Napoleanna Bonaparte (Rule 63) - Learning Experience

PyrZern

So, I have been working on this personal project for the last few days now. And I think it's time I put this WIP on this board. If you would be so kind, I could use advice and suggestions, including words of encouragement

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Objectives
- Successfully bake Normal Map and AO. (I have never neatly baked one)
- Nicely colorize the piece in Photoshop. (I did texture one of my stuff... It looked bad.)
- Rig the Character for basic pose. (in Maya) And render a few beauty shots.

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Reference Sheets
- I mostly got the idea from combining Admiral Nelson, Joan of Arc, and Napoleon together.

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This is where I am at right now.

The hair is currently a placeholder from my previous face sculpting practice. Though it won't change much.



Thank you for looking!

PyrZern

Will come back to the sleeves later. Hair next.

PyrZern

Or Waterloo Miss Fortune <_<" ROFL FML for not playing LoL.

PyrZern

Proportion seems off... Her jacket sleeves and arms make her look upside-down triangle. And seems like upper body is too big... But she's already 9-head tall. I will see about shortening upper body a bit. and her arms too.

LRoy

You should check out this. You guys use almost the same ref.

http://www.zbrushworkshops.com/zbw-masters-detail/?slug=Game-Character-Workshop:-Sculpting-Napoleon

PyrZern

Thanks for the link

Adjusted the proportion to my liking now.
Gonna move on to Low Res and Maps Baking. (which are my main objectives anyway.)

PyrZern

Quick Retopology, she's at 68k Tris. Will cut down by half after baking maps.

PyrZern

Hmmm, maybe shorten forearms as well.

Added: Just tried some AO baking, I think I should sculpt a little sharper folds and wrinkles.

PyrZern

Current Progress
32k Tris

I re-adjusted her proportions all over again. And sharpened the sculpt a bit.

PyrZern

Baked AO and Normal. Not happy Lessons learned, not sure about how to get better though.

1. Don't cut face/head in half because of #2
2. Seams, bad Hide them
3. Don't be lazy making low poly.
4. Don't be lazy sculpting either
5. Face becomes grainy with Normal Map

PyrZern

Fixed certain parts. But the face is still an issue.

There are topology lines along her lips, around her chin, around her nose, and between her eyes. I tried adjusting the low poly mesh, flipping green channel, quad -> tri, cage size, et all. Still an issue

ysalex

Looks like you're using maya. How are you applying the map? Also, is the mesh imported from another program?

If you're importing an obj, you can try selecting your mesh, then on the top menu doing normals-->soften edge.

PyrZern

Yes, I'm using Maya. And the problem actually is caused by Maya Rendering. I mean, the lines are not on the texture Maps itself... So, I shoved the whole thing into Marmoset, and voila. Done.... Thanks though And yes, all meshes are soft-edged.

Learning to texture tomorrow.

ysalex

Ah, well, glad it's not an issue for you then.

As for the model, I would suggest going back to the high-poly and fixing a couple of things before going into the low.

First, the anatomy has some strangeness to it. She seems to have very thin limbs/neck, and yet large breasts and a large butt. Her thighs appear to be the same thickness as her calves, and her shoulders appear to jut out of her upper torso.

I think fixing the underlying anatomy will help you sort out your overarching problems with the clothing, mostly being that they seem deformed around her strange anatomy.

On a material level, the clothing you have feels more like pile fabric, with everything overstuffed and lumpy. Using mid-size brushes, try to paint in the direction of folds, which would tend to X down the limbs.

Good luck.

PyrZern

Thanks for the feedback ! Much appreciated.

EDIT:

Added: