[FIGHTER] Street Fighter, ZANGIEF, Larkbeef
polycounter lvl 13
Hello youse!
So I've been thinking about Zangief, and turning him into a more sophisticated piece of muscle. Adding; more drinking, smoking, haunted dreams,
unsolvable cases, opium, gambling debts and unhealthy knowledge of things from beyond the stars. I would like to keep his size and fitting him in much
too small clothes, maybe it will even enhance his size. Besides, he can't afford tailored clothes. Wrestling archaic tentacle moth-bears by night, does
not pay off.
I suppose I'll make him a lot more harrowed than his current incarnation, dark rings under the eyes and a lined face and so forth. Maybe more sinewy.
Setting is turn/early 20th century, Lovecraftian era. Perhaps a hint of Hellboy, if I give him some complicated gear.
That's what I got at the moment, more details to follow.
Happy contesting everyone!
Replies
doodling, perhaps it'll be more interesting when I get some modeling done.
Did a few minor changes to the original idea. Scrapped the idea of having a small suit, just too awkward. Might scrap the hat too, I like his
mohawk...and I'm thinking of finishing it off with a ponytail, a little Chinese touch(Zangief spent a few years under the tutelage of some hoary Chinese master of course). I'll try some ideas out.
And some pictures!
Now on to some SSFIV play
A great many treats in this event, very educational and inspiring.
Here's what I've got so far. Still working on the base mesh, but It's taking shape. I feel that the main problem right now is the silhouette. Zangief's silhouette is pretty telling in itself, I just want it to be a bit more different.
Well, back to work.
Progress:
I have a few questions, maybe someone can shed some light on those. I realize most everyone has their own work flow and preferences, I'm mostly looking for hints.
First, when you sculpt your normal map or block out or whatever, do you sculpt the crap out of each sub div before you move up a level? Or, do you sculpt different things (like folds, buttons, anything) at different levels?
The earlier you draw a line the more voluminous it becomes when dividing, is this something that translates better when baking a normal map, e.g. more curves to catch light which might make for a more interesting model.
Or is this of no matter, as long as you follow your concept art - or you're trying to do an asset that should look realistic?
Is this even a question?
Second; draw calls, I'm not completely sure about the concept or if it's related. But I've got a question about optimization. Is it preferable to have as few separate parts of a mesh as possible, even though the final triangle count might be a little higher, than separating parts for easier control?
Third. How much do people kit bash? You must spend 5000 metric tonnes of time putting old parts together instead of doing completely new stuff all the
time. Or is it maybe easier to do a base in Zbrush and then retoplogize it?
Incoherent rambling or not, you decide!
Meanwhile I've been starting on my normal map sculpt. Progress so far.
Cheers
I really like your idea for Zangief and I like what I'm seeing so far. Can't wait to see how this will turn out!
Since I'm no good when it comes to character modelling/sculpting, I won't even try to answer your questions. They are good questions though and I would like to know more about how other people work as well.
Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Garmonbozia / Kalle
1. When I first started using (insert high poly modeling sculpting package here) I was super nervous to subdivide because I had learned from someone who thought everything had to be perfect in order to go to the next level. That can work for some people but for me it was holding me back and making me nervous about every stoke that I made, so now I personally jump around all over my sub-divisions once I have my basic forms in, worrying about the sub-divsions froze me up. I go as far as I can take a sub-divsion and if I need more poly's to get the job done I sub divide again, it's all going to be re-topo'd anyways.
2. Not sure what you mean by draw call's, but as far as having separate pieces, in my case it doesn't matter much because I'm going to combine and re-topo. Alot of people use seperate piece so that Zbrush won't choke their computer when you get into really high sub-divsions.
3. Kit Bashing, I think it's kind of frowned upon for these contests. Now in the real world people do it a lot, especially in production environments...time is money.
Hope I helped a little.
That's a pretty nice tip, alternating sub-divisions when you sculpt, I tend to get stuck in routines when doing a model. Especially if I don't know the application that well. As you say, it can feel limiting sometimes.
I think I meant that extra blocks of information had to be sent to the GPU (in the game engine)if you have separate parts; the hands cut off at the wrist, the neck not attached to the torso, but the seams hidden by accessories or something. I guess it's not an issue if you retopologize your model.
Thanks for the tips, much appreciated!
-Garmonbozia/Kalle
Thank you, hombre
Also spent a day rigging, it'll be fun to see the textures torn apart by lousy weighting.
Thoughts are welcome!
Cheers
Seth: I believe you're right. I should have gone with something more akin to this:
Picture tiem
Cheers!
Still fiddling around with textures. I want to wrap this up soon(take a crack at DW5), either I will continue with minor fixes and polish it as best as I can, or start over from scratch. Not really feeling it. We'll see I guess!
Many fantastic entries in this contest. Mucho impressed.
Cheers!