[3D character] mini project

Rfujiie

Hi, i'm a university student looking for feedback on the model iv been working on. This is my first year learning 3D modeling and this is also my first character model.

Assignment was to create a 3D character with the Dota 2 specifications, 3000 tri limit with another 1000 for accessories.

The programs im using are Maya and Mudbox.
open to all feedback be as honest and harsh as you like xD

Left: Initial concept.
Middle: developed idea.
Right: Final concept



Front, Back and Side perspective
polycount overall is 3728 tris
2.5k tris in Model
1.2k tris in accessories

UV snapshot of Model



High poly sculpt done in mudbox



here is the low poly with normal map, i made sure the envelop covered almost all areas i just left some parts with no detail un enveloped (is that ok to do?)
Really bad tessellation of some sort happening in the feet there not sure as the cause perhaps the uvs.



Working on doing details in accessories and then going to go onto texturing

Ashaman73

I'm by far not an expert (!), but here are some things which you should consider:

1. Your edge flow is broken at the chest area .
2. You have low poly distribution at visible areas like chest and face, while keeping relative high poly distributions at feets and wrists.
3. Your overall proportions looks somewhat off (arm, leg thickness etc.), use references to get them right.
4. Your hi-poly mud modelling seems somewhat rushed, maybe get the basic shape done first before diving in details.

Rfujiie

Thanks for the feedback Ashaman, I purposely created hands that were disproportionate to the body anatomy and thought that maybe i had to compensate for the size of his hands by having slightly thicker arms but i do see the point. and your right about the high poly,i havent finished it completely i just did the normal map to see if it worked i will go back to that and put more time.

I was wondering about how far i could manipulate the actual geometric shapes of the sculpt without it creating a weird normal map. i Know that you shouldnt do any extrudes but rather fine details but as im still new to modeling im still a little unclear as to how far i can manipulate the high poly in mudbox or zbrush and have a clean normal map.

For example, when i was baking the normal, i had to stretch the 'envelop' quite far for sum areas that i had done detail work on. not sure if that's a sign of inefficiency or not.

David Wakelin

Ashmans quite right, so I posted a few crits myself;

Topology isn't very good at this moment in time. The chest is somewhat unorganised as you have five sided faces on the upper torso. These edges should continue to meet the other side and keep the flow.

Their is lack of detail in the face. You've used way less poly count then that of the foot which is why you've got triangles and poles everywhere here, these will make it harder to sculpt.

The sword again has five sided unfinished triangles towards the tip of my blade. And the loincloth for some reason isn't connected to the main base?

The sculpt is rushed, the detail there looks more like lumps then muscle; but that's because you've subdivided then worked on the defining rather then define the muscles on a lower subdivide then slowly work up detail on divisions.

You mentioned about stretching envelopes to match your base. This is because you need to retopilogise so the lower poly matched the higher exactly, as you subdivide the mesh slowly shrinks as it tigtens. So the proportions won't match your original base.