RTS Zombie - 400 Polygons
Hey all, I was wondering if I could get a critique on what I've got for a low poly zombie. He's at 400-odd polys and 700-some tris. The texture resolution is 256 x 256, since we plan on having a load of zombies on screen. What do you guys think?
Replies
but anyway, yea model looks pretty good. the texture needs a bit more work. way too noisy. i know its a zombie game and you need blood, but i think it can be done witha lot less visual noise.
Ben
It's a Maya based rig
I believe its called redundant-first-timer-rig
there, is no cure for it
Maybe you could elaborate on this instead of just calling him out on it? Would probably be more helpful.
Overall I think you've got a good start, I'd like to see a screengrab of the model at the size you're expecting it to be onscreen. I agree about the model being a bit too noisy, especially if it's going to be fairly small on screen. Try to make shapes in the texture a little more obvious so that they read better from far away. I hope that makes sense.
Anyway, I got some new screenshots for you. As per request - I got them from the workview, and not rendered on black. The first image is approximate space used on-screen, though the actual resolution would probably be higher. I just cropped off the toolbars from the screenshot. The second image is a much nicer turnaround for the zombie. And the last is the flat texture for those interested.
About the rig, it's basically the XSI default basic rig, though I'm more proud of it because I reverse engineered the XSI rig and made my own (except for the damn legs - it had expressions I couldn't figure out how to mimic). So yes, it's default, but I think it's fairly powerful and will do everything I need it to do. I haven't had a rigging class yet, so everything I've done is self taught.
Oh, forgot to add. This is for a PC final game project my friend is working on for school.
The macro effect is pretty good. But it looks like you kind of layered photo sourced textures on top of each other without painting in some important details.
Also I think the flesh tone is a little too...alive?
i also agree with Bobbeh about the flesh
if your going for a "freshly killed" zombie. then its good
but if your going for a more "Seasoned" zombie i would suggest giving it a grey tint to the skin. maybe with a small bit of greyish green. and if u go with the seasoned zombie then maybe adding more tears into the shirt and pants would add more of a "zombie feel"
"i agree with LEViATHAN about making the texture a bigger size"
i meant i agreed making it 512x512 would be too big for such a low poly character
but i also saw on the first post it was 256x256
what size is it?
I'll work on the skin tone texture some more as well. I'm thinking the plan is to go with a more average length zombie, kind of like in Dawn of the Dead remake - the zombie has been around for a couple days, but not long enough to be Frankenstein green (a look I was trying to avoid, a little too hard perhaps). Thanks for the pointer for that.
What kind of tears should I put in his shirt without it looking like he was clawed by some demon? I had a couple gashes, but they competed with the bullet wounds and blood on the front as apparent cause of death.
I agree he needs pockets - I cant believe I forgot those. I was working on them when I was doing the legs, and after I got the blood I moved on absent-mindedly. I'll get them taken care of.
There are no folds in the cloth of the t-shirt (the black spots are supposed to be just discolored areas), and the pants folds (back of the legs and crotch) are reference photos I took then tried to match to the base texture. It still looks a little wonky, like you guys are saying. What is a good way of blending textures together so they match? I'm using layer masks, trying to paint in blending, adjusting hue/sat/value, etc. Is there an easier way or do I just need more practice?
For muscle definition in the arms, are you talking about in the model or texture or both? I agree, the texture doesn't add anything to the muscularity of the character. I'll see if I can make him look a little bit beefier. Maybe the zombification sucks the fat out of its victims and their muscles stick out more.
As for UV layout, I worked on that for awhile trying to get the pieces to fit. If I scaled up the head, maybe the pieces could be rearranged to better fit. I tired to keep the approxiamate same scale for all the body parts so one part didnt look too high-res over another. I know most if not all character fall into this, but I thought since this character is in an RTS with an overhead camera, and the zombie is hunched over, the player won't see his face most of the time. They would see his chest and legs/arms more than anything else.
Whew, I think I addressed everything. I don't have an update as of now - I'm in class, waiting for a presentation to start. I'll get to work tomorrow afternoon and post new screenshots then. Thanks for the great help so far guys.
Ben
a zombie wouldnt think about if his shirt or pants get caught and torn on something.
injuries occured when he was killed. or after
see the zombies in the background have lots of rips in their clothing
Thanks
Ben
the posture idea is good. the thing with the posture to think about is that they walk slow and are slouched over and stiff because of rigamortis is kicking in and theyre joints are locking up, theyre whole body is stiff
if u want to get an idea of how they stand and walk. i suggest watching older zombie movies. not so much newer ones where they run.
any George A Romero zombie movie is perfect
night of the living dead
day of the dead
dawn of the dead
land of the dead
diary of the dead
Land and diary are good because there modern and they stick to the slow moving stiff zombies
even the cheesy Return of the living dead movies might be good or even the the night of the living dead remake directed by Tom Savini (mondernish)
I know too much about zombies. so anything you need help with ask away lol
I hadn't thought about the rigamortis kicking in and that's why they're stiff. I just always assumed "that's how zombies walk" and never thought why. Hmm, that will definitely help in making good animations. I've been trying to walk like a zombie to see what it feels like, and the most believable one I've come up with makes them appear like they're about to fall over constantly.
I got a few things left to finish up on the texture, and I'll post it back up.
Ben
Rigor mortis. It's a temporary state, typically lasting one to four days. If you're planning to have fast zombies, make them look "old"; slower zombies can look more fresh if you want to get technical. :shifty:
Also you should check out Braindead. Best zombie movie ever.
love the lawnmower part
and i beg you. Please dont have fast moving zombies
as Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) says about fast moving zombies
"Death isnt an energy drink"
still trying to find all those 700 triangles in your model. I would have put more work into the hands tbh.
I fixed the skin color, added pockets, fixed the wrinkles behind the knees, added a bald spot on his head, fixed some blood splatter, fixed seams, and added a touch of ambient occlusion around the area the t shirt meets the arm and where the hair meets the face. I decided not to add rips and tears to his shirt and pants; I couldn't figure out a nice looking way to make tears in clothing without it looking like the skin underneath was just stuck on. If someone knows of a photoshop tutorial on something like that or has suggestions, I've got open ears.
And, without further ado...
* this is probably not true actually
Unless your zombie game is going to be in bright grey environments, in which case I would suggest you lighten your textures a lot, try not to wash out the detail with a too-light background.
Other than that I'd say it's looking good. Could use some hand-painted highlight lovin', but that's actually more a preference of style than a crit for this particular texture. I do like all the blood.
As for the zombie model and multple textures, we planned on doing that, but we weren't necessarily using this mesh as a 'base' mesh. We would have a few different ones to switch between. Though using the same mesh with different textures is an idea we're thinking about as of late. Would multply how many zombies we could get without the repitetion being blatant.
Thanks for your help guys. I'm working on a getting a generic normal map just for some smoothing, then it's on to animation. I plan to get this done before Thursday of next week, so updates soon.
Ben
The animation is supposed to be a mindless wander - no living in sight to eat, so it just kinda shambles around. Right now the biggest concern I'm working with is how to export it. I'm working with the .x exporter, but it isn't exporting right. I think it has to do with my rig being too attached to the skeleton and not easily pulled off like the default biped rig from guide is.
Anyway, here is the youTube video. The culmination of the animated zombie. Again, I apologize for the poor quality render. I'd like to get a new render, but I leave for some training for the Army in 2 days - gone for 2 months. So it's as done as it's going to be for awhile.
[ame]
Ben
PS> Forgot to mention, this is just one cycle, so without a loop feature it's hard to visualize. I'm going to see if I can loop it via MovieMaker or iMovie or something and repost it. For now, though, this is what I got.