Character (looking for concept)

razz

Hi all!

I'm in need of a neat concept or I'll have to draw something myself. Want something with armor and swords and stuff. Any ideas?

Here's the very start of the sculpt. It can go anywhere from here.

PyrZern

Spend some time on ArtStation, DrawCrowd, or Pinterest. Lots of cool stuff there.

razz

Thanks, PyrZern! I did just that. Got some inspiration from there and quickly made something myself.

Very rough, but I'll do the rest in 3d.

Torch

Ok, that's pretty damn cool!

PyrZern

Daaaaayum ! Coool stuff you put together there ! Like, this is really nice.
Lemme pin that concept of yours back onto Pinterest :P

razz

Torchp, thanks a lot!!

PyrZern, I'm glad you like it! Moved into 3d now and still making some changes to the design, but at least I have something to work from. Thanks!


Sorry for the wait, things have been moving slowly, because I've been learning loads of zbrush while doing this. Some things are still very much work in progress, while other parts are more or less done. Here you go



Any tips, tricks, suggestions and critique welcome ;]

Xaragoth

I think you should slightly reduce the giant protector-things you got on the vambraces, they look a tad silly right now. Maybe angle them like you had it on the concept.

You might wanna consider something to protect the eyes a bit on the helmet. Like some kind of metalic-net-shape thing (thinking Kendo/Fencing protective headgear). Or just make the slits a bit less big. Seems a little to open right now.

The Lion shoulder looks a bit too noble to me for a gladiator-style, the one you drew felt a bit more fitting, maybe with some nice etchings?

Otherwise quite badass

razz

Xaragoth, thanks for the critique! I fixed up most of the stuff you mentioned, all except the lion head. I feel the need to keep it because it makes the silhouette more interesting and the dude is not necessarily a gladiator. Thanks again for the feedback, much appreciated!


Alright, finally something new! Just the body for now, but I've almost kind of finished the upper body armor and started on the lower.
Let me know if anything stands out. Also, yes, I have body and legs separate, long story..

razz

Alright, way too long without an update. My apologies.

Worked on most of the sculpt, still need a detail and fix pass on the body/face and everything below the waist is a block-in. Cheers!

P.S. Any way I can change the title of the thread?

skodone

those lion heads have become the hip fashion of characters in the last weeks it seems :D

awesome concept and details!
what are those patterns on his skin? or is it bad compression :P

razz

Skodone, guilty ;D But I guess making a warrior dude is not so original in the first place. Seen very few that have a really unique design. This thing is teaching me so much though!
The pattern on his skin is sort of a rendering/compression error, it's not on the sculpt.
Thanks for stopping by!


Not to have a post without pictures, here's new lower body stuff. Shin guards is a little nod to the Witcher. Block-in done, I can start sculpting.

razz

Ok, so, need to go give him a few scars and a weapon (what kind, hmm?) and then on to the low res version.

razz

I have started working on the game res model, just the main body for now. Would appreciate any and all feedback about topology. Got a bunch of triangles, some stretched polys too...

And weapons. Shield's design from dark souls, with a few tweaks.

CJE

This is looking great so far!

razz

Thanks, CJE!


Head retopo


Base texture for the mace

razz

Ok, this took some time. Here's the full model in low res. Currently stands at ~30500 tris. There are areas I could save some polys, but does anything really stand out?

Going to UV next, so c&c most welcome!

Jean-Pascal

The only thing that stands out at first glance is the spaulder area. You could reduce the density quite a bit. Other than that, it looks pretty good razz!

Subscribed, I'll follow your progress on this one.

razz

Thanks, Pascal! Reduced it by a 1000 triangles, haha. The whole character now doesn't reach 30k triangles.


On to textures! Base textures done. Much more work awaits, but it sure is fun to do some painting after all the 3d. As always, c&c much appreciated.

razz

Slowly getting there...Just need to make the hair, an alpha map for the cloth and most likely relight the whole thing. Oh, and pose him too. And move on to another project!

Swaggernaut

Are you using marmoset toolbag 2?

razz

Swaggernaut, yes I am. Looking into UE4 as well, but I'll keep that for my next project.

BagelHero

This is awfully spec-y/glossy. What do your maps look like for those? Is this Spec or Metalness workflow?

Shaping up well, though.

razz

BagelHero, there you go. Think bloom is not helping there as well. I'll be doing the lighting from scratch and shading is still in the works. I'd appreciate any feedback on the maps.

Gloss, dif, spec, in that order.


Here's a no lights version

BagelHero

Hm, alrighty. Technically, if you want to go physically accurate (In this case I do believe it will help), nothing on that spec map should have colored spec except the metals. Non-metals tend to keep to a relatively flat value, read more here.
http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-practice
http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-theory

At the very least, I'd suggest desaturating anything that isn't metal, but at best I'd also darken and flatten the value range anything non-metal significantly, too. You probably don't need so much variance for dirt and details, either, because giving exception to dirt-on-metal, a lot of those details would have an extremely similar reflectance value. All this keeping in mind that while it would have been acceptable with old methods or engines, Toolbag 2 is calibrated for PBR workflows.

It's turning everything into a kinda-metal, where it's darkening your albedo/diff and coloring the reflections instead. Laymans terms, possibly a little muddled, but basically what it's taking that colored spec info and doing.

I can't really comment on the gloss before you fix this, because I can't be sure the gloss input is what's causing it right now.

Poinball

@BagelHero Thx for this tuto ! it's a good think to understand

razz

BagelHero, thanks for the tuts! I did read one of them a few days ago, but I guess the information didn't sink in yet. Feel like I should make something smaller and really go all in on all the PBR things. Thanks again for the help!

Poinball, not bad indeed ;]



There we go. I'll be calling this one DONE! Unless there's something really hurting your eyeballs. Will be rendering a turnaround sometime later. I'll try and go for a smaller project next, that should be a relief ;]