Ysalex sketchbook and general WIP, critiques appreciated

ysalex

Female hipster game character WIP. Currently working on the black leather jacket. Originally she was going to have a large pile wool sweater down to her knees, but I didn't like the look. Body took a couple hours, shirt took about 2 hours, the jacket is going on 2 hours but is only just blocked in -- i'm planning on adding a lot of straps and zippers to rough up the surface. The skirt, belt and buttons are stand-ins right now.

ysalex

And a poster I did for reddit. I realize it doesn't have much to do with game-art. It was more an exercise in high-res details directly in zbrush.

ysalex

Wish I had more time to work on this stuff. This is an early maya screenshot of the low-poly clothing with normal maps applied, and a cheep, dirty and quick spec map on the jacket. It's hard to get any critiques on a site this big, with so many great artists, but I would really appreciate criticism, negative feedback doubly so. Posted this on zbrushcentral too, but low-poly specific feedback would be amazing.

gauss

granted i havent rigged/animated shit in years, but doesn't look like the shoulders or elbows would support deformation very well? are you even intending to animate her? have been enjoying following this thread though, good work on how the shirt hangs

ysalex

That's an extremely fair and helpful thing to say. Anyone have any good resources on the topic?

ysalex

Here's where I'm at with the retopo for the low-poly. After baking out normal maps for the head, I realized that there were things I could do to make the face stronger, so I re-sculpted to pull out stronger edges, and then re-topoed again. Much happier with how it turned out. Also the topology is stronger, especially around the mouth and eyes.

LoTekK

I can't say I care much for the crazy-dark eye makeup, but I pretty much love everything else about her. Lovely forms and just the right balance between soft and toned (those legs in particular look great), and really nice job with the clothes. That hair looks awesome, too.

That said, her mouth seems proportionally a tad low on her face? Quick paintover where I shifted her mouth up just a little bit:

ysalex

Thank you very much, I appreciate you taking the time. That is a very big improvement, actually, I will implement it when I get home. I know the heavy mascara/goth eyes thing isn't all attractive, but I think it suits the character I want. However, I'm going to dirty it up, so it isn't such a perfect gradient.

Thanks for you input, much, much appreciate.

ysalex

Here is the low-poly head, rendered in Marmoset. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Now I need to find a good method of doing specular for it, anyone know a good workflow for this?

As usual, crits and comments greatly appreciated.

daphz

I like how the head turned out, lots of personality! for spec reference check out hazardous's textures on his rubi malone character; it's a great example.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1412038&postcount=20

jeremiah_bigley

From your first few pictures the arms, particularly around the elbow, look like a noodle. It seems to be lacking in definition around the elbow joint. That and I think the upper arm is a tad too long and the forearm is a tad too short.

Also agree with gauss on the animation. I would look into where to place edgeloops for animation purposes.

ysalex

Thanks Jerimiah, I'll look into the arm thing. As for the proper edgelooping, I'm currently exploring things. I've been doing deform tests on the jacket for a couple days, trying to figure out how best to deep stretching to a minimum. I realize now that I may have placed the wrinkles on the sleeve of the jacket in a very poor place, as far a deformation topology goes, and will have to re-sculpt.

ysalex

Here is a WIP from a game I am helping on. It's a airship pirate thing. This is the imperial class ship, so a lot of unrealistic heavy materials, rock, marble, metal, thick wood etc. Shot from the low poly and then a couple of high-res shots from making up the normal maps in zbrush.

Alex3d

Looks great so far! is it going to be modular? A good thing to look into if this is for a game

ysalex

No, won't be modular at all. Because the game is basically pirate warfare, the only things which exist are player models, weapons, and the ships. The ships are designed to be vastly different, so there's no point in making them modular. FWIW there will only be two ships, this one styled roman, and the other styled traditional pirate (except for, you know, they're airships.)

ysalex

And FYI, if you have a good reason to make them modular I'm listening. My thinking is mostly that the ships are so different there isn't much point. Also, because the ships comprise the largest assets in the game, taking the time to make them really shine with individuality and design seems important. They're also packed to the brim with individualized spaces (captains quarters, kitchen, engine room, cannon ports, storage room etc.

Again though, I'm listening. I don't know a lot about massive asset creation and I'm definitely here to learn from the community.

Alex3d

No you don't have to make the two ships look identical. What I mean is that you can re-use the assets on each ship (i.e. Same barrels, same pillars, same doors, etc..) If you have a lot of wooden floor that technically would be of the same quality; you can easily unwrap it and tile on top of each other and save a lot of Texture UV space...

ysalex

Thanks Alex3d - then yes, I'll be using a slightly modular approach.

Currently I'm detailing the interior, fleshing it out with textures, normal maps, props and socked-in spaces. Here's where I'm at so far:

(And an album, so I don't drown people in MORE images: http://imgur.com/a/4MO1h)

As always, crits and comments appreciated. And thanks to everyone whos helped out so far.

ysalex

whoops. Sorry.