Scene WIP: "Obo's Job Interview"

MrCheez

Hello!

Here is a character I'm working on: Obo the office robot!

The first shot is a few weeks old --



Close-up of the head:



And here is a more up-to-date shot with shoes, a reworked suit-material, and some touch-ups:



Finally here is the very start of the office scene I plan to put him in. In the final render he is going to be holding a resume in his hands:



I'm really looking for some good crits and opinions, so please help me out Thanks!

MoP

I really love that middle shot. Really clean and stylish.
Scale feels a bit off in the last one though, since his proportions are fairly adult, yet he looks very small compared to the chair, I'm sure that was intentional yet it doesn't sit quite right with me.

Looking forward to seeing this progress though, nice one!

MrCheez

Thanks MoP!

Something I forgot to mention is he is suppose to be about 3 feet tall. With the proportions, I did want him to look like an adult... just scaled down.

However, even though the proportions/size were intentional, if it looks funky I would be interested in reworking it... how would you approach this specifically? Should he just be stubbier? Bigger head and hands?

Other than proportions, is there anything I can do with the scene/camera angle to help convey the fact that he is suppose to be tiny? It's important to the character and humor of the scene

MoP

I think as long as you have enough shots of him in front of everyday objects (or full-size human adult legs/shoes or whatever), it should be fine for establishing scale - I think it was just the single shot with scale reference that was throwing me off. It'd be fine if his scale was established consistently from his very introduction - I think my perception of him was skewed because I saw a shot against a grey background first, and because of the proportions assumed he was human sized.
I wouldn't change him though, he's ace!

Mongrelman

Seconded, love the style.

I think lower this crotch so you can just see it by the bottom of his jacket would help with the humour and sense of being a small guy (well, I think that would be too low, lowering the crotch and raising the bottom of the jacket a bit would probably be better). Giving him more stumpy,baby-like proportions (as you've done with the large head) helps.

And keeping the camera views looking downwards at him (as you have) and updards at other stuff (like other people) also helps convey that he's a wee man. I reckon the legs could do with a little bit of thickening too.

EDIT: Just noticed you said final render, I thought (and hoped!) this was going to be an animation. So ignore the comment about camera looking upwards at others

killingpeople

he's great i like him.

Emil Mujanovic

Great job dude, I really dig he's simplicity and the flow of the suit as well.

-caseyjones

Sean McBride

hahaha this little guy is awesome. I really like the proportions being adult like but him being smaller than usual. I think it only adds to his character.

MrCheez

Thanks so much for the comments guys!

Since I posted last I haven't really messed with his proportions much. I'm hoping that the way I have the scene set up helps make his size obvious (and depicts it in a funny way!)

This render is not my final render, but I consider it very close. Just going to add whatever tweaks are needed and slightly more polish (and higher settings) and I'll call it done I think!

Xenobond

Is he supposed to look like he's straight out of City of Heroes?

Spark

Hey MrCheez, love the character design and loving the posts you have going so far. Only comment I have on this final render, is to say that the detail you have on the carpet, is to detailed. I think you should blur it out some more, so that it helps force a perspective that the floor is farther from the eye, than the guy himself. Hope that helps, and again looks great.

Spark

MrCheez

[ QUOTE ]
Is he supposed to look like he's straight out of City of Heroes?

[/ QUOTE ]

I had someone mention this in the thread I started over at CGTalk, actually. I created the character of "Obo" back in high school, with the basic design idea that he was a 3-foot tall robot in a business suit. When I played City of Heroes at it's release I discovered that you could use the character creation tool to make really tiny guys, give them robot heads, and one of their costumes could be a business suit, I tried to recreate my Obo character... and to my surprise I got really close to my original design.

I did end up going back and modifying my original design a little with some of the new ideas I got from creating Obo in City of Heroes, however, so you can say he is partially inspired by the game.

It isn't my intention to rip off City of Heroes at all, if general consensus is that I'm doing so I wouldn't be against changing my design a little. Or maybe instead I should just advertise that the character is inspired by City of Heroes... what do you guys think? Of course I believe strongly in giving credit where credit is due, but the line just seemed a little blurred to me in the situation of a customized character made from a robust character-creation tool. (And again, who was originally designed in my sketches even before that.)

(BTW here is the original Obo I created in the game, in his team-suit colors: http://www.chrisgrahamart.com/teamlove.jpg )

[ QUOTE ]
Hey MrCheez, love the character design and loving the posts you have going so far. Only comment I have on this final render, is to say that the detail you have on the carpet, is to detailed. I think you should blur it out some more, so that it helps force a perspective that the floor is farther from the eye, than the guy himself. Hope that helps, and again looks great.

Spark

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks Spark! That is a great suggestion and one I was actually considering... could you give me a bit more advice about that though? When it comes to depth of field in an image like this... how much of the background would be blurred? Should I blur the door, wall, and chair in addition to the carpet? And should the entire carpet be blurred, or only the carpet further away from the front of the scene?

Thanks!

Xenobond

Haha! Awesome.
Looks like that SG was all sorts of business.

MrCheez

Hahaha, hell yeah! I was a proud member of "Team Love"

(We got a lot of attention strolling around the game in those costumes, especially when we were all together!)

MrCheez

Here is my first attempt at some motion blur on the background and a little bit of post in photoshop:



Is this a step in the right direction or is it not workin for ya? What do you think of the motion blur - too much, too little, or just right?

Thanks!

Ferg

I notice 2 things I would change:

- the door on the left looks like it's lacking some lighting/depth. It might be the inlaid square pieces. Try scaling them up a bit (they look small) and making them a bit deeper.

- his left arm seems to bend strangely at the elbow, it needs a sharp fold inside the elbow like the other arm

otherwise I love it. Great work, he's got some personality (which is tough to do on a robot with a flat face and perfectly round eyes)

conte

awesome character you have!
i want some to my house, where can i buy him?

pior

How cool is that!

Wells

Why is the floor to the office gravel?

Other than that, it looks damn cool

MrCheez

[ QUOTE ]
- the door on the left looks like it's lacking some lighting/depth. It might be the inlaid square pieces. Try scaling them up a bit (they look small) and making them a bit deeper.

- his left arm seems to bend strangely at the elbow, it needs a sharp fold inside the elbow like the other arm

otherwise I love it. Great work, he's got some personality (which is tough to do on a robot with a flat face and perfectly round eyes)

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the kind words and the suggestions! I'll see if I can take a look at the door, though I don't really mind the way it looks now.

As for the way the suit bends on his left arm, I agree with you and will try to make that area look a little better!

[ QUOTE ]
Why is the floor to the office gravel?

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, thats just the carpet! It's actually a photo of the carpet in my office. Hmm I don't want it to come off looking like gravel though.. maybe changing the colors will help?

Wells

oh. my bad. perhaps scale it down just a tad?

Jesse Moody

i thought it was gravel as well. the scale of the threads is crazy and look like little rocks.

MrCheez

You guys are definitely right... working on it now!

I'm really glad this was pointed out to me, thank you!

MrCheez

Allllright, take a look:



As you can see I made the threads much smaller, which already looks better. But would you say that what I have now is exactly the right size, or is it too small or too big?

Also, which of the three do you like? Light carpet, dark carpet, or more colorful carpet with designs? Or perhaps a combination of the three? (Different color with the same designs perhaps?)

Finally, I could still use opinions on my use of the Depth of Field blur from a few posts ago, as I will be applying that to whatever new carpet I choose. Thanks!

notman

I like the third carpet (diamonds). I would personally go with a little more blur still, but I think you are pretty close. I thought gaussian blur would be used though, not motion blur.

MrCheez

Gaussian blur is actually what I used, but for some reason I accidentally referred to the depth of field as motion blur... I think I was just tired when I posted :P

Thanks for the comments notman, that helps

Wells

Yup, third carpet type is doing it for me, though the pattern looks a little too informal for an office. perhaps if it was just a bit more muted.

suit looks like its made out of velour or velvet.

MrCheez

Here is the latest render after even more fixes, tweaks, and post-work:



At this point I think I'm about ready to call this project done. Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone. Please continue to comment and crit if you can, as it still teaches me a lot to hear your opinions!

Going to post a character render sheet tomorrow as well.

gauss

it's been very enjoyable watching this scene development. the character and particularly the presentation and perspective definitely sell the piece--enough in the background to show us where he is, and with the paper we've got the whole story together nice and subtly. nice work

Wahlgren

New floor is great compared to the old ones. I think you have a winner. Very very nice.

Renaud Galand

Really awesome man great image ! My only minor crit would be about the door's texture which is a little bit too flat and "quickly found on the internet > planar > done". But again, minor stuff.

notman

I really like this piece and how it turned out... good work

hawken

nice

but his suit looks like it's made from cat fur.

MrCheez

Thanks for the kind words guys! Means a lot to me

Renaud: Yeah the door ended up being a little rushed, I should have gone back and spent more time with it but I kept getting distracted by so many other aspects of the scene that needed work. Ah well, next time I'll try to remember to give more attention to each background element!

hawken: You're the second person to mention that the material for the suit looks a little strange... Yeah it didn't end up looking super realistic but I kind of like how it turned out in a stylistic way, so I didn't spend any more time tweaking it. (A LOT of tweaking went into the suit to get it that far already)


Here is the character sheet I promised:



And here is a link to the full-size version: http://www.chrisgrahamart.com/CharacterSheet_Large.jpg

Spark

Hey MrCheez, just caught up on this thread, and yeah tons better on the carpet. The diamonds are helping him pop out to the eye, and the subtle blur is working great.

Spark

D4V1DC

Great job I was going to say the diamond (carpet) was a great choice to go with though (notman) already pointed that out. I like finished wood so if you create that tiny edit in the image for the door it would probably create that very clean look that is happening with the render.

Love the focal point in the render I find my eyes always drawn to the face of the character .

Good job.

MrCheez

Thanks a bunch Spark and $inz

For the door, if I have a chance to go back to this project sometime in the future it is definitely something I'll take a look at, since a few people have mentioned it now.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it's considered a sin to link to a rival message board here... but... I posted a full-size version of the final scene render in the CGTalk Showcase gallery. It can be seen here: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=495132

Thanks again for all the help and support guys!

Jesse Moody

oh man that floor has done wonders for this. This is bad ass man

Xaltar

Awesome, looks like something straight out of a good animated movie. Nicely done.

stimpack

I got a good laugh from this. Thanks for sharin man. looks great!