Duke Nukem
polycounter lvl 17
Hey polycounters, i'm working on a duke nukem fanmodel and need your professional advice on how to make better. It's my first complete character i used normal maps on.I think i'm doing the specular map all wrong.
Here's the wip spec map (sized down from a 2048x2048 map)
here's the model
Here's the wip spec map (sized down from a 2048x2048 map)
here's the model
Replies
The model itself could use a lot more reference and tweaking. As it stands it looks pretty boxy and a lot of the loops aren't doing much to define the sillouette. Look at some good references for the face too, there is loads of Duke fan models and art to choose from.
keep at it.
As said above some of your loops don't do much to the silhouette. He's a pretty muscular guy so would his thighs be wider maybe? Post up a side view too, he does look boxy but it's hard to tell from just one angle.
The normals of the wrinkles on the shirt look pretty good. Keep at it. Do him justice.
I made his arms a bit longer and did some tweaks here and there,but it still needs work. I changed the spec of his skin to a blue tone but even when i really darked it it still shows up really shiny in maya.Maybe it has something to do with the settings.
Also,i got some bugs in my normal map wich cause the model to look like the flatshaded lowpoly mesh in some area's. Any idea's to solve this?
I also deleted some loops that weren't doing much as you guys said.
I do like how you bulked him up a bit, but it still feels like the proportions are off... I don't know if the length of the arms are a bit short, something just doesn't look / feel right.
Also, can you show us a side view, I think you should pull some of the front verts of your leg out a bit, specifically your thighs, cause they look super flat right now. Your have some edge loops in your shoes that aren't doing anything right now to the overall silhouette, please form it more into a foot shape, and lengthen the feet a bit as well.
You have some solid mesh flow though for the most part, just make sure you are using it to your advantage
Keep it up buddy!
This might sound a bit harsh, but id suggest instead of trying to force this one to work. try making a new model. something else, that you can use all these crits from the get go, instead of back tracking over and over again.
Honestly, try at a lower res first, and go from there, you may not only find it easier but that it looks better on the model.
Ue a black/white checked texture as your UV map and scale everything so that the squares appear the same size all over. It helps fix warping on your texture, and also keeps things the same scale. You may be able to squeze a little extra space from your UV map.
JasonLavoie: I tried to do something with the skin texture,not sure how good/bad it is now. I'm not really happy about the proportions either,even though i changed the arms it still feels off.I worked on his shoes also.
stimpack: Don't most people post their work here to improve it?
DKK : i made his arm longer now.
odium: You are right, a 2048 was kinda large for this model. Is a 1024x1024 better? Most normal mapped game characters i see that are around 5000-6000 tri's have a 1024 texture.
About the texture ration, i see what you mean. .I feel that the eye uv is still kinda big but i had free space to make ,is it ok then? i'm a real noob at uvmaps and textures lol.
Is that to much for a character?
Lets say you are using a 4 sliced cylinder there (Which I cant tell, I hope you are anyway) and you keep it stacked by 3... Thats 288 polies JUST for the bullets...
Using a 4 sliced cylinder and a single stack, it only takes up 144... Cutting the polycount in half for that area, and you can never tell ingame, or even when looking at it.
btw,as you can se his left arm looks inverted,however,it is not.When i inverted his left arm(so that it became wrong) the arm looked alright in maya. I'm confused ;o
I think the larger bullets would look odd when they were 4 sided.
i went to the liberty of doing a quick paint over. it's quick, and there are still some proportional problems..
oh. and i kinda fucked up the face a bit. but the lips need to be wider and there needs to be more of that duke nukem cut-ness everywhere.
I made his shoulders longer and gave his waist more shape and did some more texture work.
Good call about the hair, i'll add some alpha planes to it.
Heres what I mean (anatomy image from here)
I worked on the high poly version some more. I'm trying to make the arms more interesting
And here's the result of the normal map.I'm having some hard edges on my model,but they aren't from the normal map and i softened all edges in maya but it's still there. Anyone knows a solution for this?
All texture's are stilll WIP.
I'd really like to fix the hard edges,but i don't know how =/(using maya i softened all edges )
Body is coming along good though.
also, if you can't figure out why you're getting the hard edges...you can just open your normal map in photoshop and clone stamp them out.
could run a 3d challenge to create various duke nukem characters..
gir: i'll see that as a compliment :d
dejawolf: for just models that would be a good idea.
I got some crits on another forum about the anatomy being bad,so i started working on it. So crits about the anatomy would be good.
Forearms seem short/small in relation to the upper arm.
On a side note, it is probably not a good idea to try and model him with clothes, if you don't have a solid idea of what he looks like under the clothes.
The arm proportions are off too. Get some good reference and have a look. There is not much we can tell you that you shouldn't be able to see yourself. The mouth is also still not right. Look at some of the face sculpts posted on these boards and see where the muscles run and what effects they have on the skin. Your skull shape is off, without a solid understructure (does not have to be modeled, only understood) you can never hope to get a realistic looking face.
You are making a lot of headway here but you need to grasp the basics of anatomy for every aspect of the model. Look at each section as an individual part and focus on getting it right. If needs be, dig up reference for every part. You will end up with an incoheirent mess most likely on your first try but your understanding will improve.
Keep at it
The box modeling is veery obvious, you need to push more vertexes so that you get away from the 90° flat rectangular angles. He looks like a book shelf right now - not human which is usually based more on balls and eggs. So you need more curves in the general topology.
Xaltar:about the forearms,you mean i should rotate them?
8FtSpider: I'll see what i can do about the clothing,i think i need to look for more references
renderhjs: You mean on the low poly or the high poly model?
and
your box modeling pattern is all over the place,- you need to push some more vertexes at the base mesh,- so that you dont get the box as shape defining element- but rather more natural rounded elements.
This time i opened the model in xnormal's model viewer,and imo it gives much better results.
I'll also make the veins less "sharp"
http://boards.polycount.net/showpost.php?p=847449&postcount=41
that one looks LOOOADS better then the latest iteration. Not sure what happened.
Edit: Oh, and nice progress so far. I don't want to give you just a negitive crit, so keep at it. Its coming together nicely.
scale right back to the lowest subdivision. block out the major forums, then move to the next level, and refine those forms. and keep moving up like so, you will have no problems if your lowest poly mesh looks exactly the right shape to begin with.
It's not all negative, though! Your previous screenshot looks much better than anything else in this thread!
But you guys are so right.I changed back to the old arms (with a new normal map on them)however i think they need alot of work.
Should i add more poly's to them to make the shape better?
I think the sides of the shirt look better this way,and imo the the folds on that part aren't defined enough.
oh and gir:i do start at a low level and try to get the form right before getting into details.
Don't mind the "mickey mouse" shoes,i'll replace them.
Since when do jeans bunch up like that in the crotch?
I'll be glad when you finish this up and start something newer and make it uber, because you have been spending WAY to long on this man, you could have finished up 2 characters by now with the time you've put into this... but at least you keep trying man, I say put your new found skills to better use and make your own, new character.
told him similar thing long ago...he didnt want to hear it.
but yeah, check out some reference on the jeans. they're looking funny. I know GAP has like 7 different fits for jeans so just pick one and run with it. personally I think duke would look good in a low-rise boot cut.