Neza... WIP
polycounter lvl 17
I originally posted this in Low-Poly characters without seeing the 500 tri limit there =P
I plan on modelling for next-gen, so this feels low poly to me
(less than 2000 quads)
(the wires are 2-sided by accident)
I plan on modelling for next-gen, so this feels low poly to me
(less than 2000 quads)
(the wires are 2-sided by accident)
Replies
Those see-through wire frames are very hard to read. A screen grab (PrintScreen) of the viewport would be better. Also, try not to render on white as it is making everything look darker than it actually is. A mid-grey is usually a good choice.
The poly distribution looks uneven. There are spots you could easily cut down on the poly usage (tail, torso, lower legs). You can take those extra polys and put them into the hands and some of the faked geometry in the texture (tubes on the thighs).
The biggest problem I see with the texture is that you're moving right into the texture overlays stage without building up the underlying form first. The eye sees value before hue or saturation, so try and build up that form before putting the overlays and patterns on it. It looks like you're using the dodge/burn tool to create the dark splotches. Try to use color when painting the form. What I mean is use some blue in shadows and some red/yellow in the highlights (and sometimes the colors are different). If you do this your model will really come to life. Prom explains it better than me, so check out this link: http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
The tubes on the legs (on the inner thigh) are very ambitious. You're trying to fake too much of a change in geometry. The circular things are okay because they wouldn't change the silhouette very much if modeled, but the tubes have a lot of thickness to them and just come off as looking wrong when you try to show it on a flat surface.
The tip of the tail looks weird in the wireframe, but it could just be the wireframe.
The hands could use some extra lovin'. Try to give the knuckles more edge loops so they can deform properly. It looks like youve modeled in four knuckles (per finger). Humans only have three knuckles and seeing how this beast is humanoid Id stick to human anatomy as reference. The thumb doesn't look like a thumb right now. It move much differently than fingers, but you've made it exactly like the fingers.
Looks like there is some stretching occurring on the lower legs (the area between the light grey and the feet). The black lines aren't straight and should be an easy UV fix.
I like the mass this character has, but the concept doesn't seem very fleshed out. This beast creature has mechanical legs, but no other signs of technology or why he has the legs. There's no insight into where this character has come from or what his function is in the world. Is he a science experiment gone on a rampage? Maybe he's some futuristic warrior defending his tribe from incoming enemies? We should be able to get a good read of the character just from looking at him.
Hope you get something out of that jumbled mess of a critique.
And maybe someone should change the Low-Poly thread's name to something like "Low-poly Characters (>500 Tri's)" to make it obvious to those who have an itchy trigger finger.
I probably should have mentioned that he's only got placeholder texture on him and he's only got a load of polys running under his chest to support the edge loops running around the torso.
I'll definitely smooth out the poly placement and put up a printscrn
And I put the poly counter on and did screenshots this time ^^
His legs are all in pieces, so I can model them seperately and assemble them as their own parts. I think this will make it easier to rig and also make it feel more mechanical. More updates to come ^^
Good luck. Check out some of the stuff by the crazy folks here at polycount, or seek out wireframes of published game models- that will give you an idea of what kinds of tricks to do.
* Remove some cuts
* Possibly remove all polys under armor
I was gonna have him put the armor on during one of the animations I was planning for him... but I changed the way it hooks together drastically and the animation would be too chunky now, so I could just remove those unused polys.
Do you have a good source in mind for me to look at for wires?
http://www.bobotheseal.com/
You have tons of optimizing work to do. This model could easily be around 500 polys, 2000 is way to high for this relativly simple model. The siloette Focus your polys in the deformation zones; the elbow, shoulder neck and around the mouth+eyes if you plan on any facial animation.
If you remove the tris in his(?) claws and clean up the poly distribution you could conceivably use this model as a mid-poly base model, which you then would both optimize a lot to create a lowpoly and refine to create the highpoly.
The texture also needs work. Just slapping a max produceal on the upperboy isn't going to be enough. Study Doom 3 and Quake 4 art assets to see how they use diffuse maps, specular maps, normal maps and more to create a more complete and believable model. I would wait with the texture until you have a more polished model, but it's good that you have a basic idea on how the texture will look. I believe that it's essensial when you model.
This all might sound harsh, but it's what you need to hear. I didn't want to accept it myself when I first posted here, so I continiued on my merry way and ended up with a shitty model. I do believe that I have improved now, both in how I take critique and in how I create my models, but you can always get better.
The armor's UV's are layed out and I put a basic stin-looking texture on the ribbon, but that's it.
I'm gonna optimize the crap outta him, then normal map probably. I haven't tried that yet, so we'll see.
Removing tri's in the claws? Those are gonna be solid on the finger and not move at the joints at all... does it still need quadification?
And, of course, I'm thankful for your input you guys. I signed up here in the first place so I'd get more than the "mom putting your work on the fridge" critiques I was getting from other sites.
Personally I would chop out any edgeloop that isnt significantly defining the model, really strip it down, then look again at where the model is looking too blocky and cut back in some polys, but only as many as you need.
lastly its common practice to count in tris, as 'faces' is a pretty wooly count- you have a mix of quads and tris and the actual number of tris isn't apparent.
Thats all technical stuff though, I think the design and proportions are really cool- keep bashing away and you'll have a good model at the end!
edit: I've also been guilty of these things, this latest general character is really forcing me to look again at what optimisation means and so its stuff fresh in my mind. When I think back to a dredd model I made a while ago I really need to go back over it and get it into shape..
What should I do next? I was thinking of working on the legs, but I'm going to assemble them as seperate parts, like my old AutoCAD engineering crap.
I also made a new UI Scheme from scratch this week and it's frickin' sweet ^^
And thanks again for all the input guys! I really saw what you meant when I started chopping up the mesh. There was alot of information there that Didn't require so many vertices.
He may look like he's leaning a bit forward off-balance, but he carries a pole-type weapon that he props himself up on, so it's intentional.
Bout to start unwrapping, and maybe texture the armor till someone comes online to guide me ^^ Thanks!
I'm gonna clean up the UV edges to fix the weird seam in the back, but otherwise it doesn't look to bad for a base (IMHO).
Too hungry to continue, so I'll probably do more Monday. Let me know how the polys of the torso and legs are if you can, I don't want to move any further on that until I get some sort of "approval" ^^ G'nite folks!
Worked mostly on my Unreal Level today, but also got a bunch of Neza stuff done too. That's right kids... no life.
* Unwrapped the body.
* Positioned the legs in his idle pose. Mirrored them over.
Next step is texturing! Yaayyyyy! ^^
* Began texturing today
I'm fleshing out the structure of the legs before I start dirtying them up. They should be as scarred and rusty as the character himself when I'm through with them.
I'm also obviously going to fix the wicked seam around the base of his neck. It isn't visible with the armor on, so it's a low priority fix until I get the legs done.
UPDATE (3/28/2006)
Neza is pretty much finished. His textures need cleaning up and his Rig is basic, but he is fully functional animated. I plan on working on his textures more to add more contrast and then I may add some IK Chains to the ribbons hanging from his armor. I might do that all tonight, or I might just procrastinate and start working on assets for my next project, which you all will see posted here soon enough.