Hmm, I dunno. It's not a bad model, but I think I can see quite a few bad points to it, technically and proportionally.
1. Mesh detail - you've done stuff like have the sole of the boots extruded out, adding a load of polys there (which at this level of detail, a texture would do most of that work), while the shoulders are essentially 8 huge triangles. Pretty bad dispersion of polys I think, since mostly people will be looking at the head and chest area, so the shoulders are a natural extension of that and should be more detailed, and probably need more polys for good deformation anyway.
I think the same applies to the fact that you have a lot of detail in polys on his belt, yet the back of the lower leg is 4 tris... imho pretty ugly.
2. Face geometry needs some work - I really don't like the way you have done the mouth/chin/jaw area, it just looks pretty wrong, at the very least turn some of those edges but I'd add a few polys to round it out some more, it looks very "stretched" with those long thin polys between the jaw and cheek.
3. His legs look pretty short compared to his torso and arms - i think the width of the shoulders is also contributing to this, but i'd say the legs are definitely too short.
4. The hands are too small. If I put my hand on my face, with the base of the palm over my chin, my fingertips almost reach my forehead hairline. This guy's hands are about 2/3 that size at best. They look very small compared to his head and feet.
I like the design of the headpiece connected to the backpack, maybe a few more polys in that to detail and round it out some would help. The backpack design is dreadfully uninspired, it's just a box really. Try doing something more interesting with the shape there.
so I say definitely fix the mesh of the shoulders and head, take another look at the proportions and adjust the size of the hands and the leg length, then I reckon you'll be closer to having him ready to unwrap.
If you just put a little more work in it will be closer to the quality of your alien models - variety is the spice of life!
Lengthed shins, increased hand size, wrist and forearms.
Created seam along shoulder armour pieces(which should better define what I was going for, btw) to allow for better deformation of those solid inorganic pieces. Also rearranged edges to improve roundness where it was needed.
Not sure if I'm going to mess with the face or not. I'm contemplating adding the row of polys from cheek to jaw as MoP suggested.
Reminds me of SpaceHulk the game. The only suggestion I could maybe say is with helmet? instead of it going straight back like one huge dredlocke try making the helmet like a Astronaut's with two airtubings going to the back pack. Just a suggestion.... (Winces in pain before hand)
Face proportions are a bit weird... his chin is almost as big as his forehead! I think the proportions would be good if you just selected the eyes, nose and mouth and move those bits down an inch or so.
Also the texture on the face could be much darker around the eyes - they look really bright and unnatural at the moment, could use some darker shading where the upper eyelid would be.
Plus, I wouldn't do some of those parts on the armour solid black - the vents and holes - if they were a slightly lighter colour fading to black gently it would look more realistic, as opposed to black voids in the texture.
MoP: I did what you said, moved those parts of the face down a bit, he looks a little less like Jay Leno now
As for the black spots, I actually was planning on putting some hints of flesh behind those.
Thermidor: I think some of that might be created by the "saddlebags", so to speak on his outer thighs, and the darkness of the inner. I'll look at that when I go to pose him.
Pic updated, plus flats. There are some things to refine and fix, but the basic idea is finished. I'll revisit the texture after I rig him and animate him.
His helmet seems akward for someone who's out and about in space all the time. For safety reason I'd of thought he'd have a glass dome helmet w/ a tube running to the back of it, loosely and out of the way. If he were to bump that huge glass casing his face would explode and his wife would be upset.
The skin for the face needs a little more work. Try adding in some colour to it instead of just a brown/tan that's been dodged/burned. Reds blues and greens will hope that out some.
Other than that, MoP's caught a lot of things you could do to improve this badboy
LOL, yeah, Keel...There is a strong resemblence with the top portion of the armour, because I was looking at pics of Q3A characters to get ideas for shape and structure of the model. The yellowish colour doesn't help either
Thanks Adam. I'll try that. That was the first human face i've ever drawn from scratch for a model. Plenty to improve on for sure. Luckily this one's hidden behind the shiny helmet!
Replies
1. Mesh detail - you've done stuff like have the sole of the boots extruded out, adding a load of polys there (which at this level of detail, a texture would do most of that work), while the shoulders are essentially 8 huge triangles. Pretty bad dispersion of polys I think, since mostly people will be looking at the head and chest area, so the shoulders are a natural extension of that and should be more detailed, and probably need more polys for good deformation anyway.
I think the same applies to the fact that you have a lot of detail in polys on his belt, yet the back of the lower leg is 4 tris... imho pretty ugly.
2. Face geometry needs some work - I really don't like the way you have done the mouth/chin/jaw area, it just looks pretty wrong, at the very least turn some of those edges but I'd add a few polys to round it out some more, it looks very "stretched" with those long thin polys between the jaw and cheek.
3. His legs look pretty short compared to his torso and arms - i think the width of the shoulders is also contributing to this, but i'd say the legs are definitely too short.
4. The hands are too small. If I put my hand on my face, with the base of the palm over my chin, my fingertips almost reach my forehead hairline. This guy's hands are about 2/3 that size at best. They look very small compared to his head and feet.
I like the design of the headpiece connected to the backpack, maybe a few more polys in that to detail and round it out some would help. The backpack design is dreadfully uninspired, it's just a box really. Try doing something more interesting with the shape there.
so I say definitely fix the mesh of the shoulders and head, take another look at the proportions and adjust the size of the hands and the leg length, then I reckon you'll be closer to having him ready to unwrap.
If you just put a little more work in it will be closer to the quality of your alien models - variety is the spice of life!
MoP
I see what you mean about the proportions and poly distro.
I also upon examining the shoulders, noticed some problems with edges and silouette.
Shins need to be longer, hands larger, that is clear to me now.
I have some ideas, but I'm not sure they wouldn't be fine doing with the texture.
Lengthed shins, increased hand size, wrist and forearms.
Created seam along shoulder armour pieces(which should better define what I was going for, btw) to allow for better deformation of those solid inorganic pieces. Also rearranged edges to improve roundness where it was needed.
Not sure if I'm going to mess with the face or not. I'm contemplating adding the row of polys from cheek to jaw as MoP suggested.
Pic updated at top of thread
Also, per MoP's suggestion, the backpack has been reshaped a bit from what is in the mesh pics.
Also the texture on the face could be much darker around the eyes - they look really bright and unnatural at the moment, could use some darker shading where the upper eyelid would be.
Plus, I wouldn't do some of those parts on the armour solid black - the vents and holes - if they were a slightly lighter colour fading to black gently it would look more realistic, as opposed to black voids in the texture.
Keep it up.
MoP
MoP: I did what you said, moved those parts of the face down a bit, he looks a little less like Jay Leno now
As for the black spots, I actually was planning on putting some hints of flesh behind those.
Thermidor: I think some of that might be created by the "saddlebags", so to speak on his outer thighs, and the darkness of the inner. I'll look at that when I go to pose him.
The skin for the face needs a little more work. Try adding in some colour to it instead of just a brown/tan that's been dodged/burned. Reds blues and greens will hope that out some.
Other than that, MoP's caught a lot of things you could do to improve this badboy
Thanks Adam. I'll try that. That was the first human face i've ever drawn from scratch for a model. Plenty to improve on for sure. Luckily this one's hidden behind the shiny helmet!