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VickGaza - Next-gen Student MA Final Project

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polycounter lvl 6
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vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
Hey everyone!

My name is Victor Gaza (vickgaza) and this is the place where I will be documenting the creation on my final 3D Games Art Masters project developed at the University of Hertfordshire UK.
I have also joined the Bioware Contest with my little chick since she`d fit in the Dragon Age universe :D

The project consists of a real-time next gen female character into a nice little outdoor environment diorama, with a day to night shift that will allow for some bio-luminous plants pop out :)

I shall also be streaming LIVE all the development work that will go to creating my final masters project, from modeling to texturing to retopo to everything :)) http://www.livestream.com/vickgaza from 8am GMT daily.

Everything will be rendered realtime within Unreal Development Kit (UDK) using all the directX11 features available (tessellation,realtime reflections, etc)

If you guys want to see my past works, some of the best ones are available here: http://dropr.com/vickgaza

And SOME ACTUAL work now
Please please tear my work apart, and help me improve my baby :poly142:

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Replies

  • artquest
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    artquest polycounter lvl 13
    Hi since you asked for brutal critiques... here goes :D

    Your shapes are working pretty well together, you have a pretty good understanding of anatomy and sculpting. I just can't help but feel like this character/monster is too generic. I can't get a feeling of what her character is from looking at her. Perhaps a basic enemy in some random cave of an mmo. I get the vibe that you want her to be more of a boss character. It all comes down to design. If you spend a few minutes to develop a back story for her she will start to come alive.

    The transition between the human and spider parts seems a bit harsh, making it look like a human was stuck onto a spider. I think you could play a bit with that area to make it more interesting. Overall thought I think you have a good silhouette going on.

    Keep it up! Looking forward to seeing where you take this. :D
  • roosterMAP
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    roosterMAP polycounter lvl 12
    I agree. The top half has the generic "hot body" with no scaring or anything too crazy. Maybe try imbedding insect like attributes into her smooth skin. Like large insect hairs going up her spine, or semblance of an exoskeleton popping up over parts of her skin. Maybe make her hands not seem so delicate. Make them like the witch from left 4 dead.
    Love tje extra eyes. But u need to integrate her "hat" better into her head so that it looks more like part of her and less like a hat.
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Thank you for your feedback guys, I`ve added transition areas between the animalistic and humanoid features, everything is on layers so I might pull back some as I wouldn't want to fill her up with too much "noise detail"

    Regardless this is what I have so far, thank you again, I rlly appreciate you guys taking the time to write feedback.

    @artquest The idea of making a backstory is awesome, I`ll get to that :D
    @rooster made some changes to her hands, I will post hand details tomorrow, used the l4d with for minor inspiration :D thanks !

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  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Hey dudes, here`s some more updates :D
    Any more feedback is greatly appreciated , thanks in advance :D

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  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Here some more updates guys :D The middle legs are instanced but front and back are sculpted separately for more practice :)
    Tips and feedback is welcomed.
    Also some weapon suggestions would be super nice to have, as I`m not sure what weapon to make for her, any ideas?
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  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    The tri horn helmet/headpiece to me personally isnt working. I'm sure it makes a great outline, but its so plain. Maybe some jewlerly hanging from the central horn to the outer to make it a bit more complicated? Make the side horns more apparent/unique from central one.. push the outline curvature even more.
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    @oXYnary thank you very much I`ll get to it asap :D
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Hey guys it`s valentinte`s so here`s some updates with love :))
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  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    And some more updates,
    Sorry for the slow flow of images but I`ve been caught up in 2d work recently.
    Vick

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  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Details:
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    And face:
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  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Finally some more time to invest in my character, no more essays for a while, no more side projects or whatnots, woop woop.

    Feedback as always, very very welcomed.
    Redid the face, and the legs, and pretty much everything again, but it was super fun and I learned tons, can`t wait to finish her.

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  • DWalker
    The new legs look more like something from a crab than a spider. I think the previous legs looked more appropriate to an arachnid.
  • IchII3D
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    IchII3D polycounter lvl 12
    Nice technical zbrush sculpting.

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  • cmtanko
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    cmtanko polycounter lvl 10
    looks great , heavy detailed. Nice work
    how did you do the body sculpting ??? which brushes, techniques... Mind to share abit of workflow for that... ???
  • cmtanko
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    cmtanko polycounter lvl 10
    Ahhhhhhhh, there is whole video in the site... Just saw.. :))) Amazing ... Will be checking it out ;)
  • TehSplatt
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    TehSplatt polycounter lvl 11
    Aw mang haha i love those new legs they look awesome
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    @DWalker yes I know , but she`s going to be pretty big aka human scale 1:1 so thin spider legs wouldn't support her weight. If she was a miniature creature then yes thinner longer ones would have worked better :)
    @Ichll thank you
    @Cmtanko I just use basic brshes like clay tubes , dam standard, polish, standard, clay, pinch etc with some alphas that come with the basic zbrush. I`ve used some bumby alphas for skin :) Hope it helps
    Also for scatches and damage, I use mallet fast and slice tool.
    @TehSplatt Thank you very much :D Glad u likes em :D

    Here`s a B&W version of her and some assets / weapon.

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  • Ravanna
    how did you learn to sculpt? did the teachers on your course help or did you sign up for lessons online? or is that annoying just natural talent?
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    I don't really believe in talent, or at least for me I just practised drawing as much as possible and zbrush got better, but dude your stuff is absolutely gorgeous, it obliterates and dwarfs my models heavily :))

    How did you learn how to render and make dem pretty models ?! As I need to learns that as well :D Awesome awesome stuff man!
  • Harford
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    Harford polycounter lvl 7
    Really nice work !, Love the sculpting and organic detailing.. Nice render too.. excellent. Can't wait to see this finished.
    Natural Talent in the sense you describe Ravanna , does not exist.
  • PaulP
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    PaulP polycounter lvl 9
    Saw this on the weekly re-cap and had to take a closer look. Really cool sculpt! Its a really interesting design, and a refreshing change from the norm. Keep up the good work!
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Thank you very much for the kind words guys I really appreciate them :D I am retopologising at the moment :D

    Here`s a final comp before wires :)
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  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    Vick mate you've improved so much man :O Last time I saw you working on this hog type creature which paled in comparison to your current work, great stuff!
  • Giles_P
    Looks stunning Vick however I really like the spider one as opposed to the crab. Still a stunning sculpt though.
  • PhoenixWolf
  • bounchfx
    This came along great man, was really nice watching the progression as the thread went on... I really need to do some art, heh.
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    @Torch thank you very much man, I really appreciate it :D

    @Giles heya , I kind of like that one too but since the girl is human sized and ment to be a boss type character, if I leave her legs thin and long, I either make them really long and small body so it can withstand the weight but thus loose focus on her face/body , or make them thicker and shorter so her body can be more in focus as it`s bigger compared to the legs. But yea I get what you mean, I hope I did the right call :)

    @bounch thank you very much, i`m doing retopology atm, will post some feedback soon.
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Quick update, some wires some swatches done in like 50 minutes and some polypaint done in around 8-10 hours with breaks and procrastination here and there

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  • KristaW
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    KristaW polycounter lvl 9
    I really like the changes you made. Looking at those meaty legs makes her far more terrifying from a players perspective. And I love the face <3
  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    Hey man looking great - its quite Dark Souls-esque, is that what you were going for? Keep it up!
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    @KrisaW thanks I`m really glad it shows, I obsessed so much over details and changes over changes, I hope it`s for the better :D

    @Torch I didn't have Darksouls in mind but I did want to hopefully get to a more dark horror fantasy creature that is at least visually realistic (material wise, colour wise, anatomy wise, etc), if not functional as well (well at least a bit)

    More updates soon ! Thank you very much for the input guys :D
  • Lonewolf
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    Lonewolf polycounter lvl 18
    amazing stuff dude
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Oh she`s almost done but will post her textured when I tweak all the textures but here`s a preview so far.

    This is real-time in marmoset, basically tessetalion through a disp map + parallax + normals + detail normal map (tileable noise to mask some seams) + translucency + engine ao .

    I hope you guys like it, and Lonewolf man, your stuff is NEXT LEVEL stuff dude, you dwarf me infinitely :) Soon man, soon, i`ll catch up :D


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  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    PAM PAM
    All views are real-time,presented in marmoset atm, with tesselation + parallax + normals + details normal map + translucency + engine ao + a bit of bloom + some red scattering

    Only two x 2k maps, spec, gloss, diffuse, normal and displacement (for tesselation) and a tileable normalmap sand texture as a detail map to break the seams.

    Almost done
    Need to bake the armour bits tomorrow
    Will post a turntable as soon as it renders.

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    And youtube video of a turntable inside Marmoset
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FrPa7OeAlg&quot;]Spider Queen Turntable - YouTube[/ame]
  • theStoff
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    theStoff greentooth
    Good work so far. It's looking very good. A few things I think you could fix up a bit though are the hair and upper arm. The hair seems to defy gravity a bit too much and the upper arm seems to have a bit less definition than the rest of the body. Other than that looks great, keep it up.
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Thank you very much for the info, I`ll get to some fixes asap :D Thanks I appreciate it :D
  • stevston89
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    stevston89 interpolator
    I would really break up your materials and define them alot more. I would take the harder areas on your model and make them feel more shell like almost like a beetle shell. I would also adjust the spec on your skin, it looks flat. The model overall looks pretty flat in terms of your spec. I did a paint over to show you what I mean. Really great work so far!
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  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Heya man thank you for the paintover, here`s what I fixed and tweaked to suit it better towards your suggestion, thanks so much man it really helped me alot!

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF9X07o_ao8&amp;hd=1&quot;]Art of Vick Gaza - YouTube[/ame]
  • North
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    North polycounter lvl 7
    Get this out of T-pose and into a real pose; it looks extra ridiculous since shes attached to a spider. You may discover after doing so that there is no way her body would be able to support itself, resulting in an unnatural/unbalanced look.
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    it's coming along well man, i think you can push the colours a bit more though, get some contrast in there, use some really vivid colouring for the carapace. i think her skin could do with having a really pallid, sickly translucent look to it.

    just my $0.02
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    Hey guys almost there, here`s some more BIG resolution shots.

    Hope you likes them. Need to add some more accessories tomorrow and finish the weapon and then I will definitely pose her !

    Thanks again for all your feedback and comments,
    Vick.

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  • AlbinLundahl
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    AlbinLundahl polycounter lvl 5
    I would like to see some more work on the face, around the nose, eyes, give it some more life. Otherwise, great work, the last update is great :)
  • stevston89
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    stevston89 interpolator
    Looking Great! A few crits the metal armor bits are looking a bit plasticy. I would tone down the glossiness and maybe the spec a little. Her skin all over ( especially the back end) could use some color variation it looks a bit flat. Lastly the black leather straps for her boobs look really flat. Add some wear to them and break up the spec. Almost there keep going man!
  • forbesbuck
    that is amazing work, keep it up
  • Eliteabix
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    Eliteabix polycounter lvl 5
    Looks stunning, great work! would love to see more.
  • vickgaza
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    vickgaza polycounter lvl 6
    The aim of this project was to produce a high quality next generation character, rendered within UDK using dx11 and all of it`s features.
    The final character count is around 110k triangles with legs and weapon. All accessories are modelled textured and baked individually off the character so they can be swapped and replaced.Assets have been separated according to materials in order to achieve a better tessellation control / set of items.
    Total maps are comprised of 3 x 2K map sets (one for the human bust,one for the spider body + legs and one for the leather and hanging assets) and 2 x 1K map sets (one for the metal parts and one for the weapon).
    The sets are made out of a Diffuse, Specular + Gloss, Normal and Displacement map for tessellation. Two extra tillable textures were used for the skin respectively for the metal as a detail normal map.
    The legs are done modularly, duplicating only a termination joing and a knee for more variation, other leg pieces are breakable thus being mirrored and flipped to achieve a useful modulation.
    Will upload maps and wireframe soon.

    Software packages used were the following:
    Zbrush - for Sculpting (all assets and character pieces were done here) and Texturing (base colours and spec map painting)
    Photoshop - for further texturing (also for thumbnail creation, visual exploration, mockups, concepts,etc,
    Maya - for proxy modeling,retopology cleanup, tweaking, Uv mapping, setting normals, setting uv islands, UV transfers.etc
    Xnormal - for baking all maps and polypaint transfer
    Headus UV Layout - for unwrapping and uv layouts
    Topogun - for retopology Marmoset Tool-bag for rendering, previewing, adjusting maps, etc.
    Thank you for viewing :)
    VickGaza.

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  • Dee
  • Luke_Starkie
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    Luke_Starkie polycounter lvl 8
    Looks rad man!
  • PaulP
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    PaulP polycounter lvl 9
    Nice work, she/it looks really cool :)
  • Azkur
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    Azkur polycounter lvl 8
    that first shot man is really nice! jesus man why did you go for 110k triangles? killzones is using 40k for its next gen characters as a reference
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