[WIP] Cliche Scifi Dude

gilesruscoe

Started my first year of university 3 months ago, and now we've been handed our first character modelling assignment. Going to be posting mine up here for crits, the more the merrier!

block out:



Silhouette turntable



And the current progress of the highpoly:

gsokol

I think the boots are a little too big for this guy. Especially in your silhouette turntable...they stick out like a sore thumb.

gilesruscoe

Going to sound like "That guy" already, but its part of the design lol.
Here are some of the thumbs i did for this dude, and the thumb i ended up basing the design from;





They are somewhat a focal point in the silhouette in my thumbs, and their a bit smaller on the model itself. I guess i was aiming for big grav boot type things. Do you think they just look rediculous or with some design tweaks (to make them look more like boots designed to stop him flying off into orbit) could work?

Jessica Dinh

I think if you want to make the boots big you'd have to make something else big on him to balance it out, cuz right now it looks like he has 'average' proportions with average-propotioned armor - all except for his boots. So they stick out a lot and it looks like a design flaw really.

Also your char looks a bit knock-kneed to me - I would pull his feet a little closer together. I like your color scheme though!

duoxan

id watch your anatomy, those arms arent looking quite right, and i agree with jessica. possibly giving him big gloves, or perhaps a backpack of some sort. sorta reminds me of big daddys from bioshock. they have big boots too, but also an enlarged torso to kinda even it out.

Alberto Rdrgz

When you admit that your piece is 'cliche'... you're off to a bad start, IMHO.

Gannon

Alberto Rdrgz wrote: »

When you admit that your piece is 'cliche'... you're off to a bad start, IMHO.

I agree, unless he pushes it to the point where it's so cliche and teched out it's an obvious joke but it doesn't seem to be sooooo my critique will be find which way you wanna push this.

Super sci fi teched out dude with lots of glowing floating LED light projections and Hexagon patterns with vents and pipes for breathing and to top it off, everything has a lense flare.

or

Maybe something a bit more sleek and form meets functiony kinda deal.

gilesruscoe

Thankyou all for the feedback, much appreciated!

@Jess I agree with you there, needs something to balance it out, at the moment i guess he looks a little bottom-heavy. I will fix his bent legs at some point too :P Colour scheme is just colours to help seperate out elements at the moment, will be doing colour experiments later!

@Duoxan, Yea they are looking a little blobby now i look at them, and possibly a little short, i'l grab some more refs and poke about in zbrush.

@Alberto, haha, yea i guess. My design skills are pretty lacking though, so i thought i'd play it safe and go with something people accept as a game character, instead of some wierd stuff that wouldn't really function due to bad design on my half. Knowing that i was going to be making "zzzzz another scifi character with chunky armour" i though i may aswell admit that i know its a Cliche

@Gannon, you make a good point, it could be so cliche that it turns into something interesting to look at (maybe not so practical to wear though). I intend on adding a ton of details onto this thing anyway (yay floaters) but i'l have to see how far i decide to push it.

Anyway, blocked in some shape changes and some wires here and there, current state of the HP:



Keep the crits coming

Edit:
Added some detail onto his ass, and did a render to see stuff a lil better.

gilesruscoe

Pulled his knee up a little and lengthed the lower leg to give the proportions a bit of a tweak, also detailed out the chest area a little more.

wester

Ok i have to say one of my biggest pet peeves is when people put down their work in the title of the thread.

I'm seeing a lot of "another sci fi.....generic sci fi.....lame sci fi"

If it's generic, you probably shouldn't be making it. It's not going to get you pity, and it's not going to get you a job.

gilesruscoe

I'm not putting myself or my work down. Just pointing out the obvious and letting people know that i understand what i'm making isn't very original at all. One of my pet peevs is people derailing feedback threads with not-so-useful comments.

wester

Your title stops people from looking at your thread, and also gives them a predetermined opinion on your work, also showing them what you think about your work. If you think your work is cliche why should we think different? If you want as much feedback as you can, I'm saying that stating your work is "cliche" isn't the best way to go about that.


You get can offended, but im just posting this to help you for future posts. Professionals will not look at your thread if you put "generic, cliche....etc" in the title. We dont care if you think your work is cliche.

WipEout

I would rework the boots. If there's one thing that bugs me about current trends in SF game characters, it's the Gears of War-influenced, oversized, anatomically-impossible armor.

Look at Warhammer's Space Marines-- their armor is also oversized beyond reality, but at least the joints are articulate.

In your case, your top 2/3 of the character have articulated and detailed armor, but the boots, honestly, look literally like clown-shoes with bands around the ankles . Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you're going for grav-boots or someething else to explain the over-sized nature compared to the rest of the armor, I'd suggest looking at mech designs and even Slipgate Central's characters (Nightmare/Polycount Brawl, N0X-2292/Dominance War) to get an idea of how to add "functional" mechanical bits to the boots. I think this will add some interest to the silhouette, as well as make them functionally believable.

Keep up the hard work, though, if you spend some more time on the armor design you can definitely take the character away from the cliche and give it an interesting twist.

gilesruscoe

Hey Cheers WipEout,
Slipgates Nox model is a hugeee inspiration for technical detail, must have watched those videos in awe about 5 times now. I'm trying to make it look functional, it's certainly challenging! I'l probably start redesigning the boots soon then, seeming as that seems to be the main crit im getting from people.

I got pretty unproductive earlier, so instead of staring at a blank screen not knowing what to model next, i decided to model (badly) part of the leg section lowpoly and do a texture test. Please excuse the wobbly bake and that massive seam :P

uncle

Too much peeled off paint! Suit is futuristic looks like brand new - such brutal wear doesn't belong in here IMO. Also it is too random . I'd think a bit more which areas are most exposed to damage and thus place more scratches there.

Also catch this

mystichobo

gilesruscoe wrote: »

Please excuse the wobbly bake and that massive seam :P

For the seam:
Why don't you move the uv seam itself so that it runs along a segment of the leg that is already broken up by textures/geometry?

Isaiah Sherman

I have to agree with the thread title. You may as well say "Uninspired boring project that I don't even know why I care"

That aside, I don't think this is as cliche as you believe it to be. I see more Halo-ish scifi suits than I can stand, it's refreshing to see something a bit different. Keep it up!

gilesruscoe

@Uncle Yea i guess it is a little too heavy, but i do want the suit to look like its seen a fair bit of use. Cheers for the link, some useful tips there which i'l put into practise once i get round to doing the full textures!

@Mystic, why didn't i think of that! Definately something i will do in the final unwrap, thanks alot. The wobbly bake at the back of the knee will be fixed once i add in the correct geo.

@Haiasi, ok ok, i get the idea, bad thread title :P I'm glad you think it isn't a cliche though, thanks for the kind words.

gilesruscoe

Right, highpoly is almost finished, just need to do a few more bits here and there on it. Will post updates on it soon.

Unfortunately i've decided to keep the boots how they are due to me going home for christmas (away from my PC) so rapidly running out of time.

Got the retopo done for the legs, did another texture test. Going for post-apoc type texture work.

gilesruscoe

Finished the lowpoly, got it unwrapped and baked everything down. Few rough spots which need to be rebaked though. Also did a little work on his face.

gilesruscoe

Think im done with him. Thoughts?
He weighs in at 9.8k tris and 2048x2048 normal, spec, gloss diffuse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFReVT4PZic&feature=youtu.be