Explorer Zbrush Character

Colton

Latest:




Original thread:

I've burned through a lot of helmet designs on this guy and I would love to hear what other artists think would work well. I chose to give him a big visor so you could see his face making him more relatable. However, this has made designing the helmet much more difficult balancing the badass space marine look with the relatable heroic character. 

I'll take feedback on the armor as well. I'll still change anything at this point. 

Thanks!

PyrZern

Plan for anything to break symmetry ?

Colton

I would like to. Do you have any suggestions? 

Colton

Been a while since I updated this post. I would change every part on this guy but at some point I have to finish him and call it done so I can move on to the next one. I started doing a game res (I did the knife at the bottom in Painter and I baked his arms and legs). After figuring out how long it would take me, I've decided to go back and revise the shoulder/upper back and lower arms. I've started cleaning up the new jetpack but his lower arms are still in dynamesh so feel free to critique them.  

I'm going to spend the next two days cleaning up the high poly. Let me know what else you think really needs attention.

artofmars

Love how this is turning out! pants may be a little too wrinkly in the back.

Colton

@artofmars  I've heard that one before, I'll make some adjustments. Thanks!

karytsukino

Hi! Nice design, I really like how this suit is turning out! Great job

Colton

@karytsukino
Thanks! Nice ArtStation btw!

I ran into some issues baking the arms and legs but eventually got everything to come through. Now on to the exciting part! 

I saw the newest Mass Effect trailer yesterday and I think it's playing a part in some of my color choices. I took a shot with iRay and played around with hue in Photoshop. I'm leaning towards either the orange or the desaturated blue. Let me know what you think!

Colton

Here are a few more renders after today's progress. I cleaned up a lot of the materials and added details like the LEDs. I'm not loving the main white armor, I would love to have something with less wear that still looks finished. 

I attached an image of the Pathfinder armor from Andromeda, I would love to put together a material with that kind of smooth edgewear. If anyone has any tips on creating it let me know!

Colton

Here's the first render. I'm going to spend the next few days cleaning him up and finalizing the lighting.

apllana

Cool stuff so far! You should definitely experiment with more dynamic lighting to bring up those specular values. Good work!

artofmars

this looks sick! awesome job! I might add a little more color variety in the armor pieces but that's just me. Im thinking maybe a decal or symbol of the company that made it would be cool and make it feel more grounded. 

Colton

@apllana
Thank you! I got similar feedback from some other people about bringing the lights up. My roughness was and, after some tweaking, may still be slightly off from what it should be. 

@artofmars
Thank you very much! I don't love the choice of colors either but I guess that's what happens when you wing it with no real concept. I did take your suggestion on the decals and added a few. I didn't want to go overboard with them because I think the armor is already too busy with the high contrast white on black. 

Here's an update. I'll be taking final renders tomorrow but if you have any more suggestions on tweaks and especially lighting please let me know!

At this point I still need to upres the final textures from painter to 4k. Sorry if the pictures are big...

Colton

Here are the finished renders! I'll probably go back to do some minor tweaks but I'm calling this one done for now so I can move on to the next one.

I've had the honor of working with Chris Cao over the last few months and I want to give a special thanks to him for being a rock star mentor and for always pushing me forward. Also thank you to my lab crew for giving me constant feedback throughout the process. You guys kicked ass this semester! These last few months have been an unforgettable experience.

The suit is Mass Effect and Halo inspired. 

artofmars

I think what you did was perfect the pops of blur light helps a lot too! great piece!

Colton

@artofmars
Thanks! I'm still getting the hang of rendering but they're getting better.

AgelosAp

Great work man, going to be looking to this for some inspiration as I am tackling some sci fi armor myself now!
I really like the material balance you achieved, you didn't make everything super glossy and flashy so this grounds itself nice.

martinhernblad

Fantastic stuff! Keep it up

Elithenia

Nice work!

Sebeuroc

Model looks great. Presentation is cool, without being overdone (the skull is a nice touch). Suit design is really solid. Great stuff! 

Colton

Thank you! Glad you like it:)

olegpic

Hi! Really cool work! I have a question. How do you clean geometry after a rough sculpt? What tools do you use for that? 

Colton

@olegpic I occasionally use zremesher but the complex shapes can be cleaned up much more accurately by using the topology brush. Michael Pavlovich does a fantastic job of covering a lot of the techniques I used in his boot tutorial: 

olegpic

Thanks for the link!