Female character progress thread - your input and comment are appreciated

coachsta

Hey this is my thread for my dissertation, which will feature a female character
I am creating a realistic looking female, at the moment i am about to start the concepts but before i do there are 5 potential characters that i am choosing from, below shows the table with their information:

Your input would be very welcome, please choose a character and say why, or suggest/ammend a character, comments are appreciated
Progress for this thread will be updated regularly as it has to be finished by April 27th, so check back every couple of days for updates
[FONT=&quot]Coachsta[/FONT]

East

Well, does anything catch your fancy? As you have a choice, might as well pick something that you feel you can muster the biggest burning passion for.

coachsta

true but it has to be what the 'people' want hence im opening it up to everyone, kind of like a poll and ill go with the most popular

East

My vote's for the Survivor then. Seems like the most fun and the least chance to get turned into some underaged oversexed schoolgirl (not saying I'm entirely against that, but it's been done a lot).

And if you're going to sex her up, make it a more mature sexy MILF sexyness.



Wow, 4 sentences including this one and I've used the word "sex" 5 times. I think it's time to sleep....

Marine

i'm with east on this, we might choose something you absolutely fucking hate though, then you'll just end up not having any passion for it and it'll turn out half-arsed.

concepts, even just quick thumbs, would help too, a bunch of text to read is boring

GarageBay9

'Survivor' is blank?

Alyx Vance, dude.


And from a concept point of view... the most successful concept will be the one you like. Trust me on this. If somebody isn't paying you, it's not worth the aggravation and frustration of having to force yourself to do a good job on something you can't stand looking at.

coachsta

East - lol thanks for the advice ill keep that in mind

Marine - i understand where your coming from but i have to create what the people want, from a questionnaire i distributed a while back these 5 characters are the ones which seem to fit the bill, so its just weeding them down to one. to be honest im quite fond of all of them, but i am partial to some over others

GarageBay09 - i did think about alex vance actually or a similar style character but wanted more of a story and detail for the character to motivate me and keep the character true to a defined description

p.s. survivor shouldnt be blank, i think its how i print screened the table and put it together

[Deleted User]

A giraffe is a horse designed by committee. A mule is a horse that only does what other people want it to.

That said, I like the girl next door. Or that combined with the survivor. L4D Zoey or Alyx Vance with glasses is what I'm getting at, I guess.

theStoff

Hm, I'd say go with the survivor as well. Seems like the one that is open to the most originality. However, I would have to agree with what most other people said. You don't want to end up with something you don't like. If you want to go with what "the people want" then I'd say try a few sketches for the most voted character. Of course, if you aren't enjoying the project at that stage I'd say cast that aside and pick something you like more.

TSWarnke

I would vote for a survivor, but not the common bodice ripped, I needed saved girl.

coachsta

VOTING TIME!!!

After gathering the results of the characters the two most popular were the survivor and the girl next door, so ive devised a concept of each character, vote for the one you prefer!!! (i like them both)



Modelling will start Saturday so youve got until then to post your vote, Happy voting

C & C's please

AsaNYC

I'd go with the Survivor as the Girl Next Door seems more like an idealized woman than the average gal.

coachsta

The votes for the concept to date are:

Survivor - 13
Girl next door - 19

Thus suggesting that the community want to see the girl next door, however the total votes (including descriptions) were:

Survivor - 24
Girl next door - 23

Making it very even, so due to a suggestion made by Omegaminus1 on the epic forum it has been decided to mix these two characters using the looks of the girl next door (from feedback the looks of Allison Stokke and Katie homes gained votes for this concept) and the survivor lost votes due to Michelle Rodriguez and the more "butch" look.

Artax from the Epic forum also suggested the survivor due to it being more interesting and challenging, and i agree

Stay tuned for modelling progress

coachsta

Creating the base mesh

I spent a good deal yesterday roughing out the general form for the model seen below:



Obviously this isnt complete, im looking to get a decent enough looking base mesh so i can get it into ZBrush and do the good stuff

An update post of the completed base mesh will hopefully be posted in 15 or 24 hours

gauss

Well keep going. Honestly it's a long, difficult path to creating really good female character models, but if you are up for the endless reworks and start-overs, there are few better ways to improve both your artistic perception and your grasp of all the most important organic modeling techniques.

I agree with the others that say you need to follow the concept that you like the most. If and when you build models professionally you will not really have your say anymore, so enjoy it in your personal work. You'll get plenty of direction, wanted and unwanted, later on.

coachsta

thanks for the input ill keep that in mind

coachsta

Heres a little update of what i was working on yesterday, I was sorting out the head as previously i just had a box which was just for proportions and also i did the hand, which im relatively happy with.



Going to continue to rework the main body today

coachsta

So heres an update of the work done today, i was putting a lot of it together today as well as doing lots of tweaking that i think has imporved the shape but still some way to go, need to start adding detail to the mesh to where it is a consistent amount over the mesh, i.e. having the high poly done



thats it from me today, check back tomorrow, night all

coachsta

Quick update from the last couple of days, ive been focusing on the high poly mesh tryingto get something decent with my limited ZBrsh skills :P

Here we go, without clothes/without:



Toughts and comments?

coachsta

So i havent updated in a while, no worries ive been busy with other modules and the report writing for this project , the joy Lately i have taken all feedback into consideration and attempted to refine the model to look better, but ive had to press on to keep with my schedule. The low poly model has been unwrapped and ive created a normal map for the model seen below:





Comments welcome and will be considered having enough time, but for now i am pushing ahead with this project to stay on track, next up is the diffuse map, i created a real basic base colours one, below:



When viewing the model in the viewport the material is fine but when it comes to rendering all the colours bloom bright, anyone have any advice on this?

hawken

It's amazing progress on some levels but I think you should roll this back a little and get some decent feedback on your base mesh before committing to high poly.

I know it can be exciting to try this process out as quickly as possible but you have to learn to walk before you can run.

There are some very talented and patient people on here that can really give good advice.

For me, I'd start with the head and work your way down, asking for crits on each part.

As far as I can see, the head appears to be too thin

chrisradsby

I agree with hawken, you should slow down and fix the proportions first. It's easy to go hurry to get things done but you need to take in the crits before. No one gets it right the first time.

You want this to be quite realistic yes? You might want to get the proportions looking more like this: http://bradkachel.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/female_figure.jpg
It depends on how you want to work, if you feel like you're too far into the process you might want to finish this and move on, and take what you've learned into your next project.

Good luck mate

coachsta

thanks for those comments guys, unfortunately due to bad scheduling i had to create the model quickly in order to have it in for the deadline, but i will definately take into account what you guys have said, and yes the realism of that photo is what i ideally would have wanted, i will practice my skills over the summer focusing on taking my time and practice new skills

So i have unfortunately ran our of time so here is the final model, i wish i had more time but with the project due in soon i cant work on it anymore as i need to focus on parts of the report. feel free to comment on anything that i could take aboard for future projects