Hoplite

ElysiumGX

Here is a project I've been working on just for fun the past 4 days. It's designed from a Red-Eyed Tree Frog and a Greek Hoplite. Hop...geddit? Ah, nm. It's a concept of my own, which I haven't done in a while. The original mesh is over a year old (only spent a day on that), but I brought it into XSI, reworked most of the edges and shapes, and went from there. I don't have time for a proper rig, or render. These are 100% self-illumated with a sprite node.



I wasn't giving myself any polycount limitations, but the frog is 3038 triangles.
The shield 192, and the spear 46.

I'd like to try some animations after the weekend.
I'll be out of town tomorrow, so thanks in advance for any comments. More when I return.

MoP

Prepare for a combined Tully & MoP critique... pow!

For starters, we like this. It's a cute idea and the mesh is nicely built. Good use of texture space too.

It would have been cooler, possibly, if you'd really pushed the proportions and exaggerated it so it looked more like a frog in a suit of armour, rather than a man in a frog suit - something like this, maybe?

As for the texture, it's generally nicely detailed and clean, but lacking consistency. You have bumpy texture in some areas (flesh mainly), then flat colour elsewhere (cloth and metal) ... the latter really needs some overlay or more detail to blend it better with the more textured areas.
Also something to bear in mind is that you should try to unify the overall colour scheme by picking colours from each area of the texture and integrating them subtly with other areas - the flesh and eyes are reflective surfaces, so the orange from the eyes would impact on the skin, and the green skin would show up around the edges of the eyes. Likewise the red cloth would reflect red light onto the underside of the jaw, and the same rules apply for other areas. Reflective surfaces follow this principle noticably, but matte ones will too, if less obviously.

Also, it's worth noting that Greek Hoplites wore bronze armour, so you might wanna consider that, as the colour of the bronze would probably work better with the rest of the colour scheme.

Keep it up!

CMB

The blue hitler stash rins the face.
Fix that and give the face some specularity and deeper shadows and it'll be perfect.

Maybe you could make two variations,one like this and another with bronze.
For a finsihing touch,give the spear some realism and give the whole thing some more shading.

cholden

I agree with MoP. I'd like to see more of a frog in armor than a guy in a frog suit. As it is, kinda looks like the Geico Gecko. Good work though, would love to see more cartoony exaggeration.

Mark Dygert

I really like it!

I have to disagree about it needing to look more frog-ish. Even the frogman in MoP's example, is a frogman who just happens to be posed more like a frog than a man. I think depend on how you do the animation(s) will deterine if it is too man-ish or not. He might be easily confused with a gecko if you have him stand too upright?

I do think the texture is a bit too bright and lacks a unifed color pallet like MoP suggested. Maybe not copy the hoplite armor color scheme so closely but change it up to fit more in line with the frog. That way he looks less like a frog who happens to be dressed like a hoplite and more like something from a race of frogs that happens to barrow elements from the greek.

I really like! Great work!

JKMakowka

It has been said already, but he really looks more like a gekko than a frog. It seems to be the head with is giving that impression, so maybe makeing it more froglike would work.

ElysiumGX

Great suggestions. I know I deviated away from Hoplite uniform by leaving out the bronze, especially the helmet and shit guards. My first attemtp had bronze chest and back armour, but I didn't like the way it looked (they way i tried to paint it). I found reference without bronze torso armour. I realize the clothing doesn't seem consistent with the body. I'm still trying to improve in the texturing department.

He does look more like a gecko, probably from the fact that he's standing, and has a neck. I think it's also the size of the eyes, which should be much larger. Oh well, he's cute. I didn't get to blending the nearby colors. The "hitler stash" is a marking tree frogs have, but I could probably do without. I agree the spear could use more detal. It's a fun character, and I'm learning from it.

Thanks guys...and gal.

Lee3dee

Lee's turn.....

He looks like a frog/gekko maybe the species mated and he was the leftovers.

I really like the character design, I disagree with the frog armor because the character looks like a creature you would find in say WoW, or another fantasy based RPG. I'm not digging the bright colored skin, but then it would depend on what game/engine he was designed for.

It lacks some shading in some areas, but overall I really like it. Remove the sword, add a rockect launcher and he's ready for UT . So this is what you were hiding yesterday from me, I'm glad you waited until it was finished

Zergxes

Frog cartoons tend to be barrel-bodied- that would help it stand apart from a gekko. You could accentuate its... frogness if you gave it a more hunched stance. The tree frog color scheme is unmistakable though.

Hop light. Nice.

How about crossed fried frog legs as an insignia? Muppet movie...

poopinmymouth

It was briefly touched apon before, but the immediate thing I notice is the contrast, or more accurately, the lack thereof. Desaturate the whole texture and view it in photoshop either from a distance, or with your eyes squinted. You'll notice the value range is very shallow. I love bright colors as much as the next guy, but I think you're hurting the end result, design and hue choices aside, by not getting a good value range.

I'd suggest doing a little levels adjustments coupled with some new painting with darker colors in a few areas, to really pump up the value range.

Good to see you posting more art man, keep at it.