Sk8er Pandaboi

Revel

Hi guys..an idea just pop up in my mind about a boy wearing a panda mask (or helmet?) playing skateboard. So the first wip pic, here goes...Meet Sk8er Pandaboi



*Skateboard haven't modeled yet.

The idea was actually to combine the "cuteness" from the panda's head and the "hard/ roughness" from the boy's body/ attitude/ clothing, etc. in 1 character (I might have a version of a Mafia Pandaboi after I finish this one heheh.. :poly142:)

I'm not too sure about the level of detail that I currently have, I want to make it as nice as possible for a low poly character. And also not too sure about the topology, cus I'm planing to pose him later..

Suggestion anyone?

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16bit

I'd say put another edge loop between the giant gap on his torso so the topology is even. But I'm not an expert on stylized models though, a lot of things can be interpreted differently.

sltrOlsson

Yeah, as long as your not intending to bend the torso and stomach, at all, it'll be fine :P I read his body as "cute" to. Not really so ruff and cool, though i like it! I think you absolutely should stick with it!

As far as triscount goes, as long all your topology have a even size i guess everything is "fine". Maybe the last loop on the shoes could go.

I like! (:

Revel

Yeap I think I need to add few edge loops in his torso like 16bit suggested, since his going to play skateboard and need a flexible body for the nice pose.

Lol thanks, I guess you're right sltrOlsson, his body is not that rough enough..heheh actually what I mean by cute vs rough is more to "skateboarding is an x-treme sport for a creature like panda"..but I guess you got the point there, and yes his going to stick with that body (imagine if he have a full scale muscle all over his body...lol)

_Revel

Revel

Started modeling the skateboard today and I think it's pretty much finish modeling wise..here it is~



Thanks for looking..

_Revel

Raider

trucks are awful high poly considering you'll barely ever see any of that detail

dur23

Common Revel, you can make a better skateboard than that. Those trucks would collapse in like 5 seconds. The deck is too thick. It's not rounded around the edge. It has no concave or wheel bumps. :)DO IT GOOD!

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6793224-0-large.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Skateboard.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Skateboard-truck.jpg

Revel

Lol thanks for the comments guys!..hehehh I will remodel it later..don't worry..

Hi Raider, to be honest that amount of polygons is already killing me lol, it still feels like too low poly for me..I'm in the process of learning doing low poly model which I think currently I don't have enough polys like what dur23 said, its not solid enough.

Btw dur23, what do you mean by "It has no concave or wheel bumps", I'm afraid I don't get which part are you referring to?

*Now where did I put my skateboard..hmmmmm...

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MRico

Really looking forward to this man! The character is looking pretty cool already.

I agree, with dur. you can make a better skateboard! A lot of people have problems with the trucks, they are a bit tricky but try to make some legit trucks. It will just help bring everything together in the end if you make accurate models.

Are you planning on taking pandaboi into zbrush? Or just texture the low poly?

Revel

AutopsySoldier
Cheers man, thanks for the comment! Yes, I agree with the skateboard not looking very good, and I think the polycounts should be more that what I have right now. Cus 862 polys seems not enought to shape the trucks.

Probably Zbrush session only on the body to put up some muscles on him and folding clothes on his pants and generate a normal maps from that. Currently I'm targeting to apply to work for a game company and now learning (and struggling..lol) to model a low poly. I don't have that much low poly characters on my portfolio.

Will try to update a better version tonight~

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Revel

Here it is, an update that I promised before. I've remodeled the trucks and I think it looks better already (thanks to my skateboard, real object reference really help a lot! ). Some part still looks having a smoothing error though, but I hope when I already put some texture, it will hide it from an obvious error.



Surprisingly, it has a smaller number of poly compare to the one before, I though it will reach 1000 poly at least :poly132:, but on 844 polys its already looks nice. What do you guys think?

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torontoanimator

i was totally envisioning a big fat panda on a tiny hillarious skateboard....

MRico

Hey if you're worried about using up too many polys...you got a bunch of wasted ones.

For example the base for the trucks, it could just be a simple square, there really isn't a need to connect the base to that cylindrical bushing holder thing. Just float those ontop of the square base.

You could use some of those polys to shape up the concave of the deck.

Andreas

Why are the edges of the wood bevelled?? Also, the wheels could be of a lower polycount for sure...

Revel

Thanks for the comments guys! keep 'em coming, it will certainly help me learn much faster

Quick question:
Since I'm not too familiar with modeling a low poly characters/ props, so based on you guys experiences on doing a low poly model, do you guys always keep the "all quads/ tris" rule?..or can just use the n-gons for a hard surface object?..for example you can see at the inner part of the wheel (there is a totally waste of polygons there since most of the time people won't look into that part), is it better to just put an n-gon there?

_Revel

16bit

If it won't deform in anyway I occasionally allow an n-gon, but I almost never put a triangle if it's not meant for a game.

Revel

Time for another update. Currently I'm at a very basic texturing stage (diffuse + spec), rendered using Xoliulshader.



Please post any comments/ critics that you have in mind, cus it really help me making my work better! Thank you

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MRico

Looking cool man!

The grip tape looks more beat up than the bottom of the deck though. I'd scratch up the deck a bit more.

More updates!

marlfox8

how about a more unique shape for tha board like thishttp://imagesme.net/tuvie/soularc-skateboard1.jpg
http://skateandannoy.com/aa-sna-uploads/2008/05/creature.jpg
http://neocreativeblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/i-eco-skateboard.jpg

Revel

AutopsySoldier
Thanks man! really appreciate it. Yea you're right. I notice it too after I post the pic. And also the screw part it looks weird at the moment. I want to scratch the bottom deck a bit more but I just love the girl's pic lol kidding :poly124:

marlfox8
Wow I never saw a skateboard in that shape before :poly115:
How people gonna use it? Its great for a "secret" deck for a game though..heheh..
Thanks for the inspiration!

Will put more update soon!

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kaptainkernals

The last two look more like speed boards than a board you would use for kickflips etc.

Visceral

kaptainkernals wrote: »

The last two look more like speed boards than a board you would use for kickflips etc.

I would like to see anyone trying a kickflip on that first one aswell...jesus christ, nah i think you're better off with the default style board, the one everyone recognizes and loves.

Revel

Visceral + kaptainkernals
Heheh yeah..I's stick with the normal skateboard design for now..Its just interesting to see peoples design skateboard into that unique shape (even though I'm not too sure the usability on that particular skateboard)..


Update~ adding normal and gloss map..please take a look!



As always comments and critics from you guys are always welcome
*I love how the checker pattern showed up in the bottom deck's specs..lol

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tda

looking good man. you have some pretty heavy wear on the ends of the deck but none in the middle. it could benefit from a bunch of grinding wear, and damage on the trucks too.

this is a nice example of deck damagehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/32155592@N02/3185676517/
and these trucks look proper beat down http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffwharton/3563500379/

Revel

tda
Thanks man, you absolutely right..about the scratches at the side is totally too much (obviously I got carried over while doing it heheh..) and also I'm not going for the beaten up skateboard, just some moderate damage.

I guess its finish already, and will continue to do the Pandaboi's texture and stuff. So here you go..



*but if you got something in mind just post it here, I might go back into the skateboard later since a fresh perspective will always spot little mistake easily rather than me who look at it everyday.

As you can see I change the base texture of the bottom deck because the previous one looks "unfinished/ fake" so I just took a real deck picture and put it right on my deck. In my opinion it looks much better now (and still with the "personal" sign of the little girl drawing on top of it ).

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Avanthera

looks great, now hurry up and make the rider!

Revel

Pandaboi is here!..done the base diffuse texture for this character and a normal map which generate from ZBrush. Please take a look, and tell me what you think.



Actually I'm not too happy with the head so far, because in certain angle appear some shading error, I'm not sure what causing this whether the shader and light setting/ haven't do the specualr map/ any other stuff, but I might try to tweak the geometry afterward. Suggestion guys?

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MRico

Looking pretty awesome man!

Only crits right now is that his back looks really straight. He doesn't have that curvature of lower back to upper back.

And he also looks like he's wearing a diaper because there's a big gap in his crotch.

Any plans on rigging this dude and creating a little kickflip animation? I always wanted to do that, you're inspiring me to create a character and make him skate around.

Revel

Wow that was fast reply dude! And thanks for the kind words~
Owh, I see..about his back it does looks like too straight right now, but for the "diaper" is actually the style lol..so I just gonna leave it like that..hehehh, thanks for your opinion though..

About planning on rigging him, now only after you mention it I think it would be a cool idea (and with a quick half pipe environment probably hehe) but to be honest I never do a character rigging in Max before, last time I quite familiar with character rigging in Lightwave 3D, but will try to do that later in Max and see if I can figure it out.

Glad I can inspire you to do something through my work. Looking forward for your skaterboi~!

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imb3nt

Good stuff! Board turned out great!
Only thing i can really see is there is some geo in the truck hardware you could cut out if you needed to. Otherwise good work! :thumbup:

Proportions kinda Rugrat-esque.

Revel

imb3nt
Woops sorry dude, my last image showing the skateboard's wire is the old one which is 844 polys, and currently its at 650 polys and I float some of the geo.

Here is the most updated wire~



Yea you're right, the proportion is kinda Rugrat-esque, but without the diaper!..lol

Btw I change the head a bit and looks better to me now and also already completed the maps set. Here is what I'm at so far.



Most of the general part are done already, any small detail that I missed out?
C&C always welcome! Thanks you

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Smirnoffka

Fingers seem quite stubby

tda

in the pic where you have the guy on the skateboard i think the board itself seems either really long or really thin depending on how you wanna see it. dunno if it is, but it seems it

Will Faucher

@ tda
The skateboard is fine. What gives the impression of it being long/skinny is the perspective and the angle at which the screenshot is taken. Skateboards aren't wider than your feet.

One thing that really bugs me is that overblown spec on the head. What is it supposed to be made of? Some sort of nylon fleece? Cloth doesn't have any spec. Unless it is silk, satin, etc. Fleece won't shine like it does on your model right now. I get the feeling that the head is made of fiberglass that was very poorly set.

It's getting there! Just be careful of details like that.

Revel

Smirnoffka
Well the finger it self is only a simple 4 sided geo to reduce the amount of poly in the forearm. If I add more geo in that area I'm afraid the poly flow from the hand to the forearm will looks bad.

A quick update based on Prophecies's comment on the head's material. It suppose to be a soft/ fluffy kinda material which is a total FAIL on the previous update :poly132:

So I tweak the spec map a bit (well..a lot more dark/ almost pitch black actually) and get this result which what I wanted to be at the first time~



On the side not, you can see the comparison between the skateboard and the rider nicer with the not-so-much perspective distortion.

PS:
I notice something, did you guys think the amount of texture detail between the skateboard and the character looks unbalanced?..probably some scratches and dirt on the pants will do something to the overall texture level of detail..Any thought?

_Revel

Revel

Update~ok now i think I'm going to do some animation of his doing some trick, but first here is the environment that i already modeled, the Half Pipe!



I'm not too sure about the stairs, somethings wrong with it.
What do you guys think?

_Revel

Revel

Haven't update for a while, after a sleepless night watching World Cup 2010 (what a great game Germany! ) I just found a time to work on a texture..
Anyway here you go, base diffuse texture complete..please take a look~



Woops seems like I forgot to turn on the shadow..
Any comments and critic will be much appreciated!

_Revel

Revel

Update time and also I have a question about it.

For the environment I'm planing putting this skate ramp at a corner of a street. So it will have as electricity pole, a wooden bench, and a wall with a metal fench around it (and probably a little bit of a street vies at the background) and slowly fade away. So right now I have an electricity pole modeled out as you can see here..



So what I want to ask is is it a good idea on making the wire/ cable there with a SMOOTH curve type (pic. at left)? I know it will add more polygons but if its a CORNER curve type (pic. at middle) it will looks ugly with those sharp corner. If you guys have to do this which method will you take instead? or any other method to approach in doing it?

*just a side note, I'm not familiar modeling an environment :poly132:

On the right I'll show the comparison of the scale of the model to each other.
Right now its at 2030 polys, which I think it quite high, any suggestion on which part to reduce to poly counts?

Hope you guys can help me making this piece looks awesome
Fell free to comments/ critic anything that you spot which looks wrong, I'll appreciated~

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ZacD

Do it smooth and then delete as many edge loops as you can, just just add a few loops by the kinks to smooth it out more.

Revel

Thanks ZacD..
A quick question, still about the cables, area you guys going to unwrap and texture it if you work on this model? and how? (since the shape is too complicated)...

Or just apply an object color in Max? But I'm not too sure it'll work in game engine though :poly132:

_Revel

Revel

Right, so I finished the diffuse and spec map for the electric pole.
Quite happy with what I got so far, here you go..



Any thought on this piece guys?..
Next thing will be the environment: ground plane and some smaller props around the skate half-pipe.

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tda

With those cables being so high off the ground they'd almost never be in view in a skate game, it seems a waste to spend so many polys on them. A couple of rounded planes with a wire texture + normal + alpha would do the job just as well imo and save a lot of precious tris.

Revel

Thanks tda for the input and I already tried that, but turns out to be a not very good result. I noticed the problem mainly because of the way Max handle alpha/ opacity render based on which object created first/ last. Looking through the newer object created it'll render the alpha correctly but when I looking through the older object created in front of the newer one it'll not render the transparent.

And I think its better to stick with this one by sacrificing 300+ poly rather than display error.

_Revel

Revel

Update..here it is the latest progress about my skate park environment.

Front view..



Back view..



Any thought about this piece?
Anyway thanks for viewing it guys

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Will Faucher

Not bad at all! I would desaturate the dirt part a little bit. It just seems to vibrant a brown/orange. Other than that I'd say you're on the right track! Although, why does it look like the electrical wire is attached to the halfpipe?

Revel

Prophecies
Thanks for the kind word man!
Lol..its not connected to the half pipe, well I just notice it does looks like that when you said that heheh...it actually a gradually transparent to the edge of the wire, because of the perspective it looks as if it connected down to the half pipe. The wire is 90deg separation to each other. Will fix that "optical illusion"!

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Will Faucher

Ahhh yeah I just noticed that! My bad :P
Keep up the good work though!

Revel

Here's a quick update on the soil and the electric wire illusion..



For now I think I can call it done....well until a great suggestions come in and I will open the file again..hehehh..
Next will be experimenting with the animation, and a reason to open youtube for some "research" on skateboard tricks ..lol

_Revel