Fish Monster WIP

Azaraen

Not my first model, but this was a fun learning process of how to model a character completely in maya. I was following the Gnomon DVD series of "Head Modeling for Games" and "Body Modeling for Games". I feel like maybe there is too many Tris (2000) but I am kinda trying to treat this guy as a "hero" character of a simple game.






I ran into a strange problem of my faces going invisible after merging some vertices. The faces are still there, but even after clicking wireframe on shaded, wireframe, or smooth shade, it still didn't work. I could click "use default material" and that would bring it back, but I couldn't see my textures and some other inconvenient things happened.

After more messing around, I "assigned a new material" and that fixed the problem once and for all. Sooo, if you ever run into faces dissappearing, just assign new material and that may solve your problem. I am also using the new Maya 2012 version. This problem never showed up in 2011, so it must be a recent bug. I tried downloading hotfixes from the Autodesk website, but that still didn't fix problem.



Now onto UVing!

Azaraen

Well got passed the UVing part. And now on to the texturing. But I realized I only really know how to texture thru Zbrush's polypaint for organic things. This picture shows me using poly paint to mark out area of detail so that I can paint on it later.

I need a better way to paint textures onto UV more efficiently. Gonna look up AO bakes. (or just try to figure bodypaint 3d)

SimonT

i like the proportions of the monster did you used some references for the texture?
you can download a trial from 3dcoat which lets you paint directly to the texture- instead of small polygons in zbrush.

Azaraen

thanks!

Ha. I didn't use any references, and i know I should. It was more a test to see how the texture would look on the model. BUT, after testing and watching gnomon dvds on Bodypaint 3d (i chose that over 3d coat) I stumbled upon texturing the 3d model IN photoshop! So my workflow now is to draw onto the model and then fix it up the texture in UV layout format. The texture from the UV layout updates just about instantaneously when I click on the window with the model in it. So i'm basically photoshop exclusive with my texturing.

To top it off I learned how to render AO, bake, and render in maya. (No game engine necessary for rendering!)

n88tr

some underlying texture under his green would add depth
like some scales

Azaraen

Working on the scales at the moment. All those black squiggle are scale placeholders, ha. But you gave me an idea to make that process possibly faster! Thanks!

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Actually, I tried my idea and it failed. lol. How can I put underlying texture into it? Texture overlay?

Azaraen

holy crap.. soo many scales. Why did i do this to myself. X]

Two Listen

I could be wrong, but I think that method of doing scales may wind up looking more like feathers. Maybe try reversing your "shadowing" a bit? With the lighter part of the scale being at the top (and right up against the "bottom" of the scales above it), with the shadows being at the bottom of the scales themselves (rather than underneath the scales and being cast onto the scales beneath them, if that makes sense).

Quick paintover to illustrate the above suggestion, sorry it's a bit sloppy but you get the idea:

Azaraen

I am starting to loose sight of what I had intended for the scales... I've tried all sort of techniques! I am not sure how to space or size the scales. I want it to have a painted look. How do people normally paint in scales? Or any sort of fitted plates on a creatures body? I couldn't find any tutorial on that sort of thing thru google.

Xaltar

For a start I would hope that you are working in layers. Keep your different colors and tones on seperate layers for easier tweaking. Personally I never use black to paint my details in, this isn't a coloring book excercise. Always try to paint your rough details in a nice dark hue of the color you plan to work with, in this case a dark green. You see, once you have black as your outline you can't define your shadows with a darker color anymore. So pick your blockout color to be a reasonably dark color but being sure you have plenty of room to add darker lowlights. Once you have the basic scale painted in a dark color you can then make a new layer and pick a nice light color to add some lighting detail. For a decent result on a single scale you can expect to use about 4 - 5 layers. Remember, light isn't white so your highlights and details shouldn't all be green. Take a look at some good reference images and really pay attention to the colors and lighting information. Good luck.