Character: Zroetur

[Freakychakra]

Wires.
!old pictures removed!

Mesh.
http://www.max-art.net/Images/Zroetur/JPG/Zm.jpg

Currently weighing in at 3518 polys.
The character is going to be used in the UT engine.

Issues I am aware of:
Back of head collides with cape top.
Cape is not closed at the neck.
You can see under the cloth, back view feet.
Body is not merged.

I would love some feedback, especially on the cloth parts

[G0st]

Not a bad model at all, love the concept. As for the poly count, its a little high. I work over at www.frag-ops.com and have to be very strict with the poly count. Our characters are now at 2600 I believe, unless you are aiming for a single person game. If not try cutting some polys down from the horns and the face area, let the skin do the work.

With the clipping when he is rigged, i see what you mean. It will be a hard character to rig, but good luck

Keep us posted!

G0st

[Freakychakra]

.... post hack recovery mail....
http://www.max-art.net/images/Zroetur/jpg/ZWires.jpg

[Fred.]

love the concept art and the model !

[Dogzer]

i love the overall model!

how come it looks so soft without textures?

[the_podman]

As always, I dig the Freakychakra's shtuff! Awesome.

One quicky, how the heck would you rigg a dude like this? Are you in charge of only modeling it?

Cool!

the_podman

[Freakychakra]

Hi gang.

Fred006.
Thank you, but I can not take credit for the concept art. I have passed the feedback on to the designer though :O)

Dogzer.
I think it is because of the render setup I use.
After a long time of trial and error, I have come up with a nice setup in Brazil that works well.

the_podman.
Thank you :O)
As for the rigging, the animaotr is doing that as we speak.
I think what he intend to do, is to load the model into UT in parts.
I can ask him if you like?

Here is an update on the textures.
They are still in the tweaking proces.
Feedback on how to spice the cloth parts up is very! welcome ,O)


http://www.max-art.net/images/Zroetur/JPG/Tex512_1.jpg
Link to 1024*1024 (http://www.max-art.net/images/Zroetur/JPG/Tex1024_1.jpg)


http://www.max-art.net/images/Zroetur/JPG/Tex512_2.jpg
link to 1024*1024 (http://www.max-art.net/images/Zroetur/JPG/Tex1024_2.jpg )

[Freakychakra]

....and a quick screengrab from3dsMAX

http://www.max-art.net/images/zroetur/jpg/zroeturwip1.jpg

[the_podman]

Yeah, that would be great! I'm rigging a character with lots of cloth on him and I am at a loss on the specifics(where to place the bones, do I write expressions?, etc.) Trying to set him up for real-time and any rigg specifics on your character would certainly enlighten me.


As for your textures, you probably are already going to do this, but they would look cool if you ran some kind of repeating pattern around the yellow parts(yellow, right? I think? Sorry, I'm a bit color-blind. lol)

Here's a pic pf a texture I'm currently working on the show you what I mean:
http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/G.jpg

Sorry for infecting your thread with my amateur work. hehe. It's just that you've helped me a lot in the past and would love to return the favor!

the_podman

[Freakychakra]

Hiya Podman

I'll let him know, maybe he will pop by the board here, otherwise I'll mail you.

Yup some extra patterns would be nice to have, I will pass the idea on to the designer before I start,
Thanks mate :O)
You texture is looking good. Let me know when it is done.

[the_podman]

Thanks, man. Can't take all the credit, though. I took a 9 week texturing class and had a GREAT teacher. She's been using Photoshop since version 2, even before layers! so she taught me a lot!

It's part of my very first low poly character so it's taking me awhile. Don't got the speed that you guys have yet, but working on it.

I'm starting to realize just how much a texture really changes a model. It can go from average to awesome or vice versa. The new games I'm playing like FAR CRY and PAINKILLER have got some hard core details at 2048x2048!

the_podman

[Lekku]

I love the character design, but I think the texture needs more contrast, especially in the face, and I think the eyes would work better without irises. Perhaps all black, or all glowing white?

[codreanu]

Originally posted by Fred006
love the concept art and the model !

[DoctorEternal]

Here's the rig I have so far for this character. It still needs a lot of tweaking in the sleeves, since I am using bones instead of a cloth sim.

http://rdecosta.no-ip.com/kaiopera/images/testrenders/zrorig1.jpg

The IK chains are linked to the knees (which do not move, since this character 'floats' around). Here's a closeup of the sleeve:

http://rdecosta.no-ip.com/kaiopera/images/testrenders/zrorigSleeveFold.jpg

Cheers,
Richard

[eMPeck]

This is excellent work - both concept & 3d model - I love skin tones, only cloth texture seems to be a bit unrealistic - it doesn't look like cloth for me. Anyway - professional work.

[Freakychakra]

oh good to see your post getting through Richard :O)

Thank you all for the feedback on the textures, I'll get started on them this week.

[Phb]

real great, wait for the final update!

[Freakychakra]

Got a bit of free time today, so I decided to update the Zroetur textures.

Changes:
1. Skin areas got a contrast boost.
(Sometimes I am too gentle when applying more contrast, so let me know if it needs more boosting).
2. Added loads and loads of patterns.
3. Fixed some seams.
4. Gave inside of collar a red texture surface.
5. Circular detail patterns on bottom and top tips of robe.

http://www.max-art.net/images/zroetur/jpg/zroeturwip2.jpg


Here is a closeup of the face.
(iris has an alpha map applied to it, so it is circular when rendered.)
http://www.max-art.net/images/zroetur/jpg/zroeturhead.jpg

Upcomming changes in next update:
1. Symbol pattern to outer robe.
2. Getting cloth more cloth like.

Feedback is more than welcome.

[Lekku]

I like that scaled/spotted texture on the head ridges. That would look cool on the nose-like plate, and across the head, on the less flexible areas (i.e. not the mouth, eyelids, antennae.) Also, those ridges on you might punch up the contrast on those fin-ridge things on the jawline. That pattern would look cool on the other fin-like protrusions on the back o f the head. Just some thoughts. Good stuff, keep it up!

[the_podman]

Doctor and Freakychakra,
Thanks for getting back to me on the rigg. This really opens my eyes as to how you would set up a character like this.

I figure you weren't using clothsim for the cloth, seeing that is was going in Unrealengine. I was thinking you had to use bones but didn't know for sure.

I'm assuming the animation of the cloth will be done with spline IK? Also, are the ends of the cloth(where the IK's are) grouped to a parent node so that the animator can make them both move in unisen? Are you guys using Max/Maya to key all the character animation clips or are you using another add-on like Messiah or MotionBuilder?

Thanks for all the info. Sorry for the questions. This thread is really interesting!

Great work, guys. Can't wait to see the final product. Must be great to work in a team like that!

:)

the_podman

[DoctorEternal]

Originally posted by the_podman


I'm assuming the animation of the cloth will be done with spline IK? Also, are the ends of the cloth(where the IK's are) grouped to a parent node so that the animator can make them both move in unisen?


We're using Max's built-in biped. The only IK at the moment is the IK points acting as grivity for the sleeves. They are linked to the knees.


Are you guys using Max/Maya to key all the character animation clips or are you using another add-on like Messiah or MotionBuilder?


We're using Max 6. All of the animation is going to be real-time (puppetry), recorded via UnrealScript and video capture.

Dr.E

[Freakychakra]

Originally posted by the_podman
Doctor and Freakychakra,
Thanks for all the info. Sorry for the questions. This thread is really interesting!


You are very welcome.
It is cool to know that I am not the only one learning from Zroetur. :D

Job hunting took some days out of this week, but today I got some time to update Zroetur.

Changes (the ones I remember):
1. More contrast on hand.
2. More saturation.
3. New cloth pattern and noise to blue parts.
5. Dodge/burn/color on yellow cloth
6. Redone the red collar part.
7. More contrast to fins.
8. Made spot pattern on horns stand out more.

Screengrab from 3dsMAX
http://www.max-art.net/images/zroetur/jpg/zroeturwip3.jpg

Render.
(eyes are a bit dark, I am contemplating building seperate eyeballs, so I can use luminosity on them.)
http://www.max-art.net/images/zroetur/jpg/render1.jpg

[the_podman]

Wow. Looking better every day! One tiny suggestion:

Maybe you should make the long peice of cloth that's covering his legs a bit of a darker shade of blue to sort of offset the other peices, the sleeves in particular. It looks good with his arms spread out, but you might run into a problem with the body blending into one blue blob shape with his arms lowered.

Good stuff!

the_podman

[AdamAtomic]

separate eyeballs will allow you to animate the face much more easily too! great model and character, well-realized. Depending on the game atmosphere/environment, the colors in the robe could be too saturated - but it depends on the game. A Warcraft or Zork, this would fit in fine, but anything that doesn't have that kind of palette to work with, it could stand out as garish/over-the-top. Head and head texture are brilliant - great job!

[Freakychakra]

First of all thanks guys :O)

Podman.
Good idea, I'll get that done for the next update.

Adam Atomic.
Right now we are using a plane with the iris mapped on, so we can fake eye movement that way.
But Zro's eye are very big and curve a lot, so we might have to put some more polys in, and give him real eyeballs.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.