(WIP) - - Cartoon Knight
polycounter lvl 12
Latest Update:
Hey everyone.
Here's something I've been working on a little each night. I suck at character modeling, so I'm doing this little guy to try and get better at it. I also missed out on a job not long ago because I didn't have much character experience., which is another reason I'm making this.
Here's the concept. It's not mine. I got permission from the creator. Here's his deviantart site: http://sephiroth-art.deviantart.com/
And here's where I'm at with the low poly. Any crits on how its looking so far would be appreciated. At the moment, his arms aren't part of his actual body; instead they're just attahed to the side of his armor. In the concept it looked like that was how it was. I though it might make it easier to save polies this way too.
Hey everyone.
Here's something I've been working on a little each night. I suck at character modeling, so I'm doing this little guy to try and get better at it. I also missed out on a job not long ago because I didn't have much character experience., which is another reason I'm making this.
Here's the concept. It's not mine. I got permission from the creator. Here's his deviantart site: http://sephiroth-art.deviantart.com/
And here's where I'm at with the low poly. Any crits on how its looking so far would be appreciated. At the moment, his arms aren't part of his actual body; instead they're just attahed to the side of his armor. In the concept it looked like that was how it was. I though it might make it easier to save polies this way too.
Replies
The proportions look spot on atm, although the blade on the sword could probably be a bit wider.
Looking forward to see the progress on this ^^
when you make the model, try to implant the curves and the "edgyness" because in the end it looks cool and fun.
mnphear - Ah yeah, Thanks for pointing that out. I planned to make it bigger like that anyway. I didn't realize that it was actually like that in the concept.
Not sure what you mean by implanting the curves and edgyness.
here u go a new study that should explain more stuff, i added some things that i think would look good, they depend on the style u want, but for my oppinion everything looks great in the concept, but on the model u got to tweak some stuff, u must watch that nothing seems to flat, thats why i do the curves. Some edge loops here and there wont mess up u're polycount xD.
I just haven't done the hands. Been putting them off because I have no idea how to approach them. Should I model them and attach them to the actual arm? Or model them as separate pieces that are just stuch onto the end of the arm bands?
I'm thinking to actually make them I might just start in Zbrush and see what I can come up with.
Is there any major problems with doing it that way?
I'm happy to see this thread back up though.
GabrielP - Thanks. I'll add the shoulder pads after I've got the arm a little more complete. I always rely on more observant people to remind me about the things I forget, heh.
also the top of your boots are really big. Even your toes seem too big too me, the concept is ver small feet. Your boot tops seem to override any possibility of knees.
And I think your gaunlets are too big. (tall)
Tough character, he's got so many details and they all work together really well in the sketch, but change them a tiny bit and it throws them all off.
Pretty nice job so far though.
As for the knees, I'm not sure how I'm going to get them in. I've used the concept as an image plane, and have it pretty close. I'll see what I can do about it when I work more on that part.
Was hoping someone could look at my hand topology and tell me if its okay? This is the 2nd character I've ever done and I'm at a loss with hands.
At least I'm hoping that's the right way to go about it.
I still need to sculpt the shoulder spike bits, re-do the gauntlets completely, and there are some parts I plan to use floating geo for--the various buttons and what not.
Then I'll start texturing. He'll probably be done around christmas at the rate I'm going.
Otherwise I can't wait to see more.
Shanthosa - I didn't even notice that with the spikes. I might change them to fit the concept. They should look better when bigger.
Also realized I haven't sculpted the top or back parts of the helmet. Gonna do them soon and hopefully it'll be texture time.
All of the texturing is still rough. I'd say I'm done with the belt buckle and the pants. I am going to go through and increase the highlights for everything like in the buckle soon.
Not sure if my metal looks okay. Was kind of confused how to approach it. A lot of the metal in the concept just look too reflective for my liking, so I'm trying to tone that down a bit.
Second pic is the metal on the shoulder. Does it look alright?
I'm pretty awful and clueless when it comes to texturing, so any crits would be massively appreciated.
In my opinion you should stay close to the original concept and maybe just dirting down the metal just a little. When it comes to the metal you should in the diffuse give it more or less a pretty dark texture and focus more on the specular.
Looking at the texture, I get the feeling that you're focusing way to much time with that. Even thou it look good, your specular and lights should be the one controlling the highlights of your metal, not your brushstrokes (AKA diffuse).
A tutorial that I found very helpful for starting me with metal was this one: http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photoshop/how-to-hand-paint-convincing-metal-textures/
You can find alot of helpful tutorials on metal, especially the great ones with racer445, on www.nextgenhardsurface.com
Although, I've never seen that site you linked me to. Seems like a treasure trove of awesome information. Thanks for that. I'm reading through one of Racer445's on metal textures. I'll do some tests and see if I want to take this character in that direction.
Taking what I learned from the links Popolo provided, I decided to work in a spec map. It's really helping me do the metal.
Crits are very welcome. I want this to end up in my folio.
Things still to do.
- Remake the gauntlets.
- Add highlights here and there.
- Sculpt top part of helmet.
- Give the plume some more love.
- Texture the sword.
- Go to bed.
The darkness you got going on with the metal on the top of the shoulder armor and the top foot part of the boots is how dark It should be all around his midsection and helmet.
Think if you combined these two images It will make the metal from the concept:
1 + 2
Leather:
for details
Good luck and keep making him better, will look great once you give It loving and match It to the concept.
Don't know about the eyes I like the blackness in the concept but your choice.
$!nz - Thanks for the crits. As for the darkness around the midsection, I'm keeping it lighter, otherwise it starts to look like parts of the armor are a different material or don't match. I think I want to keep them all the same. Thanks for those links, too, I used them for normal overlays and in the spec map.
What one do you guys think would be most fitting. I'm leaning towards no.1 myself.
For the swords, I like the third as a big 2-handed weapon
Hey everyone. I finished the sword. I'm thinking I'm done with this and its time to move on to something else.
Does this look good enough for a folio piece? I'm referring to the model of course, but also the way I've laid out the info.