bioware contest entry, so little time
polycounter lvl 9
sup polycount, I've been working on my bioware contest entry for the past week or two pretty intensively as the deadline's this thursday.
Quite a few things I'd like to adjust and polish but more focused on getting the bigger more glaring areas sorted before the contest is over. So I thought I'd just throw this up here as a final look for any feedback if people have any.
Let me know what you think if you have any thoughts, cheers, I'll be trying to finish this ugly bastard.
Quite a few things I'd like to adjust and polish but more focused on getting the bigger more glaring areas sorted before the contest is over. So I thought I'd just throw this up here as a final look for any feedback if people have any.
Let me know what you think if you have any thoughts, cheers, I'll be trying to finish this ugly bastard.
Replies
Other than the armor, your face is lacking form. Cutting some creases or hard edges to accentuate the underlying bone structure of the face would really sell this thing.
Overall, great work, I hope to be able to match this some day! :thumbup:
In addition, I agree with the points Brandon.LaFrance brought up.
You should take a look at some of Trevor Claxton's designs; they're fantastically well constructed and hit all the right design cues, most of which it looks like you're aiming for.
Actually, this pattern is the most annoying thing here, try to reduce diffuse value of it, or completely remove from diffuse, and make it pop out using specular and normalmap. You might be surprised!
btw, thanks for not making it carbon fiber, or honeycomb. I really like suit design.
apart from the above comments all i would change is..
giving more of a defined evil looking face.. wrinkles scars etc.
and i'm not a huge fan of the way you have the face paint on him right now... think he should definitely have face paint, but right now it looks like he's raising his eyebrow
http://troodon80.deviantart.com/#/d4hhfd1
My advice would be to add some sort of neck support for him, something like a collar that would keep him protected from blunt force trauma. If you look closely at the Batarian armor in ME3 they have a collar to supports their neck. Besides that I think the armor is looking pretty good.
As for the character my advice would be to add some more detail. I like where you're going with the face paint but the main features of the character are kind of plain. The most distinguished thing on his face are his ears. Bring some life into his eyes. At the moment he looks like he is under reaper control.
Good luck!
- D. Carmine
Swizzle Thanks again for such fantastic feedback, definitely taking everything you said into account, especially the stuff about the feet, he does need some shoes; and cheers for the link, I love that guys work and seeing it again helped a lot.
slipgatecentral you're absolutely right, can't believe I didn't notice how overpowering that pattern was, it's not actually present in the diffuse at all, just some wonky shader settings coupled with a rather overpowering lighting setup. Fixed them and reduced the intensity of the pattern, looks better for it in my opinion, thanks. looking forward to seeing your finished entry now that there's been the extension.
SA_22 Great points, will add some more character to the face this weekend, and at the moment I quite like the face paint but I do want to do more with it, I'll try out some variations, cheers.
D.Carmine Yeah a few people have mentioned that a neck support would be good, will see what I can do but that may need to be one of those things I tackle after the competition's over depending on how much rework it involves, cheers.
Alright, quick update, implemented a few of the suggestions from last night and refined a few things that were bugging me, let me know what you think, so glad there's been an extension, I won't have to work until 2am again, maybe.
On a side note, with his armor being cloth and all, and the markings, it kind of makes him look like a mass effect pro athlete of some sort. Just a thought.
all those stripes, maybe adding an adidas logo wouldnt look out of place?
but still, amaaazing job dude.
.... maybe keep a few of the smaller red parts
The piping around the armor pieces was a great choice, but I'm not thrilled about color choice. Although the brown trim by it self really helps to bring out the details, it just doesn't harmonize well with the saturated red that you've chosen for the stripes.
I'm not 100% convinced with the stripes. I kind of pictured him as some sort of low-key, stealthy assassin; the stripes kind of killed that.
I think either of the additional colors would work well by themselves, they just don't sit well next to each other. If you're going for a more flamboyant look, by all means stick with the high-chroma red, but if you prefer a darker, quieter character, stick with the brown.
Ninja Edit:
Despite what I said about the stripes, I think they help to anchor the character in the Mass Effect universe. I think its really just the brown/red combo that's bothering me.
Aga22 and SA_22 yeah you're both right, the red stripes are pretty obnoxious, changed to black
Andreas cheers man
Brandon.LaFrance I like the idea of a stealthy assassin, I was going for something along those lines, I tried having the undersuit part as a more vibrant colour early on, and it was far too intense for my liking. Cheers for the paintovers though, the brown one works best in my opinion, I think I'll do some colour and pattern variants as an extra bit of polish if I have enough time on the last day or something.
Anyway, super minor update, will stop spamming and get some proper work done over this weekend, I promise. Added some barbs to his head, tweaked the spec map a little and adjusted a few minor things. Again, any comments welcome, cheers.
Arthur Ramazanov I was wanting a sort of semi translucent look to the skin, like a fish, but I want to avoid throwing a sharper spec on there because it'll become far too reflective for my liking.
Aga22 thanks.
Anyway, small update, took a slight break over the weekend and wasted some time on a few dead end ideas, but got him posed, built the inside of his mouth (teeth, tongue) and started adding some minor grunge, want to avoid going too overboard with the grunge.
Going to do some colour variants as well over the next day or two for my final shots. Anyway, all thoughts welcome, cheers.
I especially love the armor and the originality of cloth armor+sci fi, you rarely see that these days.
One thing I'd say is at very first glance, I thought the actual dude, and his mesh, was placeholder. Maybe the way it's shaded or has minimal detail on the skin.
I'd go for more detail on the skin, if you want to keep the albino look, just add a little more grain or noise to your spec, the highlights look too clean.
Good luck with the judging
I do feel like the shoulder pads could use 1 or 2 more loops , a little more round
warxsnake Cheers for the feedback it was really helpful, I've revisited the sculpt, added some noise and grabbed a few new bakes. I'm planning on taking it further once the competition is over.
Brandon.LaFrance Thanks man.
firestarter Cheers.
Guedin Thanks, you too, really love the way that volus chef is looking.
D4V1DC Thanks, I'm going to go and do some additional colour varients once the competition is over for some fun.
Rhoutermans Agreed, again it's something I'm going to have work on once the comp is over, which is tomorrow :P
Alright everybody, I gotta say that all the feedback, comments and critiques I received from you lot and a few of my friends really made this, I wouldn't have gotten as far with it as I have without that and so, thank you all very much.
Now, I'm calling it done as far as the contest goes, however, there are quite a few things I want to change and polish, so I'm going to be revisiting this guy soonish, however in the meantime here are my final shots for the contest.
Be warned, massive images...
17,074 tris
2048*2048 diffuse, specular, normal and emissive, and additional 512*512 maps for the eyes