Sketchbook: Geocat (RobertZamber)
polycounter lvl 7
Guess I'll start a sketchbook since Mokoto is still very much a WIP.
Always wanted to do a chibi. Since this is my first attempt at a chibi style character I wanted to keep things simple and decided to go with a personal rendition of Motoko Kasanagi (Ghost in the Shell) for this exercise….
Gathered reference I'll be using to stay focused and inspired....
I’ve done some work on Motoko that I’m not sure I like at this point, might roll back to a previous version of the body. Also considering scaling the head down about 30-40% for a more proportioned Chibi….anyway....
I’ve done allot with accessories, particularly her back, SMG, and pistol. The SMG in the reference appears to be based on a P-90.
Since this is a character WIP, and I want to move quickly with things I searched around the web for a low res P-90 to add to my “deadly hardware” IMM collection I’ll use as a base to create (not a 1-1 match but approximately) the SMG in the reference material, I have named the P90-9 Drum….
The deadly hardware kit in the image is a mixed collection of Kit containing pieces that I’ve made, and what I can find around the web for free on share sites like Bad King, here, and other places (which I do donate monies to regularly). Now the funny thing is I end up not using allot of these parts, but you never know. I guess I’m a kleptomaniac that way, and I typically end up using stuff from the 3D creation kits (bad king) and my trusty “ready to clip”, hirez block for much of the primary, and secondary shapes and forms which I’ll then carve out greebles, nurnies etc with the clip brush. Than dynamesh pieces together so on and so forth and keep building up the model until I’m satisfied with the result. I try to apply the 70/30 rule, and overall I’m looking for a good balance, and flow between/among the shapes and details...
Results thus far….
Updates pt 2.... the Drum....
I’ve also thought a little about functionality of the SMG, in a lazy way
Since I removed the standard chamber and mag I came up with this idea of the “Drum”... hence the name - P90-9 drum…
Its basically reversed engineered revolver that uses rows of round magazines, containing 16 rounds/clip X 4 inside the magazine chamber or Drum, for a total of 64 powerful rounds!
Due to simplicity of its cylindrical design, and to keep reusable meshes as lowrez as possible I used Zmodeler to create this, and added it to a kit for quick access when placing it about the character….
One of the features I love in Zbrush is, morph targets. Morph Targets in zbrush allow for quick and dirty illustrative prototyping of functionality for things like fire arms, or whatever you want really. As such I added all the relative buttons to the custom UI for quickest access possible...
Updates Pt 3....
Much of Mokoto’s gear has been assembled with another set of Kit named, specOps. This is a custom kit of mine comprised of all the spec Ops gear I made over the course of Breach and Clear, and Breach and Clear Deadline development. Allot of it is molle based and was modeled to spec in MODO originally. But shortly after the project I broke a lot of it up to create the Kit/Brush to quickly assemble and design new gear, only having to make proportional adjustments, and add greebles from other kits for the desired look. When making kits comprised of more shapes and complexity such as the specOps kit, it helps to have polygroups assigned respective to their topology for quick editing and applying color when working with them at a later date.
Depending on output, optimizing these meshes for projections is a piece of cake and only requires eliminating edge loops (in modo because it is still allot faster and overall a more efficient process than Zmodeler). If changes are to drastic, and the topology becomes poly-soup, Zremeshing, and edge termination in modo will knock it out 100% of time. If the target for example is iOS, than a simple cube fit to the shape of the mesh works in most scenarios.
For the back plating and other armor (not sure if whats shown will be the final design) I followed a similar process using one of my favorite 3D creation kits from, BadKing. I love this kit for the simplicity of the topology, and shapes, which allows me to block out hard surface designs fairly quickly, similar to how I created the P90-9 Drum - using dynamesh to combine, and further clip in/out or boolean secondary details. With this method the resulting model usually end’s up with much more complexity and will require proper box modeling and or manual retop to create the lowpoly cages for projections and the final real-time assets, which I haven’t done yet, and I’ll cover later on.
I also plan to explore other available methods in 3Dcoat and maya to create the production models, particularly maya’s new boolean and crease plus, plugins, and newer developments with 3Dcoat’s retopology tools. But I’m mostly curious about whats coming from ZB4r8 with the parametric modeling tools. From what I’ve seen so far they look ideal for this kind of work, and I’m really looking forward to the release, but until then there are other good options available to explore
Always wanted to do a chibi. Since this is my first attempt at a chibi style character I wanted to keep things simple and decided to go with a personal rendition of Motoko Kasanagi (Ghost in the Shell) for this exercise….
Gathered reference I'll be using to stay focused and inspired....
I’ve done some work on Motoko that I’m not sure I like at this point, might roll back to a previous version of the body. Also considering scaling the head down about 30-40% for a more proportioned Chibi….anyway....
I’ve done allot with accessories, particularly her back, SMG, and pistol. The SMG in the reference appears to be based on a P-90.
Since this is a character WIP, and I want to move quickly with things I searched around the web for a low res P-90 to add to my “deadly hardware” IMM collection I’ll use as a base to create (not a 1-1 match but approximately) the SMG in the reference material, I have named the P90-9 Drum….
The deadly hardware kit in the image is a mixed collection of Kit containing pieces that I’ve made, and what I can find around the web for free on share sites like Bad King, here, and other places (which I do donate monies to regularly). Now the funny thing is I end up not using allot of these parts, but you never know. I guess I’m a kleptomaniac that way, and I typically end up using stuff from the 3D creation kits (bad king) and my trusty “ready to clip”, hirez block for much of the primary, and secondary shapes and forms which I’ll then carve out greebles, nurnies etc with the clip brush. Than dynamesh pieces together so on and so forth and keep building up the model until I’m satisfied with the result. I try to apply the 70/30 rule, and overall I’m looking for a good balance, and flow between/among the shapes and details...
Results thus far….
Updates pt 2.... the Drum....
I’ve also thought a little about functionality of the SMG, in a lazy way
Since I removed the standard chamber and mag I came up with this idea of the “Drum”... hence the name - P90-9 drum…Its basically reversed engineered revolver that uses rows of round magazines, containing 16 rounds/clip X 4 inside the magazine chamber or Drum, for a total of 64 powerful rounds!
Due to simplicity of its cylindrical design, and to keep reusable meshes as lowrez as possible I used Zmodeler to create this, and added it to a kit for quick access when placing it about the character….
One of the features I love in Zbrush is, morph targets. Morph Targets in zbrush allow for quick and dirty illustrative prototyping of functionality for things like fire arms, or whatever you want really. As such I added all the relative buttons to the custom UI for quickest access possible...
Updates Pt 3....
Much of Mokoto’s gear has been assembled with another set of Kit named, specOps. This is a custom kit of mine comprised of all the spec Ops gear I made over the course of Breach and Clear, and Breach and Clear Deadline development. Allot of it is molle based and was modeled to spec in MODO originally. But shortly after the project I broke a lot of it up to create the Kit/Brush to quickly assemble and design new gear, only having to make proportional adjustments, and add greebles from other kits for the desired look. When making kits comprised of more shapes and complexity such as the specOps kit, it helps to have polygroups assigned respective to their topology for quick editing and applying color when working with them at a later date.
Depending on output, optimizing these meshes for projections is a piece of cake and only requires eliminating edge loops (in modo because it is still allot faster and overall a more efficient process than Zmodeler). If changes are to drastic, and the topology becomes poly-soup, Zremeshing, and edge termination in modo will knock it out 100% of time. If the target for example is iOS, than a simple cube fit to the shape of the mesh works in most scenarios.
For the back plating and other armor (not sure if whats shown will be the final design) I followed a similar process using one of my favorite 3D creation kits from, BadKing. I love this kit for the simplicity of the topology, and shapes, which allows me to block out hard surface designs fairly quickly, similar to how I created the P90-9 Drum - using dynamesh to combine, and further clip in/out or boolean secondary details. With this method the resulting model usually end’s up with much more complexity and will require proper box modeling and or manual retop to create the lowpoly cages for projections and the final real-time assets, which I haven’t done yet, and I’ll cover later on.
I also plan to explore other available methods in 3Dcoat and maya to create the production models, particularly maya’s new boolean and crease plus, plugins, and newer developments with 3Dcoat’s retopology tools. But I’m mostly curious about whats coming from ZB4r8 with the parametric modeling tools. From what I’ve seen so far they look ideal for this kind of work, and I’m really looking forward to the release, but until then there are other good options available to explore
Replies
Final run of updates on this til next weekend.
Early look dev of Hirez sculpts as is, in Marmoset 3.
Whats cool with this is I can get started on the real-time materials, import the final real-time mesh with projections later on, and reapply the materials and export to Unreal or Unity. Other great option for realtime look dev is 3D coat, where you can paint with smart materials on these hi-rez meshes.... great times for Real Time 3D
Anyway...
I probably won't end up using these mats though. Will probably end up using the dota2 shader in the end. I was just eager to get into marmoset 3 and give it a run, and there was no point using the dota shader without all the required maps....
Thanks for taking the time to look at my work here. And I hope what I covered of the process is helpful to some
RT renders from Marmoset 3....
Spec Ops character I did several weeks ago... I call this one "Dirty Spec-Ops".... because he came out gritty and dirty... going nuts with smart materials in 3DCoat....
Poly sketches:
This is a collection of miscellaneous poly-sketches of varied subject matter. Most if not all of these were quick sessions in Zbrush, Keyshot, and Photoshop to hash out ideas that I’ll later develop into either more realized concepts and illustrations, or real-time 3D models.
These first couple images are of a Blue Plainswalker I did for a friend, for fun. I really hate how the face came out on the first one.
C&C welcome
The Tamarhu Limball-Cave Troll: Inspired by Rush Limball, and the far Right-Wing blood line....
Boss Fight: A quick sketch I did not to long ago, inspired by Vgame boss fights! This is a concept I would like to get back to soon, and finish. I posted this on draw crowd just for the hell of it, and it Ranked #9 in the daily rankings.... which had me scratching my head because for one, the obvious sloppiness, and 2 it only recieved 9 likes. But I guess the thumbnail caught viewers attention and it got lots of views. Which is why I think it ranked well...
Here is another concept I would like to flesh out soon, something I like to call a "Blood Mantis". Inspired by a game pitch I've been bouncing around in my head these last couple months....
Another one of my favs.... a depiction of a Shadow being/phantom. The sculpt of the phantom is pretty realized and it probably wouldn't take much time to create a realtime model out of it....
Heavy Cannon: Zbrush hard-surface practice....
This one is something I like to call..."Thinking about Lunch". I'm not sure if I want to go all the way with this as a real-time asset, but I would like to finish the illustration. Inspired by recent films like interstellar and The Martian. Its a depiction of Astronauts who have landed on the arctic region of a planet, exploring their options for food/protien supply... and this catch is packed with super omega13s! But no, these explorors will not start to tamper with this unknown echo system. They only need this one catch, which they'll sample the DNA and clone steaks for years to come. They also plan to extract the super Omega 13s, and ship them to dietary supplement enthusiasts back on earth....
Last, and maybe least.... a Starship Destroyer concept. I do like allot of the shapes, greebles and nurnies in this. But no plans for a production model. I think I would need a team for this haha....
@Tomiajayi ... Most of these were done with-in the last 4-6 months. A couple are much older than that. The Blood Mantis, Mech, Tank, Realtime SpecOps, BossFight, and SciFi Interior were all done with-in the last month and half. Motoko, and this new one are the most recent. Really wanted to get a sketch book started for the longest, so I went through some old content to help get it rolling....
@ Sean: yes I'm a huge fan of ZOE, YojiShinkawa, and Kojima games!
Update:
Character I worked on the last couple nights...
C&C welcome!
I'm not a zbrush user so just going off screenshots I see from others.
no they haven't updated it..... It will still cause motion sickness at the default settings
Lots of tweaking, and polish on this, design changes, some UVs and a early marmoset renders....
Shes got a pet too.... the Mighty Bull Dragon. Hopefully I can get started on the texture's and background stuff tonight....
cheers and thanks for looking guys....
Updates:
I always think I’m going to finish a WIP like this in like 2-4 days…. I always come up way short on time estimates once I get into the technical aspects, like UVs retop etc. If I was just going to go for an illustration I could just finish up the sculpt and render it out in Keyshot but I wan’t/need more real time assets, and more practice with rigging etc and I’ll have a bunch of this when its all said and done. So off we go and its looking more like 2 weeks :P I’m really having fun with this though and would love to work on it through the weekend but I allotted my weekend to the Mokoto WIP and got to stay disciplined about this stuff… maybe not, we’ll see....
Anyway...
http://www.pureref.com/download.php
Other thing I’d like to mention is Pinterest….
If you haven’t gotten yourself an account, I highly recommend it!
I’d like to share with you some of the boards I’ve built up over the last couple years…
Character Costume Ref
https://www.pinterest.com/rjz3dcg/costume-and-character-design-reference/
Costume and Character Ref 2
Inspirational Art Works
Amazing Planet
Amazing Architecture
Deadly Hardware and Tech
Ref images of stuff I gathered for both the saddle, and the Bull Dragon.
Yea I've got a couple of these illustrative type images to finish up then I plan on getting back to some of these hardsurface designs....
I've finally decided on saddle reference. I'm going to go with something inspired from these two....
Creating lowres topology in Zbrush with Dynamesh, Zremesher and Zmodeler:
For the saddle I started with a basic oval shape, and sculpted out the saddle form using the clip, move, and crease brush (with alpha 38 ) - for deep bevels to set the Dynamesh up for Zremesher to better define the lowpoly topology. Once I have a final lowrez cage for the saddle I’ll pick some details from the ref I really like and create some new IMM for the details in pt 2 of this.
To get optimal results from the Zremesher I’ll do 2 passes: one at a fairly high resolution so I retain my creases, and a second at a much lower resolution for a more suitable lowpoly mesh.
After the first pass I’ll use the Zmodeler tools (polygroup and delete polygroup island) to define and create openings in hidden parts of the mesh so the edge loops will terminate at the openings, giving me clean results, suited for SDS modeling, UVs, and projections. While the Zremesher algorithm is much better now you can still end up with spiraling edge loops on more complex objects, doing this practically eliminates that issue...
Note: after the first and second Zremesher pass, I like to use polygroup in edge mode to check edgeloops….
i waant more!
thanks for looking
cheers
mostly focused on the anatomy of the bull dragon, and changes to "Kimara". I would like to move the face to something more along the lines of the thumbnail attached to the image....
Man… finally was able to get back to this over the weekend, and will have all of this week to wrap up the character. The time away was probably a good thing since I was able to come back to it with fresh eyes, and focus. Now that I’ve got something down on paper so-to-speak for every aspect of this project I can focus on and finish up the character, and head back to Bull Dragon and props when I finish her up.
Anyway….
The title of this piece “Thinking about Lunch: fresh fish implies certain things and is the pillar idea for the characters and final images. One the key things that really got this thing back on course was remembering the back story, doing some further research, and making her skin red. Was never really settled on the first pass of the charcter and everything seem to fall into place after going through an old write up, the research and making her physical in alignment with the source material. Kimara (working name) belongs to a guild or tribe of hunter/warriors in the Netherworld, known as Dakinaza, rumored in the netherworld to be one of the lost descendants of the goddess, Kali. The Dakinaza are now the appointed guardians of the Animal realm, on account of their service to the higher realms.
They’re job, to protect the Animal realm from intruders and thieves that might disturb the balance of things in the netherworld. The Animal Realm is abundant with sought after resources and energies. The Dakinaza’s Rewards for their service to the Animal realm, include enchantment, and dominion over its abundance of the netherworlds finest foods and resources that grant them long lives full of vitality and youth. “Fresh Fish” is by far and wide the most popular and favorite among this tribe of enchanted, masterful, hunters, and warriors.
Progress shots...