Devoid: Thanks for the vote of confidence! Absolutely right on the fingers. I should have at least put in enough polys to rig them, but I don't know what I was thinking. I plan to bring up the quality of the hands next.
Turned out real nice. Some nit-picks, though. His bare arm stands out as being plain... he needs something on it, in my opinion. Tattoo, moles, eyeball, something. Maybe the polycount symbol branded into his skin?
Not really sure whats going on with the texture on the knee-pads. I assume the paint has been scraped off around the edges, but it seems like it got the short end of the pixel stick when it came to laying out your uvs. The underlying metal is basically black and white, with a black outline.
If you address those two things, I think you could have a stellar piece, especially for your first of its kind.
oh yeah, I'd like to see what the cape looks like. Is it just unrelieved black?
Steady, Caseyjones: Thanks guys! I think I am going to take another week with modeling extra stuff, improving the map before I rig him.
Sectaurs: The cape has some dirtmap and aqua color variation but I plan to add blood stains and scorch marks. I'll post an image up tonight after I get a chance to work on it. The knees have way too little UV. The color map for the metal is a medium gray, but the spec is hitting it especially hard in that shot. I think I have no other recourse than to scale up the UVs in in that area and rework the maps a bit to get it to work, but I am going to wait until I get some other areas of the texture map nailed down first. In the concept I had a bunch of scars on his arm, that I was going to add later, but I like the idea of an Aushwits style arm tatoo. I big part of this character is that he is the product of the countless wars he has been in and that would be a cool way to show it.
Rick: I am going to go in and and those buckles for the thiegh pads, but I just haven't had the chance yet.
i also noticed it's quite funny on the thumbnail page, the formatting makes your entry read as "The Man Who Can't Be Killed By Ninjas" ... unfortunately I don't think CGChat have any ninjas in their armies, so this guy can be killed
it's been great watching you push your abilities on this one, Ninjas--and i know you're not done yet more detailing on the cloak is going to be a must of course, but otherwise i have no comment other than to hope you continue to polish this up.. by the time the deadline hits this will definitely be one of the strongest contenders. good work.
awesome, the only thing that distracts me is the fingers that have been mentioned before, I reckon you could chop a few loops out the forehead without too much grief and shape up them digits, but I've really enjoyed the progression man . That last shot would be an awesome action pose if his arms and legs were in a leaping pose and his head faced the camera!
Thanks guys, it made my day to read your comments! Rooster, both me and my wife love your concept! It is really exciting to see the amazing quality work everyone is doing.
I think I'll have a pretty major update tonight. I fixed the hands and kness, but still have some small details to take care of on the maps for them.
Thanks again everyone for all the awesome comments. They are helping out a lot!
High poly belt and scabbard. Low poly gun. I'm right up against 5k polys with still the sword to do the low poly version of. This is with the new hands and somewhat corrected UV.
Well, I had been trimming polys as a went along, so before I did the hands, the character was down to 4100 tri's. I took a couple verticle edges off his forehead and a couple from his right arm. At this point I really don't want to re-do any normal maps, so I had to be pretty careful.
Yeah, I'll post a closeup of the arm later. He has "lazer scars" which are more or less terrible pinpoint burn wounds.
yep, nice looking, just give him a cool base and a defiant pose and we're sorted
also i'd highly suggest shrinking his head a little, even if you did already it still seems too big to me, makes him look kinda weak with that proportion.
the hands are to flat, i know that they are suppose to be in that position, but the thumb generaly isnt attached sidely with the palm, it lowers ( ok, i cant explain in english, look at your own hand lol ) the skin tones that you painted are a tad artificial, but i guess thats what you are aiming for.
FINISH !
Mop: Thanks again. I had shrunk the head, but shrinking it even more made it look better.
Rooster: Yeah. I'm rigging it now. It shouldn't take too long!
Notman and Johny: Actually, these hands are modeled straight from some isometric photos. It is true that the hands are in a weird position, but once they are rigged I think they will look much more natural. I'll let you guys decide for yourself once the posed shots are done.
You're almost done! Pretty impressive. I think the pose is somewhat uninteresting though. I would have the gun arm fully extended. Then maybe bring out the legs more and have him crouch just a little? Just some thoughts for more of an 'action pose'
He looks great, but what Overflow said. Needs action pose--something that elaborates an even more interesting silhouette, not closing in his basic one. and the cape is a total freebie for dynamic action-y stuff, so don't hold back! other than that he's really looking pretty sharp, good work. been great watching you develop him.
I didn't notice it in the renders but the pose made everything more obvious, the head is still way too big, chest may be to low aswell, and as overflow said, it definitely needs a better pose, though I like the floating cape, but this pose makes him look like he won't be able to move anymore, because of the thigh pads and stuff...nitpicking tho, nice entry man
Yeah, I know. What is up with that head? I swear it looks tiny in the non-perspective views and I was keeping to the "3 head widths" rule with the shoulders. I think I will scale it down one more time.
I had been playing around with the rig and different poses, but the comments about an action pose really got me thinking. I have a couple of ideas I want to try, but I am trying to finish up a project that is due tonight. I'll be back on this in the next few days though. Thanks for the comments everyone!
I like how your earlier render showed off the face and chest better. If you adjust the lighting so its not so dark there, I think you'll be fine. A little extra texturing on the fabric and a post-apoc base and you're set.
ok ninja's to bust your balls here... his colours are very neutral - they are brown with shades of blue and green.
I think if you try to introduce an alternative colour scheme you could push the texture further.
Use contrasting opposite colours on the colour wheel, experiement with more saturated colours ! (of course save your current stuff first )
Its glaringly obviously that the cape lacks any real - texture - is it fabric? get a photo of a suitable texture sample, scale it and sample it over your texture - maybe even make a bump with it or use the nvidia filter to add it to your normal map.
I'd also suggest your do the same to the other materials on the character - if they are metal, use an overlay to help suggest that in the diffuse.
all your spec highlights seem very desaturated.. try giving your metal a more saturated highlight, theres a good suggestion on how to paint a spec map in the 2d forum.. look for a post by tinman
hope that helps, it already looks good but I think you can push it further
Rick: I'm working on a new base now. It isn't "over the top" but it is much cooler I think. I am going to add some debris to bring it together.
Aesir, Spacemonkey: Thanks guys. I started working on the texture pretty early on in the comp, and now that I see how awesome everyone's stuff is coming along it has become more and more obvious I need to take it to a higher level. Thanks for the specifics Spacemonkey! I'll see if I can put them to some good use.
Notman: Yes, it IS Pauly Shore. Our generals are supposed to be evil, right?
I'll try to find the time to work on this tonight. Man, I have a busy day- good thing it's Friday!
Man, I have gotten to the point where I can't really "see" my model any more. A total loss of objectivity. I added a bunch more dirt to the texture, cloth and leather texture overlays, and more color. redid the lights and adjusted the pose slightly. Let me know what you guys think! I may add a couple pices of debris to the base.
On a side note, the base may look a little crappy, but it is completely procedural so it should be easy to send to anyone who wants to use it.
New colors really do wonders for it, in my opinion. More glowly bits to match his sword might look nice on his armor, glowly bits = futuristic. Base is nice and simple.
alright. Overlays are better. Right now though, I think your spec map needs some work. The sense of the materials that Im getting from each material is all off.
His shirt sleeve is way too shiny for cloth, a lot of the metal not shiny enough. Face might also need some more specularity
Another problem I have with the face is that the texture looks too muddy. Try adding more blue in the shadows and red in the light.
thanks everybody for the help! It has been awesome. I've tweaking the spec, and face texture -- but I'm running low on time. I'm going out of town Monday, and I have work to do tomorrow. Long story short, this is probably pretty final. I may go and tweak the gun textures if I find the time.
I just noticed I somehow screwed up the base in my final render of the winning pose. That was lack of attention to detail when it really counted. I was a bit rushed at the very end but still, that is a pretty lame excuse. I had this more or less done way early.
I wanted to thank everybody who posted in my thread. I got more out of this comp than I expected. I learned a lot. Next time out I will do my high poly first. I really have a lot more respect for everybody here in the community, seeing as so many folks put in such effort and improved. The result was such outstanding work. It was great to see exactly how much better other folks could do than me with the same resources.
I think next time I will be able to do much better in less time, but then that is the point of learning! Thanks again everybody. It was a great experience.
Replies
Here is after trying to sharpen up the texture:
-caseyjones
Not really sure whats going on with the texture on the knee-pads. I assume the paint has been scraped off around the edges, but it seems like it got the short end of the pixel stick when it came to laying out your uvs. The underlying metal is basically black and white, with a black outline.
If you address those two things, I think you could have a stellar piece, especially for your first of its kind.
oh yeah, I'd like to see what the cape looks like. Is it just unrelieved black?
Sectaurs: The cape has some dirtmap and aqua color variation but I plan to add blood stains and scorch marks. I'll post an image up tonight after I get a chance to work on it. The knees have way too little UV. The color map for the metal is a medium gray, but the spec is hitting it especially hard in that shot. I think I have no other recourse than to scale up the UVs in in that area and rework the maps a bit to get it to work, but I am going to wait until I get some other areas of the texture map nailed down first. In the concept I had a bunch of scars on his arm, that I was going to add later, but I like the idea of an Aushwits style arm tatoo. I big part of this character is that he is the product of the countless wars he has been in and that would be a cool way to show it.
Rick: I am going to go in and and those buckles for the thiegh pads, but I just haven't had the chance yet.
Thanks for the comments guys!
i also noticed it's quite funny on the thumbnail page, the formatting makes your entry read as "The Man Who Can't Be Killed By Ninjas" ... unfortunately I don't think CGChat have any ninjas in their armies, so this guy can be killed
Here is another shot of the cloak
I think I'll have a pretty major update tonight. I fixed the hands and kness, but still have some small details to take care of on the maps for them.
Thanks again everyone for all the awesome comments. They are helping out a lot!
High poly belt and scabbard. Low poly gun. I'm right up against 5k polys with still the sword to do the low poly version of. This is with the new hands and somewhat corrected UV.
scab/boils on the arm are gross. I love it!
Yeah, I'll post a closeup of the arm later. He has "lazer scars" which are more or less terrible pinpoint burn wounds.
5K poly's (exactly) normal mapped. Normals maps need touch-up.
I really feel like I am on the home stretch now. No more modeling!
so jealous your almost done
also i'd highly suggest shrinking his head a little, even if you did already it still seems too big to me, makes him look kinda weak with that proportion.
FINISH !
Rooster: Yeah. I'm rigging it now. It shouldn't take too long!
Notman and Johny: Actually, these hands are modeled straight from some isometric photos. It is true that the hands are in a weird position, but once they are rigged I think they will look much more natural. I'll let you guys decide for yourself once the posed shots are done.
Thanks everybody for the crits and comments!
Mov (3.5 mb)
I had been playing around with the rig and different poses, but the comments about an action pose really got me thinking. I have a couple of ideas I want to try, but I am trying to finish up a project that is due tonight. I'll be back on this in the next few days though. Thanks for the comments everyone!
I'm liking this pose:
and hes falling off his base..
I think if you try to introduce an alternative colour scheme you could push the texture further.
Use contrasting opposite colours on the colour wheel, experiement with more saturated colours ! (of course save your current stuff first
Its glaringly obviously that the cape lacks any real - texture - is it fabric? get a photo of a suitable texture sample, scale it and sample it over your texture - maybe even make a bump with it or use the nvidia filter to add it to your normal map.
I'd also suggest your do the same to the other materials on the character - if they are metal, use an overlay to help suggest that in the diffuse.
all your spec highlights seem very desaturated.. try giving your metal a more saturated highlight, theres a good suggestion on how to paint a spec map in the 2d forum.. look for a post by tinman
hope that helps, it already looks good but I think you can push it further
Rick: I'm working on a new base now. It isn't "over the top" but it is much cooler I think. I am going to add some debris to bring it together.
Aesir, Spacemonkey: Thanks guys. I started working on the texture pretty early on in the comp, and now that I see how awesome everyone's stuff is coming along it has become more and more obvious I need to take it to a higher level. Thanks for the specifics Spacemonkey! I'll see if I can put them to some good use.
Notman: Yes, it IS Pauly Shore. Our generals are supposed to be evil, right?
I'll try to find the time to work on this tonight. Man, I have a busy day- good thing it's Friday!
On a side note, the base may look a little crappy, but it is completely procedural so it should be easy to send to anyone who wants to use it.
His shirt sleeve is way too shiny for cloth, a lot of the metal not shiny enough. Face might also need some more specularity
Another problem I have with the face is that the texture looks too muddy. Try adding more blue in the shadows and red in the light.
Keep it up!
I wanted to thank everybody who posted in my thread. I got more out of this comp than I expected. I learned a lot. Next time out I will do my high poly first. I really have a lot more respect for everybody here in the community, seeing as so many folks put in such effort and improved. The result was such outstanding work. It was great to see exactly how much better other folks could do than me with the same resources.
I think next time I will be able to do much better in less time, but then that is the point of learning! Thanks again everybody. It was a great experience.