Character - Female Game Fighter

[Neil]

Can someone graphically show me how they would best solve the edge loop problem around the nostril?
I don't want to have to add more loops, just to have connecting quads to the top and bottom of the nostril. Right now it has an ugly triangle too.

http://sonicubegames.com/neil/fighter02_face.jpg

[ErikSvensson]

There you go :-)

//Erik

[XAQT]

Cool way of doing a concept!

I like the proportions of your concept better... especially the hair. Try to make the model not to generic.

[m0nicle]

heres how I would fix it

http://repo.jackmoves.com/albums/albun58/fighter02_face.jpg

delete the edged marked in red and create the edges in black. leaves you with nice clean quads.

[Neil]

Thanks for the assistance guys. I was hoping to limit the amount of excessive quads that i create.. but i see there is no other way. I will fix that up with next update. thanks again.

[off.duty.ninja]

cuold you post a wire of the entire body? also, i agree with the previous concepts of not making the model to generic. spice that thang up a bit! keep pluggin away!:)

[Neil]

Here is where I am now.
I threw some clothes on.The grey bar around the underwear will be a lace trim and i will use an alpha map for that. The hair still needs work too.

A few people have mentioned "spicing it up" well I'm all ears guys. It's still a WIP. I would just prefer to make it cool, but not slutty.

http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/fighter03.jpg

[keeganb]

Hey Neil, this is coming along nicely. Looking at your mesh I think she needs an extra row in her stomach area and her lower leg needs a bit more shape to it around her calf, it looks a bit straight and non defined at the moment.
Are you going to give her the 'tie' thats in your concept. This is cool so i hope you put it in. Also your concerns about not making it too slutty, It's pretty hard to do considering what shes wearing but maybe instead of bare flesh at her thigh area maybe give her some sort of coloured lycra of thick colourful tights. That might help, not too sure? Also for spicing it up maybe desgin or look for a some cool symbol to go on her top.
Anyway keep it up man, its coming along great! I look forward to more updates.

[Neil]

Some textures on and an early color scheme. I don't want everything to be just black and yellow, then she'd be too bumble-bee ish. So turquiose and yellow is what i came up with for now. I like balancing the black with bright colors. Suggestions?


http://sonicubegames.com/neil/fighter04.jpg

[the_podman]

Hey, looking really nice there. You've done an excellent job realizing your initial concept.

2 suggestions. I would add another color to the glove/wrist guard other than flat yellow. Like break it up with maybe a stripe of some complimentary color, or perhaps a pattern or even some simple circles I see in lots of fighting game clothes. The character's look and color scheme reminds me very much of "Lien Neville" from the "King of Fighters Maximum Impact" game on Ps2. link:
http://www.snkplaymore.jp/official/kof/character/lien.html

See how the yellow parts on her on not completely yellow but are kinda broken up with sort of arbitrary stuff? Also, there's a variation on the saturation of yellow.

The other area I would watch for is the elbow. I would add one or two extra loops in the bending area. Maybe use some extra polys to define an elbow.

Anyhow, that's all I got, looks great!
:)

[Neil]

podman: yeah, if i go and add polys to the elbows, then i gotta add to the shoulders then I gotta add teeth, then i gotta add a tongue. haha. i had to draw the line somewhere. It's like 4000 now, and I didn't wanna really go over that.
And in regards to the gloves, i totally agree. I haven't touched em yet. They will be dirtied up too. Even with this render I have still ignored them ;)

here is another update. It looks like i'm going more tough with her for some reason. i think it's more believable in a fighting game anyway, never really did buy into the whole Chun-Li pretty girl.

http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/fighter05.jpg

[m0nicle]

It would make more sense to have the buckles on the outside of the boot rather than the inside. they would be less likely to snag on eachother as well as being more practical to put on/take off. so far good work though.

[the_podman]

I hear you, Neil. We always try and discipline ourselves to adhere to our polycount, however, there is added polys for aesthetic reasons and then there is added poly for deformation problems. In a proffesional environment, it is not that uncommon for the dude that's animating the mesh to go back to the modeler and tell him/her they need to add a poly or two somewhere where it's not deforming well. Those polys are only like 4 or 5 faces extra at most but they make a world of difference. I actually changed my workflow a bit and put "skinning tests" and "joint weighting tests" before texturing. Nothing is worse than spending a whole day UV mapping and texturing some geo, only to find out later that the deformation does not work well with the current edgelooping.

The other thing is, since she's a "fighting game" model, she's going to have to be capable of some pretty dynamic movements. Throws, high kicks, punches. All those movements involve arms and legs stretching in some pretty dramatic extremes. I just did some animations where my character has her arms waaay back behind her head and I am kicking myself for not adding like, 2 polys that would've saved me some headaches.

Oh, yeah. One last thing. Don't forget about the "clavicle" if you're gonna skin her. Take a look at these:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/clavicle.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/clavicle5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/clavicle3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/clavicle2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/clavicle4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/clavicle6.jpg


It'll be essential for getting good shoulder deformation to be able to "move/rotate" that section of the model.


But if you don't plan on skinning her at all, then I wouldn't worry about it. If you wanted that strict 4000 limit no matter what, you can always take some from the back of her neck and use it for the elbow. It'll be like skin graphing for burn victims.

looking good.:thumbsup:
-pod

[Neil]

podman: thanks for the suggestions. You're right. She will be hitting poses not normally hit with most characters... that kinda slipped my mind. Let's just wait and see how well it turns out when it comes to posing her. ;)

I think i am done texturing her now, unless you see an area(s) where you think i should add/remove/redo. I will move on to rigging/skinning.

http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/fighter08.jpg

[BakerCo]

looking good could we get a texture sheet?


Lost...

[the_podman]

I think she's ready to be posed. Looks good.

[Neil]

I still want to create the black panther too. I have yet to do anything from the cat family. So I am going to start on that now and then go back and finish off the posing of the girl. Right now here left armpit for example is not looking that hot.

here is a quick pose of it.
http://sonicubegames.com/neil/fighter09.jpg

[johnwoo]

Nice work Neil, love the pose, and my, my what a solid mesh :thumbsup:....something that is catching my eye tho' as you mentioned, is her armpit, I think you have too much influence on the vertices that occupy the ribcage area on the torso, it's really worth decreasing or even totally removing the influence totally , cos' really there should'nt be any deformation there, all the same really liking how this is coming along :)

[AndyH]

Lookin' good neil!
Good, effective mesh and it deforms very well considering how low poly it is. Maybe add some more polys - fighting games always have very high character polycounts.
Im not too keen on her shoulders. Its good that they can deform upwards due to your mesh construction technique and they have plenty of polys to go round, but they look very wide and when brought down, curve outwards. Tighten up the armpit on the skin.
Nice texture work - especially on the legs and boots, though the torso and collar could use more detail and shading. Her skin looks kinda all one tone too. I also think the green and the yellow areas on your model are too bright and saturated.

[McStyle]

the pose seems to be really uncomfortable. try to pose your arms and wrists like that and you'll see that it is.
especially as a fighter she should be pretty relaxed to perform smooth motions.

so don't lift her left arm above her shoulder.
and especially the wrists are kind of strange. i think nobody would turn his wrists like that to the direction of his own body. wrist and arm should be one straight line.
but the legs look fine :D

[AndyH]

If you want inspiration, watch "Ong bak"
Its got amazing fight sequences and theyre all done physically - no wires or CG.
Its a great kickboxing style that uses a lot of knee and elbow strikes

[Neil]

John & Andy: ok, well maybe you glanced over my gibberish and were just focusing on the images. haha. I noted that the skinning was no complete. I just wanted to make sure that they shoulder bent somewhat correctly and wanted to move onto the panther. Then i can go back and be all anal with both at the same time. I will probably fib it some too and move verts by hand (shame shame i know) but It's just gonna be posed and I can get away with it. I'm sure plenty of people have done that too, for their beauty renders.
Thanks for the crits though! make sure to hit me up again down the road when i do think it's final :)

mcstyle: yeah, i know it looks goofy, but there is some reality it in. you can bend your wrists "in" a good amount in reallife. When it comes to the final beauty shot It's probably gonna change anyway, to incorporate her panther friend. I like to pose her fancily (is that a word?) anyway. I mean she's got all these curves and skin showing, just putting her in a boxer pose woudl be boring. IMO.


Here is what I got so far on the panther, still pounding away with wahtever little free time i get!

http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/panther01.jpg

[Lee3dee]

Awesome work Neil :thumbsup: She could be a playable character in a fighting game :D

[dukster]

What texture size? May be can show it?

[Neil]

haha, oh man have i neglected this.
I'm back on track now and will continue to finish this off.

here is the panther WIP. It should be done shortly, doing the fur doesn't take long and it's not a very complicated model. Unwrapping it was kinda annoying though.

http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/panther02.jpg

[Neil]

sorry for the delay... hosting issues to compete with:
here is the texture sheet. I went with 1024 but will hold very well at 512 too. Figured minus as well go larger just incase. No texture/bump/spec, yet atleast.

http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/fighter_texture.jpg

[LordEzzat]

These Models are looking great.Cant wait to see the end result and maybe some animations...either way your doinga great job.Keep it up and keep posting.:) I also love to see the texturing map like the one you posted that in school we werent tought anything about that so it deffinately helps us out.

Question: when you make your textures do you span all the polys out then take a screen shot and work with them in phtoshop etc against the screen shot. Just trying to figure out the best way to skin an dtextue models..

[EvilBlah]

Looking really good so far! This will loke dope in with the girl posing next to the cat and that was an interesting way to make the concept of her (cutting the images together)!

Someone mentioned earlier that the green and yellow were too bright and I agree. Also the pose that you put her in (yeah, I read everything you wrote and also the others too!! (= ) I think looks off just because her center of gravity is off slightly. It might just be the angle of the render but her head should be lined up over her pelvis unless she is in the act of motion.

Cat looks great too!

That's my two cents... Looks really good though and I can't wait to see this finished!! Keep up the good work!
-Bair

[MrCup]

Was that Delta Goodrem in your concept?

[Neil]

mrcup: I didn't know who exactly she was, but yes you're correct. I just found a picture of her face online and thought it looked very pretty.

LordE: I will post a picture of the texture sheet with the wire layout over it before I'm done. Remind me!

Fear not, I have not given up on this project! haha. E3 crunch = bad. But.. now the cat is all rigged and done. I just need to think up a killer pose and then i'll be done. :)

http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/fighter10.jpg

[Por@szek]

Brilliant!!. I really like this dynamic pose. At first moment I was affraid that will be worse, but now its awesome. Great job.

[Neil]

Here are the final renders:
I want to move onto something else! haha. Uh, just FYI, this character was more envisioned for a side fighting style game. Not really the Tekken style that i think many were thinking. I would like to think that there is a middle between Tekken and say... Guilty Gear X.
I tried a few different style renders, just for fun.

Fighter: 3880 triangles (diffuse/opacity)
Panther: 1378 triangles (diffuse/bump)

[I would love to know why the gradients look so shitty. It's the highest quality and "saved for web"...]

http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/3dwork/female_fighter_a.jpg
http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/3dwork/female_fighter_b.jpg
http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/3dwork/female_fighter_c.jpg
http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/3dwork/female_fighter_d.jpg
http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/3dwork/female_fighter_texture.jpg http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/3dwork/female_fighter_texture2.jpg

[6gZ]

Great work! :applause:

[Kizza]

Nice work Neil! Very cool.

The third picture, posed couching, awesome!

[XAQT]

Nice renders. The gradients look okay, it may be your desktop color depth. Nice work Neil!

[WAcky]

the last pose is the best by far imo. really sexy pose and you can see plenty of her face which matters in this case i think. in the first pose you cant see much of her face and it doenst really "do it" for me.

WELL DONE MATE!

[jOBe]

this UV layout rocks, seriously.

[LordDubu]

Cassandra may kick my ass anytime she feels like it.

[obelisk]

Cassandra may kick my ass anytime she feels like it.

I'm with Doobs! BTW, I can't belive nobodies pulled a Dangerfield on this, so I'm going to have to risk it:

Hey, nice pussy!... and the panther's pretty good too! :D

Seriously though, I must have missed the final stages on this one (I remember kick off fondly though). Came together really well Niel. Both models are really well put together all round.

Well done,

-O

[Neil]

Hey guys, been awhile. But with the additional unwanted free time I've had on my hands lately, I went back and got to do stuff I've never had time for before.
Like animate more of my characters.

Here is a leg sweep into backflip:
http://www.sonicubegames.com/neil/animations/fighter_backflip.avi

[the_podman]

Hey, Neil. Pretty cool. I'm noticing a lot more people doing animations right now on their low-poly.

It's a little on the slow side. It's more like a practice run. Like she's still "training" to do the move. Part of that has to do with the animation curve on the sweep being very "linear" right now. You'll want to "snap" the motion so it whips and then "ease in" the curve as she's changing pose. I think you got lots of the poses down pretty well which is good. You just need to work on the timing of the animation and "sticking" of the poses. Also, don't forget about where the center of gravity is and weight shifts in the hips. Everything comes from the hip most of the time, so you'll want to rotate the torso FIRST and then offset the leg motions to follow AFTER the torso has already turned(whipping motion).

That's all I got, but it looks great and I dig the character.

-pod

[kaisasose]

Hi Nel,

just to add a bit to what podman said, I think after the sweep there needs to be some "anticipation" before the back flip. A little bounce as it were. Keep it up man. :)

[ArchangelTalon]

You probably wouldn't do a sweep like that unless you'd been floored beforehand and if you did, you'd probably go into it forwards, not backwards like she is just now. Standing sweep is just like passing a football and you tend to have to do a post first... but that looks pretty dull animation-wise, so I'll leave it as just an anal retentive comment rather than a crit ;)

I still think that the actual movement should be a lot faster. An opponent could easily avoid it at that speed and it should make the move itself look much more powerful :P

She should really just drop her weight completely down onto the supporting leg as her other one flails out and round and then her body should follow round for some extra momentum, just now she's putting all her weight on the outstretched leg that still somehow manages to glide effortlessly across the floor.

The backflip looks off, can't really place where. I think she needs to to tense herself before she does the backflip because there seems to be a hell of a lot of momentum springing from nowhere to get that kind of distance.

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