Modeling Maria (solo thread)

chip

My concept art and modeling plan and some early progress are in the "...working on?" thread. but I guess it's time to put this up on its own for some C&C before I start to UV & skin her.



The hands need work in the knucks area and the thumb isn't perfectly offset and the face is too deadpan (will be sneering per the concept) and its only a standard refpose, but other than that, whaddya think?

EarthQuake

You have some really great smooth shapes going on there, except for the hair. I would add some more density to the hair and smooth it out a bit so it looks consistant with the rest of the model.

rollin

lools realy cool, even if i would like see the texture more desaturated than the concept

ah and i dont think this "thing" on her head is hair

chip

Quite right, 'Quake, the headgear did look less finished, so I've fixed it and a few other weak areas. New pics, mostly wires, for those interested.
Front & back views 3/4 & side views
Head detail Head detail wires

rollin: also right, the "thing" is a helmet-like affair loosely based on a nun's veil but highly stylized (the "wings" reference an ancient TV show I'm embarrased to say I recall...). It ties in with the nature of the character, which is still embryonic, but she's a social reformer practicing a quasi-religious ideology.

currently 3386 tris -- nearing the limit but enough left to articulate the mouth, I think. My original poly budget wasn't planning on full hand or mouth articulation so I don't mind getting into the top range.

thanks for the good words and good suggestions.

Bronco

hey chip nice work here man.

Im not sure if you intend to rig her or anything and if you intend to do that yourself,but the way you have modelled the pelvis area would be a bitch to rig.

Forgive me if you have ways of getting round taht but it was a comment that came up when I modelled my last charcters pelvis area like that. Try and make the edge loops more straight and horizonal rather than up and at an angle a sthey are now.

Take this with a pinch of salt though. Good job so far.

John

chip

howdy Bronco. Every good dish needs a pinch o'salt, pardner Your observation is well taken. I find the pelvic area always troublesome for skin weighting and animation, so I expect I'll have to tweak this model for optimal rigging. My earlier stuff used more horizontal loops at the leg joints, but that left the form less rounded than I like. This is a somewhat experimental step in the other direction.

chip

Maria takes a sobriety test!



Pose was chosen to test & display various deformation characteristics. The pelvic area edge loops worked fine as modeled with some finicky vertex weight tweaking.

Currently 3576 tris including fully articulated hands and some facial articulation (limited by UE2's skeletal animation-only requirement) which I'm still working on. The hands need some remodeling as well, which may increase the final poly count.

The eyes are intentionally low-detail, btw -- the character has implants. Despite her form, she is a type of cyborg (as currently envisioned, at least).

Thumbnails to pics showing same pose at differing angles.

magic taco

The model is looking really nice, Chip. I would be curious to get more info re. Bronco's observations about the pelvic area... we actually redid a model to make the loops more like how you have laid them out, but that was for some specific deformation.

Also, I notice your poly budget is pretty conservative. Depending on what you plan to use this for, you might be able to loosen that up a little, although I'm truly impressed with how good it looks with a such a low count!

Nice work!

chip

thanks, mt. the conservative poly budget (originally 3000-3500) was somewhat arbitrary, loosely based on UT2004's "combat" models, and some earlier figures I made for a small TC mod. I wanted to see how much I could get out of that count. The model is targeted for use in Unreal Engine 2, but not in gameplay, so I could probably boost my budget somewhat now that the essentials are done.

I'm currently remodeling to make it a unit mesh rather than segmented (solves some deformation probs in the extremes of certain poses), and to better treat the hands, which I feels are a bit clunky right now. In all I don't expect to pass 4000 tris, though.

Mark Dygert

It looks great! Can't wait to see an SDK or a texture!

There is one thing that bugs me, and it happens with most models that make it in games so don't feel bad about this...
It always bugs me when people make the knuckles straight across. I am sure some people will argue that hands do that and its perfectly normal, but it bugs me, I don't know why. MOST hands don't have the same lenght bones going from the wrist to the knuckles. Also when people make fists the pinkie finger folds in closer to the wrist.

Its a minor thing that doesn't bother most people and like I said it gets into games all the time so you are in good complany. You don't need to go changing your mesh, rig and UV layout because of my pet peve but it might be worth looking into and remembering in future models...

KDR_11k

I think it has to do with rigging since many games use a single bone for all fingers and having the fingers be different lengths can lead to bad deformation (solution: add a second bone for the pinky, obviously not when you're working with premade anims, though).

chip

you're right, Vig, and I've been revamping the hands and so will pay closer attention to that aspect. as shown, her knucks are not in a completely straight line but they should be more noticeably staggered. It's worth getting right. Thanks for the observation.

***a bit later on***

quicky shot of the revised hands -- much more proportional and elegant and incorporating Vig's recommendation. Should be easier to re-rig, too, specially in the thumb area.



Up to 3648 tris and she now has a tongue for prospective lipsynch closeups (she is intended as a mchinima character in case you missed that on the "working on?" thread). Revisions to the face based on expression tests may be needed but so far I'm pleased with the results at under 4K polys.

Steve Schulze

SO this is going into UT200X, yeah? SOmething that would a nice touch is if you were to make the skeleton model for when she's been toasted with the link gun (or whichever weapon it is that burns off all the flesh.. has been a while since I've played), look like this:

chip

[ QUOTE ]
SO this is going into UT200X, yeah?

[/ QUOTE ] nope. not likely to see UT2KX combat. rather a character for a machinima concept i'm trying to put together, done using UnrealEngine2. also a portfolio piece.

chip

been UVmapping this very curvaceous and hence complex model, but finally got around to some skin painting:

I'm elaborating the character concept somewhat as I go, hence the cicatrice, which will be echoed to some degree in the surface finish of her suit components.

feedback would be appreciated.

Ruz

liking the face texture, v nice

chip

farther along:


will be doing the rest of the anatomy & cicatrice designs after rendering the suit more, trying to keep all the finishes in balance. comments, etc. always welcome.

moose

love it. keep going!

only comment is that the underside of her neck may be a little too dark. it looks great painted at 100% illum, but i think it could stand to be lightened down a bit. the colors are rockin!

chip

[ QUOTE ]
only comment is that the underside of her neck may be a little too dark.

[/ QUOTE ]yeah, I'll likely have to balance out the tones and colors a lot as I go along. i'm finding it too easy to get bogged in details so I have to force myself to step back and look at the model as a whole.

the "self-shadowing" will be painted, around the shoulders under the headgear and all, so it will be a lot darker in that area eventually. right now the contrast is pretty severe but that should lessen as it all develops.

thanks for lookin' in!