My First Game Character

AndrewCothill

Hello all!

I model miniatures for tabletop gaming but i really want to have a crack at a hand painted game character. I'm learning what i can from watching tutorials on Youtube and Twitch but would love any and all advice/crits you have.

i contacted Esther Smisdom and she is very kindly letting me have a crack at this fella - 

Helfürk

AndrewCothill

here's where i got to on days 1 and 2:

Day 1 - i made a sort of chunky guy base. i intented to play around more with proportions when he's a little further down the road.


Day 2 - this was more blocking in of basic shapes and trying to get more specific on his head.


Can anyone see anything blatantly wrong or sticking out as a possible problem later on down the line?

Any help and comments/crits would be much appreciated, thanks!

AndrewCothill

Day 3 - a little more progress. I jumped into Maya to do the shin covers. Totally open to any crits on the aesthetics or overall shapes. I'm really trying to learn to make stylised stuff and that feels to be about large shapes.

AndrewCothill

Day 4 - I tweaked some proportions to show better transitions between some large shapes. Round the knees and ankles and suchlike. The concept has a really nice thick then thin thing going on so i was trying to get that around the legs I also got carried away and started refining some areas.

When presenting game models, is it best to keep the finger as far apart from each other as possible for rigging?


On to tomorrow!

BestiART

Hey Andrew, is coming along nicely ... you will have hard time to retopo the fingers if they are not far apart from each other, so i suggest you to make more space between them. Maybe also to raise a bit up the arms? 
I usually don't make stylized stuff but is good to always focus on the silhouette and generale design.. try to use a flatcolor in zbrush to see it better!
Looks also like in the concept his legs ar not so big but longer and his torso is bigger than the head

carvuliero

If you plan to stick close to the reference I suggest to check your proportion one more time [both height and width ] simple head scale reduction should do the trick also shoulder are massive on the reference and legs rather skinny

Down the road if you give him the same weapon , the twig his is currently holding wont do it such axe need a proper handle

AndrewCothill

Thanks, guys!

I looked again at the proportions because, without thinking, i was making it for a mini instead of a game character - eejit.

Here's an update and a few more questions:

In a high poly sculpt for games, do you just need a plane for the cloak and material? It's going to be hand painted and as low poly as i can make it.
Is there anything here that stands out as just being plain wrong/not good enough to make a nice looking character?
I won't wake offence, I just want to make the best character i can!

Again, thanks for the help, fellas!

carvuliero

I can give you  few more suggestions :

-his forearm is comically short

- if we suppose that he have human like legs , curve in his lower leg wont be possible

-front view : if arms are ignored his over all shape is long triangle you could give him waist by pushing the rope part inside the belt also bending the belt inward , this will give him hourglass shape which will emphasize his massive shoulder also will break that long shape

-side view : torso + thighs create slightly bending line but pretty straight overall and straight lines are usually not desirable , you should choose which body part he will be leading with and push that forward which will give him more curves in his posture

"In a high poly sculpt for games, do you just need a plane for the cloak and material"

:: plane should do it , you  could give it thickness when you done sculpting

AndrewCothill

Hey @carvuliero
Thanks for the crits! I've lengthened the forearm a little as i want to make him feel tanky but i hadn't seen it so thanks for saying. Also, i thought i was ok with the legs making that bend bu the more i looked at the concept, the more i thought i was wrong so i've adjusted a little to make it, at least i think, slightly possible. I took your suggestion and pulled the waist in a bit but i feel like he's losing the silhouette with the cape behind him. I think he'll get that back when posed though.
I'm calling the high poly sculpt done now and wanted to say thanks for your help! On to retopo and UV'ing...

Day 6 - calling the high poly done.
 

AndrewCothill

The Low poly has now been made and here it is with a quick AO bake from XNormal. I'm so happy that it looks like an actual thing! Can't wait to get started with the painting. Tabbard and cape still have to be done but.

AndrewCothill

It's been a while but i'm still hacking away at it. Hand painting is so much harder than i thought! I'm not finished the painting yet but thought i'd an update:

EvilSylvanas

Looking good, keep it up

AndrewCothill

Cheers, @EvilSylvanas !

Here's tonight's progress:
model

AndrewCothill

The above sketchfab has been updated. I'm getting to the end of what i can actually do with this - has anyone any C&C's for pushing it further, please?

Edrice

I would bump the saturation overall a bit. And the skin highlights to a color that is too white, whereas the highlights on the concept are very blue. If you blended a lightmap or AO it might help to tint those maps, so you're not overlaying or multiplying to black and white. Looking good overall, just lacking the colors of the concept.

Brian "Panda" Choi

A suggestion to add some sublt off hues on the skin or leather would be nice, BUT also would be an art direction change.

AndrewCothill

Edrice said:

I would bump the saturation overall a bit. And the skin highlights to a color that is too white, whereas the highlights on the concept are very blue. If you blended a lightmap or AO it might help to tint those maps, so you're not overlaying or multiplying to black and white. Looking good overall, just lacking the colors of the concept.

Hey @Edrice - thank you! I get what you mean about the skin colour and not matching the concept. I chose to slightly deviate from the concept because, ironically, i wanted to add more colour in to it. But if that's not reading then i guess it didn't work. Thanks for the advice and i'll push them some more tonight.

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

A suggestion to add some sublt off hues on the skin or leather would be nice, BUT also would be an art direction change.

Thanks for the suggestion, @Brian "Panda" Choi. I don't mean to sound thick but what do you mean when you say 'off hues'. Is that like hue shifting towards cool/warm or is it like picking a colour scheme sort of thing? As far as the change in art direction, i'm not really sure about that either. Are there some big, key things i got wrong ? it would really help to know that for the next model so any advice about that side of things would be great!

Cheers, fellas!

Brian "Panda" Choi

Off hues I would equate to 'discoloration' as another synonym, if that helps?

AndrewCothill

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Off hues I would equate to 'discoloration' as another synonym, if that helps?

Cheers. Basically add a few different colours in to add texture, right?

Brian "Panda" Choi

Yea,  low opacity brushes in general, blend it in or out as need bee.  In general, it should add a little more body to the albedo.

AndrewCothill

I had a few goes and, well.. i kind of made it ugly. However, I'm just about to start a course at Brushforge for handpainting so i'm putting this guy to bed. Thank you so much for your crits and they're on my notepad to apply to the next character.


https://skfb.ly/6GUUs

Brian "Panda" Choi

Looks solid

AndrewCothill

Cheers, @Brian "Panda" Choi - i meant what i said though - i will be pushing the colour depth and variety in the next one. Battle Chasers has some really examples! 
Thanks for the advice.

jose.fuentes

wow, this is great for your first game char, def captured the concept

snorrow

Really great for a first try!

Isunoj

Looks great!

theStoff

Looks really nice! Also I know you said you're done but I see a couple easy fixes that could help a bit. The biggest thing would be to p\push the silhouette of the scarf. There are also a few missing cuts and wholes in the cloth. Feel free to ignore that though. Looks good either way! 

AndrewCothill

Thanks everyone! 
@theStoff - cheers! I'm currently doing the BrushForge Character Bust course so i probably won't get back to this. However, thank you so much for the crits! I'm updating my notebook of things to remember when making HP'd stuff!