[WIP] Titanfall Fanart, MCOR "Maurauder" Pilot Desmond
high dynamic range
Creating a character that will accompany the Legionnaire Titan fanart I am working on. Going to make adjustments to make this "Irish-American" or "Irish" on the design. Original concept by Poji Chow.
Using the likeness of friend, Joe Coffey, for this guy's head.
Going to see how far I can push this, especially with the head.
I feel like I'm constantly relearning or revalidating my hard surface workflow. Like, with difficult shapes, I feel like it still takes too long to Zbrush sketch the idea out and then retopologize it for the final high poly. Otherwise I have the planar blockout method, or using MOP Booleans which starts chugging when I want to export the final mesh out to Modo. If anyone knows of a faster technique, please let me know.
Also, to anyone reading this, no matter how far into your career you are, you're gonna want to keep a journal document of all the things you've learned. I find myself populating a OneNote journal with everything I've learned so I don't have to rely on my memory and instinct to keep it all in like a dumb hubris-filled person.
//CURRENT
WIP 20
@slosh
I believe I have moved the jaw and back of the neck now.
I want to hope I'm close to getting this done, but I can't see any more obvious places I can improve on this without it feeling like I'm just aimlessly noodling. Anyone see anything I can specifically do to improve this?
Using the likeness of friend, Joe Coffey, for this guy's head.
Going to see how far I can push this, especially with the head.
I feel like I'm constantly relearning or revalidating my hard surface workflow. Like, with difficult shapes, I feel like it still takes too long to Zbrush sketch the idea out and then retopologize it for the final high poly. Otherwise I have the planar blockout method, or using MOP Booleans which starts chugging when I want to export the final mesh out to Modo. If anyone knows of a faster technique, please let me know.
Also, to anyone reading this, no matter how far into your career you are, you're gonna want to keep a journal document of all the things you've learned. I find myself populating a OneNote journal with everything I've learned so I don't have to rely on my memory and instinct to keep it all in like a dumb hubris-filled person.
//CURRENT
WIP 20
@slosh
I believe I have moved the jaw and back of the neck now.
I want to hope I'm close to getting this done, but I can't see any more obvious places I can improve on this without it feeling like I'm just aimlessly noodling. Anyone see anything I can specifically do to improve this?
Replies
Previous feedback from WIP 3
Learned a lot more about the technical issues surrouding my Marvelous Designer workflow.
Working in clothing details and greeble details atm.
Laid in base pores for the head.
Btw, is my pore direction/shape notation accurate for how the pores stretch and shape-wise, look, on the face?
Reviewing all the bony landmarks according to this https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-subjects/portrait-figure/how-to-draw-bodies-lea-colie-wight/ and trying to accentuate planes to make masses not feel flat, assuming that's the the answer. Still haven't swapped the eys yet.
With this one reference photo I have, wth is causing that S curve on the sides of the nose mass? Just an odd lighting set up?
I think its focal length. Real cameras use different settings on different photos. Your first photo reference has closeup of the face with distortion like first example on pic related. Might be useful to export sculpt to Maya/Max/Blender and see how it will look in game.
Laying in secondary folds to clothing. Gonna go through again later for a clean up and finish pass.
@carvuliero, thank you. Did my best at the end of today to tackle your notes.
Regarding the cheek planar transitions, is it that the planes are not clear between each other or something else?
//Goals
- Make a game-ready, but cinematic real-time, model of the character
- Create a likeness of the actor
- Finally nail down a hair pipeline that I will remember and am confident in since I feel as I've failed to do that for years.
ZTL of the head sculpt:https://www.dropbox.com/s/ovboqyypf0vqy40/Head_1.ZTL?dl=0
//Modeling the Tactical Ammunition Bags
I made this guide a while ago about common mistakes when making eyes / mouth
So first thing the eyes. Yours lack structure and thickness IMO. Especially the eyelids, can't really feel their thickness. Eyelids are way thicker than people usually think. Using your own references those volumes and all that structure is really visible but on your sculpt its lacking some fattiness and clarity.
Them lips/nose area needs some love also. Lacks volume and depth and the silhouette is definitely off., angle breaks aren't clear enough.
You'd have a better time sculpting those lips slightly opened and closing them afterward during posing IMO. It's just better production practice anyway.
Your sideview could also really gain from some more work. In addition to what I pointed just above, your nostril is way too far from the eyes. I think a combination of the eyes going a bit forward and the nostril backward would help.
The overall back of the head lack structures, Look at those very clear sharp angle break in the back of his head and that straight line going down his neck. The neck is a bit too thin also. All these details will make the difference.
From other views, your skull seems to be getting from big at the front to smaller at the back but a good rule of thumb is skull getting a bit wider at the end. Try to see it as "3 balls".
There a bunch of free skull scans, pick one up you'll see what i'm talking about
Personally I think you need more refinement before even thinking about all those pores at the moment. You primary/secondary forms still need work. If it looks realistic without the pores then you know you nailed it basically.
Need to spend some time jsut focusing on the panel line details, and then get back to detailing.
I got a comment from a friend that the skirt isn't reading like a skirt yet. Gonna look into fabrics for it, maybe fray the edges like a hastily made afghan.
Gonna start blocking out the minigun and get those edits on the face.
Anything stick out to anyone with the Costume?
Did my best to tackle ya'lls critiques @cauvliero and @Felixenfeu.
Will take a second pass tomorrow.
Outfit
I like the colors and the texture work looks promising. I feel your issues with the skirt have a lot to do with the silhouette change. In the earlier versions the belt pouches were rounder and sat closer to his body, now they're stiff and nearly as thick as his arm. They're also made of harsh blocks that contrast with the almost organic look of the rest of the armor—which while also full of straight lines, has them as an integral part of bigger pieces of armor that mostly follow his natural silhouette/anatomical landmarks.In the concept the pouches also sit closer to his body, being half the arm's thickness or thinner, and there's no padded thigh protection projecting away on the opposite leg. While the addition looks cool and well executed it's fighting the skirt. The lack of it in the concept allows the skirt to draw the eye and carry part of the, uh... outfit flow?
The skirt itself is slightly wider, shorter and with a layered fraying that evokes pleating, making it dynamic. Walking would make it kinda swoosh around, the wind would rock them back and forth when idling. When you fray yours try to do the same layering because it makes something look dynamic without having to make it dynamic. In a certain way that's why there are so many stripes of fabric, hanging baubles and stray locks of hair in illustrations: They invoke movement just by raising the possibility with "this dangling thing lends itself to moving".
Face
You need to review the flow of bags under the eyes because it's detracting from the rest of the face now. The creases outlining the crest of the eye sockets don't outline the bone landmark underneath, they point to the end of caruncles instead creating an oddly wide flat area between nose and eye sockets. This crease is also acting as vanishing point of the edges delineating the lower eyelid, which doesn't sit right.Yep, I just said "vanishing point" because it's a nice way to think about certain landmarks of the human body where wrinkles and creases tend to flow to, just like the directional lines in perspective drawing.
Also keep in mind that the thing creating contrast between outer area of the eye and cheekbones isn't the volume of his eye bags, it's mainly the plane change. I feel the new creases run too deep and far towards the outer part of the eye socket without quite outlining the underlying structure. Skin folds which don't reinforce the underlying structure will be interpreted as sagging. Here they decrease likeness and can make him look simultaneously aged and sleep-deprived.
The eyelids also still feel a bit too thin and draw-on, and the angle of the waterline doesn't look quite right. The waterline must be completely hidden when the eye is shut. If this wouldn't happen then their angle is off.
In drawing there's a trick to fix unnatural-looking eyelids and waterlines that in principle should also work for 3D. Draw a line from the center of the eyeball to figure out the angle of the middle region of the bottom eyelid's waterline. Draw a line from the inner and outer corners of the eye to find the eye's "hinge" and use this as origin point to mirror the guidance line for the lower eyelid to figure the upper eyelid position. Draw another line from eyeball center to it to get the angle of the waterline for the upper eyelid. Done!
Don't think of it as hard-and-fast rule or anything like this, but as a sanity check when eyelids look off.
About the mouth, be careful with the corners. The lining of the lips always contours the entire mouth, it just gets occluded at the sides when the mouth is shut. The way lips flow into the corners should suggest this.
The lower lip lining of your latest WIP seems to be ending prematurely, a bit too far from the corners to line them properly. Take another look at your refs; his lower lip is actually pretty full at the corners, it just transitions very smoothly into the skin, both in terms of geometry and hue.
I hope this is helpful—if you manage to read it all. This turned out way longer than I intended, hah.
There's a black outline in the eyehole paintover you made. Are you saying there I need to add a planar change for when the "pink flesh" of the eyelid starts?
The only notable plane change in the waterline itself would be the one to the eyelids.
I faked extra thickness in that overpaint and also suggested a meniscus. The waterline is quite thick, something between almost 2 and 3mm getting even thicker where it connects to the tear duct because it's convex-ish instead of hugging the eyeball there. The catch is that the meniscus—the accumulation of the water covering the eyeball close to the eyelids—makes the eyeballs both look slightly forward in the socket and better set by softening the transition from waterline to eye.
It's your call to whether add or not a meniscus. My advice would be to add it whenever possible because it really adds to the eye, not only improving this transition but making eyes more lively.
Now, if you meant the caruncle—the pink tissue in the inner corner of the eye, the tear duct—there's usually a subtle plane change there indeed. Think of it as a slight accumulation of clay. It'll mostly soften the transition to the nose and the areas under the eye. The lower region of this area also happens to be the point where wrinkles under the eye usually converge to.
The plane changes I'm more concerned about are the 1, 2, 3 outlined in this post. I feel the crease under the lower lashline (where the waterline meets the eyelid) is too sharp, particularly near the outer corner of the eye. It's reading as a valley instead of wrinkles. He seems to have a slight change there, but it's not all due a crease. His lashes are casting a shadow, his skin is darker and pinker and there are wrinkles there. These factors removed, the base geometry would be softer. My advice is tackling this and also softening the area nº 1, because it's looking swollen. The region 1 tries to hug the eyeball. Age, eye depth and fat will affect it, but it's good practice to always anchor it on the eyeball shape then apply those factors. Nail down the planes of the 1 2 and 3 and they'll still be noticeable without needing to rely on creases and inflating them as much.
Has taken several days to to go through Ashley Sparling's hair tutorial slowly, and also integrating a Fibermesh methodology for short hair cards.
I think I have a good base to work from, but need to start breaking these hairs intro groups from the fibermesh, and careful about how I group things. Not quite satisfied with the way it renders still. Still looks wonky, even following the exact tutorial setup.
If anyone has any pointers to troubleshoot this please let me know.
Is that an excerpt from a traditional sculpting book? Or something else?
Hopefully this isn't a step back
Focusing on hair card placements and negotiating how thick the hair texture strands need to be. I think I feel I'm on the right path.
Right now the difficulty is trying to nail the soft transitions of the reference photos of Joe's hair, given that it's all short, but it does have varying clumping and density changes between certain sections.
I'm using Modo, but all the hair cards, given their length, I've popped out of Zbrush and edited them from there.
Shout out to Ashley Sparling's hair tutorial on his ArtStation. This far in, and he has been the most concrete, consistent explanation about both theory and practical approach to hair grooming for games. This is above Gregory Avaulucci (I don't know how to spell his last name) or Adam Fisher's, etc. I recommend paying the price he's asking for it. It's taken me years to find a tutorial that actually explains the method behind the madness, and he finally does it for me. Still continuing through, and would like tor evisit his tutorial for longer hair, but it's working so far with Joe Coffey's short hair here.
textures feel plasticy, but that will resolve in due time.
It's helpful to determine the less dense areas you can't ignore. Look at the ref and try to identify where raring hair still impacts the hairline or helps to smooth the transition to hairless areas. In this case I'd say temples and that scattering of beard on the cheeks near the jaw hinges. It's also always good to scatter a tiny bit of hair around the eyebrows so they don't look manicured—usually towards their outer corners, on the upper eyelids and where the zygomatic process merges into the frontal bone.
With short hair the growth direction is also evident. I have no idea what it'd be called in English, but do you know this whirlwind on the back of the head? Locate it and it'll give you the hair flow and layering for almost the entire scalp.
I am both frustrated and slightly mirthed about my progress with this hair.
Problems I observe (technique solutions if you have them)
1) Coverage is not consistent, like I can't help but see holes, but Joe's hair is thin.
2) Needs more fade out stray hairs at the edges (Sounds like a "do at the end thing)
3) Awkward silhouette breaks (I mis-seaprated the polygroups of Fibermesh planes originally, that;s on me.)
Please help. I feel like I'm ommitting something with my process that will get this over the hill.
It's hard to discern how much of this is a theory, technique, and/or technical issue with card placement or textures. Much of this is because I personally don't feel like I've had a successful hair example I've ever done.
Going to investigate a fibermesh curve and polystrip extrusion combo with Modo to see if I can get to the flow sections faster, BagelHero.
Fibermesh > export Curves > Modo Geo From Curves plugin > Edit rotations, sizes,s UVs, etc.
I THINK I just need to do mostly noodling from here
Ok, so I THINK I have a new, comfortableish workflow approaching most straight hair styles.
Combination of fibermesh, geo to curves modo plugin, photoshop. Might do a write up later. Still lots of editing, but it is controlled editing.
I'll go back in to do fly away cards.
Onto texture polishing!
Did some more work to intensify the normals on the face. I almost I feel like I need to go back in to acentuate the foreheard plane changes.
Further added noise details to the body.
Need to do a concentrated wear and tear pass on the body.
Any feedback?
rotated the left eye slightly to the left to fix the cross eyes (I'm gonna need to move it more, just feels weird knowing they're both NOT pointing in the same dierction). Moved the height of the eyes to fix pupil positions relative to eyelids.
@slosh I'm not wrong for thinking getting this NOT looking crosseyes is going to mean that the left eye is technically NOT going to be aiming the same direction as the right?
Added vellus hair via fibermesh.
Began adding individual glyaway hair cards.
Eyes slightly pointing outwards is new to me.
Added a ton of fly away cards to the top section of the hair.
Damage/detail polished the body.
Added additional alpha details to the hands: panel lines, etc.
Fixed the sculpt of the head: forgot the forehead planes.
Rotated eyes out a bit.
Added vellus hair to head.
I probably need to pale the face more; accentuate his gingerness.
My 1st and only time with hair / joker, was tough indeed, hear good things about xgenhair and all those other hair guide things, did mine manually though.
i lined it up by the two pix with the Nostril hole, i see the slight area of keeping the mouth open for animation? purposes or to be animation friendly, unless i am fooling myself in thinking it has an internal all the inner workings of a mouth, which might be throwing off the look and the bold chin, "bold chin", is from the beard/hair.