An aspiring character artist looking to improve.

CrazyMoon

Hello fellow people on polycount, I have been hearing so much from artists about how great this forum is and I would like to form part of this community! I have seen so many great artists post their stuff on here and so here I am, looking to improve and learn with everyone. I hope I am not doing anything wrong in my first topic post here! 

I want to model a character from an image by Hanchae Moon: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XgzRD and I'd be very happy to receive some pointers if possible.

This is my current progress, I still have to merge the hands and head to the body and smoothen those transitions, I'm thinking about building the body first and then moving onto the next biggest shapes on her body like cloth and boots I think the image has very long legs hence the long lower body: 

jacob thomas

Recheck your proportions, they are all over the place. Hips/pelvis are way too high.
Also the side view is not even close to a natural stance, use ref.

CrazyMoon

Thank you for the feedback! I rechecked the proportions with Loomis' proportion guide. Is this more acceptable? If so then I will head into fine tuning some things and getting some curves back. Also, then have I been looking at the concept image in a wrong way? Since the legs seem so long compared to the torso. Just curious. Once again thanks for the feedback really appreciate it! 

jhoythottle

Your pose doesn't have any weight to it.  Check out these links for how the body position flows with gravity.

http://polycount.com/discussion/148062/how-do-you-create-non-stiff-character-sculpting/p1

https://www.pinterest.com/cocoacanoe/character-balance-action-lines/

CrazyMoon

Huh I never even considered that in my sculpt, thank you for providing the links!! I see there is some great information in that thread, I will look into it and adjust my model accordingly Thanks again! 

CrazyMoon

Ok I hope this is an improvement to her, added more curves to the body and adjusted the arm angle while pulling out her breasts to the side a bit more. I still have to adjust the angle on her elbow and I think her forearm is a bit too long compared to the upper arm, gonna have that on the next update. I also think her side and back view look a bit weird but I don't know why. I think I have to spend more time on the back. 

CrazyMoon

Did a lot of minor tweaks, I think the arms and the head look a bit weird but I don't know why yet...  Maybe it's just the head. I think I might just start working on her armor, at least the separate pieces to not get too caught up in the body. 

jacob thomas

Her arms need some love for sure, have a look at these.
http://www.sculptclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/poses.jpg
Not sure what refs you are using other than the concept, but I would recommend finding pieces like this.
http://www.cgsociety.org/cgsarchive/newgallerycrits/g78/314778/314778_1203493635_large.jpg
Study them as well as some real life ref and you will do well.

Keep plugging away, she has definitely improved.

CrazyMoon

Ok this is the last body update. I really want to start building her armor and clothing now. Does anybody know any good tutorials on that? I tried the mesh extraction method but didnt like the results, maybe I have to spend more time with that, but a tutorial for a thin-silk like cloth or so would be great... 

CrazyMoon

Haven't had much progress, since I was trying to figure out how to do stuff. I've blocked out the most important armor pieces, still have to find a way to do the cloth also want to make a basic hair blockout so I can get a better feel of where I'm currently at. Until I figure that out I will clean up the armor pieces I have so far and connect them to the body so they don't just float around. Also the boots are crooked, but I have a version before adjusting them to the leg which I can edit so no problem there.

CrazyMoon

Finally able to give her some cloth, roughed out most shapes, not worrying about the very little shapes till the bigger shapes are clean and finished. Maybe its a mistake, but there are just so many small shapes that its kind of overwhelming to think about that when not having the other stuff figured out, I feel like I might want to exaggerate her hips more and give her longer legs to fit the concept more. Also have to start thinking about the hair. Also the cloth needs adjustments still to fit the other forms of the body. Still havent built connectors to make the armor possible.

CrazyMoon

Ugh I suck at keeping updates and stuff like that going. This is what I ended up with in Zbrush. Yes I know the armor would kill her if she lifted her arms to much, it pains to look at it every time, but I learned a lot so that's fine. Since I had a deadline on this for school I didnt have enough time to fix it. I realized too late into the process I also pretty much skewed the original concept I wanted to follow. Oh well. I learned the lesson to look at the image of my choosing constantly from now on. 

CrazyMoon

And here is the low poly version with textures, created in substance painter. If you can give me any pointers to keep in mind in future projects id be very grateful  

dpadam450

Looking good so far.

slosh

Looks pretty solid overall...why are her eyes red?

CrazyMoon

Thanks for the comments! @slosh made these shots a while ago, still gotta get some good renders with the eyes painted  

ComatoriuM

Hey man, nice model. But if I were you, I would take a look better on the form and shapes of her skull. Get something for references. Nice job  

CrazyMoon

@ComatoriuM  Thank you for the feedback! Will keep that in mind on the next one  

CrazyMoon

Had a lot of fun on this one, also learned quite a bit! Don't have time to work on it anymore sadly... Any feedback is greatly appreciated! I think I should also work on my presentations... I definitely have to make some nicer images soon.. The creature is supposed to live in moist caves, therefore he has such humid skin. If there are any other ways to show this please inform me This model is at 15k Triangles.

CrazyMoon

Im working on a new creature and would appreciate any feedback or thoughts! Right now Im concerned mostly with proportions and having a good base to then add more shapes and make it feel more like one creature (I feel like right now its a raptor with a more dragon like head and weird feet). And I dont know what to do to make a better head as in design..

CrazyMoon

I do like the shapes from a far, so I guess that means I dont like the shapes on the head other than the silhouette? Maybe it just needs more love and work... 

CrazyMoon

Small Update, tomorrow I can hopefully get in some other elements like scales  The folds are still very messy gotta take a look at that as well. Sorry for only posting screen grabs..

CrazyMoon

Put in details and adjusted some things. Next steps are making nice teeth and claws, fixing some minor things that bother me throughout the model and making the inside of the mouth and a tongue. After that ill break up the symmetry, then go into retopo, uvs, texture and all that fun stuff. Wanna be done with this next week! Then ill do a human again. I think the details will make a lot more sense once there is color in there to push and pull some details. Also I might want to work a bit more on my presentations, so I actually did very fast bpr renders in zbrush. The constant screenshots look pretty bad. If you have an opinion please do share ! 

CrazyMoon

Managed to squeeze in some time to render out the earlier creature with a pose. Feedback is very welcome! Im still working on the raptor like creature, almost done, will post some shots once I have them. And I already managed to fix the normals issue on his buttocks, I dont remember exactly what it was... I think I rebaked as an object space and then turned that into tangent space normal map, not sure anymore.. 

CrazyMoon

WiP on the textures, still think they need a lot of work... Also its soo hard to design something that works!! Any critiques welcome!

CrazyMoon

Next one is human again, working on the base body to then build armor on top. Want to make a sci-fi armor. So far I only focused on proportions, and putting in muscles, gotta move everything into place next. Then of course make hands, will not be doing feet on this since he will have boots (godbless). Currently his back side is looking weakest, at least in my opinion. Still feel kind of uncomfortable with adding weight to a sculpt...

Finalhart

Nice! i love to see progress like these, keep going! I believe his back looks good you got the muscles in place if you are just going to put armor on top looks like a good base, if you were doing it naked just look at references and find little subtleties to make your piece stand out. I really like the gesture of your sculpt.

CrazyMoon

Thank you! Will keep posting progress as i go on! 

CrazyMoon

So I made super quick sketches and chose this one to get a rough idea of what I wanted and then I made an approximate sculpt to have something more to work on. Still very rough but I think the idea is there. First thing on the list for now are boots! Looks pretty uncomfortable for his feet atm  

CrazyMoon

Made some boots, gotta look at some ref still for the pad on the back and adjust minor things on it, gonna move on to other pieces first though. They also feel a little twisted, like the feet are wrong.

CrazyMoon

Small update, got the chest plate and knee pads. Probably gonna finish the rest of the upper torso next. Also planning on giving him some sort of backpack/oxygen tank on the back. 

CrazyMoon

Another update. Next up is the under suit, shoulder pad straps and other little things. Been learning a lot about hard surface modeling. 

CrazyMoon

Not much progress, next up the oxygen tank to fill the back and some more stuff for the under suit. Also some fixes on the boots to make them look softer. Cant wait to texture him and put some colors on him. I might revisit the helmet too if I have time. 

CrazyMoon

Next up retopology! Cant wait to texture him and put some colors on... This is just the backpack air supply thingy and i applied a hexagonal pattern on the suit. Also fixed some small things here and there. Hope I can make it all come together in the end. 

Luc4998

hey dude! Looking really good! the hands need some more work imo. (if you didnt do em already :P ) btw grassettis tut is super useful if you have trouble with anatomy helped me ALOT! I am just asking myself if he is a soldier or is he an explorer? Because too me he doesnt like any of those two too much right now because of his equipment. But keep going!

CrazyMoon

@Luc4998
Hey man thanks for the feedback really appreciate it! Yeah I have his tutorial, its awesome! Everytime I watch it I learn something new and it has helped a lot (still have to squeeze more out of it though)! I'll try to fix the hands as much as I can with the time I have left! The idea was for him to be a space station crew member, like a pawn or a nobody. No hero type, I'm not sure if that reads. I also agree that his equipment is pretty random and maybe that is why it looks weird, I should've put a lot more thought into his equipment.. Again thanks for pointing that out though, really helps to get another person's feedback!!  

CrazyMoon

Here are some shots of the textured space worker, learned a lot, but for my next one I probably won't post it on this thread, going to take some time to really polish it and carefully address the flaws I've had so far across most of my models. Thank you for commenting and giving feedback!