Giraffe weevil (Trachelophorus giraffa) Looking for feedback

Quinn_Thompson

Hey there!  This is my first post on the forum, and I am looking for some feedback on a project I am working on.

My goal is to create a realistic giraffe weevil posed on a leaf, to be rendered in Arnold/Maya.  If anyone has suggestions for making my model more closely match the real thing, I would love to hear them.  I will add fine surface detail in Zbrush/Mari, but I would like to improve the proportions and base shape first.

Here are some reference photos I have been using, with zbrush screenshots below:

Quinn_Thompson

If anyone has suggestions on the proportions/anatomy I would love to hear them.

Here's the current status of my project:

Quinn_Thompson

I'd love to hear any suggestions that could help me more closely match the reference photos.  My plan right now is to make the really fine ridges by painting a displacement in Mari.

JamesBrisnehan

It looks like you are doing everything right so far. The proportions, silhouette, large details, and medium detail all look good as far as I can tell.

Quinn_Thompson

James - thanks for the feedback

Here's an update turntable: 

Giraffe Weevil progress update April 30th from Quinn Thompson on Vimeo.

jaker3278

Same here i think it looks in proportion, i would really try and push the detail more. Categorise your details into macro micro and mezo and work on each. 

Quinn_Thompson

Jack - Thanks for the feedback, I've done a few things that should hopefully accentuate the details.

I made minor changes to the sculpting on the body, and there's additional detail in the displacement from Mari.  I added textures for specular roughness, sss color/radius/weight, a fractal for iridescence, and it's lit with a desaturated HDRI.

I'm planning to paint the claw tips next, and I'll look into groom and adding a bowtie.

JamesBrisnehan

The model looks great. The diffuse color looks pretty flat/dark though. I think some color/value break up would look nice. It the turnarround the body just looks like pure black. It also might be worth experimenting with Metalness or Specular Color to see if you can push the iridescence. Right now the only thing I can see in the material is color, roughness, and a little bit of AO on the shell.

Quinn_Thompson

Thanks!  That was a good point about the color; I've added more variation everywhere in that texture.  I've also made the iridescence a little more obvious in the lower body/upper legs, and I changed the index of refraction to match real world chitin.  There are minor tweaks to the displacement, and I tried my first groom with XGen.

I’m looking forward to putting this into a fully lit scene where it’s posed on a leaf, but I need to tackle another project at the moment.

Jannyn08

estoy haciendo un proyecto también sobre el escarabajo jirafa, soy estudiante de diseño de Modas, ¿vendes el formato para la impresión en 3D?

Quinn_Thompson

Jannyn08 said:

estoy haciendo un proyecto también sobre el escarabajo jirafa, soy estudiante de diseño de Modas, ¿vendes el formato para la impresión en 3D?

Hi there, funny enough I did make a 3D printable version, It's here if you're interested: https://quinnthompson.gumroad.com/l/GiraffeWeevil3DPrintFiles