Link Hero of Time - Celtic Redesign

EmJaeR

I've posted this guy a couple times in the What are you working on thread but I figured he deserves his own thread now. So to fill you guys in, this is a redesign of Adult Link from Ocarina of Time. I plan to do all three tunics Kokiri, Goron, & Zora. But I plan to make them a bit more practical, for example, the Goron tunic which protects you from fire, I want to actually make some type of armor that looks like it can resist fire rather than just a color change. I am rendering these in Marmoset (although I may do unreal).

Here is the first tunic, it's still a work in progress and I have a lot to do. The weapons are baked out I just haven't textured them yet.



Cheers!

Shiniku

Oh wow, very good job! I like it a lot. Any chance of seeing wireframes, texture breakdowns, etc?

Even though logically an adult Link may look a little more grisled than we see in the games, his youthful and clean-cut look is a big part of the character IMO. Seeing that (relatively) tough-looking face paired with the whimsical hairdo just looks a bit odd to me. But that's more of a nitpick on the design.

I think you could push the differences in your material definition a bit more.

I look forward to seeing more progress!

EmJaeR

Thanks Shinku!

I totally agree with the materials, I am still testing different types of material for the clothing to break up the variations a bit more. As for the hair and clean cut look. I trying different things I tried getting rid of the stubble and stuff to give him that clean cut look, it fits better with the hair but not the rest of the design or what I was going for. I still have a bit to do on the hair alphas such as adding unevenness and stray strands and such, I'm hoping that will help fit the design I want better while still keeping his iconic "do".

I can possibly post some wireframes later on today or tomorrow but for the texture sheets I prefer not to post them until I am complete/happy with the texture and moving onto the next stage.

Thanks for the crits!

BradMyers82

Really cool work man! The way the biceps are connecting is incorrect. There should be a small gap there where the insertion point is. I also think the facial features could be a bit more soft. I would imagine he would have a less prominent brow for example and larger ears as well. Really great work though, looking forward to seeing more!

EmJaeR

Thanks BradMyers82. I'll take a look at his biceps and see what's up. I agree with the ears I think I might make them a bit bigger but not too much as I'm not trying to oversell the elf ears. The brow probably won't change I'll take a look at it when I'm doing my pass over the face and tweaking features to fit the hair and such.

Thanks!

Fenyce

I'd desaturate and light up his hair just a little, that it looks more like... an ash-blond color or such. He just looks way to realistic for this haircolor.

Selaznog

Yah, like I mentioned in the WAYWO thread, the hair just doesn't match the face well.

Actually, it might not even be the hair. I think it's the hat. Maybe if you replaced it with a hood instead? Though I know this would probably be too far off from original Link

EmJaeR

@Fenyce - That's a good idea. I'll try playing around with the saturation and color a bit, the ash blond might work better. Cheers!

@Selaznog - I don't plan on changing the hat as it is an iconic part of his look. I'm more likely going to be tweaking the hair. The alphas aren't final I still have a lot to do with it and add some stray hairs so it doesn't look so "perfect" and clean cut as the rest of him isn't.

Thanks for the crits guys!

SUPAVISI

This is awesome, you don't wanna push the metal material to be brighter on the belts, seems to blend in too much with the leather. But honestly really liking the direction of this

EmJaeR

Did some quick tweaks to the hair color as well as the alphas. Thanks for the crits guys I think it's looking better. Still gotta play with the materials though.

HomeGrownHeroz

This is great! I'd love to see him holding the sword and shield in your final renders

EmJaeR

@SUPAVISI- Thanks! Which belts in specific do you think are too bright right now?

@HomeGrownHeroz - Oh don't worry he'll have his sword and shield in hand They are baked out I just haven't started texturing them yet. I plan to start and do a bit tonight.

Roxxor

I really like everything on this character... except the hat. I have always thought the hat looked both ridiculous, and that it would fall off in the first battle it saw. Almost like a Indiana Jones gag where he always had to go back and recover it after. Maybe consider a full redesign into a hat like this:

http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/200876-/Dandelion_Illustration-noscale.jpg

Or maybe weave something into his hair and hat that makes it realistic.
Just an idea.

Poribo

Amazing, love the texture work. It's a well made model, can't wait till the final renders

EmJaeR

Threw some quick textures on the weapons still have a ton to do with it just thought I'd update it quick for you Green toothed artists

tonysladky

I'm really digging this. A couple minor nitpicks:

1. Maybe I've just been misled by years of seeing stylized, oversized boots on fantasy characters, but everything from the knees down just feels too small. Might be more realistic than what I'm used to, but it feels off.
2. Not that you didn't do a really nice job on the sword and shield, but I'm a bit disappointed that they're basically just the ones from OOT covered with a bunch of Celtic knots. For one thing, all those knots make them feel really busy. For another thing, I feel like you're missing a sweet opportunity to reimagine those iconic pieces of equipment as inspired by different styles of swords and shields.
3. You've got two different versions of the Hylian crest. On the shield, you've got the one from OOT, where the bird and the Triforce are two separate entities. On Link's tunic, you've got the one from… Twilight Princess? The OOT rereleases? Not sure where it started, but the one where the bird has the Triforce for its head. It's a minor detail, but some unity there might be a good idea.

The execution on the chainmail is really sweet, and all in all, it's an awesome redesign.

EmJaeR

Finally got some time to work on it this weekend. Tweaked the shield and the eyes and a couple of other things. I'm just working on the platform/composition that I want to try and put him in, also gotta rig this bad boy as well.

NickT3D

I think you need to do a little more work on the face. Not that the face looks bad at all, it just doesn't look like link. even adult link from ocarina of time is only 19. so he would still look very young.

Other than that i cant contain the excitement of how freaking awesome this looks.

peanut™

EmJaeR looks rad.. i like it a lot, maybe a bigger sword (larger)

pes

is he left-handed?

almighty_gir

link was always left handed, except for twilight princess on the wii, where they flipped the entire world (that's right, they flipped the entire world) to be right handed. in the gamecube version of twilight princess he was left handed still.

Tits

It's looking great!
Love the kind of realistic treatment and the design of the cloth, it's very nice work!

HomeGrownHeroz

Love the shield. looks fantastic

Fenyce

If I'm not mistaken he's also right handed in skyward sword... I read somewhere, that they stayed with that because of the wii gamepads... because most people are right handed and so their movements would fit Links better.
It's kinda sad, that they changed that... because he has been left handed for soooo many years.

Waiting for the env and the rig!

praetus

I like it but the shield face feels really noisy. The designs on the sword are nice, clean and easy to read but the shield feels like you used a black brush and just grunged it up in the diffuse.

garriola83

this is so badass, but some parts are hard to get a good read. keep going

BobtheGreatII

Holy crap. Keep working at it, this is really awesome.

praetor187

I love this redesign, im looking forward to the other ones as well. the Zora tunic was always my favorite so I cant wait to see what you'll do for that one. Sick work man subscribed for sure.

EmJaeR

Here is a composite of Link. Don't really like this part, don't know if I'm going to use this final composite but it's Sunday and I'm tired so I thought I'd post before I go back at it later.

JoshuaMorrisonInk

It has a very similar feel to Skyrim. The main thing that caught my eye right away was the sheath looks like stone not gold. Most of the materials are very subtle which I think is fine but the gold just comes off as unfinished.

[SF]Three9

Gotta agree about the gold...it needs some smoothing and more shine

Kind of a late critique, but the folds in the knee seem pretty awkward and super dark

almighty_gir

what's that big brown line going down the side of his arm?

EmJaeR

Did some Tweaks. I agree with the gold. Most of it was just the light angle especially in the back view. The brown line down is arm was some weird normal stuff and a combination of the light. I fixed that as well. Thanks all!

katana

Gorgeous. The pedestal is a little too noisy for my taste, but you did a nice job.

Axios

Maybe it's just me, but the red coloring in the render simply screams Marmoset and I think that bringing that back down a little would take less attention away from your work, which is pretty great by the way. Really like the scabbard.

warxsnake

I like it! I like the gauntlets.

Guy kinda looks like Karl Urban.

EmJaeR

Thanks guys!