I recently finished my latest character, I thought I would share it with you guys. It's supposed to be a sci-fi mechanic for a pre-rendered game cinematic. Hope you like it!
She's a bit too clean and perfect for a mechanic, I'd have thought. I'd expect hair to be kept tied up out of the way and a bit more muscle mass and general dirt around the place. Cuts, bruises, etc...
The model is solid, but there are other things which seem rushed.
I'm not a fan of her hair, it looks too floaty, not oily enough, and her specular is too 'static', hair usually has more then a simple anistropic specular, usually two additive values that are of different colors, I don't see this going on. Try looking up for Kajya-Kay to see what I mean.
Her face also fades in comparison, it looks blank, it's not defined well enough, the Diffuse is there but the micro details and specular don't read at all, not to mention, it looks she has a thick layer of dust on her face, this simply kills the looks. You should try for an Diffuse Reflectance shader instead, something like Oren-Nayar to fake the 'roughness' at light incident angles
Which reminds me, all of the pictures look like there is a layer of dust on them, people usually fake depth and 'realistic' images but giving it either a slight Chromatic Aberration or DOF.
love the body, especially how it was designed in the upper half, but i also do agree with Ace-Angel about the hair and how the face looks a bit dusty, either way, amazing work over all
Thank you guys for all your feedback! Some good advise there - really appreciate it. @Tenchi: To model the hair I used GMH Mel Script ( Geometries to Maya Hair Script) developed by Phung Dinh Dzung, which converts geometries hair patches to Maya Hair
As for the shader I used Pavel Ledin's mental ray hair shader
Great! Very clean modeling, simple but effective design on the armor!
I agree that the face could use some more colour, other thant that it's a great work.
her body and face actually look really good! it might be the skinshader/sss or lack thereof in the first shot that makes the face look dead and also the strong AO on her face makes her look a bit mucky like she doesnt wash her face.
Really nice work on the clothes, the folds totally sell the materials! I do agree with Talon's points though, her shoulders should be wider and her arms thicker. Right now she looks too clean and her build is too super model-like as opposed to someone who is lifting equipment and working with tools all day. I would also move some details from her front to her back to balance the design so she looks equally interesting from all angles. I also agree with previous comments about her needing more colour; she just looks way too plain right now. Lighting tends to wash out colour too so try saturating the colours a tad and throw in a few bright labels here and there. This isn't a big deal, but it looks like she's wearing a uniform, so maybe a simple company logo on her clothing can add a lot. Overall she looks great though, keep going!
I see..
Thanks a lot!
I think you guys totally didn't like my grading work. This one is without any colour correction - pure CG rendered layers and some noise.
How old is she supposed to be? Cause right now I'm thinking late 30s early 40s. Something about the specular of the skin makes her appear old. I think is has something to do with the darkness around the eyes and pronounced cheekbones. This comes down to personal preference and the individual character, but I feel that a younger woman would have a bit more in the cheek area, lighter around the eyes, and maybe lighten up the whites of the eyes just a touch.
Feel free to ignore me as this is your project, just throwin' out my two cents.
Great work. If you are using occlusion on the face texture, as Ged said I think it might be a bit too black. Her eyes could use a stronger highlight too.
The clothing is pretty amazing though. Awesome use of polygroups. Only other thing I would say is its not dirty enough, A mechanic would be greasy yo.
Awesome work! I kinda wish her face would be more lit up so you could see more of it, maybe some post-process work just to get a the contrast and brightness right. other than that, great!
Looks awesome man, but I think you should loose those black AO / shadows on her skin. Thats really bringing down the face imo. Especially on the lips and around the inside of her eyes. Play with some deeper saturated reds and I think youll really see a huge difference!
This is really nice. I dig the materials and costume.
One thing that really sticks out to me is that her shoulders seem very small and slight compared to the size of her torso, hips and head. They look kind of weak. I would expect them to be a bit more pronounced and strong looking for this character and pose.
this looks great man, I really like the different materials. I agree with the others about toning down the dark AO on her skin though. I think you should emphasize the spec on her eyes too to give em that wet look.
Liking the design. Ditto about the flatness of the image - probably worth pushign the specular a little more.
And I completely agree with Hazardous regarding your use of AO. I would use the AO bake as a mask for bringing in reds/pinks to pull in the underlying skin qualities.
The sleeves on the tied jacket could do with some more work as they look ironed flat, especially the cuffs. I would expect them to retain a slight tubular shape from the knot downwards.
Quick suggestion (I'm at work) of what you could do with it post-process wise. You should try to push it more. Give it more depth and not to be so dark.
Other than that, lovely character, best I've seen in a while. Great work!
I'm really digging the profile! -the hair is crying out for some skin peeking through at the hair part. It'll look a little wig-ish without it. Great stuff!
I agree with chrisradsby, the color adjust could be pushed a bit.
In the first one I just tried some adjustments to get a bit more contrast and enhance the tones a bit. On the second one, I reused the first one and added a solid color over it to try and emulate the tone you used in your adjustment.
Your diffuse is very good, dont get rid of those tones in the color adjust!
Thanks again everyone, some really good feedback there.
The AO was never black, it was set as a mask on the indirect pass and multiplied on top of the diffuse. Maybe it darkened it too mach.
@chrisradsby:
Thanks for your effort, but I can't do such a dramatic change in the background because it will be inaccurate for the lighting of the character. It's obvious that it's done in post.
This thing about the shoulders, could it not just be a slight illusion from the jumper tied around her waist? I drew a line from her shoulder to there and it cuts into that jumper but only a tiny bit into the actual hips.
The shoulders are indeed too narrow - unfortunately I can't do anything to change them at this point.
It's basically the only flaw but it's a pretty huge one that is instantly noticeable.
Most women's shoulders are way wider than their hips. The rule is the bare minimum really, it was a popular rule of thumb for classical painting, where asses are usually like two giant moons.
wow amazing model! really love the detail on the clothes. I think you can push the colour a bit more. Probably add some more spec on the nose, cheeks and forehead. Cause thats where oil collects on the face.
First off, I think this is a beautiful model, you've done a fantastic job so far, one of the most refreshing characters Ive seen in a while
I really think it would be worth your while to go back and pull her shoulders out though, it will make such a difference, I did a quick liquify in PS to see how it would look. I also pulled her hips around slightly as theres a bit of an unnatural bulge to them on one side.
Hello, it's a really great model, i wanted to ask you some questions, because i'm really interested in cinematics and movies more than video games, although i love video games and modding.
The questions are: What's the difference between a game model and a cinematic model? What are the steps to make a cinematic model?
I know for making game model is generaly:
1) Base Mesh/ Z-Spheres
2) High Poly/ Sculpt
3) Retopo
4) Low Poly
5) Unwrap Low Poly
6) Bake details of high poly on low
7) Texture
8) Render/Post Process
For a cinematic character is it:
1) Base Mesh/ Z-Spheres
2) High Poly/ Sculpt
3) Retopo
4) Unwrap
5) Polypaint
6) Texture
7) Render/ Post Process
I ask that for anything like environments, characters, vehicles, weapons... Thanks in advance.
Wow, that's really a beautiful characters. I really love her lips, they looks so yummy ! Latest render is fabulous but I think it could get even better if you do what Gvii did, a little post process in toshop for some of the colors will really give a better look, don't forget to use contrast, gradients, levels and curves
Hello, it's a really great model, i wanted to ask you some questions, because i'm really interested in cinematics and movies more than video games, although i love video games and modding.
The questions are: What's the difference between a game model and a cinematic model? What are the steps to make a cinematic model?
I know for making game model is generaly:
1) Base Mesh/ Z-Spheres
2) High Poly/ Sculpt
3) Retopo
4) Low Poly
5) Unwrap Low Poly
6) Bake details of high poly on low
7) Texture
8) Render/Post Process
For a cinematic character is it:
1) Base Mesh/ Z-Spheres
2) High Poly/ Sculpt
3) Retopo
4) Unwrap
5) Polypaint
6) Texture
7) Render/ Post Process
I ask that for anything like environments, characters, vehicles, weapons... Thanks in advance.
Well,I have no idea about environments..
As for characters, I guess the workflow of modelling and texturing is very similar to that you described.
When it comes to a pre-rendered cinematic the major difference is that you can have
Dynamic hair system
Cloth simulation
Subsurface scattering shader for skin, teeth and eyes (Refractive shader for the cornea of the eye)
And off course you can render your imagery in multiple passes.
All available technologies such as cloth and hair simulation, muscle system, advance skin shaders, global illumination and image based lighting solutions can be used to create the final picture. Any element of the character such as hair, eyes or clothing can be rendered in multiple passes allowing a greater control during post production.
No limits on poly-count, as long as the polygons are used sensibly. However any cinematic character should be animation friendly. That means that the topology of the character is very important to provide good deformation for realistic animation.
There are also no especially restrictive limits when it comes to texture maps and texture sizes.
Andrew Whitehurst from Double Negative who came to our Uni to do a presentation about the techniques used in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" film mentioned that they would usually have about 10 to 15 UV layouts for each character. There will be a separate map for face, eyes, hands, clothing etc. Moreover, each UV set would have colour, specular, displacement and more other maps where each of them would be somewhere between 4k - 8k.
First off, I think this is a beautiful model, you've done a fantastic job so far, one of the most refreshing characters Ive seen in a while
I really think it would be worth your while to go back and pull her shoulders out though, it will make such a difference, I did a quick liquify in PS to see how it would look. I also pulled her hips around slightly as theres a bit of an unnatural bulge to them on one side.
its still a fantastic model though
Thanks a lot, I am glad you like it. I see what you did there.
I tend to do all my characters with narrow shoulders, It's something that I get wrong every time.
Replies
She's a bit too clean and perfect for a mechanic, I'd have thought. I'd expect hair to be kept tied up out of the way and a bit more muscle mass and general dirt around the place. Cuts, bruises, etc...
I'm not a fan of her hair, it looks too floaty, not oily enough, and her specular is too 'static', hair usually has more then a simple anistropic specular, usually two additive values that are of different colors, I don't see this going on. Try looking up for Kajya-Kay to see what I mean.
Her face also fades in comparison, it looks blank, it's not defined well enough, the Diffuse is there but the micro details and specular don't read at all, not to mention, it looks she has a thick layer of dust on her face, this simply kills the looks. You should try for an Diffuse Reflectance shader instead, something like Oren-Nayar to fake the 'roughness' at light incident angles
Which reminds me, all of the pictures look like there is a layer of dust on them, people usually fake depth and 'realistic' images but giving it either a slight Chromatic Aberration or DOF.
@Tenchi: To model the hair I used GMH Mel Script ( Geometries to Maya Hair Script) developed by Phung Dinh Dzung, which converts geometries hair patches to Maya Hair
As for the shader I used Pavel Ledin's mental ray hair shader
I agree that the face could use some more colour, other thant that it's a great work.
Thanks a lot!
I think you guys totally didn't like my grading work. This one is without any colour correction - pure CG rendered layers and some noise.
Feel free to ignore me as this is your project, just throwin' out my two cents.
The clothing is pretty amazing though. Awesome use of polygroups. Only other thing I would say is its not dirty enough, A mechanic would be greasy yo.
One thing that really sticks out to me is that her shoulders seem very small and slight compared to the size of her torso, hips and head. They look kind of weak. I would expect them to be a bit more pronounced and strong looking for this character and pose.
And I completely agree with Hazardous regarding your use of AO. I would use the AO bake as a mask for bringing in reds/pinks to pull in the underlying skin qualities.
The sleeves on the tied jacket could do with some more work as they look ironed flat, especially the cuffs. I would expect them to retain a slight tubular shape from the knot downwards.
As for the facial AO - next time on a new model. Thanks for the advice anyway!
@SnaFuBAR: That's the biggest I could get
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Quick suggestion (I'm at work) of what you could do with it post-process wise. You should try to push it more. Give it more depth and not to be so dark.
Other than that, lovely character, best I've seen in a while. Great work!
My apologies Ma'am!
Please post her in this thread when you get a chance!!
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95540&highlight=Girls
I agree with chrisradsby, the color adjust could be pushed a bit.
In the first one I just tried some adjustments to get a bit more contrast and enhance the tones a bit. On the second one, I reused the first one and added a solid color over it to try and emulate the tone you used in your adjustment.
Your diffuse is very good, dont get rid of those tones in the color adjust!
Thank you for this inspirational piece .
Going to second this, it was the first thing I noticed.
Would have to agree, never shade with black (never shade at all if you can do this with lighting, use SSS and so on)
The AO was never black, it was set as a mask on the indirect pass and multiplied on top of the diffuse. Maybe it darkened it too mach.
@chrisradsby:
Thanks for your effort, but I can't do such a dramatic change in the background because it will be inaccurate for the lighting of the character. It's obvious that it's done in post.
@Hazardous:
Thank you, I will post it there soon.
Here is a new composition. (I hope the last one)
Added a hairline
Removed AO from the face
Didn't touch the facial tones at all
Added less noise
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
The shoulders are indeed too narrow - unfortunately I can't do anything to change them at this point.
It's basically the only flaw but it's a pretty huge one that is instantly noticeable.
Most women's shoulders are way wider than their hips. The rule is the bare minimum really, it was a popular rule of thumb for classical painting, where asses are usually like two giant moons.
Fantastic stuff overall. Keep it up!
I really think it would be worth your while to go back and pull her shoulders out though, it will make such a difference, I did a quick liquify in PS to see how it would look. I also pulled her hips around slightly as theres a bit of an unnatural bulge to them on one side.
its still a fantastic model though
The questions are: What's the difference between a game model and a cinematic model? What are the steps to make a cinematic model?
I know for making game model is generaly:
1) Base Mesh/ Z-Spheres
2) High Poly/ Sculpt
3) Retopo
4) Low Poly
5) Unwrap Low Poly
6) Bake details of high poly on low
7) Texture
8) Render/Post Process
For a cinematic character is it:
1) Base Mesh/ Z-Spheres
2) High Poly/ Sculpt
3) Retopo
4) Unwrap
5) Polypaint
6) Texture
7) Render/ Post Process
I ask that for anything like environments, characters, vehicles, weapons... Thanks in advance.
Great job, sir !
Well,I have no idea about environments..
As for characters, I guess the workflow of modelling and texturing is very similar to that you described.
When it comes to a pre-rendered cinematic the major difference is that you can have
Dynamic hair system
Cloth simulation
Subsurface scattering shader for skin, teeth and eyes (Refractive shader for the cornea of the eye)
And off course you can render your imagery in multiple passes.
All available technologies such as cloth and hair simulation, muscle system, advance skin shaders, global illumination and image based lighting solutions can be used to create the final picture. Any element of the character such as hair, eyes or clothing can be rendered in multiple passes allowing a greater control during post production.
No limits on poly-count, as long as the polygons are used sensibly. However any cinematic character should be animation friendly. That means that the topology of the character is very important to provide good deformation for realistic animation.
There are also no especially restrictive limits when it comes to texture maps and texture sizes.
Andrew Whitehurst from Double Negative who came to our Uni to do a presentation about the techniques used in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" film mentioned that they would usually have about 10 to 15 UV layouts for each character. There will be a separate map for face, eyes, hands, clothing etc. Moreover, each UV set would have colour, specular, displacement and more other maps where each of them would be somewhere between 4k - 8k.
Thanks a lot, I am glad you like it. I see what you did there.
I tend to do all my characters with narrow shoulders, It's something that I get wrong every time.