Shaolin Monk(ish) character

Mongrelman

Hi, this is a character I'm working on for a university project. I'm going for a sort of realistic/stylish meld, which is why I've gone for more muscle definition.

I'm new to XSI so this has been good for getting me used to the hotkeys and workflow so far. I'd appreciate any comments/constructive crits

Now if only I could find that damn fastskin shader and get it to work in XSI...

Rhinokey

looking really good so far

pogonip

That's some good anatomy and over-all it looks top notch so far keep up the good work .

MoP

Looks pretty good so far.

My main crits at the moment are the upper arms are way too short, the forearms are probably a bit short too, and the muscles running diagonally down the pecs towards the armpit are positioned very weirdly, they should taper more, and end closer to the front of the armpit, at the moment they're going far too low.

Also something to consider is that if this is a Shaolin monk, is he going to be of oriental origin? If so, you need to re-work the nose area, that's a very caucasian nose there, and in general the bone structure of the head is giving a very caucasian appearance - is he meant to be oriental or asian or what?

Looks like good modelling so far apart from those points, keep it up.

adam

Thats the strongest monk I've ever seen!

cholden

To follow-up what MoP said about the lines in the pecs:
http://blog2.fc2.com/t/tkrock/file/br.jpg

ElysiumGX

Fix the size of the arms, and he'll be fine. For a monk, he sure spends plenty of time at the gym.

MoP

cholden: that link doesn't work?

Try this, it illustrates pretty well what's happening with the muscles at the front: http://www.easygym.com/muscles/epaule-grand-pectoral.jpg

Mongrelman

Thanks for the comments.

I lengthened both upper and lower parts of the arms, rebuilt the pectoral and also raised the lower part of it.

I said shaolin monk(ish) as that is the closest thing I could think of to what is in my head hehe, I've still not decided if he is going to be oriental or not. I didn't put too much detail into the face so I could easily change it once I finally decide.

Anyway, update:

adam

When his arms are rested completely the elbows should line up with the belly button. Otherwise, looks ace.

JKMakowka

Not smoothed wireframes? Thx.

MoP

AdamBrome: Looked in a mirror recently? Elbows do not line up with the belly button when the arms are fully relaxed. Unless you have oddly long arms and a really high navel, I think you'll find that the elbow joint is actually located a good few inches above the navel.
Loomis often draws the male form with the navel at the same height as the elbow, but it is in no way a "reference" point since navel height varies quite a lot depending on torso size from person to person. It'd be better to say that the fingertips fall approximately halfway down the thigh, and remember that the forearm is a little longer than the upper arm, and use those ratios to get the length of the arm.
It's also worth noting that on females, the belly button is lower in relation to the torso, than it is on the male.

That said, the upper arms are still too short on this model, unless the man is around 5 feet tall, in which case they're probably close to ok. It'll be easier to judge when he has legs and hips, but I'd definitely lengthen those upper arms more. Are you using any specific reference? If so, can we see it?

Nice work so far Lupus - it's looking good volume-wise, and the pecs are much better now, I'm assuming the mesh is good since it seems to be smoothing well (although wires are always good for crits ) just keep on working on those proportions.

Mongrelman

I don't really have one particular reference, I've just been looking at various pictures (mainly body builders) and approximating them. I'll lengthen the upper arms more.

Anyone know how to do a decent wireframe render in XSI? I've followed a tutorial for the toon shader to do a wireframe but that didnt' work, and the viewport capture of the wireframe means you can see through the model (and so the wires at the back) which is a bit messy to look at.

EDIT: Ah, figured out something. Not perfect but hopefully good enough....and just realised I did this before lengthening the upper arms <smacks head>.

Not smoothed:



Smoothed:

Wells

Model looks good, if a little too 'sculpted' for my tastes.

Mop: I had thought my elbows lined up with my belly button, and sitting down, they do. But I just went and stood in the mirror, and lo and behold, you're right. Actually a few inches higher. I learned something today!

Mongrelman

Ok, I extended the upper arms again. They seem to be about the right length now (I think) as they matched up closely to various reference pictures I compared them too. I also narrowed the shoulders a bit and extended the deltoids slightly further down the arm.

Entity

Nice looking model Lupus, and good luck with XSI

EmAr

Looks cool, I dig the arms. But there's something wrong in the wrist area. The hands should have more curvature I think. I mean the palm curves mentioned here. And in XSI there's a panel titled "Aliasing" in render options, if you didn't know already. You may turn "Min Level" up a bit to get rid of the "big" pixels you have in your renders.

Robert Headley

Shaolin Monk = Own

Cool Lupus.

Mongrelman

Thanks all.

Good call on the hands EmAr, something had been bugging me about them and you spotted it

Anyway, I've done more tweaks, curved the hands and started working on the trousers. I just realised when I rendered that I need to fix the ulna at the base of the hand (gah).

PfhorRunner

Wow, just wow...
For some reason, and in no way am I capable of modelling such great work myself, but for some reason The palm of the hand seems to bug me a bit- maybe my muscle is just big or something. But it just seems to be too flat for some reason. Just looks like his hand could use some beefing up a bit.

Edit: Oop, guess it's been said (stupid me)

Still really like it though!

P.S. I have a torso like that, but the face of a horribly mutilated wookie...

Slash

The torso needs to be longer, and the arms are still too short.

Mongrelman

I fleshed out the palm slightly, lengthened the arms a touch and shaped the face into something more oriental (finally decided on what kind of face I wanted).

Entity

sup lupus, how bout experimenting with the neck length? Have you tried making it longer?..or maybe the head could be a bit smaller.

good work

Mongrelman

Hey Entity

I did some fiddling.......with the head I mean...err of the monk...face...

<ahem> anyway, I shrank the head slightly And have nearly finished the feet now.

MoP

Nice to see him progressing! Turning out nice so far, although he's looking a little on the dwarfy side - I think it's a combination of the head being a little too big, and the legs being too short... mainly just the head though. Might wanna try reducing the head size (and neck width, but keep the neck the same height), and see how that works out.

Ruz

ther is soemthgn odd aboutt the way the hands meet the wrist. its like he has no wrist, just forearms and hands

Mongrelman

I lengthened the legs a touch, the body a bit more and shrank the head. To be honest I think it looked better when the head was a bit larger, but I'll see what you guys think

@Ruz- maybe that could be because the hands are aligned with the forearm and not bent inwards? It's seems ok when I look at it in the program (exept for the bone I mentioned earlier). I'll faf around more with it anyway.

Excuse the crappy basic materials, I'm also still working on the sash (and will make it more wrinkly).

Soccerman18

I think the legs still look pretty stumpy.

Steakhouse

either that or his arms and head are huge.

Cubik

Try to add 1 head-length extra to the body, I think that this should give it somewhat more balanced proportions.

charger

Hope you dont mind that I did a paintover (I think the arms got a bit big because I scalled to whole body). Good work so far and a lot of improvement on the face, keep it up!!

Mongrelman

Thanks, I found a pic on my comp I've had for awhile (but apparently forgot about) so I used that and the paintover (thanks ) and am at this point now:


Keep in mind that his arms are actually bending forwards too, so they will reach further down than if the arms were just hanging down the sides in their current shape.

Joao Sapiro

the only thing i would fix appart of some other minor adjustments would be the mouth crease... looks very good thou

Makkon

Looks very realistic. I'd be quite proud if I had done this. Add it to your portfolio and get a job if you havn't already.

Ryno

Knees a bit higher. Pelvis is too tall.

There is a definite hint of his thigh musculature, but none of his calves. You need big calves to do acrobatic monk-fu!

Looking good!