Sketchbook: schneller

schneller

I suppose it's about time I start posting some new stuff. I'm hoping starting a sketchbook will motivate me to produce more work in my free time.

Let's start this off with a loose translation of Dio's Holy Diver:





I finally got around to playing Bioshock (awesome game!), so it put me in the mood to make this. It's kind of a goofy project, but should be fun!

Edit: I should also mention that my goal for the project is to have a fully rigged and animated game-ready character. I'll probably be using a budget similar to a Dominance War competition or something, maybe a bit more since I've got the two characters.

Comments and crits are very welcome :poly124:

gillmeister74

Thats hilarious man, I dig it. It's over the top and awesome though I think you could stand to pimp out the diver suit a bit more. Throw in some more of that vatican style embroiderment in the helmet and in the leather parts so he is really rocking that sort of regal holy look! If I had to critique anything else I would say maybe make the tiger bigger, cause your holy diver's toes are almost dragging. Can't wait to see you do with it.

schneller

Gillmeister74: Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. I definitely agree with them.

For what it's worth, here's my blockout pass:



This was my first experiment trying a ZSpheres based workflow. I found them pretty easy to deal with, but making hands was a pain. Also, after a while I saw that dynamesh merged a bit of the diver's fingers together

Admittedly, I have an issue with using my reference correctly. Even though I always have it open on my other screen, I don't look at it as often as I should. It's an old habit of relying on what I think I know, and I really need to break it!

One other thing to note: I was showing this to a coworker, and he pointed out that the diver looks bulkier than in my concept. I will probably try to correct that bulk, even though I was thinking the suit contributed to some of that. Also, upon comparing this to my sketch, the tiger is a ton fatter and doesn't exhibit that feline slenderness. Much to fix!

Next I'll make some of the accessories, and I think I'll make a basic head to make sure it will fit in the helmet and give me some flexibility. At some point I'll be working with my animator friend to get a rig started so this guy can be animated when I'm through.

schneller

Real quick lower poly proxy for my animator friend to mess with. I know some of the geometry won't deform well, but at least he can get the proportions figured out.




I had a hard time with retopoing the hands in Topogun. Gotta practice that I guess!

schneller

Still working on the diver on and off but it's taking a while. Meanwhile, I've started some small props just to refine my process and practice. I've realized I usually get in over my head and then get bored/frustrated with my personal stuff. Trying to get more finished stuff cranked out to get me over that hump.

Here's a random high poly prop, will start working on the low poly after I post this:

schneller

Low poly WIP:





First time using a cage to bake, and it seems to be off in some places. Also, need to correct the waviness on the trim areas. The color and spec textures are just to get an idea of where I'm headed.

schneller

Gonna call this one finished. Overall I'm fairly pleased. It was a good texturing exercise.

Maks

Hi schneller,
I really like your model and the texture work so far,
but i would suggest to make the wood more used and dirty and overall darker.
I think that would push the end result a little more.
I hope this link helps.

Jessica Dinh

Hey, there are a lot of identical UV shells there. You could stack all the similar ones and scale everything up to get better texture resolution. Before you bake, just remember to offset the stacked pieces out of the 1,1 space.

schneller

Maks: Thanks for the link - it's good info I probably could darken the wood a bit, but I'm hesitant to make this too grungy. I've looked through quite a few references, as well as seen these in person, and none look super filthy.

Jessica: Very true. I think my thought process was that the prop could be flipped on end and duplicated around while appearing to have a unique texture. However, some parts definitely could have been the same. Something to think about for future work

schneller

Just found out about the Showdown competition put on by ArtByPapercut, so did a little doodle/matte painting thing this afternoon:



In case it's not apparent, my theme is a futuristic Giant's Causeway. Should be fun to make!

schneller

Here's an update to this:



Small tweaks to improve composition and balance between foreground, midground and background.

Saman

Hey, Will. Love that latest concept you've made, I'm looking forward to seeing the progress on this.
How will you go about making the level more "alive"? I see that you've added rain which adds a lot. Will there be motion in the water as well with splashing waves?

Cool stuff, I like the mixture of warm and cold colors.

schneller

Hey Saman! Thank you. I do worry about that, so yes I hope to have things like waves splashing and generating sea foam, rain, perhaps even some native birds flying in and out. Also, those smaller black pillars will be animated, raising and lowering as if they are scanning things. I'll try to do a very subtle pulsing or scrolling on the glow parts as well. Glad you like the color scheme - color is something I struggle with.Thanks for stopping by!

Here's an update to my scene - the first blockout:

schneller

Bah, I never update this. Been busy with crunch, and now am on vacation. Here's a few traditional doodles form my sketchbook. Just playing with shapes and having fun with an ultra fine point sharpie. Overall, loving drawing again. For the longest time I wanted to do concept art but talked myself out of it due to the intense competition.