Game Character

M3anBONE_sj_

I just recently completed this character. This character has around 5100 tris and the standard normal, diffuse, specular and bump maps.

I had some problems creating the normal map for this character. When I created the model in Maya, shot it over to Zbrush2 for some detailing, I didn't know the proper settings for Zmapper to get good results. Suggestions would be great if anyone knows some settings I can try out to fix some of the noticable problems present on my model.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Skizot

hmm... i see a few problems with the chest uv's... the face needs to be smoothed out a bit in the normal map ( looks like it's made of rocks) and a brown bump map??

moose

that image is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge!

some stuff:

YOu dont need to use a bump map in addition to a normal map. Take your bump info, grayscale it (color bump? eh?), and use the nvidia filter on it. Select your blue channel on that layer, adjust levels - White values = 127, and set that layer to overlay. You can adjust the opacity of it then to get the desired level of bumps.

Another thing to consider would be to tessellate your low poly process mesh you're using to trace from the high poly, it looks like you are getting some strange banding and low poly aritifacting in the normal.

Diffuse: For the most part, it looks good, but you should watch out for putting too much shading and form details in, as the normal map / lighting should take care of most of that. You can put general details in so that your diffuse accents the normal, but you dont want to over power, or overtake the normal with the diffuse.

specular: play with color in your specular a bit. The armor and fabric should have slight spec to it as well, since it is all black, it will look extremely flat when lit. Metal details should show up 'hotter' than flesh, but flesh would be more hot compared to cotton fabrics, but not more than leather.

It looks like a cool character, you just may want to put some consideration into the texturing being more like film, or high res 3d texturing, with some slight tendencies from the hardcore pixel pushing methods. its a balance between the 3 textures (diffuse, normal, spec) that will really help your model shine.

Asherr

is the bicep/shoulder exposed flesh? it seems it is since you can see the vein running along the bicep. if so the you need to add more color to the skin so it matches the color of the face.

Zergxes

The geometry at the front and back of the shoulder is a little funky. Shoulders are infamous for causing problems with deformation, so you will want some really clean loops there- or your animator will hate you.

Check out how Raven did the Makron: http://www.iddevnet.com/quake4/ArtReference_CreatingModels

the info towards the bottom of that page about specular maps should be helpful. Ditto to what Moose said about the bumpmap.

There is a lot of potential here. Some polish will go a long way.

M3anBONE_sj_

Thanks guys for posting. I'm trying work out the kinks mentioned here. The normal map if anything is giving me the most problems due to finding the correct parameters to work with. As for the low-poly geometry, i've made several corrections around the shoulder area and head. When I finish with these corrections, i'll be sure to post new screenshots of the model later.

Again, thank you everyone for your constructive input.

M3anBONE_sj_

Here's an update of my character. I've tried fixing some of the areas pointed out by those who were kind enough to give their input. For some reason, the shoulder area doesn't smooth out properly; I've deleted and created a new UV mapping for the entire arm but faint lines continue to appear on the shoulder area near the chest. Other areas, such as the head, have been smoothened out to remove the blocky look. The arms were darkened to nearly match the head but still require a little adjustment with the reds and yellows. Otherwise, this model is nearly done.

Thegodzero

Is he wearing a shirt over his arms, because that does not look like skin.

PieXags

I agree, well...it's not so much that it doesn't look like "skin" it just kinda looks like he's wearing someone elses skin as a shirt or something...either way not lookin' too much like his bare arms. Perhaps some blemishes or scars and more color variation to get the point across?

Zergxes

Looks like quite an improvement. New wireframes would be nice to see.

I'd say check out how the old masters painted skin, especially North Renaissance dudes- and bust out the color wheel.

Luck.

M3anBONE_sj_

Okay, here's another update on the progress of this character. I've finished with the skin toning on the arm, adding in shades of reds and yellows missing on the previous screenshots.

I wanted to add in the texture details of the clothing into the normal map within Zbrush 2 but I couldn't find a way of doing so. I've heard that there was a way to use a greyscale version of the texture map to use as a displacement map in Zbrush2, but I haven't found reliable instructions on how to do this. If anyone knows, i'd appreciate the help.

Again, comments and suggestions are welcome.

ultra

Overall i think the clothes texture its very good , but the skin, especially, in the arms has lack of definition, and looking for the model he looks like a man with some muscle, so i think u could correct this and give some forms into the arms. GL

Daz

There's definitely something really odd with the whole shoulder/armpit area there. It feels oddly stretched and wide.

http://www.fotosearch.com/BNS275/skn063/