Sketchbook: Elyaradine

Elyaradine

So, like, I'm currently studying at a design school in South Africa. One of the reasons I was attracted to the school was that there were some entries in their student reel that blew my mind. However, I've been rather frustrated with my progress, particularly with my feeling as if I really don't have anything to show for a year and a bit of study. (Probably because, you know, I don't.)

A little while ago, I found out that the guys who made the mad entries in that student reel were actually highly active members on the GameArtistan boards. I lurk a bunch of forums, but I'm not really active on any 3D ones, and I figure that being active counts way more than getting a bunch of secondary knowledge.

So yeah. Here's hoping my being a more regular member of polycount (whose wiki, while still a work in progress, has been enormously useful - thanks!) - primarily during my holidays, starting in two weeks' time - helps me improve faster. And, therefore, I welcome all critique. Of all and any kind. I don't care much for how you give it either: I don't take things personally. Just get me to learn more, faster!

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An old arch viz piece I did in first year:


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Illustration for the school magazine:


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Current work for one of my subjects:


At the moment, he looks more like a man in a suit. And the face is very uncomfortable.

This weekend I'll be repainting him, starting from a skeletal structure, then adding some muscular forms, finishing up with the skin and scales, and all the while exaggerating some of his forms.

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Also been doing my first game models. I'll be honest and say I'm not sure whether I'm doing anything right or wrong, but here goes. It's something of a zombie survival game with a Diablo/Torchlight-esque view. The programmers gave us a poly limit of around 5-6k, while the lecturer gave us a 3k limit, but I dunno. IMO, with relatively small characters in terms of camera view, and the addition of normal maps, we should be able to get away with much less, right?

Girl - 3150 tris
Boss - 2162 tris







Anyway. Work for this weekend: finish that reptilian dude, and do research for an essay. And, if I get time, figure out why my bones are messed up in my animation project.

Elyaradine

So the idea behind the reptile-bird-weirdo was that he jumps around a lot, with minor air control via fin-like things. My first concept was probably way too heavy, so I made his head bigger and his torso smaller to make appear lighter.

vatsel

the drawings could use much more differentiation between light and shadow

Elyaradine

Thanks, dude, you're right. I'm off school for the next month or so, so I'll see about redoing some of those drawings, and possibly building models of them or something.

Meanwhile, a mini-update. This is my first attempt at body animation with deformations. Bunch of problems I think, but I'm pretty happy with it for how much (read: little) time we had, and how much was learnt in the process. Softimage.


http://vimeo.com/12248273

Elyaradine

Rigged the girl so long. I really don't like Softimage's IK Solver.



Also, I have no idea how to do real-time fire, like for a game. I mean, I guess I could have an animated texture, but I wonder if that's what they do nowadays, for things like flamethrowers and muzzle flares.

marlfox8

the one leg that is bent seems a bit bigger than the other one

Elyaradine

Heh, thanks. That does look pretty weird. I'll have a look at that.

Meanwhile, I've been messing around with sculpting and ZBrush's polypainting, particularly stuff like cavity masks. I don't really like the colours... but hopefully I'm getting there!

Elyaradine

I recently played a few games of League of Legends, and figured I'd try repainting one of the champions.

azunaki

league of legends is the bomb (btw great job on ashe, i recognized the character even before reading what you wrote)

Zack Fowler

Be sure to use colors for your darks and brights rather than mixing in neutral white and black. Right now all the bright areas of your newest piece go to greyish white. For skin in particular pay attention to how light bounces and scatters across the surface -- look up the 3D rendering concepts of sub surface scattering, and ambient occlusion, and try to find good references of how great character artists break down people/skin rendering into multiple passes that are composited together. It may help you understand the theory behind why skin as a material has the particular look to it that it does.

Your lighting is improving but still lacks strong compositional contrast through shadows. Everything is pretty consistently lit right now and that flattens the image overall. Consider studying some of the old masters like Rembrandt or Vermeer, take their pictures into Photoshop and blur them out to cancel the details so you can see how the shifts in light/dark are working, how their consideration of bounced lighting within strong shadows really helped sell their work. Also, try forcing yourself to use higher opacity brushes and more intentional color choices with less picking off the canvas.

Elyaradine

@azunaki: Thanks!

@Zack Fowler: Thanks so much for the crit! I do try to mix colours when I paint my lights and shadows. What I find though is that brighter areas seem to be less saturated, at least from some of the stuff I've read, and some photographs that I've studied. I could be wrong though; perhaps I'm just overdoing it. [edit] Okay, having taken a look at your sketchbook, I think I know what you mean. I was WAY overdoing the transition, making too many things get too bright/white too quickly, which made most of my highlights seem washed out, as well as providing too many points of distraction, flattening the lighting and weakening the composition. I think. :P

You're right, the lighting does look flat. I'll do as you suggest.

Meanwhile, I started another painting (before having read Zack's crit; I'll start a new one tomorrow with his points in mind):

Elyaradine

I thought that, rather than start a new piece, this one had potential, and I could just try and make it better. I cleaned it up quite a bit, and made a couple of changes to make it read better. I'm dreading doing the hair properly... :P

Elyaradine

Yes. I know her hair's not as big as in my painting. :P I'M SORRY, OKAY?

Elyaradine

Hmmm.

azunaki

looks good. it just feels kinda blank (nothing a normal map wouldn't fix)

Elyaradine

Thanks. I'm really not sure what I'll be doing with her, but I'd like to try and bring her diffuse map to the point where I don't have to rely on other maps to make her look good. Progress is slow (struggling to find time), but as long as it's happening!

Elyaradine

Next update!



I'm still too intimidated to post in P&P.