WIP character- Ishakar

gillmeister74

So I have been bouncing this around for a bit, a while back I made this character, and all in all I like the design, but my first attempt to model him was less then satisfactory. Now I know a lot more about character modelling and I am trying to model Ishakar again. I really think I can get a good portfolio piece out of this, but I have to really hammer in the detail. Please shower me with crits and advice on sculpting the armor and parts of the character. Thanks guys.

note: I have deviated from some things when making the sculpt but if you guys have any advice concerning that I would love the advice.








will post progress asap, thanks guys : )

chrisradsby

Shapes are too soft, everything looks like blobs. Make sure everything is defined before moving on to detailing. Go through each piece of clothing and do a pass or two on them. Just focusing on each.

Good luck!

gillmeister74

Thanks man, I tried to sharpen some of the forms up and define wrinkles a little more. Mostly lower body stuff at this point and a little of the torso armor. Still could use a little more work though, but hopefully I could finish up the costume and get going on his head and stuff soon.

The_Blenderer

The Wrinkles are perhaps too wrinkly so it almost looks like he is wearing his intestines.

For the rest I think so far so good though the blocked out flourishes with that shader and tightly packed details really remind me of these Aztec statues.

gillmeister74

thanks Blenderer, you're right, the wrinkles are definitely over the top, I'm scrounging around for some reference to go off of. Either way I'm going to tone down the wrinkles. For the armor, I'm just using matcap pearl, and the armor itself is supposed be a like an iron armor, with leather padding. But if the current texture doesnt read leatherey I can work on that too

mikezoo

I think you could also benift greatly if you started hand modeling many of the accessories on the character. The beaded necklace, the belt, the pocket pouch.

I think some objects are better off just hand modeling, then trying to sculpt it in ZB or mud. Can save alot of time too!

DGB

Digging the concept. and the armor is beginning to shape up really well, too. I would suggest using the Dam_Standard or the Pinch brush to fix some of the issues with the cloth. Good work so far, though - keep it up!

dirigible

It looks like you're using matcap_Pearl, which tends to super-highlight all your shapes. I would reccomend switching to matcap_grey. Using the right material in zbrush is actually very important. Some show too little detail, some show too much detail.

Aside from that, some of your anatomy is a little wonky. It's hard to see his hands, but his thumbs DEFINITELY need work, and it looks like he has a case of noodle-finger. His forearm is bulging with what could be muscles, but I would double check your musculature there.

I'm afraid you might be making the cloth too thick in the sculpt? In the concept athletic proportions even with all of his layers of clothing and armor on, but in the sculpt he's super bulky - looks like he's getting ready to go to Antarctica.

garriola83

be careful on your forms; they are looking a bit lumpy right now. also remember to add some contrast in your detailing. high frequency vs low frequency. good luck!

gillmeister74

Thanks guys! The crits are really helping! I've been really busy lately but I have done a ton of work on this guy in the meantime. I hope to post some more recent progress soon!

gillmeister74

Hey guys! I've been able to work on this guy a little bit here and there but I finally have enough progress to post. As many of you have suggested, I needed to tweak some forms just so they looked less lumpy. I ended up taking some things back to max after a quick retopo so I had a fresh start and a cleaner piece to work with

essentially I took the massive ztool that made my computer chug and retopoed a base mesh and then tackled each of the little pieces. Things like the pouches I have taken into max.


I just made a first pass on textures. The normal is okay but not great, I need to go back and tweak the arm and chest as well as the face and numerous other places. The spec is really basic at this point but I am sort of realizing I don't know how to produce a really high quality spec map. As for my diffuse I did a simple paint over of my normal and threw in my ambient occlusion.



I am debating whether to stick with the color scheme of the concept or use the idiation I made. The blue and white is more reminiscent of sands of time prince of persia and pops better off the armor. At the same time the orignal color scheme reads warrior a bit more, despite being potentially muddy.

Any advice I can get concerning approaching textures or the direction of the color scheme would be awesome. Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the help!

gillmeister74

here's so more progress on the character. I covered up some seems and got normal maps for more of his gear. He's almost done, if anything all I have do is polish textures and render the normal for his right shoulder/arm guard.

DGB

Nice! The texture work looks almost exactly like the original drawing! The metal and cloth details are turning out really well. Watch the musculature on the right forearm though - looking a bit muddled. How many tris is the retop?