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The Monthly 'Newb' CHARACTER Challenge of Feb 2014

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polycounter lvl 12
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PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
Thanks everyone who participates. Now it's the 2nd month of the Monthly Community Newbie Character Challenge. I start this a tad early because it will take awhile for everyone to notice/join in.

Anyone and Everyone can participate.
We will start a new voting thread one week prior to the beginning of a new challenge where participants can decide on the next concept to work from.

The goal of these challenges is to learn as much as possible, and to help others to do the same. The rules were designed with this goal in mind, so here they are:
1. Leave at least one critique per post.

2. Challenge yourself.

3. Your final presentation should be posed and rendered in real-time.

4. Try your best to finish on time.

5. Post your work-in-progress in this thread.

6. Specify your own triangle count and texture size. Be reasonable and stick to your budget. Some suggestions:
Mobile: 2k Triangles, 512 Maps
Mid Res: 16k Triangles, 1024 Maps
High Res: 32k Triangles, 2048 Maps

7. Learn as much as you can. Share what you've learned.
This month we are going with the concept art by Konstantin Maystrenko, http://zoonoid.cghub.com/
424_max.jpg

Let us begin.

Replies

  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    Gotta go out a bit.
    This is how I see the guy though. What do you see ?
    Concept2-1.jpg
  • Evil raz
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    Evil raz polycounter lvl 10
    I like this concept.
    I am going to start working on it... Once my laptop is fixed so I can 3D again.
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    ... Took me awhile to realize that empty scabbard on his belt is for the axe... At first I thought it was for a dagger or something.
  • riceart
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    riceart polycounter lvl 10
    ok, here's my approach, ive started with a bust. Blenders dynotopo
    141o01t.png

    @pyrzern, i would not waste time on measurements, just jump into sculpting app of your choice and sculpt the whole figure
    regards
  • ruebenDodds
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    ruebenDodds polycounter lvl 11
    @riceart, I love the start of the bust for the character.

    I thinking that the head could be done in symmetry and then the scars would be asymmetrical in the end.. ^_^ Not 100% sure so any feedback is welcomed.
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    Alright ! I guess it has started now :)

    Been sculpting this for 1-2 hrs. Was feeling adventurous and so I only looked at the concept art. Started from zsphere and dynamesh. Gonna go over my reference tomorrow and fix stuff. Then maybe retopo this.

    WIP001.jpg
  • katana
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    katana polycounter lvl 14
    PyrZern wrote: »
    ... Took me awhile to realize that empty scabbard on his belt is for the axe... At first I thought it was for a dagger or something.

    I don't think the artist had the right object in mind there. He should have put a dagger in it.

    An axe is usually covered in a different way.

    Axe Scabbard
  • Vatanist
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    Vatanist polycounter lvl 11
    3 hours rough sculpt.. I'll try to finish the whole character hopefully..hpp3.jpg
    y5ul.jpg
  • Dimfist
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    Dimfist polycounter lvl 8
    I think the dagger is just missing? hehe
    I broke my finger on my drawing hand so its been slow going. I made the weapon blanks and the scabbard.232323232%7Ffp83232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv5%3A89%3Dot%3E982%3C%3D563%3D345%3DXROQDF%3E263%3B684%3C9%3C254ot1lsi
    Nice to see people already chipping away at this.
  • tierzilla
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    tierzilla polycounter lvl 9
    Hey guys , i finally get the courage to join this monthly challenge , im struggling with the hair/beard!
  • JohnnyRaptor
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    JohnnyRaptor polycounter lvl 15
    Woot! its kicked off! cant wait to get mine started!

    good solid start on the face vatanist, and thats a mean beard! :)
  • riceart
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    riceart polycounter lvl 10
    @ruebendodds, thats right

    some more refinements and beard test
    14400h4.png
    regards
  • Shrike
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    Shrike interpolator
    PyrZern wrote: »
    Gotta go out a bit.
    This is how I see the guy though. What do you see ?
    http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c248/ASNZern/Concept2-1.jpg

    People were a lot shorter back in the times. In antique they were about 7 heads high if im not mistaken per example, 8-9 heads were titanic proportions.
    Edit: I thought you were pointing at a problem with his proportions

    Ah , wish I had time for a character
  • Dimfist
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    Dimfist polycounter lvl 8
    Riceart: Hey looking pretty cool so far! He's got some real personality already.
    Vatanist: Great start. I can definitely see the concept coming to life.
    PyrZrn: The nose needs to be wider and bulbous. Great start though!

    Alright. Spent about 3 and half hours working on the actual Bub. Got a lot of things blocked in. Still need to get all the straps and belts though. Started the face sculpt as well.
    232323232%7Ffp83232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv9596%3Dot%3E982%3C%3D563%3D345%3DXROQDF%3E263%3B73%3A63%3A254ot1lsi
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    A little too early to really critique at the moment I believe. But I'm liking the different faces I'm seeing now.

    Retop the head, and dynamesh the body out of an sphere.
    This is so ironic, before I got serious with ZBrush, I was spending months and months making and remaking better basemesh. Now..... now I don't even use basemesh <_<"


    WIP002.jpg
  • JedTheKrampus
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    JedTheKrampus polycounter lvl 8
    Always a good idea to get a head start on the character challenge.

    Bw15ccs.png

    I think I enjoy sculpting facial hair a little too much.
  • jeebs
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    jeebs polycounter lvl 11
    so much work already done and it's just february 1st :). hope I will start today
  • riceart
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    riceart polycounter lvl 10
    @jedthekrampus, this matcap that you use is terrible for sculpting, i found that matcaps made by hazardous are fantastic
    http://hazardousarts.deviantart.com/art/Xoliul-2-0-Skin-Shader-Settings-2-314169343
    ok, so i wasnt happy enough of a face (to young)so i made another version. A bit older, with some features taken from Tommy Lee Jones.
    what do you think?
    2571ve9.png
    regards
  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    Looks like a fun challenge :) Just a blockout so far, still a lot to do.

    qKdtSZE.jpg
  • Rafferty_Eggleston
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    Rafferty_Eggleston polycounter lvl 9
    Excited to get a start on this!

    PyrZern -- The jaw is looking really narrow at the moment (referring to your first post). The second base head is looking a lot better. Haha it is funny how the base mesh situation works out. But think of how much that likely helps you now with retopoing and everything. All worth it in the end!
    Vatanist -- Nice Start! Really digging the heroic proportions. I think your ears are really small right now though
    Nice blockout Dimfist. Going strong with the broken finger! haha
    JedTheKrampus -- Couldn't agree with you more! Right now, it looks like your character's face is melting. I would drop down a few subdivs / lower the resolution a lot and really get in the base proportions and forms that you want before stepping up the resolution. Really get everything out of each subdivision as you can before moving forward. Digging the beard!
    riceart -- Nice update. It looks better with the aged look. His ears look smashed down. The top of the ears could probably be pulled up to meet the brow.
    Torch -- Looking forward to more!

    I did a 1.5 hour speed sculpt to get a feel for the character.

    speed_sculpt_feb_by_rafferty_eggleston-d74mdr2.jpg

    **Edit - sorry for the small render and lack of additional angles. More to come tomorrow night.
    **Double Edit.. Going for Mid Res: 16k Triangles, 1024 Maps
  • Vatanist
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    Vatanist polycounter lvl 11
    @JohnnyRaptor: Thanks mate. I'm looking forward to your entry :) Checked out sum of ur stuff, Ur work is really good sir !
    @Dimfist: Your blockout is looking good mate, Now to get it detailed :) Good luck..
    @Torch: Very nice blockout my friend.. Im copying LOL
    @Rafferty_eggleston: Good start mate, Ur man looks a bit older than the concept though and thats it. I'll increase the size of the ears then ;) I still am planning to hide half of the ears under the hair though..
  • tierzilla
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    tierzilla polycounter lvl 9
    @riceart: i like the elder one !

    @Rafferty_Eggleston: really like the feeling!

    This is my attempt so far. the face needs loots of work but i like to go back and forth.
    xhn4b9v.jpg
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    @Torch Very nice blockout ! Are those fibermesh you use for beard ?
    @Rafferty_Eggleston Love his face already. Much personality. Very cool.
    @tierzilla Great start there. I like doing the same thing myself.


    This is so hard ROFL! This is like my first real attempt making a dude in like ever. I gotta make his face more square-ish. And more tough-looking #_# Sculpting a pretty girl is so different from making a tough dude.
    WIP003.jpg
  • kay-vonlanthen
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    kay-vonlanthen polycounter lvl 7
    thanks for the invite pyrzern. i cant because i have alot of work to to with my bachelor projects. im in after my bachelor! i already bookmarked it. so my question, is there a voting for the concept art were doing each month? or do you pick one?
  • Rafferty_Eggleston
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    Rafferty_Eggleston polycounter lvl 9
    Sculpting a pretty girl is so different from making a tough dude.

    Haha right?! The tables have turned this month! I never make pretty ladies so last month was a real struggle for me haha. You're the first to add eyebrows PyrZern! haha. It is coming along. If you make the head more square like you were saying and broaden the nose it will make it a lot more masculine. I would thicken the neck as well!

    Vatanist -- Thanks for the feedback! If you're going to cover the ears with hair anyway, you might as well save your time and effort and not spend too much time on the ears lol
  • Rafferty_Eggleston
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    Rafferty_Eggleston polycounter lvl 9
    kay-vonlanthen -- we start a separate thread for voting on concepts in the last week of each month. The most linked/quoted pic wins the vote. So, in the last week of Feb. we'll start another post for voting for the March challenge.
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    We, as the whole forum, vote what to work on for each month. Starting the 23rd Feb, we will start voting for March. It will be in a new thread, in this same section of the forum.
  • Terminator2
    wow, guys. nice progress! here is mine, working on the blockout.

    R6y8nCh.jpg?1
  • Dimfist
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    Dimfist polycounter lvl 8
    Terminator2: Good progress! Looking pretty sweet already.
    PyrZern: You can block in arms and legs pretty easy with the insert cylinder mesh or you can mask out a space on the shoulders and use the Move tool to pull it out. Looks like you are tugging bits here and there and that can be tougher to get your proportions down quickly.

    Put in some time to work on the face. I am at the point where I will take off symmetry and start fine tuning, adding detail.
    232323232%7Ffp83232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35%3A3%3Dot%3E982%3C%3D563%3D345%3DXROQDF%3E263%3B8529%3A%3B254ot1lsi
  • Dimfist
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    Dimfist polycounter lvl 8
    @Torch Rockin it.
    @Rafferty_Eggleston Lot of character! Fun to look at.
    @tierzilla I think you are doing it right. Hard to stay focused too long without going back over the big picture I think.

    Great progress so far guys!
  • stevston89
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    stevston89 interpolator
    Looking good so far everyone. Impressed with the amount of work you all have gotten done. Just been working on the head today. Pretty happy with it so far.

    smPzyOa.jpg
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    Thanks for the tips, Dimfist. You guys are rocking the dude. Awesome!

    Spent more hours on his face. And blocked out more of his form.
    WIP004.jpg
  • Evil raz
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    Evil raz polycounter lvl 10
    Here's my rough sculpt.

    3SJucC4.jpg



    @PyrZern

    Here's my advice that I learned from 2D artists.
    These are the exact words always used.
    "LOOMIS!"

    Use Loomis as a basic shape then go ahead from there.

    Here is a quick redline I did that took 5 mins. These are the main things I found odd.

    NWjRX7r.jpg

    The purple lines are just a normal guide lines. The mouth usually is close to the Iris. The same with the nose. The nose is usually close around the ends of the eye area or sometimes slightly bigger.
    Some of your skull features seem off and I don't know why your neck is too thin. Your neck doesn't suddenly go smaller the farther it goes away the head.
    Hope this helps.
  • thepapercut
    Everyone looks off to a great start, keep it up guys! I also wanted to say thanks to everyone who critiqued my work in January's challenge, I can't do this months, but i'll be back for march's challenge.
  • Acegikmo
    Vatanist wrote: »
    @JohnnyRaptor: Thanks mate. I'm looking forward to your entry :) Checked out sum of ur stuff, Ur work is really good sir !
    @Dimfist: Your blockout is looking good mate, Now to get it detailed :) Good luck..
    @Torch: Very nice blockout my friend.. Im copying LOL
    @Rafferty_eggleston: Good start mate, Ur man looks a bit older than the concept though and thats it. I'll increase the size of the ears then ;) I still am planning to hide half of the ears under the hair though..

    Sorry if this seems unrelated, but I think it's worth mentioning - your post is post # 2,000,000 on Polycount :)

    ( http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2000000 )
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    @Evil raz Thanks a lot man ! I'm trying to work on the guy's face without using his beard to hide mistake.

    Ahaaaa, congratz 2,000,000th post everyone :P
  • Rafferty_Eggleston
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    Rafferty_Eggleston polycounter lvl 9
    Terminator2 -- nice blockout so far. Don't have much to critique yet!
    Dimfist -- Thanks! :D I think your eyes might be a little big and you may want to push them a little further into the skull as well.
    Evil Raz -- nice paintover. Those are good points for everyone to remember. Your character is looking pretty badass so far, but he looks surprised. I think this is the pose on the hands and the no eyebrows making him look more wide-eyed haha. Excited to see more progress soon!

    Here is what I've got done today. Just blocking in the anatomy. I'm planning to do the body and then add the armor and everything on top because.. hey! I need the practice! :D I did a little paintover on my screengrab so I don't forget to change a few things

    feb_progress_01_by_rafferty_eggleston-d74rylk.jpg
  • kay-vonlanthen
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    kay-vonlanthen polycounter lvl 7
    ohh oke thanks guys :) could you post the links in this thread. cause new people dont know whats going on, like where all those threads are. so there are 3 threads until now, right? the one from january,february and one for voting thatll be updated each time? @rafferty nice anatomy so far ; ) looking forward to all of your interpretations.
  • Vatanist
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    Vatanist polycounter lvl 11
    Lots of good work here.. Well done everybody.. Little bit more boredom doodle from me.. Started detailing the face and then changed me mind :) I'll go over everthing when I am more concentrated..
    Good luck everyone...5hs8.jpg
  • Kapoff
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    Kapoff polycounter lvl 11
    face_test_01_render.jpg
    There you go! just a little bit less than 2 hours with the rendering and the composting. Pretty happy with the result, even though the eyes and the nose might be just a tad too big. It's gonna be a fun one to work on this medieval dude!
  • riceart
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    riceart polycounter lvl 10
    @Rafferty Eggleston, head to small, torso to short a lot of anatomy stuff is off atm. check
    http://www.deviantart.com/art/Free-3D-Model-Reference-Pack-M-Pose-3-138905672
    @vatanist, not much to say, really nice head sculpt
    @kapoff, a bit to early for textures, head still doesnt look good, eyes, eyebraws, keystone, checkboone nose still needs some work. Proportions are ok.

    update on my invalid medieval soldier
    zswk1s.png
  • ArtisticTiger
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    ArtisticTiger polycounter lvl 5
    Awesome work so far everyone. well i won't be participating in this challenge or possibly the next one either lol. still relatively new to modeling etc, and I'm not too comfortable yet. good luck to all and make sure to have fun.
  • kay-vonlanthen
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    kay-vonlanthen polycounter lvl 7
    Awesome work so far everyone. well i won't be participating in this challenge or possibly the next one either lol. still relatively new to modeling etc, and I'm not too comfortable yet. good luck to all and make sure to have fun.
    also only gonna spectate :)
  • JohnnyRaptor
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    JohnnyRaptor polycounter lvl 15
    Hi guys, some good progress from everyone posting so far,

    kapoff, good progress on the head dude, but id say you need some more warm colours in there if your going to use that as your texture base, looks a bit green on my screen.

    heres what iv got so far,

    MedievalDude_01.jpg
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    ohh oke thanks guys :) could you post the links in this thread. cause new people dont know whats going on, like where all those threads are. so there are 3 threads until now, right? the one from january,february and one for voting thatll be updated each time? @rafferty nice anatomy so far ; ) looking forward to all of your interpretations.

    These are the related threads that exist.
    Discussion in December that kicked off everything. It also vote for Jan.
    Challenge of Jan (kind of finished and over now)
    Concept Voting of Feb (finished and over now.)
    Challenge of Feb. (this one)
    On the Feb 23rd, I will make Concept Voting of March.
    On the Feb 27-28th, I will make Challenge of March.

    Note that there are other threads of other challenge going on. They do environments, not characters.
  • Evil raz
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    Evil raz polycounter lvl 10
    More WIP
    gDxQegs.jpg

    @Rafferty_Eggleston
    Here is a quick liquify tool I used over your model.
    azkSlNx.jpg

    Proportion wise, I think it is fine but your model lacks rhythm.

    Also, the front view isn't done well by me at all. When using a large brush, it effects the other parts which ruined it and small is just going to look wobbly.Just the general overview I think the shoulder and hip region needs some fixing.
  • stevston89
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    stevston89 interpolator
    Small update. Didn't get to work that much today. Blocked in some body proportions and beard stuff. Beard is just place holder I plan on going in and doing hair out of alpha cards when I get done with the sculpt. Anyways here is a screen.

    maTn9AT.jpg
  • Lazlow
    Missed last months character because I caught it late. Looking forward to getting stuck in with this months, here is a first pass. Some good work going on in here at the moment:

    @ArtisticTiger : Jump in on this one, I know you might not be confident enough yet but it will help you if you're a part of this :)


    bdKQoer.jpg
  • PyrZern
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    PyrZern polycounter lvl 12
    I feel so useless in this challenge #_# Can't give any critique at all. Best I can give is praise >_<" This is so not fair.

    1888900_10152171310130115_1175601620_o.jpg
  • tierzilla
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    tierzilla polycounter lvl 9
    PyrZern: Make the torso bigger that would help to build more manly look , right now i see it like a child body.
    stevston89: Really nice start!
    riceart: Do you use Blender or is zbrush? what material is that? realy like the feeling of the character.
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