(WIP) cyberpunk parkour character

JohannesAg

So I just finished blocking out this guy. I wanted to make a cyberpunk inspired character, I got various references from pinterest (mostly stuff like this https://i.pinimg.com/736x/27/e0/91/27e0914112ef3d66678424e33325a0d3--cyberpunk-fashion-male-clothing.jpg  ) Everything is still on subdivision level 1 expept for the head. Any suggestions before I move forward with this guy?  Since it´s still early making big changes is no big deal. 
I´ll be posting updates on this guy as I work on him.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Where are those front tassels connecting to?

JohannesAg

I have no idea actually, I just saw a similar thing in this pic ( http://rhubarbes.com/post/153333287991/λcrhive-λcroиym-looks-acrhive-on-instagram ) and I thought it looked cool. Should I get rid of them?

JohannesAg

A small update, redid some stuff and went with a slightly different look

JohannesAg

another update, decided to base the face on a young johnny depp

JohannesAg

Did more stuff on the face and started the lowpoly, the wireframe looks slightly messy since I had to cover a lot of folds in the cloth but I think it should be fine. I was aiming for a tris count of around 15k and so far I´ve got 13,4 but I havent done the hair cards yet so it will probably end at about 15. Probably didnt need to sculpt the pore detail since the textures will probably be fairly low res but oh well.

dGreenberg

Hey @JohannesAg, things are looking nice (especially with that face sculpt)! I think it never hurts to push that high poly as far as you can, even if you don't end up using all of it. Better to do too much than too little, right?

I understand the aim for a lower poly count, but I was wondering if you're planning on rigging / posing him? I don't know if you'll run into any problems with his elbow and knee joint topology, but hopefully it turns out alright. 

For a cyberpunk character I feel like he's lacking a little in the cyberpunk feel. It might be too late to mention this (if you're ready to move onto the next part of the model), but I really think it would help if he had some more gear on him. His silhouette is very simplistic and it would be awesome if he had something that could draw in the viewer from further away. You got that clothing feeling pretty cyberpunk, but maybe pumping up the silhouette on his gloves or adding some more primary and secondary details could help level him up further? Some worn out electronics would also help push him into that cyberpunk setting.

Either way I hope you continue moving forward with this guy. Putting together your own design for a character can be really tough (I'm awful at designing characters), but he's got a lot of cool stuff going on right now. Good luck!

JohannesAg

@dGreenberg hey thanks for the feedback man, you make some really good points. I might throw a human ik rig at him and see how it works out just to kind of test the topology out and see if I can get away with those joints. I agree the design could also be more interesting although I hadn´t noticed just how plain the silhouette is until you mentioned it so I´ll definitely watch more out for that in the future.

Normally I would take your advice and make more gear and stuff but I´m trying to have him finished before the artstation challange begins since I want to take part in that and If I put this guy on hold while that´s going on he´s never gonna get done heh. So thanks for the input man, it´s actually really helpful for future reference.

JohannesAg

New update, finished baking and started texturing in substance. The entire character is packed on one 2k texture map. Also some important stuff I realized I forgot to write in the beginning is that I wanted to make someone that would fit into a mirror's edge type world with mobile specs, never done that before but I'm pretty sure the polycount and texture size are ok for phones these days.
I think the textures are about 60 or 70% done at this point but no part is fully textured right now I think......Also have to do the hair, gonna try to make the textures with fibermesh which I haven't done before so that should be fun.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Given the images from the last WIP, I like how it's starting, but I have mostly material critiques:

1) The pants textures say wool or some sort of similiarly woven cloth to me, but given the cargo pockets, I wonder tif that was the intention.
2) Jacket I am understanding as a plastic weave jacket, but the folds aren't quite communicating that.  I would expect sharper mountains, etc. in certain places, and narrower scrunches, etc.

Nive start with the face though.

JohannesAg

@Brian "Panda" Choi  , hey thanks for the feedback man. Material definition is definitely a weak point of mine so thank´s for pointing that stuff out for me since I would not have spotted that at all. The jacket is supposed to be a windbreaker, I might go back into zbrush and get the  folds sharper if they´re not reading right. And I´ll admit I was barely thinking of what material the pants are so I´ll make sure to have that down. This is the stuff that I always seem to forget about. 

Brian "Panda" Choi

You and me both mate.

Dethling

Nice work so far, but one thing really bothers me: There is nothing which communicate "cyberpunk" in this character. So far it could be a character from any modern setting game.
Maybe add some techi gadgets to the character (scifi PDA, AR glasses etc.)

wormo

I agree with Dethling. I think the character reads well as a parkour character, but there's not much that shows cyberpunk. I know it's cliche but you might even look at the coloristics and stylings of the characters in Mirror's Edge, if I remember right they do a lot of angled stuff which gives it more of that feel.

JohannesAg

@Dethling   @wormo  Yeah I really missed the mark on that one, at least there is a little bit of a parkour feel but yeah I´ve seen fruit with more cyberpunk feel XD, thanks for the input guys, I´ll try thowing some tech on him and

Brian "Panda" Choi

Hode up, what necessitates that there needs to be SciFi stuff on this character to be cyberpunk?

JohannesAg

Another update, so I tried giving him some tech but I couldn´t come up with anything I liked so started messing around in painter and ended up with the stuff on his face and kind of liked it. Added more variation to the rest of him but now I´m not really sure where to go from here. 
Hoping to have him finished soon because I want to use him to try out the ue4 rigging toolset.
Also started working on hair but he just looked weird, I think this guy is just meant to be bald.

dGreenberg

Oh nice! I think that's definitely a push in the right direction. I totally understand the need to want to wrap things up before the new ArtStation contest begins, but I'm glad you're still working on this guy. If you're currently creating the veins and glowy parts randomly, it might be cool to add some anatomical detail with the arteries and veins in the head and face. You'll probably want to find some more reference, but just to give an idea of what I mean:




With it being a little more grounded it might give you a new look or direction with the glowing energy (and you could still keep the current bar-code and eye details in there as a source of the power?).

For other cyberpunk themed stuff my mind jumps to things like sci-fi gloves, knee pads, shoulder pads, or something like that. It can still be secondary or tertiary detail, but it might be able to bring it into more of that theme. Either way I really like the direction it's going, and good luck moving forward with it!

JohannesAg

@dGreenberg , hey thanks man that´s a good idea I´m definitely gonna try that!

JohannesAg

So I redid the veins to be more like actual veins in the face (not 100% accurate by any means though) . I don´t know if you can really tell but I went back into zbrush and sharpened the folds on the jacket, mainly on the arms. Did a bunch of small stuff here and there but most notably changed some colors. I wanted to try the ue4 rigging stuff but it kept crashing so I used mixamo to rig him which is something I´ve wanted to try as well so that was cool, I´ve mostly used human ik for rigging so it´s fun to try other stuff. The weights could use some work but for an automatic process it´s not bad at all. 
I tried changing the colors on the backpack since it´s pretty monotone but nothing I tried really worked. 

fatihG_

I definitely think your colours/materials could use an update.
I think a primary colour that repeats throughout the whole character could work nicely.
Some subtle scifi/cyberpunk overlay texture might be interesting. (I just took some quick image from google and slapped it over the PO)
The finger could use a revisit as well, they look super thin. 

(not feeling what I did with the pants myself, but it is something....)



Personally not a fan of the shoehorned 'cyberpunk glow' on the face. However if you are going to run with it I would make it a bit more simply and change the effect a bit, so there is some red glow in there to simulate SSS bleeding through the skin.

JohannesAg

hey @fatihG_ thanks for the feedback man,  you´ve got some really cool ideas there that I´m definitely gonna make use of so thanks for that   it´s kind of funny that you´re not feeling what you did on the pants since that´s the part that I like the most in your paintover heh. 
The cyberpunk glow is here to stay I´m afraid.
This is super helpful, thanks for taking the time for this man.
Oh and the finger was because the rig has bad weights in the hands and I forgot to rotate the finger back when I was testing it.

JohannesAg

FInal update, I don´t have more time to spend on this guy so this is gonna be his final look. Some things could be better but I think he´s in the realm of okay-ish. 

slosh

I think this turned out pretty nice.  What kinda bugs me is the lack of depth in the eyes.  Not sure if you tried using a wet layer, a shadow mesh under the upper lid, and eyelashes.  Also having that darkness around the eyes like on your sculpt might have been cool as well.

JohannesAg

@slosh thanks, you know I actually completely forgot about finishing up the eyes. I might just go ahead and do that since it´s such a small thing. Thanks for pointing that out