Female Game Char.

vavavoom

**completed**




It's been so long, couldn't face it to dig out the old thread~

I picked it up again a while ago and reckon, I guess, i feel i'm about 95% done with the modeling (5% more tidying up here and there...)

I added simple colors in Max just to help visualize what it might look like when.. if.. i can texture it.

She's still only got Chun li's hair.. that's something i will tackle later, make some different hair styles.

I made different accessories with the aim of making a game character that could be customized..

Its currently 7758 tris (including underlying mesh, which i guess should be deleted as it won't be visible..)

I guess i can call it a finished character in terms of modeling...

It's time to try and unwrap it..

all crits, comments greatly appreciated~!

Yilativ

Hey looks, great, interesting work. Be careful with that neck seems.
You used UV maps for this?

whiketan

Looks like it almost definiiely vertex colors. The legs seem disproportionate to the torso. Also may want to check her height by head ratio. I think its like 5-7 heads is pretty standard proportion:

PyrZern

I think her crotch is too high, and her arms are too short.

vavavoom

I followed this advice guide from earlier, when i was told the arms were too long~

Muzz wrote: »

Shorter

whiketan wrote: »

Looks like it almost definiiely vertex colors. The legs seem disproportionate to the torso. Also may want to check her height by head ratio. I think its like 5-7 heads is pretty standard proportion:

I followed this ref for the body proportions (pic taken before i shortened the arms)~

Yilativ wrote: »

Hey looks, great, interesting work. Be careful with that neck seems.
You used UV maps for this?

The neck looks odd because i hadn't joined the 2 sides (the body is mirrored until i join it into 1 ready for texture etc.) No UV maps.

Yes, it's all vertex colored just for now, to give a loose guide to what it might look like when textured (my next challenge).

---

Thanks for the crits/comments guys. Kinda scratching my head right now, the only thing i'm thinking to try scale the head up, make it bigger, i think that might be whats throwing it off... i think that might be it.

Other than that, i followed the body ref in the pic exactly~

Really wanna try and unwrap/texture this~

---

[update] Yup, i think a bigger head will definitely fix it~!
so, a bigger head, then on to an adventure in texturing~!

whiketan

oh you used Yuri as a reference? that certainly explains the legs.

vavavoom

Yeah, i kinda suffered from a lack of direction.... chun li's hair...yuris body... street fighter alpha body type... super ssfiv body type...

indecision, the bane of my life~!

but, i scaled up the head and can now see it was def too small and what was throwing off the proportions.

so, fixed that,




now... how in the world do i go about unwrapping this?

Is is correct to unwrap the head as a separate texture sheet?

vavavoom

Testing the mouth out inbetween learning to texture.

I deformed the mouth by shifting around the polys to get an idea if the mouth setup was heading in the right direction~ I have no idea how to rig or deform..

If i ever get to the point of having it fully textured and decent looking i would love to pose it~

vavavoom

I started to unwrap the head and straight away am not sure how to map the hair buns..

These are the rough approaches i have tried (all untidy, but you get the idea i hope..)

1# the most space saving, but most warped..
2# less warped
3# almost no warp, but awkward map (i could save more space by placing parts of the map over each other..i guess..but still most awkward map..)

I'm hoping someone can tell me the best way to approach this.

Really appreciated any help on this guys~! thanks..

1#


2#


3#

AtticusMars

1 or 2 depending on how much distortion you think is tolerable

3 Is ridiculous, never do that

You could also cut it in half (front/back) or in quarters (think of orange slices) so that you get a sawtooth looking map

Unwrapping spheres usually sucks, it can help sometimes to plan for it in advance and build your topology around it (like using subdivided spherized cubes instead of spheres/geospheres, so that you can unwrap it as if it were a box)

vavavoom

Thanks AtticusMars, I was thinking #1 would probably be the method used for low poly game models?

the saw tooth/orange slice method sounds a good compromise..

In the meantime, im gonna continue with unwrapping the rest of the head, plenty of tutorials on how to do that

any game industry pros who can recommend best approach for the buns i would love to know how~~

Steve Schulze

You'll find the amount of stretching you'll get off 1 will make it completely unusable. I'd suggest ideally what you'll want is the circle of tris on the top as one island and then the rest fused into a single, long strip (possibly what you were illustrating in 2). It should give you a reasonable balance of ease of texturing and lack of distortion.

vavavoom

Thanks~

I was wondering, is it reasonable to always expect some distortion when texturing a low poly for maximized texture space?

I almost finished UVW for half of the head (i'm guessing i can match the other half after..)

also, one more question, if i may, for some reason the vertices wont weld now~?! i had no problem breaking up the map and welding back together before now...

Steve Schulze

Looks like you've got some pretty serious stretching along the middle of the face, particularly on the nose. That's going to be a pain in the arse when you go to texture it.

Dimfist

Have you tried to use the pelt map? It really helps with organic shapes. You can then go in and tweak little pieces here and there to make it work they way you want it.

ShockInfinite

As Dimfist suggested, try using the pelt map.

Also,for the hair, why not just opacity map it?

vavavoom

Thanks guys,

Well...I'm pulling my hair out right now~!

I followed this seemingly simple pelt head unwrap guide to the word,
http://www.3dtotal.com/tutorial/3d_studio_max/perfect_uvs_by_pelt_mapping_in_3ds_max/pelt_mapping_01.php
(hope it's ok to post link and pics?)

but, well, it doesn't work for me. I think the 'spinner' might be causing the problem as mine isn't a nice circle like in the example, but a hexagon attached at the mouth for some reason???

I also detached the hair buns as separate objects to keep the mesh as simple as possible to work with...

Please, please, please any solutions before i got no hair left~~~


*tutorial

AtticusMars

I strongly suggest you not pelt unwrap this... your UV map before was great and perfectly fine for painting on, all you had to do was relax the vertices in/around the nose

vavavoom

But, the example in the tutorial looks like perfect UV map with no distortion...

i feel so frustrated why i can't achieve the same, even with a much simpler mesh than in the tutotial

it's like it's mocking me~~~

My UV map before i tried the tutorial took hours to get the checked squares looking so-so..and it still needs a lot of work..
whereas the tutorial seems to make it look like an almost effortless task.

I don't understand why my spinner points for the pelt aren't picking up the seam edges correctly???

vavavoom

Found a tutorial on youtube, followed it through.
the tutorial didn't cover how to do the top/back of the head or the ears..so i had to go it alone as best i could~





This was the best result i could get for the buns for space and least dist. (i spent ages trying out diff. ways)



**I'm really hoping that if the seam (red line) is mirrored identically, it wont be an issue when painting if i also match up the paint?

Steve Schulze

I'd split he circle of polys on the top of the bun out into a separate island and then straighten out the others. You'll get less distortion and it'll be easier to texture.

vavavoom

like this, or this?

both display almost exactly the same UV's, so i guess the best one is the easiest to paint/texture space saving?

vavavoom

Well, i've tidied up the map as best i can.

Am hoping for any crits or advice before i start painting~

**!! ooh, and i have a question, if anyone can help,

where the mouth bag joins with the lips, do i need to combine the mesh and weld, or can i leave it as a separate object?

Thanks~



**!! is it OK to keep as 2 separate objects with no weld here?

Noth

I actually think the face could be quite pretty with the right texture. It's always a little tricky to judge. The proportions are a little exaggerated but again, with the right texture work you should be able to pull it together nicely. Are you going to use 3d coat for styled texture approach? Or, are you taking it the next gen route?

vavavoom

Thanks~
Since i am just a super eager self taught hobbyist with no schooling in 3D, i was thinking i would paint the map in photoshop as .tga (it seems this is standard texture format from what i reserached?)
keep a simple approach to try and complete this before i even consider trying out high poly zbrush sculpts.
also, i kinda wanted to give it the same look and feel as SSFIV, Final fantasy, other such game style texturing, rather than aim for a realistic paint.

I'm really keen to know if my UV map is OK? before i start painting...

thatanimator

looking awesome, love the mesh, great feel to it! very clean

I prefer it when stuff is wielded and part of one mesh, I don't see why you'd need to seperate the mouth from the rest of the head? if it's to save uv, you don't need all that much to begin with for the inner part of the mouth anyways so..

I'm no uv master, but I think your stuff looks legit. I don't know what the sword in the middle is though :P

loving the character overall and especially the customize idea!
just combine everything into one mesh and I'll be happy ;p

vavavoom

Thanks~!

here's painting progress. still a long ways to go, trying to feel it out...

eye highlights (the white bits that make them look shiny?) will be a separate mesh overlaid later, i guess this is how to do it from some tutorials i visited..

"I don't know what the sword in the middle is though :P"
that's the mouth bag, i guessed it can be super small as it won't contain any real detail and cause pixelation problems.

vavavoom

trying out lighting to help see what the paint looks like..

Qinzhu

Pretty slick dude, you've definately nailed the overall style.

praetor187

Hey really liking the paint job so far for the character nicely done. I would add some more color variations in the skin to differ between the hot and cold regions on the face, I think that would really make it pop a little more and give some more life to the character. Nice work so far keep it going!

vavavoom

Think my lighting setup is washing out the colors perhaps..

am battling with making perfect alpha maps using .tga alpha channel method~~
it seems tough getting images with fine details (eyelashes in this case) crisp and clean without any kind of washy outline.

Steve Schulze

If you make the background behind the eyelashes the same or a very similar colour to the eyelashes themselves, you shouldn't have any problems with getting an outline on your alphas.

vavavoom

Great tip~! Thank you so much~!

vavavoom

Getting to grips with the alpha mapping a better now, thanks~

vavavoom

Just the hair buns and teeth to go~!

It's basically 99% how it's gonna look now when i'm ready to call it done,
so any crits, things i've overlooked, greatly appreciated~~!

Amipor

Hey, your progress is getting along pretty well. It is a bit too bright where the hair parts, maybe you can tone it down a bit and blend in the hair more.

vavavoom

Well, it's finally done~!

I think the light directly above the head might be making the parting look brighter than it should. The texture map is darker in that area than the rest of the face. probably should adjust that light to check~

No idea how to rig or animate, so just had a bash at moving around faces to get an idea of what it may look like if rigged...

The idea of learning how to rig and pose it feels like a distant dream~

also, think i'll make the mouth bag a darker color.



I've learnt a lot so far, and hoping the process of texturing the body will be a lot quicker..

vavavoom

Pretty much done with the bottom half now. Think i should have made the shoes pink to make it more interesting...
either way, they still need more contrast i think?

wish i knew how to get a perfect lighting setup~!

vavavoom

redesigned the sneakers. not sure which ones are better, but i guess the pink ones fit better in terms of overall character style...?

Aga22

very nice!

vavavoom

Thanks~!
I'm edging closer day by day, when i can squeeze in time..

i wonder why the head looks so much bigger from behind?

vavavoom

Done~! well, in terms of texture/modeling... gotta learn to rig now....

probably gonna get rid of some of the obvious symmetry in the arms now that i finally finished the seam texturing (which took a while to find a good method..)

vavavoom

learning to rig now.. obviously a looong way still to go

...and now my computers puny processing power makes itself be known that it does not like having to handle all this animation stuff~~~~!