[WIP] Shield Maiden
polygon
Most Recent Update:
This is less that its super "finished" and more that I'm just sick of looking at it. It was a very fun project, and I'm excited to do more sometime.
This is less that its super "finished" and more that I'm just sick of looking at it. It was a very fun project, and I'm excited to do more sometime.
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CONCEPTS
Initial Mudbox sculpt:
Retopo'd and UVed the skin. Still holding off on the hair for tomorrow.
Starting textures, rendered in Marmy.
i think i'd keep shooting for achieving that feel/mood (unless youre changing it) rather than letting there be any sorta difference in your approach just because it's 3d vs. paint. Even the facial structure is a bit different
I think her face right now looks more childlike than the teen or adult I'd expect based on the concepts. The cheeks are a bit chubby and I think the forehead/brow could be pulled back a bit to make her look a bit older. Nice work so far.
Edit: Also what Funky Bunnies said. She seems to be quite different in style from the concepts right now.
Hugh: Right now the hair and scarf are just extruded cubes, to rough-in the shapes. The back of her hair is supposed to be a big chunky braid, so I'm trying to make my base-mesh actually interlock like that. Additionally, i'd planned to make her hair with full volume geo rather than a million alpha-planes to give it more body and weight. (though I'll probably still add some alpha to the ends)
Admittedly, this is all speculation at this point, b/c I've never done a character with really natural hair before.
Its tough, because the two sketches I've finished sort of don't really look like the same person, so I'm trying to find the appeal of the character, rather than just matching the shapes.
I like the kind of spark-of-life she had in the first round of sculpting and hope I'm not losing it with over-refinement.
Looking at the 3 versions above I'd say the middle is the closest to the concept. I'd just make the lower lip a tad larger to give it a fuller appearance. Also you could raise the outer brow up a bit so the eye brows angle down a little. Looking at the concept again I would also enlarge the nose as it has a more rounded look in the concept.
All in all its coming along great and I'll be keep an eye on it.
Trying to address some of the issues I had with my first pass on the face. HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to everyone for there comments and crits - it really helps.
I had been trying to fix her with pulling some verts on the low-poly and fudging the diffuse texture, but it was looking ghetto and she seemed to be turning into too much of a plastic doll, so I scrapped the texture and went back to mudbox like a grown-up.
Changes:
- Focused on the angles in her cheeks and overall silhouette, as there seemed to be some ambiguity about her age/demeaner. Tried to push the "bitch-face"
- Blocked in some lashes, as they seemed very important to her character's squinty nature.
- Lowered & smoothed the brow to enable a less neanderthal-y scowl.
- pulled chin & jaw forward, to square up her facial proportions and encourage her attitude.
- million other changes on the nose/muzzle/everything because girls are freaking subtle. lol
Wasn't planning on going into too much detail on it, as most of it will be covered by clothes. But, did want to have a base version blocked out to help when modeling the fabric.
Not a ton to talk about here, but hey. I had some boobs to show. Didn't think anyone would mind..
Additionally: hands drive me nuts. lol will get back to those another time.
Base-meshed, and starting some of the fine details in Mudbox.
More soon!
Interesting stuff. Her arms are imo REALLY thin. They feel wrong in terms of anatomy. Watch out not to make it too caricatural.
RiotForQuiet, duoxan - on anatomy: I'm trying to keep her on the smaller side for her more girly character. I totally agree that some of the base-mesh (especially the joints) are a bit too dainty, but on the whole I don't plan to make her that much more buff like a realistic warrior would be. Will try to bear in mind the ankles and elbows specifically when spending more time on her clothes to fix those areas.
Skummel, ericdigital - Thanks guys! Really appreciate the encouragement!
Mostly just trying to fake it
The boots are the biggest mystery of all - in my head they're a slouchy-sock material with the shin-guards strapped to them, but when I get to the feet, I want them to be more of a boot.. so I'm gonna step away from them for a bit. Clear my head.
Next up: Hard surface accesories.
Here's some progress on the hair:
Here she is with normals-only:
Keep up the good work
seems like you could thicken up the forearms where the cloth buildup is but think they look cool skinny to match the legs
*subs*
Here's a little update on the textures:
Very WIP right now, not sure how much of the high-frequency details I want to keep for the final.. Just experimenting for now
Chipping away!
This pose is SUUUPER temp, btw. Just got sick of seeing her in A pose. Pretty nervous about making a final pose for presentation, because my rigging skills are virtually non-existant...
Here is what I mean :
On your model we can see a kind of shadow casted by the skin on the shirt, it's not logical.
I think that you could also add some borders and seams on the clothes, here it's like they were cut off and not "manufactured".
I really like the face ^^.
Edit : I did some manip to make her look younger as Megalmn suggested.
@Texelion: Thanks for the paintovers, they're very descriptive. The lines around her eyes are hitting particularly hard, you're right. I'll try to soften them in the normal map. Also, the weird shadows on the chest were from a test I was trying out early in the process that I should have fixed. Thanks for reminding me!
Work, work..
In this update, I've added a ton of little stuff that you probably wont notice. lol
Lots of extra normals for soft materials, hand painted the small hairs under the bandana, made fur padding the gauntlets, etc.
Hopefully I'll wrap this up soon
Calling her done. Took forever, but I learned a lot about materials and next gen models. Definitely points out how rubbish I am at rigging.
Yeah, overall, too tired of this model to care to list the changes. She's got weapons and stuff. lol
I freaking love the idea of the animation. Although...when I saw the snow flakes I thought for a second there was a bug on my monitor.
Add loops to get rid of those hard edges. Then start layering. Big clumps can sometimes work for a certain style, but in this case, its not working to much. Layer the hair, lighter bands on top and work your way down. Add alphas for the random run away hair and to give it character. Itll help with the lighting too, as you wont get those wierd lighting issues that Im looking at right now if its done with some alphas.
From far away, you dont notice it as much, but if your doing close up shots, yeah, the quality of the hair is noticable.
whats_true: Thanks for the advice,very relevant photo too. This was my first time trying to make hair, and you're right, its really not great. But, ya know, no johns.
Hopefully my next one will be better, and I might come back to this later when my skills have improved.
Some extra few loops and cuts can do a lot, to me it is the sharp polygonal silhouette of the hair strands that kills it and not so much the texture or mapping. Could you not spend an extra 30 minutes to cut and smooth the shape a little bit and see how it turns out?
Saving this to my inspiration folder by the way.