Realistic Winter Sabe In-Progress
Front 3-quarter View
Side View
Top View
Bottom View
Back View
Front View
On this particular version of the model, I had to remove the ears for the uv mapping, his eyes are of course not included nor are the inner teeth and tongue, and I didn't take the time on his feet yet for this model to make the uvs looks good. None of the fur has been groomed so it's just a very rough version on how the hair will look, to be honest I'm not quite sure how the different shades of purple are in appearing like they are, it could be because I created the base color of the fur a deeper purple, and the tip color of the fur a lighter purple.... or it could have something to do with the directional light. I thought I'd put these up and see what people though if they had any suggestions so please feel free to comment!
Side View
Top View
Bottom View
Back View
Front View
On this particular version of the model, I had to remove the ears for the uv mapping, his eyes are of course not included nor are the inner teeth and tongue, and I didn't take the time on his feet yet for this model to make the uvs looks good. None of the fur has been groomed so it's just a very rough version on how the hair will look, to be honest I'm not quite sure how the different shades of purple are in appearing like they are, it could be because I created the base color of the fur a deeper purple, and the tip color of the fur a lighter purple.... or it could have something to do with the directional light. I thought I'd put these up and see what people though if they had any suggestions so please feel free to comment!
Replies
Anyway, I don't have any suggestions on the fur, but perhaps this is an example of putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. I'd worry about getting the model to be really polished with good anatomy and proportions before worrying about fur. The model should look great even without fur, and right now it's hard to make out much of anything that is going on. Is the model posed or is it really asymmetrical?
I'm unfamiliar with the mount from WoW, but right now your proportions are very cartoony. His legs are too close together (front legs are too far back), his nose is huge, etc.
Are you planning a high poly version of this?
Ok so this kind of the look i'm going for minus all the armor and the saddle, if you want a better idea just google image search wintersaber.
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs48/f/2009/210/6/b/Night_Elf___Dark_Knight_by_Ketka.jpg
The images I used weren't perfectly alined so that he could be symmetrical, and he was already posed in both those images, but beyond that perfect symmetry isn't always a good thing, things I've fixed so far that looked weird to me were his back side cause it looked like his butt was a little lop sided. Repositioned his tale, I've always gone into greater detail with his mouth, he now has gums and his tongue will be the next thing to be created, I gave the him some lips too so it doesn't look like two big teeth are just attached to his skin. As far as the proportions go, I kind of like the fact that his nose is that big, makes him look ancient and dignified. I never really considered the legs though, I may make adjustments to that. I don't think I'll need a high poly version, the fur itself takes up most of his surface and it takes a lot to render that.
To be honest I'm not really sure, I'm going to put this in my portfolio to spice it up. I may do a still life, or I may animate it. I know for sure that I'm putting him in a forest setting with a pond and rock ledge.
I appreciate your candor, but I did mention that it was just a fur test, to see the general look of the fur on the model, I do intend to groom it so that it grows in a coherent manner but that's after I've solidified the actual model first. I also intend to actually assign it a color texture that I've painted in photoshop. Thanks for the advice on the teeth and the torso.
Well I'm working on a wix flash version of my portfolio, A) because it's free,
www.ginoschrementiportfolio.carbonmade.com
Just a heads up, but flash based portfolio's are usually frowned upon, at least in the games industry.
Is there a particular reason? I'm not making anything rediculous, I'm keeping it low key and easy on the eyes.
- You want your portfolio to be able to be viewed as quick as possible. Whoever is going over your work most likely doesn't have any extra time to spare waiting for flash to load or some animation to finish.
- It's unnecessary. If you're applying for just a character/environment modeling job, whoever is viewing your portfolio will have no interest in your ability to use flash.
- Some people may not have flash installed or readily available.
Your best bet is to just keep your portfolio as simple as possible. More images, less gimmicks.
http://www.polygoo.com/
http://www.brameulaers.com/
http://www.matroskinworks.com/
Super simple and straight to the point. It's all you need. Anyway, presentation is not really important right now. Your work is. (though, one hint: use printscreen rather than a cameraphone to document your progress)
What giles means to say is that the model you have right now, is crap. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. It's got nowhere near proper edgelooping and polyflow, it's got a bad distribution of polygons/details, and it doesn't have an appealing shape in general. There are far to many polygons in the tail, nails and face for real-time, and there are no proper loops for a highpoly. It's also not well suited for a sculpt because you have a lot of long polygons rather than square, and your polies are very varying sizes.
I asked for your PF to see if I could find a reason. And I did. You're getting way, way ahead of yourself. Take several steps back, and focus on the pure essentials. Start by modeling simple shapes, getting the silhouette and proportions right, and for the moment forget about shaders, highpoly sculpting, hair simulations and whatnot. Focus on modeling. Focus on the basic shapes. Focus on that.
For example, your current mesh is around 7500 triangles or so? Which is far more than you need for the amount of detail you have. I'd say start a bit lower, with more manageable amounts of polygons. Say 1000, or 1500. You can still get a good deal of detail, but it allows (forces?) you to focus on the most important shapes.
I'd advise you to ignore the current tiger for a bit, and to make something like this instead:
Ok so I did do a print screen, I just didn't crop out the other stuff in photoshop. None of the images here are from a camera phone.
So I have been cleaning it up, but then what you said did kinda hit me hard, so I went in and reduced the model. the pictures above actually were after a smooth. SO HERE is where it stands right now.
I think that this model is still workable, I don't want to abandon it, it's the only thing I can see doing right now because i have a passionate goal set for it. So that being said I still want to work on it, and right now I'm looking at fixing those nails. And getting better loops in. Also can you please clarify your meaning on Real-time, I know what you mean by by Highpoly.
I come from a hard-surface modelling background myself, organic modelling is on my future to-learn list, but the same principles apply.
Ok so, it's good that you've gone back to the modelling stage AND that you've responded positively to criticism, I know it's not easy seeing your hard work pulled apart by polycount's finest, but what they say is true. Forget all about anything other than modelling, a solid model goes a long way.
I've done a quick paintover to try and show you what we mean about cleaning up your mesh.
I haven't fixed everything, just enough to show you what I mean.
Firstly, a lot of your edges are redundant, as a common rule of thumb, if you can delete an edge and it doesnt change the shape of your model at all, it's not needed.
Secondly, quads, quads, quads. Wherever possible, keep your model made out of quads (4 sided faces), try and avoid triangles and n-gons (faces with more than 4 sides).
Thirdly, try to keep an even distribution of polygons, you'll see in the paint over that a lot of edges I changed weren't deleted, just moved a bit to even out the spacing between faces and edges. This is particulary important if you're wanting to make a highpoly or sculpt detail in.
Last but definately not least, if you haven't already, make your model symmetrical. If you don't, it looks unnatural and it doubles your work load because you have to model everything twice instead of simply working on one half then mirroring. So if you can, split you mesh right down the middle and mirror one half.
And to answer your question, a realtime model is something that's rendered in realtime, aka games. Something that, depending on various factors, is a model that's anywhere between 1 and 20,000 polys. Commonly called a lowpoly.
These are the principles of modelling that you should live by. They will make your life a hell of a lot easier.
One last thing, SHOW US WHAT YOU HAVE BEFORE ADVANCING FURTHER. Seriously, too many times I've seen people charge through modelling, texturing and rendering, ignoring all criticism, sometimes even abusing the people who give it to them, only to arrive at some ugly ass model that could have been greatly improved.
We're here to help.
Yea I totally get it, I know you guys are here to help and it would look bad if I responded harshly to your advice. I think having a fresh set of eyes looking at it actually helps a lot too. Part of the trouble I run into is seeing the tri's and trying to figure out how to work it into a quad. I think I will be deleting half the model and making him symmetrical.
Since I have no intention on using this model for a game, and I want to add it to my portfolio maybe even animate it I'm guessing I should make this a highpoly model after I get him cleaned up?