Luchador Freaking Batman
polycounter lvl 16
I was going to do Poison Ivy for the GameArtisans Comicon Challenge, but then I decided screw it; she's boring and Batman is awesome.
So I'm making Luchador Freaking Batman and I don't care if I'm disqualified.
You can has pictarz:
I'm going to be staying within the restrictions set for the GameArtisans comp and I'm going to try to finish it by the deadline, but if I don't? So what. It's Luchador Freaking Batman and I'll take as long as I need to make it awesome.
Any crits and comments are welcome. And if you have any really sweet luchador references, post 'em. I'm having some trouble finding good images from Google.
So I'm making Luchador Freaking Batman and I don't care if I'm disqualified.
You can has pictarz:
I'm going to be staying within the restrictions set for the GameArtisans comp and I'm going to try to finish it by the deadline, but if I don't? So what. It's Luchador Freaking Batman and I'll take as long as I need to make it awesome.
Any crits and comments are welcome. And if you have any really sweet luchador references, post 'em. I'm having some trouble finding good images from Google.
Replies
Yeah, those eyeholes sucked. I'm going to find some better shape for them.
Anyway. A couple more hours of fiddling about has made me decide that a slightly less stylized look for the suit would go well with the actual suit design I have planned for him.
Also, have you seen the new Batman - Gotham Knight? (anime) I'm almost positive you'll get some great ideas from that dvd, it's amazing!
Keep it up man, looks great, and good luck
I'd really like to see Gotham Knight, but I simply haven't gotten a chance.
I did a rough paintover to get a better idea of how I want the finished thing to look. I'm still not sure about his mask, but I think the rest should be fine. We'll see how things work out.
I want this as an action figure.
The first eyeholes were more retro tho, but either way really great idea.
Btw, the eye holes kind of reminds me of Cat Woman though.
Here's the state of the high-poly version:
I've made various adjustments to the high-poly version, including thickening the fingers, refining some of the folds and wrinkles and fixing some issues with blobby crap on areas that should be smooth. I need to give his legs and boots some lovin', but that's nothing huge.
What I'm mainly concerned with right now is whether I'm making it detailed enough... or not as detailed as it should be. On the one hand, I know there are a lot of thingslike the gold seams and stuffthat I'm just going to paint into the texture and then use the Nvidia filter to put them into the normal map. On the other, though, I'm trying to figure out if I should add a bit more wrinkles and maybe a bit more muscle definition. I don't want it to look like he's wearing spray paint, but maybe a bit more definition could help?
I'll be watching this thread
I think I'm going to do a bit more sculpting to refine some edges and put a few more subtle wrinkles and folds in there, maybe suggest more underlying muscle definition.
This is certainly not a final bake. I'm just seeing how well the normals will hold up, seeing if I need to do more optimization. It is, admittedly, a pretty heavy mesh, but it's still well below the limit even with his belt, cape and other accessories included.
How do you go about redoing the topology on a high poly mesh like you've done here?
I'm a bit confused when it comes to such things.
After I've sculpted my high-poly model, I export one of the higher levels from Mudbox as an OBJ file and load it into Modo.
Over the top of that, I start laying strips of quads along the main loops that I need to get the base topology for the model. Modo has an option to let you snap tools to the surface of a background object, so use the pen tool to create those strips of quads.
Once I get the main loops in place, defining the most prominent forms, I start filling in with more strips that will help bridge gaps between loops around the model. The main thing I'm concerned with is good topology, so I take a lot of time to make sure everything's flowing properly and there are enough polygons in all the right places.
To give an example of this technique, say I'm doing a low-poly version of a head. Naturally, I want the head to have very good topology, so I'll start by defining loops around the eyes, nose, mouth and down from the forehead all the way to the bottom of the jaw. From there, I put a few more loops to fill in between the ones I already have down and I'll keep on putting more loops until the whole surface is covered.
One more important area that needs a loop around it is the ear. You usually won't put much polygonal detail into the ear unless it's going to be viewed up-close, but it's important to have a loop around it so you can get nice strips of polygons radiating out from the ear just like the loops around the eyes and mouth. If you have polygons radiating from the ear, you'll also get a cleaner mesh on the back of the headnot something that looks like it was simply subdivided from a cube, but something that's very organized and easy to work with. In the event that you want to make a subdivision surface head, it will also make it so there are no "nipples" where only three quads meet.
If you want some sort of pictures as examples, I'll be happy to whip something up.
good tutorial :thumbup:
Are you using 302? I've had some issues with the normal maps displaying at 200% power in the viewport. I can't be sure but it looks like that may be happening with your batman model (which is fcking awesome, btw) in those screenies - most noticeable on the subtle crease between his thighs and groin in the sculpt that's turned out really strong in the modo shot. How does it look if you reduce the opacity of the normal map to 50%? That seems to fix it for me.
Also, you've gone to the effort of adding in a little groove for the hem of his gloves in the low poly, I think his waist hem could use the same.
Talon:
I am using 302, having just graduated from using 203 (egad!). I think you may be right about the normal maps displaying too strong in the viewport; that was a problem with earlier versions as well, except they'd be at about 500% power in the viewport. I tried reducing the opacity of the normal map and you're right, it does look better.
As for the actual model, I'm going to be doing a little more work on it. I'll be modeling the larger folds and the edge of the boots right up by his knee. Everything looks a little too smooth right now, so it needs some small stuff to break up the silhouette.
Whatcha think?
I do agree with what you guys have said about the leather and the stiffness. I think some clever posing will help with the problem of him looking stiff; as you can see from the above, it's mainly just the current pose that's rather rigid and not necessarily a lack of curves or something.
Here's a little update on the normal maps. I think I've added all the detail I want to aside from the seams and other stuff I'm going to paint in. His belt and buckle currently need some love as well, but those are easy. I've tried getting it to look like there was more muscle definition under the fabric, but it just wasn't working out so hot.
There are still a bunch of normal errors that aren't very obvious in these pictures but would be pretty evident with different lighting and angles, so I still have a fair amount of painting to do, but things are coming along nicely. I didn't think I'd get this crisp of detail out of a 1024, but I guess mirroring helped a lot.
Any critiques and comments are more than welcome.
looking forward to updates!
Other people have commented on his head lacking any definition, so I'm definitely going to give it another look to see what I can come up with. If it still looks funky after I've added more stuff to the texture, I'll tweak it.
Anyway:
There is method to my madness.
I really like the new colour choice and design of the costume.
-caseyjones
Very cool:thumbup::thumbup:
My only critique is how the cape is attached on the front. Normally, you would see the cape tuck under the tights, or have the two corners come to the middle of the throat...held together by a crest of some sort. Another option could be to have both corners/ends attached where they are now, with their own separate crests. Might add to it even more!
Also, he totally needs one of the signature "bat belts"!!
Can't wait for another update.
BrodyB:
I'm not entirely sold on the design of the mask either, but it'll be an easy thing to change if I decide I like something better. I may even do a few different versions and put them up here.
Geezus:
I know what you mean about the cape attachments. That's why I took a few minutes and made 100% custom made, super authentic Bat-Pins! They still need some transparency, but whatever. They'll work.
As for the belt, I don't think much is going to change. I decided against giving him belt pouches so he looks a little more streamlined, but I may do something like give it segments in the normal map. We'll see—it's still not quite where I want it to be.
:poly128:
One last screen (well, render this time) before bed:
I don't know that adding segments to the belt would add to it, it seems to fit with the rest of the gold/yellow bits the way it is now. The belt itself does seem a little odd, maybe it could be a big wrestling style belt (although if it had a batman logo, it may add too many of those to it). Don't know, it's pretty damn nice already.