Soldier
polycounter lvl 11
Latest update:
Hey!
I have too much sci-fi and fantasy characters in my portfolio (www.rashart.com), so i thought id balance it out with a more realistic and contemporary character.
(Also, if someone has an extra job out there, id love to haul it away)
Im doing an american soldier in iraq. Almost all my references are from the movie Green Zone. Mixing and matching from different characters in the movie.
I will be finishing my contract position in about a week so im going to do small updates until then and then focus on completing it.
Im not really happy with the lower parts of the sleeves, going to redo them tomorrow. Also, the cloth seems to be of different thickness on different parts of him. Going to address that too.
But anything and everything you guys think of is appreciated.
Hey!
I have too much sci-fi and fantasy characters in my portfolio (www.rashart.com), so i thought id balance it out with a more realistic and contemporary character.
(Also, if someone has an extra job out there, id love to haul it away)
Im doing an american soldier in iraq. Almost all my references are from the movie Green Zone. Mixing and matching from different characters in the movie.
I will be finishing my contract position in about a week so im going to do small updates until then and then focus on completing it.
Im not really happy with the lower parts of the sleeves, going to redo them tomorrow. Also, the cloth seems to be of different thickness on different parts of him. Going to address that too.
But anything and everything you guys think of is appreciated.
Replies
Again, if anything has any comments on how to improve or if you feel I messed something up, please speak up
And I know the previous molle straps looked crisper and better than the ones on now. But im going to improve them and add seams, so it will be a higher levle of detail. Just didnt like the other ones.
I don't even know if the vest is layered like that. I think the strap/hook-things are integrated straight on the kevlar-vest.
I'd also drop the elbow pads. Sure looks fancy and nice but... havn't seen a single soldier wearing them. Most don't even wear kneepads.
http://www.defense.gov/dodcmsshare/homepagephoto/2008-01//hires_72048.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qSFhPCy0KEk/TZ9MhS3D-BI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/BqCIWNDbHZo/s1600/iraq-soldier-785888.jpg
http://www.defense.gov/dodcmsshare/homepagephoto/2008-01/hires_080108-A-9351H-156a.jpg
There's lots of references. Google, Flickr even Government sites.
Frell: Yeah, almost all the clothing parts are separate pieces. Im learning to use the power of subtools. And dividing things up in different sections. That way I can subdivide where I need without getting a crazy amount of wasted polygons on places where it doesnt matter. And it also makes it a lot easier when working on the clothing. I can just sculpt the shirt and then fit the vest over it and sculpt that.
Dont know if that is the best approach, but I really like it. Also started merging smaller sections and autogrouping them based on topology and then using the Topological masking on the brush so I can treat them like separate subtools or move them as one. Pretty sweet. The downside of this is of course that you get a lot of subtools and it might be tricky to keep track of it all. But if you start naming them early on you can quickly switch between them by pressing "n" and start typing the name of the subtool. Or just alt-click of course. I have 36 now and thats just the torso parts and all the base meshes. Problably going to land around 70-80 if I keep going like this.
Here is an exploded pic of the mesh so far:
Ahrkey: Thanks for pointing some stuff out! And I like the images you found too. The shoulder armor from the first on is going straight on my guy, Going to go on a google cruise and find some more.
Now, on to the stuff you mentioned:
1. Helmet. You know what, you're right. After looking at the rest of him so far, the helmet isnt as nice. Ill redo it later on when i've made a face or two and try it on.
2. I found some pictures with the extra padding, its like a pocket under the outer layer where the molle straps are attached. And I like the feeling of many layers to emphasize that they have a lot of gear. Might have gone crazy with the wrinkles, maybe ill tone them down later on, have to see what it looks like with all the gear and the backpack on too.
3. The elbow pad. After looking through the movie again, youre right. only saw a couple of them wearing elbow pads. But the thing looks so darn cool. And since Im building this in modular pieces, im just going to leave it in for now. That way i can swap it out for another arm for more variations. I plan to model 3 sets of arms (1 elbowpad and 2 without so I can mix and match a little and just puzzle it all together) same thing with the legs and all the packaging. But we'll see if that works out in the future :P
Thank you for your comments and ill definitely think about it when im sculpting. Will soon upload more cool shit, started with the pants but thats just sketching a little and its not really worth posting yet. This weekend though! Youll see some cool stuff hopefully!
Also, hate those molle-straps! Going to redo them again from scratch, but the good thing is I figured out how to do them and I dont know why I didnt think of that at once, show you next update.
Sorry for the boring post :P
Thanks garage. You're right, I'll redo them like that. Thanks for pointing that out
I finally have time to do this now! And I saw theres a character competition on mixamo so I'm aiming to finish this by then.
Heres the update for now, Im going to redo the bottom of the pants. not happy with that at all. looks like a mess right now.
Here's my planning for the coming 10 days Aiming to do an update every day with the task of the day and fix whatever crits you guys have the day after:
-- July --
21 Kneepad + Shoulder Armor + Molle Straps
22 Out of town
23 Shoes
24 Pants + Front and Back DickArmor
25 Helmet + Goggles + Heavy Throat Armor
26 Backpack + Vest straps
27 Gloves + Small Packs
28 Gun Holster (same on side as front) + Heavy Packs High Poly
29 Gun
30 Radio + Hankerchief
31 Face + Nametag on helmet and chest
Did you remove the pockets on the sleeves (RAID shirt?)
no, im keeping them. I just did the shoulder armor over it so when I do the low poly I basically have three different arms. That way I can have more variations. Plan to do about 3-4 different guys from the same parts. So i can have 1 (elbow pad + pocket) 1 (elbow pad + shoulder armor) 1 (shoulder armor + pocket) etc.
Basically i want to do this, but with a lot more variation when the packs come in to play:
excuse the crappy animation :P
I'd say now, the only thing that really pops up to my eyes is the collar and the missing straps of the vest.
http://store.colemans.com/cart/images/0180.gif
great work with the variations I'm looking forward to see all the diferent soldiers you come up with!
The pants are really bothering me and I think im going to redo them tomorrow instead of waiting. Just looks weird. So thats whats up for tomorrow.
heres todays update, fixed some molle straps on the shoulder armor, boots, collar, sketched the dick armor (not really sure about that one though) and some small details all over. Thanks again for the comments, really helps to get some fresh eyes on something.
and the line down the sides of his trousers looks strange. is that supposed to be an extra strip of reinforcement or something?
heres a summary of my shoe process. Its basically the way i do all my stuff:
And here is the update for today. started with the backpack. Still have lots to do on it and im going to add 1 or 2 packs that attach to the main backpack also.
Make it thicker and make the padding less pronounced, but more 'puffy'. The one your currently have is usually located under the main glove as padding.
Once you get all the bags on the vest it should look right around your target. Oh and lift up the toe of the boot a bit, they arent straight like that
Thanks for the boot pic
http://www.militarymorons.com/
I found it some time ago doing some research for military stuff. They got photos of TONS of things. Even got people wearing many clothes, backpacks, etc so you can get a better idea.
@ Boyso - You're right, its outside of the jacket attached to the vest on basically all my concepts. I just diverted cause I wanted to be able to do a simple variation and add that under the jacket. When I added it over the jacket it intersected too much and I would have to move the jacket geometry for it too work, but without the groin protector the altered jacket looked a little weird. So either im going to scrap the groin protection if it looks too weird or keep it if it goes unnoticed cause I want all the pieces to be able to fit on and off instantly without any hastle so I can get a lot of varation later on with the low poly. Thanks for catching that though, and ill think about what to do with it next.
@ frell - Yeah, not satisfied with the pants. Think ill do another pass at them, at least fix the major things.
@ Mik2121 - Thanks for the resource! A lot of those are going into the ref folder. Ty
And heres the update for now: I added a lot of shit since last time i update. Got a few things to re-visit and then im done with the high poly, the major things are the holster, the face and the pants. And if you guys spot something else. Also have to add a detail to a lot of the newer things, such as the packs on the front and back and the radio. But im nearing completion, another day or so.
And the pics:
Looking great! The only thing I'm noticing right now is the folds of the soft armor are looking a bit weird. Got a reference you can show?
Other than that, it's really looking awesome!
Now im back on track and will try to update more. Im redoing the pants from scratch. Wasnt really happy with the weight and the thickness of the cloth so hopefully this will turn out better.
Boyso - What do you mean? Which soft armor?
Anyway, been working a little on the soldier. Did the low poly and the bakes, around 10,000 tris depending on the gear. Going to do the faces tomorrow and then im going to star texturing.