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New Character. I heart Tauren

so anyway, I played WoW for about 2 years on and off and I was a Tauren. So I have decided to finally make a next gen tauren based off of the Blizzard style of a minotaur. Shooting for something like 10-12k tris. currently 5.5k Tris. Still in the early phases of modeling so any crits would be appreciated, even though there isn't a whole lot to crit. ooo.gif

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  • AsylumSeaker
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    My main crit would be to give sharper form to his muscles, as they look all 'gooey' right now. Of course, that is kind of the way a cow looks.
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    Well I was planning on showing the large majority of the muscles in the normal map. Are you saying I should define them more before that step?
  • pliang
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    pliang polycounter lvl 17
    You need proper silhouettes before proper normal maps...as well as easier time with it.
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    little bit of an update. crits very welcome, and needed. I guess mostly on proportions. Still have to figure out what kind of armor/clothes I want on him. Weapon will most likely be a totem. shocked.gif
    bullypolycount.jpg
  • nkoste
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    nkoste polycounter lvl 18
    Hi Kozmonaut.

    I really like the soft, bulky feel of the character and I think you should keep going with that.

    I also think the hands are too human-like. I would imagine heavier more powerful hands and perhaps more clumsy. Take out a finger or two and distribute the mass on the remaining fingers. You do remember that the original wow tauren's only have 3 fingers?

    The snout from the sideview appears a bit flat and your hips could be raised a little higher.

    I think the horns is one area where you could make it more interesting. Right now they are leaning more towards realistic than wow. I think you should put your own spin on it and design some with more personality. A thicker base, perhaps, play with mass and curvyness. Find some cool horns on google for inspiration.

    Nice work so far!
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    small update but just felt like showing some more w.i.p. Still havent touched ears, horns, neck. maybe 30 mins of work.



    update.jpg
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    He's coming along rather well. You've captured the personality of the male Tauren nicely. Are you going to stick with the shaved look of make im all fluffy like the original designs?
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    at the very least I plan on putting in alphas for hair and beard. He still needs teeth, a weapon, and some kind of clothes so I still have a lot too do.
  • Mark Dygert
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    I'm going to sound like a huge ass and crap all over your hard work. But only because this is polycount, you need it and the source material is so well known.

    Before diving in to the sculpting I think you need to work on your shape and form. Taurens have much more dramatic porportions and thinking "oh I'll clean it up later when I sculpt is going to get you in trouble". If the base is off it doesn't matter what kind of normal map you apply the basic shape is going to wrong.

    Take some time, dig up some images of taurens. Find out what proportions actually make a Tauren.
    Right now, you have a blobby human roughly deformed into a generic minotaur shape but not a Tauren.

    To call this a Tauren you need;
    - Hooves that are as wide as they are deep. The length of each hoof is about correct but the width is too narrow.
    - Hands should have 2 fingers and a thumb, and they should be massive. They aren't human hands, they are mutated hooves.
    - The forearms and shoulders should be massive and impact the silhouette much more.
    - The massive forearms should almost blend right into the hands. The wrists should be next to nonexistent, think popeye on cow hormone, but with biceps to match.
    - The Head is too tiny and far away from the body, with Taurens the jaw sits almost right on the clavicle bones.
    - The hump is more on the back, from the base of the spine and carries up to the just behind the head. What you have is a small bump sitting on his shoulders.
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    I guess another minor update.

    aaaaHeartspoly.jpg

    Now to clarify on this whole thing. This Tauren is not really suppossed to be a copy of the WoW Tauren. More like how they were in WC3. The Tauren Chieftan to be specific and the concept art I am using is from the Art of Warcraft books. Which in some, interestingly enough, had 5 fingers. which is why my original had five. The more upright position and shorter neck in WoW isnt as apealing to me. Large feet is another blizzard thing where everyone wears like size 16 shoes so I figured I would add my own style to a lot of this.

    summary: I guess this isn't 100% Tauren but it is what I am basing my idea off of. confused.gif
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    small update. Still wip on sculpt just brought it into maya for a quick render. also still no textures just colored blinns.
    Not sure if I have made him too muscular now or not. I know initially he was much softer, so maybe I will go back and do a second edition with some more fat.

    taurenspoly.jpg
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    this is just a test of the low poly to see how the normal map will look. still not textured or anything. Hopefully soon I can put an update up that is worthy of an update..
    6394 tris

    800x540-1.jpg

  • The_Kozmonaut
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    small update. I think I am going to finish this soon...

    polynewsite.jpg
  • The_Synj
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    The_Synj polycounter lvl 18
    Looks great so far, but are you going to do any type of hair? It seems like he is naked, even though you gave him armor..and i have a feeling its because he lacks some form of hair.
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    yea he does look like he just shaved his entire body. I plan on covering him with at least short fur and then having alphas to make some areas more fluffy and give him a beard.
  • wester
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    wester polycounter lvl 13
    How do you get such crisp looking normal maps? The low poly literally looks just like the high poly.
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    I think that is mostly due to the UV's. I use Roadkill to lay out my UV's and it really does a great job of minimizing stretching and shrinking. To create the normal map on this guy I used Zmapper in Zbrush. I created the low poly first and laid out the UV's and brought it into Zbrush to sculpt. Then I took it back down to level 1 and exported that .obj and applied the normal map to it.
    If you go on the technical talk section of this site you can read and learn a lot about how people get there normal maps. My way of doing this may not be the optimal way of doing it at a game studio, but I am still relatively new to all of this. I didnt know what Zbrush was until about a year ago
  • The_Kozmonaut
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    just a minor update, going to take a crack at DWIII so this guy will be put on hold for now

    tauryyyycopy.jpg
  • Cody
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    Cody polycounter lvl 15
    Like the face. I think the feet and hands could use some more love [when DWII is over]
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