Diplodocus
Hey guys!
I have just started working on modelling a Diplodocus for use in the Unreal engine and thought I'd show you guys where I'm at.
Research
This image is just a compilation of Diplodocus images to get a feel for the shape and the silhouette.
I then looked a little further into anatomy, muscle structure and how the Diplodocus could actually move.
There is a large comparison between the Diplodocus and an Elephant so reference images were gathered.
Planning base mesh topology
I have been pretty terrible with base mesh creation in the past so I decided to take extra time planning out as much as I possibly could. I looked at how the elephant was constructed as a guide line and tried to rough out where I wanted the topology to lay.
Base Mesh
Based off of the topology I planned, this is the resulting base mesh for Zbrush. I always run into problems when I take my base mesh's into Zbrush (not enough density + pinching) so I am hoping people can spot them here if there are any obvious ones.
Any feedback would be much appreciated
Hope everyone is having a good day
Oli
I have just started working on modelling a Diplodocus for use in the Unreal engine and thought I'd show you guys where I'm at.
Research
This image is just a compilation of Diplodocus images to get a feel for the shape and the silhouette.
I then looked a little further into anatomy, muscle structure and how the Diplodocus could actually move.
There is a large comparison between the Diplodocus and an Elephant so reference images were gathered.
Planning base mesh topology
I have been pretty terrible with base mesh creation in the past so I decided to take extra time planning out as much as I possibly could. I looked at how the elephant was constructed as a guide line and tried to rough out where I wanted the topology to lay.
Base Mesh
Based off of the topology I planned, this is the resulting base mesh for Zbrush. I always run into problems when I take my base mesh's into Zbrush (not enough density + pinching) so I am hoping people can spot them here if there are any obvious ones.
Any feedback would be much appreciated
Hope everyone is having a good day
Oli
Replies
Not much to critique this early in. I like the slate grey color on the ref sheet.
Kridian - I really like that colour scheme too although I haven't settled on what colours to use yet.
Swizzle - I have gone back and looked at the topology of the head and realized how terrible it was, so based on your feedback I made these changes.
I cleaned up the topology around the "cheek" area (for lack of a better way to describe it) and around that corner of the mouth. I am feeling a lot more confident in the head now. I still need to model the tongue but I think it is close to going into Zbrush.
Any crits still appreciated
I finally got into Zbrush today. I didn't want to rush the sculpt (as I felt I have done in the past) and instead stay around the 2nd sub division and try to work in as much form as I could.
The details around the head my be a little harsh at this point but I am hoping that further sub divisions will smooth out some of the harshness. I cant quite put my finger on why but I am not overly keen on the top part of the front legs. I have been constantly cross checking my sculpt by the few images I could amass that actually show form in a useful way.
Any help is much appreciated. Thanks for viewing
Here are my different colour designs. They are all based off of already available images. 1 and 2 strike me as more "realistic" (if not a bit boring), 2 is certainly nice but the challenge for me would to make it not look like a cartoon character!
Would love to hear what you guys think!
It is normally from this point on that I start making bad decisions with my sculpt. I am too heavy handed I feel and often cannot find the appropriate way to sculpt detail. This is currently sub 4. Any crits or helpful advice would be fantastic!
Thanks again guys
Where you have the beginning of the throat, I would pull all the way forward until it's sitting just under the lower jaw, where now it seems to be completely behind the skull.
Also try adjusting the tip of the tail to never go above the eye and see how that looks.
Some more updates on the Diplodocus. I pulled the neck under the jaw down a little to hopefully make the head sit a little better. The tail has been bought lower as well as the spine area being more defined which matches references much closer. The front chest part has been raised up as well as the front "shoulder" areas being much more defined. Over all the sculpting has mainly focused on matching references closer.
I haven't had much practice with using noise or alphas to create surface detail so I started looking for better references of skin texture and what to use to define different areas of the body.
These images are taken from the only video reference I can find of the Diplodocus. Unfortunately 360p is not fantastic quality to see these images but still it is the best reference I have at the moment for the Diplodocus' skin. One thing I noticed about the skin is that it is overall very lumpy and sporadic. It doesn't seem like there are necessary extremely defined sections of patterns, more just the intensity of this crusty layer changes. I could be totally wrong about that at this point so I need to concrete that before properly moving on. The back of the animal has some variation having somewhat raised circular sections. The top right picture is obviously of the neck and the bottom right picture is of the back end going onto the tail. The skin definition looks near enough identical as it leads into the longer sections.
As a test, some images were gathered which somewhat looked like the texture of the skin. For the main body I looked at concrete textures that had some sporadic raised areas, be it from damage or rocks. The neck is a lot more crusted/cracked so for the top part I looked at straight dirt textures and for the bottom I looked at cracked dirt floors. I then took them into Zbrush and used the overall noise approach in 3d mode. The only texture that had any mask applied to it was the cracking underneath the neck. I have compiled an image of the model using different materials to hopefully spot problem areas. I don't feel overly confident with the results but its a start!
Any crits/direction are welcome.
I'd also make the back knee smaller (wrinkle wise) and I'd fill in the space between the toes, they seem a little 'skeletal' but I can't really tell.
Thanks for the feedback so far, I have tried to work off of what has been suggested as well as work on some finer details (which will be my downfall).
First off, a bit of extra reference.
I decided to look further into the walking with dinosaurs videos (specifically episode 2) and found some great references in the first 5 mins. I wasn't sure myself if I had made my ribs too prominent so I found references to base them off of. There is really good references for folds in this image which I tried to add into the sculpt.
Here is the sculpt progress so far. The back leg has been toned down in size and the front leg has been thickened up. I think this makes the dino's weight a little more evenly distributed. The wrinkles around the knees have been toned down and extra hanging skin has been added, most notably where the legs connect to the main body. The head has also had a start made on it, giving the eye some lids and some fleshy areas.
Again here are some different materials to hopefully help spot errors.
Any crits/direction are welcome.
Well I have continued to work on the old dino and I think I am close to finishing off my sculpting. A lot more folds have been included as well as a dramatic re modelling of the feet/legs.
I think it certainly feels more natural around the feet/legs area, except for maybe the front leg which I think I will be moving forward from the first joint down to better line up with the muscle above it.
As always crits are much appreciated!
Oli
Based off of some feedback I received I altered the Diplodocus to better fit the muscle structure which I think the model had strayed from a little. The main feedback (which I could recollect) was that the front "clavicle" section as well as the back leg needed to be reworked to better suite the underlying muscle structure. Also the top of the legs needed to have some creases and folds added.
To better illustrate the process I took, I decided to take screen caps every big iteration and do paint overs. Then go back into zbrush and work on the observations.
Once the basic anatomy was in an improved state, I moved onto the creases.
And here is the model in various mat caps. I have been told to make my images larger so here they are each in 1080.
So far the model feels like it is in a totally different place than it was at the last post. A lot of new form has been defined which makes a lot of sense and makes the model feel more like a functional dino as opposed to the big bulk it used to be.
As always crits are much appreciated!
Oli
Some finalization is finally happening to this piece. I'd like to start with the sculpt.
I'm happy with the sculpt generally, I could potentially go back and add some more alpha work to the head but my deadline looms ever closer.
As a small addition to the above image the neck has been slightly raised to stop the dino looking like it is falling over.
I have also completed my first pass on my base mesh. The final destination for this model is UDK.
I think I have done enough here to accommodate for animation deformations but I would love to hear what you guys think.
As always crits are much appreciated!
Oli
Wow it has been a while since I have updated this, you know how it is, you get into work and you lose track of time!
Here is an rather large update, all images and video in UDK.
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Textures
Diffuse
Normal
Spec
Eye Diffuse
Eye Normal
Eye Spec
Any crits would be much appreciated!
Hope everyone is having a good day!
Oli
Sorry, but the face this dinosaur is making is cracking me up. I like it though.
Good work! I really love all the research and effort you have put into this. However, it seems like your techniques in applying your research to your model could use some work. Right now the textures are coming off as a bit cartoony, they just look too saturated and painted to look very real, which I assume is your goal for this piece considering the extensive research. I would go back to your reference with the lizards for some more ideas on your texture, and also maybe check out the skin of an ostrich leg, rhino skin, etc.
The underlying forms on your sculpt are reading a little 'blobby' to me, it looks like you may have jumped into detail a bit too fast. It's not bad though, probably not worth going back at this point. Just things to keep in mind for your next project.
Nice work!