Blastoise!

threepointzero

Hi everybody, this is my first time posting work here, and I've just finished a piece that I'm very excited about. This is my Gears of War inspired Blastoise: a mix of the two styles that I thought would be fun. All crits are welcome!

Specs: 8664 tris, two 2k textures (diff, spec, normal)
Software: maya, zbrush, headus, nex, xNormal, photoshop, mudbox, marmoset

Axios

This is pretty cool. I think the head is great and overall the skin is good, just might need some occlusion or something because it feels a little washed out in regards to value. However, if this is Gears of War inspired, then how the guns are mounted on his shell seems awkward. Some Gears monsters have stuff mounted on their back already, and a similar upper body harness on this would be appropriate. Nice work

Der Hollander

Unfortunately you said the magic words "Gears of War inspired" and "Blastoise" so, I'm gonna give a long, harsh critique. You've been warned. Now, I'm not super in love with either of the above things, but it means you're taking a very recognizable character and redesigning it to fit in a recognizable universe.

First, a visual aide.
Your Blastoise should look like this:


When it looks more like this:


Gears of War is the definition of over-the-top. If there isn't an insane amount of detail, grunge out the arse, and overall looking like Warhammer 40k and H.R. Giger had mongrel babies, it's not going to sell as "Gears inspired". What you've currently got is more a realistic interpretation of Blastoise.

With that in mind, let's move forward to the technicals.
Firstly, the guns are floating in space. The tacked on ammo belt wouldn't support any weight, so your model isn't done. Also, zBrush AND Mudbox? I don't know what you were using one or the other for, but I would learn whatever tools you were using for the other and just learn how to do that in one package. You may have a completely legitimate reason for using both, but chances are you won't have both at your disposal in a studio environment.

Moving on to the texturing, I can tell you right now if you need 2 2k sheets for this, you need to reassess your UV pack, especially since the arms and legs are mirrored. There's no reason this couldn't be done with a single 2k or 1k and look exactly the same. The belly looks atrocious compared to the rest of the body, and there's no reason it shouldn't be mirrored. The horns also look very tacked on, as there's no geo surrounding them. Your specular also needs to be readdressed as it looks like every material is the same specularity, and last time I checked, metal is more or less shiny unless it's painted.

Here's some reading for you to readdress your gun textures. Hard Surface Texturing

I know I'm not providing specific examples for you to improve your model, but the bottom line is you need to be doing loads of research and stepping back and readdressing your textures. Not seeing the wires, I can't give a critique on your poly count, but I'll bet it could be lower.

I also apologize for being direct and not giving you tea and cookies, but if you're looking to get better, you need to keep asking people to be direct about your work. Keep practicing, read lots of tutorials, make mistakes, ask questions, look at people's work and break it down, and you'll be churning out awesome in good time.

ae.

also needs to be blue :P

koufuyo

Idk, I have to agree with the comment above aesthetically.
Seems way too small to be a blastoise; I mean the are huge tank turtles are the not?
Also you seem to be putting too much "realism" into it as well, even in the gears of war/warhammer 40k universe I imagine blastoise having a rather color Platte.

All is not lost though, if you saturate the color a little bit, make the eyes a bit larger
and remove the cannons, it could pass for squirtle.


Also I imagine it's head would be alot smaller in
comparison too it's body if it were
real.

Maybe even try the hunched over look too





Or incorporate a more muscular/fat figure, like this fanart piece?
Or even cyborg elements

threepointzero

Thanks guys for the crits. Der Hollander, no need to apologize. This is the kind of stuff I'm looking for and I can feel my little ego's gonna make it :]

I did want to explain my use of mudbox a little though. I use mudbox solely for texturing. I think it's great because you can paint/project straight onto the low poly mesh and view your normal/diffuse/specular at the same time. This gives a pretty good representation of what it will look like in game while you're working on it, which is nice. I do, however know what you mean about only being able to use one or the other. As a student employee I had to do everything in max/mudbox when I was accustomed to maya/zbrush. It did some good because now I have the advantages of any or all at my disposal. You are right though about learning how to use the software as if in studio so thanks! As for texturing (especially spec), it is the discipline that I feel I need the most work on, so thanks for the crits/tutorials, everyone.

Also everybody's comments about the design are very fair, and points that I grappled with while the piece was in the making. I feel that somewhere along the way the concept shifted from gears of wartortle to just mean n' gritty blastoise, so lesson learned about the challenges/expectations of entering somebody else's world!

Long story short: thank ya! I'll post some highs/wires/textures later and would love some crits on those as well.