostly real horse anatomy. Lol. Legs are too thick for that

Brian "Panda" Choi

Yeah, I'd thin up the calves to echo the horse analogy better.

Otherwise, continue sculpting.  Be mindful of the anatomy first.

Lukeman87

The concept for this thing is great. I like the overall direction you have going with this tying. However, I do agree the word "horse" should be ditched. Create a name for it!

Overall the topology looks good. Mostly quads. The couple triangles shouldn't cause any issue. 

There are a few areas in anatomy that seem off. The front calves I feel should be a bit larger. Because it's not really a "horse", it can't have "horse" legs. The structure is fine, but I would make the calves a bit longer and thicker. Also maybe a bit larger tail. Nothing like a T-rex tail, but, again, something a little larger to even out all the weight at the front. Or make the body thinner. Either way, but a huge body needs huge legs to hold it up.
The other part that seems off are the chest arms. I do like the concept of chest arms, but the size and positioning should be rethought. They should be either a subset of the front legs, coming from the body or shoulders or something. Or make them considerably smaller. Think of what the skeleton would look like. But big, long arm bones coming out from the chest doesn't look right. 

Keep up the modeling! I really like the concept. I look forward to seeing the finished product!

EEEnt_OFFICIAL

Thank you everybody so far for putting your thoughts up.

Skinner3D said:

 Unfortunately the only way you can get away with alien physiology is to not call it by any earthly terms. Labeling it an alien horse makes me want to see mostly real horse anatomy. Lol. Legs are too thick for that

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Yeah, I'd thin up the calves to echo the horse analogy better.

Otherwise, continue sculpting.  Be mindful of the anatomy first.

Sorry I should've been more clear: it's horse-like though at the time of naming it I just called it that simply because I was tired, ha. I didn't intend for it to be the alien equivelant of a horse though I understand the comparisons. I will try slimming the legs down and check if that works out.

Lukeman87 said:

The concept for this thing is great. I like the overall direction you have going with this tying. However, I do agree the word "horse" should be ditched. Create a name for it!

Overall the topology looks good. Mostly quads. The couple triangles shouldn't cause any issue. 

There are a few areas in anatomy that seem off. The front calves I feel should be a bit larger. Because it's not really a "horse", it can't have "horse" legs. The structure is fine, but I would make the calves a bit longer and thicker. Also maybe a bit larger tail. Nothing like a T-rex tail, but, again, something a little larger to even out all the weight at the front. Or make the body thinner. Either way, but a huge body needs huge legs to hold it up.
The other part that seems off are the chest arms. I do like the concept of chest arms, but the size and positioning should be rethought. They should be either a subset of the front legs, coming from the body or shoulders or something. Or make them considerably smaller. Think of what the skeleton would look like. But big, long arm bones coming out from the chest doesn't look right. 

Keep up the modeling! I really like the concept. I look forward to seeing the finished product!

Thank you for the in-depth feedback!

As mentioned previously it's what came to mind at the time. I didn't think of a proper name as I felt it didn't matter that much. It's not a horse though it bears some likeness to it. Like a cat fish!

I tried to modify the mesh the mostly consist of quads but at times I had to fall back on triangles to make vertices meet.

The creatures proportions and features were added because it looked bizarre like, well, an alien (also because it was a lot of fun). I'll make the tail a little longer; something like a rhino's tail could do. I added them to act similar to T-rex arms because seeing them on such a creature would look unorthodox on Earth.

Again thank you so much.

EEEnt_OFFICIAL

I took the advice given to me yesterday and applied them to the model. I was sure to duplicate the main file and put the previous iteration into a folder named Version 1. A folder for my latest version, Version 2, is the latest iteration. The Sketchfab 3D preview has also been updated!

The differences are as follows:

• I began by shrinking the arms down and moving them up and rotating them to be more upright. It's more clear to me that they could've dragged along the floor when moving and being a general pain. These newly modified arms appear more useful for picking berries or pushing itself off the floor from sitting down.
  
• I changed the front legs so that the calves and hooves are longer.
  
• I slimmed down the hooves.
• I made the legs longer and elevated the body to be a bit higher. Version 2 looks significantly taller.
• I reduced the stockiness of the body by moving and smoothing out the stomach region. It looks more elegant now.
• I stretched the tail to be longer and added more edge loops for it to sway from side to side.
• Finally I used sculpting tools to modify the proportions of the body. I used:

1. The Smooth brush to smoothen out topology that looked jagged or tightly bunched together. I used it for the back leg's thighs, crevices, tail area, etc. The creature appears more front-heavy (or at least a little wider at the front).
   
2. The Clay Strips brush to build up joints such as the knees and elbows and to make the bottom jaw a little thicker. I also beefed up the calves and the small arm's shoulders.
   
3. The Crease brush to deepen or tighten areas that needed creases, such as the neck bulges, the "ear" area, etc.
4. The Inflate brush to thicken the tail a little.

I hope the changes made were accurate to what you guys expected. Eventually I'm going to use a Multiresolution modifier and sculpt big broad brush strokes, working my way to smaller details with more mesh subdivisions (and then bake those details into a normal/height map). My laptop can only handle so much detail so my plan is to use the Multiresolution modifier to sculpt muscle forms and then export the unwrapped model to Substance Painter and then use alpha brushes to add details like wrinkles, pours, etc, onto a heightmap.

EEEnt_OFFICIAL

Bumping this thread again.

Lukeman87

 Great improvements! The proportions look so much better now. Front leg, top part could maybe be a tad thicker and hind legs, part three maybe a bit thicker too. Otherwise I think you got it down. Look forward to the detailing!

EEEnt_OFFICIAL

Lukeman87 said:

 Great improvements! The proportions look so much better now. Front leg, top part could maybe be a tad thicker and hind legs, part three maybe a bit thicker too. Otherwise I think you got it down. Look forward to the detailing!

Thank you Luke! I'm glad it's shaping up for the better. I can get down to the using the MultiRes modifier afterwards.