Buffing my minotaur!

stoofoo

So I am taking a day for each of my old portfolio pieces and giving them a once over. This particular chap suffered a lot from being universally bulbous. I think this was like my 4th full character texture and feel like i needed to give him some love. Gonna go in and do a color pass a bit later tonight as well as sharpen up the fur that got hosed from resizing the image. Doing some reading for a while.

Left is original which is painted at 1024x1024. Right is new one and its a 256x256. Sorta funny how it holds up.=/

shotgun

Deffinately an improvement. When did you say the original version was done?

Here are my thoughts about how you can improve this even further:

Your preception of subtle color changes improved; it seems a lot more intentional. Or as MoP would say: its "cohesive" (sorry for stealing your trademark paul
You're deffinately looking for the right things, only perhaps not confident enough. You could deffinately push a wider range of colors into his skin.

Study anatomy.

Color and rendering wise, I actually feel the older legs are better. They are not as sharp, but they read more as hair-covered and more unique than the much more fleshy legs in the newer version. You would want to set the fleshy body and the hair covered legs apart for a more interesting design.

Study anatomy.

You are doing a good thing, you can see how much you've learnt over the time.. keep it up.

stoofoo

I did the original uhh.. a year and a half ago? or something. I guess I am sorta copping out on the anatomy of things. I've done a lot of work on said topic since I did this. It was just easier to rework what was there quickly to just give it a better lighting treatment. Maybe I'll think about reworking the actual anatomy when i get home. Probably not, though. It's all quite outa whack.

I agree about the color. I had worked it a bit more after i posted last night. I restrained a bit initially since it had been a while since I'd done real flesh and stuff. Been doing a lot of effects and structural stuff at work lately and it tends to be less rich.

Thanks for the comment, Shotgun.

shotgun

You welcome.

swampbug

Cool idea.. but i cant help but notice the small one looks like he's takin it in da butt. Its kinda disturbing... and im not sure if that was intentional or not.

Maybe you can attach the 2 torsos to give them an asymetrical look. Personally i think aymsymetrical geometery is far cooler to look at anyway. Right now they are still split down the middle symetrical. Maybe put them side by side, or thier torsos face outwards but their necks and upper torso face forwards.

stoofoo

I'm really just revisiting textures on these things. It was a design for an S2 video game I did while doing contract work for them--i think it's just a mimmic of the concept work. I agree its sorta creepy and could probably be finessed a bit. Stupid symmetry. Maybe i will bang up the model a little bit tonight. We'll see how much i can noodle with it without borking the texture entirely. hehe

X-Convict

dammnn, 256? hehe.. Looks good Stoof.

cholden

Quaid, start the reactor!

While a noble effort for you to improve the texture, I find the concept of this character too freakishly
disturbing, an anatomic abomnination, and very poorly designed. That's not your fault, and no offense, but for the sake of portfolios everywhere, texture a better character. Even with the best texture, this will always look weird.

moose

awesome stoof! i agree with swampy, it does look like the other dude is takin it up the ass, intentional? (edit: nm, reread comments above)

another possible method to refining your old work could be to go in and do it from scratch, as opposed to tweaking something that you know isnt as good as what you could do today. That way, you wont be restrained to the colors, forms, seams, etc. Then when you compare the two - is where you really see the change.

as for this dude, it seems like the same exact texture, just cleaned up rather than revised. it still looks loads better in spots though, dont get me wrong

your stuff has definately come a helluva long way, maybe make some new shit?

stoofoo

I understand where you are coming from but rehashing the old texture was intentional. I am working the old texture the way I would have continued to work it if i was doing it now. i'm just trying to loosen up the level of sharpness everywhere and light it well in the skin tones.

I dont disagree with the making new shit comment, and I actually am doing so, but this particular effort is pointed, at least.

Much love to you moosers ^_^

SouL

"Buffing my minotaur"

Images of self-felatio insantly come to mind. Wonderful.

swampbug

The ole.. "medusa and the minotaur having a staring contest"