Second attempt at modeling. Take pity

traden

edit - (Second attempt at modeling a complete character)

I'm pretty new to 3d modeling, so i though it would be a good exercise to try and model a high poly character from start to finish. Here's what I have so far.

I would really appreciate feedback. :poly121:

initial concept:



view 01 :




view 2 :




thanks in advance!

traden

here's the mesh

whipSwitch

well, It's a damn solid start. I'd fix the geo in the beard(get rid of those two hug polys on either side, and slice across the whole beard a couple times) and the tabard ( looks like the arm holes where cut from a cylinder and called done. Add some reallt loops around the arms holes).

Another thing to note is be sure to balance your detail a little better. 95% of all the visual interest in the character is from a front view. While this may be good for particular applications, I would start adding some interest to the sides and back, as well as flesh out the legs a bit more. ( model some boots insteaod of putting small armour plates over a large single mass)

great start though, keep it up.

Mark Dygert

Off to a good start.

Things to remember:
- Smoothing groups will create breaks in your model on export, so will UV seams. So plan them both out carefully.
http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/provost/byf2.html
This is incredibly helpful in explaining why.
- Need to think about edge flow for animation, as well as optimization.
- Depending on how the model is rigged up you might want the beard modeled right into the chest or at the very least it needs edges and polys that match closely the edges and polys on the chest. That way when he bends and twists you have points roughly in the same spot that will deform roughly the same and hopefully minimize clipping.

traden

@whipSwitch - good call on the arm loops. Ill add some detail to the beard.
I was definitely sloppy with the boots.

@Vig - good call, I hadn't thought of animation at all. I'll try gluing the beard to the chest. thanks for the link.


I'm using modo, and when i subdivide so of the elements really change shape...should i try to get the low poly and subdivide version as close to one another as possible ? Does this affect normal mapping at all?

d00kie

It looks like his forehead is coming a little too far forward on the model, almost as if its a helmet. I'd pull it back a bit and look at some side profile reference pics of dwarves.

- It'd also be good practice to have a poly limit, so you can work within those boundaries. But seeing it's only your second model i suppose you can have more freedom.

- Maybe you could consider modeling the fangs on the spaulders as a separate mesh. That way you can save polys and not fuss with making it look correct modeled directly into the spaulders mesh.

- You've got this sweet dual belt design in your concept, but it's not on the model. I'd try and work that whole lower body part in there, could be tough but it'd look great. As for now, it seems like you took the easy route and made a belt.

It's a damn good start and it'd be nice to see this one finished to the end. It seems pretty ambitious for a second model, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger I hear.

traden

@d00kie - I like the poly limit idea. My strategy was to not worry about the poly count, get a good looking model then go in and chip away at the polygons...is this a bad approach?

- what do you mean by dual belt? 2 separate belts holding up the axe and bag?

thanks for the feedback!

d00kie

Oh yeah definitely, optimizing after you'll built your mesh is a perfectly fine and encouraged in most cases. I was just implying that you'd stay away from say making a 12k model and optimizing it down to a 3k or 4k tri model. I'm not saying that you can't do that because you can, but in my experience I'd make a nice semi-high poly and get really frustrated over loss of detail when I optimized it. I'd put so much geometry in (stuff that really didn't help the silhouette: useless bevels and edge loops, etc. ) that when I optimized it, it looked like utter mess. But if you go into the building process with a poly limit already decided, you can make better decisions as how to go about building your mesh to meet that limit. And you can decide what actually needs modeling and what can be achieved with textures.

As for the dual belt design, I was referring to this:


In your concept you have what seems to be 2 belts coming from under his codpiece area on his thighs. But in your model, you just have him with a belt and no codpiece/junk armor. I thought it would be cool if you actually modeled the junk protecting gear and the belts/pouches instead of going with a belt.

traden

hehe, oh THOSE belts. I guess i should follow my concept sketches a little closer

d00kie

heh, it couldn't hurt. It's a very nice concept in my opinion. get crackin' :poly128:

traden

I've updated his armor, let me know what you think. :poly121:

traden

here's a quick render with some default modo materials:




I want to add a bunch of rivets/screws to the armor, would it be best to do all that detailing in zbrush and create a normal map?

-thanks

traden

armor rivet example. can i get something that pronounced with a normal map?

killingpeople

yeah, i think you can put that in the normal map

traden

@killinpeople - thanks, ill give it a try. well, this is the last time im going to spam my own thread tonight I swear



W.I.P.

goodnight all

Alec3d

Thats looking really good! Can't wait to see the finished model.

traden

@Alec3d - thanks, still have a lot of work to do.

Krypteia

On the note of normal mapping the rivets and such:

http://www.tutorialhero.com/click-59706-using_floating_geometry_when_baking_normal_maps.php

traden

I made a bit of progress today. I still have have a bit of modeling to do before I UV.



Critiques more then welcome.

thanks

traden

@Krypteia : thanks for the link!