Tackling Samus Aran.

Aerosol

Have a look here:


What kind of mapping would be best for creating the grooves in her armor? From what I understand, normal mapping is best suited for bumps and dents, and I've never heard of a real-time model using a parallax map...

Scruples

overlapping (or underlapping) metal pieces.
Her front would have to be almost not overlapping when standing straight so compressed the plates then overlap.
Her back would be the opposite, overlapping when standing straight.

You could do both underlapping and overlapping, and model it so pieces press together when they are compressed, (or pull apart when uncompressed).
You would have to give her a limited range of movement to get this to work properly.
(so the pieces dont crash).

if you wanted, you could throw some of that rubber stuff in there somewhere too, only visible when uncompressed (under the plates obviously).

r_fletch_r

I think this is a case of form over function. Its designed to look cool and not to physically work. Even if you model it so it overlaps and collapses correctly your going to have to rig it to work in motion. Id stick to the design as much as possible and put up with the deformations.

someone did a cosplay of it a while back.

thomasp

someone did a cosplay of it a while back.

this is quite a good one: http://pixelninja.se/photo.html

Aerosol

Yea, I've seen the cosplays. I just figured there would be a better way to do it, so I thought I'd ask here. I'm just gonna go head and put up with the deformations though.

Next question. What kind of mapping would be best for creating the grooves in her armor? From what I understand, normal mapping is best suited for bumps and dents, and I've never heard of a real-time model using a parallax map...