[WIP] D&D Character Project
polycounter lvl 4
Hey Poly Count, Ive started work on a new project that ide love to get feedback on as I work on it. Im going for three game ready character models based on a game of D&D my wife and I are playing. My hope here is to work on clothing and materials specifically and a little bit of creature art in there as well. If you have any feedback let me know.
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Twp things that are bothering me is that the male character has really short legs which became obvious to me when you added the trousers. And the female seems to have a big head, maybe that's just me, but it looks quite big in the 3/4 view.
But this is a really cool project and I look forward to seeing how it turns out
Twp things that are bothering me is that the male character has really short legs which became obvious to me when you added the trousers. And the female seems to have a big head, maybe that's just me, but it looks quite big in the 3/4 view.
But this is a really cool project and I look forward to seeing how it turns out
Below that we have a Hand crossbow based off of a design I found online. The final image is a comparison off all four of them. Im sure their will be a few other items for me to make that arent key items like these but I still have the Bards Lute and Mask to model aswell.
My critique is that I think you should work out a strap to keep that shoulder armour in place. Surely it isn't just held in place by the jacket.
Keep going!
Topology for Lev should be mostly done. I want to give a few problem spots/dense spots another look over But I think It all came together ok. I'll have tomorrow off from this project so I will take a step back and think what my next step should be. probably Uv unwrapping everything and starting Projection test.
Hastur UV
Sova UV
Lev UV
The bottom image shows three variations on hair for this guy. all slightly different takes on the same style but Ide be interested on what you prefer. Im very early in on the hair and am still in the block out phase of it before doing mid and breakup layers.
Once i get his hair done im going back to the female bard and getting her caught up to where this tiefling is.
For the Hex Blade i wanted it to be really rough and at a glance seem like raw metal. Something thats so old and beat up that it probably couldnt even cut anything. I think this quote from Berserk really gets the idea across, "It was too big to be called a sword. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was a heap of raw iron." This weapon draws its power from Radeks warlock patreon so the sword is more a conduit for magic than it is actually a sword. It also has an inscription in Infernal, a dnd language, that alludes to the origins of this weapon where it was originally an ornate knife given to the character by their lover that has now been transformed by the Warlock patron.
The Dancing Moontouched Greatsword is kind of the complete opposite of the hex blade. Its supposed to look like a very ornate ornamental sword. One that probably wasn't meant to be used for combat and was more of a very valuable gift used in ceremonies. I tried to incorporate some DnD lore with references to the moon god in the design as well as a poem about the moon god written in celestial, another dnd language, written on the blade.
Id maybe addd a bit of damage to the bottom of the jacket to.
but he look awesome
Thank you so much for the feedback! I agree with your suggestions and when I get back to working on him ill work on those changes for sure!
So for my next post on this project Ive been working on the props for sova. Thisincludes an Owl Mask, a Lute, A Dragon Slayer longsword and a hand crossbow. Let me know what you think. I feel like they all still need work but please let me know what you think is and isnt working about them.
- Skin
- Inner Eye (Made)
- Short Hair Details
- Horns
- Teeth(Made)
- Eyes
- Jacket bottom wear
- Pants refinement
- Leather Belts thinner geometry
- Metal Armor Material
- Leather Belt Refinement
- Bandolier Belt Buckle
- Boots
- Eye
- Teeth
- Nails
- Wing joints
- SSS
- Whiskers
- Makeup
- Inner Eye
- Teeth
- Knee Bad
- Shoulder Feathers
I'm in love with the clothes design on both of them. All those details and fabrics, amazing job.
I feel Sova is looking more aged than you intend. Here are some suggestions to correct it with a quick overpaint to help explaining if that's okay.
1 - Fill in her upper eyelids
They're too sunk for her age. Usually when you have a noticeable eye socket you'll see the crest of the bottom part as well, but we can't in this case, making it read almost like a second eyelid fold instead. If it should read like a fold it should be closer to the main fold, not over the socket edges. This ages her because this area is should be more firm and full in younger people.
Also soften and blend in the red tint with the rest of the skin beyond the region covering the eyeballs, as it's looking a bit too red and irritated, something also seen in older people.
2 - This one is useful for Radek too: Adjust the hair length and growing pattern of her eyebrows
There's no pattern-fits-it-all, you'll need to look at eyebrows of people with similar bone structure for reference. It's almost certain though that the hair will point outwards or down from the middle/peak to the end of the eyebrows.
A nice trick to get a good-looking "raring" effect without it becoming too harsh due aliasing constraints is to paint the skin under the eyebrows after styling them. This way you can use cards with fewer hairs where there should be fewer and still achieve a natural and soft look.
3 - Add a bit of clumping to the eyelashes / check the upper waterline
You did a nice job on the eyelashes length. Adding a bit more of clumping and random variation should make them more readable.
One thing that needs attention is the angle of the upper waterline. I don't know if it's the transparency of the root of the eyelashes or the angle of the eyelids, but we shouldn't be able to see this much of the upper waterline.
4 - Soften nose-cheeks plane transition
If you overdo that nose-cheek plane change in a manner it's visible from all angles it reads as puffiness or aged skin. It'd be better to rely on real geometry alone to describe this plane change and reinforce the planes around the eye socket instead, so you still have interesting changes going on without making her look too gaunt.
5 - Review mouth width
I feel her mouth is a bit too wide for her jaw size. When in doubt trace a line from the middle of the eyeballs to get an average mouth width.
6 - Add a bit of lateral volume, reduce chin height by lowering the end of mouth supporting volume
She'll look more her apparent age and without changing her bone structure at all.
7 - Make chin plane changes more evident
Her chin is very round right now. It'll have a more interesting and natural silhouette if you make the lateral and bottom plane changes a bit more evident.
I hope this helps. Since I can only guess who you used as reference please ignore what doesn't apply.
I'm looking forward to seeing more!
@LokiDokie Thanks for the kind words. I plan to grime them up a bit and am still planning to try some of the suggestions you made earlier as well. Adding some tears to the bottom of Radek’s coat is something I hope to be doing today. I plan to pose them each separately and have one group pose of them. Beyond that I want to 3D print them out as miniatures for our dnd game.
@tysiu Im really glad to hear you like the clothing. I stated it earlier in the thread that clothing and materials were a priority for me here so im glad that’s coming through.
@birb Thank you so much for the paint over and feedback. A lot of your changes I agree with and I will try my best to implement. For the reference I actually used Eddie Redmayne as that’s who my wife said her character of Sova looked most like. I think a number of the things you outlined are results of trying to keep certain key aspects of the actors face while also trying to make it more in line with our idea of the character. Hopefully its apparent but the point wasn’t to do a likeness study but use the reference as a way to make the character more humanistic looking and less just an ideal. The same is true for Radek with his reference model being Tom Hiddleston. I was able to show my wife your paint over last night and she likes a lot of the changes you made! I will be trying to take your advice and improve Sova and Radek accordingly. Thank you again!
Borrowing liberally from other faces with similar features can help a lot when adapting a likeness. Example: Rose Leslie's eye x eyebrow relationship and chin configuration. Her facial structure feels similar to the one you're aiming for, but differences in the chin planes and sharpness change the way it integrates into her face—it's still prominent, yet softer. It's not like women can't have longer faces or taller chins, the main difference is how the underlying structure (narrower jaws, rounder dental arches) changes our perception of those. In case of women's it tends to create a triangular shape running from the sides of the chin to the bottom of the temples.
Study the traits that would help to adapt your main reference, ignore what won't. Rose's cheeks are completely different from Eddie's and Sova's. Looking at a different faces with equally interesting mouth-jaw-cheekbones transitions (eg Astrid Berges-Frisbey) can provide with you a framework to fill in the gaps.
Again, this only concerns trying to apply a a set of usual... "consequences"? of using certain features in a face (like "these lips are often accompanied by these nose types"). Good characterization is about strategically stepping outside this zone and going beyond the bland common faces for a given place and culture.
In any case, you're doing a fantastic job! As a fellow TTRPG player I have a soft spot for this sort of project and those character designs hint at a pretty fun world.
i really like sovas left pose even with her hand sticking up around the sword it looks cool. I think the left ones better for leading lines to the face my eye kind of just stops on the right one.