character texturing WIP

kotter

hey guys and gals,

inspired by all the awesome hand painted characters floating aroung I thought I'd give it a go myself. This character is based on a concept by marko djurdjevic for parasytic moon. I'm using bodypaint for the first time and I'm loving every second of it, however I'm unable to display the alpha properly in the viewport but I'm sure there's some way of fixing that.

I think I've reached a point where I'm able to take in some critique and tips on how to push it further so if you got it, let me have it!

cheers :thumbup:

Final result:


presentation:


and the texture:

achmedthesnake

hey kotter -

nice start so far - you've got the tones down well - maybe some more definition around the bust/bewb/torso area; she may be "flat" but i'm preety sure we'd see something - some shadow on the underside of the red cheastwrap perhaps (+underboob )...

pants are a bit noisy - but it really depends on how readable it is from it's intended view

the armor/metal seems ok - but the first bit on the waist seems to lack a lighting direction (i.e. sun above) - the 'shine' (washed out white bit) just looks a bit off to me whereas the peices underneath look ok...

oh and no seams! great!

c0ldhands

it think it looks great, I even like the pattern on the pants. Like the post above me by achmed, i also agree that maybe it should need more shadows maybe under the armpit, a bit flat right now...but these are all small quirks. once you get the alphas done and the hair its gonna look pretty amazing. Have you considered to give her some sort of "not necesassy weapon" but something that she would carry? U know, just to make things more interesant.

kotter

thanx for the input.

I've started adding some shadows and depth but not enough to justify an update. And I'm sad to say there will be no underboobs this time
I know what you mean about the armor and I'll try to come up with something else. Since that piece is allmost vertical it's a little harder to get the shading interesting.

in the concept she's carrying two daggers so I'm gonna try to fit them in there, I think I have enough space for something like that.

haikai

Let me know if you ever find a way to get a nice preview of alpha transparency without having to hit the render button every time in Bodypaint

I don't know what the original concept looks like, but my first impression is that it starts to get busy in the lower half of the model. The main culprit is probably the design on the pants... maybe if the yellow lines were toned down?

The metal pieces are also very high contrast. The metal is going to be picking up a lot of bounced light from itself and the colors around it so I think the dark areas could be brought up a bit and tone the highlights down.

It kind of feels like you're trying to indicate many sources of light around the model which kind of flattens things out. I'm a fan of the idea of keeping most of your light from front and back and letting things darken a bit towards the sides because you get a chance to really indicate forms that way and give the model some focus.

This is looking good though. The rendering and shading is nice, and the model looks well shaped from what I can see.

kotter

guess I should post an update of where I'm at. I get what you're saying about the lighting haikai and I'll try to define the light source a little better. I'm kind of liking the skin on the chest are right now, wich was previously my main area of concern. Now I'm getting more concerned about the metal parts as you guys've commented on so I'll have to give that another go. I added a couple of knives and just rushed up a quick coloring on them. I thinned out the golden stripes on her pants and gave her a first pose.
I'm kind of liking parts of the pose but the main problem area is the way her buttcloth interacts with the pants... would be fixable if the damned thing wasn't mirrored.

shotgun

the problem with the metal is its got too much mid-tone shading. there really rn't any highlights unless there's a bend or a curve in the metal, so theres's not need to put so much of them airbrushy stuff (back calf muscles, front pelvic armor). u've got it right on the back and face mask, where the form is clearly defined but not as contrasty as it should be, while the side armor - which is pretty uniform - get's over exposed.
in general, also, i'd suggest keeping the uber highlights to the focal point... (face etc)

kotter

thanks for the tips shotgun. I've started going through the entire texture again from the top and I'm trying to define the lights a little better. after a bit of additional painting I decided to bake out a light map and added it as a 50% soft light on top of everything. the cloth on her chest got a little washed out but I haven't had time to do any tweaks to the lightmap yet so that'öö be fixed.

Next up I'll go over the plates around her waist and feet to try and get them to the same level as the helmet.

here's a comparison of the old and the new with a lightmap added:

movento

Looks even better now.
I just posted here to say that i really love your models.
Could you post a wire of the model?

kotter

thanx movento, glad you like them I've got some wires here just for you:


bit of an update here. Kinda getting close to satisfaction but I still have some areas to cover and maybe add something to make it more interesting.

zxcman

nicely done!

haikai

I like the improvements. It's a lot more realistic looking now, and the dulled metal and turning down the saturation works better than I would have thought it would. I think she could use some more definition in the skin areas on the torso, and the back of the boots seem like it's missing some detail or something.

Really nice work!

achillesian

loving this, especially the torn cloth strips

ablaine

Yeah it's looking great. Loving the way the armor is turning out.

Jaco

Awesome work man! Agreed about it needing something to add some more visual interest.

Some areas look like they haven't had much attention, like the back of the lower legs and maybe the exposed skin of the upper body. The entire back also looks like it needs some love, especially when compared to all the busy detail on the front. Maybe some scratches on the armor, stains, markings on the cloth etc? Some stronger shading on the shoulder blades and pit of the back would help too.

Keep it up!

Quasar

Hey Cotter, this is turning out real nice! Going with what Shotgun pointed out, I still think her head needs something to draw more attention to it. By toning down the highlights on the armor covering her mid section, you have increased focus to her head, but it's still not enough. Right now my attention is drawn immediately to the upper body because of the contrast between the bright skin and the red top. Maybe try adding a touch of bright yellow to her mask or her hair, I think that would give sufficient contrast and also tie in with the visual theme of her pants.

Keep going!

The_Kozmonaut

Hot stuff. Really like it, but also basically agree with everything Jaco just said about improvements.

Edit: At the same time the more I look at it, I wouldn't mind it if there were no changes lol

Makkon

Just amazing! I love how the lower-body turned out, those pants are fantastically bold. Your texture work is fabulous, and it's amazing to think that you hand painted it all. Love it!

kotter

thx guys, appreciate the feedback.

I've got a lunch break coming up so I'll try to work on the parts you've mentioned.

Makkon: thx alot, though I need to confess. I've kind of strayed a little from the completely hand painted part. I added a light bake to help getting a more unified shading and there's one or two overlays to get the smaller details in there

shotgun

100 times better

Suggesionts:
- bring back the color and matt-ness to the pants / gloves
- consider adding the pants purple to the shoe, where the armor doesn't cover it
- reduce the red towards bottom of cloth, possibly grunge texture overlay
- add more details to the rear view as it considerably less interesting than front (calf-armor definition, arm-cloth decoration that extends from yellow stuff at the top to elbow, maybe even a few yellow/orange features could spice her up)

c0ldhands

Tripping balls here man, that occlusion, like they say in the game industry "took it to the next level".

kotter

thanks alot for the suggestions shotgun, they're very helpfull.

I spent some more time on the back of the torso, plates and boots. Added some colors to the knives, desaturated the red cloth at the bottom and a golden rim on the helmet that might help bring the focus a little more towards the head.

shotgun

The attention is usually drawn to the area with the most contrast... which is still the pants. Somewhere closer to the original posts might work better.

The tear mark on the calf is gr8, well placed. The highlights on the hump-armor take it towards the plastic again, u've gotta watch those speculars.

Also - this might be a render issue but - the cloth alpha could use some softening. It almost looks like it was done with the pencil tool

Beyond this I'd say u'r done - good job!

rollin

what shotgun said .. you need to make the face more attractive / detailed

haikai

The red chest cloth seems like it's made out of one continuous loop of fabric. I suppose I'd expect it to be fastened somehow in the back. This could be a nice way to add some area of focus on the back.

bounchfx

looks great man. want to show the flats?

kotter

I've toned down the contrast on the pants, tried to make something more of the cloth (haven't decided on that pattern yet), split up some parts in the centre to make it less "mirrored". I still need to work some more on the back armor I think and I'll try to make the face more attractive.

the alpha is a rendering issue, it's alot softer in maya. I'll probably use maya for the final shots.

kotter

and here's the texture as it iw right now in the original size

Froyok

Damn !
I love this girl, very nice colors. I want the same pants !
For the skin, maybe you can try to add some details, it's a littbe bit too smooth here.

Spur

Wow nice job! I dont have any crit to add other than it looks sharp as hell!

Neox

i have one crit, why don't the edges on the back of her lower legs catch light?

kotter

I've added some small details to the skin and the back of the lower legs. They were supposed to be smooth in the back and "edgy" on the sides but I guess that didn't come out right :P

anyways, I'm calling this one done (for now) so huge thanks to all of you for the great tips and feedback. I've got a bunch of concepts from the same series so I hope to do another one in the near future.

The finals will be posted on the first page.

thanks again :thumbup:

Froyok

Hmmm, her hands are not too small ?

mindrot

This is looking fantastic. Always great to see some quality hand painted texturing.

Gotta agree with what has been said about the face.

kotter

Froyok: the hands look small in the pose, probably because of bad skinning/bone placement or something like that. I've replaced the wire image with her neutral pose where the hands look the way they're supposed to