planning a model

golden_apple

hello,
its my 3rd thread that week and my 2nd that day ^^
I'd like to know how you start creating a character..
e.g.:
1. drawing him on paper
2. drawing him on paper again, as often as you thing, he should have a better look..
3. giving color
so what are your next steps? any advices?
bye

KDR_11k

Plan what you're going to do with him. Some engines require segmentation or other stuff, if it's for your own game/mod you might want to make certain parts excangeable, etc.

golden_apple

I didn'T meant that..
I was talking plannin a whole character.
First, about collecting ideas and making them look cool for getting motivation to model it in 3D..
Second part, the modeling, not the real problem

Weiser_Cain

There are a lot of was to go about this. Are you an artist? What I do is either keep a sketch pad with me and doodle around and then assemble a character from that or I have an idea for a character and draw the character to match the Idea and setting. there may or may not be need for revisions.
Once you have the character done in 2d it pretty straight forward to get him into 3D, by not necessarily easy.
You should look at the tutorial sticky.
http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=29042&an=0&page=0#29042

golden_apple

I dont want to say I'm an artist.. its so arrogant..
But I've some skills
I just started that thread to get ideas..
I do it just the way you decribed.. I think its poor, how do real game atrists do that????

KDR_11k

They draw out a concept using their imagination and the game design (unless there's a dedicated concept artist and he can produce all the concepts needed). Then they proceed to model it. All pros worth their salt have drawing skills, learning how to draw will aid you in making 3d art.

Rhinokey

saying you are an artist is not arrogant.. saying you are an awesome artist may be.. unless you really are an awesome artist.. but honestly a good bit more people say they are awesome artists than actualy are.

i usualy think about the character first, especialy if i'm making it for something, but even a bit in general just to get an idea what i want, what terrain does he live in, swamp desert, mountains, what kinds of food may he eat. if he's civilized, and then build from there out some roough ideas, maybe like 20 of them per a sheet, for instance if it was a desert dweller, which is semi civilized but lived by scavaging, and eating cactus, i could already picture a rough idea of what i want him tolook like, in this case, a thinkc hide humanoid with slight lizardish look to him, maybe flat teeth, or even no teeth, but scale plates like some lizards have, that makes him able to eath his chose food without harming himself, rugged clothes, with maybe some slight armor made out of scavanged goods, hubcaps, and leather from a abandoned car seat. and perhaps as a walking stick / weapon a old battered road sign "Las Vegas 70 miles" sribble out the roughs along these lines, maybe experimenting with difrent things, then find one i like, and hone it

personaly i rarely show my concepts cause they are usualy only scribbles that can be deciphered by me alone, but thats how i would go about creating a character for something in specific.. if you need nothing specific, just scribble till something looks cool, then hone

Sage

There a lot of ways to do it. I imagine most artist decide the personality,history, race, appearance in short everything that makes the character be a living person/thing. Get reference, sketch out a few versions if needed. Draw the character in a few poses. If you don't do it already it's good habit to learn to draw your characters with proper proportions so they feel and look real. If you are then going to model this in 3d you draw a front, side, back view of the character, make sure all the views align then you go model it, texture it, and animate it. In a company it's rare if one person has to do it all. Usually there is a concept artist and then the senior artist do the rest. This is pretty much what Weiser_Cain said. I learned to draw by doing what comic book artist do. You pose the character, you draw a quick stick figure, block in shapes, then refine it. Take a lot of practice to be any good and if you stop doing it for a few years you get to start over. I see all my models and charcters, stories in my mind before I start, 24 hrs a day. I'm not sure if everyone is like that or not. I have to force myself to get reference at times cause I don't like drawing from pictures. If the model is just somthing in the real world, get as much reference as you can set up orthos and model, texture, animate. Later.

Alex