WIP second creature
polycounter lvl 17
Hey all,
Started working on my second demo reel character. A more humanoid creature this time. It's an octosapien, half human half octopus. Still working on the geometry, want to have this creature done and colored in a month. Let me know what you think.
Update: Painting the textures
Concept drawing:
Older versions:
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octo_color1.jpg
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octo2.jpg
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octo2_wire.jpg
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octosapien_bind.jpg
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octosapien_bind_wire.jpg
Started working on my second demo reel character. A more humanoid creature this time. It's an octosapien, half human half octopus. Still working on the geometry, want to have this creature done and colored in a month. Let me know what you think.
Update: Painting the textures
Concept drawing:
Older versions:
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octo_color1.jpg
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octo2.jpg
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octo2_wire.jpg
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octosapien_bind.jpg
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/octosapien_bind_wire.jpg
Replies
and now to the useful (hopefully) part of the reply: the crit. The shoulders look pushed out a bit too far, further than the anatomy/pose should allow. Seems like maybe the pecs should wrap around the sides a bit more before giving way to the non-muscle rib cage "cavity". Like there should be more muscle between the shoulder/arm pit and the chest. Just seems a little stretched, not wrong really, just not fitting well with the rest of the post/anatomy. Maybe I'm the only one that sees it but eh, maybe it'll help.
Either way, great start.
I'd really like to see you push the evolution of the species a bit further than the centaur-esqe he's got going now. The hands and head are good, but the rest needs that extra bit to make the character believable. Perhaps make his arm joints a bit more ambiguous, implying the shift from a tentacle to an arm.
I think you've missed some great opurtunities to have fun with his anatomy; going from a body with a very complex skeletal structure to a body without one of any kind.
Try and get more of the weight in his got to sit lower. I recently did something similar for work and most of the artists noted that having the bulk of the weight spread out evenly gives it a more pregnant look.
The other thing I noticed was the shape of the arms. There's actually a good amount of structure there that gives the arms a lot of shape. I noticed the same thing with the fingers... they're all very straight. Play around with the shapes of the bones and knuckles to make the fingers more interesting. I didn't spend as much time rendering the hands, but there's a lot of cool muscle, bone, vein-y shit that goes on on the surface there.
The bicep is a little strange looking. I get the impression that you're trying to make it look skinny... but I think it ends up looking like it's being pinched instead.
The hand position, in relation to the way the arms are rotated, feels awkward. The arms are rotated in, but his hands are completely flat from the front. Technically that's possible, yeah. But see what happens if you rotate his hands inward to flow along better with the arms.
You could also, if you'd like, try and add more of the stringy muscle-y bits around the neck and maybe integrate the lats more into his ribs by adding the musculature that's sandwiched between the rib bones and lat muscle. Intercostal muscles, I think it's called.
Overall it's pretty cool. I like the arch you have in the back and how the spine is very curved.
I second SouL's comment, very good points here
keep it up mate
But in its own right I absolutely love that head man. So nice.
Junerahe: yes vfs it is. But to be honest, I learn more from students around me then the teachers. Exceptions are there ofcourse.
Sectaurs / Daz, there will be more elements aplied to his body that will make him look more like an ocean creature. I'll be adding big fins on the back of his arms, and gills on his chest that follow the ribs. thanks
Soul: Thanks for taking the time for me buddy. I'll try to apply as much of your points as I can. I agree with most of what you said. The muscles laying on top o fthe ribcage, I think you mean the seratus anterior? That's the only thing I'm not sure of to add right now. He's a skinny guy, and I think it will get really crowded there once the gills are in place.
Vahl / EQ: I haven't learned yet how to make a proper sculpt in ZBrush. We don't get tought in it here at school either, bummer. I'm sure it would save me some time. But I've chosen for this method to show aswell that I can build a proper topology. The heavy mesh adds a lot to the fleshy feeling I think. I'm a big fan of that with anything organic I model. It makes it feel so much less plasticy when there's some subtle varity in the mesh.
About what I said about the big fin / gills on the chest, here's a paintover Hurricane did:
http://student.vfs.com/~3d58jelmer/Octosapien/boskma_play.jpg
No crits, spectacular model. The fact that you have yet to apply bumps makes me want to weep.
BTW if it is already there show me some squidman ass love!
One thing on the pose, consider mirroring the position the arms are in. The position of his right arm doesn't really make much sense, if he's turning around - which it looks like it does - that arm opposites the direction to which it is moving. The left arm however, could be in a position the right one is in as it would serve for slowing down the left side of his body (which is basically what happens relatively to the right side on a turn in that direction) as well as a pivital point. Other than that I also think it'd look better.
Awesome work Jelmer!
i think hed eat dolphins for breakfast and ride sperm whales for fun
I, honestly, don't like his thumbs, but that's just a personal preference.
the fingers on the ends of his octo-arms really ties it together. great work.
Looks super cool, JB!
Painted the head today in ZBrush and build a skin shader in XSI. Here are the first renders (and my first post as a 20 year old, /cry getting old):
"first post as a twenty yr old. cry/getting old"
give me a break dude. hahahahahahahahaha.
happy birthday!
Would love to see the render tree and your sss settings for this sucker;)
I'd like to see his body more of the pale color that his head is... really makes you think he spends his time in the lightless depths.
Caustic lighting from above, more of a bluish hue, and some visibility falloff/depth-cues. Particulate matter & bubbles in the water might help as well. Some sunlight rays coming in from the surface, etc. The model seems great. The texture I feel could use some work.
The membrane between the tentacles seems to be bare more as a result of laziness or being incomplete rather than intentional design. The cranium is also a little sparse design-wise. Its low frequency forms suggest you're emulating the sac-like head of an Octopus, but the high frequency forms & colors are very bland and sorta contradict that.
Anyway, great work! I had to dig a little to give even those crits.
i think it'd definitely be worth spending a little more time on coming up with a really nice environment and lighting setup that accurately depicts an underwater environment (closer to the surface obviously so more light penetrates)... at the moment it just looks a bit out of place and the 3rd render looks weird with the ends of the tentacles/legs appearing to fade in, in the background - doesn't make much sense to me.
What was your reasoning behind the greyscale render?
I do agree that the background doesnt give off enough of underwater feel to it.
Any chance of seeing some of the texture maps?