The next challenge (warhammer 40 k characters)
polycounter lvl 17
ok I have this posted in another forum, but I figure I will be true to my poly count comunity and show my latest works 
Im currently in my last 3 quaters of school, and already having a job working on some casual games, so Im pretty set on just job security and all that jazz right now.
But im pieceing together a demo wheel in the next 1/2 of a year and my close buddy/cousin wants to put together a all scripted tech demo of warhammer 40k. The entire scene of the horus hersey with the emperor, for those of you who are wondering what im talking about a image has been provided for added pleasure
so my goal is to recreate the 4 main characters to this scene, my only downside to this is im not allowed to use any spec,emissive, or normal maps since he is scripting/ animating all this with unreal engine 2.0
So as you can see for a low poly character this is a challenge all of it own,
seein the amount of details that have been pushed off with games such as warhammer 40k dawn of war. I figured that this is in my limits to do. So I figured posting progress here I will get the most honest input from some of the most highest up modelers in this industry/ hobby in general.
So enough talk lemme just get down to what I have so far. This is just some low poly work and Ive just started on the legs, so please all critiques and such are appreciated (also im modeling the dead guy right now)
So heres what I have so far
added bonus, base mesh man im using for now (scheduled to change later)
(ps im basing this around drawings and minatures of this character, so some pieces are a bit different from the drawing above due to limitations with this engine)
Im currently in my last 3 quaters of school, and already having a job working on some casual games, so Im pretty set on just job security and all that jazz right now.
But im pieceing together a demo wheel in the next 1/2 of a year and my close buddy/cousin wants to put together a all scripted tech demo of warhammer 40k. The entire scene of the horus hersey with the emperor, for those of you who are wondering what im talking about a image has been provided for added pleasure
so my goal is to recreate the 4 main characters to this scene, my only downside to this is im not allowed to use any spec,emissive, or normal maps since he is scripting/ animating all this with unreal engine 2.0
So as you can see for a low poly character this is a challenge all of it own,
seein the amount of details that have been pushed off with games such as warhammer 40k dawn of war. I figured that this is in my limits to do. So I figured posting progress here I will get the most honest input from some of the most highest up modelers in this industry/ hobby in general.
So enough talk lemme just get down to what I have so far. This is just some low poly work and Ive just started on the legs, so please all critiques and such are appreciated (also im modeling the dead guy right now)
So heres what I have so far
added bonus, base mesh man im using for now (scheduled to change later)
(ps im basing this around drawings and minatures of this character, so some pieces are a bit different from the drawing above due to limitations with this engine)
Replies
Also if you are using UE2 you can make things self illuminate with its shader system, and you can use cube-map reflection to fake specular. you can use an alpha mask to control shinyness on the specular, so done right and with consistent lighting conditions, you could kinda fake a super shiny nextgen look.
and the low poly looks OK so far, but who's armor is that? it doesn't seem to match any of the characters in that pic.
as far as faking things in the editor, that unfortantely will be handed off to my level designer / animator/scripter/ cousin
Im just trying to fake it as best as I can with what I have right now.
As far as designs theres no real set design of any of these characters and Games workshop has had a few varations of these characters in minatures and alot of fan based releases done by those lovely UK people. So Ive been basing mine off these 3 designs (The photo) and then these 2 minatures
mainly im borrowing designs from these 2 models and altering bits and tidbits to fit the final design for the most part. But if you see any flaws or geometry screw ups or whatever, please let me know!
Sanguinius was a primarch and should be pretty big in build, almost as big as the Emperor, and Horus.
The armour Dante/Sanguinius wear/wore are standard power armour, IE: a suit of ceramite plates with armoured fibre bundles and servos that replicate the wearer's movements and enhances a Space Marine's already superhuman strength, as well as allows them to easily withstand fire that could kill a normal human.
I believe Sanguinius armour was made of adamantium though, rather than ceramics. being made of metal, which is maleable, i would imagine it could be much more figure accentuating than a big slab of concrete :P
as for horus and the emperor, they both wore what is known as Tactical Dreadnaught Armour, or; Terminator Armour. it's huge, bulky slow armour, but it's protetive against just about anything you can think of. however, Horus, and the Emperor, both being Demi-gods, were more than capable of moving lightning fast in the armour.
I have a entire listing of everything Ive ever seen / read of sagan'
I actually have over 20 + images of sang' and his different varations, I have found that the one above is the best design , and believe me I read into how later on the blood angles inherited the armor of sang' and have there now gene seed leader dante wearing it (Atleast according to there latest codex I read 2 years ago?)
Also if I remember reading the tiblets of the story right, horus after trying to tempt sanguinius into joining him to chaos, had a fight with him after which sanguinius lost the fight and died, horus smashed his mighty battle hammer into sang' and smashing his chest and then stabing the open wound in and ultimately killing his brother (all the primarches where brothers im assuming since they where the emperors first creations/sons) I remember reading that later the armor worn by the dead primarch was a chapter relic/ holy icon or whatever, but I would imagine it was redesigned/ rebuilt since horus did do alot of damage to it.
Also Ive seen the above picture you had before but I believe thats a fan remake / skulpt off coolornotminatures.com (forget the site exactly) the design dosent feel as angelic/holy/ awesome as the other 2 designs I have lined up for the emperor and horus and the adept cadet unit that comes and breaks up the fight with the emperor and horus that let the emperor ultimately win the fight before accending to the golden throne.
If you have more reference artwork different from the drawings/minatures above please provide me with more!
(ps- I just read back what I wrote, jesus im a dork, but all I can say is one thing
FOR THE EMPEROR!!!!)
and Horus strangled Sanguinius after smashing him with the hammer.
this, i should note, is all after Sanguinius held the great gate single handedly against a bloodthirster of khorne in single combat haha.
And I thought that minature wasnt the offical one? I really deslike the design , and these are images I gathered from the old 40k rule books and offical artists, It just dosent seem justice to make him look like some weird greek warrior in the future (look at the space sandels hes wearing!)
the other 3 characters I have 100 % accurate sources on so it shouldnt be any issues, off topic, anyone know of any good sites / tutorials that explain the best way to paint metal effects from scratch? I have a idea myself, but to do crazy detailed as I need to seeing some other techinques would be awesome,
anyway I'll have a update to this thread a bit later today once I get some more of the character done
(been cluttered with school and some other things so its the first time ive had to touch this guy since 3 weeks now!)
what do you guys think?
I havent touched unreal in many years and im passing this off to another buddy to do all the in game stuff, so if it supports I can atleast make his armor look good, but to my knoweledge it dosent support it for 2.0?
Its difficult to critique what with their being no wire shots,but the general proportions seem to be fine. The nose is too thin for its falloff, and the ear could use with a little more detail as that seems to mostly just be outlined atm. The ear willgain alot more believability if you just just wrap it in near the front, like such:
The area above the eye line also needs to be stretched higher:
Last up on the face: The brow needs to come out, the eyes to sink slightly, the cheek bones need to come out (it looks as though he lacks them atm), and the loops around the mouth should look less like they are sinking, and more pulled outword and falling of from the cheek bones.
Moving on, the animal skin looks like its glued to his armore, it needs to look more like part of its pinching in under the armor. litter planes around it for when your to make the fur, that should be able to cover up the intersection and help the overall appearance at the same time.
The wings upper arch is overly prominent, and like the animal, should have planes covering it, in this case to create more believable feathers.
The chest armors plates dont look enough like they're overlapping. You could try your luck at fixing it via hard edges smoothing groups, but a bigger help would be to thinken the plates themselfs a bit. The lining near the bottom of the chest plates should also be enlarged, as right now it could easily pass as texture detail.
Well, thats it for now.
http://www.philipsibbering.net/WH40K_Portfolio/Portfolio_Flash/007F-008F_Blood_Angel_Poster.swf
Might be of some use to you.
Also some Space Marine anatomical diagrams by the same artist which should prove helpful.
http://www.philipsibbering.net/WH40KRP/WH40KRP_Concepts_%5BAdeptus_Astartes%5D.htm
damn oh well, well after taking advice from polyhertz and a few other people I know personally online I have revised the model a bit, see what you think with the new version of the wings and hair
Secretly Ive been working on horus for the last week or so, im about 90 % done with him but I wanted to show progress to everyone here, again crits, and complements always welcomed!
(also those heads on his belt are fillers, dont worr)
ok all thats left is his head piping and his mini heads on his belt. What does everyone think so far?
haha
Yea I thought originally my eye where to small ,but I realized he looked buged eyed so I made them abit smaller I will post a update later after I get the head piece into his model and the mini heads, should have the finished model by tonight or tommorrow.
Stuffs looking great - I'm a 40k geek myself although haven't played in 10 years or so
just take some actors mug shots and base your heads off them, will save you a lot of time faffing around with original heads from your imagination.
Quick paintover for Horus.
Quick paintover for Horus.
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If you're going for accuracy, the thighs are about 1/2 a head too short or possibly a little more. Makes him look a little odd.
Original post changed.
I will change up the model when I get to texturing him
but for now
its 4am, do you know where your children are?
texture seems and that weirdness on his back will be fixed a bit later , im just to tired to continue right now @_@
Well heres a current progress for saganuis
tell me what you all think
Im not to happy with the way the hair came out, but the entire model all painted from hand.
What do you guys think, yeh' or ney' ?
Im working on horus next, wish me luck everyone!
Cant wait to see how this turns out, though I was always a tyranid guy 8)
If you select his lips and pull them up towards the nose it'd be a sizable step in the right direction
David Hudnut's version of Sanguinius from the w0k CCG is not a million miles from your version. I always thought it was kind of a weird one, but the facial proportions will probably be helpful to you.
www.hudnutart.com/porthtml2/imghtml/ifantsy3/sabh301.htm
oh well, Yea I thought the face was to alongated I will move the mouth more out and up and move his hairline more down.
Wish me luck everyone!
i wouild probably make the eyes a little smaller, and look at their shape too.
The face could use quite a bit of work and it is where I will center my crits:
Hair:
- Much to yellow especially for a blonde. You really want the human parts to stand out from the machine bits. Using the same color for the hair as the armor is a bit of a mistake. I would suggest using the hair/fur features and baking that into an opacity driven texture. It's a great way to block out hair realistic hair. I can go into greater depth if you are using Max, if you're a maya guy I can't be as specific.
- Much to angular. I would rather have nice flowing hair than an extra set ring of polys around his shoulders. I'm sure there are a few polys you could shave off the body and take those extras and smooth out the hair. You could flatten the halo to a single plane with an opacity texture. Render out the halo you have to a 32bit pre-multiplied TGA and apply that to a single plane. you could even draw your own and it would appear much smoother
Face:
- eyebrows are too high. Eyelashes and eyebrow hair should almost touch over the center of the eye. The eyebrow should raise slightly as it gets to the corner of the forehead.
- The eyes are too wide open. Raise the pupil up so the top of the iris rests on the upper eye lid. Raise the lower eye lid so it rests on the bottom of the iris. This will help give the character an air of arrogance and prominence.
- The wrinkles in the forehead are too high. This mixing with the eyebrows being too high and too much of the iris/pupil being visible, makes him look VERY surprised.
- The mouth is too thin and too wide. It seems to cut down into his jaw line too much. I would also suggest you add a smirk, arrogant pricks love to smirk.
- The nose has a weird slope to it, along with the tip sticking out too far. make the slope more of a straight line from the top of the nose (between the eyes) to the tip. With only a subtle break where the bone stops and cartilage starts.
- The deep pockets around the nose need to be moved in closer to the nose. They almost form a straight line from the edge of the nose to the corners of the mouth and are often pretty thin creases not deep pockets of shadowy areas.
- Careful how much dark brown you use as a shadow color. Brown in skin is often a pigment not a shadow color. Remember that the skin is made up of three layers, most of them pretty bloody.
<font color="orange">Epidermis:</font> Has a few layers to itself. A thin fairly transparent layer on top that lets light pass thru fairly easily. It also contains pigment in the lower layers close to the Dermis.
<font color="red">Dermis:</font> Thickest layer contains connective tissue and blood vessels. When you get flushed it is this layer filling full of blood. Sick people with poor circulation appear pale(absence of oxygen rich blood) even purple (oxygen deprived blood not leaving). When they say someone turned beet red they mean the color of the vegetable not fire engine red. Areas of the face stretched across bone will appear not as pink as the fleshy areas. Knowing where the muscles of the face are and where the flesh thins out will help with your facial anatomy and your texture painting so study up a little bit.
<font color="purple">Hypodermis:</font> Fat (light yellow/white) and lots of blood. It is also the deepest layer and is often the darkest.
Lastly, give the leopard a meaner look. I can't respect or fear him if around his neck, he has a stuffed kitty my daughter would play with. You want the cat to look like it was the most bad ass cat ever. Making it a prize worthy to be feared, hunted and worn as a trophy. How worthy of a trophy is it, if you lure over with a playful cat toy before clubbing it to death with a sprig of cat nip?
Looking pretty good, still needs some work. I think you're up for it and it looks like you can pull off the changes
keep it up !
wow.......um......
Well I will take into account what everyone has told me, I have to finish up horus but by saturday I will go back and make changes as everyone has suggested. I Really appreciate all the help everyone is giving me!!
I will have a update of horus later tonight (probably 6 am or something)
edit:: I forgot to mention, I realise I have texture seems now that you mention it I need to go back and clean it up
-Dread_Reaper
P.S. In the Horus Heresy series (a series about the fall of Horus, etc.) Horus is described as having a wide, handsome face, with gray eyes. Thought it might help.
Am I wrong on this?
-Dread_Reaper
P.S. In the Horus Heresy series (a series about the fall of Horus, etc.) Horus is described as having a wide, handsome face, with gray eyes. Thought it might help.
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Just finished reading the first book in that series. I'm waiting for the second to show up in the mail. Great series BTW. I would stay away from making Horus pre-chaos taint. Chaos would twist and bend someone quite a bit. I am almost certain that he wouldn't have the handsome look the book makes him out to have.
Nice progress on the armor! You might want to apply a unifying color gradient/shader. It will help tie the different colors together.