High Poly Game Character Project

ptree224

Working on a project for a high poly game character. Somewhere near 8,000 faces.

I've developed a recent liking for the Viking/Nordic style warrior look. I found Stoick from How to Train Your Dragon, as this was the look I was going for. However, I wanted to move away from the Dreamworks look and more towards a slightly more defined and realistic look. More 'hardened warrior' than 'father of the village'.

So anyway, it's just a silhouette and a quick white-over for now, but I hope to post a coloured version and finish my orthographic shots in my spare time over the weekend.

Let me know what you think about the style (even though it's not much to go off yet). Any comments/critiques are welcome.

ptree224

Thanks for the interest, amile.

I'll try to get a proper concept done this week and post it up with the finished orthographic.

Dani McOrrie

for some reason he reminds me of the thugs in tangled, but in a good way

ptree224

Wow. I cannot unthink that now. But I think I see what you mean by 'in a good way'.

Thanks.

Orangeknight

Before I even read text I said to my self How to Train a Dragon. This will be a cool project to follow and hope you do well. I was watching that move recently and they really nailed the hair and it made the models look great, I hope you nail that hair to.

ptree224

Yeah, I was thinking about the hair too actually. I don't think I'll want to give him hairy arms like Stoick. Not sure. I mean, if he had no gloves I would make his forearms hairy, but to do that when you can't see it most of the time makes me think it's not really worth it, aesthetically. Once I've got it at the stage of details I'll think about how I'm going to do the beard and the mustache.

Thanks for the input.

Orangeknight

Nice little refrence I think and also shows you detail of beard hair and forearm hair

ptree224

Thanks. This screen cap is already in my reference folder, though I'll see if I can find more that are close up like this.

ptree224

Update: Created a side view and added fur to the inside of the shoulder strap and belt.

ptree224

Haven't updated for ages! Sorry to anyone following along. I've got updates now of the modelling I've been doing. I know the topology is mostly horrible, but everything except the head was box modelled. I'm not sure what feedback I'm looking for at the moment, but I guess anything you guys pick out I'll try to take on board.

Here's some screen shots from Maya:

ptree224

A friend told me at one point that the thumb was weirdly small for the hand. I've made a lot of modifications to the hands today and yesterday and noticed, when uploading my last update, that I'd made it horribly large when compensating. Here's an update of what it looks like after trying to fix it again.

ptree224

njc6425

some good modelling but the main thing thats bugging me is the deltoid, i know its a stylised character but even then the anatomy should be correct. The deltoid connects around the collarbone and scapular, there isnt a defined ridge between the arm and body like youve got, good modelling otherwise

ptree224

Actually, I'm not too happy with the torso area either. Then again it's the part I spent the least time on. Hopefully I can fix that in the coming days. Thanks for the input.

ptree224

And here's something I found today while updating the eyes and laying out UVs for the head; the eyes look pretty derp.

ptree224

And, because I guess in this case, visible edge loops are just getting in the way...

ptree224

Alright, so I have all of... Todayish to finish the model, get some crappy base textures in and start rigging for animation next week. Huzzah.

@njc6425, I think I understood what you meant. Do you just mean, there's too much of a defined crease between the torso and shoulder? Like I've just stuck a ball on the side of his body (which I definitely didn't do, don't worry!) or something? I'll fix that now and include a post about it. Try to ignore the dodgy zBrush polypaint texture on the head if it ends up in the screenshot.

ptree224

Is this what you meant? I mean, it looks better to me in any case.

ptree224

Rigging!

ptree224

Esther23 wrote: »

Wow. I cannot unthink that now. But I think I see what you mean by 'in a good way

Why did you copy+paste one of my previous replies?

MadnessImport

Because Esther23 thar's a bot ol chap

Quote him and see the hidden advertisement links in his post

ptree224

After barely any searching I've just discovered that. I was hoping these sorts of things hadn't made it to Polycount. *sigh* Anyway, character...

ptree224

Wait... Is there a way to report bots, or does Polycount ban people for being not people?

Snader

ptree224

Snader wrote: »

I am n00b! Hear me derp!

ptree224

Wow. Second page. Guess I'll post some rigging and posing shots tomorrow. You'll have to excuse me lack of textures. I've had some trouble with ZBrush.

ptree224

Alright, so rigging and skinning has been hastily thrown together. And MOST of the joints seem not to derp up the mesh. You can see some slight derp under the left arm, but the other arm I just spent about an hour painting weights on, and I'm not touching it again.

ptree224

Oh and if you're wondering why his hands are up like that, I was imagining him leaning on a sword or battle axe, which I hope to draw up in Photoshop, using this as a template. Just to get some nicer colour concept drawings so I can texture him with reference.

Snader

This is just a blockout or base mesh, right? Because it's rather shapeless right now, though it has quite a bunch of polies in there. At the same time, the ends of the gloves are a tad blocky, as are the shoulder band thingies.

I kinda glossed over the thread before, but I don't really understand your workflow/planning. What steps do you intend to take? If this is the final lowpoly, you need to do some more work.

ptree224

Snader wrote: »

This is just a blockout or base mesh, right? Because it's rather shapeless right now, though it has quite a bunch of polies in there. At the same time, the ends of the gloves are a tad blocky, as are the shoulder band thingies.

I kinda glossed over the thread before, but I don't really understand your workflow/planning. What steps do you intend to take? If this is the final lowpoly, you need to do some more work.

Firstly, thanks for the feedback. I must say I was hoping for more during this project, being my first public one, but beggers can't be choosers, and it's not like my character stands out among the Polycount forum topics. Anyway, my reply...

This was a rushed effort, so yeah it's basically base mesh for the most part. The torso and arms I box modelled and didn't really do much work on. However, taking your comments on board, I'm currently in ZBrush with the "skin area" (torso, arms, head) on 2nd to 3rd division, trying to copy some muscle references into the mesh. I've got the arms and shoulders looking better, and I'm adding more shape to the chest and back now. (Yes, eventually I'll go into 7th-8th division and get some vains going and paint some textures.) The shoulder strap, I was trying to keep fairly low poly and I think I made it too thick too now that I think about it. I'll have a look at making that better somehow.

I agree with the gloves being blocky at the ends, but when I made them I was trying to think how leather gloves such as that would have been made, you know? I was going more for the flat-tipped fingers, as opposed to perfectly round, so I figured lower polies in that area would work okay. Then again, as you've pointed out, it just makes it look underdone and blocky. I'll touch them up in ZBrush too, and perhaps help out the mesh with (what I hope will be) a kickass normal map.

My workflow hasn't really gone as planned really. I've been heavily restricted for time, which sucks, but my plan was something like this: Concepting, box modelling, Zbrush detailing and exporting of normals (including texture maps), rigging and then touching up. I had to skip to the rigging, but over the next week and a bit I hope to go back and detail the mesh, and create diffuse, normal, spec, and AO maps with ZBrush and xNormal, and then rig it again properly, with controllers and what not. Also, trying to determine what will be both easier/nicer looking as far as bone rigged facial controls or blendshapes. Keeping in mind I want to keep it under 8000 polies.