Warrior Character - Herod

wizo

BUMP:

added a marmoset viewer link for those interested!



https://www.artstation.com/artwork/herod-marmoset-viewer

cheers!

---

yo yo! c&c very welcome!

FIRST SCREENS:



wallpapershot (a bit heavy)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x27o67lc86m9qej/herod_wizo_closeup.png?dl=0

My goal was to have something done in the final fantasy style more toward the early ff7 concepts in term of "colorfulness". This is the concept I've done a while back and I wanted to see how it would turn out in 3d, with a more vibrant style, bold colors a bit like the "old school" games with some very strong saturation.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/herod-character-hero
Hope you guys enjoy! cheers!

air

It looks great, good job! I think the hair & eyebrows could have been darker to match your concept and a little more, but it still looks good.

TomGT

Hey nice work!

I think my main critique would be the color of his shoulderpads. I can't quite determine what material it is, mainly because the color is suggesting metal but the noise on it looks like leather.

The game res model could be crunched down to around 15k-20k (or even lower) I reckon. 55k I can see in real-time cinematics maybe, but definitely not mid-game. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Sick concept btw, wouldn't wanna mess with this guy!

Popol

The sculpt is really cool, however the texturing still needs a LOT of work.

The parts that are supposed to look like gold and metal look like plastic. To make metal make a dark diffuse with little info and put all the variation, scratches in the spec.

Slapping a fur texture texture on the cape won't do the trick at all. I would sculpt some stylized fur and then paint on top of the bake to make a nice fur cape.

Take the time to make sme nice haircards and give him proper hair.

I have no idea what the gloves are made of. They lack details in the sculpt, you should add folds, seams, stitches, etc...

Fix this and this character will look way better. I hope that helps!

wizo

hey guys, thanks for taking the time to reply!

air- thanks man! I think you are right, I've changed the colors of the hair and eyebrows a bit so that they feel more dark and colourful, its working better already, might try even darker just to make sure I have the right color.

TomGT- Right on, I've darkned the metal and boosted the spec, I want the render to feel stylized but I think you are right the materials are feeling too soft atm, I will be keeping that in mind. As for the high poly count, for current games yeah 15-20k seems right, since it is for portfolio purposes, I've went a bit crazy with the polycount, I think for xbox one and ps4, character polycount go easily up to 40-50k, but I might trim it down in the end when texture pass is completed, if you think it brings down the credibility of the model, thanks again for your feedback!

Popol- Great points man, I agree for everythings you said except the hair, I will stick with stylized anime hair as I want the model to feel like old hair method (polygonal volumes) with smoother shapes.
After I've read the issues you pointed out, I am going for additional work on the textures because that is what the model really needs and I will make a few changes to the gloves and cape as you've mentionned that's gonna help tons. Many thanks!

So the bigger issue is with material definition, so I am reworking that, making sure the colors are balanced and more consistent. As you can see the colors for the character have changed quite a lot. I am still aiming for a somewhat stylized feel if I can reach something close to this in the end I'll be happy
https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/2014/02/21/761110d13f3dadf926d9e3c7b1316f94.jpg

Up next, will texture the sword and make the changes to gloves and cape!

UPDATE:

wizo

update time, revisited gloves and cape also on the materials and render style!

I found a few ffx concept art which have helped tons to figure out what skin colors and highlights to go for
ref: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081129145420/finalfantasy/images/b/be/Auron_Menu.jpg

wizo

Alright guys, I am done with this guy, I am grateful for the push and really good crits I've had from PC!

here are some final images:

DONE:




see ya next time!

tahakitan

looks very cool, only thing that bothers me is that it feels like he has no neck. I know he has alot of clothing around that area but the head still seems to low

Biomag

Hmm... by looking at your artstation site and the 2D works you posted there I think you can crank it up a notch with the textures. To me the textures are too plain, lacking the life that you definitely are able to bestow into your 2D work.

I have not tried to do stylized textures with PBR, so I can't give you much help, but I wouldn't rely on pbr-metal for the actual metal. See it as a fake and treat it like the other materials, like you would do it pre-pbr - maybe this would work out?

Regarding the tris... its a portfolio piece so it might not be a big deal, but to me a 55k should rather be an exceptional concept or probably closer to realism and thus needing those 55k. I think your character could be easily pulled of with 20k (which would be still a very high number) without losing the slightest detail. Might be a personal flaw from my side, but I pay very close attention to game optimized topology so even when I see a portfolio piece I think it should be at least close to an average game model - no need to push it, but not doing it, comes of as lazy to me. The problem I see with your portfolio you have nothing that is really game ready except for a 55k model - and that (from an employer perspective) wouldn't give me confidence in your skills to make ingame models on your own without guidance.

Also your textures should probably just use have the size.


This might sounded harsh, but I didn't want to. Its not meant to be a me giving you a lecture, but rather just pointing you to a different perspective that might help you (or not) Keep it coming And I really wish you to find a way to get your textures closer to your 2D works as those are really good when it comes to colors

wizo

tahakitan - thanks! I agree the scarf could've been a bit lower to help that out.

Biomag - No worries lol, thanks for the honest opinion, just to explain a bit on that, I was aiming for a final fantasy style character (very clean and simple shapes) but I agree right now everything reads simple and flat, part of the problem is the render style I've chosen.

Here is what I was aiming for, it is all the same sculpt and color info thing as before but with the proper post-process and matcap inside of zbrush. It could look just the same inside a game engine or UE4, just I don't know how to do that yet : )

it is really simple to have that inside zbrush as it is only some simple matcap tweaks:





I though it would be interesting to share,
Cheers!

BradMyers82

pretty cool work man. The thing that sorta breaks it for me is the head and face. It totally doesn't match the body type even for a stylized type character. His body is so massive, think about the bone structure for a minute. Look at his wrists and ankles. If a guy were to have such thick joints, why would his face have such tiny bone structure? Its sorta like you made a gears of war character even bigger than the others and then put a boy band sorta face on him. Idk, just my 2 cents. I think you executed a lot of things very well tho, keep up the good work!

wizo

Hey Brad, I agree, this is one of my first "official" designs, I am still learning and the points you've brought up make sense to me. Since this is heavily manga inspired some proportions and face style can seem a bit weird, I will keep that in mind in my future concepts, thanks for the honest feedback, its much appreciated!

marmoset viewer is up!



https://www.artstation.com/artwork/herod-marmoset-viewer