Carl Weathers Predator WIP

nickcomeau

Hey guys

I'm starting a new project and will be posting my progress as I go. I am going to be making Carl Weathers from Predator. Plans for the project are to have him clothed in his pants, hat, vest, gloves and boots like in the bottom left pictures of the reference sheet. Not looking to tackle the guns for this project though, but maybe in the future. I'm going to be modeling him in zBrush, then making a low poly and textures.

C&C please I'll be posting constant updates!

Here's what I've got so far today:



And here is my reference sheet! I've got some from his appearance in Rocky to be able to see exactly how his muscles look. I believe he used steroids so some of his muscle proportions are a bit absurd.

TheodorUrhed

A thing I would actually recommend, though I know that at first it feels like cheating, is to use a basemesh. The super average man in Zbrush is neither super or average but he is good enough to serve the purpose of a quick base. It'll give you general proportions and good topology right off the bat, and probably saves you hours of work. And when you want to add the clothing you could extract them from the body mesh in a low subdivsion.

Good reference sheet!

pixelpatron

It's SHOWTIME!

nickcomeau

TheodorUrhed that's a good point and where I would normally do that, on this specific assignment, my teacher wants us to do it all from scratch to reinforce our understanding of anatomy and proportions. I may, though, now that you mention that just line up the average man next to my model and make sure the proportions are similar! And yeah I was planning on extracting the clothes from the body. Is there a difference if it is done at a super low subdivision level or not? That's something I wasn't sure about...

And pixelpatron, such a good line!

HomeGrownHeroz

Looking good so far mate Some more reference here from Happy Gilmore

Don't forget to nail that hand of his :P

Deathstick

Chubbs!

nickcomeau

HomeGrownHeroz I completely forgot he was in Happy Gilmore! Thanks for reminding me I'll add him to the reference sheet

Going to post updates either tonight or tomorrow. Been working on the body and proportions more, going to start the head today I think.

nickcomeau

Hey everyone,

A bit of an update today. I am working on the head now trying to get down the proportions and spacing, as well as working with the proportions of the body a bit. I am still using symmetry until I get closer to where I want it to be, and I am still using dynamesh so it's still at a pretty low polycount. Critiques on likeness and proportion or anatomy are what I'm going for now but seriously any comments or encouragement is welcome as usual.

nickcomeau

A little more work on the head. It's feeling like it's getting a bit closer I think. Thoughts?

nickcomeau

It's been a little while since I posted because I haven't had a ton of time to work on this, but here's what I've been working on. I think I've got the primary and secondary forms of the face looking better now. It isn't going to really look right until I get a mustache and other hair in but I'm comfortable with the direction it is going. Also, I had started some clothes in zBrush but decided I am going to try my hand at Marvelous Designer to do the clothes so I'm reworking those as well. Would love any feedback right now especially on the structures of the face/head.



For reference this is what he looks like without hair (and a bit older).

kanga

Looks pretty darn good!
The face looks nice but it also looks very carefully done. I miss the facial planes that give it the character that you can see in the ref images you posted above. Looks like there is a lot of ambient diffuse in the material making everything soft atm. I think you could be a bit more brutal with the forms but watch that there is not to much expression as a start point.

Nice stuff already!
Cheers

nickcomeau

So it's been a while since I've updated. It has definitely been a busy couple of weeks so I am not as far along as I'd like to be but I'm trying to get moving with this again. I added skin detail, fixed some proportions and added clothing. I did a first pass on the wrinkles and pockets but am going to go back in and tighten them up now (especially the pants). I haven't touch the hands yet either so they still need a lot of love for sure.

I would love to know what you think or any C&C please!

jhoythottle

Baby, you got a stew going.

nickcomeau

Thanks for your comments!

I'm trying to finish up the high poly now, all that I have let to work through is the boots I think. I'd love to have some critiques on the rest of him though in case there is anything I can fix before I move onto the low poly.

@kanga I lowered the wax modifier slightly and angled the face a liiittle bit more. I'm having trouble because I don't want to go too far. Do you think it's good or I should go farther?

nickcomeau

Alright so I've got a bit of an update here. Made the low poly and did some bakes! Here's a quick render of it in Marmoset. Would love some C&C as usual!

LRoy

The highpoly feels a bit soft, but I think it's important to go through the process of making a finished model. Learn as much as you can each time and apply that to the next one.

Topology looks pretty solid. Probably don't need the extra geo for the pockets as they're pretty flat and can just be handled by the normals. Are you planning to add shoelaces seperately?

nickcomeau

Thanks for the feedback LRoy!

I agree the High Poly feels a bit soft. I had to move on from the high poly due to the deadline of the course sadly. I am definitely going to go back into this after I submit the final and take all the critiques and try to apply them I think. Does the high poly feel soft as a whole? Or are there certain parts that stand out? For me I feel like the pants are what is making it feel very soft at the moment and they're something that I want to spend a lot more time on.

You're right, I definitely can just get rid of the geometry for the pockets especially on the jacket I think.

And as for the shoelaces, I was planning on just trying to add them through using CrazyBump. If that doesn't work well then I'll probably just model them bake the boots again.

Here's an update, I'm starting to add some color. I am going to be trying to tackle the hair next probably, then the boots, and finally the eyes.

kanga

Dang I missed these updates.
The wireframe is very clean and neat and looks like it will animate well! Likewise the textures are also well done.
There are a lot of really good things in the model. It looks like you know where everything is supposed to go. I think proportions and stance could help the character further. Its always up to the artist how real they want the model to be and how much to use emphasis to amplify some things and play down others.

If you look at the high poly full figure it looks like he is floating. I find it easier to sculpt the figure as if it has weight. Giving the start pose some attitude makes it easier to judge how much expression to put in and where. Maybe the souls of the shoes are correct but they dont look as if there is much weight being applied to them. I reckon the head could be a bit smaller and the forearms thicker and hands a little bigger.

In general I think you are going to get a lot out of doing a full naked figure before applying the costume. The legs are looking a bit straight up and down atm and the figure could use some wear and tear here and there.

The technique is really good maybe you should take a breather and free sculpt some figures for fun and study in between the fully worked out pieces.

Cheers!

Chantel-sky

jhoythottle wrote: »

Baby, you got a stew going.

OMG YES! I was hoping someone would link it. love it!

Kanga has some good advice.
I think the skin could be a bit darker. You should bend the some of the fingers to make it more interesting, he's looking too stiff.

nickcomeau

Thanks for the critique guys! I'm planning on posing him in the low poly for the final. I'll definitely try to make him have a bit more weight and I'll adjust the low poly with those proportions in mind. And I'll add some bend to the knees as well.

I have to finish this project for a class, but I'm definitely going to do more work over the summer. I had a lot of fun on my last project doing an anatomy study and kind of jumped over it this project as far as the lower body goes because he was going to be wearing pants but I think it caused me to have a few proportion issues.

Here's my update for today: I added the eyes, hair and laces. I've got an annoying seam on the top of his chest right now that I think is due to my AO. I also made the legs a bit longer, the face shorter (which I think helped a lot), the hands bigger and grounded the boots a bit.



Project is due in a few days would love some more advice Thanks again!

RitualSynergY

Hey man, everyone else already gave good crits but, I would say for the textures really try to bring out some of the dirt a bit more. Your reference board showed a couple cool images in the jungle, and you can see the variation in the tone of the fabric from wear and such. This definitely applies to his pants as bushes, dirt, vines, etc would dirty it all up. Keep up the great work man!

nickcomeau

Thanks for the critique! I added a bit of dirt and sweat to him. Is it enough? I'm going to pose him tonight/tomorrow and see how he looks. I'm a bit happier with how he's looking now. I still have to work out that seam though near the collar bone >.>

Would love some C&C. I have to submit tomorrow night, but I am going to be working on it still after my school work is done for the semester!

kanga

Looking better and better!
Love the sweat,,... what is that specular? If you are going to pose it tonight try bring the crotch up a bit that should make the torso a little shorter and the legs longer, if you do that you might want to bring the knee up a touch. The arms still need more volume I think.

Nice.

nickcomeau

It's not in the spec at all, it's all in the roughness map. I had the same spec as the skin and is close to full white in the roughness map and I think it looks alright.

I'll adjust all of those things tonight, hopefully that'll fix the proportion problems that I'm seeing

nickcomeau

Alright, well here's my final submission for my class. I'd love to know what you think! Definitely learned a lot doing this project and hope to keep improving it

JacqueChoi

ya! that sweat really adds a LOT!

Kinda wished you got more cloth texture out of the pants. Can barely see it at the resolution you rendered it out at.


Might be nice to also Photoshop out that neck seam (don't let your teacher know though).

;P

nickcomeau

I forgot about the neck seam >.< I've been staring at this for way too long now. I'll do that now. He won't know a thing.

I was trying to figure out how to do that because the type of pants I was going far was this material and the texture is barely visible (to me at least).

Also, is the resolution too small?

Ged

nice work, in the top beauty render you might want to adjust the rig weights on his biceps and forearms as the change there is a bit abrupt and looks a bit odd.

nickcomeau

Ok so I did some more work today based on the critique that I got yesterday in class and on here. Wetter mud, new necklace, texture on the vest, using a skin shader and a few other minor tweaks.

Might make a watch tomorrow? Not sure if I should, or just call this done? Thoughts?

nickcomeau

Alright I think I'm calling him done! I fixed his hand size/texture and a few things in the materials.

Going to be moving onto doing an environment project for the summer now Any thoughts on what I should do?? I was thinking maybe a realistic version of Howl's living room from Howl's Moving Castle. Gonna start whatever environment I pick next week.

theStoff

Looks good. One thing I'd suggest though (to consider next time) is that the cloth looks a bit stiff. I feel that it doesn't look like gravity is having much of an effect. For example here you can see how the pants sag and interact with the boots.

Howl's living room sounds fun. I'd definitely like to see where you take that .

mhofever

The face somehow to me doesn't match the quality of the rest of the body. It could be because you need to put expression on his face to make it more believable and also the eyes look like they're facing different ways.

nickcomeau

@mhofever: I think going back into it I could sag one of his eyes more, do something to his mouth and nose. That would definitely add more expression I think. Thanks ^_^

@kosh_fotsirk: I was struggling with how to sculpt the pants but that reference really helps actually I was thinking it looks stiff and soft at the same time >.< definitely going to be working on my cloth this Summer.

Also, I was instructed to just do a busy cityscape like in China during a festival instead. So I may push that project back I think until after the Summer.

Thanks everyone

Bummer6

The head looks a tad bit too big and wide in my opinion. The likeness is deffinately there and there is absolutely no mistaking who it's supposed to be, so good job!