Vanguard - First next gen character
polycounter lvl 8
Hey all, I've lurked a long time. Some truly amazing stuff here - So I'm hoping to make this a success, my first ever Next Gen character model.
Here is my concept I've been working on.
She is a vanguard (meant to spearhead assaults on enemy positions)
The idea behind the armour, is that a backpack thing (will design it properly while modelling) generates power. Which it then sends through to those injection tube things. Then on demand, the vanguard can inject that power into the arm armour.
This will allow the vanguard to summon explosive energy, to help clear paths of enemies/rubble/vehicles etc. for his/her allies.
Any crits on the concept are very welcome. I plan to start modelling soon - hopefully I can come up with a logical workflow as this is my first next gen char.
Thanks
Here is my concept I've been working on.
She is a vanguard (meant to spearhead assaults on enemy positions)
The idea behind the armour, is that a backpack thing (will design it properly while modelling) generates power. Which it then sends through to those injection tube things. Then on demand, the vanguard can inject that power into the arm armour.
This will allow the vanguard to summon explosive energy, to help clear paths of enemies/rubble/vehicles etc. for his/her allies.
Any crits on the concept are very welcome. I plan to start modelling soon - hopefully I can come up with a logical workflow as this is my first next gen char.
Thanks
Replies
I like your color palette
mmm.. ye I went for the slightly higher heeled boots/shoes with a flat bottom (kinda like platforms)
Do you think it's possibly the nose/tip thats making it look a little odd. I originally had the tips more rounded/flat rather than pointed, I could go back to that. Or do you reckon it's the higher heel thats throwing it off.
and thanks for the comment ^^
She looks a little too bulky for me. [ i did a paintover]
I did originally want her to be quite a bit more bulky than the average type of woman, so to speak. (almost top heavy, as i wanted the focus on her upper body - mostly arms)
But i think i might have her actual body less bulky like in your paintover and possibly rely on her armour to build her up. (Will see soon enough
And im quite liking the slight more curvature of her legs in ur paintover.
Thanks ^^
It's been a while since ive modelled any hard surface stuff, so just blocking in the armour shapes - will struggle later to connect certain pieces no doubt : p
I'll also still probably make her cheeks fuller like in the concept. Just wanted to see what it was like with slight more gaunt cheeks.
The forearm guards will still get bigger once i figure out the best way to model the plates on it.
Nice job
I'll be sure to check yours out too.
A quick question for anyone who might be able to assist:
Is it better to keep as much of your geometry as a single mesh as possible? (i.e armour plates/pieces etc)
Or is it ok to have a lot of it as separate pieces?
The reason I ask, I'm finding it a little tricky to try to get the whole chest/shoulder/neck/back area into one mesh.
If im doing that wrongly, I'd actually be glad, as it'd be a whole lot easier to have everything as separate pieces (I'm just worried about holes in the character?)
Thanks in advance ^^
If I where modeling your concept (which is very nice by the way) I would start looking at ways to block things out at natural seams and interpenetrate the geometry at natural points to create creasing where necessary but also to make modeling and sculpting easier on you as a whole.
When you do your final bake it doesn't really matter if you decimate 20 meshes to create the chest or if it's all from one, tho the more subtools the easier it will be to hide parts and sometimes(usually) get cleaner results from your projection.
That was a lot of text. Short answer: personal preference, but no, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using multiple parts.
Thanks for the comments and info.
and btw your juggernaut in the comicon challenge looks amazing. I instantly fell in love with the concept. The bulkiness is badass
Good job keep it up.
your concept looks so cool it would be a shame to see it not translated properly.
Don't worry about proper topology at the moment, you can fix it later, start by blocking in the major forms and making that as right as possible.
You should focus on the silhouette as its the most important thing effecting the readability and feel of your character, throw a flat material on there and just start playing with forms!
@TortillaChips - Thanks
@ mifflefish - Thanks for the crit, I definitely would like to keep the upper bulkiness - I slimmed down her legs and arms from the concept based on earlier suggestions - I like how the legs look while being slimmer, but I agree that I was losing some of the upper bulkiness. So I thickened the arms mostly, and then the armour pieces a tad bit - hope it looks better now (I might make the arms thicker, however, from the front)
One problem I found when sculpting was that I had started with a base that had an uneven poly flow, meaning that in some areas I wasn't able to add as much detail as needed and had to subdivide over and above what was required... To be honest I dont think it will be much of an issue for you but it might be worth going over your model to check extra polys are all in the right places!
Only place I could see this potentially happening is if your torso and legs are one mesh - the front of the legs seem to loose a few edge loops that the stomach has, and so they might not subdivide evenly...
Hope that makes sense, good luck sculpting!
I think im finished with the base model otherwise, I just dont know how to tell if its good enough for sculpting : P
I'll upload it today - just having lunch with the family, so am unable to do much till later today.
A question - How should I build the mouth insides for a next gen character?
For characters I made at college we just had the lips curve inside the mouth to meet each other and eventually form a "mouth bag" with the teeth floating inside.
If i want to be able to rig the face at the end for expressions, would I build it the same way?
It shouldn't be a problem to do it this way if you plan to rig your character's face - usually I create the 'mouth bag' and each vert inside the head can then be weighted 100% to the head bone without any issues. Then, with the teeth, you can link the upper set to the head bone and the lower set (and tongue) to the jaw bone, without having to skin them.
This has worked well for me before - so should do the job!
Also her handguards arent exactly touching her hands. they are kinda floating above them - Will that be an issue eventually?
The model itself, is loosing a lot of the bulkiness from the concept. which i was really liking. I think especially in the arms.
In terms of the lower body, I did slim her legs down a bit - to give more of a top heavy feel.
As to the mesh flow for the body, do you mean you wish to see the base body without armour on?
Are you planning on sculping on this in Zbrush?
If so, make sure you have no triangles anywhere
I was kinda wondering what Alberto meant, if he means this then the model is alright because it's going to be sculpted, and perfect squares all over is a good thing... right?
This image shows perfect squares along x and y axis. Limbs are not able to deform properly with such topology because the anatomy is complex.
Here is the edge flow of my base body
I'm guessing those 4 tries on her but are gonna screw me over in sculpting? I'll try get rid of them then, thanks for the crits.
I think we are getting mixed up, I mean perfect squares are good for when you plan to put it into zbrush and subdivide it. I'm guessing the model will be retopped after the sculpting to form proper topology.
Evenly spaced quads with a proper edge flow is where its at, it's going to make a sculpting process that much easier.
This was what i was wondering, this is going to be a pain i think, with a better edge flow to your model it will not only help the whole creation process, but it will also help you get better as an artist.
Look over this so can understand what i'm saying.
http://wiki.polycount.com/BodyTopology?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryTopology%5Cb%29
So if im correct, it's not really my topology in the pelvic area that's an issue. It's the actual flow of the loops?
Sorry if im sounding a bit thick, I really appreciate the advice I've been getting.
I really like this concept, I think that the power you give this character looks really cool!
I agree with everyone else that the bulkiness gives her a sense of...well...power! haha.
I really like the green tone of the armor as well, contrasting with her hair it really makes everything pop.
I'm really excited to see this finished!
Cheers!
Lets hope I can make a success of this, im very new at zbrush, and im finding it quite difficult to get used to.
For the most part yeah. But i think that overall, you're lines are super straight.
First time I've ever used zbrush, and took me like 2 days of struggling and too many tutorials to figure out how to use it, and then come up with something that didn't suck. But im starting to get the hang of it, and it is really an amazing program.
At the same time I've been going over the base mesh and sorting out any edgeflow issues, my head was fine, so I thought I'd give it a go at sculpting.
The head is far from finished I'd imagine, but I would love any suggestions/crit - specifically when to decide that you have enough detail for a female face. And ofc any problem that looks glaringly obvious (I also havent touched the ears yet).
Thanks in advance!
I did kind of want a slightly "harder" face for her, not ugly but not say - a super model.
But i really appreciate the tips for the eyes, havent really done much on them at all, so it's nice to have a bit of a direction.
Also I think I'll move the back of her jaw up a bit like you suggested, makes it more feminine while keeping a strong jaw.
Many thanks.
So I'm hoping she looks feminine enough while still looking like she can put up a fight.
Also, with the cut/scar thing, I played around with making it uglier/dirtier - but thought it looked a little better with a cleaner cut (not sure if it is too deep tho, a friend of mine suggests that it is - I also dont want it to be too shallow)
Any crit on that would be greatly appreciated, as well as on anything else.
I've made a start on the body now too, which will be some type of biosuit thing - like in the concept, under all the armour.
Good stuff, i like the concept and all, very powerful
Anyway I did a quick paintover for your face, there are some things that seems a little amiss I think
most notable is the top of her skull, her eyes and her jaw is a little too manly. Wimenz tend to have a slightly rounder face overall
I definitely agree with the scalp. Will fix that up.
Concerning her slightly squarer (is that a word o.0?) jaw, I do want her to look a bit harder than your average type woman - while I havent used Olivia Wilde as facial reference, her jaw is something along the lines of what I'm aiming for. Not precisely the same, but similar.
I'll see what I can do about her eyes too (I have done a quick paintover a few days ago, just to see what the hair shape and eyelashes etc could look like, and they definitely make her eyes more feminine so it could possibly just be that)
Anyway, I'll get those issues sorted, Thanks for the crit!
@TeriyakiStyle - Woah! nice paintover ^^ and thanks for the indepth crit. I have a base hair mesh, though i'll admit that I didn't use it much while sculpting the face (if at all). I'll definitely try that thanks.
In terms of the eyes looking asian, would you reckon that is due to the angle of the outside corners? Or the dip of the upper lid towards the nose (I think this could also be attributing towards the anger a bit). Also I did finish almost all the sculpting before doing the scar, it was the last thing I did on it I think. (I would like to try to keep it as it was part of the original concept, but if it really doesnt work I dont mind getting rid of it)
I'll definitely give the "go for pretty first then toughen up" a try, see if I can get it working better.
Altho I would like the keep some semblance of a square jaw, akin to something like Olivia Wilde has.
Thanks so much for taking the time to write the crit - really appreciate it - I'll try to use as much of it as possible.
I had an operation about 2 months ago, been in recovery since, and I was unable to sit at all. I've only recently begun sitting again, albeit at short intervals as the wound is not yet fully healed.
Anyway - a tiny update since ages ago. Being unable to work on this character for so long has rendered me somewhat bored with it, so I'm hoping to kick up my ampedness for it again.
I've somewhat finished her body, and now plan on doing the armour pieces soon - I was wondering which way would be best for that - I was thinking of doing the high poly armour pieces in maya, as ive yet to do any successful hard surface piece in zbrush, and it rather frustrates me. (any suggestions would be welcome)
I plan to redo the base model of the hair, to have it more of a solid geometry. I'll also address her face issues during this time. (I'm also thinking of doing away with the cut on the nose completely.)
Anyway, thanks for all the previous replies, and my apologies if I am doing something wrong by posting in this thread after such a long time - if it is an issue it wont happen again.