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[COMPLETED] NEXT Girl

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  • lotet
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    lotet hero character
    Thats definitely looking better, I didnt even notice the arrows earlier.
  • dGreenberg
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    dGreenberg polycounter
    Thanks! Yeah they were hidden in the reflection last time. I should have fixed that before posting it earlier.
  • dGreenberg
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    dGreenberg polycounter
    Back with some lighting updates! I think I'm closing in on the finish line for this project. I've learned a ton, and I'm at that stage where I'm telling myself, "finished, not perfect." If anything is still looking off I really want to fix it, but otherwise I think I have 1 or 2 more updates to get this character finalized and fancy. 

    I've also kinda run into an issue with her head position. Part of me is liking Version 1 (Condescending Version) for the attitude, but another part of me likes Version 2 (Look-Me-In-The-Eyes Version) for being a little more accurate to concept. I'd love to hear some thoughts on what you guys are feeling, and I can definitely update the lighting setups with whichever model works best for the job. 


    For these next images, I'm working with Version 1, but I'll include a full body Version 2 at the bottom. 
    First lighting setup will probably be for presentation purposes. Showing off the model, etc. I've been watching lighting videos for a few days now, but I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. If something is too blown out or not bright enough please let me know!



    The other 2 lighting setups are more just mood lighting to try and mix things up a little bit. Seeing how things might look with different light directions / intensity / shadows.



    These last ones were just for fun, really. First I wanted to try and mimic the monotone colors and bright accents from the original concept, then I wanted to see how well the silhouette would read from a distance.



    Here's the other head position in full frame if anyone was interested in the full body read on that.


    Sorry for the image heavy post, but thank you all for checking things out and helping me forward up until this point! I don't know if I could have made it this far with the character without the help, advice, and suggestions.
  • Svartberg
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    Svartberg quad damage
    This turned out awesome, man! You really nailed the concept and overall quality is on a very high level. 
    Head tilt in variant 1 definitely conveys better emotion 

    A couple points I think might help:
    1. Mood lighting with green lights may benefit from changing the color of one of the light sources to offset the color scheme. A warmer green or orange tint might look pretty good. In any case this is something that can be played around with to see what works better.
    2. Blood. Main splatter on the blade looks good but the the transparent very desaturated part around it feels strange. I understand that this piece is stylized but the way blood looks now is a little counterintuitive when it comes to blood-stained metal. Dried up blood on metal blade would be a darker shade and still retaining some clearly defined shape, even if partially scratched off. Right now it looks a little as if some blood was cleaned off a blade but actually managed to soak into metal and left a stain like it was a carpet or a sponge. I hope I'm making sense, lol.
    3. Hand gesture.
    Yours looks fine but the fact that on the concept we can't see a thumb makes me (at least me) think that she is making this sort of pinched fingers italian hand gesture. Combined with arrogant head tilt this may help create a sort of taunting look.

    In any way, It's really cool to see the result as it is now. Great work.
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    Hey man this looks great, i think as a finishing touch (outside of what Svartberg has already mentioned), you could absolutely benefit from using anisotropy on the hair. You can find out how to paint a flow map with substance painter here: https://support.allegorithmic.com/documentation/display/SPDOC/Flow+Map+Painting
  • dGreenberg
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    dGreenberg polycounter
    @Svartberg and @almighty_gir: thank you guys! I'm glad you like how it's coming along, and I really appreciate the great suggestions.

    I'll work some more with the mood lighting (especially the neon green setup) to try and bring some different warmer colors in. I think I understand what you're saying about the blood, so I'll go back and rework that too. I gotta see if it makes more sense for me to sharpen the dried blood edges and darken the older blood, or if I should just try and present the fresh blood dripping off of the blade.

    I'll try to play around a little more with the hand position as well. I originally had the thumb tucked in (like she was presenting 4 fingers) and it didn't feel natural. I can give the Italian hand gesture a shot though, since it'd be great if it followed the concept a little closer while still feeling natural enough.

    I'm still kicking myself with the lack of an anisotropy map with this. I had tried to work on a flow map without much success earlier, and @lotet gave me some great pointers on it at that time. I first tried working in Substance Painter, then Photoshop, and finally Krita (I might stick with this method in the future. It felt really clean and intuitive). I came up with all kinds of results, but I screwed the pooch with my hair unwrap from the UV stage. 

    So many separated hair chunks that didn't need to be separated:


    Because of this whenever I tried to plugin the flow map on the Direction Map part of the anisotropy, I would get this as a result. 


    Outside of redoing the UVs in a separate set, I tried to make a reworked UV hair shell to cover the original with an anisotropy map, and have the material be transparent otherwise. I kept having issues with the geometry having a broken look on top of the original hair material, so I might have to just try and make it work with my next character. I'm still open to try and bring it in another way, but I don't know what else I could do for now. It sucks, but it was a great lesson learned for future projects. Thank for you including that link too, gir. Until working on this character I had actually never heard of a flow map. 
  • lotet
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    lotet hero character
    Nice, the new blood looks great, and I think "head up" is the better pose.
  • RitualSynergY
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    RitualSynergY greentooth
    Man this looks awesome! Seriously great work :smile:
  • dGreenberg
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    dGreenberg polycounter
    @lotet and @RitualSynergY: Thank you both! I think I'm leaning towards the head up pose as well. Really glad to be getting close to the end on this character, but it's also kinda bittersweet. Hope I can punch it up a little more for this last part! 
  • GeoCat
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    GeoCat polycounter lvl 7
    This turned out fantastic dGreenberg, awesome work dude! 
  • FJuste
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    FJuste vertex
    Amazing character and thanks for sharing the steps with us! I checked the previous updates now and thought, "Wow, looks great" then on the next update I was like "Now it looks even better"! This happened again and again! Great model and amazing texture work, congratulations!
  • dGreenberg
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    dGreenberg polycounter
    @GeoCat and @FJuste thank you very much! I'm glad you guys like it. Sorry it took me a bit to get back to this; it's been pretty busy with the holiday buzz. I spent a bit trying to clean up my old messy portfolio / ArtStation with this project nearing it's end. 

    Thanks to @Svartberg's advice I've cleaned up the blood since I definitely want to avoid a soaked up sponge feel. Fixed some of the lighting as suggested and feeling better about that too. I tried messing with the thumb some more but I just couldn't get it to look right, so I'll keep it as is for now. 

    I'm testing out how I can best present her so I'd be happy to hear if that's working in my favor. I'm planning on having one beauty shot with the character by herself (first image), but I don't know if it's unnecessary since the second image includes the same pose and angle (but a little smaller). I'd be interested if anyone thinks I'm better off including both, or if I'm adding more shots than I need? 






    I really want to try and get this character all primed and posted before 2018 but if it takes a little longer I'd rather get everything right before I finally move on. 
  • Pav3d
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    Pav3d insane polycounter
    Turned out brilliantly! :) Presentation wise Id suggest having the black and white with green tint version (as per the original concept) and then a few from different angles in colour. For your portrait shot Id suggest having it separately and have her looking straight at the camera.
    A small crit about the eyes: sharpen up the highlight, Its looking a bit too glossy at the moment. Itll make the eyes really pop, especially since the rest of the materials have a very soft highlight. They could also use a bit of shadowing coming from the upper lid, to give them more depth, this can be faked with a mesh going over the eyeball. Here is a rough example:


  • dGreenberg
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    dGreenberg polycounter
    Thank you @Pav3d! You're right about the eyes (both the highlight and the additional shadows) and it makes a noticeable difference. I'll see if I can get that working with a new eye-shadow mesh on top of things. I really appreciate the suggestions!
  • dGreenberg
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    dGreenberg polycounter
    I think I'm finished! Thanks to some final suggestions from Pav, I think including the eye shadows really helped bring things to a higher quality. I got some more shots and turnarounds posted on my ArtStation if you guys are interested. I can't thank you all enough for the help along the way, and I'm already pumped to get started on the next character. Hope you're all having a great beginning to the new year.







  • Pav3d
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    Pav3d insane polycounter
    Congrats! looks great :smile:
  • lotet
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    lotet hero character
    Congrats!
    Turned out great :)
  • dGreenberg
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    dGreenberg polycounter
    @Pav3d @lotet: thank you both! I'm glad I stuck with it and both of you guys helped me bring it up to the next level. I can't wait to see more developments on the Lordling and Pirate Shaco!
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