Stegosaurus

pete-c

Hi :] Here's something i'm making for a university assignment. At this stage it's still quite early and a bit rushed, but I'd really like to make up for that and really make something of it, so I'd rather appreciate whatever constructive criticism you can give me :]

I'm not very confident in my organic modelling skills, so this is at least an oppurtunity to work on a weakness of mine. Images in a sec, but first, here's some items I'm aware of:

-Smoothing error on the tail - just a case of it not liking 1 smoothing group and a sharp angle. Already fixed with an extra edge loop in the right place :]
-Smoothing errors on the bony 'fins' along the spine - Again, the 'sharp edge/1 smoothing group' problem. For this one though, I've since fixed that by making the outer edges a different smoothing group.
-Speaking of the fins, I know they stick out a little. I'd modelled them first as part of the model, but had so much trouble getting it to work due to the asymmetry it seemed a lot easier to make them seperate, so they were modelled first, and the body after. Just yet to work on making the transition less noticable.
-The front legs are pretty bad. I'd quickly shaped them out and thought "right, i'll come back to that" but forgot before rendering. As mentioned, I'm not great with organics though, and would appreciate crits there still as I'm not likely to improve that hugely over what it is currently.
-The head: probably the worst part, embarassingly bad. Crits and paintovers of that area would be especially appreciated since I feel it's the model's main weakness.

Have some images!

P3D preview - p3d.in - Stegosaurus WIP





























Very early sculpt work:







edit: here's a more recent sculpt image:



Thanks for looking! Again, crits would be hugely appreciated :]

pete-c

Bump - anyone got a sec to offer crits? Thanks :]

stanley82

hi, if I would you I focuse on major shapes, more natural stance (even if it is mirrored), accentuate muscles.

Look at these. I can feel that they are heavy, muscles are clearly visible.




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Personally I would create simplier base mesh but as good as possible and the rest would do in sculpting. From my point of view your "base mesh" polycount is too high.

Keep on Im curious about progress

pete-c

^Good points, thanks :] I'll bulk out the muscles a bit, and as for the pose, I agree it doesn't look entirely natural as it is, but it'll be rigged soon so it might be easier to tweak the pose then.

A bit more progress, started on the textures (diffuse is just the basic colours+AO+one or two details). The brown-orange pattern coming down from the spine is obviously only in a small area currently and will expand along the length of the body. The eye is also a placeholder made from a couple google images results of 'reptile eye' and will be redone/I claim no credit for it.

Need to finish up the sculpt still - I'd started on some wrinkles around the legs but they're only at the top at the moment. The head seems a bit plain too.

Any suggestions on colouring? Like, any suggestions for realistic ways to add subtle colour variation beyond what I have now?

http://p3d.in/ydDUV - P3D preview

Half-size diffuse preview:


Feedback much appreciated as always!

pete-c

Bump - anyone got a sec for some crits? Thanks :] Perhaps more specifically on all matter of colouring and getting it looking believable - i'm not that experienced in organics.

Clos323

what i would do is throw this into marmoset toolbag put a skin shader on it to get some sub subsurface scattering if you trying to aim for realism..also are you using a specular map? right now its looks to like plastic and has a general shine/gloss across the whole body making it look like a toy. also the skins roughness is not correct in proportion..the details of skin or much more smaller in reference again this huge bumpy texture is throwing scale off and making it look like a toy. that green texture is also not working that well if you trying to match your reference. there is a variation of hues in what looks like a single color at first on the reference, dont be scared to straight out just color pick from reference. also the tail horn/bones/spikes whatever they are called look to flat and almost look completely white.. need to be darker and have small ridges and what not..overall you got a good start you just got to push this to the next level..i would take some time and really study the reference.. i cannot stress how important it is to study your reference before getting started on the modeling or texturing. hope that helps and good luck

Edit: if you are trying to do subtle color variation look into creating a custom brush either in zbrush or Photoshop that combines and lays down two colors and really think how the animals skin is put together..you really got to think in layers..for example lets say the inside was red or slight pink..i would lay down a quick base pass of that color down you can vary the the color by using using dodge or burn tool if you dont know how to make a custom brush in Photoshop and then just started getting a more de-saturated tones matching the outside color on top of that first base pass.. obviously not getting full coverage to slightly let some of those base colors through giving you nice tone variations..that was just a rough idea just to throw you in the right direction.

pete-c

-Yep, I'm using a specular map, and although it's currently set to a very low level, I'd agree that it probably does still look a bit too shiny. I'd turned it down tons, but apparently not enough :P That's a quick fix.

-As for the choice of colours, I've kind of went with my own thing to be honest, based off the wide array of colour interpretations others have made - Google image search 'stegosaurus' and it shows up in lots of different colours, since I assume there's no evidence left these days to indicate the exact colour skin that various dinosaurs had. Again though, I agree with the part where you'd suggested it might be a bit too green (ie saturated).

-Good point about the size of the scales, they are indeed a bit large. I'll try to correct that!

-Good ideas with the colour variation tips, I'll give those a go :]

That aside, here's the beginning of a CAT rig, something I'm new to, just about to start the skinning process. Have I done anything horribly wrong?