Desert Assasin

jhoythottle

*LATEST*

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I'm excited to get started on a new character.  I've had this one in my inspiration hopper for a while and I'm finally going to execute.  



The concept is by Johannes Helgeson.  I believe this character was created for a game called "Heroes of Order and Chaos."  I haven't played the game, but I stumbled across the concept on Pinterest, and loved it.

I plan to texture with realistic pbr maps.  I'll approach that step using my favorite program as of late: Substance Painter.  This is my inspiration for texture quality:



And here is what I've come up with so far.



It's just simple blocking for now.  I still have a lot of work to do.  I intend to retop most of the pieces for more defined sculpting.  That workflow helped me out a lot on my last character.


Any feedback is welcome!  I can use all the help I can get moving forward.  It's going to be fun!

Haftoof

Concept has the man being a bit skinnier, his shoulderpads might be the cause of the perceived wideness, also the sword looks off from the original, longer, less ornate and not as wide.

jhoythottle

Thanks for the feedback @Haftoof.  Now that I've posted the render of my progress I too am seeing that my character is a little bit too short and squat.  I'll  skinny him up in the next update like you suggested.  

Also, the sword isn't mine, it's a reference image I plan on using once I start texturing.  The artist who created it is Jonas Ronnegard 

Haftoof

Ah gotcha...   with how bright the original concept art is, are you going down to an almost pbr level with the whole character instead of a cartoony painted look?

jhoythottle

Yeah, that's the plan.  I want to give him a more worn and rugged look.  The concept is really clean, so the end result might be somewhere in between.

jhoythottle

Small Update:

Started refining the head a bit more.  The scarf still needs some work.  I need a better way to define how the folds lay.  I'll try to find some real world reference.



Retopped the sleeves for better definition and shrunk the shoulder width.  



Thoughts?

Tectonic

I think his elbow has gotten a little lost. some subtle bends in the arm to show elbow and forearm would help. looking good though! Also I would add in a subtle crease where his mouth would be. you can barely see it in the concept, but its there.

jhoythottle

Hey everyone.  This project got slowed down significantly due to me working on an outside game project.  But, I think I'm finally done with the sculpt.  Next, I'll be moving on to low-poly.





My one issue is the feet.  I'm not sure they're quite right yet.  I think they look ok, but I'm not super confident with them.  Then again, I think they'll pass for now.  If you have any critiques, please let me know and I'll make some adjustments.

jhoythottle

... and here's the sword.

jhoythottle

I've put this project on hold for a while.  There have been other projects consuming my time, but now I'm back.  I've retopped and baked textures.  Now, I'm on to my new favorite tool: Substance Painter.

jWestlinder

Seems pretty solid, although the big toe seems abit unproportionate? Can't put my finger on it but it looks rather elongated.

jhoythottle

Yeah I see the toe now, thanks for pointing that out.  I told myself I would fix the toes once I got the textures baked.  It was easier getting normals and AO when they were spread apart more.  I'll shrink the big toe and close all the gaps between the rest on the final model.

jhoythottle

Can someone explain why Marmoset distorts normals like this?  On the left is the normal that I baked in Substance Painter.  When I bring the textures into Marmoset, the details become wavy and distorted.    

Zodd

My guess is that the UV island is not as "averaged" as it can be and is causing the distortion, also i guess that part in particular is a bit tricky to cut into nicely averaged pieces.. i may be wrong tho. Would help a lot if you could share the textures with wireframe?
Have you checked the normals in other software (maya,max,engine...) if they are fine over there then it may be marmoset.

jhoythottle

Thanks @Zodd .  Yeah, I checked the normals in other software and they looked fine.  Marmoset was the only place they were getting distorted.  There weren't very many loops in that spot, so when I added a few more the problem went away.  I'll post more updates soon.

jhoythottle

I've still got some work to do, but here's what I've been working on.  For now the red silk flowing in the wind is just a quick mockup in photoshop.  I still need to build it in 3D.  I feel like I may need to scale down the size of the hands just a bit.

The textures for the sword and metal in general aren't quite where I'd like them to be, but I feel like I'm getting close.

Also, what do you guys think of putting some sand below his feet to imply that he's actually in a desert environment?  I kind of like this minimalist look I have here, but I could go either way. 

Zodd

Some general guide for hands is that the length from root of the palm to tip of the middle finger should be same as length from lowest point of chin to highest point of forehead (hair line) but seeing as this is stylized character, yeah, scale them down just a little bit.

Hilt and hand-guard could use some more red/orange and warmer tones in general and they'll contrast better with red sash/scarf thingy.

Sand/desert environment is a good idea, also maybe put some foliage (for instance a palm tree) to go with the earth tones on pants

And finally, glad to hear you've fixed it, but, since it still bugs me, the skewed normals on headpiece. If you want to/have time/can be bothered, try and triangulate the model and then export it triangulated to marmoset, i'm 99.99% sure its gonna fix the problem since the issue probably was that marmoset was triangulating the problematic polygon in opposite direction of what other software(s) were doing, thus causing the skewed normals.

Looks great, glad to see you are making progress on this.

jhoythottle

@Shinigami : Thanks for the feedback.  Yeah I agree. No white background.  I'll probably use a lightly textured bg.  Think parchment or papyrus with an earthy tone.  I tried a sand test using zbrush/substance.  I think it could work nicely if I can ever find the time.  This project keeps getting delayed  

Thanks @Zodd , some great tips here.  Yeah, I'll scale down the hands for my next render and I agree about the hand guard.  

jhoythottle

Hey guys and gals.  Here's another image.  Am I getting closer?  I still want to put some sand on the ground.

jhoythottle

Here it is!  My final renders and presentations for the Desert Assassin.  Thank you for the feedback along the way.  Critiques are still welcome, but unless it's a huge eyesore, I will probably be moving on to my next project.  

jhoythottle

More dramatic lighting...