Malcolm Reynolds WIP

ultramedia

Hey everyone,

Been working on a real time model of Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly, and up to the point where I got some "in game" screenshots. He's modelled in max (about 2k poly count) with radiosity baked into vertex color and imported into Multiverse. Can anyone offer any suggestions for improvements?

dolemite

hmm, his shoes seem pretty dark. Can't make out any details. same for hair.

In general he needs a pass of highlights. Right now each form just reads as a big block of solid color.

Also post wires and textures, you'll get more responses.

Jarod1872

The face looks pretty recognizable though, so that's good. I would be able to tell it was him, even without the brown coat. I agree with the highlights, and to expand I would say to add just much more variation in color. I'm not super familiar with the engine you're working with, it looks pretty low res, but I'd try to get the overall feel of the model a little less blurry. I'm not sure what size you're working with, texture wise, but the overall model does just seem a little like big blocks of solid, blurry colors.

Nice job though, overall. Maybe it's just because I'm a big firefly fan, but I would be able to tell it was him just from looking.

EDIT: Oh, and some details on the front of the pants. I'm not sure how his pants actually close, being all civil war / future -ish, but some kind of buttons, fly or zipper whatever, would help a little. That area looks a little blank to me.

d00kie

I looked at some pics of M. Reynolds and I think it'd help your model if you stick with his shirt design and material. His shirt is just not what I'm assuming is red or brown (sorry, color blind :P), he has seams going across and buttons.
If you match the colors of his pants and shirt, it will also help it read better. You can still get some nice details with small texture sheets.

I'd also say to add some more contrast in there, so it just doesn't look like you just added an AO map to the diffuse and called it done. Try and push some more details in the diffuse, add some highlights and color variations, as previously stated. For instance, notice his belt in the pic above, its more than just one shade of brown.

not bad for a 1st texture pass, i'd say
Oh, and I could be wrong, but i think his ass is too low or something. His hip area seems strange to me. could be the pants

ultramedia

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the comments, the feedback is really helpful, I'll put up some wires tonight too...

My master file for the hair is in multiple layers so that'll be easy to tweak, and you're right about the clothing textures, they're just simple textures tiled. I think I got all tunnel vision trying to get the face right (and it took a bunch of tweaking to get it this far so it's a bit of relief to hear there's some recognizability starting to happen there).

With the clothing, ironically d00kie you located the exact reference I modelled it from also, ta for the excellent tip about the belt color (which obviously applies to everything else too). I'm not sure about the backside, the body and the clothes are all modeled from a generic base so it might be part me being a bit out and part just the way the cut looks.