Creature Model for Internship - pt. 2!

lymiller

Hi all! This is a continuation of my other thread that I accidentally posted in the wrong section -- my bad. :x

Since then I've made some tweaks in the texture and sculpting, so here's what I have right now:

Here's the concept art, first off:








Anyway, I've begun working on the low-poly mesh in Topogun, but I keep tweaking shapes in the sculpt as I go.

The colors aren't quite right -- I'll be doing lots of adjustments in Photoshop after the bakes are made.

All the critiques I've gotten so far have been wonderful. Thanks.

achillesian

Little wider than I expected him to be, just my take on the concept I guess. Also of note is his butt is only that high when his rear legs are almost fully extended like in the concept, so the butt might not be that high just standing normally, I don't think there are any real animals that have their butt in the air like that all the time.

Highelf

Very nice, looks great. There are some proportions off at the face that I realy prefer in the concept art. Snout is a bit longer, almost pulled forward (teeth too) which looks more menacing.

I'd deviate from the concept a bit in the eye myself, give him a lizard pupil - but thats just me. Either way the eye you have atm is a bit bright, I'd make it darker, deep redish orange. Really love the legs and feet, and back area. No crits there. I agree he's a bit too wide, I get a thinner vibe from the concept art (although not much)

Looks great, just my 2 cents

Sebeuroc

Looking like a really great start! However I did notice a couple of your forms are a little less defined/angular than the concept, which I think is gives him the feeling of being slightly softer and less aggressive than the original. (Not that I'd want to run into your guy on a dark night either.)

DaveSilver

I absolutely love the model. When I saw the first image of the model itself it was so close to the concept I legitimately thought I was looking at another concept at first. Once I started to see the others though I realized my mistake. Keep up the good work.

lymiller

achillesian: You have a valid point with the pelvis - however, in this case it looks like (in the concept art) that his leg is behind where his "resting position" would be. In my model the leg is more bent but more forward, so it seems like it's in the correct stance to me. I guess the only animal I can think of that has his leg joints up higher than his shoulders is the stegosaurus -- I know they're extinct, but I guess that counts as a real animal? :P

Highelf: Yeah, I see what you mean. I completely redid the eye, using alligator eyes as reference. I think it looks much better. I also messed with the angles in the face.

Sebeuroc: Thank you so much for that visual! I saw exactly what you were referring to. I made those changes, too.

DaveSilver: Thank you! That's great to hear.

On top of all that, I elongated the midbody because it was too short, and fixed the tail shape. Also widened his pelvis and made his belly narrower (from side to side).

Here we go:





Thanks so much for the critique! I think it gets closer all the time.

lymiller

Been starting work on the topology since fixing the proportions. This is gonna take awhile...

lymiller

I have a first pass done of the topology -- I'm currently over the 5,000 tri limit but I'll be slimming down -- I can see a few areas where I can cut down, but I may hold off till after my bakes are done.






Critique on the edge flow, etc. is more than welcome!

dpadam450

I don't think you can legally do an internship after college. You might want to look into that.

What made you do a semester at gnomon after digipen? (looked at your website)

chrisradsby

Nice progress so far! Yeah there are lots of places where you could slim down the amount of polys, but it looks really sweet so far it'll be interesting to see how it looks as a textured low-poly later. Good work!

lymiller

dpadam450 wrote: »

I don't think you can legally do an internship after college. You might want to look into that.

What made you do a semester at gnomon after digipen? (looked at your website)

I'm familiar with most internships requiring you be in school -- but I think ArenaNet's is different. At the very least, I did this test as a good excuse to create a portfolio piece.

My ZBrush education was inadequate at DigiPen at the time, unfortunately, so I'd taken a class from FuturePoly (ArenaNet) and then Gnomon. Both classes taught me slightly different material, so it was worth it.

lymiller

Finally, an update! I've been so busy all week it was hard to find a lot of time. O_o

Here we go. I've gotten the model to 5,000 Tris (4,998 to be exact) and am currently working on the diffuse and cavity maps. I'd love some critique if anyone has any. I need to find a much better-looking way of rendering him, but here's what I have right now:





And the wireframe:

lymiller

Augh... I just noticed that the confusing information on the original internship post was actually edited. Instead of initially, when it mentioned both 7,500 tris and 5,000 tris as the limit, now it only states 7,500 tris. (I always thought creatures were less polys than characters.) Is this a big problem? If so I'll have to re-bake everything...

lymiller

Can anyone tell me why this is happening? This is in Marmoset Toolbag. It's displaying this one area of the model strangely.

lymiller

Actually fixed that last problem -- I just used the mesh I'd exported from ZBrush using Multi Map Exporter and the problem went away. I dunno what was wrong with the other mesh.

Anyway, here's a rough render for now -- I'm gonna touch up the maps some more tomorrow. He's currently 6370 tris.

chrisradsby

How are the UV-shells distributed, right not it feels like it got different texel-densities everywhere, like the feet being more detailed than the legs, etc etc.

It's important that you give the areas that needs most detail the most UV-space, I mean the main body is a big part and should be pretty detailed in comparison to the feet. However my main concern is the middle part of the leg which looks pretty blurry in comparison to the rest.

Post your texture-sheet up for feedback

Good work so far though!

lymiller

Thank you so much for responding. Do you mean the front leg? I made sure the checker pattern I'd applied was evenly sized across the model. But now that you mention it, I realize I could probably lay out all the largest shells first, then distribute the spikes and misc. accents in the the "cracks".

Thanks for any critique, guys! This is basically the last day I have to work on this!

Here's the current diffuse to look at:

yeman

Your overall form looks really good, but the topology could use some improvements. A lot of the polys around the spikes can be better spend elsewhere like give the head and body a few more horizontal loops. Keep it up and best of luck!

lymiller

Can ANYONE tell me why this is happening? This is in Marmoset Toolbag. I was able to replace the mesh before with a different version I had, but that's not working this time. Please, help!!

lymiller

Finally got it working. Here's my "close to final" renders. If you have any critique feel free to share!

lymiller

Here's my final submission! I'm pleased with it.

I still don't know how to get that to show up.