Alligator Enemy

Rohan

This is my second attempt at creating a full character, only this time I tried to restrain myself when it came to map sizes and and the polygon count. Speaking of which, I'm not even sure if this would be categorized as low res or not, I'm not too familiar with it, but I hope I optimized it pretty well for what I was going for. Here's the link to my first character by the way http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140889 I hope I did better texturing it this time, hell I hope I did better just in general.

Here's the original concept

DWalker

His skin lacks the armored appearance that's distinct to crocodillians; at the moment, he looks more like a lizard-man than a 'gator. Take a look at actual alligator skins; the ridges along the back are the most prominent, but all of the scales have a noticeable separation from their neighbor:


The feet feel rather blobby and poorly defined.

I think changing his weapon to a cruder weapon, possibly one fitting with the watery environment, would be a good idea. Aside from the usual suspects - stone club bound to a wooden haft, fishing spear, etc. - one made from the jaw of a sawfish could be interesting:

You could also have him armed with both a weapon and a net, like a Roman retiarius. This would also let you armor-up one arm & shoulder.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Limb topology needs work. The joints are going to collapse severely and in strange ways since there's not enough polys to allow them to do so at the elbows, shoulders, knees, etc. You need to add more loops and make the topological adjustments to allow it to animate well. The rest of the body density can be kept relatively the same, but the joints need more care.

Rohan

Thanks for the critique guys. I can definitely see the collapsing of the limbs once I started to mess with him to do more than just a simple pose. Tried adding a bit more to the legs, but it still needs some finagling. Especially just looking at those wrists, already see how that could bend weirdly. I'll have to get better at that for sure since I was only focused on matching the silhouette.


The critique on the texture was also really helpful. I made a quick cavity map and went into photoshop to push some of the small detail getting washed over. It's not as prominent as it could be as the rough scales and ridges still seem soft, but I think it reads a little bit better. I didn't realize how some detail can just completely vanish so I'll have to exaggerate more on my next project.

j.pears

realy like the concepts and the model you have is great man, love the design and personality of it. have you tried using subsurface scattering? would really make it pop

Rohan

I completely forgot that Marmoset had subsurface scattering. XD I like the coloration it gives, but it seems like it could still be done better since for me it just feels like I'm messing with a toy I don't fully understand yet.


Also here's the sketchfab for it.
[SKETCHFAB]b4836f1b59f047a6b49888e0b8420b6e[/SKETCHFAB]