Dominance War II - JFletcher
polycounter lvl 13
Hello all,
Long time lurker, first post. i thought the competition would be a good time to poke my head up (despite how late i am)
Ive seen some amazing inspiration here and i hope to learn more from some of your work
I'm not much of a concept artist, or very "good" at sketching, so i apologize for the crappy concept in comparison to most other peoples
none the less i need one so i gave it a go
you'll see that he's missing his lower legs, i thought that i would experiment with a variety whilst modeling, i can never seem to get it right on paper
As for the model, Ive scrapped a lot of the concept but still keeping my original idea, its still very w.i.p. and needs some optimization, but id like to know what you think so far
i'm hoping when its rigged it'll look a little more 'stressed' like in the concept
more updates soon!
-Jon
Long time lurker, first post. i thought the competition would be a good time to poke my head up (despite how late i am)
Ive seen some amazing inspiration here and i hope to learn more from some of your work I'm not much of a concept artist, or very "good" at sketching, so i apologize for the crappy concept in comparison to most other peoples
none the less i need one so i gave it a goyou'll see that he's missing his lower legs, i thought that i would experiment with a variety whilst modeling, i can never seem to get it right on paper
As for the model, Ive scrapped a lot of the concept but still keeping my original idea, its still very w.i.p. and needs some optimization, but id like to know what you think so far
i'm hoping when its rigged it'll look a little more 'stressed' like in the concept
more updates soon!
-Jon
Replies
I really like the shoulder armour more on the concept than what you've got on the model. It seems to the match the legs more. The shoulder piece on the model is really thin in comparison to the chunkiness of the legs. Keep at it dude.
-caseyjones
well anyway, ive still kept some of the body, but im going for a very dark spiky skullish armour design, mostly cold black metal with some small mechanics, heres my progress, i like it better faceted for now:
concept is only a basic drawing, i'll have to spruce it up.
Ive added a cloak for half the body and cant decide whether to take away the armour on the right shoulder, as it seems to make the upper body too beefy for a cloaked (ish) assassin
which way would you go?
most of the exposed body will have tribal patterns tattooed/scarred into the skin
i will start the high res of the head soon
anyway, heres some dull preogress on the high poly head...
might paint the rest in in photoshop, such as vents etc.
well anyway, i guess this will have to do as my concept, a bit blurry
very early texturing + normal map (no specular, besides using the diffuse temporarily)
im going to glove the right hand aswell, extending up the wrist. the main cloak is very early and im finishing the normals for it now.
Looking pretty good so far, reminds me of the strog from q4.
like the texes so far
haha, me too
...well this is, i on the other hand am dying slowly, been really pushed away from the computer in the past couple days due to a fever/cold/very annoying headache
anyway, not the most massive progress, but Ive pretty much nearly finished the left arm and moving onwards
does this look too dark on peoples monitors? I'm working on a laptop and the only other 2 lcd's Ive seen it on look a bit too dark.
i have some neat ideas for the weapon, might show something soon
I think the placement of that cable would impede his functionality... every time he bent his arm it would either slide in and out of his bicep, which seems painful, or bunch up and prevent him from his full range of motion.
He is a little dark, but I can still see whats going on. I think.
I'll get on it straight away, thanks for the crit
I'm aware what some of you may be thinking, that there isn't anything very futuristic about it (besides the mask) but i hope to catch up in that on the rest of the body
going to redo the hands aswell just incase you thought the palm looked weird
like the texture style and how the metal looks
keep it up
kept that perspective, looks more bad-ass, even during w.i.p hehe
I admire the work of texture and the metal is really well returned
Awesome work though. I like the way the textures are pulling this together.
example
not sure how difficult it would be to tweak something like that, but i think its worth trying, cause you got pretty cool character here.
I have a question though. What program did you use to create the head, and how did you make it? Noob here who desperately needs some advice, and you seem to know your stuff. Great work!
-Dread_Reaper
thanks for the tip on the proportions, i lined the arms up down the side of the body and it does look a bit weird, i think im going to extend the legs and chest rather than arms, as the legs look a bit stubby, this will also make the head look a little smaller...im hoping
yeah its normal mapped, all the organic stuff like skin and muscle has been sculpted, but I'll admit, im not the best with hard edges, so i do all that in photoshop, messing with the channels. also, the painted in lighting may make it look a little bit subtle
@ Dread_Reaper
i use 3ds max to model everything, and for the head, i start with a plane w/ symmetry and drag polygons off the edges, i find this easier than starting with a box, as you get to map your own topology...or i just find boxes annoying
there's a great tutorial on head modeling in this fashion somewhere, i cant recall where though, sorry.
OK, last update before i change the proportions.
like i said before, im not sure if im satisfied with the legs, i think there's a bit of stretching going on and things don't really look that functional in places, but I'll wait for your comments, perhaps it just me, but Ive always hated texturing legs, armoured, clothed or bare, i just hate it
getting there!
ignore the backdrop if you want, im just going through some tests for the beauty render when finished
hand is still messy, will finish sometime
and yet randomly, still no sign of a weapon, which might have to be a quick one, though Ive been thinking of some sort of halberd where the blade is made up of knives.
and I like thje backdrop a lot. it's nice and simple.
-caseyjones
ok, this is it for today, theres a few blank spots on the back which i'll finish tommorow, and ofcourse, finish off the palms/hands altogether
oh and i also added some pike type things on the back of the shoulder.
im liking it, but part of me wishes that i should have gone 2048 over 1024...ah well
OK, pretty much finished, except the palm of the hand and the elbow armour on the back, you'll notice its plain gray.
i should have just waited and finished those then posted the pics, i don't know why, haha
ignore the cut off text as before
im really pleased with this character so far, and thanks for all the support and criticism!
yup, ive got anti-aliasing on, catmull-rom, and anisotropic filtering
started the halberd:
nothing's normal mapped yet, just goofing around :P
those planes will be alpha channeled energy field type things, i bet you cant guess which colour :P
speaking of which i may have gone a bit overboard on the blue in this one, i'll switch through the hue on the weapons glow and see if theres anything that fits nicely. i think a volcanic orangey-red would go well with the weapon.
i have given him a claw thing though, which i think fits nicely, so im guessing this is the final product, unless anyone wants to suggest anything:
Ive decided to stay with the pose used in the w.i.p shots for the winning pose, believe me i tried a lot of angles, and it just so happens this is the best, even tweaking the fingers didn't look right, but i still really like it, and am proud of this piece
though for the beauty render I'll be showing a different pose.
good job
i just had a look at this on another monitor (im currently working with 1920x1200 which can sometimes be too big so i don't notice how overly sharp things get on normal resolutions (cant really size it down either, or things go blurry). does anyone else think that image is a bit too sharp? here's a variation without the final sharpen filter on the maps:
edit:
thanks spacemonkey, you could be right, my intentions were to have the face dipped down, looking at the hand (the whole "my hand will crush you, i am god" thing) or staring upwards at his target. the hunch was also kinda to conceal himself, almost like dipping into shadow or being cautious of his surroundings...
but i see what your saying, and thanks for the crit
edit:
actually, im starting to grow on this pose, hmm