[RIOT CREATIVE CONTEST 2017] Character Art - Ekko Renaissance

chemotoledo

Hi everyone, I come with a bit crazy idea, but I think that if I execute well it can be interesting, so I'll make an Ekko skin ''Renaissance''.
I decide to choose Ekko champion cause I think he got some interesting shapes, gadgets and silhouette,and  this theme to play with a nice color palette, different materials and also shapes and silhouette. So here I show a simple collage of some images of the main idea.
Good luck to all the participants!! 

    

chemotoledo

@Noors Nice!! Pretty useful info, thanks for that buddy ^^ 

doses222

top top 

chemotoledo

Thanks @doses222 now its time to make the fun part, the hand painted texture

chemotoledo

I just want to  make a simple color test before start the texturing process (pretty flat colors), this is the main idea, but I'm not quit sure of some colors... I'll see how they look on the process :P 

Wendy de Boer

I'm really liking the shapes of your model so far, but I'm not feeling those colors.

I think the main issue with these colors is that many of them are really close in value, and they are also all really saturated. If you grayscale the image, you'll notice that the skin tone, the blue vest, the red parts and even the dark blue of the bracers are all very close in value.

I would try to separate areas not just by hue, but by value as well. One particularly powerful way to do this is to design the value scheme first. I would keep the main value blocks down to only 4 shades: white or near white, black or near black, light gray and dark gray. After you come up with a strong arrangement of value blocks that reads well at a distance, it will be much easier to assign colors to these areas. Just make sure you keep the value relationship intact when you add the colors.

Also, if all the colors are saturated, none of them stand out in particular. A color will only stand out as being bright when it's set against neutrals. I would choose two colors to play up, and make everything else a lot more muted. This will make the colors that you choose to play up really pop. It seems counter-intuitive, but it's that contrast in saturation that will actually make your character appear colorful, and not so much having a very high saturation on everything.

chemotoledo

@Wendy de Boer   I cannot be more agree with you, you are so right, that's why I am making this color test,I think that this is a very important part of the process,  and as you said, I need to play more with color values and saturation contrast (the colors right now are very saturated, so I'll reduced as well) 

I really appreciate this super kindly useful comments Wendy, so I'll work on that  

chemotoledo

I think that with this super basic draw I have an overall idea of color palette to start the texturing, anyways I can make some changes, tweaks adjustments on the way depending on how the colors react between each other.
 

RogerP

AO is looking great, it baked out clean. Looking forward to the rest of the texture progress.

chemotoledo

Thanks @RogerP ^^ its just the begging I use the AO just as a guide line and with gradient map as a  basic colors, so from here I can star the fun part Cheers buddy!

Ro-Bo

Wow I missed so many updates...but like an advent calendar, when you miss days it's always rewarding to open them all at once (no no Christmas is not coming I don't know what you're talking about xD)
Anyway he's looking great, your sculpt is flawless and although I didn't expect this color palette, it turns out pretty well (after adjustments )
I'm not sure you should use so much white/light color for his pants,

Just throwing an idea here, I'm no color expert though and I worry for this part when I'll get there  

Keep up the good work

chemotoledo

Hey @Ro-Bo I really appreciate the comments buddy ^^ The feedback and over paint that you did is so useful, I was thinking in this too, but I like the contrast of the high values on the LOL summoners rift map. 



But I'll consider this idea man  
Thanks.

jmiles

Hey @chemotoledo-- I like these color schemes, but I think I agree with @Ro-Bo -- too much high value and white colors in areas below the waist are going to draw the eye down away from the characters head and shoulders-- I'd keep that area a low value as well, like he did in his paint-over-- Also, as @Wendy de Boer explained-- I'd agree that you could separate your materials more w/ some areas of desaturated color-- the leather material, for instance, is blending in with the red and blue materials at the waist because they are all roughly the same value and are all saturated.  I think your Blue and Yellow materials could be the 2 major ones that you keep as the "pop" element--but I think they are being over-shadowed by all the other colors being in a similar range--and right now the white element is creating a distracting visual noise-- particularly in the pants.  The red shapes in the pants are also arrow shaped and pointing away from the head, so it also makes my attention go down to the pant and boot area.. Just my two cents dude-- he's looking super cool over all though!

chemotoledo

Hey @jmiles I really appreciate the time you put to make this feedback's and image, thanks buddy ^^  

I'm agree with all you guys, I have all this notes in mind, I'll play with the 2 pants versions; with colors and dark colors.And I like the idea to pops up the colors blue and yellow, and play with the values and HUE saturation   

Thank's all you guys for your nice comments and feedback

chemotoledo

@Ro-Bo I think that I'll try something similar on what you said is not a good idea to put too much whites on the pants, so I'll go with your idea buddy   Thanks for the comments!

Silvarspark

1st: Really great job you're doing here. Keep it up.
2nd: Just looking at his head, it would be a great start for a candy and whipped cream skin for Ekko too. ^^
3rd: I am not sold on the shoulders. The upward spikes dont really say "rennaissance" if you ask me.

chemotoledo

@Silvarspark Thanks for the kindly comments ^^ 
I was thinking about the same (candy skin) because of the colors, but I think that I'll match the colors to the shapes :P 

Yeah, maybe I can add something on the shoulder, I'll see how its looking  

Cheers!

lasoob

This is looking like a super solid entry! 

chemotoledo

Thanks @lasoob and there's a lot of work left to do here Cheers buddy!

Benefix

Man, he looks awesome!!!! Nice sculpt I wait on update

chemotoledo

Thanks @Benefix ^^ There's a lot of work to do here, but I'll no be able to work on this until the first week of January...  people said that I need something call..  ...vacations...? So I'll be out on the next 2 weeks :P 

chemotoledo

It has pass some time since my last update, I was moving from Paris to Mexico, but now I'm back to the game (I lose some weeks, but I think I can finish my entry) so here's some update on the texture.  

It still need some tweaks, but its on the way ^^ 

motenai

The texture is looking really solid so far, i especially like the pants, very nice details. Only thing i would keep an eye on is the gold, it feels a bit overly saturated and bright, i think adding darker tones would make the  material reflections pop more from a distance, although it's hard to tell until you have all your elements textured.

chemotoledo

Hey @motenai, I'm agree with you, I need to watch this elements from the distance and analyze them to make some adjustments, but definitely they need what you say, work on the contrast between low and high values and saturation, specially on  this gold metal parts. One thing to notice is that I pretend to make a clean golden material, not an old or rustymaterial. Thanks for your comments buddy

chemotoledo

Just a bit more of wip. I'll adjust the values and HUE saturation until the final stages.

renanfab

Texture looking great man, can't wait to see the final result. 

chemotoledo

Thanks @renanfab ^^ still need some extra work to check the right values and top dawn gradient   Cheers buddy!! 

chemotoledo

Texturing the sword ^^

chemotoledo

A bit more of progress. I only need to texture the inner part of the hour glass and then start making some extra adjustments on the overall texture. 

chemotoledo

Other angles:

chemotoledo

Hey fellows, I have a question; can I use emissive...? It would be nice to use it just to help a bit on this kind of effect

Kazefield

They didn't say specifically "do not use emissive", but by reading the rules that's how I interpreted it


"Things to keep in mind

• There are no hard limits on polycounts but efficiency is appreciated: use your best judgment and make every polygon count
• Bake the Ambient Occlusion (AO) map and use this as the start of your Diffuse Map
• Try to keep the texture on its own single 2048 diffuse sheet
• You can recreate the base champion, an existing skin or create your own design"
  
  I wanted to use emissive too so I kinda tried to read between the lines just in case :P Maybe the question has been asked somewhere on the forum.
  
  Love the effect on the hourglass *o* Your texture looks super clean. Maybe you should desaturate the golden parts tho, as it stands out a bit too much compared to the rest in my opinion.
  
  Good luck I'll try to be a worthy oponnent

TheIceWolves

>> "Can I use other maps other than Diffuse?

Yes. You can use Alpha maps." 

Diffuse + Alpha(if needed) only. I'll say try painting the fx manually on texture its looking nice.

chemotoledo

@Kazefield and @TheIceWolves Thank you guys for the answer   So I was thinking the same that @TheIceWolves says, paint the FX manually on the diffuse map :P  
And thanks for the nice comments!

chemotoledo

Just making a simple rigg and skinning so I can make some pose(s) :P 

RogerP

Man this is looking sweeeeeet Chemo! Looking forward to seeing the end result!

Hallomy

Looking Good!

chemotoledo

Thank's for the kindly comments @RogerP and @Hallomy I really appreciate the gesture. 

So here I share just a simple pose test (is not the final one) I just want to play with the basic rig and skinning :P 

https://www.artstation.com/artist/chemotoledo

MaVhenan

Very cool and nicely done!! Love the sword!  

chemotoledo

THanks @MaVhenan ^^ I appreciate the nice comment. 

So here I making some test of my character at Summoner’s Rift map 

Buzy_Ali

Waw you did a great job.
you certainly on my top 5 !!!!

chemotoledo

Thanks @Buzy_Ali   Im glad that Im on your list of favorites   

Here I share another pose test before start the deliver material 

yararstss

Incredible work and extremely expressive. This color palette really surprised me, my first impression about it was not too good, but you proved that it works very well. Congrats, the texture is excellent, this is GREAT, man. 

chemotoledo

Thanks @yararstss   I'll double check the texture saturation before upload my submission. BTW, I have a question to you, did you already upload your submission here: http://polycount.com/discussion/196324/submission-guidelines#latest  This is were we need to upload the final material right..? Congrats for your entry man!

yararstss

Thank you for letting me know, Ancelmo. Another friend had already warned me about it, but I'm still reluctant, after all I living in Brazil, and we are automatically declassified xD. I'll think about this a bit more. Thanks! =}

chemotoledo

Dame... thats sad @yararstss but its good that at last you finish your entire character   its good to meet people and they work on this site  

jmiles

Awesomely done Chemotoledo-- dang- even got a rig in there--- I couldn't get around to mine, but well done man-- texture is looking great!

chemotoledo

Hey @jmiles!! Thanks man ^^ yeah, I just put a super basic rig and skin just to help on posing the character. Hey man, I just want to ask if you upload the right material to the submission web page..? The one at dropbox. 

jmiles

@chemotoledo -- na man, I haven't uploaded mine yet-- I've got my 3/4 turn around shot to make yet-- I'm finalizing my stuff-- but I will probably get to it by tomorrow or Sunday night..

chemotoledo

@jmiles --  Aaaa I see man, but yeah, we have time. I have made this one so far :P I'll make the other ones on this last days too 

Goldo_O

Maaaaan! This pose with the sword on his shoulders is so boss! 
Very nice renders so far, keep it up Chemotoledo!!!