WIP - Modern Merc

Biomag

Hu,

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OP:

again me, but this time trying to do a project to learn Marvelous Designer as part of John Gotch's CGMA course. Theme will be a modern day soldier / merc, trying to push as much fabric as possible through MD only doingt the final touches in ZBrush.

To not waste too much time I picked up an existing base mesh and used it for the first set of clothing (rolled up long sleeve shirt and some military baggy pants). Next stepp is to get some of the belts/straps, knee protectors faked in MD to get folds. After that I will move on to gloves and armor parts.




I kept the shirt simple and tight as armor and a shemag are going to cover most of it so I don't want too much material beneath those.

In the meantime I also did the face to get a better sense of the character.



Any critic/feedback regarding anatomy or anything else is as always highly appreciated

Biomag

I spent some time to find a workflow how to split up garments and avatar parts and reassembling them in a MD project file to deal with collision and performance issues. I've been also working on some of the base meshes that I needed so far for the cloth simulations in MD and started putting farbic upon those. As I've not been able to get some bigger folds I decided that I will emphasize them once I get into Zbrush to make those parts more interesting.

There are still some parts like straps and knee protectors where I am not sure if I am going to start them by using MD or simply model them in Maya.

Next step will be the torso armor. Many things to consider regarding workflow there so it is going to be interesting.



There are also some parts of the face I want to touch up again.

Biomag

As things never go as planned I've had to take quite some time off this project. But at least now I had a chance to get back to it. The last two weeks I've spent trying out different things regarding the workflow for Marvelous going to ZBrush and especially how to get the best results for the armor covered in cloth in Marvelous itself.

To go through the final lessons of John Gotch's course I got the pants into Maya and with the help of transfer attributes I did a retopo. I also added some thickness in specific areas, since I can't afford to add pannel loops on the whole pants due to hardware performance.

Here a picture of the pants now in ZBrush:

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There will be some adjustments to the belts and (now missing) kneepads. Belts and plates are just placeholders and the mole-system strips need detailing.

Any feedback regarding the cloth/folds would be highly appreciated.

Biomag

It feels like an eternity that I worked on this, but as my laptop broke I couldn't do anything for nearly a month. Its good to be back at it again.

Before the enforced break I added some MD parts after retopogizing them in Maya. I also realized I badly needed a block out for bags and equipment part from this point on to be able to plan accordingly.

I started working on the armor for the chest and arms adding some folds and pushing those from MD a little more. I am leaving the fabric structure to textures, same will be the chase with the shemagh and the mole bandings.


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C&C as always welcome.

Biomag

In the past 2 days I worked on the gloves and I've re-done some of the aging details and bandings/straps. Progress with the gloves was slow trying to find some material definition that would fit what I was going for. I might have to visit that part again.

Next step will be starting work on pouches and equipment back in MD and Maya and finishing the belts.


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C&C as always welcome.

Biomag

Started adding some of the equipment parts - including the first pouch, a suppressor, com and flashbangs.

Pouch is still rough out of MD and for the com I looking if I will put it in a pouch or just attach it to the armor and add details to the hardsurface model.



Next are some more bags before getting all those (planned) pouches into Zbrush for details and zippers...

kanga

Looks very good Biomag. Nice MD work!

mystichobo

Cool stuff, I'd soften the edges on the hardsurface stuff (the grenades/suppressor/radio?), they won't bake down all that well in their current form

Biomag

@kanga: Thanks

@mystichobo: Thanks for the advice! I've been doing definitely too little hard surface stuff in the last 2 years. I will smooth those edges and do some test bakes

Biomag

I added now a knife to the props, but I will need to correct some of the hard edges. I will see how I will handle the bandings, as I don't want it to look fresh.



I guess today I will take a look at the edges as suggest by mystichobo before moving on to the next pouches.

Biomag

A small update including the scrabbard for the knife.

Biomag

Pouches done, retopologized, and some detailing in ZBrush.

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I hope by the end of the week to be done with the character itself (knee pads, boots still missing, belts and shirt need to be sculpted). That would be where I take a break and go to baking and texturing (and fixing those hard edges) before adding additional equipment (pistol, holster,...). I guess then at least I have something finished and showable from this project.

Asura

This looks really cool. Looking forward to seeing the textures!

Biomag

Thank you for the kind words

Biomag

Based on some feedback I got, I went back and did some minor re-touch of the face. I also have completely re-done the shemagh - as the feedback was right about it -> it looked like a bib.

The pads are now added and I am up to the shirt and belts. Also based on the feedback there will be some attempts to embelish the folds on the armor a little more.




Full resolution available here

Biomag

I pretty much finished everything except for the boots and some final clean up. Tomorrow its up to those. As I have a course coming up I might be forced to put this one on hold, but at least some additional feedback might be available before going to baking/texturing.


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Biomag

Finally finished the boots and some minor changes on the knee pads. More detail work will be left to the textures.


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Low poly and baking up next.

MonkTiger

this looks great! Is this purely for concept art? will you use this for game asset?

Biomag

@MonkTiger: I did it for my portfolio and therefore will also do a real time ready version of it, but it is just a theoretical game asset

Biomag

I am mostly finished with this one except for some minor adjustments to around hair/beard and maybe some more dirt on the pants. And just the last touches on the rig, a quick skinning and then up to the presentation.

Biomag

Calling it done. Additional images here