Sculpting anatomy is genuinely some of the most difficult and boring work I've ever done. Human bodies are highly specific and there is little room for creativity, more so when making base meshes. However, the dopamine rush of learning how elbows - a blind spot of mine, are put together, makes it all worth it.
My wife was telling me how kpop demon hunters was a good movie and how I should use the characters there as reference, so I watched it and now all the males are going to look like Jinu. I think the male lips regressed but I'll fix that next week.
It feels like I've been at this for months now, painstakingly studying and pushing verts one milimeter at a time for hours on end after work. But I'm not getting uncanny valley vibes from looking at my sculpts anymore. I think I'm starting to form those neuron connections, and really starting to understand why a face looks the way it does. About fucking time
Sometimes it feels like no progress is being made, but I thought it'd be interesting to make a gif of progress made over the span of a year with human faces. The older work is genuine nightmare fuel, though it's interesting to see how my brain perceived; it saw but it never understood. Maybe another month of this before I get something acceptable. Special thanks to Rusty & Vineet for hammering in the advice that the eyeballs were way too big lol
I've noticed something after working on faces. I pay more attention to people's faces now. The smile lines, folds of the eyelids, facial ratios & proportions, how their faces animate while they're talking, the way lips curl to express disgust or pull at the corners to express joy. It sounds like some genuine reptilian-humanoid behaviour but I'm definitely observing way more than I did before.
It's great to see the progression! I didn't realize how elongated and bug-like your faces were until you started tweaking them. They look so serious now!
More refining. Feels like I didn't get a lot done this week, I spent too much time on my pacifist playthrough of Elden Ring. Will slack less next week.
I think I've refined these models more than I've refined spice melange in Dune: Awakening at this point but I'm constantly seeing areas to improve or fix
I made some less terrible placeholder hair for the female basemesh, more face ratio/proportion tweaks, smoothed out some areas. Probably pretty close to being able to start adding in finer detail like skin creases and wrinkles on the female mesh, male mesh still needs face work.
Ooh, that's quite inspiring progression. Doesn't the crotch and inner thigh area seem a little strange on the female model, though? With that strong line there, it makes it look, to me at least, like the pectineus is tensed up, which seems a bit strange on a static model. Plus, the fat pads usually cover that, I think. Also, the wrists on both genders seem very thin.
The faces look really good, though. They're quite appealing.
I think I'm starting to see diminishing returns, and as a player I think these models achieve a level of detail and accuracy that is sufficient for a quintuple A (AAAAA) 3rd person video game. I'll be switching gears now to work on the wrinkles, fine lines, pores, pimples, and paint.
Skin detail, fixed lips, added smile lines. Frames 2&3 are with a shiny matcap to highlight changes better. Hopefully we can start with baking next week.
As a game developer and big proponent of the phrase "DEI or die", I've been upgrading the sheer gooner power of the moneybags and shilling satchels of the human basemeshes.
I take one for the team and channel my inner gay to ensure the male mesh is just as lustful as the female. Bowls of fruit are simply no match for the raw, unbridled kamasutra-esque energy that I put out on display before the general public. Cheers
As a game developer and big proponent of the phrase "DEI or die", I've been upgrading the sheer gooner power of the moneybags and shilling satchels of the human basemeshes.
I feel like this sentence should go down in Polycount history
And those are some nice looking genitals, mazel tov
I can only applaud and support your quest for making both models as lustful and accurate as possible. I feel as proud looking at this than when they added ballsack physic in baldur's gate.
I photoshoped some adjusments I would personally make to the bits.
good advice, thanks melomad xD I actually had BG3's character editor running while putting on the finishing touches. Tried to do the helicopter first thing, but it didn't work since characters only rotate on an axis with no up or down
I often hear how players say, "we don't care about graphics, just gameplay."
My interpretation of that statement is, "we don't want unoptimised garbage that runs at 15 FPS on a RTX5090 because developers with zero art direction want realism but don't know how to implement it in UE5 without insane performance overheads. Also they need to stop outsourcing all their work to modern-day slavery studios in India, China, and SE Asia as all of our triple-A titles are ending up as creatively bankrupt nepotistic unplayable dumpster fires, and it sure sucks to see they're trying a last-ditch effort to fix this by digging themselves deeper into a hole by employing generative AI. Maybe if they dig deep enough they'll dig themselves out the other side and end up in China somewhere."
Graphics matter, but art direction matters more. Project Nova is dark fantasy; think Bloodborne, Castlevania, Dishonored, Vampire Hunter: D, London on a good day, Ukranians after they got invaded, pwnd Liberals after the second inauguration of President Trump, etc - therefore humans should look like they belong.
Switching to Zsphere veins instead of hand-sculpting them directly on the highpoly means I can mesh & RGB project for vein masks, which can be useful in a number of gameplay applications, such as dynamically transforming humans into infested, physiological effects related to drinking, eating or exertion, or even as a 'heat' map for vampires seeking a meal. Another value to having veins in highpoly is so that I can make changes to the UV layout without worrying about texture map mismatch, as well as reuse the veins mesh for the playable races, barring the automatons.
It's a lot of pretty dense learning material to get through. Humans in Project Nova aren't like normal humans, they have slightly longer limbs on average. Soil and water composition, level of oxygen in the air, even gravity is different than Earth in Project Nova. These all have an effect on how veins develop but most importantly covers for my lack of anatomical knowledge. After all, the best artists hide their mistakes.
I've decided to not use the Zsphere veins that I made last week. While it was a good learning exercise, the results of mesh projection simply left too much clean up work to be worthwhile. As the human basemeshes are in a good spot, I'm revisiting older work; the vampires, and applying the anatomical skills I've been practicing over the past several months.
Additionally, I'm breaking the rule of having all basemeshes being of the same height. Project Nova will never be a truly competitive E-sports shooter game, and I would be remiss to not capitalize on the potential of having really amazing, incredibly tall, and wow, well, uh yeah, you know what they say about a thousand pictures speak one word, or something like that
thanks Melomad! ya I was a bit sketch about trying out bunny-like ears on the vamps but I just thought pointy elf ears were a a bit generic and wanted to try something new. It's been very cathartic opening up old files, cringing, but finally having the ability to see and fix issues I made previously
The vein map looks really cool, and the attention you pay to anatomy is truly impressive. You're doing everything right here, as it's the foundation of the entire project. Any improvements will always have a positive impact on the overall result. I can see the progress from the first iteration to the current one—you've really improved! Great job! I'll add my own personal opinion, as I also like to perfect things as perfectly as my skill allows. I'm currently making a lot of clothing, and I compare how realistically they look on the model. If I see that I can't get certain folds in the right places or I don't like the way they fall, I make adjustments to the base mesh. Pose and even the slightest angles of the limbs really make a difference. This approach might not work for you, as you've already solved a lot of things, but it's good to know. Keep up the good work, you're doing great!
Haven't you spoken about adding different sets of horns/ears/wings and other details? Maybe you can reuse the elf ears that way. Also, I know the hair is a placeholder, but have you thought about having some hairstyle that shows off the skull's pointy scales or having strands twirl around the horns?
And yeah that's the best feeling. Her face is really lifelike now
@Melomad I haaaave, yes. Horns will have a fair amount of variety; slightly different curvatures, broken variants. Ears probably won't be modular, but will have sliders for size and angle. A minor gripe I have with some games is too much variety, to the point where it breaks laws of nature, and thus breaks immersion, whether consciously or on a sub-conscious level. Different ear shapes are seen in nature for animals in the same family and even genus, but I can't think of an animal where there is ear shape difference within the same species.
For a different ear shape, we would need a different species of vampire, which might be on the table.
There will be lots of hairstyles, probably not at launch, but if PN proves successful I'll definitely be on the lookout for contractors, or better yet, create a tennogen system, to help digital artists get a foothold in the industry and ideally get them paid too with generous rev-share model; we have a surplus of talent and education, but few avenues to turn that talent into money & a way of life. I'm hoping there will be a point where this project will be too big to be a solo project, the end-game goal is to create a grounded, detailed universe and foster a community of creators to make their own stories and adventures, similar to the Star Wars expanded universe.
I didn't know about the tennogen system! Seems cool, although I would reward the creator more than 30% of the sell share. I can only approve fostering new talents. You would need a player base willing to pay for it though. I know for exemple that sims players hate when creators paywall their CC.
It'll depend on a lot of factors; time spent giving feedback to artists & vetting assets, taxes, and cost to host/distribute their content, basically whatever the overhead is for supporting a system like this. Personally I'm hoping for a 90/10 revenue split, 90% going to the creator... basically if an artist is laid off from Ubisoft, EA, Microsoft etc - it should be a viable path to earn at least some side money before they can get back on their feet, or perhaps even turn it into a career. This will also force my competitors to do better, or be left behind. But don't quote me on this later because that is way, way in the future.
New playable species and reclassification of existing species + average heights. Races fit in a 1x2x3 meter cube. Minimum and maximum player race heights established.
Created lowpoly & subdivision levels for the male swamp abyssal. Concepted new playable iron automaton 'subrace' of the bronze automatons (technically 'new species' but robots aren't technically alive so they technically wouldn't qualify as a species. Semantics are fun...) for Project Nova.
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Thanks Rima!
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Have a great week!
I take one for the team and channel my inner gay to ensure the male mesh is just as lustful as the female. Bowls of fruit are simply no match for the raw, unbridled kamasutra-esque energy that I put out on display before the general public. Cheers
Have a great week!
And those are some nice looking genitals, mazel tov
I actually had BG3's character editor running while putting on the finishing touches. Tried to do the helicopter first thing, but it didn't work since characters only rotate on an axis with no up or down
My interpretation of that statement is, "we don't want unoptimised garbage that runs at 15 FPS on a RTX5090 because developers with zero art direction want realism but don't know how to implement it in UE5 without insane performance overheads. Also they need to stop outsourcing all their work to modern-day slavery studios in India, China, and SE Asia as all of our triple-A titles are ending up as creatively bankrupt nepotistic unplayable dumpster fires, and it sure sucks to see they're trying a last-ditch effort to fix this by digging themselves deeper into a hole by employing generative AI. Maybe if they dig deep enough they'll dig themselves out the other side and end up in China somewhere."
Graphics matter, but art direction matters more. Project Nova is dark fantasy; think Bloodborne, Castlevania, Dishonored, Vampire Hunter: D, London on a good day, Ukranians after they got invaded, pwnd Liberals after the second inauguration of President Trump, etc - therefore humans should look like they belong.
Have a great week!
It's a lot of pretty dense learning material to get through. Humans in Project Nova aren't like normal humans, they have slightly longer limbs on average. Soil and water composition, level of oxygen in the air, even gravity is different than Earth in Project Nova. These all have an effect on how veins develop but most importantly covers for my lack of anatomical knowledge. After all, the best artists hide their mistakes.
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Additionally, I'm breaking the rule of having all basemeshes being of the same height. Project Nova will never be a truly competitive E-sports shooter game, and I would be remiss to not capitalize on the potential of having really amazing, incredibly tall, and wow, well, uh yeah, you know what they say about a thousand pictures speak one word, or something like that
Have a great week!
@Melomad I haaaave, yes. Horns will have a fair amount of variety; slightly different curvatures, broken variants. Ears probably won't be modular, but will have sliders for size and angle. A minor gripe I have with some games is too much variety, to the point where it breaks laws of nature, and thus breaks immersion, whether consciously or on a sub-conscious level. Different ear shapes are seen in nature for animals in the same family and even genus, but I can't think of an animal where there is ear shape difference within the same species.
For a different ear shape, we would need a different species of vampire, which might be on the table.
There will be lots of hairstyles, probably not at launch, but if PN proves successful I'll definitely be on the lookout for contractors, or better yet, create a tennogen system, to help digital artists get a foothold in the industry and ideally get them paid too with generous rev-share model; we have a surplus of talent and education, but few avenues to turn that talent into money & a way of life. I'm hoping there will be a point where this project will be too big to be a solo project, the end-game goal is to create a grounded, detailed universe and foster a community of creators to make their own stories and adventures, similar to the Star Wars expanded universe.
Abyssal_Swamp_F 135cm
Vampire_Arboreal_F 145cm
Infested_Fungal_F 175cm
Automaton_Bronze_F 155cm
Human_F 165cm
Vampire_Cavern_F 185cm
Abyssal_Ocean_F 195cm
Automaton_Iron_F 205cm
Infested_Blood_F 225cm
Abyssal_Swamp_M 130cm
Vampire_Arboreal_M 150cm
Infested_Fungal_M 160cm
Automaton_Bronze_M 170cm
Human_M 180cm
Vampire_Cavern_M 200cm
Abyssal_Ocean_M 210cm
Automaton_Iron_M 220cm
Infested_Blood_M 240cm
Initial concept of the male 'swamp abyssal', pushed silhouette + resizing for the male ocean abyssal.
Have a great week!
Have a great week!