@BloodDream So far, I haven't released any tool. my quadrangulation plugin will likely be the first one to be released. Maybe others will follow in the future. It depends: in the end I'm only one dude and I can only focus on one thing at a time. If you're interested in seeing more of my stuff, you can check this other thread of mine (from 2017) and my youtube channel. It mostly contains old stuff that I'm not too ashamed of. Old stuff always looks like crap...
Hey guys, It's been a little while since my last update! I did not have as much spare time to work on this piece as I'd liked lately... But hopefully my schedule is lightening up a little now. Here a small update: This is the first time I work on a shoe as realistic as this one. So I have to test the workflow a little. It's been fun so far!
Another small update! This is the current state of things:
I've spent a little more time working on the folds of her pants. No details, wear and tear applied yet. I think I probably won't do any of those things in the highRes model. I'm thinking about handling all of the detailing at the shader level. I might still do some of that in the highRes model just for pre-visualization purpose... Also, I've made her belt.
Not a lot has changed on the shoes except I experimented with wider stitchings and I added the back eyelet.
This is beautiful work thus far. Her proportions feel a tad masculine to me. I realize that's probably the direction you are going in intentionally but I might give her a bit wider hips and maybe even slightly longer legs. Still, I love the style of her face and the clothes were looking great! thats a super neat plugin you are creating as well.
@slosh Hey, I'm glad you like her! Yes, the proportions are intentional. Although you're not the first one to point that out. What do you say? Is it that bad? I'm not trying to make her look sexy. I'm going for a somewhat cute but understated kind of look. I took some measurements inside of MD some time ago using the circumference measurement tool and I remember the results were reasonably realistic. But if you say she looks too much like a dude, I might rework her proportions a little...
I think her width proportions are looking good, if anything I think her torso looks a bit long compared to her legs. some people look like that though, I've got a bit of a disproportionately long torso myself irl.
@Tectonic Hi, thank you for your comment! I'm quite confident the height proportions are just fine. She is 7.5 heads tall: that is normal. I'm not going for idealized proportions. I just want her to look relatable (which by the way is something most super hot models out there are not imo). I'm pretty much set on her proportions at this point but I'm still questioning myself 'cause I'm aware my eyes can easely get used to look at stuff and be like "she looks fine... don't worry about it!". So my brain is like "does she? are you sure?"
EDIT: just for the sake of completeness, here the measurements taken in MD:
Hey guys, I'm working on her t-shirt now. The result you see at this point is straight from Marvelous Designer. No additional sculpting has been done yet. Soon I'll have to go back working on my plugin once again since the t-shirt above has a feature (the neckline center cut) that would not be handled correctly by the current build. About her proportions, I think I'll stick with what my gut tells me this time around and keep them as they are. I hope no one feels like I'm ignoring critiques. I just think that her proportions, as they are right now, are good for the kind of character I'm going for. And I can't see any evidence that those proportions are unrealistic. But I'm absolutely not ignoring anyone's opinion. So, I hope you guys will keep posting them.
@carvuliero When you say "scapula muscles" are you referring to teres major and infraspinatus? Do you think the teres major silhouette should bulge out more from the front view? About the rib cage, I guess you're suggesting to make her torso rounder on the sides. Right?
I did a little bit of volume rebalancing on her torso, hips and shoulders. While doing so, my main concern was to avoid making her look too tanky. I want her to look fit but at the same time I'm trying to retain her femininity. Hopefully I'm doing a decent job with that... So basicly her upper torso is now slightly thicker (as suggested by @carvuliero ). But I also took away a bit of volume from her shoulders cause she was starting to really look "top heavy" to me. To counter balance that I also widened up her hips a little bit.
I think breasts are not right at the moment to close together [pectoralis too check origin to insertion ] , look like the thing female bodybuilders have , so more or less breasts are as wide as the rib cage
@carvuliero I've been referencing "sport bras". Actually right before seeing your last comment, I was already trying separating her breasts from eachother. They didn't look too good to me neither. But I think they are already much better now. I'll have to rework her pecs origin later. But for now I think I'll just have to take a little break...
Ok, I think her chest looks much more natural now. Breasts are now slightly smaller and further apart. I reworked the sternum area, clavicles and pecs just a little.
@carvuliero Improving? Me? How dear you, sir! Jokes aside, your partecipation has already been a huge help. I'll work on your notes tomorrow. Very appreciated! Actually I've been wondering for a while, since you help so many people here on Polycount with very neat paintovers, how is it that there are no works of yours to be seen?
I have old game art portfolio but I am no longer interested in that so Its left for dead .At the end of the study cycle I am currently in I will hopefully end up with few really good pieces and some promotional art [maybe few free ecorches if I am not to lazy to finish them ]so I will have completely new portfolio in a few months
@carvuliero I see. That's cool. Looks like we are in a similar spot right now. I'm also trying to end up with few high quality pieces. In fact, I'll only focus on this one for a while and see where it takes me. Hopefully I'll be able to show off both my art skills and my technical skills.
So, I spent some time reworking her upper body. I'm quite pleased with how it looks now. I'm also aware that right now my opinion is worth nothing since I spent a lot of time staring at it. So, C&C are very welcome as usual.
If she is going to be fully clothed you might want to concern yourself with just what visible and do specific nude/semi nude character for anatomy .Anyway I am a bit concern with her side view , its straight both front and back also muscle of her lower back a bit too sketchy , I think you have to cut some of erector spinae muscles -> where the waist is from the front is about the same where torso is narrowest on the side also in the front proper inclination of planes of rectus abdominis
Below are 2 refs that will probably help show what I mean -> keep in mind that fitness model is on high heels and her whole body is pushed forward to keep balance-> if you rotate her torso a bit backward that will be more natural pose like in the second image
@carvuliero Thank you again for your help! Now I can see more clearly the mistakes I've made on her back. Those references are very helpful! I know since she will be fully clothed I could get away with just the big forms. But I'm also taking this chance to improve and learn. I'll post an update soon.
@zhaowen3 Sorry... I deleted all of my source code by mistake. No more plug-in. Just kidding. When I'll have something worthwhile to share, I'll be sure to show that of.
@carvuliero That wasn't part of my plan... lol Maybe I should just split the thread so that those who aren't interested in the character art can have their own happy place.
Hey guys, just a little news about my plug-in: a few months back I started talking about the developement of this super cool quadrangulation Maya plug-in ment for clothings and it looks like many of you grew fond of it! Even more than I anticipated apparently. So that's awesome!
I started talking about it right here on this thread since I feel like the developement of such tool is relative to the developement of my character. Therefore I think it makes sense to talk about both things in the same place. However I realized that there was no place for those of you who are only interested in seeing the tool updates. so I just created a new thread that is all about that tool: The jQuadrangulateCloth tool thread
I'll keep posting updates related to the tool here if they are relevant to the character developement. So, those of you who would like to see both the character progress as well as some news about the tool, will not be disappointed. However, if any of you subscribed to this thread just for the tool news and feel bummed every time I post an update that is art related, feel free to unsubscribe from this thread and subscribe to the other one. I'll see you there. I hope this will make things tidier for everyone.
Ok, back on business now. I did some more work on her torso. Mostly I reworked erector spinae plus some tweaks all around. Got myself a nice scan reference. That's so much more convenient than image references!
I tweaked the posture slightly. The weight distribution should be better balanced now.
I initially saw only lower leg and the long straight line that is making with the shoe but as you can see after that I saw few more thing
About the leg you can just bulge bottom of the shoe where heel is or can move the whole leg below the gastrocnemius forward -> whole idea been to get rid the stiff line
Let me know if there is something that need clarification
@carvuliero Cool. I can see most of what you're pointing out in most references. Yea, I wasn't too convinced about the shape of the legs already. In fact I did some more work on them before seeing your last comment.
This is what I did: basicly I rotated the upper leg forward and the lower leg backward in order to get rid of that straight line in the knee area. But looking at your notes, I guess I can push things further.
Also I noticed a rookie mistake I've made on her neck. I hate when people do that! lol
The nasal bone bump is there if you zoom in a lot but is barely noticeable and probably is not even in the right spot. However I'll focus on fixing her face at a later time. Thank you for pointing that out anyway!
About deltoids, I checked how much they are supposed to contract in A-pose on myself (I'm a very thin guy). The bulge isn't very noticeable at all. The pose itself can be hold while staying quite relaxed. Plus, since this is going to be the default pose, I should try to stay away from contracting muscles if I can. So, I'll just assume that her arms have no weight. I can always do some contraction blendShapes that get fired up by the rig on specific conditions.
Tomorrow I'll keep working on her torso, legs, and butt. So far, I think your comments have had an extremely positive impact on this piece. I'm very glad you're helping!
See you in the next update. Cheers!
EDIT: the abs area is pretty much straight all around at the moment because I've been looking at this lady as a reference. There's not a whole lot going on in terms of curvature...
I'm posting one last update on her anatomy before I go back working on the plugin again. I realised I got a little bit impatient lately. So I dug up and rewatched some of Eric Wilson's lessons on the torso. Abs should look better now. Got some more roundness going on around her butt and added a bit of curvature on the lower legs. Plus many minor tweaks here and there.
Here's a shot with the shirt on.
I'm probably going to be a bit quiet on this thread next cause I'm planning on working on the quadrangulator tool for a little while. I don't know if I still feel like spending a huge amount of time on her body anatomy. Off course I still have to take more care of her face and hands. I might still spend a little bit of time on her torso and legs if anyone can still see anything off with that. But at one point I'll just have to call it done and move forward.
Lately I felt like doing some detailing on her face. I still have to work on my plugin for a while but some times I just have a hard time focusing on that stuff. So I jump back and do a little bit of work on her.
Topology was of course generated thanks to my tool that is now capable of doing slightly more complicated things. Still, it's quite far from what I would want it to be...
Hey guys, here's a little update: since I'll have to make a few technical tests on the lowRes geometry, I went through the retopo of the face.
And experimented a bit with hair cards. Still quite a rough job. I'm planning on spending probably one more week on the hair. This is just a simple viewport 2.0 screengrab. No fency rendering yet...
@Zer02Her0 yea I feel you I guess you can find plenty of ways out there to get some hair coverage fast. But as far as I know the only way to really get accurate results is to get your hands dirty.
Some years ago I experimented a little bit with this method to lay down hair cards in zbrush. I don't even know if is it still relevant or not. Anyway, here's the link to the tutorial: http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/game-hair-tutorial-zbrush-maya/
I did some work on the eyes shading and texturing. Now I have some nice blending going on between the eyes and eyelids. I'm quite pleased with the result so far.
little refinement on the hair geometry and shading technique... I'm trying to make it look nice and soft. For those of you who are wondering, this is not UE4 or any other commercial engine: it's a custom engine I've been working on since the end of 2015. I'm using stochastic transparency for the hair. So, it is possible to make it look rather soft but it can get noisy on areas of high contrast.
I'm aware that focusing on tech developement while also trying to make art for a portfolio is not very smart. But I enjoy doing this kind of stuff and also I like to have the flexibility to make things work the way I want. Besides, I'm not a smart guy anyway.
Next, I think I'll try to wrap up the quadrangulator tool. So, I'll probably be quiet for some time on this thread.
Hey guys, it's been a while since the last time I updated this thread! Lately I've been working more on the lowres model and did a little bit of texturing on the hands. I also added support for multiple UV sets to my engine. I'm planning on using that feature in order to render the stitchings and add more variation to the hair. Clothes have no textures yet: only a rather crude normal bake on them and a flat diffuse color. I have to say, I feel quite proud of how my skin shader is working. At this point I'm not using a roughness map on her skin yet but nonetheless the result feels quite nice and organic to me.
I'm now working on the raincoat lowres model while assessing some of the challenges to come. The raincoat will have to be cabable of transitioning between a few different states (hood up/down, zip/unzip). That implies a few interesting technical problems that I'll have to solve...
Still assessing stuff realtive to the raincoat... Also, I did some texture work on pants and shoes and I've been experimenting with the multy UV sets for stitchings as well.
I'm aware those stitchings on the pants don't look particoularly realistic yet but at least the groundwork is done.
I'm still texturing stuff but as I was starting to feel very unsatisfied with the way the hair used to look, I decided to rework the hair shader code. I think the new shader is doing a far better job overall. Yet, I think I'll have to work more on the hair geometry sooner or later. Also, I implemented a very much needed anti aliasing solution. It's far from a fency solution but it's still better than nothing.
Replies
were can i find other works of you or other scripts ?
So far, I haven't released any tool. my quadrangulation plugin will likely be the first one to be released. Maybe others will follow in the future. It depends: in the end I'm only one dude and I can only focus on one thing at a time.
If you're interested in seeing more of my stuff, you can check this other thread of mine (from 2017) and my youtube channel. It mostly contains old stuff that I'm not too ashamed of. Old stuff always looks like crap...
It's been a little while since my last update! I did not have as much spare time to work on this piece as I'd liked lately... But hopefully my schedule is lightening up a little now.
Here a small update:
This is the first time I work on a shoe as realistic as this one. So I have to test the workflow a little. It's been fun so far!
This is the current state of things:
I've spent a little more time working on the folds of her pants. No details, wear and tear applied yet. I think I probably won't do any of those things in the highRes model. I'm thinking about handling all of the detailing at the shader level. I might still do some of that in the highRes model just for pre-visualization purpose...
Also, I've made her belt.
Not a lot has changed on the shoes except I experimented with wider stitchings and I added the back eyelet.
Patience, my friend.
@slosh
Hey, I'm glad you like her!
Yes, the proportions are intentional. Although you're not the first one to point that out. What do you say? Is it that bad? I'm not trying to make her look sexy. I'm going for a somewhat cute but understated kind of look. I took some measurements inside of MD some time ago using the circumference measurement tool and I remember the results were reasonably realistic. But if you say she looks too much like a dude, I might rework her proportions a little...
Hi, thank you for your comment!
I'm quite confident the height proportions are just fine. She is 7.5 heads tall: that is normal. I'm not going for idealized proportions. I just want her to look relatable (which by the way is something most super hot models out there are not imo).
I'm pretty much set on her proportions at this point but I'm still questioning myself 'cause I'm aware my eyes can easely get used to look at stuff and be like "she looks fine... don't worry about it!". So my brain is like "does she? are you sure?"
EDIT:
just for the sake of completeness, here the measurements taken in MD:
I'm working on her t-shirt now.
The result you see at this point is straight from Marvelous Designer. No additional sculpting has been done yet.
Soon I'll have to go back working on my plugin once again since the t-shirt above has a feature (the neckline center cut) that would not be handled correctly by the current build.
About her proportions, I think I'll stick with what my gut tells me this time around and keep them as they are. I hope no one feels like I'm ignoring critiques. I just think that her proportions, as they are right now, are good for the kind of character I'm going for. And I can't see any evidence that those proportions are unrealistic. But I'm absolutely not ignoring anyone's opinion. So, I hope you guys will keep posting them.
When you say "scapula muscles" are you referring to teres major and infraspinatus? Do you think the teres major silhouette should bulge out more from the front view?
About the rib cage, I guess you're suggesting to make her torso rounder on the sides. Right?
I see your point. Thank you very much for illustrating it. That really helps a lot!
I'll work on it tomorrow.
So basicly her upper torso is now slightly thicker (as suggested by @carvuliero ). But I also took away a bit of volume from her shoulders cause she was starting to really look "top heavy" to me. To counter balance that I also widened up her hips a little bit.
I've been referencing "sport bras".
Actually right before seeing your last comment, I was already trying separating her breasts from eachother. They didn't look too good to me neither. But I think they are already much better now.
I'll have to rework her pecs origin later. But for now I think I'll just have to take a little break...
Breasts are now slightly smaller and further apart. I reworked the sternum area, clavicles and pecs just a little.
I re-simulatet the t-shirt just for good measure.
Improving? Me? How dear you, sir!
Jokes aside, your partecipation has already been a huge help. I'll work on your notes tomorrow. Very appreciated!
Actually I've been wondering for a while, since you help so many people here on Polycount with very neat paintovers, how is it that there are no works of yours to be seen?
I see. That's cool. Looks like we are in a similar spot right now. I'm also trying to end up with few high quality pieces. In fact, I'll only focus on this one for a while and see where it takes me. Hopefully I'll be able to show off both my art skills and my technical skills.
So, I spent some time reworking her upper body. I'm quite pleased with how it looks now. I'm also aware that right now my opinion is worth nothing since I spent a lot of time staring at it. So, C&C are very welcome as usual.
Thank you again for your help! Now I can see more clearly the mistakes I've made on her back. Those references are very helpful!
I know since she will be fully clothed I could get away with just the big forms. But I'm also taking this chance to improve and learn.
I'll post an update soon.
Sorry... I deleted all of my source code by mistake. No more plug-in. Just kidding.
When I'll have something worthwhile to share, I'll be sure to show that of.
@carvuliero
That wasn't part of my plan... lol
Maybe I should just split the thread so that those who aren't interested in the character art can have their own happy place.
just a little news about my plug-in:
a few months back I started talking about the developement of this super cool quadrangulation Maya plug-in ment for clothings and it looks like many of you grew fond of it! Even more than I anticipated apparently. So that's awesome!
I started talking about it right here on this thread since I feel like the developement of such tool is relative to the developement of my character. Therefore I think it makes sense to talk about both things in the same place. However I realized that there was no place for those of you who are only interested in seeing the tool updates.
so I just created a new thread that is all about that tool: The jQuadrangulateCloth tool thread
I'll keep posting updates related to the tool here if they are relevant to the character developement. So, those of you who would like to see both the character progress as well as some news about the tool, will not be disappointed.
However, if any of you subscribed to this thread just for the tool news and feel bummed every time I post an update that is art related, feel free to unsubscribe from this thread and subscribe to the other one. I'll see you there.
I hope this will make things tidier for everyone.
Cheers!
I did some more work on her torso. Mostly I reworked erector spinae plus some tweaks all around.
Got myself a nice scan reference. That's so much more convenient than image references!
I tweaked the posture slightly. The weight distribution should be better balanced now.
Cool. I can see most of what you're pointing out in most references.
Yea, I wasn't too convinced about the shape of the legs already. In fact I did some more work on them before seeing your last comment.
This is what I did:
basicly I rotated the upper leg forward and the lower leg backward in order to get rid of that straight line in the knee area. But looking at your notes, I guess I can push things further.
Also I noticed a rookie mistake I've made on her neck. I hate when people do that! lol
The nasal bone bump is there if you zoom in a lot but is barely noticeable and probably is not even in the right spot. However I'll focus on fixing her face at a later time. Thank you for pointing that out anyway!
About deltoids, I checked how much they are supposed to contract in A-pose on myself (I'm a very thin guy). The bulge isn't very noticeable at all. The pose itself can be hold while staying quite relaxed. Plus, since this is going to be the default pose, I should try to stay away from contracting muscles if I can. So, I'll just assume that her arms have no weight. I can always do some contraction blendShapes that get fired up by the rig on specific conditions.
Tomorrow I'll keep working on her torso, legs, and butt.
So far, I think your comments have had an extremely positive impact on this piece. I'm very glad you're helping!
See you in the next update.
Cheers!
EDIT:
the abs area is pretty much straight all around at the moment because I've been looking at this lady as a reference. There's not a whole lot going on in terms of curvature...
I realised I got a little bit impatient lately. So I dug up and rewatched some of Eric Wilson's lessons on the torso. Abs should look better now.
Got some more roundness going on around her butt and added a bit of curvature on the lower legs. Plus many minor tweaks here and there.
Here's a shot with the shirt on.
I'm probably going to be a bit quiet on this thread next cause I'm planning on working on the quadrangulator tool for a little while.
I don't know if I still feel like spending a huge amount of time on her body anatomy. Off course I still have to take more care of her face and hands. I might still spend a little bit of time on her torso and legs if anyone can still see anything off with that. But at one point I'll just have to call it done and move forward.
I still have to work on my plugin for a while but some times I just have a hard time focusing on that stuff. So I jump back and do a little bit of work on her.
Topology was of course generated thanks to my tool that is now capable of doing slightly more complicated things. Still, it's quite far from what I would want it to be...
here's a little update: since I'll have to make a few technical tests on the lowRes geometry, I went through the retopo of the face.
And experimented a bit with hair cards. Still quite a rough job. I'm planning on spending probably one more week on the hair.
This is just a simple viewport 2.0 screengrab. No fency rendering yet...
Awesome job so far! Mind if I ask what program you are using for doing the hair cards?
Looking good so far!
Thank you!
I'm working in Maya and simply placing the hair cards by hand, one by one.
The texture itself is made using xgen inside of Maya.
yea I feel you
I guess you can find plenty of ways out there to get some hair coverage fast. But as far as I know the only way to really get accurate results is to get your hands dirty.
Some years ago I experimented a little bit with this method to lay down hair cards in zbrush. I don't even know if is it still relevant or not. Anyway, here's the link to the tutorial: http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/game-hair-tutorial-zbrush-maya/
Still quite rough overall. Eyes are placeholders. Texturing is in early stage. Hair still needs a lot of work...
Now I have some nice blending going on between the eyes and eyelids. I'm quite pleased with the result so far.
I'm trying to make it look nice and soft.
For those of you who are wondering, this is not UE4 or any other commercial engine: it's a custom engine I've been working on since the end of 2015.
I'm using stochastic transparency for the hair. So, it is possible to make it look rather soft but it can get noisy on areas of high contrast.
I'm aware that focusing on tech developement while also trying to make art for a portfolio is not very smart. But I enjoy doing this kind of stuff and also I like to have the flexibility to make things work the way I want. Besides, I'm not a smart guy anyway.
Next, I think I'll try to wrap up the quadrangulator tool. So, I'll probably be quiet for some time on this thread.
Lately I've been working more on the lowres model and did a little bit of texturing on the hands.
I also added support for multiple UV sets to my engine. I'm planning on using that feature in order to render the stitchings and add more variation to the hair.
Clothes have no textures yet: only a rather crude normal bake on them and a flat diffuse color.
I have to say, I feel quite proud of how my skin shader is working. At this point I'm not using a roughness map on her skin yet but nonetheless the result feels quite nice and organic to me.
The raincoat will have to be cabable of transitioning between a few different states (hood up/down, zip/unzip). That implies a few interesting technical problems that I'll have to solve...
Also, I did some texture work on pants and shoes and I've been experimenting with the multy UV sets for stitchings as well.
I'm aware those stitchings on the pants don't look particoularly realistic yet but at least the groundwork is done.
Also, I implemented a very much needed anti aliasing solution. It's far from a fency solution but it's still better than nothing.
Thank you! I was starting to feel kind of lonely in here
Sheath and straps detailing: