Troll Game Character WIP

Topperr

Latest Update

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Hey, this is something I'm currently working on and I was looking for some feedback on it, to see if there is anything I could do to improve the high poly before I get down and start retopologising.

Currently have the main character and weapon almost finished but feels like there is something missing so I might add some more elements to the design.

TheWalkerGod

Do you have some concept art or something of this, because without that it's hard to say what's missing when I don't know what your end goal was.

Topperr

I was originally following this concept by Caio Monteiro.

Brian "Panda" Choi

The gestures being made by the shapes of the head and body aren't there. It's hard to describe, but have you done an overlay of your sculpt next to your concept art image? The way the shapes are hanging and "feel" is being missed in the sculpt.

Topperr

Hey thanks for the feedback, in regards to the head I've gone off concept with regards to the overall shape, as I wanted to try something different. I can see what you mean about the way the body shape isn't hanging like the concept especially in the shoulders I think they are maybe too rigid and don't slope the same way as the concept, they also seem to be pushed back though that could be achieved with posing I think. I will see what I can do to remedy this and post back

Dimfist

Stick to the concept. It has a lot of really cool forms to it. You need to work on the chest and abdomen quite a bit and you have lost a lot of the overall shapes in the neck and jawline.
Keep at it!

Topperr

Quick update, followed peoples advice and went back to the original concept, it needs more work but wanted to get it down and see if it's now roughly got the right shape. Alot happier with it now looking back at what I had.

Chase

That's looking much improved! The jaw in particular is a pleasant standout. Next I'd tackle the legs and feet. The calf muscles could use a little boost of muscle so they stand out a little more. As it is he seems to hit the gym and only works on his upper half rather than getting all the muscle groups in Maybe lengthen his legs a bit too or shorten his torso. The feet are a good start, but now go in and really make those things veiny. Keep up the great work Topperr!

Topperr

Hey guys, here's another update, thanks again for all the feedback and critique it's much appreciated. Here I've tried to work more into the muscle anatomy and start getting the detail into the body. Still need to work on the head which is the next step.

@Chase I've lengthened the legs and filled them out a little so now the proportions should be more in line with the concept. Hope he's now figured out that when going to the gym its best to distribute the load



Might have gone overboard on some of the detail but let me know what you think and if there's anywhere I need to improve or change

Chase

Now it looks like he's done some squats

Tectonic

I recommend making the arms longer, specifically in the forearm. in the concept his biceps are pretty toned which exaggerates the lankiness of his arm, and the bulk of his shoulder and forearm. play with those proportions a bit until it matches the concept better. also the belt looks very even around his waist, I'd pull it up a bit near his hips and have it sag at the crotch more. looking good though! You've got a good eye for detail. the head is spot on

Topperr

Another update here, think this is me pretty much done with the high poly of the troll, though still have to detail the war hammer's haft and fastenings.

@Tectonic Thanks for the advice has helped alot, not sure how I missed that belt overall lengthened the arms proportionally and changed how the belt sits on his hips.

Also changed the loose bit of belt as I wasn't happy with how I had it before.



Again thanks for all the critique, it's good to get some feedback while working on the model and it's helping me produce a better piece than if left to my own devices. Sometimes I think I stare too much at a model and cant see what it's missing

Quick question does anyone have any good tutorials for rigging? It's been awhile since i've done any and could do with brushing up.

jacob thomas

My biggest advice would be to sculpt forms not details. Right now all his muscles feel like they are cut into a cylinder. Drop him down a couple of subdivs and really try and make the forms of the muscles pop.

Topperr

Managed to get the retopology done, did a quick test of the bakes to see how the normals turned out. Pretty happy with the result though still a few errors to tweak out. I have bad memories of normals not doing what they should Model's sitting at around 16000 poly's, probably a little high so might look at going back over the mesh.



Will plan to get the rest of it all done and then get onto the textures.

amirabd2130

looking forward to this.

Topperr

Hey, got a bit of a problem and was wondering if you guys could help me out.

So to lay down the situation I've finished my UV's and attached the elements together so I could arrange the UV's. However now I want to bake the rest of the normals from the high poly so I detached the elements collapsing the stack and checking preserve UV's but this destroys the UV's on whichever element wasn't detached and reverts the detached element back to its original UV layout from before I attached them together.

Does anyone know why this is? I've done this before but never had any problems like this.

Attached some screen captures for reference.





P.S. I should just get 3D coat for UV's so much easier than this max stuff

Topperr

Haha, well i'm an idiot, still had the element tab selected when I applied my Unwrap UVW, so all good now

Topperr

Normals applied, onward onto texturing



This is where I remember I haven't finished the Hammer, oh well at least thats got a few less parts.

Topperr

Hey guys, haven't been able to spend as much time as I'd like to on this model recently, here is the first colour pass, haven't tweaked specular or gloss yet but try and get some more done this weekend. Still need to fix the UV's on the fingers on toes as they're slightly bleeding. C&C is encouraged, thanks to everyone spending the time to comment on this.




I'm also new to Toolbag so any tips would be great.

Chase

I'm mclovin this! Cant wait to see the vein highlights in!

noosence

I'm not going to lie, I had my doubts when I first saw this thread, but you have turned this thing around and are killing it! Good job, sub'd and can't wait to see the finished piece! =]

Topperr

Hey guys quick update here, worked some more into the textures still a lot to do in my opinion. Still working on the arm wraps and loincloth mainly. Spec/gloss maps still a work in progress as I just have a quick placeholder for them and haven't had a chance to edit them too much. Not sure what I changed with the render but the textures are looking a lot more saturated not sure if that's a good thing so will probably tweak them down a bit.



Crit welcome, as I could do with some ideas with the textures

Topperr

Another update for this evening, tinkered with the colour, spec and gloss maps properly. Got a little bit more to do with this just seeing what works and what doesn't. Then onto finishing the hammer off and posing/rendering

Topperr

Edited the levels of the colour maps as I felt that the skin texture was too bright. Let me know which you think is the better way to go.

Topperr

Hey, Going to say done with the body for the moment, debating whether to remodel the wraps as i'm thinking they look a bit flat that or change the texture but want to get the hammer done and then I can come back to that.




As always crit is welcome, would like to get this finished for a portfolio piece thanks.

Topperr

Made some changes to the lighting and spec/gloss maps. texturing of the hammer is also under way so hopefully should be done with this project soon, a few final details to do on the textures. So once i've posed and rendered I can move onto the next piece which i've began to sculpt. Will also post progress on that one soon so I can get some feedback on that.

Ever since I've started to post here I've found the community to be amazing, thanks for all the support guys motivating me to do better.

Topperr

Minor update, did a couple of changes with the textures.



And then just for fun played around with the Hue levels

Topperr

Retopology and base textures done for the hammer, going through some poses now then i'll do some more work on the hammers textures.

Mr.Moose

I really am not too keen on the colors chosen for the hands and feet. They kind of make both parts void of detail. Which speaking of detail, there is a lot of polys committed to both, I feel like you could reduce that a ton, especially on the feet which wont be heavily scrutinized by the players.

Topperr

Last update for the evening, Have a WIP pose and I'll probably get another one done along with a base. Oh yeah and need to create a tongue for the guy at the moment he's mute.



@Mr.Moose: Thanks for the feedbacK, I agree with you about the colour have already begun to try a solution. For the topology it probably is too many poly's situated around the hands and feet and by doing so remove the polycount by quite a margin. I may go back to them and reduce the amount but I don't know how to do that without messing with the UV's

Is there a way to transfer the textures I have now onto a new UV set without screwing them up too much?

Topperr

Edit: Found a work around, I have to reimport back into max then exporting as an .obj again, then import it into Toolbag. Seems a bit of a long way round, so if anyone has an answer to the original problem I'd be interested to find out.

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Hey polycount, so I've got a bit of a problem and I was wondering if anyone had any insights as to why its happening or how to solve it.

So i've exported my .obj's from Max into Zbrush to pose as I haven't rigged the character and thought this would be the best way to pose without having to rig.

The problem comes after I export the posed .obj's out of Zbrush and import them into Toolbag, this causes the UV seams to show, no idea why this happens.

I've tested the textures in Zbrush and they work fine so the problem comes once they're exported. I even did a test where I imported an .obj from Max to Zbrush didn't touch the model then exported it with the same problem occuring.

Does anyone know why this is? Any help would be a great appreciated.

Thanks

Topperr

Hey all, did some more work on this model and had a play around in photoshop. Going to call this one done for the time being as I work on some other projects. Will probably come back to this and do some more edits to it.