Sketchbook: Terrorcouple

Terrorcouple

Hello, all,

My name is Chelsea Edwards, and I am a student studying 3D modeling. I am creating this sketchbook to gain feedback on my work so that I may learn and improve. Please feel free to critique anything you note, as I welcome and encourage it.

I'm going to start this off with a character that I am working on currently -- an ethergaunt. The concept I am modeling from was created by Eva Widermann, who gave me permission to work on this piece. Here is the concept:



I started by gathering references of beetles and other ethergaunt designs. I then created a base mesh for the character.



Here is my progress on the ZBrush work. I would appreciate any critiques you all have to offer, as this is my 2nd full character. I would like to eventually use this as a portfolio piece.

Minimoose

nice to see ya on polycount, welcome it's looking great so far. do you have your unwrap done yet?

Terrorcouple

Thanks for the welcome!

I'm still working on building the low poly Ethergaunt, but I will have him finished come this weekend. I'll keep posting my progress on him, as I will definitely be needing the feedback.

curry23

Hey!
You already know that I think your model is bad ass; so now I'll try to give you a worthwhile crit (but I'm afraid that I'm still really new to modelling and may not have the best crits)

My crit is for your Zbrushing.
I've heard you say in class before that you're a "perfectionist", and I think that might actually be hindering your zbrushing.

When it comes down to it Zbrush is like painting; and part of being good at drawing/painting is just being brave and just going at the canvas. I think that you could be a little braver with your zbrushing (you can always ctrl+z right?) I think your character will look a lot better if you went a little deeper with the wrinkles in the cloth, and a few other places. Save a safety copy of your model, then have one just for messing around. I think you should just play around and experiment a little bit and see what it gets you, don't worry so much about messing up the model.

Also, the chest and ribs are looking a little boxy to me. I'll draw on your renders in a little bit and show you what I mean.

Hope this was helpful. C:
-Christina

(edit) okay, here's the draws. Hope they help C:

Terrorcouple

Christina, thank you very much for your critiques on the ethergaunt! I definitely see what you mean about his anatomy, as well as my tendency to be meticulous in a way that often holds me back. Also, your draw over was extremely helpful, and I've tried to work those notes into my high poly. Please let me know what you think.

Here is an updated shot of the high poly. Ms. Widermann suggested that I thin up his waist, as it previously resembled a female ethergaunt's. I worked on trying to get it closer to the concept by using the Move brush on the parts around the waist area in ZBrush. I've pulled out the details in the armor and head pieces much more than before, using Alt combined with the Smooth brush. I discovered that little technique on accident last night, and I found it to be very useful for pulling out those small details and roughening up the stitches on his clothing. I also added more detail to the torso between the vertebrae and the frontal rib cage, as well as tightening up the bone detail on his back some more. Lastly, I tried to emphasize the folds in the skirt a bit more, though clothing still eludes me..

Critiques are welcomed!

Ged

nice work so far, if you look carefully at the concept there seems to be a large strap of leather or something wrapped tightly across his chest in order to secure the armour?

Sage

Looks nice. I would make the back plate on his back a little sharper, mostly because I prefer angular things. Keep at it.

With zbrush just go in an mark things in, you can use a layer if you are concerned about messing things up. It a lot easier to make things work when you have something there already, you just go back in and fix it.

curry23

Yeah! Like what you did with his back! When I look at it I feel like I imagine his bones actually moving under a thin layer of skin, and that's really cool! I would still say the front of his chest needs some work though. (the underlaying muscles).

Terrorcouple

Ged: Thank you, and I appreciate the note on his leather strap! I have been looking at this concept so long and intently that I never noticed it should have one. I will try to work that into the high poly.

Sage: Thanks for your comment. I will play with a more angular shape for the shell on his back and see how it looks. I did start playing with layers a little more, and I'm definitely liking it. I am finding it much easier to control the detail that way.

Curry: Thanks again, and I appreciate you showing me what you meant earlier! I hope it is looking better now, and I will post my final high poly layout sheets tomorrow.

Gomie

Terrorcouple, awesome character to start out your sketchbook. I like the changes you made with the 'marshmallow stick', lol. Your new interpretations definitely serve the concept well. It seems to me, that in the concept, the 'twin spiked shoulder armor' pieces are made from the same material as the rest of the armor plates. In your ZBrush information those pieces looked kind of untouched. From the rest of the work, you seem to be having blast in ZB. It's simply an amazing piece of 3d love.

Also, I finally got my first piece in the book!!

Terrorcouple

School's out for the summer, so I'm hoping I can continue to work on some projects during the break and finish tweaking them.

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions on the Ethergaunt! Unfortunately, I was unable to work in all of the critiques, as I ran out of time on the project. I hope to go back and rework the HP with everyone's feedback, but for now, this is what I have.

Here is the high poly Ethergaunt I used for the low poly bake. I had to lower the iterations on a few of the objects, namely the torso and skirt. This is rendered in Max with 2 omni lights.



Here is the low poly Ethergaunt -- 5,252 polys.



Unwrap will be revised and added soon.

Terrorcouple

Here is another project I am working on, the Han Solo blaster. It was the final project for one of my classes, but I would like to continue tweaking it. Here is a link to the reference images I used for the gun (it is the one on the bottom of each set). I am finished with the high poly, though I still need to tweak the low poly and reduce it a little more. Here's the high poly blaster layout as well as a few close-ups:





Here is the low poly blaster -- 1,994 polys (Unreal count)



Here are the maps for the blaster, as well as some quick shots in Unreal. 512x512 -- UW, NM, DF (WIP -- critiques encouraged), OP
I would really appreciate any critiques on the maps, as I need all the help I can get.