If you've seen my other posts you probably know that I suck at 2d so here is where I'm going to post my progress on a character concept I'm working on:
I'd really appreciate some tips and/or tutorials etc that any of you guys might have sourced.
Legs look too short, and I would clean up your lines. It's really hard to tell what's going on right now and the entire point of a concept is to clearly communicate the idea. If you make the lines cleaner people might be better able to help critique the idea/direction because they will better understand it. I hope that helps.
Also just grab an anatomy image of google image search and paste it over your drawing there and make sure the proportions match up. It's not cheating and it's a great way to learn your proportions/anatomy.
Your upper torso doesn't line up to the lower part of the torso... AKA watch his spine and then where his neck connects to the torso just isn't right. You need to shift his shoulders and neck to the left a bit.
Also... his neck is huge. Do what jocose said and grab a main reference image to base proportions off of.
E: you posted while I was posting haha, the ^This was referring to jocose's post.
It seems like you're still not using reference for much of it.
I just took that for you, (shirt off so you can more clearly see where the anatomy is)
Look at the length of my arms compared to yours, where they fall on the body (compared to the thigh and such) and how the shoulders are. Your shoulders look like they are really really low and that's just kinda weird.
Also, in the pic I'm dead tired haha, I have class in seven hours, I'm going to bed.
Not bad, assuming you have little experience. A good modeler could take this and make something really badass, but standing on it's own your concept isn't very readable.
You lack understanding in anatomy, proportions, structural drawing, and detailing. My advice would be to grab some anatomy books from Bridgeman and Hogarth. There's one I have by Jeno Barcsay that was good called "Anatomy for the Artist" -well illustrated.
But def get a good understanding of the figure if you're going to be suiting it up. Right now your dude looks amorphous in structure and detail.
Thanks, are there any online books that I can access? There's something about the figure that just seems errr artificial or something (like not showing weight?)
this is totally expected when i look at how you've approached creating your piece. you're drawing in the dark, and need to view the subject as a whole. it looks to me like you started drawing the head, and went from there. you didn't even finish the feet the first round.
i think you should consider creating real quick, loose and light gestures and aim to capture the entire subject in your mind, the more you plan before placing your pencil to paper, the more meaningful your pencil stroke will be. it's kind of like thinking before you speak. it's a little extra work, but it will pay off tremendously, i can guarantee you that.
Yeah guide lines, It started off like that but the canvas was too small to fit the feet in :P . I'll have to gather a heap of references for the stance that I want, thanks for your comment.
I somewhat disagree. A plan is never a bad thing but... I think more important than planning is to just experiment at this stage. Seems like you know generally what you're after concept wise, but it lacks refinement.
honestly, you'd probably be better off not worrying about perspective and just drawing the figure from a straight front view so you can work on proportions and design.
Yeah, I liked doing this to kind of experiment and get some direction, I'm probably going to do some really refined front/side views and move to modeling.
Think simple. Identify the major shapes that make up your concept. Don't obscure things that you don't think you can paint. I did a quick and dirty paintover to illustrate how simplifying a few shapes can help the concept read better. (some of your shapes were a little hard to decipher, so bear with me if there's some inconsistencies between your design and my paintover.)
Flip your canvas horizontally often! make sure you give your character balance. A straight from the chin to the ground usually helps me figure out the balance point of a character. Flipping horizontally will make this process a lot easier. (although i didn't take my own advice too well on this, as my version is falling slightly backwards.) When it comes to the shoulders, keep in mind that there's a good couple of inches between flesh and air, so don't put the armor where the flesh would be. Think about there being a human in there. Getting the angle of the body can be easier if you first indicate the spine. Make sure both sides of the character are correct in perspective. As others suggested before me, it might be easier to skip perspective completely and just design from a front view. This gives you the added advantage of mirroring half your character.
Don't move to modeling until the design is solid, cuz flaws in the concept will transfer to the model.
//edit: I realize i did a pretty grave mistake on his far shoulder, it should be turned more away from us.. but hey, it WAS quick and dirty after all. :P
solid work on the paintover, listen to what Slash is saying. It's all good points. Also notice his clean lines and how he does lighting. Simple lighting will help bring out forms, even when there is not a lot of detail.
i take it youre using photoshop or corel. try concentrating on the anatomy over the high tech armor. do the body on one layer to get proportion and anatomy solid then do the armor on another layer. thats how i do my concept art for characters. things like clothing and hair i have on seperate layers and do multiples styles of each one.
try doing your characters body on one layer to get the proportion and anatomy solid. then do the armor over top on another layer. looks like the fancy armor might be what is hindering you. do some research on how different armor sits on the body and how the body moves in it.
looks like you're using the dodge and burn brush in places, and/or plain white and black which is kinda killing it (looked better at the first stage).
Have you tried working out your lineart and major forms first, then thinning them out a bit maybe and building up your paint above them? Seconded prom's art tut, that thing is more or less da law... of art :P
also might help to visualize things as really basic 3d shapes first to get the forms down (esp. on the back view, noticing things are gettin a little indistinct). Just try and build it out of basic cylinders and spheres and junk, might help with basic lighting too. Then go from there fo course
If you look at the references, the chest and back have fairly complicated shapes and I'm wondering wether I should accommodate the layout in the edge loops or model as separate objects, I'm not sure at the moment.
Your 3d model is turning out really wonky, because the ref that you drew out isn't clear and lacks a lot of the basic forms.
I think instead of trying to learn all this stuff at once, you may be better off getting a picture of an actual person standing in the T-pose then just drawing over that with the armor how you want. This way you don't have to worry about you anatomy being off by soo much in your modeling refs.
Personally, I prefer to build the models with arms bent at 45 degrees down, and elbows bent halfway. This way they are never more than 50% away from where they will need to be, and have to deform less.
This anatomy is a lot better, but just keep working it. All of it needs to be gone over and over and over and tweaked. The arms, legs, and torso all have problems. I think the arms are still too short.
Replies
Also just grab an anatomy image of google image search and paste it over your drawing there and make sure the proportions match up. It's not cheating and it's a great way to learn your proportions/anatomy.
Your upper torso doesn't line up to the lower part of the torso... AKA watch his spine and then where his neck connects to the torso just isn't right. You need to shift his shoulders and neck to the left a bit.
Also... his neck is huge. Do what jocose said and grab a main reference image to base proportions off of.
E: you posted while I was posting haha, the ^This was referring to jocose's post.
Lengthened the legs and broadened the shoulders, I also moved the head around a bit.
getting to that now
I just took that for you, (shirt off so you can more clearly see where the anatomy is)
Look at the length of my arms compared to yours, where they fall on the body (compared to the thigh and such) and how the shoulders are. Your shoulders look like they are really really low and that's just kinda weird.
Also, in the pic I'm dead tired haha, I have class in seven hours, I'm going to bed.
You lack understanding in anatomy, proportions, structural drawing, and detailing. My advice would be to grab some anatomy books from Bridgeman and Hogarth. There's one I have by Jeno Barcsay that was good called "Anatomy for the Artist" -well illustrated.
But def get a good understanding of the figure if you're going to be suiting it up. Right now your dude looks amorphous in structure and detail.
Keep at it:)
Alec3d,
"something about the posture isn't right"
this is totally expected when i look at how you've approached creating your piece. you're drawing in the dark, and need to view the subject as a whole. it looks to me like you started drawing the head, and went from there. you didn't even finish the feet the first round.
i think you should consider creating real quick, loose and light gestures and aim to capture the entire subject in your mind, the more you plan before placing your pencil to paper, the more meaningful your pencil stroke will be. it's kind of like thinking before you speak. it's a little extra work, but it will pay off tremendously, i can guarantee you that.
filters are bad..unless its a lensflare
I somewhat disagree. A plan is never a bad thing but... I think more important than planning is to just experiment at this stage. Seems like you know generally what you're after concept wise, but it lacks refinement.
honestly, you'd probably be better off not worrying about perspective and just drawing the figure from a straight front view so you can work on proportions and design.
Flip your canvas horizontally often! make sure you give your character balance. A straight from the chin to the ground usually helps me figure out the balance point of a character. Flipping horizontally will make this process a lot easier. (although i didn't take my own advice too well on this, as my version is falling slightly backwards.) When it comes to the shoulders, keep in mind that there's a good couple of inches between flesh and air, so don't put the armor where the flesh would be. Think about there being a human in there. Getting the angle of the body can be easier if you first indicate the spine. Make sure both sides of the character are correct in perspective. As others suggested before me, it might be easier to skip perspective completely and just design from a front view. This gives you the added advantage of mirroring half your character.
Don't move to modeling until the design is solid, cuz flaws in the concept will transfer to the model.
//edit: I realize i did a pretty grave mistake on his far shoulder, it should be turned more away from us.. but hey, it WAS quick and dirty after all. :P
YES!
Have you tried working out your lineart and major forms first, then thinning them out a bit maybe and building up your paint above them? Seconded prom's art tut, that thing is more or less da law... of art :P
also might help to visualize things as really basic 3d shapes first to get the forms down (esp. on the back view, noticing things are gettin a little indistinct). Just try and build it out of basic cylinders and spheres and junk, might help with basic lighting too. Then go from there fo course
If you look at the references, the chest and back have fairly complicated shapes and I'm wondering wether I should accommodate the layout in the edge loops or model as separate objects, I'm not sure at the moment.
Polycount is : 602
I think instead of trying to learn all this stuff at once, you may be better off getting a picture of an actual person standing in the T-pose then just drawing over that with the armor how you want. This way you don't have to worry about you anatomy being off by soo much in your modeling refs.
Polycount : 2096 tri's
This anatomy is a lot better, but just keep working it. All of it needs to be gone over and over and over and tweaked. The arms, legs, and torso all have problems. I think the arms are still too short.