minotaur
here's a little minotaur creature. he turned out a little bit meaner than expected, but it was good fun and practise. i didn't start with a concept, but more of a zsphere concept sculpt drawing inspiration from paul bonner's work
hope you like him
if you watch this video you can see him in the viewport in realtime
http://vimeo.com/14638665
*updated with newer images
hope you like him
if you watch this video you can see him in the viewport in realtime
http://vimeo.com/14638665
*updated with newer images
Replies
Edit: Are you using Xoliul's shader for the screenshots? I see no pixels at all and it looks anti-aliased, how did you manage to get that from the viewport? Also perhaps you could share your lighting settings with us?
I'd add some more skin detail into the spec map
Take a look (quicky) I also agree with Rollin about pushing the spec detail a little more.
My only gripe - and it's very common so I wonder what others will say - is the outside-in sculpting technique, which leaves little to no room for joints rotation (wrist, knees, etc.). It feels as if the bones lack prominence and space. I see this a lot and I wonder if its just me or has it become so widespread that nobody notices this.
every aspect of this work is just perfect, love how you separate color and speculars.
becoming your fan, Mike)
Goraaz - yeah I bailed on the bird side kick, comicon has come around and i felt a sudden urge to finish this guy asap and think about entering that
rollin - yeah now that you mention it, he could definitely have had some more interesting spec details on the skin, but there is only so much you can squeeze onto a 1024
jason - that looks a little too saturated for me, but i agree he is maybe a touch on the desaturated side, particularly in that light
shotgun - can you explain the outside-in thing your talking about a bit more? im not sure what you mean by it
i probably could have structured his anatomy in a more functional way. he did just kind of emerge out of some very loose sculpting, and i thought i'd see him through to a full version and get some texturing and technical experience out of it
love how you kept the triangle count low and it looks like it could be a highpoly model
and same question as coolkidroc here.
Do you just take an AObake and start painting ontop of that or is there 3d or projection painting involved?
I'm really looking forward to your Comicon entry!
The hoofs and horns could also use a punch of brightness, all in all you just need a little more definition to separate the different parts.
Pretty slick!
I also second some spec map love. get some wetness around the nose and mouth area.
as for the skin here is a great map I like to use:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2583729/bumps.jpg
You can do a lot with it if you mess around with it.
cheers for that map josh, gonna give that a go
to answer some questions:
it's using xoliul shader, i used grabviewport to take larger images then shrink them down. i used the half-lambert effect in the shader, to help give softer shadows and let the diffuse come through more, and a little bit of shaded hue adjustment just to bring a bit of contrast back into it
lighting set up is 3 point, intensity and colour varies a bit between the images, but generally speaking it uses a 1.5~ value warm main light, 0.7 fill (blueish green) and a rim of 1-2 (whiteish-blue)
for the texturing I used the AO as a base and overlayed some of the normal map detail extracted from crazybump, and from there painted in the colour tones and extra highlights/shadows. i also did a lot of experimentation with baking lighting into the diffuse the same way you would render out your ambient occlusion
Ultimately, the final look should reflect proper structure at the critical points (e.i. the joints). They hold together and control the connection of the masses. They must have plenty of room to twist and turn, with the muscles groups along them. Without proper installment, their function becomes nothing more than a post-effect.
Can you imagine the guy pulling his wrist or turning his radius around? it'll break.
It's something I see very often and it has become the norm, "disrespectful wrist" syndrome, I dunno if it's not just me seeing it.
In any case, I agree with most of the tips given here. I'd also add that the metal belt could use more pop vs the cloth [which looks more metallic (due to the pinch, I believe) in the renders]
just one thing - his horns don't look like being grown out of his head. they look like pasted because of the upper thick edge.
also i've been re-designing my website, it's more or less done now, check it out and let me know what you think of the layout and stuff
www.mknowland.com
i'll be remaking the minotaur video once these new changes are done, and also gonna do one for the gunslinger
And more saturation does work,
As for your website, I personally recommend sizing the thumbnail images so they all neatly stack with each other, height/width-wise. Right now, it just looks to chaotic to me. I'd rather see you put more effort into that "Mike!" logo than what's just scribbled there at the moment. It makes the presentation look unprofessional, and that sir you are absolutely not! Of course, if it's just a placeholder item, please excuse my groaning.
Secondly: I would suggest bringing down the specular amount on the wood bits. Right now it's far too shiny for warn down wood. The metal bits could stand to have more contrast in their specular (ie. the darkened warn bits have less spec, the smooth less damaged more spec). And also i would break up your leather spec with high contrast cracking or noise (it seems too smooth).