Your stuff is so bold and vivid, I love the contrast and strong shapes. Don't stop posting man! I am seriously loving everything you've got here so far.
I've never been too confident with skin tones, so here's some studies of them. I think they could do with some more color variation, something I could work on.
(edit: photobucket are babies when it comes to a little skin...now with less femmy bits.)
kiril0t: The Asaro head is awesome. Check out Swizzle's thread where he posted a bunch of pictures. That's where I got the image for that and is probably the best source I've found for reference of the head.
Thanks guys. As for process, it's a lot of fumbling around screaming at the monitor. Not to say other people don't, but I tend to take my time when doing these studies, anywhere from 2 - 5 hours, sometimes longer? (or rather, however much time is needed to learn what I'm trying to learn from a particular study). I usually start out with a rough background, throw down some rough lines (I've been finding the more refined I make the lines the harder time I have actually painting the image, almost like they're getting in my way, but I need some form of lines), and block in rough values/colors. From there I keep refining. Sometimes I do an okay job, sometimes I fail miserably. But it isn't about making a pretty picture; it's about learning, and I feel I've been learning heaps these past couple months.
Few things I've picked up:
Work on a big canvas. I used to always work tiny tiny tiny. I've found working big lets me paint details that were just way too hard and time consuming to make on a per pixel basis. And it looks so nice when you shrink it down for posting on the web.
Use your tools. For example, the lasso tool is awesome for hard edges. Recently I've been learning to use the digital tools to my advantage instead of being some kind of "purist" and only using the paintbrush and eraser. I keep layer adjustments to a minimum (lately none at all). Use the flip canvas tool (I have it hotkeyed - Ctrl+F, Ctrl+Shift+F for a layer flip). Copying, masking, transparency locking, grouping, linking, whatever that thing is called where you Ctrl+Click in between a layer. It's all good stuff; start using it.
Faces are fucking important. Unless you're doing a focused study on the torso or arm or something, don't blot the face out with a giant swatch of skin tone. At the very least spend some time working on the eyes to add life to the image. They are fucking, fucking important.
Truth is I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but am loving every second of it.
Didn't want to fall off the face of the forum so I thought I'd share some things that I've been meaning to post. Let me scrape off this mold here....
So I've been toying with a Contra remake; take the Contra series and sprinkle a dash of Mega Man Powered Up! over it...Contra Bulked Up! anyone? eh? eh?
More to come soooooooon!
I wanted to show the progression with my Lance model ("Scorpion," Player One) for those that might be interested. This one started with some very hastily thrown together orthographic which had zero effort put into them. After the last poly was put in position, I hated it almost immediately. Maybe once I get started on the texture he'll come to life. NOPE! I took a screen grab, did a little paintover, and tried to apply those changes to the crappy model. It was better, but still looked pretty terrible. He was missing all kinds of shapes I wanted and looked very boring.
I revisited the concept and drew up some better orthographics and came out with the model above. There's still work to be done on him, but I'm so much happier with that one. I thought this was a pretty good example of where starting with rough groundwork can lead to bigger problems down the road.
ALL OF THIS IS SO COOL. Love the studies. The mma fight shots are great too, you nailed the gestures, most people who paint fighters pose them like marionettes.
Been making some tiling cliff faces for a Contra level. I'm finding them very difficult to do, keeping in mind how flexible they need to be. Still figuring things out, but here's the process so far. Also cross-posting the tiki hut.
Finished the level one boss. The dumb thing was putting up a fight the entire time I was making it, and I'm still not that happy with it. Maybe I'll come back to it...
Aside from that, I haven't been very productive lately so I tried to remedy that by doing a bunch of skin tone studies today. Feel like I learned quite a bit about color.
Oy! I don't want to fall off the face of Polycount so I bring you a lackluster update! Yay!
Anyway, I've been working on the Crimson Daggers Bloodsport challenges the past couple months to level up my illustration, drawing, composition, and everything else skills. Gotta say, it's a hell of a lot harder than I imagined. Most of these are failures, but I learned a shit load so it isn't a total waste. The Miyazaki poster is kicking my ass and is still in progress.
Finally finished that Miyazaki poster. Still not happy with it, but it's time to move on to other things so I can actually learn something. I really need to stop starting with a black and white tonal drawing underneath as it takes way too long for me to build up color.
There's also a doodle of Rufus from Street Fighter as a warmup for a little project for a friend.
Replies
I'll have to do some more low poly stuff as I've been neglecting it lately (damn you WoW!!!). In the meantime, an old man:
Start throwing more stuff up here man, we want to see it.
I've never been too confident with skin tones, so here's some studies of them. I think they could do with some more color variation, something I could work on.
(edit: photobucket are babies when it comes to a little skin...now with less femmy bits.)
More studies....must...learn...color...
[edit: Photobucket is annoying. Less butt and happy trail...]
would loooooove to see a process video or something of the like. the values and volumes are SOOOO sexy.
Few things I've picked up:
Work on a big canvas. I used to always work tiny tiny tiny. I've found working big lets me paint details that were just way too hard and time consuming to make on a per pixel basis. And it looks so nice when you shrink it down for posting on the web.
Use your tools. For example, the lasso tool is awesome for hard edges. Recently I've been learning to use the digital tools to my advantage instead of being some kind of "purist" and only using the paintbrush and eraser. I keep layer adjustments to a minimum (lately none at all). Use the flip canvas tool (I have it hotkeyed - Ctrl+F, Ctrl+Shift+F for a layer flip). Copying, masking, transparency locking, grouping, linking, whatever that thing is called where you Ctrl+Click in between a layer. It's all good stuff; start using it.
Faces are fucking important. Unless you're doing a focused study on the torso or arm or something, don't blot the face out with a giant swatch of skin tone. At the very least spend some time working on the eyes to add life to the image. They are fucking, fucking important.
Truth is I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but am loving every second of it.
As for something visual and boring, I did do a livestream of this girl's face that you can watch here: http://www.livestream.com/everydaynoises
And I'll throw up the PSD of this movie still for anyone interested: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1CS0UBX1
(I
Didn't want to fall off the face of the forum so I thought I'd share some things that I've been meaning to post. Let me scrape off this mold here....
So I've been toying with a Contra remake; take the Contra series and sprinkle a dash of Mega Man Powered Up! over it...Contra Bulked Up! anyone? eh? eh?
More to come soooooooon!
I wanted to show the progression with my Lance model ("Scorpion," Player One) for those that might be interested. This one started with some very hastily thrown together orthographic which had zero effort put into them. After the last poly was put in position, I hated it almost immediately. Maybe once I get started on the texture he'll come to life. NOPE! I took a screen grab, did a little paintover, and tried to apply those changes to the crappy model. It was better, but still looked pretty terrible. He was missing all kinds of shapes I wanted and looked very boring.
I revisited the concept and drew up some better orthographics and came out with the model above. There's still work to be done on him, but I'm so much happier with that one. I thought this was a pretty good example of where starting with rough groundwork can lead to bigger problems down the road.
Been making some tiling cliff faces for a Contra level. I'm finding them very difficult to do, keeping in mind how flexible they need to be. Still figuring things out, but here's the process so far. Also cross-posting the tiki hut.
Modeled a quick cliff off one of those previous sketches. Also wall turrets and the level one boss concepts.
Some more modular level stuff for Contra...
really like your studies and the textures of those low poly models
especially that one:
http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/ttallian/Studies/skin_01.png
Micah: Then carry on I shall do!
Thanks for wires
Got the turrets modeled and a fun little animation to go along with it.
(arg, photobucket keeps resizing my images and killing the jaggies)
(from ref)
Finished the level one boss. The dumb thing was putting up a fight the entire time I was making it, and I'm still not that happy with it. Maybe I'll come back to it...
Aside from that, I haven't been very productive lately so I tried to remedy that by doing a bunch of skin tone studies today. Feel like I learned quite a bit about color.
Anyway, I've been working on the Crimson Daggers Bloodsport challenges the past couple months to level up my illustration, drawing, composition, and everything else skills. Gotta say, it's a hell of a lot harder than I imagined. Most of these are failures, but I learned a shit load so it isn't a total waste. The Miyazaki poster is kicking my ass and is still in progress.
Hopefully more to come soon
[edit: oh! and some 3D!! Yayyydfasajfkldawifansa]
Finally finished that Miyazaki poster. Still not happy with it, but it's time to move on to other things so I can actually learn something. I really need to stop starting with a black and white tonal drawing underneath as it takes way too long for me to build up color.
There's also a doodle of Rufus from Street Fighter as a warmup for a little project for a friend.
....mostly old, some new.
hmm, what could these be for?...