Snowboarder

vladino

Hi,

this is my first post here I'm working on in-game low-poly model of snowboarder. This is my first 'extreme' low-poly model. The boarder is 584 tris and the board is round 80.

Modeling is done, working on the texture now and will be doing rig after that.

Any comments/crits are more than welcome!

Chunkey

Welcome to Polycount!

looking pretty solid fella, though you might want to add an extra loop around the elbow, so there's 2 solid loops running around circumference of that area- should help better with deformation.

What's the texture specs going to be?

vladino

Chunkey wrote: »

Welcome to Polycount!

looking pretty solid fella, though you might want to add an extra loop around the elbow, so there's 2 solid loops running around circumference of that area- should help better with deformation.

What's the texture specs going to be?

Thanks mate

I never rigged character before so will see how the hand bends. If needed I will add some loop as you suggested. The topology I have now is based on many meshes and tutorials I've seen on internet.

The texture is 256^2 for the boarder. Not sure how much i need for the board but 128x64 will be fine I think. This model will be used in main menu to select and customize character and also in game. Target device is iPhone which has res. of 480x320.

vladino

Here is small update.
Screen grab from 3ds max view port (no lights).


And here goes the head detail.


I need to finish the jacket and boots and then I'll rig him.

Comments/crits are welcome!

odium

You got he elbow loop the wrong way around I *think*

vladino

odium wrote: »

You got he elbow loop the wrong way around I *think*

I know bout that but thanks for reminding! Will fix it.

Neox

Nope works that way too, in my experience it works also better this way, funny is that you didn't do that on the knees also

http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~shinda/Infos/Tutorials/SM_tuto_p1.pdf
works that direction

vladino

Neox wrote: »

Nope works that way too, in my experience it works also better this way, funny is that you didn't do that on the knees also

http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~shinda/Infos/Tutorials/SM_tuto_p1.pdf
works that direction

Ha! Now I'm really confused I think I'll do some tests and see what works better for me Thanks for the link!

Neox

dunno i also did it always with more polies in the joint not in the direction you bend it, but seen a lot of games with it the other direction, especially with that low polycount and tested it, and it makes sense especially if you want to keep the silhouette/volumes from distance correct, a knee or ellbow from Distance is just a 90° angle and not 45° degree on one the outside

Baddcog

Looks pretty cool but the crotch is SUPER wide. should barely be any space there at all, especially with snowpants on.

butt_sahib

really dont think you need that extrude for the goggles...neox?

Chunkey

well, if in doubt, zoom out if the detail isn't noticeable then either make it more obvious or get rid

Baddcog

I'd probably extrude the goggles more rather than get rid of em. Goggles are pretty thick and noticable.

vladino

Neox wrote: »

dunno i also did it always with more polies in the joint not in the direction you bend it, but seen a lot of games with it the other direction, especially with that low polycount and tested it, and it makes sense especially if you want to keep the silhouette/volumes from distance correct, a knee or ellbow from Distance is just a 90° angle and not 45° degree on one the outside

Thanks for your advice. I've been rigging him yesterday and doing some test animations and it really depends what movements the character will be doing but the hands works quite well as i have them know. As you said the elbow is quite sharp and 90 degree angle from distance and I won't be doing closeups. I'll try to do one version with double loop and see.

vladino

Baddcog wrote: »

Looks pretty cool but the crotch is SUPER wide. should barely be any space there at all, especially with snowpants on.

Good point! I'll make it more narrow.

Baddcog wrote: »

I'd probably extrude the goggles more rather than get rid of em. Goggles are pretty thick and noticable.

I like how the extrude works in the realtime so I won't get rid of that (anyway that will save me ~20 tris which is just 600 tris less a second for the engine to render).

The idea to extrude it more is nice. I'll definitely try that!

Thanks.

vladino

Chunkey wrote: »

well, if in doubt, zoom out if the detail isn't noticeable then either make it more obvious or get rid

You're absolutely right with this. I'm zooming out all the time Saves a lot of effort and time.

Eric Chadwick

Some more approaches for knees/elbows here:
http://wiki.polycount.net/Topology

vladino

EricChadwick wrote: »

Some more approaches for knees/elbows here:
http://wiki.polycount.net/Topology

That's really cool link! Thanks a lot for that! I think the best one working for me especially for the legs will be this one:

vladino

I've created small test animation of the character. He was drinking a bit too much I think Textures and rigging are still wip.

vladino

Small update on texturing

Eric Chadwick

You should note that this is mocap and not your own animation. It's really obvious, but it makes you look bad if you don't attribute others' work.

The vertex weights for the backs of the knees need work, the calves are collapsing too much. You should choose a mocap with calisthenics, or better yet make your own of someone stretching to all the extremes, then scrub this while you're weighting the skin. It's the best way to adjust weights IMO.

Textures look photosourced, and kind of noisy. Can you show the texture flat?

vladino

EricChadwick wrote: »

You should note that this is mocap and not your own animation. It's really obvious, but it makes you look bad if you don't attribute others' work.

The vertex weights for the backs of the knees need work, the calves are collapsing too much. You should choose a mocap with calisthenics, or better yet make your own of someone stretching to all the extremes, then scrub this while you're weighting the skin. It's the best way to adjust weights IMO.

Textures look photosourced, and kind of noisy. Can you show the texture flat?

Thanks for your comment.

I should have been more cautious and predict that some people will think the actual movements of the character are done by me. This thread is about modeling/texturing and rigging the character as I mentioned in the beginning. The animation was only to have fun

Thanks for pointing out the other side of knees, there is definitely problem there and i think I'll solve it by adding the same loop as I have on the front side.

The boots texture and a bit of trousers is photosourced but as you said it's too noisy. Will try to paint it as I did the jacket.

Here is the texture sheet:

Kawe

I'm not sure but I think the clothes don't really look thick and warm to me. They don't need to but I assume they are supposed to. So I tried to think about what it was that made me think like that and.. I may be right or wrong here.. just guessing but the folds make it look like thin material to me. Thicker material would prolly have less but bigger folds. Also the folds themselves seem kind of random to me.. hmm..

Tried to google an image to show what I meant.

http://www.realtelevision.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/tara-snowboarder-2.jpg

I guess the geometry itself makes it look thin too.

PixelMasher

I think he could use more bulk, but overall this looks pretty awesome, the texture flat looks really nice.

SHEPEIRO

you need to warp the lines in the clothing(jacket) at the mo it looks like it doesnt fit the deformation of the cloth breaking the illusion of the painted in lighting

vladino

Thanks for all your comments guys! They're helping me a lot.

Kawe wrote: »

I'm not sure but I think the clothes don't really look thick and warm to me. They don't need to but I assume they are supposed to. So I tried to think about what it was that made me think like that and.. I may be right or wrong here.. just guessing but the folds make it look like thin material to me. Thicker material would prolly have less but bigger folds. Also the folds themselves seem kind of random to me.. hmm..

Tried to google an image to show what I meant.

http://www.realtelevision.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/tara-snowboarder-2.jpg

I guess the geometry itself makes it look thin too.

I agree that he looks thin for a winter clothes. I'll be adding loops on the hands and legs so I'll make him a bit more thick as well. The folds are random I need to google for porper reference. Thanks!

PixelMasher wrote: »

I think he could use more bulk, but overall this looks pretty awesome, the texture flat looks really nice.

Agreed as well, he will be more thick Glad you like it, it's my first try at painting the whole texture, been using a lot of photo textures so far.

SHEPEIRO wrote: »

you need to warp the lines in the clothing(jacket) at the mo it looks like it doesnt fit the deformation of the cloth breaking the illusion of the painted in lighting

Thanks for pointing that out too. I had a look at some photos and I definitely need to remake the folds.

Will post update in a next days. Keep the good critique coming!

vladino

I have made changes to the base model, added some loops on hands and legs so the deformation is better now. I've also made him more chunky.

I'm also redoing the folds on the cloth, this time painting it all. The pants are done, working on jacket now. What do you think so far?

vladino

I consider the guy to be finished now Next step is to model and texture snowboard and finishing the rig + some nice pose

vladino

I've made riding cycle animation for the snowboarder. The rig and animation still needs some polishing. It's my first key frame character animation that I created, so critics/advices are welcome