Near future power suit
polycounter lvl 10
Hey all. This is my first thread and one of my first concept paintings ever. I have painted textures and such in Photoshop, but nothing like this. So any tips on design or painting skill would be very appreciated.
The suit is powered by fuel cell technology. Clean power that can be stored for a short period of time. So that means refilling a lot.
This project is ment to grow my portfolio and further learn about the concept to 3D phase.
I will be modeling this character in Maya, then Zbrush for surface detailing. Looking for some help as I go through the process. Considering this is my very first character I am creating in 3D.
The suit is powered by fuel cell technology. Clean power that can be stored for a short period of time. So that means refilling a lot.
This project is ment to grow my portfolio and further learn about the concept to 3D phase.
I will be modeling this character in Maya, then Zbrush for surface detailing. Looking for some help as I go through the process. Considering this is my very first character I am creating in 3D.
Replies
The painting/concept is very detailed and seems pretty well developed. I love the look of the weapon,especially the rhythm of the rectilinear shapes, but I question the practicability of having hanging wires by the hilt. I would be very concerned about accidentally catching those wires on something.
The feet look very cool, but I'm not convinced that they would move sensibly like a human foot.
Nice work designing the armor to follow major anatomical structures, especially in the arms.
I recommend trying to get a few more areas in the armor that are not too heavy on the high frequency detail. These kinds of articulated armor suits are very cool and obviously require many many parts and segments, but visually can become uninteresting or overwhelming if the balance between plain large areas and finely detailed complicated areas is not maintained. Right now the eye tends to rest on the thighs because that is the biggest area of low-frequency details, but it would be nice if the upper chest or head had an area where the eye tends to rest too.
I'm excited to seeing more.
I agree with you on the wires hanging from the hilt on the sword. So I will have to revise that when I model. Almost every time I start a concept sketch, the model usually looks so much different than the initial concept. I tend to get better design ideas when I model.
And as far as the feet. Like I said before, this is one of my first paintings in Photoshop. So I still am not that good with developing my ideas on paper. I simply have not built up the skill yet. I am much more comfortable in Maya. I will take the functionality into consideration and make sure it works.
I also agree with you on the eyes resting on the thighs. I am thinking about getting rid of some detail all around the suit as opposed to adding detail on the thighs. I fell that It will start to look too busy and not properly flow.
That said, I do want to thank you again for your input and hope I can post as many WIP's as possible. I also would very much like to see your progress on your sci-fi armor suit. It would be great to see your workflow.
I just wanted to show my WIP on this helmet. Any suggestions?
I had a lot of trouble on getting the right shape of his helmet/head. At first it was really bubbly and cartoony looking. I do hope I captured a cool, badass, and mean looking but friendly vibe.
In composition or anything you look at in 2D, the eye needs space to not be drawn on to.
You want to give a point of attention (characters always have torso and head as attention point, so easy here) and put most detail there.
In a 3D game environment, the same applies kind of, but even more, aliasing makes your live even worse. Small detail is only becoming visual noise on distance and on low resolution mesh / screen / texture. And then aliasing is coming to kill it finally, making small things a shimmering mess.
Aside that, the head looks a lot like a bug to me, not sure if thats your intention, and the feet cannot be human : P I like the mechanical vibe with the shock absorbers and such , but I have an issue with the head, it just doesn't really convey the same thing. You have some important things different from your concept, like the nose, the direction (and form!) of those things that look like tiny bear ears, and the shape of the eyes + the mouth area
I can also see a lot of practical issues. Have you compared with a human model? I can't see how that guy would bend his arms or torso, thighs would have a lot of issues as well. You need to free up some armor space for the joints. The plates just can't cover everything while sitting so tight to the body. He's still got that suit underneath which would probably be able to take some abuse, thinking some futuristic Kevlar or something.
Alternatively if you want a lot of plating I suggest looking at medieval armor. Lots of interesting stuff to be found there.
Thank you all for all the feedback. I very much appreciate the time you all toke to give it to me straight. I do very much agree that this guy is way to detailed. But through the modeling process I kept thinking that I should make this as realistic and detailed as I possibly can. From what you all have said and the research I have put in, I know now the better ways of doing that.
Thanks again for the feedback. I am still very much in the learning phase.
I modeled the sword and character super detailed because that is the style I was going for, and its meant for a short cinematic. So I wanted the most possible detail to show realism. The game mesh will be much simpler as all of you suggested. I also am familiar with K.I.S.S. I just really wanted to pull of this detailed style for the short film.
You could really present this better overall, it's really fucking cool but it looks so flat.
KEYSHOT:D http://keyshot.com/
That can use cubemaps for the spec