@JimmyRustler: Your model is coming along nicely. Are you showing the swords both sheathed and unsheathed?
@independ-hans: Thanks for the feedback. Yes the hat part is bothering me still, I think my next update will improve it. Your modeling is looking good so far, I'm looking forward to the details.
@Itholon: Thanks. My textures were handpainted in substance painter. I want to make a few more adjustments, but I'm focusing on learning environments atm.
I has a noob character question so figured I'd ask it here. Is there any good resource that explains optimal character edge flow? Or does anyone have any good examples? Saw some problems with my last mesh and wish to avoid making those mistakes again.
You mean topology ? I probably would just end some of those loops early so they don't run across the entire model. Like those lines across his torso. Some tri is also quite fine in general so I would cut down on some poly around his legs and arms. And that monster scissors. Same as the joints between scorpion tail. Especially the last joint. Too many loops IMO. Polycount Wiki also has some examples on joint topology for nice deformation that use less tri.
It's been a crazy week, but I'm back finally. Looks like everyone is putting up nice looking stuff! I'll post a progress shot and give some critiques tomorrow afternoon. Keep at it people!
Ok, to start off, there be a tonne of comments I'd love to post, and some questions to ask, especially after a storm in the country I reside in caused numerous blackouts and loss of an internet connection, not to mention schoolwork.
PyrZern - Liking your post on page 9, and as always great work, I would agree with your statement that it is relatively dark (might just be me to think that there are a lot of folds). :thumbup:
Itholon - Liking the diffuse. (though I am yet to learn more about hand painting models, not even sure what PBR stands for, pardon me if that might be a "noob-ish" comment).
JimmyRustler - Liking the head so far, the 2nd picture of him on page 10 made me think of Count Dooku. xD Aside from that, I think it is looking good so far.
independ-hans - I didn't anticipate to see a male version of Berry Twig, though, I am quite curious as to how it'll look once you're done with it.
fleric - Looking real fluffy. xD Aside from that, looking real good I would think.
DonEngland - I do enjoy seeing your work (though, I suppose the reason for that is because I am working on the same mech xD). Though I would ask, what are "rough" and "metal" maps, and what program was used to make them?
ladyknowles - Looking real nice I would think. Though I might be seeing invisible faces on the ear, though then again, it is still a work in progress I think. :P
Given my current state, I feel I might have bitten off more than I could chew (and would blame my eagerness to make things, and quite frankly disregarded any planning at the time, I think). So far, my progress is below which is followed by another some statements (my apologies for the long post, and thank you for bearing with me this far):
So far this is my current progress, as seen in Maya (can't seem to read the normal maps in Maya the way I hoped it to be, though I do recall an article or comment saying Maya wasn't exactly the program to view normal maps on).
Here is the same model with normal maps (and a "diffuse" map which is a quick test of what it may look like, will be adding further detail, most likely hand painted, which isn't exactly my strong point). Will "refine" later on as well.
Normal Map for the torso, the cannon, the shoulders, and some of the relatively larger parts. Will "refine" the normals. Will "refine" later on.
Normal Map for... well... everything else from the "legs and arms", the "tailpipe", and others. Will "refine" these normals as well (namely removing the distorted foot piece as it won't be visible anyways).
The "diffuse map", that I used for testing out how well the normals work along side this one (this is the first normal map seen above).
Quite honestly, I've felt like I've hit a wall with regards to what to do next (though, then again, I do plan to create the diffuse map). With regards to having to render said model, what would one recommend? (I am using Maya for the most part, and did some searching and ended up with using "mental ray" in Maya). Also, would there be an easier way to combine numerous normal maps into one large normal map? Or is it only possible by manually doing so in Photoshop? Anything with regards to the model, or the creation process / pipeline?
To any help and assistance that I may or may not receive, thank you in advance for any. And my apologies once again for the really long post (and utterly large pictures).
Silver Spade:It looks nice. I think the normal map is good, but try to get rid of the triangles between the gaps and corners on the body. Tweaking the cage helped me a lot with the same problem.
And for the PBR-Physically based rendering, I am not sure if I would explain it correctly. Read this:
Roughness is just inverted gloss and metal map is used only in UE4 iirc, and it defines if something is metal, so you basically need white for metal surfaces and black for nonmetal surfaces (and maybe some gradient for rust).
@Svog The silhouette suggests that's a female :P It's a bit of hourglass you got there right now. Really digging your interpretation of the helmet, though.
Umm, guys, I will start the concept voting thread of August some time tomorrow.
@Silver Spade - are you making sure to switch from "bump" to "tangent space" in the bump node? VP 2.0 should display better than that (hopefully). I'd say as you get into unwrapping UVs a little more you have a better feel for how to break things up versus automapping. Keep it up!
@JordanLeigh - Looks great. If you wanted to get that poly count lower you definitely have some loops that can be sacrificed without losing the silhouette (especially on the cylinders). Also, think about baking the bolts as normalmap details.
@fleric Well done man! Are all those hair/fur planes ? Looks crazy !
Update. Hopefully the texture is a little better. I tried to make it pop
Somehow the fabric material looks a little too dirty though. But then again I don't want the texture to be too clean and clear.
Itholon - Much appreciated on the info. I intend to "clean up" said triangles later on.
JackDCaron - I can't seem to activate VP 2.0 in Maya, since apparently my video card can't support it (can't update it either, working on a laptop with some strange built in video card, if it even has one for that matter).
Will be working on the diffuse next (seems like the next best step at the moment). Then will render in Maya, if not Unity, maybe. Lacking the confidence in seeing if I'm doing this properly, but then again, I suppose this is being creative in some sense, maybe? :poly142:
My current progress is at about 2600 polys, still messing with the fingers a bit so they're not included. @pyrzern: I actually really like your coat texture. I'm not a big fan of how strong the blue tint in the helmet is. @fleric: Really digging the hair texture. @svog: I think your sculpt so far is strong, keep at it! @jordanleigh: Really nice build, can't believe that is 25,000 polys. If you don't mind could I see your mech fingers? @Sliver spade: I'm digging the route you are taking the texture, but I think the dents and cracks are a little strong.
Hi everybody, i share with you the WIP of the diffuse body part. If anybody have any advice or critics i glady take them. Thanks for watching , Good luck and have fun with your characters.Body.jpg
@PyrZern: I don't know if its just the intense lighting, but I prefer the previous image you posted. The darker colors blend together well and make him look more sleek, especially when contrasted with that blue hue on the helmet. I also feel the new helmet colors make it look like its all the same material (some kind of steel) instead of a material the guy could see through.
JimmyRustler Great Helmet, much more improvement Silver Spade it will be a men. thanks. fleric so fluffy great, I would suggest choose other background, do make the background on button a little lighter and make the bottom area darker so the contrast holds from background. PyrZern :thumbup:, will your Beauty in the money Toolbag? Svog The folts on the legs and the arms seen on the left looks good. I try my best to learn more about wrinkles, but just from looking on it I can say that region look better.
_______________________________________________________________
I did a quick progress animation of my winkles studies and sculpt.
I may have to go with less wrinkles, more like my photos of my suit.
1. I also see some characters that are more old school use very simple winkles.
2. some digital-Sculpts are sculpted in the end pose where Winkles is showing great in detail, like one of the Joker Sculpt in the Comic Con Challenge.
I think the wrinkles would change drastically if the character moves.
I will redo the Winkle sculpting, some how more Stylized, Simplified also Compressed in visual way.
Edit:
put the animation to a link, and give another picture that is not so annoying animated and big sized. http://i.imgur.com/4wfLiQB.gif
independ-hans As much as you keep hammering at your sculpt I feel like you're ignoring the lower subdivs. Every post I've seen has felt really blobby, I strongly feel that you would benefit from working your way up the subdivisions, and if you are, take it slower. Rushing to the end is resulting in a very blobby feeling .
nGreenroad Good work so far. A lot of those wrinkles don't make sense. If you reference the concept art the front of the jacket is pulled taut, while you've got it dipping, sagging, and pulling tight at areas as well (Mostly near your zipper). It doesn't flow. This is true for the majority of your jacket. The pants do a better job, but I would recommend refining the rear of the pants, mainly the butt area. It has strange shapes going on there, and could almost be interpreted as if he soiled his pants.
Yeah I will when I make a nice beauty and construction shot.
@JimmyRustler Really digging the lower sleeve's wrinkles there ! For me, I tend to think of the coat as a thick windbreaker kind of jacket. But now I regret not having enough of proper seams and panels in there.
Got help from google hangout to fix the coat's color.
@PyrZern Both colours look good imo. I preferred the left one but now I'm not sure, kind of liking the Orange abit more, he 'pops'more. Looks great, nice work!
@Pyrzern: Looks really good. I like the left colors more, the light blue tinted helmet doesn't fit the color scheme for the left one though. Dark Blue would look much better
Just a Quick WIP for today, diffuse specular and gloss, normal will be done later.
independ-hans As much as you keep hammering at your sculpt I feel like you're ignoring the lower subdivs. Every post I've seen has felt really blobby, I strongly feel that you would benefit from working your way up the subdivisions, and if you are, take it slower. Rushing to the end is resulting in a very blobby feeling.
Mr.MooseThanks you for feedback I do approve that.
I show now my version without the Paint and the Overlaid Objects on Neck and Wrist, Is here still the blobby things? Could someone show me it here.
@independns hans
Pretty much what Mr Moose said. You need to work a lot more on the lower subdiv, get a nice figure first.
JimmyRustler thanks you,
Do mean: winkles is too early in my Sculpting-progress, I need some resolution to Sculpt winkes. I can't sculpt in 6K winkles. Maybe the 1.5 Million is to high again, I could do it on level 3 with 95k polys.
@Itholon Goodness. This is epic. On his main body, you could add some details around the parts where his shoulders connect. Stains, or dirts, or rusts, yeah. So that way each pieces interact with another, instead of just magically attached together.
@PyrZern Looks sick mate, well done! What did you render it in??
Had a go at the texture, quite happy with the steel parts but not the painted parts. Any crits?? Trying to get the materials right first, I want a cross between PBR and stylized, kind of like the cannon part.
Regarding yours; The metal parts look great, man. Great definition with shadow and highlight/reflective area. They also have like drop-shadow effect or something like that too. It makes it pop and stylized. Whereas the painted parts don't have that. Can you bring up camera/render AO ? Here's my quick paintover. Maybe not just AO, but add some darker details there as well. Like rusts, dirt, stains, spills,etc. You could also throw the whole lowpoly into xNormal and bake out another AO map, then multiply it as a layer on top of the original AO map.
Thx guys for the compliments and tips... the hair are planes with an alpha texture for the color variation i used gradient map in 3ds max so each different colored hair has a different gradient to it so i have about 6 gradients that could be backed to place then in my character texture map. I have a question that i hope one of you guys could answer right now i have 3 texture one is for the character(2K) another for the character alphas(chick hair and ear hair) and the other is the alpha for the hair/fur (1k) i'm not shore if i should marge my alphas in one texture and what size would be the maximum recommended...what do you guys think ? ^^
So I finshed the mech. Here are few "beaty" renders, wire and a few maps breakdowns.
It was a nice experience to participate in a community challenge for the first time. I won't participate next month because I won't have time.
I wish you all good luck finishing the project.
@Itholon So, how did you do the texture ? Just Photoshop or dDO or Substance ? How do make those scratches and dirt and stain in certain specific areas ? I think the metal parts are a little too reflective, but it looks pretty nice there. Great job finishing it on time ^^
PyrZern: Handpainting in photoshop only. For the scratches dirt stains and stuff like that, I was just thinking where should it be scratched, where could be most dirt, dust, fumes and stuff like that and than I just painted it afterwards. The metal might be too reflective, but it looked better in my opinion than too rough. It's not aimed to be ultra realistic anyway. I am pretty amazed myself that I finished in time .
That's entirely up to you. Many people here take extra month to finish a piece they really like. Some simplify the concept further, or turn it into a bust(face and upper torso only). And some don't like it as much anymore and simply stop, waiting for next month instead.
Mr.MooseThanks you for feedback I do approve that.
I show now my version without the Paint and the Overlaid Objects on Neck and Wrist, Is here still the blobby things? Could someone show me it here.
JimmyRustler thanks you,
Do mean: winkles is too early in my Sculpting-progress, I need some resolution to Sculpt winkes. I can't sculpt in 6K winkles. Maybe the 1.5 Million is to high again, I could do it on level 3 with 95k polys.
You're sculpting a humanoid character, Reference some human anatomy along with animal anatomy and work on getting an idea of whats going on.
Theres a lot that could be refined with this, I just made quick notes because its rather hard to explain everything with my mediocre drawing skills :P
The abs don't look this way comment is a bit vague. What I mean is that your abs well, aren't there. The pectoral muscles should stick out farther than the abs, and then there should be 4-8 visible abs.
Anyhow. With this character I would go for more of a flat feeling stomach.
1am here, Hope it makes sense
ETA: There is more that I did not circle, but you really should be critically looking at your work. The blobby factor should be very easy to see, there's a difference between seeing it and being able to fix it. Its okay if you can't fix it, but as long as you know what you need to work on for the next sculpt or for continuing this sculpt etc.
Replies
@independ-hans: Thanks for the feedback. Yes the hat part is bothering me still, I think my next update will improve it. Your modeling is looking good so far, I'm looking forward to the details.
@Itholon: Thanks. My textures were handpainted in substance painter. I want to make a few more adjustments, but I'm focusing on learning environments atm.
I just came back from a weekend road trip so I will be in the hangout today, working on the dude's texture
http://chrilops.tumblr.com/ it's on here if anyone can give any pointers
PyrZern - Liking your post on page 9, and as always great work, I would agree with your statement that it is relatively dark (might just be me to think that there are a lot of folds). :thumbup:
Itholon - Liking the diffuse.
JimmyRustler - Liking the head so far, the 2nd picture of him on page 10 made me think of Count Dooku. xD Aside from that, I think it is looking good so far.
independ-hans - I didn't anticipate to see a male version of Berry Twig, though, I am quite curious as to how it'll look once you're done with it.
fleric - Looking real fluffy. xD Aside from that, looking real good I would think.
DonEngland - I do enjoy seeing your work (though, I suppose the reason for that is because I am working on the same mech xD). Though I would ask, what are "rough" and "metal" maps, and what program was used to make them?
ladyknowles - Looking real nice I would think.
Given my current state, I feel I might have bitten off more than I could chew (and would blame my eagerness to make things, and quite frankly disregarded any planning at the time, I think). So far, my progress is below which is followed by another some statements (my apologies for the long post, and thank you for bearing with me this far):
So far this is my current progress, as seen in Maya (can't seem to read the normal maps in Maya the way I hoped it to be, though I do recall an article or comment saying Maya wasn't exactly the program to view normal maps on).
Here is the same model with normal maps (and a "diffuse" map which is a quick test of what it may look like, will be adding further detail, most likely hand painted, which isn't exactly my strong point). Will "refine" later on as well.
Normal Map for the torso, the cannon, the shoulders, and some of the relatively larger parts. Will "refine" the normals.
Normal Map for... well... everything else from the "legs and arms", the "tailpipe", and others. Will "refine" these normals as well (namely removing the distorted foot piece as it won't be visible anyways).
The "diffuse map", that I used for testing out how well the normals work along side this one (this is the first normal map seen above).
Quite honestly, I've felt like I've hit a wall with regards to what to do next (though, then again, I do plan to create the diffuse map). With regards to having to render said model, what would one recommend? (I am using Maya for the most part, and did some searching and ended up with using "mental ray" in Maya). Also, would there be an easier way to combine numerous normal maps into one large normal map? Or is it only possible by manually doing so in Photoshop? Anything with regards to the model, or the creation process / pipeline?
To any help and assistance that I may or may not receive, thank you in advance for any. And my apologies once again for the really long post (and utterly large pictures).
And for the PBR-Physically based rendering, I am not sure if I would explain it correctly. Read this:
http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-theory
http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-practice
Roughness is just inverted gloss and metal map is used only in UE4 iirc, and it defines if something is metal, so you basically need white for metal surfaces and black for nonmetal surfaces (and maybe some gradient for rust).
Jordan your character looks really good, the topology is very clean
Here is my WIP, i've to do a lot of tweaking, not very happy with the silhouette
edit : NVM
Umm, guys, I will start the concept voting thread of August some time tomorrow.
Almost done with the hair
Update. Hopefully the texture is a little better. I tried to make it pop
Somehow the fabric material looks a little too dirty though. But then again I don't want the texture to be too clean and clear.
JackDCaron - I can't seem to activate VP 2.0 in Maya, since apparently my video card can't support it (can't update it either, working on a laptop with some strange built in video card, if it even has one for that matter).
Will be working on the diffuse next (seems like the next best step at the moment). Then will render in Maya, if not Unity, maybe. Lacking the confidence in seeing if I'm doing this properly, but then again, I suppose this is being creative in some sense, maybe? :poly142:
@pyrzern: I actually really like your coat texture. I'm not a big fan of how strong the blue tint in the helmet is.
@fleric: Really digging the hair texture.
@svog: I think your sculpt so far is strong, keep at it!
@jordanleigh: Really nice build, can't believe that is 25,000 polys. If you don't mind could I see your mech fingers?
@Sliver spade: I'm digging the route you are taking the texture, but I think the dents and cracks are a little strong.
Also I'm going to try and lower the polycount, it's abit overkill and theres so much geo thats un-needed. Thanks for pointing it out peeps
@L.Rabat If you could push more contrast in there, it would look much better.
The texture is done now. Wheee. Posing next, and then it's beauty shot time.
I can't get 3point light to work nicely!!
Silver Spade it will be a men. thanks.
fleric so fluffy great, I would suggest choose other background, do make the background on button a little lighter and make the bottom area darker so the contrast holds from background.
PyrZern :thumbup:, will your Beauty in the money Toolbag?
Svog The folts on the legs and the arms seen on the left looks good. I try my best to learn more about wrinkles, but just from looking on it I can say that region look better.
_______________________________________________________________
I did a quick progress animation of my winkles studies and sculpt.
I may have to go with less wrinkles, more like my photos of my suit.
1. I also see some characters that are more old school use very simple winkles.
2. some digital-Sculpts are sculpted in the end pose where Winkles is showing great in detail, like one of the Joker Sculpt in the Comic Con Challenge.
I think the wrinkles would change drastically if the character moves.
I will redo the Winkle sculpting, some how more Stylized, Simplified also Compressed in visual way.
Edit:
put the animation to a link, and give another picture that is not so annoying animated and big sized.
http://i.imgur.com/4wfLiQB.gif
I started this guy yesterday, and still need to start on the hard surface elements. C&C welcome!
nGreenroad Good work so far. A lot of those wrinkles don't make sense. If you reference the concept art the front of the jacket is pulled taut, while you've got it dipping, sagging, and pulling tight at areas as well (Mostly near your zipper). It doesn't flow. This is true for the majority of your jacket. The pants do a better job, but I would recommend refining the rear of the pants, mainly the butt area. It has strange shapes going on there, and could almost be interpreted as if he soiled his pants.
Good work from everyone, Keep it up~
Pretty much what Mr Moose said. You need to work a lot more on the lower subdiv, get a nice figure first.
@Greenroad
Again, seconded what Mr. Moose said. It's a nice start though. Like the helmet design.
@Pyrzern
Oh, sweeeeet. But are you going to post non animated presentation? My shitty internet took too long to load that picture.
Anyway, something i whipped out real quick.
Anyone here got any idea what type of jacket should i used as reference?? I have no idea where to look...
@JimmyRustler Really digging the lower sleeve's wrinkles there ! For me, I tend to think of the coat as a thick windbreaker kind of jacket. But now I regret not having enough of proper seams and panels in there.
Got help from google hangout to fix the coat's color.
Just a Quick WIP for today, diffuse specular and gloss, normal will be done later.
Mr.MooseThanks you for feedback I do approve that.
I show now my version without the Paint and the Overlaid Objects on Neck and Wrist, Is here still the blobby things? Could someone show me it here.
JimmyRustler thanks you,
Do mean: winkles is too early in my Sculpting-progress, I need some resolution to Sculpt winkes. I can't sculpt in 6K winkles. Maybe the 1.5 Million is to high again, I could do it on level 3 with 95k polys.
My low poly is done and unwrapped, here's the bake, going to texture this guy now!!
@JordanLeigh Very clean bake. Well done sir !
I made some further adjustment post-dDO. Simply darkening some Spec, and Gloss, and stuff like that.
Big IMG for fine details
Had a go at the texture, quite happy with the steel parts but not the painted parts. Any crits?? Trying to get the materials right first, I want a cross between PBR and stylized, kind of like the cannon part.
Regarding yours; The metal parts look great, man. Great definition with shadow and highlight/reflective area. They also have like drop-shadow effect or something like that too. It makes it pop and stylized. Whereas the painted parts don't have that. Can you bring up camera/render AO ? Here's my quick paintover. Maybe not just AO, but add some darker details there as well. Like rusts, dirt, stains, spills,etc. You could also throw the whole lowpoly into xNormal and bake out another AO map, then multiply it as a layer on top of the original AO map.
@fleric Looks great man! Could do with some additional plans for the cheeks I think. Looks really sparse there
I should use more the Inflated Trim Dynamic and Clay Brush + standard brush . I did use my own photos as references.
It was a nice experience to participate in a community challenge for the first time. I won't participate next month because I won't have time.
I wish you all good luck finishing the project.
Sorry for spamming the page with heavy pictures
And yeah, pleasantly surprising yourself is truly a nice feeling !!
Had loads of fun with this! Bring on AUGUST!
@PyrZern Great work man!
You're sculpting a humanoid character, Reference some human anatomy along with animal anatomy and work on getting an idea of whats going on.
Theres a lot that could be refined with this, I just made quick notes because its rather hard to explain everything with my mediocre drawing skills :P
The abs don't look this way comment is a bit vague. What I mean is that your abs well, aren't there. The pectoral muscles should stick out farther than the abs, and then there should be 4-8 visible abs.
Anyhow. With this character I would go for more of a flat feeling stomach.
1am here, Hope it makes sense
ETA: There is more that I did not circle, but you really should be critically looking at your work. The blobby factor should be very easy to see, there's a difference between seeing it and being able to fix it. Its okay if you can't fix it, but as long as you know what you need to work on for the next sculpt or for continuing this sculpt etc.