[FINISHED] Girl in power armor - a cautionary tale

Rikard86

So this was a practice model that is now turning into a cautionary tale on how you should use your creativity responsibly before you end up making a shader test into a full character, please learn something from it kthx.

Here's what started it all:



And here's what I currently got in zBrush:


(before any of you make that joke, that pole that extends from her lower back is a future mechanical tail)



so yeah I hope you learned something from this because I sure hell didn't.


updates soonish

ashraful mobin

looking very promising! give her a badass pose.

Rikard86

Small update time

- Ditched the scarf, it was basically an excuse for me not to detail the neck/upper body area, which now looks like this btw. Moved the shoulderpads a bit, they're now attached to the upper arm (didn't want to get too much deformation when posing). Still have to replace the pipes, since everyone and their grandmother who ever used zBrush will recognize them at a glance.


- finished up her tail, wasn't going for anything too complex here



- went for a claw-type weapon to put over her hands, right now it's retopoed but is still lacking detail


- started sketching a helmet for good measure, it wasn't supposed to look like this with ears and horns and whatever but I accidentally selected the Slide tool instead of the Standard tool and went along with it. Not sure if front will be plate or glass, still concepting at this point



overall shot for good measure.



I'm trying to push my designing skills a bit on this one since most of my tech stuff tends to be very simplicistic and bare, I don't really know if it's working. Hopefully hear from you guys any soon

Rikard86

supdate

helmet was finished up



character body was retopoed, here's a Marmoset preview with basic colors


next up is UV, baking and another round of detailing in NDO

Also threw up some color schemes, if anybody wants to butt in with their opinion go ahead. At this point I might even change the character's hair color to fit the scheme so yeah

Jarran

Looking great, excited to see where this goes I'd suggest continue with the texturing and changing colours as you go, that can always be a thing youre constantly updating theres no need to set on one so early!

Rikard86

Jarran said:

Looking great, excited to see where this goes I'd suggest continue with the texturing and changing colours as you go, that can always be a thing youre constantly updating theres no need to set on one so early!

I'm not really keen with constantly updating pieces - for me once something is done it's finished, it might not be perfect but if it takes more effort to update older work than to make something from scratch I start anew.
BTW, here's a fun bit - the head that started everything was an attempt to update the character in this project:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/aaDR0

To be honest I try to set as many things as I can in advance, working as I go is tons of fun but it takes a longer time and I might come up with a really great idea that would force me to redo 3/4 of the original piece (while I could use it on my next work and be as much as impactful)

dGreenberg

Hey @Rikard86! Lovin them updates. If you're still not set in the color options, I think either G or H would be nice to see fleshed out. The others are reminiscent of other sci-fi color schemes in my head, but I think those have a little more originality. G might fit the look for more of a Megaman-type of character, but it still feels different enough. H could feel like it was lacking something, if not for the nice contrast of white in the middle (but maybe that draws away from the face too much?).  

I completely understand wanting to move on once a project feels finished. Looking forward to see how you wrap up and pose the character!

JunkieKong

Buzz Lightyear ftw. But seriously I think the colour scheme in C looks best, I'm a sucker for orange and black.

Rikard86

supdate

- character was textured. Went with the C color scheme (orange, black, purple, white). Shifted the colors a bit around but it's overall presentable



- fixed up her face model to make her a bit more rounded and redid her texture since she looked pissed all the time. Remade her hair from scratch since the old one was really mean looking and very plain, this one has a bit more movement and quite a bit more volume to it.


character is pretty much finished, weapon is next. Should be done in the coming weeks

slosh

I'm a little late to the party but I think there are some issues with the design...mainly that it's too busy in the textured version IMO.  The highlight red lines are EVERYWHERE.  There are no areas of rest or focus.  Plus you want the accent color to do just that, accent.  Right now, it dominates the black.  I would maybe desaturate the red a little and not have it quite so prevalent all over the place.  

Rikard86

@slosh: I see, to be honest I was worried about the red accents being not enough, since I threw them in to mark a bit the panel lines. You think I should find a middle ground between the base color version and the current one?

Also, out of curiosity, mind elaborating a bit more on the design issues? I'm having some second thoughts about some choices I made (which unfortunately I am a bit too far in to change now) and I'm wondering if we're sharing the same thoughts

Rikard86

Supdate

Toned down the orange accents a bit, finished her claws.



Also gave her face one final tweak, mainly by giving her a nose job, a new eye texture and fixing up her forehead area



Pretty happy with how she turned out, I'm gonna consider this the final update before rigging and posing.

later

Rikard86

well she's finished, it's not perfect but I guess it's good enough.

More pictures and Marmoset viewer here:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1G33G


Enjoy and see you next time