Centaur Doe

JLeeD

Hello Polycount!

I'm making a start on my next portfolio piece which is going to be based on a design by Magdalina Dianova, her work can be found at www.artstation.com/artist/magdalina. I'm doing the forest centaurette design


I've been working on the anatomy and proportions the past few days,




My progress so far! Posting this up has actually given me a chance to step back and take an overall look, and I've realised how much further I need to push the shapes to keep to the simple and clean design of the concept. I do tend to struggle with keeping things clean and simple, especially the anatomy and I have a long way to go with this sculpt until I'm going to be happy with it. Any feedback on the forms or any tips on how to clean up my mesh will be awesome! C&C always welcome!
Next up I'll be blocking out the hair!

JLeeD

Update! Continued sculpting and I also Retopo'd, tho it needs tweaking! The hair is getting pretty difficult, I'm really not sure what to do with the back. I need to experiment, but I think I'm going to try experimenting with different levels of detail, from keeping it flat to getting some details in there. Tomorrow I'll UV and start getting iterations in marmoset hopefully.




There are parts of the topology i'm really not happy with, I think at some point I'm going to set up a basic rig and see how things deform, but the chest area in particular I think I've put the five thing in the wrong place. 

Any C&C welcome! 

JLeeD

Hey guys, Update! Fixed the topology that I wasn't happy with, mainly the hands and chest area. UV'd everything and started to get initial bakes done, (the mouth is open for baking purposes). 


Things to do,- Retopo and UV the crown, Add the extra hair strands, get rid of silhouetting in shoulders, hair, and neck, get initial painting done in substance painter. I'm coming close to the end of week 2 now, and I really wanna get this done within a three week time frame, definitely need to knuckle down and get going! Any C&C welcome! 

JLeeD

Been getting the painting on! Had loads of issues with the bleeding normal maps, and I'm not really happy with the hair. I plan on getting the strands tucked in and under some hair to make it a lot less janky, and I'm thinking of adding a bit of dithering in my alpha at the ends to see if that improves it. Any C&C super appreciated!

VeryCrunchyTaco

She's looking pretty great, I like it so far!  I think you could make her eyelashes a bit larger/darker, they stick out a lot in the concept.  (You could also make them geometry, to really make them help stand out.)  Also, the geometry for the hair in front of the head band feels like it goes too up-ish.  The concept feels like the front of her hair is a lot more flat, and I am unsure how to word this.  Here's a paintover, and I hope it helps!   



I look forward to seeing more!   

JLeeD

@VeryCrunchyTaco Thanks for the crit! You were totally right about the eyelashes, I think its given her a lot more umph now that they're bigger. I also worked on the hair a fair bit, I'm hoping with a decent shader its going to look a lot nicer XD


I wasn't really happy with the face so I worked on it a bit more. I've also been trying to fade off the tips of the strands of hair in the alpha but the settings in marmoset are very either or, and the dither alpha affects it too much. I thinks its just a tweaking thing. Any C&C Welcome! 

VeryCrunchyTaco

No problem!  I definitely like it a lot more now, personally, and am glad I could help a bit.  

As for smooth gradients for transparency in Marmoset, I am unsure of how to best approach it, and apologize.  I need to read up on that myself, haha.  

But I look forward to seeing more, and she's gonna look heckin' dope in a pose and with some good lighting!   

JLeeD

Hoopdate, Been experimenting with the unlit marmo shader for the hair and getting that final level of polish on! I'm prefering her with the tiniest bit of gloss input, but i'm not 100% sure about it as I think some definition between the deer part and human part would go well. I don't really think I have time to do fur and making one part shiner than the other doesn't look that good. Anyhoo, here is my progress!


The main niggles I have with it at the moment is that I got the hair way off, The volumes aren't matching whats in the concept and I think getting the shape nailed might help a lot, as I feel that I haven't really captured the elegance of the character quite. However that would mean rearranging the hair stands, which are the bane of my existence and have been eating up a load of time to try and make nice. I also really want to tweak the hands and make the finger tips a bit more pointed.
Any C&C is really appreciated! 
 

JLeeD

Okay, so I've pretty much wrapped this one up! 


And I also finally joined sketchfab!
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