Ghost Helmet (project hostile)

Alec3d

This helmet is for project hostile ( http://teamhostile.wordpress.com )

Im working with my own concept art created in photoshop in blender since my silo trial ran out.

I'd appreciate some tips but remember I'm youngen so go easy on me!

Currently at 156 quads (no tris)

P442

i'm sure the concept art makes sense to you, but to me it just looks like a blob

Alec3d

haha cheers mate, I was looking for comments on the MODEL.

BigHoss

Well Alec as much as anyone would like to crit on your model so far. There isn't much there, but once you have more many others as well as myself will be more than willing to give some crits.

Alec3d

Thanks, I'll be sure to post some more soon.

Snader

i can tell you now that your proportions are messed up, and that the face is really really flat.
that is, if I'm seeing the character right; a human with a ninjaesque mask, like zub-zero right?

here's something to help you out with the profile of the head:


and check out this image (and google) for some help with proper polygon flow:

Alec3d

Thanks for that. Yeah the helmet is a really strange shape so I'm going to have to work on proportions, besides I think Im just going to build this one as a base mesh before sculpting and retopology (which was suggested by a Polycount member for me to learn how to do)

Alec3d

finished the basic model:

PS : ignore the two really close edge loops in the centre of the model (blender's mirroring)




Would appreciate some tips on how I can improve it.

[Deleted User]

Is he intended to have a nose and mouth under the mask? If so, it should come forward a lot more. Also, the head should go back a little more. I did a quick paintover:

Alec3d

Thankyou very much for that image - it helped heaps.

Alec3d

I really wanted to try out Silo's normal map generator with a high res that I created and it turned out puurdy :

almighty_gir

is it any use giving you criticism, when you just ignore it?

you don't even have the basic forms right, and you're moving onto something complex like normalmapping...

Alec3d

I've made those changes but the model I imported to silo was an older file

Alec3d

worked on the proportions and optimized the mesh.

butt_sahib

Youre going great alec. Looking nice.
Though keep looking at nice head topologies,find out whats common in all of them, and try to do it to your head. The best way i would go about it pick some verts in the area you think could use improvement, remove them so you have just a big surface with no edges/verts. Then cut in the edges you saw on the topo or whatever you think would fit and then move those verts in place. BOOM

Good luck!

Alec3d

Thanks dude, here is pretty much the almost finished one weighing in at 110 polies with two 1024x1024 maps (diffuse,normal)



pretty good for a 14 year-old

butt_sahib

i personally never try to grade myself based on my age. Never did and never will. I'd personally wouldnt want people to grade me based on my age either.
You only get one thing out of age,actually two. Experience and practice. Now before and after you finished this model, you gained practice. Now for experience, so that the next model you make is alot better than this one (according to your personal level ofcourse), you need to LEARN and APPLY the shit you things youve learned wHIlE working on this model.
Theres alot of us who started when we were your age. Theres not many, but we're not non-existent So dont try to satisfy yourself by saying "ooooh,i THINK i could have done much better if i spent more time on it, but OH WELL, im 14 so i guess its ok"
Sorry about being abit harsh, but those are the standards i set myself upto. Practice and preach

Good luck on your next endevour. learn and apply

p.s.
is the normal map normalized? Get the nvidia normal map plugin if you dont have it already and normalize this bitch.
It also seems as though you dont have the low poly smoothed out (which causes the tessellation on the normal map as we have here). Smooth and rebake
You could also add more interest to the diffuse aswell. No speculars?

Take care~

Alec3d

Yeah I understand. Umm I'm on a mac so I'm not sure about whatever "normalizing" is. In the picture the low poly is solid but thats just the screenshot, the actual low poly is smoothed.

Cojax

When you start your next model don't rush it so much. Take your time. Try and match that reference as much as possible.

Keep at it. Practice makes perfect.

Alec3d

Very true, with the current status of the game I've pretty much checked off my list, which is weird because I feel that it's missing something, I'll have to move on to storyboards or more level designs.

ZacD

Try to do something based off some else's concept art next time

Alec3d

why can't I use my own concepts for models for my own game?

fearian

bluntly - they're not good enough. Well not that exactly, but if you arn't up to scratch on keeping things realistic, accurate and in scale, and model based off that, your model will turn out with the same flaws.

Thats why alot of people who model better than they draw like to work from sweet concepts by more practiced artists.

Orgoth02

When first learning how to model you should never model off your own concept as a templet.

seforin

wow....ok im surprised no one has mentioned this yet.

since it seems you sculpted out your head base mesh , a rule of thumb with ANYTHING sculpting is that you want even distributed polygons across your mesh

meaning all your polys are equally spaced from one another and all of it has relitvely close geo

This will help since sculpting in whatever program takes your mesh and doubles its polys each time , if your polys are more intense in 1 area versus another that area will sub divide more then the others. Meaning that it will be hard to sculpt.

I will show a example of a base mesh good to use a bit later. I dont have acess to the proper files right now.

now that you learned the process of making something high poly and low poly and baked its normal maps.


now you can take this knoweldge and work on your next piece and not rush though it sine you know how to do the steps now Take time and make it look good. Believe me its tough but better to do it 20 times while your still young and full of excess retard energy

imb3nt

birdo + ninja

ptoing

Also when making your UV you should think about whether the back of the head should really get more than double of the space the front is getting in what is essentially a texture which could be mirrored.

Taylor Hood

Er, all I can say is... try again next time? You have the basics down but you just need to go for better topolgy and you need to take your time on sculpting too.
Also, your refrence, as Zac and Fearian said they are simply not good enough.

You've rushed into modelling, sculpting and then layed out a shoddy diffuse map on the thing.

Practice.

dolemite

I've been doing 3D for about 10 years now. I've used 3ds max since version 3. I'm still kind of a noob tho because I didn't really take it seriously until after I graduated college. I really used to ride that "oh that's impressive, you're doing really cool stuff for a 15 year old!" thing. Remember other 14 year olds aren't doing jack shit, so it's not really useful to compare yourself to them.

Do yourself a favor and take everyone's advice. Better to do it now, then when you're 25.


This might work a lot better with subD modeling rather than sculpting?

HAL

Are you baking your normal maps in blender? dont bake your normal maps in blender. Its nasty and creates black edges when there shouldn't be black edges.

Also set your model to smooth.

That thingy in your edit mode next to solid.

Alec3d

@ orgoth : I've been learning 3d for almost a year and a half now, I'm going to have to work on my 2d side a bit then :P
@ Seforin : yeah I see that now, I'm not familiar with hi res workflow

@ fearian : Yes I'll have to take more time with my 2d side, I'm doing all the code and organizing stuff for the game so I'm always in a rush but looks like I'll have to take a lot more time. I'd like to make models out of some professional concepts but isn't that copying?

Alec3d

@ HAL : They're generated in Silo and the model in the picture is sold but the end one is smoothed which I already explained earlier in the post.

@ LoM chaos : yep I'm going to have to take my time with everything. I'm shit at texturing, know any good tutorials?

LlamaJuice

It's not copying if you work off of a professional concept, just don't take credit for the concept. Post the concept with your work and give credit to the author.

Alec3d

i guess so.