Thanks guys. I followed this tutorial from Sephiloss for the face. I think the rest of the body doesn't have as much depth as the face. As in the range of colours and shadows. I guess with more experience i'll know how to make it stand out more.
Hehe, you just told yourself how to improve the body texture there!
You're right that the body doesn't have as wide a value range as the face, and this is what's making it look flat.
Basically, look at how you've done the face texture and see how that applies to the rest - don't be afraid of picking very dark colours for shading (only use them in appropriate places, though!) ... don't use pure black either, though, as that will look odd.
The mesh for this guy looks pretty good, but your arm construction is very linear - all the edge loops are in perfect straight loops, and most corners are about 90 degrees... look for Rick Stirling's post here, and apply what he says to the next organic model you make - you should find the mesh looks a lot more flowing and natural - square polys and perfectly straight edges tends to look mechanical, stiff and unnatural.
So yeah, I think you have the skill to go over your texture once again with some darker and lighter brushes, just really pick out the highlights and punch the shadows, from what you said there, you already know what the problem is, it's just a matter of addressing it
Pretty good looking character overall.
Initial thing that bug me is the sphere helmet. Seems like this shape/design could be taken further. Another big issue I notice are wasted edges. For example, from the front, the boots visually have 4 segments, but in fact have somewhere between 12 and 14. You could delete a lot of those edges and dramatically lower your polycount OR you could put all those edges to work for a very shapely, rounded out character. Also, the boot tops from the front are fat, but skinny from the side, kind of looks weird. Personally, I'd like to see thicker calves from the side. Hands/palms appear skinny from the front. Pose might be a little slouched.
The UVs are good though you could have mirrored the back of the head to one side and saved a lot of room. The texturing needs a lot of work still, very low contrast and low in "texture" mostly in the light green/brown vest and pants. Seems the face and pocket got the most work, just put that level of work everywhere else and you're set. Good work on the face, more color and an additional light source and you've really got something here.
If your modeling from others concepts you probobly should reference the concept as not to mislead people into thinking that you are the creator of this character.
However, if you tweeked the verts around a bit you could make this character look much more dynamic. point his toes/knees out a bit. Loosen up his posture. thicken the biscept areas. Alot of little tweeky things you can do without messing up your unwrap to make this character look a good bit better.
The red lines are loops of edges that I beleive either add no definition of very little. Rather than making them add shape, what I normally do (unless they are here to aid deformation) is to REMOVE them, then cut them back in to add shape to areas that need it.
The yellow lines are where I think that you could add shape to define the outline of the model. The boots are much too thin at the moment - there shoudl be legs in there (also I would add a tilt to the lower legs in the side view to keep his balance). The upper ares are also not very bulky. He is a solder? He has soldier gear on, a solder face texture, but not the physique of a soldier.
Oh, the blue line is just where you can offset something to make it less symmetrical. YOu can also get away from the mirrored look by just editing one side, then the other to give it character.
the chest doesn't seem wide enough.
I would exaggurate it so it doesn't look like the body is a reverse v shape.
The armpit is in line with the middle of the thigh at the moment, not with the outside of it
If you follow the concept then you should leave the torso like it is but bring in the pants and waist(they are mega wide at the moment), thats whats making the upper torso and boots look so thin.
Also the face texture is very nice but i think the transition between the sides of the head and front of the face is too sharp, makes the face look very flat on the model. If you see on the tut you are following the artist has a nice gradual transition in shading which makes the face look nice and round. Also at the moment his eyes are looking very fake, i think this is because you have modeled and textured them seperately (this isnt impossible to pull off but requires a lot of tweaking and different shadow spec maps) to continue with the nice painterly style you have chosen i would just have textured the eyes on the face and not bothered with the eye balls unless you plan to animate them in a close up scene or something.
And lastly I suggest you do a nice render to texture bake of the model (set up a nice 3 point light setup or something)and use that as a basis for painting in your highlights and shadow for the rest of the body.
These crits are more on how to make it consistent within the style you have chosen, if you were going to be using normal and spec maps with some dynamic lighting it would be a different case...anyway its looking cool so keep it up.
A few more things - the shape of the eye and the eye texture. The pupil should be slightly smaller, he looks a tad surprised at the moment. Also the eye socket needs adjusting - the shape is slightly out and almost looks like the eyes are the wrong way rund - the outside of the socket should be the inside and vice versa.
The texture of the boots - the grips on the bottom extend too far to wards the heel. Look at yout shoe - the it in the arch that is lifted off the ground doesn't have grips, but often has a logo.
It's all about observation. GET REFERENCE! It looks like you don't know what boots look like for example. Of course you do know, because we all know, but when you've modelled them you've modelled what you think they look like, not what they actually do look like. So bring up a google window and look at some boots, then go back in a tweak them.
Replies
- BoBo
You're right that the body doesn't have as wide a value range as the face, and this is what's making it look flat.
Basically, look at how you've done the face texture and see how that applies to the rest - don't be afraid of picking very dark colours for shading (only use them in appropriate places, though!) ... don't use pure black either, though, as that will look odd.
The mesh for this guy looks pretty good, but your arm construction is very linear - all the edge loops are in perfect straight loops, and most corners are about 90 degrees... look for Rick Stirling's post here, and apply what he says to the next organic model you make - you should find the mesh looks a lot more flowing and natural - square polys and perfectly straight edges tends to look mechanical, stiff and unnatural.
So yeah, I think you have the skill to go over your texture once again with some darker and lighter brushes, just really pick out the highlights and punch the shadows, from what you said there, you already know what the problem is, it's just a matter of addressing it
Good work so far, keep it up!
Initial thing that bug me is the sphere helmet. Seems like this shape/design could be taken further. Another big issue I notice are wasted edges. For example, from the front, the boots visually have 4 segments, but in fact have somewhere between 12 and 14. You could delete a lot of those edges and dramatically lower your polycount OR you could put all those edges to work for a very shapely, rounded out character. Also, the boot tops from the front are fat, but skinny from the side, kind of looks weird. Personally, I'd like to see thicker calves from the side. Hands/palms appear skinny from the front. Pose might be a little slouched.
The UVs are good though you could have mirrored the back of the head to one side and saved a lot of room. The texturing needs a lot of work still, very low contrast and low in "texture" mostly in the light green/brown vest and pants. Seems the face and pocket got the most work, just put that level of work everywhere else and you're set. Good work on the face, more color and an additional light source and you've really got something here.
freedom fighters character concept
However, if you tweeked the verts around a bit you could make this character look much more dynamic. point his toes/knees out a bit. Loosen up his posture. thicken the biscept areas. Alot of little tweeky things you can do without messing up your unwrap to make this character look a good bit better.
not a bad start though.
The red lines are loops of edges that I beleive either add no definition of very little. Rather than making them add shape, what I normally do (unless they are here to aid deformation) is to REMOVE them, then cut them back in to add shape to areas that need it.
The yellow lines are where I think that you could add shape to define the outline of the model. The boots are much too thin at the moment - there shoudl be legs in there (also I would add a tilt to the lower legs in the side view to keep his balance). The upper ares are also not very bulky. He is a solder? He has soldier gear on, a solder face texture, but not the physique of a soldier.
Oh, the blue line is just where you can offset something to make it less symmetrical. YOu can also get away from the mirrored look by just editing one side, then the other to give it character.
I would exaggurate it so it doesn't look like the body is a reverse v shape.
The armpit is in line with the middle of the thigh at the moment, not with the outside of it
Also the face texture is very nice but i think the transition between the sides of the head and front of the face is too sharp, makes the face look very flat on the model. If you see on the tut you are following the artist has a nice gradual transition in shading which makes the face look nice and round. Also at the moment his eyes are looking very fake, i think this is because you have modeled and textured them seperately (this isnt impossible to pull off but requires a lot of tweaking and different shadow spec maps) to continue with the nice painterly style you have chosen i would just have textured the eyes on the face and not bothered with the eye balls unless you plan to animate them in a close up scene or something.
And lastly I suggest you do a nice render to texture bake of the model (set up a nice 3 point light setup or something)and use that as a basis for painting in your highlights and shadow for the rest of the body.
These crits are more on how to make it consistent within the style you have chosen, if you were going to be using normal and spec maps with some dynamic lighting it would be a different case...anyway its looking cool so keep it up.
The texture of the boots - the grips on the bottom extend too far to wards the heel. Look at yout shoe - the it in the arch that is lifted off the ground doesn't have grips, but often has a logo.
It's all about observation. GET REFERENCE! It looks like you don't know what boots look like for example. Of course you do know, because we all know, but when you've modelled them you've modelled what you think they look like, not what they actually do look like. So bring up a google window and look at some boots, then go back in a tweak them.