Getting the rust off - Dwarven Miner WIP

Frump

As the title says, it's been a while since I created a WIP thread. I recently started this project and actually want to finish it so making myself accountable to a thread is a great way to keep working and improving it.

This character is a Dwarven miner of my own design, inspired by all the time I've spent underground in Minecraft. I have a loose design but I'm still iterating as I go along and it's not really finalized.

I'm looking for any crits or comments you've got. Hopefully this thread doesn't fall to the bottom of the curve on the Polycount reply-o-meter graph...

Latest:


----Latest Minecart----
----Torch Prop----

Sean VanGorder

At the moment I don't feel like it really reads as Dwarven, the proportions and features don't seem exaggerated enough (mostly in the face). Right now it looks like a stocky dude with a well kept beard. I think the head sketches you did are more in the right direction, so if you can translate that into that model, it may might help. Reminds me of Gimli from LOTR, so maybe use him as reference?

The torch is looking cool, looking forward to seeing your progress

Frump

SeanEG: Yeah, my friends also said he wasn't dwarfy enough and to go toward the concept. I'll work on that. Cheers

dustinbrown: Actually, it does... I'm not sure how those two search terms didn't come together in my head. Derp.

Thanks guys.

Frump

Alright, back with an update. Unfortunately Witcher 2 took up all of my free time over the last week but it did inspire me some more and give me a clearer direction of where to take this guy.

Hopefully I've made him more dwarfy. Cheers.

katana

Proportions look alot closer to Dwarf now. It's interesting to see how different companies get that look for example comparing a WoW Dwarf to a AD&D one.

uncle

Ha! I'm working on dwarf right now too!

I'd give him a bigger belly, but it's a matter of personal taste.

Frump

Updates!

I'm planning to give this guy a little environment/background where he'll be standing in a mine, so I started on a minecart.

Not a ton of change to the actual character, you probably can't even see the difference, but I tweaked it quite a bit. The tattoo is just me noodling it's definitely not a final design, just a block out. I think I am done with the arms and torso, besides some minor details. Time to move on to the face and pants. Hopefully as I work on that stuff I can get zoomed in shots for heavy crits. I think faces and cloth are my two weakest areas.

adam

I can't see this from work! Someone upload the latest to imgur for me to drool over.

Frump

Weird, I never thought dropbox images would be blocked anywhere. Maybe I should use alternate hosting from now on.

Updated the post with new links.

I should also add that the minecart is still just a plain base, planning to get dirty in zbrush on it tonight.

adam

My work blocks any secure website or services that I can upload to.

Good start! His tattoo's make him look Samoan.

SgtNasty

It looks good so far. Couple things:

The hands seem like they should be bigger, and rougher. Dwarves that mine all day should have strong hands.

The other question I have is about the clothing. Since you put tattoos on his chest, I assume he will be shirtless. What do you have planned for the rest of the costume? Boots? Less tight pants?

We also sort of all ready talked about this, but the dwarf style might not sync with the cart. Any plans to make the props match the character or vice versa?

Frump

@adam Yeah, the tattoos were supposed to come out looking more nordic and dwarven but I didn't have any good reference open at the time. Definitely not the final design.

@SgtNasty I am planning to make the hands rougher, that's one of the priorities when I am done the minecart. I have a really rough concept of the costume in the first post.

As for matching the style, here's a paintover I was working on last night, trying to figure it out. Working with creating the shapes to sculpt in and getting an idea for how to eventually paint the texture.

I could for sure use crits on this since I will eventually be texturing this way or basing the sculpt from it. Cheers.

jmt

Paintover, bro.


I tried pushing the overall proportions more, moved the knees up, reshaped the calves a bit, removed the crease at the bottom of his forearms, reshaped the head a little, made the moustache cover his upper lip, and made the braid a bit more realistic.

Add eyes and hair!

Frump

Awesome changes man! Thanks for the paintover, it helps a lot. For me, paintovers make a lot more sense than text crits.

I agree with pretty much everything you changed there and started to makes some of the changes. The only thing I'm not sure of is the belly, so the image show the previous belly vs big belly. I think I want to call the arms and torso done pretty soon and work on everything else I've been neglecting (face, eyes, beard, costume, hands)

I also started to work on the minecart sculpt stuff. The zbrush noise I could take or leave, it just makes it a bit more interesting. It would be easy enough just to add in the texture and normal map instead of baking. It feels like cheating to use the painting as an alpha but I think the results look alright. What do you guys think, should I just take the time to manually sculpt it?

Sandro

I know it's a wip, but forms look too bubbly at the moment. You need to contrast those soft forms with sharp ones on strategic places. I would use some sort of flat, hard brush to define landmarks where bones sit close underneath skin and chisel some of the forms. As it's a dwarf, you can even go overboard.

Frump

Sandro: Yeah, I absolutely agree. Having everything too bubbly and smooth seems to be a common problem I have with my anatomy sculpts. I'll spend some time working in some sharper areas, planes and other things. Thanks a lot for the crit, I might've never thought to address that.

Progress for today. I mostly added eyes and did some work on the beard. I also extracted some pants and boots so I can begin on those tomorrow.

Nistrum

nice, I'm liking this one although the poor guy has no nipples, I'm sure that's caused him more than a few jokes in the changing rooms :P

Frump

Nistrum: Heh, yeah. I always forget about the nipples. I'll probably leave them until last when the sculpt is finalized, or just throw them in the texture. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Some updates. I really hate the way the boots look so I will probably redo a lot of the work I did on them last night. It looks like he is wearing disco shoes. The beard is a 5 minute mess, what I was trying didn't really work out that well.

Frump

Minor changes to the model since last update. I've been spending most of my time trying to work out the details of design because so far he's been pretty boring and directionless. Here's where I'm at. Tattoo design and the misc jewelry is not final. Let me know what you think could be added or removed (not necessary to mention gloves, I tried it and don't like him in gloves).

Cheers

Visceral

OMFG Diamond pick !!!

re.wind

Well he's a well-off miner...

proportions remind me of an orangutan though. hmmm...

chrisradsby

His arms are massive ^^ I'm not really sure if I like the proportions, but I can't really put my finger on it either.

uncle

Personally I like the proportions, it's dwarf after all.

But where's teh BELLY ?

Goeddy

i think his legs should be a lot thicker, to be able to carry such a body. also it would make him look more rocky and solid, like dwarfs should be.
and i think he´s realy missing the belly too:D

Frump

@Visceral Hell yeah Diamond Pick. I think I might make it more rough and organic in the sculpt instead of so refined. It doesn't really make sense to find such a huge chunk of diamond anyway.

@re.wind, @chrisradsby, @uncle, @Goeddy I agree, his arms are looking a big long atm and his legs a bit short/thin. From my references, Dwarf proportions vary a lot, so it's difficult to pin them down. Unintentionally (because I didn't have any refs from these) he's turning out pretty similar to the proportions of WoW dwarves and LotRo dwarves. Originally I set out to make him more like Witcher 2 or Dragon Age propotion. As for the belly, I'll see what I can do later on, I want to finish up some other things first.

Cheers guys.

Frump

Alright, bit of progress from tonight. I thickened up the legs to have them make more sense and look more solid. I think it's a big improvement from before. The belly increased in size but it's not much of a noticeable change, perhaps I'll have to exaggerate even more. I tried making the arms less long and it didn't look good. Compared to aforementioned mmo dwarves I think the arms aren't too crazy long, but let me know if it's hurting the piece.

Hellmouth

Actually I think this is by far the best proportioned dwarf I've see, since he actually looks like he can move.

Frump

Hellmouth: Glad you think so. It's good to hear that he looks plausible.

Not so sure why it took me so long to get everything blocked in but it feels good to have it mostly in place. I haven't made the boots yet, and there's still a bunch of sculpting work ahead. Retopo is going to be tricky with all of the layered stuff.

SgtNasty

It's coming along very nicely. I like the single suspender, that was a nice addition.

Crits:

-I like that he has a small mallet and chisel. I don't like the design of the mallet at the moment though. The pick axe has some design to it, but the mallet looks like a bevelled cube stuck on a cylinder. Granted, that's all any mallet actually is, but I think you can do better. Grab some more reference. Maybe add some dents, chips, etc. Maybe something for the grip, or a more interesting shape for the head of the mallet, whatev.

-The bangles, it looks like they are metal, but they are really tight. If they are metal, he wouldn't be able to move his wrists at all. If they are intended to be bangles, make them bigger. If they were supposed to be bracers, then I think they are supposed to be more around the forearm, not the wrist.

Frump

@sgtnasty: The mallet and such will probably be more interesting by the end, once I get some sculpted detail, but the actual design of them is meant to be simple and made for utility, not ornate.

As for the bracelets, I made them bigger, then crashed (losing a lot of other detail) then went in and fixed it and crashed again... So that will be changed later.

Another nightly update. Progress is still slow, been working crunch throughout this entire thread, but posting as often as possible helps me continue working.

I'm sure there's a ton I'm doing wrong with the cloth, crit away.

Frump

Bunch of updates. I'd really like to close out the High Poly soon so any last crits you have on it are much appreciated and I will actually try to address them all instead of putting them off until later. :poly136:

Edit: p.s. I am aware the wrinkles at the back of the legs suck, suggestions welcome.

Frump

Alright, so the whole time the anatomy has been pretty soft and without definition and I've gotten that crit a lot. I tried to work on that some more today. If it's still not there let me know. A lot of areas are still pretty lacking in detail but I don't know where to go without making him more ripped than I think he should be. If you have any suggestions let me know.

I have been trying not to make him like a gritty shooter type, you know? The best example for the style I've been going for is rv_el's Haggar from the Brawl comp. I'm aiming for the texture to look pretty similar as well.

I also resculpted the beard, which is not pictured from the front and I think I am pretty damn close to done the HP. I'm going to start retopo tomorrow based on what I have and I can continue working on the sculpt if I need to.

SgtNasty

The bottom of the pecs need to be smoothed. Also, I'm not an anatomy expert, but I think the bottom of the pecs seem to be angled a little weird.



Should they be more "straight" the the bottom? Check reference, but it caught my eye in your latest sculpt. At any rate, it looks good. Keep moving forward.

Frump

@sgtNasty
Thanks for the crits. I'll smooth it back out was just trying to add a bit of interest but I don't like the harder edge there either.

As for the angle, I'll take another look at it. I didn't think it was too strange based on my references. His pecs used to be straight across and I moved them to be where they are now based on some more observation.

I forgot the nipples again.

SgtNasty