[COMPLETED] N8t the Grenademan

dGreenberg

Hey y'all! Starting in on a new project and thought I would create a new topic here to help keep me on task. I've wanted to work on this guy for a while now, so it's great to finally have the high poly blocked in and setup. The original concept is from Afu Chan, who does some absolutely incredible character designs. 



I normally jump in with a lot of prep, but to save some time and space I started on this guy a little over 2 weeks back. Right now I've got all of his major parts blocked in, but I still need to do a little cleanup (i.e fixing the blobbiness in some of the pouches and pieces) before getting into the secondary and tertiary details. Also gotta cleanup the face a little more an get a mouth bag with some teeth in place. 




C&C is always welcome! Also check out Afu Chan's work for some really fun character stuff. 

dGreenberg

Lots of cleanup over the last week, and I'm almost ready to jump into the detailing. I wanted to get a shape of the hair started, but it's still at a really blobby stage right now. I'll need to fix that up before anything else, and start roughing in some of the scars too. 

dGreenberg

Bit by bit I'm getting there! I might add some more intense folds under the arms / shoulders or the leg / crotch area, but I think I'm just about done with the surface stuff. I decided to get all the stuff underneath the headband to make sense, but I might get rid of it for the low poly version. Still thinking if it feels necessary with everything else. Hair is probably just a placeholder until I get XGen working later on.
 




I still need to get the teeth and mouth bag all working properly before creating a blend shape for one other expression, but I think it's otherwise just about there. Any thoughts or suggestions would be super appreciated though!

dGreenberg

It's time for a blendshape update right outta ZBrush! I'm basing this off of one of the sketches that Afu Chan did for N8t here:


The style is a little different from the turnaround concept that I'm working from, but I really wanted to capture the expression. If anything looks off or feels like it needs adjusting, please feel free to let me know.

dGreenberg

Quick polypaint update before just to put down some base colors before I start in on the retopo.

dGreenberg

Still working on the retopo for this boy, but might be taking on a second personal project to get some more blood flowing. Here's how the (currently bald) Grenademan is looking. I still need to get the vest pockets and his arms and feet out of the way before I try to wrap my head around hair cards, but we're getting there! I think he's already around 20k tris, but I'm not too worried about that. I Wanna make sure he's baby-smooth before the hair shows up.




On a side note I'm going to try and get rolling on the new ArtStation Challenge, but to prevent spamming everyone with all kinds of threads, I'll try to keep it in my Sketchbook and occasionally on the What are you working on? thread. Once I've finished the Challenge sculpt, I'll probably go back and forth with N8t again, and really try to push it further. 

Mrfido

Keep this going Dave it's coming along nicely!!!!  

dGreenberg

Hahaha thanks man! I'm excited to pick this up again. Hopefully I'll be able to work more on the retopo once I get the ArtStation Challenge a little bit further

dGreenberg

It's been a little while, but I'm back to working on N8t again! Since the last update I've mostly been working on the retopo during the weekends, and I've reduced some of the business in the face geo to match with the rest of the poly density of the body. Then I had to fix up the blendshapes which took a little tweaking, but I'm back at it and feeling much more refreshed after taking a little time away from the project. 



Only the hands and hair are left before I can start baking things down and get ready for the textures. I might only get a chance to update things on the weekend for now, but I'll keep at it

allmighty_thunder

This is looking real cool

Crazy_pixel

Looks really sweet, like your progress. Keep it up

Do you make animations besides his facial blendshapes too?

dGreenberg

@allmighty_thunder, @Crazy_pixel: Thanks!

I usually set up the blendshapes in the face for easier posing and expressions, but I'm not too confident in animation. I still want to try and get everything optimized for animation if I can help it!

dGreenberg

So I think I'll be scrapping this hair test, but I figured I could post this update anyway. I tried creating hair cards for the first time. For testing things out I think I went a little too realistic, but maybe replacing the hair cards and approaching the style differently, I could get some better results. 



I might unwrap and start texturing N8t before addressing the hair stuff again? We'll see how it goes!

dGreenberg

I'm finished with unwrapping and baking things down to the low poly! Next up it'll be time for some textures

dGreenberg

Just starting in on the hand-painted textures with a lot of the work being handled by So Much Monster's SoMuchDiffuse Substance Painter plugin. From there I've done a little bit of cleanup in 3DCoat, but I'm definitely still trying to figure out what I'm doing. I might wanna hit up the Handpainter's Guild in the near future. 



The red value in the skin might be a little too extreme and saturated right now, so I'll probably try and nail that down before worrying about his gear. C&C is always welcome and appreciated!

dGreenberg

Things have been super busy lately but I was finally able to go back and rework N8t's hair. In the end the hair cards weren't really getting to the place that I would have liked, but I'll try practicing them more outside of this project. Still a lot of work on the textures that need to be done. I'll keep this thread updated as soon as I'm able to get a little further along. 

dGreenberg

Workin' on the diffuse maps and updating / fixing N8t's colors. I think I'll want to bring in some gradients next. After that I'll see if I can get to work on the roughness map or maybe the rig. Progress!




Kinda figuring out how to take some of the hand-painted stuff from here without deviating too far from the concept. Thoughts and suggestions are always welcome!

Krom

Concept art and modeling look really cool. The only thing I noticed, - character's legs and arms have more definition at legs and arms. Especially at knee caps and at the back of the knees.

dGreenberg

Hey thanks @ivilai! Do you mean the model needs more definition in those areas? I'm mixing a little of the concept but I can try and add some more color variation around the elbows and knees to see if that'll work. I want it to be more stylized in the end, but I'll see if I can balance things out without them looking too busy or competing with the scars.

Krom

Yep, those areas look kinda flat now. 

dGreenberg

I added some more shadow contrast for the knees and elbows before working on the rig. I still have some weight painting to do, but thought I'd play around with some poses. I'll get back to the textures once I'm done with a few more poses I think.

dGreenberg

Second pose update! I think I might do one more pose that's a little more neutral looking for some turnarounds and wireframes. Then it's back to the textures.

Pav3d

Hey the modelling is really nice, you've certainly captured the forms of the concept very well. But the texturing is letting you down at the moment. There are some interesting details in the concept that could be implemented in your texturing, like the noise, the hatching in some areas, the dark outlines. Came across this approach recently which could be handy.

dGreenberg

Hey @Pav3d, thank you! I'm 100% with you on the texturing. After doing a little more than the base colors I figured I would work on the rig and poses before dealing with everything else. I always slow down when it comes to material work, and it's definitely a weaker area for me.

The hatching could be a really cool addition to add to the textures! I wonder if I can find a similar workaround for Toolbag? I was originally planning to mix some hand-painted stuff with PBR maps, but I'll have to see if I can pull it off. I think Philemon Belhomme's Darksburg stuff might be a good example of what I'm aiming for right now. Thank you for the hatching example! I'll be sure to keep the thread updated with my attempts moving forward

dGreenberg

Texturing and lighting progress! Using a mix of SoMuchMaterials and some more hand painting in Photoshop, I was able to work on some more material stuff. Bringing in a gradient definitely helped with separating some of those flat colors. I was also checking out Frédéric Arsenault's Sacrifice character and wanted to try giving the cel-shaded outline a try. It's different than I expected but I'm kinda digging the style of it. I might need to clean up parts of the render where the outline messes with N8t's mouth and nose, but it feels like I'm moving forward.

stororokw

Looks a lot better than the last iteration however I think Pav3d's critique still stands, and I would personally push the stylization more. More specifically:

• Enlarge the pupils.
• Adding an outline shader.
• Hatching on clothing and accessories.
• Add more textural details to the clothing
• Maybe add AO or something, since I still think it looks flat.

dGreenberg

Hey @stororokw thanks for the suggestions! I can definitely play around with some of those ideas. I should try and see if some hatching directly onto the diffuse textures can help push things, and maybe adding some fabric tension to the pockets if I can do that without messing with the geometry or normal maps.

I think that I don't want this to end up being as much of a 1:1 version of the concept, but more to try and properly translate it to 3D without getting too lost along the way. The biggest style reference I'm using for now is probably Philemon Belhomme's stuff (mixed with the feel from Afu Chan's concepts), but I'll keep messing with things to see where it takes me. 

dGreenberg

Thanks for all of the advice with everything so far! I wanted to address some of the texture issues so I tried cranking up the black outline and also added in some hatching to the diffuse and roughness map. I didn't want it to control too much of the lighting so I tried to dial things back so it's noticeable but not distracting. It'll also be a lot more recognizable with the different poses and detail shots. This pose will serve as more of a breakdown, but I can post some other angles if that helps. I'm still not 100% on what look I'm after with the textures but I feel like I'm getting super close. Any thoughts or suggestions are always welcome! 

dGreenberg

Heyyy! I finally finished the character. Work has been keeping me super busy lately, but during the holiday break I was able to put together the finishing touches on N8t!

You can also see the whole project over here on my ArtStation. Thanks again to Afu Chan for making the original character design for this guy. If you haven't seen his work, you should definitely check it out

JamesBrisnehan

Nice. I'm digging the art-style. It kind of reminds me of some of the Naruto games.

dGreenberg

Thanks James! I can definitely see what you mean