Hey, man, do not demotivate you're doing a great job all around.
I can see your concern. With that jacket and belt you lost some of that shoulder/waistline ratio that made the silhouette look cooler. It's also less detailed for now. But overall the character is still great and I'm sure you can find a fix
My advices would probably be
make the shirt tighter to enforce the silhouette
make a smaller belt hanging asymmetrically maybe even a couple of them(for gear or smth)
maybe rethink the piece of cloth handing from his shoulder? I can't justify it right now other then "something to break the symmetry"
now that I think about it those shoulder pads could constrain arm movement a bit. Maybe you can lift the "mouth" up, that would make for more interesting shoulder silhouette as well.
The knee pads could also be a bit more flat, since they don't look all that practical right now.
And one more thing that you can always do is take "more is less" approach and throw away the coat altogether, make a lighter version Kung Lao. Just an idea, crappy over to elaborate on what I mean:
the amount of suggestions in no way suggests that I find the character bad. In fact it's one of my favorites and that's exactly why I couldn't resist a couple of friendly ideas. Feel free to neglect all of it, I still like it.)
d1ver: Thank you for the excellent pointers! I will kill off the coat and replace it with a scarf I think. That thing that is hanging from his belt over his shoulder, might as well make it wrap around his neck, and create some major asymmetry like that.
I'll raise the mouths of the shoulder monkeys, good idea.
What do you reckon about one arm being armored (his left arm) and the other one unarmored? I was thinking that his right arm is his staff wielding arm and his left arm could possibly suit as protection against attacks and such. So I would ditch the shoulder armor on his right arm, but keep it on the left.
Loads of stuff to think about, and I'm seriously deviating from my concept; but I want this guy to rock some socks!
I need a new jerb badly and asap, and this guy needs to be my ticket into the AAA industry damnit!
Jeremy-S: No worries, I will finish him. If all goes well, I'll be doing the low poly by this weekend.
hey Maph, yeah agree with D1ver, I still love the character but I think that layering him up is the wrong way to go....monkey should be agile and quick as a form of defense rather than a walking suit of armour.....I like the idea of stripping back the right arm so that he has more movement.....I would consider perhaps going a-symetrical on the thigh armour too, just to bring that lovely cloth work back out?
What do you reckon about one arm being armored (his left arm) and the other one unarmored? I was thinking that his right arm is his staff wielding arm and his left arm could possibly suit as protection against attacks and such. So I would ditch the shoulder armor on his right arm, but keep it on the left.
Hi, Maph, glad to help.
I'd say, choose what's best for the silhouette.
Are you planning to ditch the armor with the monkey pad?
If you remove just the armor it won't be that noticeable(unless thre'll be strong color contrast) because the fat sleeve underneath totally takes over the silhouette job. And, also, me loves those monkeys.
As an option you could continue the wrapping thing on his right forearm all the way to the shoulder. Thus creating a slicker silhouette on this arm. And it could even make sense if large sleeves are uncomfy to wave your hands in. crappy-crappy over here. And from there you can judge what to do with the armor. But I think th sleeve is the main thing to tackle here if you want fine readable asymmetry.
You might also consider a small shield for the other arm. I see you have some sort of an armor there, but a little shield seems more logical to me in this circumstance.
Anyway it's completely up to you, man. I'm pretty sure whatever you'll do will be rocking. :poly142:
Cheers for the suggestion d1ver. I liked the idea of strapping up his right arm completely, but it would make a massive mess texture/normals wise imho.
Not to keen on the shield idea to be honest.
Either way, some more work. Just needs some more bobs and pieces for the asymmetry and I'll redo the knee pads in a more consistent style with the rest.
Looks great Maph. The long hair sits really well with the rest of the character. I agree about the kneepads. They are awesome but just don't suit the shoulder pads. Also I know they're small details but I feel like he needs a ring or two on one hand.
Sunday Night update, I need to get cracking on this damn low rez! I can keep tweaking this guy until it drives me the fuck insane, but it's time to call it a rest, fix a few tiny more bits and start retopo'ing the guy.
Looking sweet man. I missed seeing this one. I like the detail. Cool to see your posting this up.. cool monkey stuff. I dig that pattern with the upside down Y shape.. really cool.
Thanks guys, much appreciated!
Had a couple of crashes recently during the retopo so I lost half my work... Being the moron that I am, I forgot to save!
Speaking of low res, anyone got a good idea on how I should tackle the tail? I want it to look furry, so should I resort to fur planes, or figure out some obscure method of rendering fur in UDK?
rv_el: Cheers mate! The pattern was kind of a bitch to figure out how to make it tile properly, and cutting it to shape was absolutely horrendous and needlesly timeconsuming, but the results are nice imho.
AKAperly: Yeah, it looked OK on the concept, but hardly as much in 3D.
For the tail, I can't say I have a ton of experience, but I tend to lean more towards simpler methodology....so personally I would do planes. I think that's how they did hair for Gears of War
chill-lair: They did use that method on Gears. I just fear for my triangle count if I go bonkers with the fur planes. But I'll probably have to bite the bullet and go through with that. I was just wondering if UDK has support for fur shells. Scudz: 747s or penistanks = epic win. mxdirector: thanks. Jacque: Cheers mate! And w00tsauce @ frontpage mention!
Mert: don't worry, that'll be taken care of during the texturing phase.
Lowres building, progress was retardedly slow for some reason, and I'm at 12.473 tris and he still needs some good long hair planes and fur on his tail...
I've been trying to trim this sucker down from 15k, and I'm not feeling it... Jeez, this is driving me the fuck insane!
I'd say you can really knockout alot of the poly's on his knee armor pieces there. Alot of that detail you have modeled in can be left up to the normal map. I can see that you modeled in the straps for his feet as well.
Thanks guys and gal! Much appreciated!
I got him trimmed down to 12006 triangles with standin hairquads, but the final tri count won't be too far off (I hope). The rules state that you can overboard by a couple hundred tris, so I'm safe I think.
Gonna ditch the idea of doing fur with alpha quads on the tail, I'll just sculpt the shit out of that like a boss!
rv_el: Lawlz, if I can get this monkey d00d to 12k, it ought to be a breeze for you.
Great job on low poly dude,small crit hope it's not to late,maybe some more edges on that belt buckle armor piece,it really stands out an should get some more geo,good luck with UV's
Thanks so much guys! Means a lot. You guys are a great motivator to keep pushing! Again, thanks a bunch!
Got some more work done. The sort of final polycount is just about 12k triangles. I could shave off a 100 or so on the hair I think, but it doesn't matter all that much.
Baking was a complete and utter bitch... Lessons were learned, post-its with black marker were pasted and foreheads were smashed against the wall.
Loads of (fairly unnnoticable) baking artifacts in there and some nasty stretching here and there in the texture, but I couldn't be bothered redoing it at this stage. I lost too much time setting up the bake (that turned out like shite the first couple of tries) I could have spent painting.
And next time I'll put some freaking color in the highres before I bake. I shot myself in the foot on many an occasion for this one...
Uugh, ranting done, here be some pics and a mandatory spinny gif!
I spent the last two days trying to find a color scheme I like and trying to keep it rather simple as I have this nasty tendency to really overcomplicate shit. Still some minor things to decide on color wise and then I can actually start doing the fun stuff of texturing, painting like a boss! I hate blocking out the color for some reason.
Rendered in Marmoset, with diffuse, normal and a crazybump based spec map. Nuttin' too fancy just yet.
C&C would be very much appreciated, I always tend to block on texturing. :susp:
I think you should try and work in some more of Kung Lao's orig colour scheme, at least as a tesst, but otherwise it looks like your troubles were worth it.
Nice one
very nice man! I do think the armor pads on the shoulder and knees will lose quite some detail if they are going to have all the colors from your color scheme if you know what I mean.
Scudz: Cheers man! I initially went with Kung Lao's original color scheme, and I thought it was blocking too much detail (dark colors + normal map detail = fail). So I went the bold route and did the exact opposite.
I get this impression a lot of people just stick with the washed out brown color pallette, and I wanted something different. I want this dood to scream "FUCKING HIRE THE GUY WHO MADE ME!". Admittedly, I have gone too far and broke with the Kung Lao feel the initial sketches had. Something I kinda feel bad about. Oh well, as long as I keep telling myself the hat is what makes him Kung Lao it's allright I guess?
Oh, self-delusion, how I lurv you so.
Remmers, Jacque: Thanks guys! And yeah, it's a tad too monotonous right now. I'm playing around with some blue/golden patterning and decorations on his pants and shirt, and I still got to figure out a way to make the knee caps pop more. Maybe change their color scheme all together!
rv_el: 9 more days dude, better get cracking!
Nah, you'll do fine; I'm actually really looking forward to your low rez! I'm pretty sure it's gonna rock mah socks!
AKAperly: You and me both buddy, this sucker took me two full days to unwrap and bake... I got pretty sick of it by the end!
Don't overwork yourself man! A well rested mind performs a lot better then a tired one.
Dreamer: Thanks Del! +1 to stamina! Now all I need is a proper jerb.
Replies
mjackson126: I'm hoping the novelty hat would do the trick yeah. That and the color scheme on his outfit makes him Kung Lao I guess.
Either way, not feeling it today. I'm overthinking shit too much again... But here's an update anyway.
I can see your concern. With that jacket and belt you lost some of that shoulder/waistline ratio that made the silhouette look cooler. It's also less detailed for now. But overall the character is still great and I'm sure you can find a fix
My advices would probably be
make the shirt tighter to enforce the silhouette
make a smaller belt hanging asymmetrically maybe even a couple of them(for gear or smth)
maybe rethink the piece of cloth handing from his shoulder? I can't justify it right now other then "something to break the symmetry"
now that I think about it those shoulder pads could constrain arm movement a bit. Maybe you can lift the "mouth" up, that would make for more interesting shoulder silhouette as well.
The knee pads could also be a bit more flat, since they don't look all that practical right now.
And one more thing that you can always do is take "more is less" approach and throw away the coat altogether, make a lighter version Kung Lao. Just an idea, crappy over to elaborate on what I mean:
the amount of suggestions in no way suggests that I find the character bad. In fact it's one of my favorites and that's exactly why I couldn't resist a couple of friendly ideas. Feel free to neglect all of it, I still like it.)
keep rocking, man!
Seriously, I hope you finish this guy. I wanna see him fully textured, and awesome.
I'll raise the mouths of the shoulder monkeys, good idea.
What do you reckon about one arm being armored (his left arm) and the other one unarmored? I was thinking that his right arm is his staff wielding arm and his left arm could possibly suit as protection against attacks and such. So I would ditch the shoulder armor on his right arm, but keep it on the left.
Loads of stuff to think about, and I'm seriously deviating from my concept; but I want this guy to rock some socks!
I need a new jerb badly and asap, and this guy needs to be my ticket into the AAA industry damnit!
Jeremy-S: No worries, I will finish him.
Bigjohn, stfu_donny: Thanks guys!
Anyways keep at it man, he's looking ace.
Hi, Maph, glad to help.
I'd say, choose what's best for the silhouette.
Are you planning to ditch the armor with the monkey pad?
If you remove just the armor it won't be that noticeable(unless thre'll be strong color contrast) because the fat sleeve underneath totally takes over the silhouette job. And, also, me loves those monkeys.
As an option you could continue the wrapping thing on his right forearm all the way to the shoulder. Thus creating a slicker silhouette on this arm. And it could even make sense if large sleeves are uncomfy to wave your hands in. crappy-crappy over here. And from there you can judge what to do with the armor. But I think th sleeve is the main thing to tackle here if you want fine readable asymmetry.
You might also consider a small shield for the other arm. I see you have some sort of an armor there, but a little shield seems more logical to me in this circumstance.
Anyway it's completely up to you, man. I'm pretty sure whatever you'll do will be rocking. :poly142:
Ha-ha.Then we are in the same boat, buddy. so true for me too:)
cheers
Not to keen on the shield idea to be honest.
Either way, some more work. Just needs some more bobs and pieces for the asymmetry and I'll redo the knee pads in a more consistent style with the rest.
Hellstern, thanks!
Sunday Night update, I need to get cracking on this damn low rez! I can keep tweaking this guy until it drives me the fuck insane, but it's time to call it a rest, fix a few tiny more bits and start retopo'ing the guy.
Now i am subscribed to your thread.
glad to see you ditched that cloth tunic, you were covering too many of your details.
Had a couple of crashes recently during the retopo so I lost half my work... Being the moron that I am, I forgot to save!
Speaking of low res, anyone got a good idea on how I should tackle the tail? I want it to look furry, so should I resort to fur planes, or figure out some obscure method of rendering fur in UDK?
rv_el: Cheers mate! The pattern was kind of a bitch to figure out how to make it tile properly, and cutting it to shape was absolutely horrendous and needlesly timeconsuming, but the results are nice imho.
AKAperly: Yeah, it looked OK on the concept, but hardly as much in 3D.
Either way, updates coming soon hopefully!
One of the most polished entries for sure.
Very nice blend of style, and skill. Congrats for getting plugged on the front page!!!
Scudz: 747s or penistanks = epic win.
mxdirector: thanks.
Jacque: Cheers mate! And w00tsauce @ frontpage mention!
Mert: don't worry, that'll be taken care of during the texturing phase.
Lowres building, progress was retardedly slow for some reason, and I'm at 12.473 tris and he still needs some good long hair planes and fur on his tail...
I've been trying to trim this sucker down from 15k, and I'm not feeling it... Jeez, this is driving me the fuck insane!
This looks awesome btw. Such a great piece.
I'm totaly screwed on polycount. 12k Triangles
I got him trimmed down to 12006 triangles with standin hairquads, but the final tri count won't be too far off (I hope). The rules state that you can overboard by a couple hundred tris, so I'm safe I think.
Gonna ditch the idea of doing fur with alpha quads on the tail, I'll just sculpt the shit out of that like a boss!
rv_el: Lawlz, if I can get this monkey d00d to 12k, it ought to be a breeze for you.
Now, let's get this hairy bastard some UVs!
digging it
it has a lot of personality to it, gj
Got some more work done. The sort of final polycount is just about 12k triangles. I could shave off a 100 or so on the hair I think, but it doesn't matter all that much.
Baking was a complete and utter bitch... Lessons were learned, post-its with black marker were pasted and foreheads were smashed against the wall.
Loads of (fairly unnnoticable) baking artifacts in there and some nasty stretching here and there in the texture, but I couldn't be bothered redoing it at this stage. I lost too much time setting up the bake (that turned out like shite the first couple of tries) I could have spent painting.
And next time I'll put some freaking color in the highres before I bake. I shot myself in the foot on many an occasion for this one...
Uugh, ranting done, here be some pics and a mandatory spinny gif!
I spent the last two days trying to find a color scheme I like and trying to keep it rather simple as I have this nasty tendency to really overcomplicate shit. Still some minor things to decide on color wise and then I can actually start doing the fun stuff of texturing, painting like a boss! I hate blocking out the color for some reason.
Rendered in Marmoset, with diffuse, normal and a crazybump based spec map. Nuttin' too fancy just yet.
C&C would be very much appreciated, I always tend to block on texturing. :susp:
Nice one
very nice man! I do think the armor pads on the shoulder and knees will lose quite some detail if they are going to have all the colors from your color scheme if you know what I mean.
Anyway I take a deep bow for you!
Amazing work!
You're probably already on it, but I think there needs to be a shitload more colour differentiation.
Shaping up to be a pretty amazing entry as per usual Mr.Maph.
Its looking cool. My eyes are immediately drawn to his feet though right now.
been working 9-10 hours every day at the office, then working on brawl till about 2am. if i don't keep with this pace i wont finish.
You're scaring me with your progress, I'm not even at the low poly stage!!!! Gotta catcchhh up XD
I get this impression a lot of people just stick with the washed out brown color pallette, and I wanted something different. I want this dood to scream "FUCKING HIRE THE GUY WHO MADE ME!". Admittedly, I have gone too far and broke with the Kung Lao feel the initial sketches had. Something I kinda feel bad about. Oh well, as long as I keep telling myself the hat is what makes him Kung Lao it's allright I guess?
Oh, self-delusion, how I lurv you so.
Remmers, Jacque: Thanks guys! And yeah, it's a tad too monotonous right now. I'm playing around with some blue/golden patterning and decorations on his pants and shirt, and I still got to figure out a way to make the knee caps pop more. Maybe change their color scheme all together!
rv_el: 9 more days dude, better get cracking!
Nah, you'll do fine; I'm actually really looking forward to your low rez! I'm pretty sure it's gonna rock mah socks!
AKAperly: You and me both buddy, this sucker took me two full days to unwrap and bake... I got pretty sick of it by the end!
Don't overwork yourself man! A well rested mind performs a lot better then a tired one.
Dreamer: Thanks Del! +1 to stamina! Now all I need is a proper jerb.