Back to Basics - Low Poly Naked Male

Tom Ellis

Hey all.

With my Comicon Challenge entry wrapping up and a month or so until DW, I thought I'd get into another learning project.

I've been studying anatomy for the past few months and thought it might be best to go back to basics a little and start with a lower poly character than try and jump straight into ZBrush and start sculpting.

So the plan is to get a decent, well-formed generic human, low poly, maybe 1500 tris or so max. Naked for the most part, maybe some underwear.

The second part of the plan is to then hand-paint textures, which should not only help my painting skills but also allow me to paint in muscle groups.

Not a very exciting project to watch I'm afraid but it's more of a learning thing for me, and hopefully the end result will be portfolio worthy anyway.

As always, crits all the way will be much appreciated. I'll try not to move onto each next step until I've fixed problems people point out.

To begin with, here's where I'm at. The one main bit I'm not entirely sure about it the ass. I need to go look at some butt topology I think to clean it up some but it's not looking right at the moment.

gibson543

I think the hands are a little small compared to the ref

MainManiac

Could you post ALOT of pictures as you paint? Thanks :P

Tom Ellis

Thanks guys.

I really should've named this thread something else lol.

Ok hands will be fixed. And Frell, I'll try to post my process on the painting once I get there.

wake

You've got some issues here, particularly with the hips-- right now it's a very effeminate proportion. Narrow them a bit, and flatten out the area around the sides of the legs connecting at the hips; he's too curvaceous atm.

I've written a large post on one of Pogo's thread that addresses many of the anatomical issues that you're having; it's too long to repeat so just head over there and take a look and it should help you out.

Good luck man, keep posting.

Tom Ellis

Thanks wake, very helpful.

I'll have a proper read of your post, it looks like it would be of good use.

I see what you mean and that kinda sticks out to me too those thighs do look a bit girly.

In all honesty, when I look at it, it just looks so damn boring. I mean the guy I used for ref was in good shape, but stylistically speaking it makes for a pretty dull model. Do you think it's worth taking a bit of artistic license and making it more interesting, not least from a silhouette standpoint.

Emphasize crests/valleys, maybe exaggerate proportions (a little) whilst retaining a pretty realistic anatomical structure?

It's supposed to be an anatomy building experience but I'd rather have him looking interesting.

What dya reckon?

wake

Nope. Eat your vegetables before you can have desert. Taking stylistic license requires first having a strong understanding of the source material, which you don't have yet. It may be a bit of a slog at times, but sticking to realistic anatomy until you're more familiar with it will go a long way in making your more stylistic pieces much stronger.

d2king10

His hip/waist area needs to come up, and possibly make his arms longer. The problem is, you are taking a full frontal picture and comparing it on top of an image that is taking from slightly above.

pior

Ill ask you again ... where is your own 2D model sheet ? Take the time to draw the front, side and persp angles before you start modeling. It will become a roadmap of what to put in the model, and what to omit.

Tom Ellis

Thanks for the replies.

Wake - Ok I got ya. Seems sensible!

D2King - Good call, I didn't think of that and that would explain a few issues I was having with lining up the orthos.

Pior - I'm using a photo ref sheet. This isn't intended to be anything other than a naked guy with the idea of improving my anatomy skills in both modeling (beginning at this lower level of detail) and painting when I come to texture it. Do you think I should draw up some orthos anyway?

Here's a portion of the ref I'm using

pior

Yup, I do think so. You need to filter out the shapes with you minds eye before attempting to model that, especially in lowpoly. Group shapes knowing that youll only get a few polies to describe them, and so on. I mean its free practice too - you know that by drawing that, you'll get better, so why even skip the step ?

Tom Ellis

Ok good points, I will draw up some ref planes then, thanks for the advice!

Tom Ellis

Ok following Piors advice I've sketched out some ref planes, definitely a nice little exercise!

Crits are encouraged (not on the quality of the painting itself obviously ), especially before I jump into modeling so I can fix anything that needs fixing before I go to 3D.

Tom Ellis

Back to 3D today.

Something about this clearly doesn't look right, I'm thinking it's the deltoid area.

I've been pushing polys all afternoon though and I think it needs a fresh pair of eyes. Crits will be amazing please.

Tom Ellis

Fixed the shoulder topology and shape a little today. Also tweaked proportions.

He's gonna ba wearing boxer-shorts or similar which explains his lack of a crease between his butt.

Again, crits are welcomed at this stage so I can fix up issues before moving on with this.

Smash

Character modelling is something I struggle with greatly! the whole proportion of the body is hard to get.

Good Job looks really nice so far.

Tom Ellis

Cheers Smash.

Yep, human proportions are a difficult thing to master, and I've still got a lot to learn.

It all comes down to anatomy study, and it's something I'm trying to dedicate a lot of time to.

After much consideration, character art is definitely what I want to do, so it's important I can properly flesh out a decent looking shape at different specs. A few people have said to me it's important to be able to do this and I think it's mentioned in one of the GIM podcasts that too many people jump into sculpting some high res, current gen thing without first having the ability to create something realistic proportionately at lower detail levels. Loomis also says in one of his books that it's impossible to create a properly clothed figure without being able to create what's underneath so I figured this would be a useful little project.

The plan is to do a female afterwards in the same way.

It's fun though, I love low-poly assets anyway, and find the non-normal mapped 'old-school' methods so inspiring.

Zwebbie

I don't like what you've done to the shoulder - a large part of the arm is now directly attached to the chest, which means the entire side of the ribcage will stretch whenever the arm makes a move. It'll probably become twice as long when you lift his arms up in the air. Take all of this with a grain of salt from someone who can only barely rig, but I think the old tube sticking out you had previously would work better.

Tom Ellis

Thanks Zwebbie.

Good point!

You're right, the 'bendy straw method would work better for deformation. I like the anatomical shape of the newer poly flow though. I'll look into how I can rework it.

Looking at the WoW assets, it appears as though the arm is actually not attatched under the armpit and the pec/serratus area is presumably weighted to give the appropriate stretch when the arm is raised.

I might do a little rig test before I move on and see what the best solution is.

Tom Ellis

Ok rig test done. Zwebbie you were spot on, the deformation when the arm was moved, especially raised was terrible. I've rerouted the offending loop one loop higher and added another one around the chest under the pecs. It works fine now, in fact that topology makes for a real nice deformation which looks kinda 'muscle movement-like' if you see what I mean.

Started painting today, VERY early stages. First time I've ever attempted to hand paint a character but it's a lot of fun.... and pretty hard!

So not much of an update but an update nonetheless.

Tom Ellis

Finishing up the face texture.

This would have been a LOT easier on something with a bit more geo but it's been a lot of fun so I'll probably do something similar after this with a slightly higher detail head.

Crits welcome... as I said it's my first and fresh eyes will likely be able to give some pointers.

Torso is quite obviously very early stages... just working shapes for now.

Also the diffuse shot is in fact just a cropped portion of the texture, not an obscure 0-1 ratio.

dejawolf

there's something really odd about that waist.. can't really put a finger on what it is though.. maybe the back should be flatter on the sides?

Tom Ellis

Cheers Dejawolf. I know exactly where you mean. It's just above the hips where it goes round to the back. It does look odd and needs some attention but I'm figuring out the best way to do it because it's helping shape the back. But as you say, it looks weird, especially in the front 3/4 view.

I'm considering bailing on this project. It's so mind-numbingly boring and in all honesty, I'd rather have something I'm proud to put in my folio. Working at such low detail on what is simply a naked dude, does not feel like it's really helping me learn. Also, I wasn't getting a whole lot of crit, presumably because even if I did it well, it doesn't have that 'woah' factor. It's just a... naked man.

I'll stick to low poly for the time being but something a little more exciting.

n88tr

he's still got those wide child-bearing hips lol but ok. Chest texure looks good but the face looks a bit over-complicated.

Tom Ellis

n88tr wrote: »

he's still got those wide child-bearing hips lol but ok. Chest texure looks good but the face looks a bit over-complicated.

Cheers N88tr.

Yeah hips fail

I was happy with the face lol!

Ok I'm putting this project to bed. In favour of something more interesting.

JeremyRM

I know you changed projects but just thought I would say something that might help later. Your ref has fairly muscular legs and your expanding it into the hips and thats why you are getting that feminine look. You should exaggerate the s curve more in the back as well it's pretty flat.