Character - Inventor - WIP

BlackThief

hey guys,

here's something I've been working on a few days now. It's a member of the "Inventor's Guild" in a world inspired by the "Thief" Universe (so it's got a steampunkish touch).

Here's the concept drawn by kfmccall (didn't follow it very strictly though)



Highpoly WIP - have to touch up a few areas, especially the front of the trousers, which is still quite rough atm.



I know the folds on the back of the shirt don't look quite right, but I want to mirror most of the character to safe UV space and mirrored horizontal folds looked even more strange...



Would love to get some comments and crits before I carry on with this!

BlackThief

well not much feedback yet - anyway here's an update - touched up the trousers quite a bit and added the head I sculpted perviously (neck is missing^^)

Japhir

i like it! i would folow the concept more precisely.. it looks great and i think that jacket/coat is looking better than the one you are having right now. (this is more like a carpenter)
if you don't intend to do this, i would at least make the gloves as big as the concept, that makes it look much cooler!
keep it up!

stoofoo

Hey friend! It's a nice start but there are a lot of things that you need to work out still. None of your cloth really represents any material. I know that tedxtures go a long way, but all cloth folds differently. Leather doesnt wrinkle like silk. Currently, the folds you've made in mudbox do not represent anything i would have associated that areas with. Start doing some flattening and pinching and making the folds interact a bit beter. The belt should be disrupting everything more even if it is loosely placed. Shit is heavy, yo. work that in.

You really need to refine your work more in sculpting than a lot of people realize when they start out. Really work the shapes you make til they fit together. This is really important in getting passed the putty stage. It looks like you mostly get it, you still need to spend more time.

Lastly, it's something of a foul to use someone's concept and not really follow it. I'm sure your friend said "oh yeah, do whatever!" but you really should try to stick to it. If you showed me the concept you have there and the model in your folio when you were applying to work at my company, I'd definitely note it. If you are gonna freeform shit, draw it yourself so at least you can say you made all the decisions and did not cherry pick through someone else's for "good ones."

notman

I agree with Japhir. He stated exactly what I was thinking. The apron looks like it belongs to a carpenter rather than an a lab coat, like the concept. The other issue I have is the concept looks like a chemist rather than an inventor... not that they can't be the same really. I'm not sure which direction you're trying to go.

BlackThief

thank you all for your feedback, really appreciate that!

regarding the concept: I had 4 concepts made by two different concept artists of the team and as stoofoo wrote I was like cherry picking parts from different concepts together and it seems it didn't work that well. I liked the first concept posted on top of the thread most, however I was afraid that a long lab coat under the apron would look quite boring from behind, that's why I decided to give him just a shirt. I also wanted him to look less like a chemist, more engineerlike, so I incorporated parts from a concept by the 2nd concept artist


regarding the folds - I totally see your point. I had some real difficulties at the beginning doing folds in mudbox and I guess some parts, like the back of the shirt look quite weak. As I wrote before my main problem there was, that the back is mirrored and therefore I somehow couldn't get any horizontal folds look right. But I'll look into that again!

BlackThief

here's a small update of the back of the shirt - what do you think? any better?

BlackThief

so here's the lowpoly model. it's 3500 tris, a little more than I originally planned, but still within the budget. btw changed the apron a bit, so that it's more like on the concept.

not sure if the topology is optimal for animation, as I haven't really done any animated character yet:

Ged

good low poly, I just finished the low poly and normal map on my character...anyone who completes a character like this should automatically get an award I reckon ! haha.

are u gonna uvmap and normal map each piece of him seperately (body,apron, tools etc)?

BlackThief

thanks for the encouragement Ged! finished uvmapping last night, now I'm blocking out a basic coulour-scheme for him: