GouGhram - Turtle Man

Xyniph

Hey, in my spare time for the past couple days between work I've been bringing the character that a friend of mine made as plot point in a D&D game this past year into 3D. Wanted some critiques on him, since I'm still trying to push practice on modeling basics, especially with the edgeloops on his head.

First of all, the concepts for GouGhram that my friend put together for the large bulky elder turtle:


And what I've got so far with a couple hours of work. Still have to add the obvious; hands and feet, along with his tail. Since he's coming in at <2k polys so far, I'll be able to build up more detail without concern.



Also, while at work today I left this rendering;
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PEeXQotg-I[/ame]

Going to try to keep updating here. Using the fact that I'm posting this to motivate me to keep working on him around work. >.>

Xyniph

Sorry about the double post, but I've got an update. Over the past couple days I've gotten some more time on this guy; made him a bit more bulky around the front, tweaked the silhouette a bit, finished the hands and feet, added some geometry around the eye, and cleaned up some other areas. I'd love any critiques on edgeflow, and advice especially on the hands, head, and feet.



I've also got another rendered turnaround of him. (they're easy to leave rendering while at work, and I like seeing the different shader/look in case anything stands out.)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JcR1re78PY[/ame]

I guess next up is to start UV mapping him. Probably not going to be able to normal map him, since I have no tablet or sculpting program while not at school. But it'll be good practice for a solid diffuse map.

Ninjai

The head seems to have more of a flap than a shell/natural armour thing like it does in the concept.
Looks pretty fly for a turtle guy though
Also: Are you going to make a hi-poly?

Xyniph

@ Ninjai: Thanks for the reply
I probably won't make a high poly. During the summer while I don't have college resources it's more difficult to do high poly work. Computer can't really handle it, and I'd have to sculpt with a mouse.
Here's a closeup of he head plates though. Any suggestions?



The plan for him is to have a decent low poly model with at least a good diffuse texture. I'm starting on my portfolio, and trying to not only have school projects in it.

Gallows

The design is overall pretty nice, it's just the arms look a bit too tight and high for my liking. I'd say if you wanted lower the shoulders a bit to a more relaxed look and maybe extend the hands and elbows a bit as well. Anyway, keep it comin'!

Ninjai

Ah, actually yeah it does look better close up, but i think the lower plate could extend further back, depending on whether the turtle can look up or not. Maybe just make it a bit thicker?

Still, it looks awesome

3DRyan

Add more polys on the face to give it more character. Faces in games tend to be higher poly, so you get away with having more edge loops.

Xyniph

Sorry its been a couple of days, just got a day off to start working. Also, I'll be getting a tablet soon, so I'm really looking forward to painting this guy!

@Gallows: Thanks for the response. I may go back and tweak the shoulder positions later. I tried relaxing them a bit, but the actual location of the shoulders seemed odd then. Down the road, posing him may help. For now I'll probably let it be.

@Ninjai: I'm going to leave it as is until I get a basic texture onto him. Hopefully the change in skin color/texture to the more shell-like color/texture will help it along. Thanks for pointing it out though, I'll be sure to emphasize with the texture.

@3DRyan: How's this for smoothing out the face with more edgeloops? I also added detail to the hand for knuckles, and hopefully better deformation.

Sorry I didn't get the exact angles on the comparison shots... really close though.

Xyniph

Alright, got him mapped at least reasonably well. I've never unwrapped anything more complex than basic shapes before, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome here. 3 texture sheets, not sure if I should break it down to two or not.







And another turnaround:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcKyRyBXzjY[/ame]

Xyniph

Sorry about the double post, but since it's a full update I figured it's alright. So, for anyone who cared about this character, Ive gotten back on him. I may not touch this guy again for awhile, but I've learned a lot from him. As always, critiques are welcome .

Right, anyways, so after a month of an hour here or there on him, I've redone the UVs, and gotten the textures done. Two maps, much better than before, and another turnaround of him;

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U3G4Om8H08[/ame]

Neox

you can definitely pimp the texture much more, right now its looks very monochrome, give the colours same variations in the shadows and the highlights, looks almost as if you painted greyscale and then slapped a colour on top of the shading

[SF]Three9

eh, im not the best texture artist myself, but i like it. He has character, feels like a turtle, and it's a nice style...the only critique i have may actually be a faulty one. I kinda feel like all the lined detailed is a bit too predictable and it all goes pretty much the same way (even on the shell parts it goes in a perfect circle)...I just kinda feel like there should be a bit of variation here and there to add a bit more character

Regardless I love him and am actually going to use him as reference for my senior films main character that is also a turtle (texture only, not model unfortunately...my class went with a slightly boring design, boo) :P

chrisradsby

I wasn't expecting much to be honest, but hey awesome textures dude Now you need to work on some kind of pose, a little more personality to it and getting a good presentation of the character. Really nice man!

dur23

Looking at your textures, it appears you only use a couple different types of techniques to create your textures. Big air brush to make your large shapes and then you jump right down to the micro single pixel wide brushes.
I suggest you learn how to use an ol' polycount favorite. The 100% hard edges smudge brush with only opacity on your tablet sensitivity. That plus a varying set of new shapes and understanding how to light them will help greatly in creating better and more "realistic" shapes.

The best tutorial i've seen since the days pcounters like per and dh used to record their paint strokes is this: http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
I suggest you go through the whole thing. Whole!

Here is what i came up with in about 30 minutes of mucking around. The biggest difference i tried to achieve was the color variation and the general shapes.


I hope that helps some.

Xyniph

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I'll definitely have to go over that link dur23, and go back over the texture work. Thanks a ton for that!

As for posing him, chrisradsby, I know nexto to nothing about posing characters. Would I have to rig him first? Or just make another scene and manually move geometry around?

Mike Yevin

Zyniph - You should try moving geometry around manually, its fun :P But in all seriousness, rigging is obviously what you need to do. It's not that difficult if your willing to learn, and it can breathe a lot of life into your models.

Looking forward to your next update