WIP Old Man Character Modeling

amicochips

Hello everyone!
I'm really new to CG and I'm practising in the use of Maya since a few months.
I hope you all could gimme some good advises for a character I'm working on.
It's the first time I go for an organic mesh and I'm not sure everything's allright before beginning the UV creation

The character is an old man and I modeled each parts separately, to combine them into a single mesh at the end






I hope to receive your critics to make it better

lordsme

Nice work Diego,
I think you should work more on the hands, they look not correct to me.
Thumble shape looks weird, index seems not right and middle look a little to big!
Wrist seems thin too.

Please post more!

lordsme

Face proportions looks strange too.
Eyes seems too big,they do look like a child eyes.
Wrinkles shouldn't be modeled in the base low poly mesh, add them later in the hi-poly mesh using ZBrush or Mudbox. Moreover they do look "cartoonish"... is that you intended to do?
The upper part of the ear lacks of some loop, there's an ugly corner that seems too visible.
Bottom seems too flat.
The end of the trousers near the shoes seems too soft.

Would you post some picture of the shoes topology too?
What about polygon count? How much tris are you using for the whole character?

amicochips

Here you have the hand corrected.
About the topology I cannot understand what it could be a correct one 'cause it seems everyone has its own ideas on the net and in manuals. Anyway this resembles closer Donna's hand one.



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This is a screenshot of the feet/shoes



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amicochips

And here is the head

I think there's too much resolution in the back of the neck and I could try to fix it by using some diamond polygons on the top



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amicochips

And finally the trousers where I made the bottom more prominent



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amicochips

About polygon count I have: 2554 faces, 5110 triangles for the body(jumper, trousers and shoes); 748 faces (1496 tris) for the hands; 3726 faces (7410 tris) for the face

LadyIsabel

Amicochips Hello!
I would liked to see the trousers in some other view, and especially in wireframe and shaded mode.
The shoes I seem to go well.
But the hand, fingers and the palm seems to me that the modeling still sketchy.
The face I think it's fine. Perhaps the nasal septum is a little strict however a little wide nostrils.
Be careful to the shape of the ear is still a little angular.
Good job!

amicochips

Thank u for the reply ladyisabel

Here the trousers



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Here the face with the ear that behaves in a more soft way



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I think the shape of the nose gives him a bit of personality, I fear the mesh could appear 'too perfect'
As I previously said to lordsme, I think also that there is too much resolution in the back of the neck, where no deformations could take place, so I approached a solution which coul be this



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Finally, I don't quite understand what u mean with sketchy referring to the hand. Please show me some examples or point out where exactly I'm doing wrong

Thanks

LadyIsabel

Hello Amicochips,
the nose is certainly an element personalizing, but seemed to me too thin to be realistic.
now seems more credible.
to reduce the loop without changing the shape of the face, I'd say you found a good solution!
Did you think to put the hair?
the hand is good enough, but the topology is quite irregular.
look at these references:
http://www.charactersforum.com/index.php?topic=106.30
http://www.treddi.com/forum/topic/14400-topologia-del-corpo-umano/page__st__80

the loops and the shape are not taste, but the beauty and regularity of the topology.
Good job!

LadyIsabel

http://www.treddi.com/forum/topic/14...o/page__st__80
4 this you get a little down in the topic!

amicochips

I had a bit of time tidying up the topology. I hope this is what u meant it has to be done, is it?



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PaulP

Hey I did a quick paint-over for the top of the hand. These changes are by no means necessary, but you might find them helpful:

amicochips

Thanks for the reply SCB, I've provided the adjustments u indicated:



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In particular, I think the bulge on the side of the thumb make it a lot more realistic

However, there is a dubt which is killin' me: aren't those poles on the blow (with six edges coming)barely mistakes?

PaulP

The six-sided poles near the knuckles? They are only a problem depending on how you want to proceed. If you want to make this all in Maya you will need as much definition as you can before baking out the normal map, and then you can retopologize for the animation ready mesh.

If you want to bring into ZBrush or Mudbox, just test the mesh by subdividing a few times, and check if the mesh is piniching. If it is, revise the topology in that area.

If you are just learning character art, I'd suggest creating a mesh based on real anatomy, and try and understand where the folds, creases, indents, etc go. Basically use this as an anatomy study. It will help you greatly when you are creating a realistic high-poly mesh.

What kind of pipeline are you going for with this project anyway? Are you wanting to just create a realistic high-poly mesh in maya, or a base mesh for painting maybe?

amicochips

What I know is that this character is going to be employed in a real time application,so used as a low poly mesh. I was told after the modeling and the texturing phase it will be exported to zbrush to sculpt the normal map. At the end I think it'll inherit a preexistent rig and so it'll need a weighted skinning.

I read many times that those poles cause problems during deformations, that's why I asked u about 'em

PaulP

People say alot of things and there's usually an element of truth in it, but theres sometimes also some misunderstanding. The best thing you can do is test it for yourself. If not, you'll never know. I reccomend testing it in ZBrush like I said above, but if you don't want to you can always just remove that new topology.

lordsme

I like the new version of the fingers, they looks ok to me.
By the way, did you use any smooth mesh preview in these screenshots?
If it is the case, never use smooth mesh preview when you pst screenshots of the topology!
In case please post the screenshots of the current head, torso and trousers topology without any
smooth mesh preview option in Maya!
You're working for a real-time model, when you'll export it, the geometry will not be smoothed at all.

lordsme

About ZBrush testing, I'm the production pipeline supervisor of amicochips, so here are my hints.
We probably won't use ZBrush for hi-poly modeling, but there's a chance that we'll use Mudbox in the future for this character it we'll need to have good normal map.
I recommend you to test the character's topology by smoothing the mesh one or two times to check that everything works.

Stromberg90

lordsme: Are you he's pimp or anything?

I think the modeling you have done so far looks good, although the face looks like an old woman in my opinion.
Doesn't hurt to try out zbrush, you will eventually try it anyway so why not now.

amicochips

It's sure I don't use smooth version for the screenshots, indeed I use that only to check if there are troubles concerned with bad geometry (as unfold vertices ...)

Here some adjustments I was told to perform


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