Sci-Fi Suit

_DeadPixel_

Hey guys,

I was provided with a character concept that I need to create in 3D, but I've never made anything with game restrictions before.
It's also the first time I'll be texturing a character - ha...should be fun.
The restrictions are 2500 polys and a texture resolution of 1024x1024.

I'm unable to include the concept painting on a public forum.
The original concept is ownership of the Gameloft Redsteam Studio.

I'm not sure what the best workflow is for creating game characters, but I've decided to model a high poly mesh in Maya, retopo the mesh and bake a normal map using the two.

I made a start on the armour this weekend and here's where I'm at so far:

I'll try to keep updating the progress regularly; any feedback or tips you guys have to help me out would be appreciated!

Cheers.

C86G

Wow, will definetly have an eye on this.

Good luck!

Jessica Dinh

Cool I think her curves are more apparent in the concept though - waist thinner and hips wider. I also think you should make the cutline down the center of her chest wider/bolder, and the little glowing circle bigger too. Excited for the rest of the blockout :]

Darkleopard

Great start!. I will be doing something similar soon so this will be great to watch.

Donavonyoung

Once this is done throw it into the 3D girls thread.

gilesruscoe

Hey, i agree with Jessica on the curves of the character.

Here's a liquify for you:

_DeadPixel_

Hey guys, thanks for the support and feedback, appreciate it!
Thought I'd reply so I don't seem like I'm ignoring you guys, but I'm gonna try to hold off replying until I post updates so I don't spam the thread; hope nobody gets offended by that in the future.

Jess - You're right about all those things, so I changed them; Also made her shoulders/traps a little larger too.

Donavon - I'm new here so I have no idea what that thread is, but I'll try and find it to have a skim through, sounds cool! haha

Giles - Thanks for taking the time to paintover it, hopefully the update will be closer to your feedback.

Should have the high poly model finished tomorrow, will post an update in the evening for some feedback.
I'm planning to get the low poly mesh and UV layout finished by the end of weekend; maybe squeeze in a lil baking, who knows.

Cheers! =]

_DeadPixel_

Hey guys,

Near finished the high poly mesh; just gotta finish those god damn shoulder pads and add a few small things.
Think I'll do something about her butt because I don't like the shape haha


Turntables:

[vv]40255981[/vv]

[vv]40255557[/vv]

Wires:

All feedback and crit welcome!

Cheers. :]

SA_22

looks awesome so far!... shoulders seem alil narrow, might just be me... maybe add some smaller details to the suit, few scuffs or something like that..might help it pop some more

Tits

There is a little something bugging me about the ''derriere'' (butt? I don't know what is the correct word to use in english). I think it looks a little flat.
Other then that I think the concept is really cool and it looks great.
I agree that you could add some small details to make it pop even more.

_DeadPixel_

Shoulder pads added, that's all the concept modeled; think i'll add a few things to the back because it looks a little bare.

Simon - You're right about the shoulders, hopefully they look more accurate with the armour added.

Marie - Agreed, her ass does look weird, will remodel it tonight. hah

I'll add some wear and tear to her gear this weekend before starting the low poly remesh.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Jessica Dinh

This looks really nice! Think the head may be a bit far forward though, and hands looking a bit thin. Excited for progress!

_DeadPixel_

Hey guys,

I've added some detail in Zbrush and retopologised the low poly game mesh.
I've never modelled a game model before, so the triangle approach felt really bizarre to me; I've tried keeping the triangles in non-deforming areas.

Next step is unwrapping the Uvs, but any feedback on the topology at this point would be really appreciated.
I'm planning to use Xnormal for generating the normal map, I've never used that so some tips would also be great.
I really wanted to model the straps, but I ran low on my poly limit so have decided to bake them; I read its good to only model things that are visible in the silhouette, so I'll stick to that approach.

Game Mesh:

High Poly:

All feedback and crit is welcome. Cheers!

njc6425

looks really cool not a huge fan how the top section comes to an abrupt halt, the straight line in the middle of the character is very off putting. Looking great otherwise

SA_22

http://eat3d.com/free/xnormal_overview

http://www.donaldphan.com/tutorials/xnormal/xnormal_occ.html

^^^ should help you out getting to grips with xnormal

http://vimeo.com/9059831

http://vimeo.com/9742354

http://vimeo.com/10596662

http://vimeo.com/13868566

http://vimeo.com/11483803

^^^ these should be super helpful for the topology

_DeadPixel_

njc6425 - Thanks dude. Yeh, some of his design was quite difficult to model, don't get me started on how much I hated modelling the shoulder pads, took foreveeeer. haha

SA_22 - Big thanks for the links mate, will definitely take a look through those before I'm done polishing the maps!

So it's been a while since I updated this thing...
I've unwrapped the UVs and baked both the normal and AO map, removed the cylinders from the torso because they served no purpose and gave the gloves more topology.
The first time I created the normal map it turned out awful and I spent an entire day painting out the errors, after which a friend told me about something called "smoothing groups" which I'd never heard of before, needless to say they were the cause of my problems.
After a painful learning experience I went back, adjusted my model and UVs, then re-baked the maps.

Applying the new maps to the character I ran into 2 new problems; the first is where I mirrored my UVs, leaving a line down the center of the model; the second problem is a white spot on either side of her chin.
I've been told to paint the white spots out manually in photoshop, which I'll try later today.
As for the line down the center, I'm at a loss; I'm going to try deleting a few pixels from the edge of the UV shell to see if that is somehow causing the problem, I'll also try different smoothing groups and re-bake the maps to see if that fixes things. - Check out the armour pad on her crotch to see what I'm talking about.
If anyone knows what's causing the issue I'd really appreciate the feedback.

I haven't cleaned these maps since the bake, I'll polish them up in Photoshop later after this post and a little feedback from you guys.
So far I'm quite happy with the results, although there are still a lot of creases that need ironing out. Never thought I'd enjoy texturing once I tried it, who knew!

Here's an update on the model, along with a UV snapshot.

The model is 4928 tris and the maps are 1024x1024.

Cheers! :poly115:

Neox

throw her in an engine, if you want to present her in maya, then use maya for the normalmap bakes, you will not get better quality from any other software if you want to stay inside maya. Also i would suggets to add a few more tris to her breasts, right now the silhouette there looks very blocky compared to the rest.

_DeadPixel_

Hey Neox, thanks for the info & feedback; I'll add more geo to her breasts today.
I was planning to present her using Marmoset, this is the first time I've touched on game stuff so incorporating an engine would be way over my head at this moment in time.
When you say Maya produces the best quality bake, does that still apply if I used Marmoset for my final renders? Or would using Maya still produce better quality bakes than something like xNormal?

Neox

no it only applies for in maya use, mayas normal baker ins synchronized with the viewport rendering, therefore, normals baked in maya will always look best inside maya. In the last production i worked in we tried to achieve this quality with xnormal but failed to do so - you can get close but it's still not as perfect as within maya. The engine is completely synched to mayas normals, tangents etc. therefore baking there was needed to guerantee the best results. For marmoset xnormal will do, i had good experiences with it

whw

Looking good - couldn't find the concept myself :-/

I'd check the lips as they appear a little wide and the chin/jawline appears somewhat masculine. Have a go tapering it and see how that reads.

From a functionality POV, those plates either side of the ankle would make for limited movement.

UVs look good, though maybe the mouth could've fit tin the upper left corner - makes for easier symmetry before addition of details.

_DeadPixel_

Neox - I'll have a play with the two of them and see if I can find a good mix, thanks for all the info, appreciate it.

Whw - Hmm it must have been taken down; the studio told me I wasn't allowed to post it online, which sucks.
I'll re-adjust the jaw a little, I wasn't too sure on it myself, now that someone else has pointed it out I'll have to! haha
I'll see what I can do about the UVs when I've finished editing the model; couldn't I just use the rotate view tool in Photoshop?

Thanks for the feedback!

_DeadPixel_

Just downloaded Marmoset and had a quick play, all I can say is wow...such a great tool and so fast to pick up!
Think I'll stick to testing my maps in there.
Play time over, time to go back and work on some feedback. :poly124:

roosterMAP

I think you were premature to bake. I think you should take it into zbrush to add finer detail and such..

_DeadPixel_

You mean fabric detail and stuff? You're right, it does look a little flat, I'll add that after I re-mesh the suit later; cheers dude.

_DeadPixel_

Hey guys, finally managed to update this thing.

I went back and fixed what feedback I got on the model; normal map is looking much better in Marmoset.
I've made a start on texturing the diffuse and spec maps at the same time, this is just a quick update of where I am, still a long way to go yet.
This is the first time I've actually textured anything so if you guys have any pointers that would help out I'd really appreciate it.
Also, I still have that issue with the crease down the center of her armour pads, no idea what's causing that.
Texture sizes - 1024x1024

Cheers! :poly108:

_DeadPixel_

Hey guys, quick update on this chick.

So I've been busy texturing her. Had some time to rig her in Maya ready for animating, so I've posed her for a render here.
I'm not 100% happy with the pose so I'll rework it for the final renders if any of you guys have some feedback about it.
Might actually switch the base colour because it's too similar to her boots.
As always, any feedback is welcome! :poly121:

Gannon

your DoF isn't doing you any favors. it's blurring everything and it kinda gives me a headache. I would just remove it :-/

Di$array

Personally I'm not a fan of DoF. yeah sure it looks nice but I find it hides all the little detail you've put your time and love into.

But If I was going to use DoF I would only use it on close up shots. Never for fully body shots because as Gannon says above it hurts your eyes.

As for the design and model itself I'm really digging it. Only promblem area I find is the shins. It just a bit bare, maybe add a few straps, etc.

_DeadPixel_

Ah cheers for pointing that out, you're right it looks really really bad. haha

_DeadPixel_

Hey Phil, thanks for the feedback. I agree with you about the shins, they do look really bare.
I was given a concept to stick to so I'm afraid I can't add anything to them, although I will try and make them a little more interesting, maybe throw some damage onto them or something.

_DeadPixel_

So I'm about done finishing up here, need to get this chick submitted.
Was really fun giving game art a shot, huge learning curve for me.
Thanks a lot for all the feedback, if anyone has more I'll have to come back to this model at a later date or incorporate it into my next project.
Hope you guys like it! :poly121:

njc6425

looks good man, good job.

urgaffel

That looks quite cool but the compression in that jpg is horrible. Can we have a higher res, higher quality screenshot? I'd love to be able to see more detail

Darkleopard

Pretty good for the first time texturing a character!

Would love to see some maps if you could

_DeadPixel_

Thanks guys!
I've included the high res image, texture maps and a turntable.
If you can point anything out about my texture maps that I should do differently next time, please let me know!
Cheers.

High Res image:



Diffuse:



Normal:



Spec:



Turntable & Wires:

[vv]41841027[/vv]