Character from "Y the Last Man" (wip)

KristaW

Hey Guys!

I'm starting up another character for a class assignment. I have 4 weeks to make her so wish me luck. I am basing my character off of a minor character in the comic book "Y the Last Man." It's one of my favorite comic books and even though this character is minor she always held aesthetic appeal. She was originally created by Pia Guerra whose other works you can check out here. I just got an email back from her getting permission to base my character on hers so I figured I would start the thread and get this rolling.

Here is Pia's character



and here is the base mesh I got so far. Been looking at it for so long so I would love insight critiques. She's supposed to be short, btw.

KristaW

Hello again. Worked a bunch more on the anatomy and the face. Also created the hair and the beginnings of her outfit and accessories. I might redo the mailbag because I made it quickly just using the comic book as reference instead of looking up real reference for a mailbag.

Still need to make a strap for the bag, jacket, socks and shoes. only have a week left to finish the highpoly so wish me luck.

I decided to add an transparent underskirt to her design. Something that should look like this.


And I intend for it to be lacy and transparent-ish.


And here she is so far. Critiques and comments are always welcome.




Ahh! Right before I took a screenshot I moved around her eyebrows in sub 1 and now that I've posted this I can see that part of her eyeball is poking through. I will fix that.

KristaW

Okay, I'm back with some small updates. I got some feedback from my teacher and changed around some proportions in the shoulders, arms, and torso. I still need to fix the forearm beacause it looks a little too taffy like. Gave her the beginnings of a jacket that I'm not totally sure about yet. I originally pictured it bigger but I didn't like what that did to the overall silhouette, especially in the side view. I'm not getting the impression of a postal worker's jacket at the moment. Maybe once I add the pockets and such it will help. Suggestions critiques and comments are welcome.



Here is a closeup on the face. Probably what I have spent the most time on since my last post. I felt like her face looked too similar to an adventure character I had made a while back . So I thought that I really need to try push away from that. I had a beer to help me lose my face inhibitions and last night I ended up making what you see in the middle :poly122: I went to post my progress this morning and after I rendered out that face up close next to my old face I realized I had made something unappealing. Different, but not what I wanted. Resculpted it again and this third attempt looks a lot like the original attempt. Sigh. But it is a little different and a little stronger so maybe it's getting better. Let me know what you guys think.

slkisor

Hey Krista! She's looking really nice so far. I like the direction you seem to be taking with the face. She looks sassy and playful. My immediate instinct is to bring up her top lid close to the inner corner of the eye and round out the top lid just a tiny bit, but I think that's just a personal preference thing. As far as exploring other looks if you're still in that phase, you could play with how the brow comes over the eye. This is a quick example of some differences http://hindbeautytips.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/eye_chart1.jpg The eye shape seems to be the same, but you get a really different feel from face to face because of the eyelid and brow. (I'd find a better chart but I'm on a quick break at work :x) Take all of that with a grain of salt, though, because I don't know how it matches up to your reference or what changes you were considering making. I'm really liking her so far! I can't wait to see more!

KristaW

@slkisor Thanks for the feedback! Good catch with the eye. After reading your suggestion I instantly saw what you were talking about. Thanks for the eye chart too. I went ahead and threw that into my reference folder. I tweaked the eye after reading your post and once I have more to show than minor tweaks I will put up my progress. I would love any feedback about the new eye shape when I do post.

KristaW

Alright, Here with an update. The high poly is due tomorrow and I honestly will not have that much time to work on it before class so I'm kind of sweating it, haha. This is the quickest I have ever made something this detailed and I'm afraid it's been too sloppy. :poly122: I still need to finish that jacket, gah, she needs a eyebrow piercing, her hands could use another sculpt pass, and the pigtails need to be fixed. But here is what I have so far. Critiques and comments are always welcome.

Kalilak11

The shoes are awesome. I am loving the detail. The shoe laces towards the top look like the topology is intersecting in an odd way, but overall they look really good. They, as well as the purse, appear to have the most detail out everything else in the model so far. I would just caution you t keep consistency in mind when sculpting further detail. That way the piece won't look unfinished even if you aren't quite done sculpting her.

Right now what stands out most to me to fix is the jacket and the skirt. If you are able to take the time to sculpt out wrinkles in both of them, it will add a lot as far as detail. Right now the skirt looks too stiff, and the jacket looks a bit lumpy.

I understand that do time constraints, you may no be able to put in more detail right now. I would encourage you to take this assignment further outside of class. I think you could come out with a nice portfolio piece if you did. Keep up the good work, and try not to stress to much about it. Have fun!

KristaW

@Kalilak11, Thanks for the feedback! You're spot on. I totally agree. I have a bad tendency to get really excited about sculpting one part (shoes!) and I have been considering doing things more in passes, like I used to, for my next character. The jacket definitely needs more work and that is the next thing I am going to tackle. I talked to my teacher about scheduling myself for sculpting out the highpoly for at least 12 more hours before I move on to retop so hopefully I can really unify it and clean it up I will post more updates after I can give it another 12 hours. Too bad I have other classes because I would really love to spend all my time on this >.<

KristaW

Here's the latest update. I guess I am finished with the high poly for now since I desperately need to move on to retop. I will probably sneak in some high frequency sculpting after I retop, since that won't change the shape. Any feed back before I retop tomorrow morning would be most welcome.

KristaW

I was being rushed when I posted the last update and I felt like like the render wasn't presenting her well. Decided to come back and try out Guedin's matcap. She's a bit shiny but I like how it displays detail.

jStins

The character is coming along really well. I don' see anything that would affect your retop, but I do think the jacket needs a little more love as far as the details go. The patch stands out as something that may work better as a separate sub tool to get more definition and the pockets feel like they need a little more creasing in a few areas.

What is that strap thing coming out from underneath the shirt?

KristaW

Thanks for the feedback!

I agree that the patch isn't doing so well. I can readdress that as I go into texturing this week. And now that I look the pockets they do seem pretty stiff.

So, that strap is from Pia's design of the character and I thought about it as some fancy chain that connected her wallet to her skirt. But now that you have asked I realized that the whole wallet thing falls apart. She is wearing a skirt, so I'm not sure where she is putting the wallet, ha ha. I looked a little closer at the reference photos and I believe that it is actually suspenders...So I will probably duplicate it and fix it to look like suspenders. Good catch with that, thank you.

KristaW

Holy cow this week has been hectic. But now I'm back with an update. I had an update last week but didn't have time to post it. I had retoped, and got a low poly, and started polypainting. I had started to bake out maps last week but after critique from my class I spent a little more time polypainting and detail sculpting. Going to start baking things out again. I will probably put up my low poly tonight but at the second I am feeling lazy >.< Here is my polypainted high poly. Critique, feedbacks, and suggestions are always welcome.



And here's a higher rez one so you can see all my mistakes ahaha

KristaW

Ahh, I've totally neglected this thread. This quarter was pretty crazy for me but now it's final's week so yea. I never stopped working on this girl I just stopped posting here she is in a game res model rendered out in Marmoset. I'm going to get Marmoset 2 this week So I will probably change te lighting, play with Marmoset 2 and then re render her out. I'll post texture sheets and wireframes soon as well. Feedback and critique are always welcome.