Thanks Smo, really glad you like it!
Well, I know, I had this coming!
I'm aware the polycount is quite high overall - and I know there are a couple of areas where I could have saved some polys with still reasonable silouhette etc. But I figured since this is a huge guy, a important boss enemy with cutscene stage time and, well, after all it's a portfolio piece - I thought with around 12 k polys I'm not too unrealisticly high.
..glad to have this of my artist-conscience!
- The paint (it's paint?) makes sense from the back, but from the front it reads more like dandruff, or dry skin. Bringing some of it down into the chest might help this.
- The skin is looking good, but the hue (personally) I think should be a bit more red, to make it read like actual skin. Right now I get the same read off of the dead heads, the live skin, and the leather (the leather is amazing by the way, love the weave).
- The skin of the heads could be a bit more blue. This, along with the more red skin of the baddie, would be a nice contrast, and could make him look more imposing and morbid, not to mention help with the above crit.
To expand on the paint suggestion ysalex made it may help by adding some Celtic swirls or something along those lines so it doesn't have that dusted effect.
Love the layered belts as well and stitched fabric, outstanding detail. Everything about this project is amazing, keeping rolling with this guys.
Thanks guys! I will definetely try to incorporate your critique!
And thanks for all the motivation you guys give us! So many talented artists in this thread - I feel flattered!
I also updated the Verold Project, so check the textures out in flat rendered mode here:
Hey Sanro and SaboR thanks for the comments, we're not thinking about Kickstarter atm, that would be too much unnecessary pressure for a fun only after work project
While spitballing around on the project we usually end up with lots of great ideas concerning the story and unique gameplay elements and maybe we share some thoughts as well at some point. Sadly we are lacking any code support so those will remain simple ideas.
After our female character gets captured and the tribe gets rid of her gear, she is forced to steal their stuffz! Here is a possible outfit
Thanks guys! Getting there!
I added specular maps now and updated the verold project, so check it out there in 3D!
[VEROLD]52433f7e68cb53020000022d[/VEROLD]
I tried to incorporate some of your critique, hopefully to the better! C&C always welcome!
I would say some yellow wear on the leather belts and some noise/cloth overlays on the big fellas skirt.
When I was playing the witcher 2 the ting that stood out among others things was the nice fresnel on the cloth, i can't find any decent enough pictures on google to post to show what I mean but some of that would be a nice addition when you get to that stage
Regarding the cloth in the witcher my guess is that they could have used an Oren-Nayar diffuse shading model. It looks very good on rough surfaces like cloth and stone. It may or may not be overkill to go that far, but it's something nice to keep in mind.
What you have is very impressive, and this is the devil's advocate in me typing this, but isn't making something that detailed a bit early for what is essentially pre-production?
On a similar note, the designs your team seems to have chosen for are more of the embellished fantasy kind, rellying more on archetypes, possibly even stereotypes, for good or worse), rather than actual historic accuracy. I'm not going to say realism because that word has lost all meaning and has a backpack full of [negative] connotations, but rather i'll use the phrase 'suspension of disbelief', implying that the world you have created around your game is believable within the context of the game. i.e. tf2's art style is not realistic by any stretch of the meaning, but it oozes suspension of disbelief because everything (except bright pink hats and accessories) within it makes a some king of sense, or has a purpose, even if it has no real bearings on reality.
Haha absolutely nasty amounts of progress on this bad boi.
What you saying for a release date next year at this rate huh?
avagoyamug The character you've been working on has really come on it's looking
great. Really loving the detail that you put in.
Got a few quick crits though to help get some more from it.
Firstly your really cool normal map barely shows through the subtleties that you put in meaning mainly the really fine details.
So would push those harder and make them more pronounced in your final model and just to be clear im not talking about the actual
topology I mean the REALLY fine skin details you put in.
Lastly the horns and stomach on your character is too shiny and to help your characters readability I would actually texture the flank of your character
similarly to how his back is textures and leave the center of your characters stomach the way it is.
I don't know for sure but if I remember correctly you said the characters habitat was somewhere near a volcanic region so maybe some
char and ashiness wouldn't go amiss either along with a contrary warpaint to bounce off of the existing one.
That isn't someone's intestines hanging round his neck is it that gross but gets the point across that he's a boss that's for sure lol.
audi100 Oh okay well that makes sense and obviously leaves plenty of room for challenge and levelling your character up with upgrades etc I get you in that case
keep it up everything looks great.
oni Awesome designs and loving the new and out there content looks great aswell.
thanks again for the ridiculous amount of motivation you give us with your constructive feedback!
About the fresnel: I took the model to Marmoset yesterday and played around with lighting and fresnel a bit, but with moderate success so far. We'll see if I can get it to work.
@re.wind: Thanks! You would shure be right if this was an actual game production, but since its more of a fun / portfolio project without a complete team or pipeline, I guess it does not really apply.
And you're right, we deliberately aimed for a strong consistent world, that is far from reality. To make this clear, I love history and realism - actually a lot of motivation for this project came from the novels of Bernard Cornwell, set around 800ad, when the danish and other northman, called vikings, raided and occupied england. I would also love to play a game around that, but I would rather WORK on something stilized like this, since realism leaves little creative freedome!
@Melonman: Thanks again for your feedback! Glad your like it!
I already darkened the flanks, you're absolutely right about that. It already came to my mind too. I'll also tweak the materials a bit further as soon as we now for which final medium we might decide.... It's probably gonna be UDK or Cryengine or so.
About the skin detail On the diffusemap it looks actually already really strong - I kind of hesitate to increase the cavity map even further. Maybe sharpen up the Normalmap a tiny bit?
Yeah maybe that will do the trick.
On closer inspection of the photo's I'm able to see more actually so maybe a sharpen pass will make them pop just that little bit more which is okay as he's a grizzly character as opposed to a soft skinned feminine character.
This would look awesome in either engine. Which engine have you been playing around in?
You guys are doing really well considering it's a part time project for real keep it up.
i'm really sorry, i don't understand the design of the guy...
he's really really big built, muscled, and CUT. almost his entire form looks like it has low body fat, but he has this huge bloated belly... it's not even a strongman belly, it's just this fucking huge pot belly. it makes no sense and it really kills the design for me.
while the villain is beeing rigged and skinned, I started work on the base of the main character... I'm quite happy with the proportions, but curious about what you think!
I might move the hip up a bit, to stylize the anatomy just a tiny bit more.
Also the face will propably need some more work to make her a bit more heroine, but I will fokus on something else for now to get a bit of distance again..
If your going with a stylized female then I think her proportions are more up to you and the concept artist as artist's to decide however if your looking to go with realism then I think her upper torso could be moved upward a little probably about the same length as from the top of her head to the base of her hair curl and then I think her proportions would be about right, that's if your going for more realism though.
Actually thinking about it more your character could also be quite short but stout strong woman type of build so if you work on shaping her inner thigh more her proportions would look good for that type of build as well tbh.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with her hair too.
It's looking great so far! I like to suggest that you could add some more mass to the upper arms, maybe by adding some extra volume and definition to the triceps. The rest of her body gives a sense of power and rigity, the upper arms do however seem a bit lean in comparison for someone who is capable of wielding a weapon. Otherwise I think you're heading in a great direction!
I worked a bit on the Outfit - gloves and boots are only blocked out, also all the straps holding it together are missing so use your imagination, please!
I worked a bit on the Outfit - gloves and boots are only blocked out, also all the straps holding it together are missing so use your imagination, please!
Puh, finally something new to show - I finished the retopo and baked a first pass..
Here's what the lowpoly looks like with normal and base dif (ao, cavity, gradient and lightglobe):
Everything is coming out sooo, good. The villain is awesome. I love the severed heads on his waist and his textures came out really nice The hero is coming out very nice as well, can't wait to see her textured!!
So far I blocked out the colors and values and painted in some values in addition to the bake.
Another alpha texture with fur is yet to come and will conceal some of that hard alpha on the owls feathers.
What do you guys think? Any suggestions on improvements? Any critique?
After you suggested that, I thought you might be right so I took her to Photoshop and measured the proportions but nope, anatomical center is exactly above the pubic mound.
This is beginning to look really good! It seems like it'll have that grungy feel God Of War achieved. Excited to see more and play it once its available!
Replies
Well, I know, I had this coming!
I'm aware the polycount is quite high overall - and I know there are a couple of areas where I could have saved some polys with still reasonable silouhette etc. But I figured since this is a huge guy, a important boss enemy with cutscene stage time and, well, after all it's a portfolio piece - I thought with around 12 k polys I'm not too unrealisticly high.
..glad to have this of my artist-conscience!
AMAZING WORKING! can't wait to see more!
What do you guys think about the warpaint?
For critique on the new texture I would say:
- The paint (it's paint?) makes sense from the back, but from the front it reads more like dandruff, or dry skin. Bringing some of it down into the chest might help this.
- The skin is looking good, but the hue (personally) I think should be a bit more red, to make it read like actual skin. Right now I get the same read off of the dead heads, the live skin, and the leather (the leather is amazing by the way, love the weave).
- The skin of the heads could be a bit more blue. This, along with the more red skin of the baddie, would be a nice contrast, and could make him look more imposing and morbid, not to mention help with the above crit.
Anyways, really looking cool. Great jobs guys.
Love the layered belts as well and stitched fabric, outstanding detail. Everything about this project is amazing, keeping rolling with this guys.
And thanks for all the motivation you guys give us! So many talented artists in this thread - I feel flattered!
I also updated the Verold Project, so check the textures out in flat rendered mode here:
[VEROLD]52433f7e68cb53020000022d[/VEROLD]
This looks awesome
Was about to post the same thing.
Everything in this thread looks amazing guys, very inspirational. keep it up!
While spitballing around on the project we usually end up with lots of great ideas concerning the story and unique gameplay elements and maybe we share some thoughts as well at some point. Sadly we are lacking any code support so those will remain simple ideas.
After our female character gets captured and the tribe gets rid of her gear, she is forced to steal their stuffz! Here is a possible outfit
I added specular maps now and updated the verold project, so check it out there in 3D!
[VEROLD]52433f7e68cb53020000022d[/VEROLD]
I tried to incorporate some of your critique, hopefully to the better! C&C always welcome!
I would say some yellow wear on the leather belts and some noise/cloth overlays on the big fellas skirt.
When I was playing the witcher 2 the ting that stood out among others things was the nice fresnel on the cloth, i can't find any decent enough pictures on google to post to show what I mean but some of that would be a nice addition when you get to that stage
edit:
http://content.gpwiki.org/index.php/D3DBook:%28Lighting%29_Oren-Nayar
On a similar note, the designs your team seems to have chosen for are more of the embellished fantasy kind, rellying more on archetypes, possibly even stereotypes, for good or worse), rather than actual historic accuracy. I'm not going to say realism because that word has lost all meaning and has a backpack full of [negative] connotations, but rather i'll use the phrase 'suspension of disbelief', implying that the world you have created around your game is believable within the context of the game. i.e. tf2's art style is not realistic by any stretch of the meaning, but it oozes suspension of disbelief because everything (except bright pink hats and accessories) within it makes a some king of sense, or has a purpose, even if it has no real bearings on reality.
Good luck with the project regardless
What you saying for a release date next year at this rate huh?
avagoyamug The character you've been working on has really come on it's looking
great. Really loving the detail that you put in.
Got a few quick crits though to help get some more from it.
Firstly your really cool normal map barely shows through the subtleties that you put in meaning mainly the really fine details.
So would push those harder and make them more pronounced in your final model and just to be clear im not talking about the actual
topology I mean the REALLY fine skin details you put in.
Lastly the horns and stomach on your character is too shiny and to help your characters readability I would actually texture the flank of your character
similarly to how his back is textures and leave the center of your characters stomach the way it is.
I don't know for sure but if I remember correctly you said the characters habitat was somewhere near a volcanic region so maybe some
char and ashiness wouldn't go amiss either along with a contrary warpaint to bounce off of the existing one.
That isn't someone's intestines hanging round his neck is it that gross but gets the point across that he's a boss that's for sure lol.
audi100 Oh okay well that makes sense and obviously leaves plenty of room for challenge and levelling your character up with upgrades etc I get you in that case
keep it up everything looks great.
oni Awesome designs and loving the new and out there content looks great aswell.
Mind me asking what engine your using for this?
Keep up the great work guys.
thanks again for the ridiculous amount of motivation you give us with your constructive feedback!
About the fresnel: I took the model to Marmoset yesterday and played around with lighting and fresnel a bit, but with moderate success so far. We'll see if I can get it to work.
@re.wind: Thanks! You would shure be right if this was an actual game production, but since its more of a fun / portfolio project without a complete team or pipeline, I guess it does not really apply.
And you're right, we deliberately aimed for a strong consistent world, that is far from reality. To make this clear, I love history and realism - actually a lot of motivation for this project came from the novels of Bernard Cornwell, set around 800ad, when the danish and other northman, called vikings, raided and occupied england. I would also love to play a game around that, but I would rather WORK on something stilized like this, since realism leaves little creative freedome!
@Melonman: Thanks again for your feedback! Glad your like it!
I already darkened the flanks, you're absolutely right about that. It already came to my mind too. I'll also tweak the materials a bit further as soon as we now for which final medium we might decide.... It's probably gonna be UDK or Cryengine or so.
About the skin detail On the diffusemap it looks actually already really strong - I kind of hesitate to increase the cavity map even further. Maybe sharpen up the Normalmap a tiny bit?
On closer inspection of the photo's I'm able to see more actually so maybe a sharpen pass will make them pop just that little bit more which is okay as he's a grizzly character as opposed to a soft skinned feminine character.
This would look awesome in either engine. Which engine have you been playing around in?
You guys are doing really well considering it's a part time project for real keep it up.
he's really really big built, muscled, and CUT. almost his entire form looks like it has low body fat, but he has this huge bloated belly... it's not even a strongman belly, it's just this fucking huge pot belly. it makes no sense and it really kills the design for me.
while the villain is beeing rigged and skinned, I started work on the base of the main character... I'm quite happy with the proportions, but curious about what you think!
I might move the hip up a bit, to stylize the anatomy just a tiny bit more.
Also the face will propably need some more work to make her a bit more heroine, but I will fokus on something else for now to get a bit of distance again..
Actually thinking about it more your character could also be quite short but stout strong woman type of build so if you work on shaping her inner thigh more her proportions would look good for that type of build as well tbh.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with her hair too.
Your main lady looks kinda like someone Im working on on the side, hooray for really cool character design!
Keep at it!!
heres a first glimpse on the rigged villain, though:
Le gasp the pics don't work ><
Now it broke down here too, I think the ImageShack servers have problems at the moment..
Finished the highpoly of our hero. Retopo now..
Here's what the lowpoly looks like with normal and base dif (ao, cavity, gradient and lightglobe):
So far I blocked out the colors and values and painted in some values in addition to the bake.
Another alpha texture with fur is yet to come and will conceal some of that hard alpha on the owls feathers.
What do you guys think? Any suggestions on improvements? Any critique?
After you suggested that, I thought you might be right so I took her to Photoshop and measured the proportions but nope, anatomical center is exactly above the pubic mound.
I think it's the hair that throws the proportions off, she'll probably look fine in a more natural pose.
Really great stuff so far, really looking forward to seeing some environments.