Cloud strife-3d model

melviso

Been working on this for sometime.Trying out Blender for the first time and I am quite happy with the tools so far.






Details are bump maps painted in Blender at 1024 x 1024 px.Need to smoothen out hand cape details.
The model is gonna be animated in Blender(testing animation tools and workflow as well).Currently working on materials.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Raise his arms up more, or you're gonna cry once you start rigging.

Material definition right now is obtrusively unified. I can't tell what's hardened metal or cloth.

melviso

@JadeEyePanda I will raise his arms.Thanks for pointing it out.

Update-


Screengrab of Cloud strife using Blender.I have to repaint some bump maps details.I think I captured his likeness.Still working on the hair,need to add more clumps and refine the textures.Its looking really off.Painted the bump maps in Blender and converted them to normal maps in Blender.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Can we get a full turn around shot of us body? Kind of hard to tell what to critique, etc.

HardBaller

It's a nice start mate but i'd change a few things about it especially if you are trying to get authenticity. Try to make the pauldron bulkier and and maybe change the angle a bit to fit the pose (see the clipping on img. 3). Also maybe make the icon on it an object. Might make it come out more and create more dept and detail in it. Last parts are more nitpicking (playing the movie as i'm typing). Let the pauldron belt go under the shoulder belt for the skirt. The normal waist belt should be hidden below the skit entirely so the skirt should be one big piece hanging from the shoulder belt and side strap. Make the sleeve a bit longer. Usually when you see it on cloud it's resting almost on his thumb.

Last part. What weapon are you trying to make. Cause i doesn't look (yet) like the buster, fusion or tsurugi right now. If you want the fusion as a whole look here for some good referense and background on it.

Also for the scabbard/holster i made a fast screenshot of what it looks like up close. Might help a bit with modeling it http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/538/ff7acscreencap.jpg

Any huge FF fan especially 7 so i do hope it works out the way you want and hope it. Sorry if i come on a bit strong. Didn't know what you where looking for so just dropped all i was thinking. It's a great start imho i'd just change the things i mentioned.

melviso

@JadeEyePanda I don't know how to do a full body turnaround in blender.I will put up camera shots of turn around angles of the model.I feel the model is very far from perfect.I am focusing on putting the important stuff,then later start correcting all the small mistakes.I must say making polygonal hair is such a pain lol.Trying to get the textures to look right.I might have to sculpt the hair details in blender to get better details than painting bump maps.

@HardBaller
Thanks for providing the links and pointing out some issues with the model.The model is intended for an animation project in order to familiarise myself with Blender.I am really not going for exactly the original design.Getting the likeness of his facial features is my main goal.I will adjust his arm cape to cover his hands.Fix the shoulder thingy and belts.

I still need to recreate other models,,including a summon from the original game,environment as well.I need to finish this model and move on to the other ones.Of course,to an acceptable level where the model looks good.



Really digging the realtime shadows and lighting in Blender game engine.Tried using Maya viewport 2.0.Didn't look this good and viewport lag was terrible.Blender on the other hand runs smoothly.I am a little worried about how realtime softbodies works in Blender especially if used for the hair and capes.Physx(apex cloth) in Maya was top notch.Loved the workflow.

melviso

New update-


Repainted the normal map for the hair,finished rigging and posed the character.
I am also surprised Blender has heat map skining since 2010.Didn't need to raise his arms.Just painted a few skin weights here and there and the mesh has good deformations.Maya just added heat map skinning last year.
As for rigging,Blender has an autorig feature for moving a string of bones on the fly.It can be turned on or off.Very good for posing spines,or hair movement during animation.Also u can disable the inherit rotation of a child bone to keep it in place when moving ik handles around.Very good for feet and hands.


Working on environments now.Everything is realtime using Blenders game engine.Also painted normal maps in blender.



Gonna model more assets to fill the room.

Tried to see if I could get better graphics using Maya viewport 2.0.Exported to Maya-





Struggled with the lighting and shadows.For some reason,the model looks different.I think I read somewhere Blender bakes normal map differently from how Maya reads normal maps.Maybe thats why it looks off.I am having a tough time getting the shadows on the character right.If I turn screen space occulsion,the viewport lags and I get a memory warning.Blender's viewport on the otherhand works flawlessly.

melviso

Hmm..no comments?Can someone give me feedback on the lighting?

Brian "Panda" Choi

Bring it down, it's really high key.

What's your plan for the environment? Are you thinking about sticking to how you've made your tiling walls?

melviso

Thanks JadeEyePanda
No laid out plans yet.I am currently modeling some chains,pipes,rails,beams might throw in some engines thingy.I will come up with more assets as I fill the room.

Brian "Panda" Choi

The specularity between the different materials could also use work. YOu have the normals, but it's hard differentiating what is what material on Cloud.

melviso

Thanks JadeEyePanda.Are u referring to the viewport grabs from Maya or both bc I have decided to go with Blender since the viewport renders better and there is no lagging?

melviso

Updates-












The first three images are the latest updates.All rendered in realtime using Blender's game engine.All normal maps were painted in Blender.All environment assets were all modeled and textured in Blender.I am yet to rig Lightning farron's model.
I think I am gonna model some assets for the floor.I think only the walls should have those designs.

melviso

Hmm...no comments.Does this have to do with the fact that I am using Blender instead of 3dmax or Maya?I remember someone telling me switching from Maya to Blender isn't a good idea as it isn't used in a lot of studios and its far from the standard ppl expect but I find it strange that the new features especially modeling tools in Maya's latest version has long since existed in Blender.

I wonder why most studios are using an app that cost so much money and still have to create plugins and tools around it while there is an app that is open source and has far more better tools imo.I have been using it so far and its been really great.Is there some sort of shame in being associated with open source?Because Blender is really good and I am kinda surprised it is cause when I switched I expected it to fall short of the commercial ones but its on the same level maybe better as its integrated meaning u don't have to export and import all the time.U get to do everything in one app which is more convienent and faster(import..export issues/errors completely eliminated).Whereas AutoDesk will continue to scatter features about and release 2 or 1 useful tools per version.

oskarreftel

No shame in using Blender. Whatever gets the job done.

I think you should narrow yourself down a bit. Please don't be offended by this, but it feels like you're kind of just started out and there is a lot of improvement to be made. I think you would benefit from picking one category to start out with (character, environment or props) and focus on working on just one thing at a time to get it as good as possible. Maybe just start out with doing a head sculpt of Cloud and really spend a lot of time on it. Study references from real life and think of how you would apply them to the style you're going for.

melviso

None Taken.Its for an animation project to familarise myself with Blender.
I am always drawing on my sketch pad using references from photos hoping to get better.I modeled everything by hand(no sculpting).The normal map details were actually bump maps painted by hand and then baked to normal maps.

garriola83

As ambitious as this is, it has a lot of beginner flaws, such as lost anatomical forms, bad use of materials and textures, over-blown lighting, lack of organization on alphas, etc. We've all been there. I suggest to REALLY take a look at other people's work here from polycount, especially the good ones, and see what they're doing correctly. Good Luck

melviso

Thanks,I will do my best to get better.Most of the time,I rush through the modeling and texturing phases bc of how time consuming rigging,animation and rendering are.If I spend two much time trying to get everything right,getting the animation done will take forever.

melviso

Latest updates-

Toned down the lighting and tweaked the materials.



Tweaked his face using Blender's sculpting tools.Not as good as I would want but definitely better than how he looked before.Fun fact is u can sculpt and move vertices around after rigging in Blender and everything deforms fine after.


Yep,they don't like each other.
Finally rigged lightning with just automatic weights method(heat map skinning),still need to paint additional skin weights on them to get better deforms.I will be using Blender's cloth to simulate the clothes.Have to model and rig some scary enemy robots and then create the summons.

melviso

EDITed....

melviso

Update-
Switched back to Maya.Encountered really difficult technical animation/rigging problems using Blender and some of its addons.Also animating the characters has been really tasking especially getting facial emotions/lip synching right.I have put this project on hold for now.

3D is usually problematic especially when it comes to animating characters,their emotions,expressions,hair and clothes(yep..even simulations doesn't help matters).For these things to be believable or look good,a lot goes into the rigging,technical stuff.Most times these projects usually have a hair,cloth,lip synching,motion capture,rigging team.Not to mention the high specs of cpu required for simulations.

So if I am going to animate characters.Its going to be in 2d with 3d environments.That way I get things done faster.Like someone suggested,pick an area like environments,props,character and perfect ur skills in that area.

So when it comes to 3d it will environments or animations showing environments from now on.No characters,tedious rigging or complex animations.

Will start a new environment project as soon as possible.Thanks.

melviso

Reopened the Blender file.Testing out the Blender game engine-

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx_Bdc20PsU"]13 Vs 7 new WIP (BGE) - YouTube[/ame]