DWIII - 3D - KICKER - Alhazred

KICKER

Final Sheets:











It's been a long time since I've posted here...and pretty rare at that, but I must pledge aliegance to polycount!

Here are some thumbs I made today, so feel free to tell me what you like and don't like and we'll go from there.



I did a quick paint over with no. 1 just for fun...

slosh

steve, nice to see you join the fight! great thumbs. i'm diggin 1, 5, 9, and 10. if i have to chose one, i would go with 10...

slosh

steve, nice color pass. now that i've seen 1 in color, i think 5 or 10 would def be stronger. 1 just seems benign and not really a combat creature. it looks more like alien wildlife than an alien wizard or warrior...if that makes sense? anyway, just my 2 cents!

Arix

Hey Kick! 5 and 10 seem to have the most dynamic silhouette and pose to me. 8 would be a runner up. Keep the sketches coming! Based on your previous personal project, this one should turn out fantastic! I can't wait to see it.

KICKER

I decided I might have an easier time visualizing this character with a back story so read on!

Alhazred returned from the hunt to find his village in ruins and the putrid stench of charred flesh choking the air around him. As the last of his tribe, Alhazred set out to punish those responsible for the destruction of his family.

Many moons passed until one night a fiery beacon shot down from the heavens into the mountainside. Inspecting the crash revealed a meteor containing the remaining life essence of a fallen race of beings destroyed by a war waging between machines, men, and creatures from distant worlds.

The machines were the one’s responsible for the death of Alhazred’s people and by making an unholy allegiance with the essence, he would be granted the power to exact his revenge. However, the power would warp Alhazred turning him into the very thing he set out to destroy, a merciless killer who would end the lives of millions with a body and blade infused with the hatred of the cosmos.

He stalks between the darkness of space and time waiting for his chance to destroy the mechanoid menace once and for all...
_____

and here is a sketch I did with more on the way.

Arix

Wow definitely like the weapon design. Where is the rest of his body Keep it up!

slosh

i dig the weapon! badass...make it bigger!

KICKER

Here are some quick concepts of the different item arrangements he could have. The orangish suit underneath everything is like a still suit from dune, designed to keep moisture in to keep him hydrated. I'm leaning more towards the one on the right. I think I'll mill over it for a bit before I start a posed color concept to make sure everything works well together.

slosh

i like the different takes kicker! my favorite one is on the right too. the shoulder assymmetry looks good but i think you can still push this guy further. he's still kinda reading as a soldier who could be one of many. see if you can push him further so that he becomes much more unique! great stuff though...keep it up!

KICKER

hey slosh, thanks for the crit! haven't had many here.. My next stage involves mixing in the best aspects of these variations and then drawing more detailed versions of his items and finalizing the design. I did these ones pretty hastily to rough in forms. I'm still trying to determine how the essence has started to transform him and I think that will prove to be one of the more challenging areas of my design. It should also give him the unique edge you mentioned. I should have a final design with a color study by the end of the weekend, Monday at the latest.

Thanks again!

Arix

Nice iterations! I agree with you and Slosh, the right one looks more solid than the others. I think the giant eyeball mutation on his shoulder could be really cool in 3D. I might make the spikes on his shoulder have more variety in size, maybe flare them out a bit more. Maybe drawing a 3/4 of some of his outfit to get a better idea of whats going on. This could also help you with the 3D phase.

Also, i would try to incorporate his essence or mutation into other elements on the character. Maybe its starting to infect his neck or his hips and is charring away his suit. Some replication of that essence around the character could help balance him out. Just a thought.

Great work so far! Keep it up!

Solid.Shake

very cool i like the choice for weapons keep it up


DW3 Cerberus

KICKER

So I combined my favorite elements and added a few more here and there with the addition of a newer weapon to fit the style of the character. C&C welcome

slosh

i am really diggin the shape of the weapon kicker! he's definitely startin to look more unique as well. i dig the thorns. i think you could do some cool stuff with those goggles on his head too. can't wait to see a more final color

KICKER

Color is done...I'm sure I'll be changing a few things here and there during the modeling and texturing phase.

Be sure to post any C&C you may have

slosh

yo steve! awesome work. the weapon is badass. my only suggestions may be that the body looks a tad clean. maybe it should be torn up or banged up. i also think his "infected" arm should be bigger to show its being taken over. course, these are all things you can adjust in the model! can't wait to see that part...

Arix

Hey Kick!

Your color comp looks really nice. I agree with Slosh, dirty him up, throw some stains on there and stuff. You might consider playing with the contrast of his mutated parts and the rest of his body. Everything seems to be maintaining a similar value so bumping up the contrast between the mutation elements against the remaining elements might help differentiate the two and help the mutation stand out, if thats what you want to focus on. This should turn out really sweet in 3D Cant wait to see more!

KICKER

Great ideas! I can definitely see his arm being more monstrous and deformed as well as more rips, tears, stains and other details really making this pop.

Thanks again for the crits. More to come!

pestibug

Hey kicker, I like the idea here, but I agree that it could 'pop' a little bit more. I know you're already in the modeling stage, but if you're interested in a paintover, just throw a pm my way. (btw, tool fan perhaps? )

KICKER

Yes, I should mention that I am definitely using influences from Cam De Leon, the artist for many of tool's records, good eye I haven't started modeling just yet as I'm still going through some tutorials with zbrush at the moment so I will definitely take you up on your offer for a paint over.

Thank you!

KICKER

3D update

Arix

The model is turning out great! Its following the concept very well and the topology from what I can see looks very professional. I like how his goggles aren't overly huge, they actually look useful haha. Cant wait to see more posts with updates.

KICKER

Base...

Would like some crits on the placement of some the teeth so I can change it before I commit to sculpting.

Danke!

slosh

hey kicker! great basemesh...looks solid and simple and efficiently modeled. silhouette looks good too! my only comment would be to maybe bulk out that infected arm more...i would also change his posture. i think despite the fact that this is a basemesh unrigged, u will be better off modeling him as close to a relaxed pose as possible. i think it would be cool to jut his hip out, bring his chin forward, etc. also, if you give him a bulkier(not necessarily longer) arm, you can have him lean to the opposite side to balance him...that would be pretty sweet! but i dig the model overall...nice progress!

Ged

nice work, I think those teeth could be placed more randomly and it would be cool if the looked a bit organic or knotted like growing out of eachother and such, are you gonna sculpt this? cause that could be really cool for the teeth.

KICKER

Still wip, but I'm getting there. I have to go through some crazy shenanigans to get this workable! I plan on redoing his deformed hand and his spikes also need detailing like in the concept.

Please leave your thoughts and suggestions!

KICKER

Whats a guy have to do to get some crits around here?

Wej

Dance naked....thats how to do it!!!

Ok, anyway, I would be a crit of a lot of things I see on polycount, but everything looks awsome cause the truth is, I suck, badly. This is damn amazing, and I only hope to get atleast this good...

KICKER

*dances naked*

Thanks Wej, I appreciate that, do you have a DW3 thread? I'm sure you don't suck, and just need to practice. I'm a long ways away from where I want to be as well so you might as well keeping pushing those polys!

wizo

looking good kicker!
there are some great details but there's some issues with the main proportions. The lower part of the character seems too small, maybe try making the legs longer and the thighs bigger. Also the abs part of the armor should start higher. Its pretty much all I can find that boders me, other than that the character is cool, you ve got a nice silouette going on. Keep it up!

Wej

No, I am going to wait for next DW, i will hopefully be good enough to at least put up a fight for some attention

KICKER

I can see where some tweaking in those areas will help my character, thank you for your input! I will post some more wip screens later today when the hi-poly is completely done before I start baking.

Ged

you say you want some crits ? well something bugged me about the guys proportions so I took it into PS and figured, maybe his shoulders are a bit high, slightly hunched into his body and dont seem to connect with his pecs, the arms legs are a small bit short and in the side view his head is too far forward making him look off balance. Just my impression, maybe check some anatomy reference and see if theres anything you can spot(elbows reach belly button etc). Other than that this is looking very cool!

KICKER

Thank you Ged, thats what I NEED

That's why I switched sides for this war, I thought I'd be getting tons of responses and crits to really improve my entry but its been scarce to say the least.

If anyone else has anything else to say by all means let it loose!

DDS

looking good man. I like the detail around the face.

If I had a crit maybe he looks a bit too puffy and small. I'd make his proportions exxagerated a little like making his torso a bit larger, waist and hips a bit slimmer. And maybe lenghten up legs a bit.

KICKER

No specular map, 1 point light.. blech!


So here is my latest problem, started another topic about it here...

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=802641#post802641

Anyone have any ideas?

KICKER

My girlfriend told me he looked like a superhero and not the desert wanderer I wanted him to be so.... quick update.... still no spec...

but yeah

my girlfriend is always right.

the alpha problem still persists!

Arix

:P

rollin

the colors work a lot better desaturated

KICKER

Still no specular, but I tweaked the texture and the lighting a bit more. I would really love some crits so I can make any last changes before tomorrow!!

I plan on making his arm look more infected and possibly changing all his cloth to blue instead of red.

KICKER

Ok, the spec is mostly done now...

on to the pose and the base...

c023dev

Try quickly dodging and burning the spec a bit more. I'd boost the contrast on the spec a lot more concentrating on edges.

and

If you have that carvity/shadow stuff on the diffuse too strong then the shading of the normal map doesn't function properly - try blending that out a bit more.

Like the idea, weapon and arm, nice smooth colors too!

Ged

its getting better, the only thing which I think may be making this look a bit strange is that youve painted lots of shadow/lighting information into the diffuse which makes the normal mapping almost invisible,especially on areas like the chest and upper legs , it would probably look better with simpler flatter colours and a tiny bit of definition and a nice coloured specular map.

c023dev

wOrd!

Davision3D

Looking good but too much AO in the diffuse for my taste.

KICKER

Thanks for the replies guys, I took out a lot of the AO and lowered the cavity map opacity and BAM! results. I still have to tweak the specular, I'm not getting the results I want quite yet. Expect a lot of updates shortly ... well obviously

KICKER

I changed the material from a blinn to a phong and it gave me some pretty slick results when messing with the cosine value.

well I'm off to a party so tomorrow is crunch time!

Ged

sweet! Looking much better!

KICKER

Thanks for all your help guys, these comments have really motivated me to see this thing through the end...time to get moving!

rollin

you improved realy a lot.. great!

KICKER

Thanks rollin!

Final sheets to come shortly...