Early 20th century explorer

Rolang

Hello! 
My idea is early 20th century climber/explorer, that has snow and frost covering his face and beard. The character has interesting old gear with him also. I really want try and improve my realistic character creation with this. I also have wanted to test xyz-texturing maps for some time and I thought this could be good character to test those. Below is my moodboard/references. I mostly got inspired from reading Jules Verne's journey to the center of the earth and Frostpunk's awesome visuals. I will also try to sprinkle some small elements from different cultures, that the character might have visited. Just to indicate that he has been around the world and is experienced explorer.


Here is earlier wip sreenshot of the character, that shows some anatomy and older version of his head. I will probably start to re-work the anatomy next. I will try to make him less buff looking and continue to improve it.

Below is more updated face. I think I am still not quite happy how it is turning out. To me he is looking a bit generic, I might change the face to different one, though I have already re-created head for him several times...


Below are some of his gear shown, that I am planning to have attached to his backpack, belt or elsewhere. Clothing is very wip right now.

Happy to hear any feedback!

Alex_J

The 2008 film "North Face" is a great reference to get an idea what kind of equipment and techniques alpinist used during this time. I am not sure, but if IIRC crampons are a technology that didn't come until more recently. Before that it was hobnailed boots. But, I might be totally misremembering. I read a lot of books about the early alpinist but it's been awhile, so I may have facts all mixed up. Anyway, they look cool and that's all that really matters.

Link about the movie:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844457/

olegpic

Very promising. Good luck with the project!

Olingova

the overall mood is super appealing! An easy trick to get it less genereic could be to go for a broken nose or bend it a bit, will add a "tough guy" look kinda easily and make him unique. Just a quick idea tho i look forward to see more!

CybranM

Looking forward to seeing this progress, setting and theme is really nice

Rolang

Hello!
@BIGTIMEMASTER Thanks! It has been hard to find good reference for this, I will try to find that film.
@olegpic Thank you!
@Olingova Thanks! Yeah I have also been thinking of breaking his nose. I will experiment with that idea.
@CybranM Thank you!

Only small update this time. Red dead redemption 2 was released and my productivity took a major hit. I mostly have been trying to improve his body anatomy. I also created beard and fur fibers and continued to improve the shoe sculpt. The body is not going to be seen much in the final gameress model, but I thought it is a good idea to practice anatomy sculpting too. I would especially like to hear some feedback on that.


Experimenting with iris sculpt.

Rolang

Hello!
Thought I should post something here once in a while. I have been continuing to work on this characters clothing and beard. Also started to work more on the eyes. Eyes and beard still need more tweaking, I need to sculpt some details for the cornea and also try to add some grey hairs in to the beard. The beard also does not have Anisotropic map and good normals yet.

olegpic

The head looks cool! Is the beard as a fiber mesh yet?

bkost

Oh no, his entire head has been frostbitten! Jokes aside, it looks like you're making some good progress. If you want to polish up the head some more, one issue I see is the shape of the frontal bone (forehead). This is apparent in the 3/4 view. I suggest bringing it back a bit more for a more oblique angle

Rolang

@olegpic Thanks! Beard in that image is made out of lowpoly planes that have my previous fibermesh patches baked to them. I also did some tweaks to the fibermesh before baking them, by adding some more curly/curved hairs.
@bkost hah! Yes its very cold wherever he is Thanks for the feedback, I will take another look at the head and try to fix that.

Rolang

Hello! New update for this project.  

Worked a lot on his clothing. Some parts still need detailing/polishing, like his scarf and some of the accessories.

Also tested to create lowpoly rope   I might still tweak the texture further on it.

And some tweaks to his skull. Thanks for the feedback on that. I left the forehead still quite straight, I want to have nordic looking face for him, but I will see if I still tweak it more later. Below is a gif of that change. 

Happy to hear feedback! Thanks!

Alex_J

Looking great. Rope texture is very nice. You just made some transparent cards for the little flyaways?

One thing I have found with wrinkles, especially on the lips, is that you got to do them a bit deeper and more pronounced during the sculpt for them to show up well once you are using a SSS shader. A cavity map helps a lot as well. Saurab Jethani has a nice breakdown on marmosets tutorial website covering that.

I'm just guessing but I think if you apply a skin texture and SSS shader right now, your dude actually won't look that weathered/wrinkly. Not as much as I might expect anyway. I've got a friend whose basically lived in the mountains most of his life and his face actually looks a lot liek your model here, but it is like thousand year old leather. Somehow still looks like a big kid though.

Toxicspartan94

love your attention to detail

Thanks for the kickass post!

Rolang

@Alex Javor Thanks for the feedback! yeah those are just cards, that I did same way like hair cards.
@Toxicspartan94 Thanks!

I think I am finished with this character for now. I am happy to hear feedback! Few more pics in my Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QzN994

kanga

Nice work! The skin looks a little dead on his face. Any specular maps on it?

Rolang

@kanga Thanks!  I think you are right about the skin, I started to think the same today when I checked some of the pictures again. I will try to improve it. I will also try to fix some of the jpg artifacting I noticed at work on another monitor.

Alex_J

Oh man this came out awesome. Great presentation.

codyaq2

Nice work!

I would increase the SSS amount in the shader to soften the hardness of the normalmap on the face, and slightly reduce the cavity.

Rolang

@Alex Javor Thanks!
@codyaq2 Thanks for the feedback!

I tried to add bit more sss and spec to his face today. Also reduced the pore/cavity strength tiny bit in the normal map. I will re-take the other pictures of him later. I am not sure if I was still brave enough with the sss effect, though I dont want him to have jellyfish skin look. 

Rolang

I think I managed to improve the face slightly.   I will practice more with my next models. Here are some updated screenshots and I also updated the ones in my Artstation. Thanks!



Comparison of skin materials below

Below pic of him without his hood and hat on.

codyaq2

Huge difference, nice one!