DWIV - 3D - SamHH

SamHH

Thought I would put something together, and I would really like input from you guys.:)
Heres a pic of my concept, a smug demon prince.

I'm thinking he'll wield a fire covered sword or a conjured fire sword like kuwabara in yuyu hakusho.
DOH! Forgot to put 3D in my thread title, could a moderator please fix it?
Thanks

Kamui

sorry dude, I don't want to sound mean, but I think you could really benefit from a few anatomy studies. Your proportions are all off and this looks a bit rushed. Even if you were to take a photograph of a guy and try to copy it, it will give you a sense of how long the arms should be, where the features on the face sit, etc.

SamHH

Definitely no offense taken.:) I'm not very good at anatomy and this concept was rushed. Part of this was that I started some sketches on paper scanned them in and mashed them together and colored and altered them in PS. I will line it up with a real picture to make sure its right before I model it.
Thanks for your input:D
SamHH

SamHH

Added some tattoos, crap sword,amulet. Made some small changes to the ears and face, but the pants still suck.

SamHH

Some of the low poly modeling progress.

Muzzoid

Good to see you giving it a shot mate.

At this stage ill say the anatomy books are your best friend. Here is some loomis to get you started (its in the free domain so it isnt pirating). http://placidchaos.com/AM/index.php/2006/02/21/andrew_loomis

And i would highly recommend getting some bridgman books. Hogarth ain't bad either.

All these suggestions are old books but they have stood the test of time . When you get further ill see if i can help you further with the anatomy.

Are you planning on using a sculpting program?

SamHH

Thanks for that!
The high poly is worrying me, in the past I have jsut done basic sculpts with the pain deformation tools in max, but I think I will have to buy mudbox or Zbrush for this one. I think I might just buy Zbrush from the gameartisians sale.

Muzzoid

Grab the trial of mudbox and give it a whirl.

Try before you buy .

Have you got a tablet?

I'm not sure if domwar would fall under non commercial use though .

SamHH

Yep! I have an big intuos 1.:P I don't think I would be allowed to use the trial.:(
Here's the head model I made last night. I will post the horned version later today.

Walking Fly

great to see you around mate ! the head looks good.

SamHH

Thanks dude!

dolemite

You should post some wires.


I think you understand how to model pretty well. I think the anatomy is really holding you back. The muscles don't look like muscles, they look like padding.

I think if you aren't doing mudbox, then maybe you should think about doing a skin gen model. And if you are going that way I would not model out the individual abs and pecs, I would paint all that detail into the texture.

SamHH

You should post some wires.


I think you understand how to model pretty well. I think the anatomy is really holding you back. The muscles don't look like muscles, they look like padding.

I think if you aren't doing mudbox, then maybe you should think about doing a skin gen model. And if you are going that way I would not model out the individual abs and pecs, I would paint all that detail into the texture.

Yeah the abs are out, only realized that yesterday.

Here's a wireframe.

ericdigital

Good start man. Maybe you should look into a site like 3d.sk where you can get ortho photographs of people all different shapes and sizes to model off of. It's always good to line your orthos photos up in your viewports so its easier to check where your anatomy is off.

Good luck!

SamHH

Good start man. Maybe you should look into a site like 3d.sk where you can get ortho photographs of people all different shapes and sizes to model off of. It's always good to line your orthos photos up in your viewports so its easier to check where your anatomy is off.

Good luck!

Thanks, I will definitely make final adjustments before sculpting and mapping.

notebookguy

OK do not forget to use some sub D when modeling.

SamHH

I'm a little confused on the process you guys usually do... I'm used to doing the lowpoly, making a sculpt and then baking it into a normal map. Is there something Im not getting?
Thanks

Yozora

SamHH wrote: »

I'm a little confused on the process you guys usually do... I'm used to doing the lowpoly, making a sculpt and then baking it into a normal map. Is there something Im not getting?
Thanks

Thats fine.

Remember to either reduce the sub-D level to 0 after the sculpt is done and exporting it to become the new "low poly" and/or to retopologize before baking those normals.

SamHH

Attached the head and cleaned the mesh up some, Mud box is in the mail, so I should be getting some sweet sculpting going on soon.

SamHH

So I did some mucking about with mudbox, and I realized my uvs were mirrored. So now Ive got my UVs unmirrored and I'm going to get sculpting for real.

Wicked-J

(this is kind of long sorry)

Usually when I think about designing a character I try to imagine "me" as the character itself, as lame as it sounds. I do this alone in my house, so no one thinks I'm crazy nuts! Anyways, try to visualize yourself as the character when your sitting down sketching a concept. Anatomy, Form, Emotion, Background, Culture... a wide variety of key elements are so important when to comes to designing a well developed character. Of course you don't need to include every possible attribute but it helps to incorporate those elements that show your viewers, and yourself, that that your design is convincing and well developed.

I myself was at a stand still with my design a couple days ago. Usually when I get to that point when I feel a mind block I take a break and come back to it later. It's frustrating sometimes but if you have a shred of doubt that your character needs something added or taken away... then it probably usually does. As much as I didn't want to, I made the choice to "almost" completely redesign my entire Demon Lord. I haven't posted a new update but it's coming out well, even better than the last design. Even though it took extra time to make a new design, the outcome is rewarding in the end.

When I first started character development it was frustrating, not because I couldn't do it but because I felt I had to design things in sections at a fast pace... This just held me back. Trying to rush your design is the enemy in my opinion.

Hope this helps man.

Muzzoid

Sam, dont worry about unwrapping before your sculpt. do it after the sculpt .

SamHH

Ack! I already unwrapped it.:P heres my sculpt so far, Thanks for all the input guys, it means a lot to me.

notebookguy

Check out some anatomy books

Kupikimijumjum

anatomically, I think the low poly looks nicer... the sculpt, while the detail is coming along, looks flat. Kind of like he's made of clay and has been squashed against a table.

You need to pull the chin forward from the neck a bit-it looks like he has no chin, and his neck is too small for the size of his chest. I'm going to echo the others here, you should do some anatomy studies before you get too far on this guy.

Muzzoid

Go back to sculpting out the major anatomical forms. Think of as if you are doing a clay model. There is no point detailing as soon as you block out as everytime you need to do a proportion change all those details you just did are going to get destroyed.

As an artist you need to know how to commit to redoing something no matter how much effort went into the previous attempt.
Getting over this step will cuase you to be a much better and faster artist in the end.

Work rough then refine once the rough looks like it is in proportion. Rinse and repeat.

SamHH

Update, thanks for the input, I am using the layers in mudbox so the details wont be hurt when I change the basic shape.