[FIGHTER] Darkstalkers, Hsien-Ko (Lei Lei), gregs

gregs

Latest pic(s):



I don't check the forum (or obviously the wrong bits) for a couple of days before posting, and find that someone else is doing Hsien-Ko! Ah well, I'm going in completely the other direction as they are, so it should be okay That and this is my first character model since Quake 2 days, so they probably won't be comparable.

I simply want to reimagine Hsien-Ko as a librarian, mainly because I think that she'd be very good at getting books off high shelves with her long claws

Reference:


(so very hard to find good non-sexy references for librarians that aren't for-pay)

gregs

Here's a (not especially good)sketch showing the basic idea:


Basically, it's Hsien-Ko, dressed in a smart armless jumper(sweater) and long pencil skirt, whilst retaining her hat (so far) with her sister - the paper banner - attached and voluminous sleeves.

After drawing that, I thought I might add a name badge as well, to round off the look.

gregs

As it's been a while since I've done this sort of thing, I'm wondering whether to model her modularly, or as a whole, as I intend to use different shaders for different parts of her body and outfit.

Here's the material breakdown, that shows my paintover skills are even worse than my sketching :P

Where:
Blue is an ansiotropic fabric shader, split into three (maybe four) areas of differing parameters
Red is a subsurface scattering skin shader
Green is an ansiotropic hair shader
Purple is a multilevel fabric/skin shader
Yellow is a metallic/bone shader (I'll see which looks better)
Black is a patent leather shader - probably just a modified Blinn-Phong.

gregs

A quck reply to make up for my dreadful sketching skills - here's her model sheet from Capcom:

from here which has some wonderful information showing how Capcom used cartoon animation principles.

gregs

I had to do another sketch for the profile fit:

This was sketched from a paused still from this and a bit of Emma Peel thrown in.

leilei

watching.

it's not looking much 'reimagination' though imo. you could go further, like drop the chinese vampire schtick and make linlin into a cell phone headset. Think Vampire Savior's ending and her appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 2 for a bit of alternate, casual inspiration

gregs

leilei wrote: »

watching.

it's not looking much 'reimagination' though imo. you could go further, like drop the chinese vampire schtick and make linlin into a cell phone headset. Think Vampire Savior's ending and her appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 2 for a bit of alternate, casual inspiration

I agree - I'm going to have to make it more original (although I still like the idea of her as a librarian). Also thanks for reminding me about SFA2 - I completely forgot she was in Ken's stage!

mitcHELL

a librarian seems awesome... and hot haha.. i like the shader ideas.. i just cut my model around where the back where of the skull meets the neck, down the jaw line, under the jaw, like street fighter 4 does, you can see it on sagat and dhalsim if you look close. so far it is fun to work that way for a change, especially if the characters hair will cover it anyway... are you going to draw a full character design? i like the drawing you did of her, it would be cool to see what her legs and arms are going to look like.

gregs

Now that my internet works again, here's a full length design:

I matched the scale from Capcom's model sheet. What you can't see, is that her hair is in a bun, replacing her hat. Her sleeves are silk, and give the impression of a shirt under her jumper (sweater). Her skirt is tweed and her tights are tartan. Along the lines of leilei's suggestion, her sister is now an MP3 player

I must say, doing my first character in about 8 years is fun, but much more difficult than the static stuff I've done since. At least I have a lot more polys to play with than I'm used to!

gregs

Finished the base mesh, and tidied up the head. Also added hair.

gregs

Modelled the jumper, skirt and shoes. The arms will be replaced by the claws.

gregs

Added the claws, glasses and belt.


I'm still thinking about the best way of doing the MP3 Player/LinLin, so in the meantime I'm going to be doing the minor sculpting, as well as the texturing, micronormals and shaders.

gregs

Just spent quite a while trying to get the polycount down so it would fit in the compo rules and couldn't work out why it was so high. I looked at all the places it should be high - the face, the legs, etc. Much, much later, I clicked on the shoes by mistake - 5000 triangles. I have no idea how I managed that.

Now back on track!

gregs

Here she is with the macro normal maps applied.

She still doesn't look anything like what I have planned, as I intend to do most of the detail with custom shaders, if I can get them written in time

gregs

Here's where I am now, with most of the shaders done, apart from the two hardest ones (the hair and skin ones ) - All Unity screenshots:

Wool and satin:

Wool, linen, rather bad leather and brushed metal:

Linen, tights and more bad leather:

Satin and shiny brushed metal:


As is obvious, I am not really of the same class, modelling-wise, as most of the people entering, but I am learning a lot. We'll have to see if I finish the competition though, as my hands are packing up and my other medical problems prevent me from spending very long on it. Either way, I will finish this, and take it to P&P if I don't finish in time.

gregs

Through the old trick of using half the code from the clothing shaders, I managed to finish her head. We'll still have to see if I am able to finish, but here's some Unity screenshots:


Quite a few texturing errors, but no time to fix them!
Now I'm off to stick my hands in some cold water

gregs

I found a couple of fundamental errors with the model, so there's no way I can finish in time. Never mind. It was a very instructive experience.

Best of luck to all the other contestants!