My intro post! Summore stuff (Updated 06/14/06)
polycounter lvl 17
Hey Polycounters. This is my first real post, so a brief intro is in order. Ive been into lowpoly stuff for a while, and even graduated last june with a game design/interactive degree. However, for various reasons, I doubted if it was for me, and took a job doing something somewhat unrelated. Well, after not touching a 3d program in about a year i've decided to dust off my wacom and see what damage i can do. I never felt like what i did in school was really representative of what i could do, so now i'm intent to find out what is.
Ok, enough babble! I need your help!
Ive been working on this head the past few days, and i would very much appreciate your input on the edgeflow as well as the anatomy. It's been a while, and i'd like to get up to date on acceptable modeling techniques from people who know (ie you guys!)
Thanks!
Ok, enough babble! I need your help!
Ive been working on this head the past few days, and i would very much appreciate your input on the edgeflow as well as the anatomy. It's been a while, and i'd like to get up to date on acceptable modeling techniques from people who know (ie you guys!)
Thanks!
Replies
for insight on your typology....and the fact that you've been out of the game for a bit...jut keep looking through all the threads here...every single one. spend an entire saturday looking at everyone's work. then go to the 2d/3d discussion forum and spend a day there. there's a lot here that you could benefit from here.
You're absolutely right fritz, this site's been a great resource. Ive already picked up a few hot tips since ive started lurking around.
It blows my mind how quickly this industry can change. When i was finishing up my degree, normal mapping was just starting to pick up serious steam. Now you cant get away with NOT knowing it, and that means going from knowing how to do low poly, to knowing how to do low poly, high poly, a whole new app (zbrush) and everything thing that goes along with mapping.
in other words...time for me to get crackin'
I've been good and have been using a lot of reference. Im very bad about that usually
I have to give Ben (poop) credit for providing well polished models for download on his site. Theres no comparison to being able to tear a model apart to see how things fit together.
3810 tris. Gonna try to keep it under 4k.
...and for the last pic i have an example of my process for trying to get the anatomy to sing. When you draw/sculpt the human figure, once you have all the proportions pretty much figured out, theres this fuzzy concept that noone seems to talk about much. Youll see it from time to time in "how to" books, and most of the best guys will discuss it but i dont think it's stressed nearly enough. Me and a painter buddy of mine used to talk about this a lot, he used to call it "flow". What is boils down to is that the entire human body (and actually just about any plant/animal) can be deconstructed into a series of accelerating curves. This seems like a pretty arbitrary way to break down the human form, until you actually try and and adjust your figure to match the curves...and bam...all of a sudden the anatomy will seem to come to life. It ties into the dynamism of the figure as well, since gesture lines will also be one of those curves.
It's not a science by any means, but Ive found it to be very helpful personally to fine tune anatomy.
Have any of you guys found the same to be true for your stuff? I've youre drawing, youre using this to some degree, even if they dont know it, but i would be curious to know if any of you have also noticed this.
PS: Thanks for all the crits on the previous post. Youll see i made all the adjustments you guys recommended and it helped the face a lot!
The hands look a bit too wide compared to the rest, and all the fingers look a little short, especially the pinkies. Those triangles that all share the same vert on the back of the hand look scary, might want to retopologize that a bit. Seems to have an extra edge than is needed as well. I did a paintover, hope it helpful.
Looks great though, I can't see anything else right now that I would change. The shapes and proportions are great, really dynamic or something.
/Edit - Actually, I think that the outer-ankle could use a bit more shape, the inner ankle looks great, however I would expect the inner-ankle to be a bit smoother and the outer-ankle to be have a defined bone like that. Right now its the other way around.
Haha, curves! I thought I was the only one that did that!
I think his butts a little saggy, and as already stated his neck to shoulder muscles (the traps) should be bigger, but still a really good model.
Twebb: thanks for the paint-over, man. You make a good point on the hand. I was struggling for a while with the proportions on that, and i think your obervasions might be what i was missing.
frtiz/8ftspider: Good call, yeah looking back at it now i could definately afford to give the whole torso another once over i think, especially those back muscles.
Funny you mentioned his saggy butt, you'll notice that I marked it in red on the "flow-chart" because the curve wasnt flowing with the geometry. See? bad flow! I'll give him an ass-lift
And while Im geeking out on flow again, heres an awesome pic I found on wikipedia showing that even lowly broccoli can have "mad flow"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Fractal_Broccoli.jpg
I'm going to keep refining this guy with the help of your comments, but since I have his big shapes mostly blocked out the way i want em, Ive started working on the concept for the character id like him to ultimately end up as. I'm gonna keep posting my progress here so please check back if youre interested.
You guys are a great help, thanks
I'm going to keep refining this guy with the help of your comments, but since I have his big shapes mostly blocked out the way i want em
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Your "flow" and blocking out is so correct that you shouldn't have any problems refining the model. You have to have a solid foundation to build on, and you definitely have that. kudos.
Since my template for the anatomy is pretty solid, im moving on to the concept stage, starting with some rough sketch ideas and building on that.
I have a relatively good idea for the context this guy is in, and i think having this goes a long way to helping me flesh out a char that feels more real.
This guy will be a small player in a much broader storyline that im fleshing out.
Sketches to get the idea on paper
Using the ortho views of my template guy i started developing a more precise idea of his armor.
...and getting started on some blocking.
I was going to wait till these were more finished before posting, but im headed off on a roadtrip for a few weeks, so theyll have to wait till then. There are a couple of problems I am aware of that need to be addressed, but comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Sweet, catch you guys later...im getting the hell outta town!
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Hahahaha, awesome! This concept is dope, can't wait to see the final model. The rythm and proportions of the low poly body are awesome too. Good job.
the colors and characteristics in the design look like an abstraction of spawn.
nice work, ChaosEidolon.
The smoothing groups really makes this model sing, awesome way of emphasing the muscles/flow.
Also, I might be a little bit homosexual.
ahem. the flow really does make the geometry a pleasure to look at. he's got quite a large cranium, but nothing that's really outside what we've seen walking down the street*.
(*walking down the street in BigHeadsville, USA).
...lets keep the baby oil out of it though shall we
Well, im back from roving around the country for a bit and ready to get cracking on some stuff. Update will be coming soon.
Time for another update. So, basically what the deal is, is that I am recreating my portfolio from scratch so that i can have some stuff that is relevant to current tech standards. My goal is to have 3 fully modeled/textured/normaled characters done by the middle of October, which is when I am planning to relocate to Seattle.
SO! <shameless plug> if any devs in the Seattle area are looking for someone starting around that time, please feel free to get in touch! </shameless plug>
I'm trying a diff approach, working on several models at the same time, which has proven to be a great way to stay on track. When one model makes me go crazy, i can put it down and get work done on something else.
Aight...heres the goods...
A little progression on the previous concept. This guy will be heavy support. His big gunz will be coming shortly.
Progress of the low poly armor thus far. Made the boot a little more sexy.
Im doing a female template like the male before so i can have it for a ref model. Still WiP as you can see, there are issues I am aware of, but if you see something that needs a tweak, please let me know. I will love u long time.
More of the same...
It's blowing my mind how much ive learned in just the past 2 months or so since ive started getting back into this stuff. Theres been a few things ive picked up in the past few weeks that i dunno how i did without before... =P
Please leave a crit if you have em, and thanks for taking a look!
Is there a limit to the amount of times you can edit a post? It wont let me change my 1st post title to change the update date =(
I really love your use of smoothing groups. They remind me a lot of another artist from way back when (can't remember his nick now
There is something about the females legs that are bothering me a bit. I can't put my finger on it. I want to say that the calves look a bit ... err ... thick, but you might be going for a Chun Lee type. Any chance we can see some wires?
Ah, Im glad you guys are noticing the hips too, that was one of the things i was tweaking. Ghost, yeah i think youre right on the feet too.
Sure thing Mat. I meant to post some wires last night actually but it slipped my mind. Ill do some when i get home tonight.
Im gonna focus on finishing up the low poly of the dude for now, dont want to let that one sit for too long. Wanna finish that up before the end of the week.
update soon! peace
Here are the wires I promised. I meant to work on the dude tonight but i opened this one up and i ended up tweaking and retweaking for like 5 hours. I hate when you get stuck on stuff like that.
Well, i think the hips look better now at least =P The legs still need to be tweaked out a bit though, but im done with this bitch for now...she's driving me crazy! lol
I fixed several little things after look at some...reference. go go porn ftw! Thousands of game proportion girls posing in any position imaginable.
Oh yeah, she's 2810 tris right now