alligator box

technodookie

This is a model i've been working on for a friend's game...It about 2500 tri's. This is one of my first peices I've done from concept to full texture, so please critique the hell out of it! I want to really nail down the basics before I start rigging.

notman

Like I mentioned in the other thread, I think the skin texture could use some work to look more like scales. Looks like a plant texture right now.

Otherwise it looks good imo.

Xaltar

Looking cool but can you post the wires?

technodookie

thanks for the feedback notman. I'll try and make it less plant-cell-esque and more reptiley. Btw, if you noticed, there is some stretching around the eyes and nostrils...i had a pretty rough time mapping around those places...any tips/tricks?

also, here are the wires:

Xaltar

Did you unwrap the model for texturing?

Wires look good to me

Tulkamir

Seens ti ne that your polycount is fairly high for the amount of detail in it. Also, the texture is looking rather bland right now as was said.

Interesting concept though.

technodookie

xaltar -> yeah, in maya I basically used a planar map for the head and then seperate cylindrical maps for the eyes and nostril area...however, that left a seem around the base of both areas, so I welded those uvs back to the planar mapped uvs....It seems like a really terrible way of doing it...

Tulkamir -> Maybe its a case of the hands/feet having too many polys? Maybe the texture just sucks and it makes it seem low detail?

thanks for the advice so far

Rhinokey

the poly waste is mostly on the balls at the corner of the box, the rings where the arms meet the box, and fingers and toes,, they can all be reduced a lot,, i like the design, and the model is decent,, texture is where you should work on moslty,, oh i wish the box was taller line in the concept,, gives him weird off ballance look

Mark Dygert

Its pretty obvious you are going for a cartoony alligator but I think you could turn up the realism factor and still keep the cartoon feel. I guess it all depends on the environment around the box as to if you're right on target or off the mark a bit?

I would tend to lean toward being off the mark a bit in a few areas.

- The shape of the head, in the wires it looks more like a hippo not a gator. But in the concept, it looks like a gator. I suggest stretching your box so the snout is longer and your box is less square and more rectangle.
- Gators aren't known for thier wispy long tails, they have thick tails that taper from the body. What you have now is more like a devil's tail.
- Gators really don't have long wispy arms/legs, they are short and stubby and almost useless. I would make them shorter.
- Count up the number of limbs you have, 6 total, someones been playing too much wow where the gators have 6 limbs. In the real world they have 4 and they all act as feet. I guess some wierd taxadery work could be going on but its still kind of wierd to see 6 limbs.
- You have upper teeth on the lid why not add some teeth to the lower part?

technodookie

Thanks for the advice all! I'm implementing some of the recommended changes now. including:

* lowering polys on the feet, hands, and corner stubby things
* redoing the UV map
* redoing the texture
* overall making it look more like the concept (making the snout longer and the box taller)

For some reason while modeling I was in the chibi mind set and it came out all squashed. I will probably keep the arms long and the 4 feet at the bottom pretty much because I think its integral to the character design. It's not so much an alligator as it is a fantasy creature.

XepptizZ

Yeah, the texture could use a touch. The design is intriging. It's the ultimate treasure chest