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Buffalo Tribe Character Process

MonkTiger
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MonkTiger vertex
Concept sketches on my ipad.
I want the character to feel wild, but worn out- possibly from politics and battles. He holds a lot of power because he is wearing buffalo head piece.



Maybe he will hold a rifle and a spear? 
I have never actually modelled clothes before, so this is going to be a journey.

Any tips/advice/critique/feedback would be appreciated! 


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  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    Working on the bust, have everything blocked out (just the body) and began blocking in the head piece.

    I think I want him to feel young, not sure if he feels young or old. 
    Does he feel native American? hmm...

    About 6~hours in? 

  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex

    changed up his looks... I'm not sure? pre-teen- teen look? Hair is just in-place for the feel... need to block in.

    I've been pretty busy to work on it, glad to have put on some time

    Any feedback would be appreciated!
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex

    Today I learned how to use curve brush. I really need to figure out the clean way of blocking in these things...
    The Fur headpiece is a mess, haven't yet to dynamesh yet.
    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/q2mge 
    I really want to learn how he made his clothes/bandages/ropes!

    Debating whether or not to just just turn him in to a child?
    idk. 
    Reference: 

  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    Moving towards new direction


  • MonkTiger
  • MonkTiger
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    Is there a way to extract curves from these tubes? I need to replace them with ropes...
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex

    so I learned...
    how to properly use Curve brush
    how to create curve brush (and not use it because making those necklace is pain)
    how to lock start/end of curve
    how to use zremesher to simplify meshes (as shown in the feathers)

    I need to learn (technical things)
    nanomesh
    extracting curves
    how to properly do stylized hair and feathers

    I need to add
    details in skin
    -nails, wrinkles, moles, pores
    break symmetry
    weapons/props
    -spear, sword, leather bags
    pose

    current clothing is blend, need more (in design) and details

    need tutorials/tips... please link below!

    This has been a BIG learning curve
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    learning about Transpose master plugin...
    i'm not sure, but its difficult to just pose/sculpt and returning the mesh back to original A pose isn't working. idk why?
  • aanselmo
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    aanselmo polycounter lvl 2
    Good work so far. I think I liked more the young version, I don't see much young characters.
    About the pose if you want to pose a character and go back to the original pose use layers, create a layer, pose the character and work on it and you can toggle on/off the layer to go back and forward with the pose, but with layers you can only re-work on the initial pose with a layer on.
    I noticed too that he is doing duck face, the lips are way to forward 
    Keep up 
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    @aanselmo thank you! So one restriction with that method that I found is that I can't use the curve brush! Is there a way to go around it?
     
  • aanselmo
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    aanselmo polycounter lvl 2
    MonkTiger said:
    @aanselmo thank you! So one restriction with that method that I found is that I can't use the curve brush! Is there a way to go around it?
     
    So do you want to add stuff on the T pose and to be changed on the changed pose? Don't think that works, normally the pose is made in the end, when you have it all modeled. 
  • Felixenfeu
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    Felixenfeu polycounter lvl 10
    There is some good progress here.

    The biggest problem I see so far is anatomy related.

    Maybe look a bit how planes of the body work on anatomy4sculptor, find some bridgeman books and look at the grey renders on 3dScanStore (Or if you can afford it, get a scan to be used as a reference. Great learning tool.)
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    @Felixenfeu Can you pinpoint where exactly anatomy is off? what do you mean by "planes of body"?
    I know the posed one has some anatomy problems that i'll be going over today (arms&chest)
  • Felixenfeu
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    Felixenfeu polycounter lvl 10
    Sorry, sometime people call it "planar anatomy", but basically the planes are the angle breaks that the muscles and volumes are going to create. It should be felt, even if subtle. It's going to affect the silhouette and balance of your character.

    Basic planes looks something like this :smile:  . Even if they are a bit exaggerated here it's a good guideline. 



    Bridgeman books are very good for this, you might be able to find pictures of them on the web.

    [Edit]

    Ok, let's show you a quick exemple of how angle breaks and silhouette works.



    See, on the left your character, on the right some random tribe guy.

    I traced the arm silhouette and offset it so you can see. In pink.

    See how many angle breaks there are on the real guy? That pink outline, with sharp lines and variety? That's his silhouette. The way the line change direction? Angle break. Bear with me I'm really simplifying this here. 

    So you can see how simple yours is versus the real thing. That's what I mean with "learn planes, learn volumes, learn silhouette". :smile:

    A good way to see silhouette is just use the flat color shader in zbrush on in a while. You get something like this. It removes distractions and helps see what works and what doesn't.



    It's as important to learn as anatomy itself. In fact it's part of artistic anatomy.
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex

    this thread is kind of becoming my journal... I got few hours into my project today.

    Today I fixed
    Some pose/anatomy issues
    Gave him more muscles in arms (it was too skinny before)
    Hands, hands, hands.

    Today I learned
    How to use 3D layer function in Zbrush 
    -I also learned that 3d layer in zbrush is  very fickle and can be destructive
    How to use noise function to create pore and basic skin texture
    -Learned that instead of immediately applying " apply mesh" function, hold on to that and grab some pore brushes and work on some wrinklese and fine details.

    Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get some more time to work on lower body and (feet)
    I need to next:
    Detail ornament
    Detail cloth, add torn, 
    -Learn nanomesh
    -Learn to use zsphere properly to create knots
    Add more props

    I need to work on...
    Weapons
    Image result for native filipino sword
    Filipino sword. Probably work on the base mesh in Maya (yikes) and bring it back to zbrush to work on fine details

    Phew, what a project.
    I also learned that at ~6 mil vertex count my computer crash due to cpu overburden (or it could be due to AMD video card, I have a very shitty graphics card lol)
    Need to work with that in mind lol 
    save save save

    Questions/feedback needed:
    Eyebrows
    -how should I do it? stylized? idk.
    HOW SHOULD I DO HAIR OOOOOOOOOH...
    I am debating whether or not to learn fibermesh... idk idk.
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex

    At first, I was HATING how the stylized hair was looking. But once I changed the material and gave it a different color, it doesn't look half bad! This is sort of the look I am going for- hybrid between realism and what not. I want to REALLY bring out skin details and make it pop like the one above. Not sure how well I will do since this is going to become a real-time... we shaul see!
    Fingers crossed.
    Going to move on to blocking in the weapons.
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    Today's progress: sword!
    I got no energy today but tomorrow for sure :dizzy:



  • MonkTiger
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    Final design... for now. I really wanted to focus on skin painting and learning, so I am moving to retopo!
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    test render: other than the minor artifact in the crotch area and toes, the normal came out smooth. 
    about 17.5k tris total just the body alone. good enough resolution. 

    simple uv unwrap using maya's layout function, for now. 
    sim layouts (hard edges)




  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    hand 
    I am definitely pleased with the way UV/topology/resolution all came to create this bake, pretty satisfied. was really nervous if I was doing it right, but the result seems pretty ok. 

    Will move on to hair retopo and everything else tomorrow. 
    Exciitng!
  • Wakamash
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    Wakamash polycounter lvl 6
    I love the steady progress you're making, keep it up! :smiley:
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    @Wakamash Thank you for your positive encouragement!

    Today's journal:...

    HAIR.
    HAIR.
    HAIR!

    Today i played with the idea of using low-decimated model and baking normals on it.
    However, there were a lot of issues i think would come up when baking normals so I began working on topology from scratch on maya.

    tomorrow I will figure out the hard edges and uv unwrap.... it was painful to trying to retop this.
    lesson learned: 
    organize hair meshes!

  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    The struggle:
    Clothes. Folds. Designs.
    the more you are unsure about the concept, the feeling, of a project, the long it takes.
     The lesson i'm learning and taking it full to heart.

    Maybe it's because i'm out of practice when it comes to folds? 
    But I think it's more about the fact that I am "unsure" how this is supposed to look.
    Every step i am taking, is an exploration, rather than an execution, and i think it is holding me back.

    Gotta fight it through!!
  • MonkTiger
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex

    test normal bake... decent.
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    normals all bakes out correctly. Cull backface works. Time to optimize uv space and texture! 
  • MonkTiger
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex

    Learned a lot about maya's deformer tools. Everything is set and ready for texturing. Hoorah!
     
  • MonkTiger
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    MonkTiger vertex
    Testing, painting, and mostly, learning. 
    There is SO MUCH to learn. With every project I am humbled, and my ego crumbles.

    But it feels good. It feels good that I am challenged. It feels right.
    It's overwhelming, but it is definitely rewarding.

    So much more needs to be done.

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