Pawn WIP - 'The Nerd'

Tom Ellis

Hey all,

Firstly I'm not sure if this is allowed, posting a comp entry for GA on Polycount... if it's not, feel free to remove it!

Anyway, GA are running a mini-comp with the theme 'Chess Set'.

Those who don't know about it, the idea is to create pieces from a chess set with an alternative theme, trying to keep in mind the hierarchy of the pieces.

My idea was the stereotypical high school social system.

Pawn = Nerd
Rook = Fat Kid
Knight = Frat Boy (This was a suggestion from someone since knights move in various directions, like a drunk frat person might do)
Bishop - Freak Goth girl into Witchcraft
Queen - Cheerleader / Prom Queen
King - Jock / Captain of the football team

The deadline on the first stage is in a couple weeks so I wanted to get a concept out quickly so I get plenty of time to work on the model.

Drawing isn't my strong point so excuse that, also skinny people are hard to draw with any life in them.

Here's piece number 1!

Tom Ellis

Ok got the base modeled today, It's my first character, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out although there's gonna need to be a whole lot of ZBrush magic happening to get it looking great.

If anyone wants to crit about proportions, downright obvious problems etc, that'd be great at this stage!

Thanks

Gallows

The model seems like it should be a bit more lanky to match that concept. Also his side pose looks a bit stiff, but looks great. Keep it up!

Tom Ellis

Thanks for the reply, you're right, it does look a little stockier than the concept.

Started sculpting the head this evening, again, little to no ZBrush experience so it's kinda primitive.

I'm going for the TF2 kinda vibe just because I think it'll suit the theme of the project.

The mouth is kinda jacked right now but I'll fix that.

Gallows

Looking good, kind of reminds me of Bioshock for some reason? But are you planning on rigging the face at all? If so, you gotta kill that expression for now.

Steve Schulze

If you're going for a TF2 flavour (or even if not) you might want to work on making the silhouette a little more interesting. Perhaps take a look at the scout for a vaguely similar point of reference. He's very straight up and down how. Personlly, I'd probably give him a worse posture from sitting reading books or messing with his computer all the time and exaggerate the shapes of his clothes to some degree.

Tom Ellis

Thanks for the replies, and helpful suggestions.

Gallows - Good point, right now I do intend to rig the face so thanks for reminding me on that, I will...ahem.. wipe that smirk off his face.

Jackablade - I agree the silhouette is currently a little uninspiring to say the least, but he will be fully rigged and carrying the briefcase so pose and posture will be changed. If I have any tri's left once the main model is done, I may add other accessories. I'll see what I can do in ZBrush with regard to the clothing silhouette, it does need attention I agree.

Tom Ellis

Ok sculpt update.

I altered the form a little and 'skinny'd him up' bit. He still looks a little shorter and stockier than the concept but I like it better I think.

The head might be a touch big but it's a seperate mesh so I may shrink that down.

Decided I won't be rigging the head so left the expression, and the pose is obviously generic as the body will be rigged.

And yes... the shoes suck.

Crits please!

Dracula

Looks good but there are some thing that you can change to make him more nerdy:
1.The hole where the biceps meets the forearm seems to deep.It makes his biceps looks muscular.
2.You can pull up the pants even more and tuck the shirt in the pants .
3.His expressions looks evil but not nerdy but maybe some glasses will change that.


Reference:

Tom Ellis

thanks for the reply Dracula.

I've adjusted the musculature a little, and I do indeed intend on giving him a pair of glasses, I will add those last though I think.

Here's an update... normals baked, and applied without retouching yet.

This was my first ever retopo so if anyone is facepalming at how bad it is then that's my excuse.

It's currently at just over 4k tri's, the limit is 6k but I may need a few for the accessories.

jakelear

I experienced the same thing the first time I did retopology.
I went a little nuts drawing polygons without really thinking about them.

You have a lot of loops that you could lose. Look at your silhouette and determine which loops are actually altering the outline of the mesh and which ones are just there.

An example of this is the thighs, you have basically two loops that define the tube that makes up the thigh, the rest of those are, for the most part, superfluous.

Also, you mentioned earlier that you plan to rig the body. The way your hips are bult right now, the legs are going to come out looking like spaghetti noodles hanging from the torso when you animate them. Think of a hip bone as a v-shape, which the legs socketing into either side of the V, this will allow you to have a much more realistic animation.

As far as the elbows go, there's some really great tips on ways to improve the elbow topology for a better bend. http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=61079

You can probably apply some of those tips for the knee as well.

Stick with it man, it's lookin good!

Tom Ellis

Thanks for the tips, much appreciated!

Started texturing tonight. Crits are more than welcome please!

Steve Schulze

His skin is a bit lumpy looking. I'd suggesting getting in there with the smooth and polish brushes and getting it looking a bit more consistent before you get too far into texturing.

ralusek

i think his arms look too short for that exaggerated "lanky" style. his hands seem a little small too. i tend to like overexaggerated things though, so take it with a grain of salt

Tom Ellis

Ok final submission piece.

The deadline is the 25th but I'm not gonna get a chance to work on it again now until at least Feb.

It was my first ever character, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The pose is ruuuuushed because I had so little time to work on the rig. In fact I barely even rigged it at all.

It's not a patch on 99% on the entries in the comp but I had a lot of fun and learned a LOT!