Gandalf - In need of help
polycounter lvl 18
Hey, my first post here. might aswell introduce
I'm Randy, 16 and dutch.
I recently started doing realisme texturing and i "finished" this texture i was working on today. Gandalf from LOTR, this is my 3rd attempt at a realisme skin.
I downloaded a wizard model from an old model SDK thread, i think neongenesis was the one who made it. Anyways, i'm pretty much a newb at this and since this place is full of skilled people i thought this is the best place to ask for critiques and tips ^_^. so well, here goes..
PS: didn't knew where to post this, so i just posted it here sorry =/
I'm Randy, 16 and dutch.
I recently started doing realisme texturing and i "finished" this texture i was working on today. Gandalf from LOTR, this is my 3rd attempt at a realisme skin.
I downloaded a wizard model from an old model SDK thread, i think neongenesis was the one who made it. Anyways, i'm pretty much a newb at this and since this place is full of skilled people i thought this is the best place to ask for critiques and tips ^_^. so well, here goes..
PS: didn't knew where to post this, so i just posted it here sorry =/
Replies
Maybe the MODs can move this thread to the Pimping & preview board as that is the place for WIP, praises and critique.
First of all pretty good stuff for a 3rd skinning attempt.
Since he has deep wrinkles under his eyes I would add some shadow under his lower eyelids too.
His face looks a bit pale and I think that you should put some color in his face.
His hat hangs quite a bit over his face and this should cast shadow on his face.
His eyes seem odd. I think this is beause it looks like there are 2 highligts in them. Maybe darken the white part next to his pupil/iris a bit so that it doesn't look like a highlight.
Add some darker shadows/detail to his beard to make it less plain. And add a little bit of yellow/brown in it to break it up.
I can barely tell that the hat has is textured. Add some more detail, grooves, dirt and stuff
That helps a lot, i'll get on it right away.
Agreed with what lkraan said, I think he pretty much covered everything I was going to say.
It looks pretty good so far, but it still needs work before it'll be great... however, I think you'll be able to get it there
I'm also wondering why the underside of his hat is lighter than the rest? Surely that'd be dark and in shadow?
MoP
I still need to add more detail to the hat, and add shade from the hat to the face, but im doing that after im 100% sure the face is done ^_^
If you have any critz, please
*cough* I might have overdid the yellow/brown on the beard *cough*
I think the colour of the beard is fine, after all he is smoking a pipe.
Now give it some volume ! E.g. his moustache should be darker underneath and cast a shadow on the mouth.
Overall it looks a bit blurry to me. Take those greyish folds under his eyes, for example: Depending on the resolution they could be sharper and emphasizing the direction of the light. Rather than being blurred brushtrokes they could be shaded in themselves, if you get what I mean.
Keep up the good work !
As others have mentioned, some more texture & detail into the hat will help tons.
Dont be afraid to add alpha to the beard & hair to break up the outline.
Dont shade with black, shade with a darker color from the opposite end of the color spectrum.
And Noren, i think it looks kinda blurry cause i zoomed in too much, i didn't make a big sharp render or anything, i just zoomed in by scrolling with the mouse xD
Scooby, i'ver never alphamapped before. I know how it works with plains, but i have no idea how to make the color i want to be transparant transparant, do i save it as a png or gif or something? i have absolutely no idea, im a newb at this, sorry.
just put that grayscale jpg into your opacity slot in your material editor =]
I almost always use a .tif file with an alpha channel. In photoshop or your image editing software of choice, you view the channels & add a new "alpha" channel.
Usually the white is visible(opaque), black is invisible(transparent).
If your using 3ds max, you can copy your diffuse .tif texture into the opacity slot, and change the RGB & mono outputs to alpha.
Got an update!
- Added more colors to the cheaks, nose and chin
- Put some shade on the upper lip and light on the lower lip
- Put some more detail in the hat - probably overdefined it, im not a fold kinda guy, clothing is something im gonna have to practise a lot
- Added a lil shade to the beard/mustache
* Still need to add shade from the hat on the face.
* Alphamap the beard (optional)
Tell me if i forget anything, or did something wrong ^_^
- I would add a cloth band to the hat, nothing fancy but something to give it more detail. Something like this but without the metal ausie symbol. Maybe model in a few big folds into the hat to help give it that appearance of being a big floppy wrinkled hat?
- Also, I think you might need to clean up the UV seams on the hat, some of the wrinkles don't line up correctly between the front and the side pieces of the hat. I am not sure how the pieces are arranged in the flats but is there some way you can join them along that seam? It would make painting them easier.
- I would squint his eyes a little more, normally when people squint they are concentrating, thinking, pondering. These are things we take into account when we look at a face. Big round eyes normally means innocence or low inelegance. I think your eyes are normal for a normal human but for an older person who might not have such good sight, and who is almost always pondering something, you might want to squint his eyes a bit.
- Also add some skin imperfections like moles, sun spots ect... Maybe a color varriation overlay? Nothing over the top but just enough to break up the smooth leathery look of the big fleshy areas.
- The last thing isn't really about the model but about how you post. Posting wire frames and UV flats helps us give you better feed back. We can only tell so much about a model from full renders. Also asking for "Pro help" is a quick way to get you ignored by the talented people who do not work in the industry. Normally when we refer to the pros it is people doing this type of work professionally. I personally like polycount because there is a mutually level of respect between posters mostly based on skill and personality, regardless of how long the resume is. MoP is an excellent example of this, tons of talent, tons of respect and one hell of a great guy who gives great feedback to just about anyone and everyone. He might be little short in the resume when it comes to shipped titles under his belt. That doesnt make what he has to say any less valuable and it doesn't stop him from posting either. I am pretty sure you wanted the more talented people in the forums to take notice of your work, which is fine. Just be careful not to put people off by appearing to only want to hear from 30%* of the community when the other 70% could offer valid crits also.
*(Actual pro vs hobbyist ratio may vary, its not like we take polls around here )
I'll take your critz into account, thnx man
Human eyes
The iris GENERALLY floats on the lower lid of the eye, and is hidden under the eyelid. The Pupil works the other way round - the top of it floats just under the edge of the eyelid.
If you make eyes it's easy to make them look too open (scared, surpised) or too closed (sleepy).
The pipe.
The pipe isn't going into his mouth. It appears to be piercing his cheek.
It needs to be between his lips, and you need to paint bulges on the lips to infer the pipes mass distorting them
The ears.
The ears look like cartoon ears. So yet again I'll show a picture.
Just look at the shapes, then try to paint them a little closer. A good idea? Copy an ear, paste it over your image, and repaint the lines based on that.