Legend of Zelda; Link redesigned
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hey there PC
Decided I needed to abandon my generalized WIP thread and create a thread with more focus to possibly get more feedback. If you don't want to read my entire post, scan the orange text for summary :P. At the time of posting, the most recent progress can be seen at the bottom if you'd like to just skip to it. This thread will basically be the journey of me getting to final product, so this original post is just recounting my progress.
I'm a huge Legend of Zelda fan, and i've always wanted to work on Link...I'm finally embarking on that journey and I'm also using him as the first piece to update my portfolio http://www.threenineart.com to my new established skill and style. My portfolio, looking at it, just feels rushed and doesn't accurately represent the full quality I am capable of; so let's get started with my progress
This is only a VERY small portion of the art I have gathered for creating Link (I probably have over 100-200 images of fan-art and official art for Link)
Started out with some basic sketches to help establish the direction I wanted to go. In creating this project, I intended to design Link as if he was in his mid to late 20's
I didn't want to just make Link, I wanted to redesign him completely but still keep his essence...Everyone has seen old man Link, and it's an absolute fantastic design...I love what the original artist did with him, so I decided to rip the shape of the tunic and just go from there...my focus was looking at the design of Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess and taking all the inspiration I found and applying it to my design
Ultimately I wanted to create a bit of "realism" to him as far as design is concerned, in a very generalized way Assassins Creed creates their characters and how all their equipment is visible and sheathed somewhere. There is a ruggedness and air about Ezio and the others that just clearly reads they are ready for battle and geared for it
I wanted to emulate that sense with a second variation of upgraded armor that would be on a separate texture sheet, but ultimately decided that what I designed at that point just seemed a bit too much and didn't fit. I did, however, love my concept of redesigning the Razer Sword as a dagger, and to have that as an additional weapon on his hip.
Normally when I texture handpainted, I rely solely on my own brush strokes and haven't really involved AO bakes or any kind of vertical gradient to my process, and I saw this as a chance to experiment. Through two different types of AO Layers and an additional two different layer types of my Gradient, this was the result, and I was really pleased with how it helped in getting to my current point.
Later I ended up also baking down some lighting, but it affected my model in unpleasant ways...I may redo it, or try and implement that layer ontop of the final texture when he's done.
Using the same process of layer types and my approach to texturing, is the current progress of my Hylian Shield. It is not done either, but definitely happy with the direction. Lighting and bringing life to my work is something I personally feel like my portfolio suffers from, so it's fun challenging myself to work on all these different materials. I'm going to go back and add some blues greens and reds to the metalwork a bit and help give it some variation...Something I really appreciate about the first render of the shield, is the sheer darkness and feel to it that I think blends with the character well, but obviously it's metal and needs to shine. I think by lower the highlights a little bit and then going back and add some hot shines on the metal to make it really pop with polish will help achieve the look I desire...after that I'll add some battle scratches and evident use to it. I want it to appear used, yet not damaged from battle. I think the blue paint could also use a focused area of light to it, but still no where near as glossy as the metal.
This is also the current progress of Link and the shield together. While there are still a few things to him I need to go back and do, like polishing the seams of his pants, adding more hightlights and lighting to his leather and clothes, and also making a second pass on his hair, he is "essentially" done. I think it's important to note that, while I am doing a hand-painted piece with lighting and shadows baked down, I do intend, for the final product, to have a lit render with specular map for a very polished piece.
Decided I needed to abandon my generalized WIP thread and create a thread with more focus to possibly get more feedback. If you don't want to read my entire post, scan the orange text for summary :P. At the time of posting, the most recent progress can be seen at the bottom if you'd like to just skip to it. This thread will basically be the journey of me getting to final product, so this original post is just recounting my progress.
I'm a huge Legend of Zelda fan, and i've always wanted to work on Link...I'm finally embarking on that journey and I'm also using him as the first piece to update my portfolio http://www.threenineart.com to my new established skill and style. My portfolio, looking at it, just feels rushed and doesn't accurately represent the full quality I am capable of; so let's get started with my progress
This is only a VERY small portion of the art I have gathered for creating Link (I probably have over 100-200 images of fan-art and official art for Link)
Started out with some basic sketches to help establish the direction I wanted to go. In creating this project, I intended to design Link as if he was in his mid to late 20's
I didn't want to just make Link, I wanted to redesign him completely but still keep his essence...Everyone has seen old man Link, and it's an absolute fantastic design...I love what the original artist did with him, so I decided to rip the shape of the tunic and just go from there...my focus was looking at the design of Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess and taking all the inspiration I found and applying it to my design
Ultimately I wanted to create a bit of "realism" to him as far as design is concerned, in a very generalized way Assassins Creed creates their characters and how all their equipment is visible and sheathed somewhere. There is a ruggedness and air about Ezio and the others that just clearly reads they are ready for battle and geared for it
I wanted to emulate that sense with a second variation of upgraded armor that would be on a separate texture sheet, but ultimately decided that what I designed at that point just seemed a bit too much and didn't fit. I did, however, love my concept of redesigning the Razer Sword as a dagger, and to have that as an additional weapon on his hip.
Normally when I texture handpainted, I rely solely on my own brush strokes and haven't really involved AO bakes or any kind of vertical gradient to my process, and I saw this as a chance to experiment. Through two different types of AO Layers and an additional two different layer types of my Gradient, this was the result, and I was really pleased with how it helped in getting to my current point.
Later I ended up also baking down some lighting, but it affected my model in unpleasant ways...I may redo it, or try and implement that layer ontop of the final texture when he's done.
Using the same process of layer types and my approach to texturing, is the current progress of my Hylian Shield. It is not done either, but definitely happy with the direction. Lighting and bringing life to my work is something I personally feel like my portfolio suffers from, so it's fun challenging myself to work on all these different materials. I'm going to go back and add some blues greens and reds to the metalwork a bit and help give it some variation...Something I really appreciate about the first render of the shield, is the sheer darkness and feel to it that I think blends with the character well, but obviously it's metal and needs to shine. I think by lower the highlights a little bit and then going back and add some hot shines on the metal to make it really pop with polish will help achieve the look I desire...after that I'll add some battle scratches and evident use to it. I want it to appear used, yet not damaged from battle. I think the blue paint could also use a focused area of light to it, but still no where near as glossy as the metal.
This is also the current progress of Link and the shield together. While there are still a few things to him I need to go back and do, like polishing the seams of his pants, adding more hightlights and lighting to his leather and clothes, and also making a second pass on his hair, he is "essentially" done. I think it's important to note that, while I am doing a hand-painted piece with lighting and shadows baked down, I do intend, for the final product, to have a lit render with specular map for a very polished piece.
Replies
To achieve my sense of "assassins creed realism" with this piece, I wanted the final product to have:
Master Sword
Sheath
Hylian Shield
Quiver
Hero's Bow
*Possibly the Razer Sword/Dagger
If you are familiar with Link, you will be aware he is a bit of an agile, nimble rogue. He is quick and can do things like rolling and flips. I would PREFER him to have all of those on his person at the same time. While this is video game art and I can "do what I want," I want to be a bit reasonable with how I attach his gear. I am intending to make Link right handed, so while I know how to place his shield, sword, and dagger, the Bow I am a bit perplexed as to how to sheath it.
Currently I have it "clipping" somehow on the underside of the sword sheath and shield, right by his quiver. I feel like the current placement of everything, he should be able to roll on his left shoulder to some reasonable degree, and his equipment placement shouldn't affect his range of motion and ability to fight and be agile
HOWEVER; He is right handed, so he would hold his bow with his left hand (the bow is technically going to be upside down, so he would reach under to his back, grab the top of the bow, which would be the bottom from our view, and flip it around ready to load....but his quiver will be positioned on his left side?
I've been trying to do a lot of research on this and really can't find much, so I've had to rely on imagery of Legolas from LOTR...there are several shots of him with bow in left hand and quiver on left, but usually when he is firing his arrows his quiver has shifted to his right right for his right hand to grab
In archery of actual combat and entertainment, is it reasonable to any degree to load your bow from the opposite shoulder of which hand you use to grab? I have personally sat here and went through the motions, and I feel it's acceptable, but not sure if it's exactly reasonable. If this does not work, I'm a bit lost as to how to design his setup. Any feedback on that would be great
Honestly I would just have him hold the bow. If you are set on making something though here are some image to explain how it would actually work.
I don't want him to hold everything, just the items I listed...Never seen that concept before, I kinda dig it
I'd perhaps tone down the orange on his skin, he looks like he's just had a severe spray-tan. Perhaps tweak it more in the direction of the cool blue/purple colours that the rest of his texture shades towards.
To clarify the gauntlet, if it's not understood, I designed it with the intent of that thick blue cloth being wrapped around his arm, with three leather bands strapped holding it in place...the straps have those rings that are attached to them, and the gauntlet armor would actually hook in and snap into place...kinda seemed like a good way to be able to attach his guard and be able to update and such
Shield: I actually didn't even consider reflection of attacks when designing the shield...while I really love my design, this is something I may have to reconsider in the full scope of things...good call
As far as it's exaggeration, it was an intended feature (The Master Sword concept also is a bit exaggerated in form, although I'm going to be excluding and revising a few things). The Hylian shield is suppose to be the best of the best shields, so increasing it's thickness and beefing it up seemed appropriate to me. I don't think it could hurt re-evaluating this though. After all, a couple people pointed out that Link's torso/legs weren't long enough (as seen in the first 3 renders), and they were absolutely correct
Boots: They do seem a bit simple, and I realized I had meant to go back and add details as seen on the gauntlet like they are done in Twilight Princess and I forgot...I wanted to add a little bit of Ocarina of Time design to him, and ultimately chose the boots to go for that....I really probably should go back and see what else can be done there for sure
Pants: I think I have to agree with you and touch that area up at some point...it does seem a bit plain and bland in comparison...though I do think in the overall view of Link, there are points in his tunic that are decent areas for your eyes to rest, and I think the pants serve this purpose as well going from his torso to his boots
Crit: He looks a little cross-eyed to me (only in the facing-the-camera angles, really). I think it's because his eyes are mirrored, so the highlights are on the outside of both pupils, rather than being to the right of both of them, for instance.
Great work!
My second gripe would have to be with the shield. It's far too small. Well maybe that's an exaggeration, but right now it looks like Link's holding a Deku Shield sized shield. I think it would really help to look at some pictures of Link holding the Hylian Shield, and note how much of his body it actually covers. I guess what I'm saying is that right now, it doesn't look like it would actually protect his body much, it's not something he can hide behind. Note OoT:
But that's really it. I really love the progress on it, and dig your design choices. Very original take on Link.
Thank you guys so much, ill be sure to get on some of these, like the pants, right away
First up I gotta say I absolutely LOVE your design and the direction this is going in!
I don't think there's much you really need to change on this guy, the design and style are really nice. I think the extreme-ness that's bothering you could be coming from the colors.
Here's a paintover and a few suggestions, maybe it will help you think of some alternatives.
Breakdown of what I did in the paintover:
- I started out by adding a gradient set to mult at a 30% opacity or so.
- Next I color picked your brightest green color at the top and aligned all the colors to a triad color scheme based on the yellow/green color.
(added purple in the browns, more cyan/blue in the metals)
- From there I color mixed by creating a color layer and painting with low opacity putting a little bit of the other 2 colors in each color to bring down saturation in some ares. Chances are my monitor is funky because here it looked like he had a sunburn. But after looking at it on another computer it doesn't seem so intense.
- After that it was just some quick overlays to draw attention to the face and hands.
- Final step was a quick levels adjustment.
EDIT: I forgot to say in I also added a gradient to the saturation so he gets less saturated as it goes down to the boots.
Just my two cents, hope it helps.
I feel like his pants need to stick around the tan/white area, rather than go so dark brown...the darker boots i think is a good way to go, but in addition to adding some purple highlights like u can see in his gloves
Im so excited for all this feedback...i wish i was at my computer...its killing me to not be working on it lol...cant wait to get back to him...probably wont be able to touch him until Saturday
I'm getting a sneaking suspicion that I need to calibrate my monitor :P. I know you're going for a diffuse only look which generally isn't too dark. Srry boutz that, But I'm glad it helped! :P
EDIT: Dam... after viewing this in PS on my work machine vs. at home in my web browser... yesh it's a pretty drastic difference. Thanks for letting me know SF! Below is closer, although not exact, to what I was seeing(My quick adjustments lost a bit of the pop in saturation).
I'm pretty happy with the results so far
Still feels dark to me, but i do like it
@Artquest and Zac
A friend also said the pants and skin tone are too similar, and i totally agree
I havent been able to work on him since i made that drastic texture update, but will most certainly return to him Saturday...im hoping to finish the Hylian Shield tomorrow, that way Saturday I can spend all day on link, modeling out the rest of the assets, and possibly start texturing them...back to the pants though, im a straight up sucker for vibrancy...have to use that to my advantage and compliment it with appropriate value and saturation...always something to learn and implement, and thats what I love about being an artist; using your strengths and weaknesses together, and continueing to learn new things, as well as learn from mistakes
I do, however, need to start refamiliarizing myself with 3d Max for my new job i start at the end of June, so progress on Link may come to a halt for a bit...i am considering porting him Max temporarily to work on the rest of the assets so i can continue though
Cant wait to impress you guys with the progress I make...looking forward to getting more critique
Still really digging your work.
heh I can completely understand wanting to make the entire thing vibrant, and I think overall it's working really well for the character. The only reason I mention the pants is because if everything is vibrant then nothing is vibrant. Your eyes wont know where to look. It's actually competing for dominance with the face which should be the focal point. Try to think of your character as a composition. How do you want your eye to bounce around the image?
Looking at the original zelda... I forgot that his pants were white/beige when I did my paintover so I agree with you, it probably shouldn't be very dark. Usually the human eye will go to the areas that are brightest/with most contrast first. But notice how the original character designer combats the bright color by also making it the most boring place to look at. Almost 0 detail and little to no contrast/saturation. So your eye flows down the character, ignoring the pants, going to the boots and then bounces back and heads towards the face again. Maybe try something like that and see how it looks?
keeping an eye on this! keep it up!
I love you're design and can't wait to see the changes for the pants!
Just getting to work; got a few things on my plate
For Link
-want to address the pants for sure (possibly remodeling as I agree it is very forgetful and looks too bland), so that and texture
-still working on the face and hair, made a few changes that I think really help already, but gotta get that skin tone right and hair looking good
-polish the leather
-add more excitement to the boots
-tweak the colors and shadows; one critique i got outside PC was shadows are too saturated...while I love the color there, this probably is correct
-possibly create the rig? Wont have time for weighting unless im a badass today
Hylian Shield
-work on lighting and finish it...my yellow glow from the Triforce also is too dark and almost looks like a shadow
-make an effect for it?
Master Sword
-model (including sheath)
-unwrap
-begin texturing
Hero's Bow
-model (including quiver, arrows, and straps)
-unwrap
-begin texturing
Going to be either updating throughout the day as i do things/need feedback, or have a grand reveal later...dont like spamming my thread, but this is what PC is for ;P
So, to tide you over, here is some pretty renders, and a view of some VERY minor work i did yesterday...first two renders are actually rendered in a lit scene with some shadows...very basic test spec-map, but I really probably need to make the diffuse darker and make a more appropriate specular map...setting up different shaders for different materials is probably another thing I should setup too :P
@ Fenyce Dude GO FOR IT!
Over the next year, I do have TONS of Zelda characters I want to make in my spare time to match this Link, including a Ganondorf. It would be really awesome if anyone else wanted to join me and make characters to go along with mine, or their own style. I encourage and CHALLENGE anyone else to do so
Ganondorf (I LOVE LOVE LOVE this concept and proportions)
http://maaronficken.deviantart.com/art/Warlord-Ganon-272372359
Gerudo
Zora
Goron?
http://raysama.deviantart.com/art/Darunia-149005156
Deku?
Zelda (while I love the series and love Zelda, I am anything but excited to work on her...this is probably more of a reason to do this, however, as getting out of my comfort zone and making a non-badass character is beneficial in several ways...While I would initially want to make her a "bit" battle ready, she really should retain her princess stature...I'd love to challenge myself to create a hybrid of both, where she could battle yet still retains her elegance and grace as a woman and princess)
Such as this
http://maaronficken.deviantart.com/art/Zelda-271774805
Zora Tunic Link
Goron Tunic Link
Don't think there is really any other charcter I'd be focusing on after that, other than maybe Epona and Ganondorf's steed...and I think I have enough of a list to even have a chance for making Beast Ganon
Consdering uploading all my Zelda art I've gathered at some point if anyone is interested, but idk...I've gathered HUNDREDS of fan-art and concept art, and I don't like dishing out people's work without their permission...no way I could track everyone down...I know it's on the internet and no one will honestly care, but still
The green of his hoody is really great now!
You pant critics out there will be happy to know its being redone ;P
Detailed up the boots (couldnt work the details of twilight princess design on the boots; just didnt work well)
Also polished up the leather a bit
More work tomorrow, though ill only have half a day, so we will see what I can get done, blah
Hope you can all forgive me and enjoy the new boots, pants, and some lighting/ shadow tweaks
Shadows def still need a good amount of work...want to normalize it so its more consistant...currently the shadow on the pants isnt dark enough under the tunic, and pants are prob still too dark
Currently working on another gradient layer that will help focus the eye back to his face (through many many layers and tweaks that original result is kind of non-existant anymore...this layer is also going to be duped and edited to serve as a shadow/highlight layer pass too through one of two ways
1) erase the areas I want lit, kind of obvious i suppose
2) make it greyscale, crunch the levels and get a pretty solid "fake ao/normal detail" essentially...compliment that by taking a flattened layer and doing a highpass on it for an overlay ONTOP of the "fake ao/ normal detail", then finally applying this as a mask to a gradient layer ( set to luminosity and very transparent for a hopefully super sweet lit effect), then also inverting that mask and creating a multiply layer out of it to create my non-sculpted DOTA 2 gradient mask
Another way I could utilize this is just a mask (inverted and/or not) for messing with color intensities in regards to lit and shadowed areas
I dont know if method 2 would interest anyone, ive just been doing a lot of experimentation and I'd just like to share some of the cooler things I've found...the highpass filter is getting some pretty wicked results for me...setting it to overlay is pretty much a sharpen filter, without all the shitty super intensified value pixels that make my textures look like shit...I'm really excited to test this out...ill be heading to work here soon and Ill post the results...if anyone wants a more detailed "tutorial" if the results are good, ill be sure to put something together
Looking really nice! The latest update is great. I would love to see a breakdown of method 2. It sounds quite interesting.
The new updates are really nice, though I'm going to continue to harp on the pants! :P I feel like they still draw so much attention to an area that isn't a focal point. It has less actual detail but it has a high brightness/contrast and the saturation value is in the same range as the rest of the model. The pants themselves are excellently textured. It's 100% a design thing.
Can't wait to see another update! and don't worry about the amount of time spent :P There's always another weekend when it comes to personal stuff. I've had to come to grips with this myself when it comes to free time. Try not to stress over it. Sometimes life happens.
My issue is I want to keep the pants and shirt the same color; if i make it too dark it wont match; however, Im startin to think thats not the way to go; maybe it should be a separate color so it doesnt look like a one piece suit...ill see what I can do
...SO, I had GREAT results with my fake dota 2 implementation
I made a decent AO through a greyscale levels crunch, and also made a point light map doing the same thing with a gradient layer applied...both textures required some painting tweaks while it was crunched, but Im really happy with some of the results
Now, going into this, I realize that the results im showing are either super intense or barely noticeable...You can give feedback on what one you like or not, im just showing the results...i can prob put a "tutorial" together either this week or the weekend
So lets show the original one without this affect applied
With the style applied through different layer types, these were the final results. I walked myself through their texture guide and pretty much followed the steps, including having the first layer just be base colors
Again this implementation still needs work and some tweaks, but I'm really happy with some of the looks i generated through a really rushed creation...the 3rd is my favorite result....Going to try and do more and update before work
i do kinda feel like I might be getting lost in the polished phase and I might be losing my focus on the final result, im just having so much fun experimenting...think I might try things a bit more but then force myself to move on
I just meant to say that if you make it a bright color make sure it's balanced between all of the options so that it doesn't feel out of place. The pants are working really well in the latest one even without the dota 2 adjustments. The face and belts have become the focal point now which is making a very nice composition imo.
I'm in a huge rush, but I think I'm officially calling the character mesh DONE
more details later
**edit
Oh wait, i lied... His eyebrows still need tweaks...blaaaah
And Artquest; pants better now? I totally see to what you are referring to now, and it makes sense
How about showing us some texture sheets?
Will you also do an little enviroment to place him in?
@Fenyce
um, I don't know...I've tossed the idea around, but I think at most I'd just make a stand for him...really not sure yet :P...still gotta make his gear and rig him, so that's a ways off
Oh, and flats too... Im a little disappointed to post em, seeing as how the entire head and hair are modeled (even under the hood an head) and havent textured those areas yet :P...still, ill post em anyway
as Promised, here is the texture flat as it stands, as well as a new 3D mesh to view at p3d.in (If you haven't checked this website out yet, you seriously need to...it's too bad it doesn't have iOS support)
Link Redesigned (View in 3D)
excuse the hidden hair and head :x
I am pretty excited; I was able to crunch him down to a 512 and he looks just great! In previous textures his face got all f'ed up, but this new works very well
Also need to brighten up those fingernails and the tops of his fingers too...gaaah...art is never done :P
the more time I spend on showing off this process, the more cheeky and arrogant I feel in claiming I'm replicating the Dota 2 style, but meh...worst case scenario it's still a technique people might like :P
should be uploading a PDF within the air for your viewing pleasure, and then it's back to work