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Sketchbook: UneditablePoly

Hey, my name's Kyle Maguire. I've been floating around these boards for awhile now and just made an account. I've been doing digital art for a long time (started learning 3D in Animation:Master back in middle school). I mainly use 3DS Max, Zbrush and Photoshop currently.

I'm interested in expanding all of my skills so I'll probably be posting a lot of different stuff in here. Up until now I've never really made an effort to save any of my art in one place so when people ask to see my stuff I often go digging. I also work sporadically and sometimes go awhile without making anything very new or interesting.

I'm going to try to practice more regularly now but I'm not going to post too much old stuff. So anyways, here's something that I sketched last night:

Some sort of tribal mystic. I got it into my head to draw a character with a mask and this is what happened.

tribalman.jpg

I'm fully open to any constructive criticism or comments, by the way.

Replies

  • Evil Krisp
    im not sure whats going on with the forearms or the melting thighs. your proportion needs work but youre off to a good start. keep at it! as for the color i cant help you there cuz i just started painting myself. it would be nice to see the character without the mask too.
  • tokidokizenzen
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    tokidokizenzen polycounter lvl 17
    Are the horns a part of his skull or an accessory? Think about how that mask is attached. If it's actually part of his face; think about ways to convey that.
  • uneditablepoly
    Ok, so I haven't abandoned my tribesman. I've been doing some resketching of him and am having trouble balancing stylization and anatomical accuracy. I think that's always been an issue of mine. Anyone have any tips on how to draw the line? (no pun intended.. lol) Basically, what is the difference to you between incorporating a style and just being wrong?

    I've been doing some stuff with this assassin guy in my spare time. I did a quick concept, front and side. My scanner's broken so I don't have that up. I'll try to find a working scanner soon. Then I did a mock-up 3d front-view, modeled the human figure then started adding the clothing and armor. Any comments on the model so far?

    darkguardstriker3dprefa.jpg

    darkguardstriker.jpg

    darkguardstrikerwire.jpg
  • Fleafa
    Liking the assassin dude so far. :)
  • BigHoss
    Same here liking it as well, but I liked the cape in the concept a bit better. It looks to be a bit thinner, and shorter on the 3d model. Maybe add a few curves to it as well, just looks odd being flat like that.
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    Looking nice.

    That cape and crotch cloth wont deform well they dont have enough geometry. 2 polies wide means that you cannot get anything but a sharp bend :).

    Also i get the feeling you dont like faces. If your not good at them dont avoid them otherwise you will get good at everything BUT faces.
  • uneditablepoly
    Thanks for the comments!

    @BigHoss - You're right, I think I did that on purpose because I was thinking about his movement and how a shorter cape would provide more mobility but I think you're right in that it does look better longer.

    @Muzz - Two great points. I don't do much animation so I'm bad at thinking ahead in that way. I usually just think topology but I need to change that. This is especially true with cloth, though, because I've never even tried animating anything with cloth on it.

    And about the face thing, you're right, I don't like them. Whenever I design people or draw them I usually draw them with that smoothed out face-like thing. I should definitely start working more with faces, in 2D and 3D.

    For now I'm gonna go back and revamp the cloth topologies and then I'll start working out more of a face.
  • uneditablepoly
    Ok, so I've been doing a lot of random modeling. I'll post some off the stuff I've been messing around with a little later.

    I was optimizing the topology of my assassin and it started slowing down, and I didn't feel like unwrapping him just yet so I decided to do some thinking on the texturing beforehand. Here's a quick paintover of what I'm thinking right now.

    assassinpaintover.jpg
  • uneditablepoly
    Was messing around with some weapons, very stylized. They're based on some concepts I found lying around from a BF2 mod I was a part of, based on the Game Boy Advance title Advance Wars.

    stylizedweapons.jpg
  • uneditablepoly
    I felt like painting a character without sketching it first because that's what I usually do. So I started laying down some colors and blocking out shapes and it started becoming a robot. I worked on the forms for a good bit then went in and added details then finished up with some light and shadow work. It's not perfect but I'm happy with it seeing as I didn't spend too too long on it. I was gonna paint a little nimble battlebot next to him but it's late. I might add to this later.

    robotpainting.jpg
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    Go study speculars man :). it will help.

    Also know where your ground plane is and focus more on keeping correct forms.

    Cool paintover and weapons though :).
  • uneditablepoly
    Thanks, I'll go work on those things. I actually found this really great general art tutorial while looking for tips on speculars. It covers a lot of stuff I think I need to work on, it's perfect. Anyone who thinks they need to work on anything in terms light/shadow, color, and even more go check this out. I find it extremely informative.

    http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
  • uneditablepoly
    Just messing around with some models. I'm trying to get into painting but I'm having trouble starting. Anyone have any good resources for it? Or should I just wing it?


    66997737.jpg

    oldbridge.jpg

    varmint.jpg

    scari.jpg
  • uneditablepoly
    Was just looking around Keen's sketchbook and noticed that Ged linked this nice little site.

    http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76955

    I've been looking for painting practice, especially with fundamentals and these exercises and tips are great. I'm gonna start working on these while referencing the other page I found earlier (http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm). Great stuff!

    Also studying my anatomy book. Trying to become a better artist in general, I suppose. I'll try to post some more work soon.
  • uneditablepoly
    I'm in a Halo mood, starting a sketch that I'll try to finish and post soon. I'm thinking it's gonna end up being a painting.
  • uneditablepoly
    Ok, here's my idea so far. It's already changed a lot since I started and I'm sure it'll change more as I go.

    femalespartanwip1.jpg
  • uneditablepoly
    Coming along, still have to do the head. I can't decide whether to go with a helmet or not. I'm thinking no right now. After that I'm probably gonna add a holstered pistol on the left (you can kinda see the outline of what I was thinking for it) and also a weapon on her back. I'm making changes to the armor design itself as I go, also. Once all that's done I'm gonna start moving towards a painting and possibly a background. Let me know what you think so far.

    femalespartanwip2.jpg
  • uneditablepoly
    Started painting over. Figured I'd post what I had before I went to bed. A lot left to do, once I do a basic light and shadow I'm going to add a background then do some bounce lighting, then hit up the speculars and do some ambient lighting from the sword. Oh... and the face. :poly142:

    femalespartanwip3.jpg
  • Ninjas
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    Ninjas polycounter lvl 18
    The gun models are looking slick-- for the Halo girl, I think it would be best to work all the shading up at the same time, and then differentiate each material in it's own step.
  • uneditablepoly
    Are you saying work in black and white values first? My workflow could be really messed up. I'm semi-new to this haha.
  • Nistrum
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    Nistrum polycounter lvl 9
    very cool man very cool
  • uneditablepoly
    hey thanks, i've been kinda absent for awhile because of starting college and all that but i'll have some updates when i get back to school in about a week and have my computer again
  • uneditablepoly
    Haven't been on here in awhile. Here's something I sketched, scanned and colored quickly. An armor concept. Was originally going to be an angel warrior.

    angelicarmor.gif
  • indian_boy
    aw, was looking forward to seeing the prior project completed.
    either way:
    the current concept feels slightly incomplete
    even if you want it to be top heavy, the lower body still needs some armour to balance it all out, in my opinion. maybe something just up till half the length of the thigh?

    lookin forward to seeing more stuff from you man
  • uneditablepoly
    yeah, i agree. honestly, i drew a female in that pose then just started drawing all over it. i sat staring at bare legs for quite awhile then just threw that on. i will develop it more
  • uneditablepoly
    Here it is with more leg armor. I did this pretty quick. I don't like how it looks right now. Anyone have any suggestions on how to balance out the lower body without going as extreme as I did here?

    angelicarmor2.gif
  • uneditablepoly
    2 pages I did sitting around watching TV tonight:

    bumblegeist.gif

    animalsketches1.gif
  • TheZeke
    Not bad!

    Form, anatomy, and shading practice will do you a world of good

    Focus on describing three dimensional shapes with your pencil strokes, construct the form with basic shapes to feel out their three dimensionality.

    Keep on drawing :)
  • uneditablepoly
    mononoke.jpg

    Summer just started and I'm gonna try to do a lot of 3D during it, as most of my year was dedicated to computer science related projects, due to school. I couldn't decide what to start with and I figured I'd start with modeling Princess Mononoke from Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. ;p I love Miyazaki movies and he's one of the main reasons I got into art, so I'm going to try to take his character from 2D into 3D as accurately as I can, with some artistic license of course.

    I'm also going to use this to practice my workflow for doing a model from highpoly to final textured. In the past I haven't done much besides simply modeling things in 3DS Max and being done with them. I need to get into ZBrush more and get more into texturing and breaking down high poly models into low. So those are my goals for this project.

    Here's a base mesh so far for the Princess:

    post1az.jpg


    So, obviously this is just the base mesh to be sculpted but because of the style of the Princess, the details won't be too nitty gritty; it'll be more about forms and silhouette. Some things I definitely have my eye on right now:

    post1b.jpg

    First off, yes I'm obviously going to add her breasts. I figured that would be faster and better to do in ZBrush and then retopo when it's all said and done. Also, when subdivided, her legs from the front didn't keep the shape I would've liked. I'm definitely going to pull more shape out of them when sculpting. I'm pretty happy witth the shape from the side, though.

    I'm also probably going to give her shoulders a little bit more slope when sculpting. They feel a little off right now. And finally, her bottom is way off in the base mesh so I'll be developing that in the sculpt. The form of it is even more of main importance, though, because it will be under her clothes later.

    Of course, I still need to add the hands and the head. I don't look forward to the head, as I've never been much good at them, especially when reproducing an existing character. Have to start practicing some time, though!

    Anyways, let me know what you think and if you think I should be doing anything differently. Or just talk about how great Miyazaki is. ;p Cheers!
  • uneditablepoly
    Doing the Mononoke body led me a little off track. Some fun with body types here. Didn't spend too long on these.

    Spellbinder
    sbwip1.jpg

    Footman
    fmwip1.jpg

    Hero
    herowip1.jpg

    Gonna do two more: The Bludger and the Runner. Then maybe some female versions. Still gonna work on the Mononoke project though. Just figured this was good practice.
  • uneditablepoly
    Some paintovers. Trying to nail down the look I want the finals to have.

    paintovers1.jpg
  • uneditablepoly
    I'll post all 5 completed body types soon. I'm beginning to unwrap and rig them.

    Here's some painting practice I was just doing. Trying to learn about skin tones.

    paintingpractice1.jpg
  • vatsel
    your paintings need more value differentiation

    keep up
  • Devin Busha
    Really nice studies man! Just curious, were you using refs for these? If so, do share :) By the way, not sure if it's much help but I did a quick paintover for yah. Mainly just adjusted the colors, added a warmer light source, and pushed the lights and darks a bit. Sometimes it's easier if you look to the side and past what you're drawing to see how it reads. Some people quint. Hope it helps! :)
  • uneditablepoly
    Just did this in the lowpoly thread over in P&P. Every should go check out what's going on there right now, it's pretty fun. I never really do too much ultra-lowpoly stuff but this is getting me thinking about it more. Optimization is fun!

    sadsun.jpg
  • uneditablepoly
    Here's a quick concept I did. Might do a model for it. I want to do a good model of something and do a bunch of animations for it so I can start something interesting in terms of a game, so it might be this. We'll see:

    edenfallchars.jpg
  • lampekap
    interesting concept, but if you want to do facial animations too, why hav them wear masks? for other animation purposes could be good tho.
    are those tattoes on their bodies? the girls feet seem very very big. are you going to animate their toes too :p?
  • uneditablepoly
    Yeah.. I realize that I have a weakness with faces, in all mediums. I need to work on that. Ever since I can remember I've drawn generic blockout faces sketching on paper and I've done something equivalent when modeling or painting faces onto characters.

    Anyways, I have an update. Those body types awhile ago were done using orthographic concepts from my friend and I decided I need to be more comfortable just working in 3D without anything guiding me. I've been too 'mathematical' about modeling and not 'artistic' enough. So, here's a model I did. A 'sketch', if you will. No reference or orthos, just kinda working out a character from nothing. I have the body; have to decide what direction to take it from here.

    charsketch1.jpg
  • uneditablepoly
    Was in a sketchy mood and couldn't sleep. Pencil and paper, from photo reference.

    sketch1v.jpg
  • SimonT
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    SimonT interpolator
    sketch1v.jpg

    I think the womans head is to "thin". The right part of the skull would be bigger. Check some anatomy pictures and compare it. It's always good to overlay your image with an anatomy reference in photoshop.
  • uneditablepoly
    Good idea, and yeah I think you're right. Good catch.
  • uneditablepoly
    Haha, I'm looking through my sketchbook so far and noticing that I don't post revisions much. I also start a lot of model projects and never bring them past the model phase. I need to practice uv's, texturing and rigging a bit more. Doing a lot of drawing lately, though, as I found that as I became a better artist on paper my modeling and general sense of forms improved.
  • uneditablepoly
    Here's a quick painting thing I did. Can't sleep. Gonna try to paint more.

    paint1u.jpg
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    is that snow or stars in the background? the creatures neck looks a bit wierd like he doesnt have the muscle to support it going at such an angle, a good idea if you want an action pose is to try doing the action yourself and feel how you naturally tense your neck and turn your head slightly at you throw etc
  • uneditablepoly
    good suggestion, thanks! and yeah I agree about the muscles to support his neck, it does come off at a bit of a sharp angle, too. oh, and those were supposed to be stars
  • uneditablepoly
    paint1b.jpg

    I tried to indicate more underlying structure and I made the stars less uniform and gave them a bit of a glow. I should probably paint an environment or something with a human in it to start off as how this creature would work wasn't entirely thought out.
  • uneditablepoly
    Ok, gonna hunker down and take this one seriously. Doing it in black and white first because I realized it's not the best idea to work with colors when I am just starting out with painting. I'll deal with value first. Here's a sketch my very talented friend did:

    harmadillosketch.jpg

    My paint so far:

    harmadillopaint1.jpg
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