Human Character WIP / realistic style

Rekmar

Hello fellow polycounters, been a while since I've posted anything here.

I spend my free time working on my own game using UDK (usually lurk the UDK forums), and now I've started working on what will eventually replace the main character in a future iteration (aimed towards UE4, which I'm assuming should replace UE3-UDK sometime in the medium/long term). my developer phylosophy is always about considering the lower-spec though, so I don't want to do something that looks super-cool using DX11 but looks like crap on DX9 and older hardware.

this time around I'm trying to go for something tending to a photorealistic* look (read: as photorealistic as both game shaders and my own art skills can get me).
thing is as I trust my own time:skill-ratio limitations, I've never tried doing a truly realistic character before. as this is a side/future project with no urgency I'm willing to take as much pointers and criticism as I can get without fear of redoing things so that I can create a realistic character and take a few learning steps in the process.

*so, photorealistic? well there's always gotta be a defined art style so I'll point to some reference to get things in perspective.
I could hope and dream to do something along the lines of url="http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/8130/20130219173050.jpg"]Crysis3[/url but being reasonable I'll have to settle for less
but yeah, realistic. as much as I love url="http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/7500/skyrimp.png"]Skyrim[/url despite its tech improvements from Oblivion it has some sort of slightly cartoony look, while older games like url="http://vygame.net/wp-content/uploads/2TheWitcher-Hero.jpg"]The Witcher 1[/url had a more realistic look despite the technology gap (though The Witcher 2 lost some of its realistic style IMO).
Bottom line: I'd try going for something between url="http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/32600000/Desmond-Miles-the-assassins-32617502-1662-870.png?1365091594243"]Assassin's Creed[/url and url="http://i1-games.softpedia-static.com/screenshots/Star-Wars-The-Force-Unleashed-2-Gameplay-Trailer_4.jpg"]SW Force Unleashed 2[/url


anyway the base mesh is pretty much done. that was the easy part because it branched out of my game's current character mesh. I've totally ditched the textures and UVW'd the mesh again though (gotta love pelt mapping)
it stands at 8.2k polys and I don't want to take it further in terms of polycount because the game is meant to have hair, clothes, armor and weapons on top of the base mesh. the mesh is divided in head and torso because the head will eventually use morph targets and I don't want full head+body mesh morph targets (plus the head shader will have some paperdolling features that the body won't). there's also some seams at the shoulders and wrists due to a dismemberment feature.
here's how it looks right now:


and here's how it looks on a shaded view with the start of the head's diffuse texture (left side, labelled "Nuevo"), and compared to my game's finished character (right side, labelled "Antiguo")

url="http://www.sanzpont.com/chosker/elium/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/eprisoner.jpg"]here's[/url an extra in-game shot of that old character, looks decent but there's a gap between it and what I want to achieve in terms of realism)

and the previous image brings me to the first point I want to ask/discuss about: the diffuse map. without having sculpted a hi-poly mesh yet, I started working in the diffuse map to make some tests.
making clear that the eyebrows and lips are just placeholders, here's how the texture stands right now:

you can see it's pretty feature-less and lacking painted shading, and that's what I want to ask about.
low-poly characters have always had most of its details baked/painted into the diffuse textures, while a high-poly character's diffuse map is usually just color while it leaves other details for the bump/spec/gloss/etc maps and the shader. as games' specs have escalated they've left the former behind and have come closer to the latter, but are we there yet? are the state of the art games relying on normal/spec/gloss for details and leaving diffuse for pure color? or are we still somewhere in between?
also how is photosourcing affected by all this?
so back to being relevant: what would set me in a better path towards realism?


other than that, I'd love to hear pointers and crits, as well as any tips and guidelines that might bring me closer to a more realistic look


btw this forum feels so oldschool having to type url and img tags manually

Rekmar

boy is this forum active. and here I was thinking I might cause a little argument

Rekmar

finally got some time for this character again.

I've adjusted the proportions a little and the topology a lot, and now I've started sculptin'
gotta say sculpting becomes easier with such a high poly model (~9k tris), something I'd never done like this - the head is untouched, it came up like that just by subdividing
still, it's hard not to go overboard with muscle definition as this isn't meant to be a beefed character

as stated in the original post I'm trying to go for photorealism as much as my skills allow me to, but with a very loose deadline that should allow me to iterate through it as needed to get better results
tips are welcome in this regard

Rekmar

I think I'm getting somewhere, but still barely entering the photorealistic realm
gotta say displaying the diffuse map in mudbox and painting bump directly really helps working on it as a whole (something I'd never done before)

feedback would be awesome