Alright, here are a bunch of angles (don't know where the mystery green spots came from)
As for rendering I currently have just been using Maya, I plan on getting a new computer soon so hopefully I can start doing 3D sculpting soon as well.
I shrunk the cloth lines down a bit but they are pretty large in the game/art so I am trying to keep them a bit bigger then normal but still not to large to make it look awkward.
I see you make progress, but I would suggest you to do some work on face proportions to give the face a more characteristic look. Even "simple" characters like in Final Fantasy (I assume it's the look you're going for) have strong facial proportions that reveal their character, mood and such.
I see you make progress, but I would suggest you to do some work on face proportions to give the face a more characteristic look. Even "simple" characters like in Final Fantasy (I assume it's the look you're going for) have strong facial proportions that reveal their character, mood and such.
What do you mean by that? Like make them look more individual? Or stylized?
Ok, update on the hair. I redid some of its Geometry and smoothed the outer shells, soon I shall add the detail hairs. ( random strands and thinner hair areas ).
I think it's time to add specular and gloss maps (and SSS maps if you have that type of shader available) to the skin. If you're not baking normals from high-poly this is probably about as good as you're going to get the normal map
Okay, I finally got like 5 minutes to work on it again, so I just did a render of the new hair texture. I'm going to move his ears slightly forward and then redo the hair to make it look better.
Am going to add tons of new polyplanes for the hair, and smooth them out a lot and curve them
After I am happy with the hair/faceshape I will start the spec maps and such. Then onto the clothes..woot
Ok, I got pretty much all the geo done. Thinking of working on the pants, though I do like the shape, may just play with normal maps.Arms might need to be thinner as well.
The sweater looks way better now. Except the collar which doesn't really match the rest but you probably already know that.
That green background image makes it hard to see the model because the background image is waaaay brighter and takes the eye's focus. Turning down the saturation and value of the background image will help.
The fine grain detail in the pants looks nice. What resolution is your texture? Are you tiling it? The level of sharpness at such a close view makes me concerned it's too high-res to really be plausible to run in-engine, with all the other textures at comparable resolution. You can use tileable detail map overlays in Unity and Marmoset and probably also Unreal and most other modern engines.
The texture on the boot looks a little vague and unrealistic compared to the pants. It looks lower-resolution and I assume they're supposed to be leather but it looks a little too procedurally-generated-noise-y and not quite like real leather. Lots of good photo ref should help, as far as studying patterns. Can composite them directly in texture or use them as basis for handpainted or procedural textures. Also lots of people are using stuff like Quixel Suite and Substance for stuff like this lately but based on computer power limitation you described earlier you may not be able to run those.
Hair looks better too. My only critique would be the different sections are pretty perpendicular from each other, you probably want some gradual transitioning at various angles.
Thank you for the feedback! And yeah the boots are a placeholder right now, will use your advice though, as for tileable textures, wont that mess up fetch times?
right now all my textures are pretty big so I can make details before I shrink em.
Kudos to you for continuing to push through on this.
I assume the leather you're referring to is the straps around his shoulders. The texture looks kind of muddy. Low-resolution compared to other textures, kind of blurry. Make sure you're using a consistent texel resolution for all the different parts of the model. Right now the sweater stands out as the sharpest and most detailed part.
Also, I advise deciding on an art style and sticking to it. The sweater and pants textures looks like they were grabbed directly from photo. The metal and leather look like procedurally generated noise and/or photoshop painting. Less realistic. And less visually appealing right now. Photoshop painting and procedural generation can work great, it just looks like you haven't put as much work into those textures or aren't sure how to go about it.
I think the leather should have more value contrast between the smooth part and the cracks. It kind of looks like the "clouds" filter in photoshop with some other effects thrown on top. Also the spacing between the smooth part and the cracks should less regular and look more random. It looks kind of mechanically generated right now. If you're using photo ref for the leather, use a higher resolution photo. If you want to use a handpainted style but are having trouble getting the leather to look right, use a photo and paint over it on a separate layer, to get the spacing/pattern to look right, but using your own colors and painting style.
As far as I can tell, so far these are albedo only, no spec/gloss/etc. Those will ultimately improve the look, but still you should get the base color right. What rendering engine are you using? Maya realtime display if I remember right?
If you're using physically based rendering, there are pretty standardized values for various materials for albedo, gloss, and spec. You can easily find these through an online search, something like "physically based rendering specular value chart." Right now the metal shoulder thing looks more like procedurally generated noise. Metal typically has little local color (albedo) and most of the color is from reflection. Except for metals that are obviously colored like gold. Most of the fine detail on the albedo (aka diffuse) map will be from wear and tear.
Also, it looks like your normal map on the metal shoulder piece is inverted, from the first image to the second and third. On the first image, those squiggly scratches look gouged away, and in the second and third images they stick out. (But maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me in that first image). The top edge of the metal has that weird black line around it. It looks like you're using a baked normal map that doesn't quite fit. In order for baked normals to avoid having a weird seam or mis-projection on a corner, the angle of the corner of the low poly model should be greater than 90 degrees. Either add a bevel or make the base slightly wider.
I hope this all makes sense. Feel free to ask me to clarify, I haven't had enough coffee yet! Good luck proceding.
Kudos to you for continuing to push through on this.
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Thank you for all the help, it really means a lot! And yeah, I am working on kicking up the detail to match the sweater level, the only part I got to match up was the pants, but they arent done either( pocket fix needed and zipper)
I worked on the leather a bit, but only on the straps and havent had enough time to do all the work I want to do T_T
This has come on so much dude, really great job! Revisiting the shoulder guard and strap to be more realistically textured like the rest would really bring everything together
Yaaay! I worked on it! I had actually been a bit and not updated the pics. I've been super busy so I havent made as much progress as I would like, but here are some new pics. ( have done some work since)
This model is really getting there, but your rendering is terrible and its letting you down!
Grab a Marmoset trial, put your model in there and spend a bit of time learning how to set up your materials and lights. I guarantee it will look tons better, really!
This model is really getting there, but your rendering is terrible and its letting you down!
Grab a Marmoset trial, put your model in there and spend a bit of time learning how to set up your materials and lights. I guarantee it will look tons better, really!
I have been doing all of this an old laptop T_T.... I am planning on getting a new comp soon.
The model and texture has definitely made improvements. However I have 2 suggestions:
1. The normals of the scratches on the cutting edge of the blade should be inverted (scratches go INTO the material, not add ontop of the material) and made much much much less prominent as it'd make the blade seem like its made from very soft metal.
2. Your rendering is really letting you down. I'd suggest maybe presenting the model in marmoset toolbag?
This isn't bad for what it is but why are you not making a proper high poly? Proper baked folds along with facial details just don't work unless you make a sculpt.
The model and texture has definitely made improvements. However I have 2 suggestions:
1. The normals of the scratches on the cutting edge of the blade should be inverted (scratches go INTO the material, not add ontop of the material) and made much much much less prominent as it'd make the blade seem like its made from very soft metal.
2. Your rendering is really letting you down. I'd suggest maybe presenting the model in marmoset toolbag?
I shall try marmoset when my new computer is put together I am excited for that! and how do I invert the normals?....I did it on accident and screwed things up pretty bad
This isn't bad for what it is but why are you not making a proper high poly? Proper baked folds along with facial details just don't work unless you make a sculpt.
I have mudbox and sculptris, but can't use either on my computer ...I plan on doing the high poly version for baking when I have it put together, also I plan on having it usable in game.
Been getting a good chance to work on some more of it, so here is a decent update ( not included are my normal maps for pants shirt and arms) Face normal map is not working...
*Changes to arm size to reflect original art better *changes to hair ( some got messed up before the pictures) *changes to face structure(eyes,nose, lips) *Improve and rebuild topology *remade shirt texture
Hey I just checked on this thread for the first time in a few months. Your progress is great! Showing a lot of improvement over the course of this project.
Still some stuff to work on. The texture on his metal shoulder armor keeps bothering me. It looks muddy, blurry, not very distinct. It looks like you found a photo reference of some metal and clone-stamped out the undesireable parts but ended up with blurring and indistinct separation of different parts. OK so it's mostly metal, there are some scratches, and some worn away parts, right? They should each be distinct, with albedo (diffuse), specular, gloss, and normal maps that all match. The shoulder armor texture looks low-resolution compared to the other parts.
Also the white glove/ace bandage type wrap on his lower left arm stands out - the cloth weave is too obvious. The normals shouldn't be as extreme, or maybe the issues is with too high contrast in the gloss map.
The sort of crossed weave leather pattern at the base of his sword, as well as the metal base (pommel?) look really good! Nice material separation between leather and metal.
Hey I just checked on this thread for the first time in a few months. Your progress is great! Showing a lot of improvement over the course of this project.
Still some stuff to work on. The texture on his metal shoulder armor keeps bothering me. It looks muddy, blurry, not very distinct. It looks like you found a photo reference of some metal and clone-stamped out the undesireable parts but ended up with blurring and indistinct separation of different parts. OK so it's mostly metal, there are some scratches, and some worn away parts, right? They should each be distinct, with albedo (diffuse), specular, gloss, and normal maps that all match. The shoulder armor texture looks low-resolution compared to the other parts.
Also the white glove/ace bandage type wrap on his lower left arm stands out - the cloth weave is too obvious. The normals shouldn't be as extreme, or maybe the issues is with too high contrast in the gloss map.
The sort of crossed weave leather pattern at the base of his sword, as well as the metal base (pommel?) look really good! Nice material separation between leather and metal.
XD...I actually hand painted the shoulder thing too.I should try and make it look more natural though.....and yeah, I was looking at that cloth thing on the arm, I have been trying to figure out what to do with it. I was thinking of giving it a medium brown somewhat soft look if possible.
I am not much of a character artist so I will not critique that aspect.
I will comment on the Buster Sword. Which Buster Sword are you making? Final Fantasy VII, FF VII Remake, FF VII Advent Children, Crisis Core, FF XIII, etc. They all differ quite a bit.
It looks to me you are going for the Final Fantasy VII Original version, but I don't believe the sword looked as beat up as yours does. If that is your intent, that is fine however Final Fantasy generally has a clean aesthetic to it. A good comparison to an updated Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword that does not greatly deviate from the original design would probably be the Super Smash Bros. version of Cloud's Buster Sword.
At the very least I would tone the scratches down significantly. Currently, it looks overtly noisy and to me the edge of the blade looks almost like tin foil over laid on top of a bumpy metal. I would also try to match the visual quality of the remake, notice the edge on the remake's Buster Sword.
I am not much of a character artist so I will not critique that aspect.
I will comment on the Buster Sword. Which Buster Sword are you making? Final Fantasy VII, FF VII Remake, FF VII Advent Children, Crisis Core, FF XIII, etc. They all differ quite a bit.
It looks to me you are going for the Final Fantasy VII Original version, but I don't believe the sword looked as beat up as yours does. If that is your intent, that is fine however Final Fantasy generally has a clean aesthetic to it. A good comparison to an updated Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword that does not greatly deviate from the original design would probably be the Super Smash Bros. version of Cloud's Buster Sword.
At the very least I would tone the scratches down significantly. Currently, it looks overtly noisy and to me the edge of the blade looks almost like tin foil over laid on top of a bumpy metal. I would also try to match the visual quality of the remake, notice the edge on the remake's Buster Sword.
Replies
As for rendering I currently have just been using Maya, I plan on getting a new computer soon so hopefully I can start doing 3D sculpting soon as well.
I shrunk the cloth lines down a bit but they are pretty large in the game/art so I am trying to keep them a bit bigger then normal but still not to large to make it look awkward.
What do you mean by that? Like make them look more individual? Or stylized?
Am going to add tons of new polyplanes for the hair, and smooth them out a lot and curve them
After I am happy with the hair/faceshape I will start the spec maps and such. Then onto the clothes..woot
Also, here is the hair subd(with crappy orb scene)-
Here it they are, no normals/spec yet.
Still need to pull in the pockets and zipper area.
That green background image makes it hard to see the model because the background image is waaaay brighter and takes the eye's focus. Turning down the saturation and value of the background image will help.
The fine grain detail in the pants looks nice. What resolution is your texture? Are you tiling it? The level of sharpness at such a close view makes me concerned it's too high-res to really be plausible to run in-engine, with all the other textures at comparable resolution. You can use tileable detail map overlays in Unity and Marmoset and probably also Unreal and most other modern engines.
The texture on the boot looks a little vague and unrealistic compared to the pants. It looks lower-resolution and I assume they're supposed to be leather but it looks a little too procedurally-generated-noise-y and not quite like real leather. Lots of good photo ref should help, as far as studying patterns. Can composite them directly in texture or use them as basis for handpainted or procedural textures. Also lots of people are using stuff like Quixel Suite and Substance for stuff like this lately but based on computer power limitation you described earlier you may not be able to run those.
Hair looks better too. My only critique would be the different sections are pretty perpendicular from each other, you probably want some gradual transitioning at various angles.
You're making progress, keep at it!
right now all my textures are pretty big so I can make details before I shrink em.
Also, redoing the face color base-
I would love ANY feedback, and especially some tips for how to make the leather not a mess.
I assume the leather you're referring to is the straps around his shoulders. The texture looks kind of muddy. Low-resolution compared to other textures, kind of blurry. Make sure you're using a consistent texel resolution for all the different parts of the model. Right now the sweater stands out as the sharpest and most detailed part.
Also, I advise deciding on an art style and sticking to it. The sweater and pants textures looks like they were grabbed directly from photo. The metal and leather look like procedurally generated noise and/or photoshop painting. Less realistic. And less visually appealing right now. Photoshop painting and procedural generation can work great, it just looks like you haven't put as much work into those textures or aren't sure how to go about it.
I think the leather should have more value contrast between the smooth part and the cracks. It kind of looks like the "clouds" filter in photoshop with some other effects thrown on top. Also the spacing between the smooth part and the cracks should less regular and look more random. It looks kind of mechanically generated right now. If you're using photo ref for the leather, use a higher resolution photo. If you want to use a handpainted style but are having trouble getting the leather to look right, use a photo and paint over it on a separate layer, to get the spacing/pattern to look right, but using your own colors and painting style.
As far as I can tell, so far these are albedo only, no spec/gloss/etc. Those will ultimately improve the look, but still you should get the base color right. What rendering engine are you using? Maya realtime display if I remember right?
If you're using physically based rendering, there are pretty standardized values for various materials for albedo, gloss, and spec. You can easily find these through an online search, something like "physically based rendering specular value chart." Right now the metal shoulder thing looks more like procedurally generated noise. Metal typically has little local color (albedo) and most of the color is from reflection. Except for metals that are obviously colored like gold. Most of the fine detail on the albedo (aka diffuse) map will be from wear and tear.
Also, it looks like your normal map on the metal shoulder piece is inverted, from the first image to the second and third. On the first image, those squiggly scratches look gouged away, and in the second and third images they stick out. (But maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me in that first image). The top edge of the metal has that weird black line around it. It looks like you're using a baked normal map that doesn't quite fit. In order for baked normals to avoid having a weird seam or mis-projection on a corner, the angle of the corner of the low poly model should be greater than 90 degrees. Either add a bevel or make the base slightly wider.
I hope this all makes sense. Feel free to ask me to clarify, I haven't had enough coffee yet! Good luck proceding.
I worked on the leather a bit, but only on the straps and havent had enough time to do all the work I want to do T_T
I wish I had more time.
Just one image today. I have to sleep
(Tons of face revisions)
http://i.imgur.com/p07or0M.jpg
This has come on so much dude, really great job!
Revisiting the shoulder guard and strap to be more realistically textured like the rest would really bring everything together
( skin, leather ) . Used odd lighting so skin could be shown in multiple ways. The dark one is the newest.
Any hints or anything really to make it better would be awesome!
I need a computer so I can do real stuff with it..
Grab a Marmoset trial, put your model in there and spend a bit of time learning how to set up your materials and lights. I guarantee it will look tons better, really!
For now, here are a few. As always any feedback is amazing!
1. The normals of the scratches on the cutting edge of the blade should be inverted (scratches go INTO the material, not add ontop of the material) and made much much much less prominent as it'd make the blade seem like its made from very soft metal.
2. Your rendering is really letting you down. I'd suggest maybe presenting the model in marmoset toolbag?
Also, update pic
*Changes to arm size to reflect original art better
*changes to hair ( some got messed up before the pictures)
*changes to face structure(eyes,nose, lips)
*Improve and rebuild topology
*remade shirt texture
Still cant do face normals worth crap.
Still some stuff to work on. The texture on his metal shoulder armor keeps bothering me. It looks muddy, blurry, not very distinct. It looks like you found a photo reference of some metal and clone-stamped out the undesireable parts but ended up with blurring and indistinct separation of different parts. OK so it's mostly metal, there are some scratches, and some worn away parts, right? They should each be distinct, with albedo (diffuse), specular, gloss, and normal maps that all match. The shoulder armor texture looks low-resolution compared to the other parts.
Also the white glove/ace bandage type wrap on his lower left arm stands out - the cloth weave is too obvious. The normals shouldn't be as extreme, or maybe the issues is with too high contrast in the gloss map.
The sort of crossed weave leather pattern at the base of his sword, as well as the metal base (pommel?) look really good! Nice material separation between leather and metal.
I will comment on the Buster Sword. Which Buster Sword are you making? Final Fantasy VII, FF VII Remake, FF VII Advent Children, Crisis Core, FF XIII, etc. They all differ quite a bit.
It looks to me you are going for the Final Fantasy VII Original version, but I don't believe the sword looked as beat up as yours does. If that is your intent, that is fine however Final Fantasy generally has a clean aesthetic to it. A good comparison to an updated Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword that does not greatly deviate from the original design would probably be the Super Smash Bros. version of Cloud's Buster Sword.
At the very least I would tone the scratches down significantly. Currently, it looks overtly noisy and to me the edge of the blade looks almost like tin foil over laid on top of a bumpy metal. I would also try to match the visual quality of the remake, notice the edge on the remake's Buster Sword.
Super Smash Bros:
With a bit of some really good fan arts that captured the games feel. I do agree that it does need to be toned down though.