[WIP] Gears Locust
polycounter lvl 12
Hello, this is my first post on Polycount.
Im out of my bubble wrap now!
I am working on a locust character from Gears of War for an assignment I have at university. I have made a few alterations to the character so I can show knowledge of anatomy - in particular muscles. This is my first go at body modelling so I am in unfamiliar territory, and I am looking for some feedback on my work if it's not too much trouble.
Sculpt
Texture
Some of the feedback I have already received was that he looked too ridged and that the leg muscles need another look at. here is the change in the model.
In the above pic: I moved the should, neck and clavicle down to create more movement for his head, I increased the span of his Latissimus Dorsi muscle to suit his build and to show under the armpits from the front. I have changed the direction of the thighs to run across the upper leg as opposed to straight down to the knee. Pushed in the abs a bit more and lost the mass from the shin allowing the calves to show from the front and to create the curve from the shin to the thigh.
It's not a master piece, but I am hoping I am developing in the right direction
- I am currently working on the texturing again.
Im out of my bubble wrap now!
I am working on a locust character from Gears of War for an assignment I have at university. I have made a few alterations to the character so I can show knowledge of anatomy - in particular muscles. This is my first go at body modelling so I am in unfamiliar territory, and I am looking for some feedback on my work if it's not too much trouble.
Sculpt
Texture
Some of the feedback I have already received was that he looked too ridged and that the leg muscles need another look at. here is the change in the model.
In the above pic: I moved the should, neck and clavicle down to create more movement for his head, I increased the span of his Latissimus Dorsi muscle to suit his build and to show under the armpits from the front. I have changed the direction of the thighs to run across the upper leg as opposed to straight down to the knee. Pushed in the abs a bit more and lost the mass from the shin allowing the calves to show from the front and to create the curve from the shin to the thigh.
It's not a master piece, but I am hoping I am developing in the right direction
- I am currently working on the texturing again.
Replies
Some screens of my skeletal mesh in UDK.
I originally had clothing on him from the waist down (a.k.a trousers lol) but I had to remove them due to the constraints of my module.
Thankyou for the feedback
It's not perfect, but it shows the general area's of muscle building and tension.
As for the environment, did you build it?
Hi,
The guy you mentioned is on my course
The legs are letting my model down a fair bit, the trouble I had/ am having is that most of the reference for Locusts is covered in armour - then its a toss up between losing the look of the locust against having more human anatomy.
I'm not sure I will have enough time to change them now. But to take this further I will work on him after my deadlines.
Thankyou for giving me some feedback
p.s the environment is not mine - its a map that ships with UDK to show off some of their features - i just don't have the time to make my own map
Here's a quick paintover to help out with things.
I've gone and collated a bunch of references to human legs to help me along with fixing them up a bit more too. I'll look at the forearms, chest and gut too.
DO NOT use the link PHart attached, it is not a good example of anatomy to follow. As a rule of thumb it is generally a bad idea to work off of other artists interpretation of anatomy, and much better to work from life. Of course thats kinda hard to do with aliens, but they are based on human anatomy to begin with so thats where you should start.
If you really want to get good at this stuff you need to start a life drawing course. I've been doing life drawing for going on 8 years now, and it's been the one thing that truly helped transform my work, it was a catalyst for me. And its going to be the one thing that will help you in creating characters across the board. Doing sculpts and working from reference is also helpful.
Also one thing that lots of people who are just getting started do, I know I did, is to be too critical and concerned with their work being perfect. Dont be too worried about fucking things up, don't get attached, just move forward and get stuff finished even if it's not perfect. Thats how you will get better. If you know something sucks fix it, but don't spend crazy amounts of time on it. Do it fast to the best of your ability and move on. Do quick practice sculpts and models and lots of sketching and thats it.
Your detail on the head is nice, but organic random sculpting is the easy part, now focus on real anatomy and see what happens. The fun stuff will only get more fun.
It's looking good man, Good luck!
I will look into life drawing classes when I have some more time on my hands. It was something I had in mind to develop my skill.
I picked an alien creature because I had never done anything other than real world human based before - I see it wasn't a perfect starting block for body modeling but with each mistake or inaccuracy I am learning a tonne. Very much appreciated to all comments thus far.
I know the link I provided does not deserve the label 'good anatomy', but I was merely giving him advice about which direction he should head to. I also did not recommend him to work off of this model or anything like that, though it might be not very readable in the comment itself. That's my bad.
If you really want to achieve correct anatomy, look for 'Atlas de Anatomia 2003 Netter 3.0'. It contains just about all relevant reference of muscles, muscle tension, tendons, ligaments, fat and skin you can find on the internet and lots of books. (not the newest obviously)
I have spent pretty much last night and today working on my sculpt again - it's had a major jump forward but I still reckon it needs a few things doing to it. I am definitely out of time to make any more changes now for my hand in date (I need to texture it and present it still + a beefy report). I did get a crit' on my work from a fine art masters student that my new model in UDK has small feet - but this was only at a glance.
If anyone can see what direction I should take this model in to improve the look and the anatomy, I would be grateful!
i say bring down the muscles on the legs a bit. as in tone up the muscle, not make it bigger. and bring down the torso, seems that when u were doing the legs u brought it up somehow. same on the calfs, u can see the muscle now, but it seems a little to exaggerated. i work out everyday and i hope my calf's never get that big lol
Think its cool you're going for a naked version, but the overall physique seems off.
some more reference images focusing on the grunt:
*excuse the poor image quality in advance, it's just an example and a very blatant Google search lol*
http://www.massivecalves.com/images/calves-calf-exercise-muscle-picture.jpg
You have been most helpful so far Turista - thankyou very much!:)
I can agree completely with you - I am new at doing this kind of work, and my physic knowledge is currently taking a very sharp learning curve!
For some bits of the model like the neck for example I did change it to be a little more pronounced in order to for fill a criteria I had for my assignment - originally I did do him with almost no neck but I was advised to give it some definition just to show I can (kind of) model a neck. Don't get me wrong im not trying to say "thanks for the input - bu-bye" not at all, just trying to explain why some of the obvious differences between the locust from Epic and my amateur hour guy are there.
My feet - are poor, they definitely had the least amount of love!
-any suggestion for modelling them; Locusts annoyingly wear shoes!
its definitely coming along and is looking good, just the anatomical stuff that differs from the locusts makes it feel "off." The detail you have going is great, really getting the look of the scales on the shoulders. He's a bit thick all around, and if you were to change one thing reducing that thickness may help some.
put some mroe love into the legs too!! the shoulders look nice, the hips/legs area are missing that attention to detail. If you don't plan to revisit it, just something to keep in mind for the next model! keep it up!
The character also looks like a big rectangle, where's his lats / obliqs / traps / quad defintion and bulk?
says the guy with a big ass arrow pointing at his own name...
haha thats great.
as far as the model...
Yeah I"m going to have to agree with the moose on this one, he seems to know what he is talking about.
Looking really good keep it up!
As for a bigger phallus- I'll save that for a more... boring day.
Cheers matey,
I wasn't trying to sound too defensive, I appreciate the feedback - so far its all been spot on and very very helpful. If I had the time to focus on just this I would make the very much needed changes it's just balancing this with an animation, group game and a solo game assignments that I have.
I went back and reduced the thickness of his thighs a touch and changed the upside down calf muscle he had. Seems to have made him look a little leaner? - I couldn't make no changes, when yourself and Turista had put a fair bit of effort into helping me sort him out. I will definitely keep what you have said in mind about the other bits too!