[wip] goblin character process

eazy

Latest:

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Original Post:

My new portfolio piece wip thread: goblin

I'm going to try and make him as unique and interesting as possible, but with so many different interpretations on the Tolkien trope, I might be attempting the impossible. Anyways, here's sketches so that I stop typing.



Thoughts on the coolest looking ones? My plan is to work on a simple goblin model, do some basic armor, and one weapon.

dirigible

should have numbered them for us. Going by left to right, top to bottom ordering (and ignoring the thing in the upper right) I like 2 and 4 best. Very ratlike.

bisse123

3th and 7th the proportions are off.
5th is the most classical thus most boring.

I like the the 1st and 2nd where the 2nd has the most "realistic style". The 4th is also cool - 'goblin with shark teeth' and with the 6th you have 'goblin with metal jaw or part metal/flesh jaw'.

eazy

thanks for the feedback, guys! and sorry about leaving out the numbers. it looks like #2 is in the lead, which i am thrilled about. I'm working on getting a full body sketch going, and will post updates soon!

the thing in the top right is a rough idea for what his helmet will look like, with spaces for his giant nose and ears to come out.

eazy

I'm pretty sure I've decided on the bottom left guy for how the 4-head-tall proportions are feeling. 3 heads just felt a little too cute, and anything past 4 felt a little too human-like.



and now that I've gotten proportions out of the way, time to get some clothing on this nekkid goblin!

eazy

Here's some progress. I've got the armor look pretty much nailed down, and I started playing with some color. I dunno about the warpaint tho... how do you guys feel about it?

Sebeuroc

Looking pretty cool man! I like where you're going with the concept. Personally I think the warpaint is cool, though I'd be careful with where it goes because if you're doing red it might end up looking like blood. (Unless of course that's what you want to go for.)

Also I'm not a huge fan of the helmet, but mostly because I think the goblin's head looks cool and it seems like a shame to cover it. I think he loses a lot of his character when you cover up his nose/brow area.

Maybe add some leather wraps to the feet like you have on the hands?

Just some thoughts. Keep up the good work!

jeremiah_bigley

Slick stuff man! I agree with the helmet. The face is really where you have the most character. And I really love the first head you did on the first post.

mutatedjellyfish

I'm inclined to agree. Ditch the helmet and go dirt-ugly and mean in his face.

eazy

Thanks for the input, guys! I really appreciate it, and I guess I'll put off doing the helmet, and maybe later I'll add it in for fun. Here's a small update with my zsphere sketch. I'm still pretty noob at zbrush, so I'm just taking it one step at a time.

Zipfinator

Love the concept. I think the warpaint definitely adds a lot to it. Otherwise it's all just muted greens/browns.

As for the zpheres, the head and arms are looking way too big and the thighs could be beefed up a bit compared to the concept.

Looking forward to progress on this!

eazy

micro-update! Thanks Zipfinator for the feedback. I definitely appreciated the extra set of eyes !



Now on to the heavy duty sculpting!

eazy

Latest update! aaaand right now I'm kinda lost as to what I should tackle next. I feel the topology is completely jacked up, so I want to do a retopo asap, but i'm wondering if I should do the armor and stuff first, and then retopo everything at the same time... speaking of which, I'm not very sure how to start sculpting the armor on top of my mesh. Help?

Saman

Nice stuff. You should consider haveing a different pose for the arms though, you're gonna have problems with the shoulders as well as the deltoids later on. Rotate them up a bit, about 45 degrees.

eazy

I'm back! Even though I haven't made too much progress since I put this guy on hold, I felt like I needed to put something up to keep this thread alive. And thanks for the advice, Saman. Every little bit of help makes a big difference.

eazy

progress! zbrush learning is fun!

Jimmg

Why are the horns coming out of his nostrils? :P

eazy

just a nose piercing, Jimmg.

eazy

Here's my latest. Retopo and bakes just took a bit longer than I would have hoped. O well. My next post will be when I'm finished painting my diffuse and spec maps. Thanks for looking!

Darkleopard

How did you go about doing the armour over the base model? Im starting a character soon and im going to be doing the same.

njc6425

Looking closely at the wireframe it seems you merged the geometry of the armour with the body. if that is true can you tell me if there were any baking issues? i havent tried doing this yet but im starting a character sculpt within a week or two and i will most likely have to do this at some point during the retop process so any insight would be great

eazy

sup guys! Darkleopard njc6425, so before I started my retopo in Zbrush, I merged all my different subtools into one skin and ran a standard Decimation Master pass over the whole thing. I saved out that obj for the high-poly, then made the low-poly on top of the whole thing.

The armor itself came out pretty clean, but the worst parts are probably the fingers, toes and armor spikes specifically. I did have to wrangle the settings in xNormal a bit to get the bakes looking as good as they do now. I found that the quickest way to find the best settings is to run several different test bakes at lower resolution and no anti-aliasing and putting the normal map onto the model to make sure you're not getting weird artifacts or that kind of thing.

Thanks again for looking! Peace!

eazy

My latest update:









Next up will be the sword and shield, then after that a rig and some animations!

King Mango

So you rig and animate too? fuck me...
haha Talented people around here!

eazy

my latest:



I'm planning on a few more cycles for this guy before I move on to something else. At least a cycle for attack, walk, run, block, and death, I'm thinking...

eazy

UPDATES:

idle

react/alert

walk

hop!

katana

Very nice...really like the hop.

The walk still feels stiff. The arms and legs are ok, but the torso and head could use another look. Maybe more sway and smoothing?

achillesian

need ear movement on the alert, needs some specular love too, goblin skin isn't that dry

eazy

katana, achillesian: thank you so much for the advice, i really appreciate it! and on that note, here are some updates!

chrisradsby

Well I think the walk still looks awkward. I'm no animator but it feels like it's somewhere inbetween "Hunched Walk" which the character just hunches and walk kind of normally. OR "Crouched walk" where the character never really extends his legs when walking.

katana

Ultimately the body and arms dont move in arcs, more like a train chugging along. It's especially evident on the pushing of the shield.

Personally i like the limp like walk in this case...past battles and all that.

Visceral

katana wrote: »

Ultimately the body and arms dont move in arcs, more like a train chugging along. It's especially evident on the pushing of the shield.

Personally i like the limp like walk in this case...past battles and all that.

This basicly. But i would have to see it from multiple angles to decide. Otherwise the rest of the animations looks great, no popping or skinning issues atleast. If it didnt come off in my post im pretty impressed of the character so far....but hey i got a thing for Goblins! especially green ones