Imp

[ojko]

The modeling looks quite clean at the moment. Just remember to add extra loops where the joints are, so that the model will deform nicely. You'll probably need quite a few on the legs for this model.

I do think that the tail should be attached a little lower than it is. It looks to be stuck in the small of his back. In reality it should be attached just above the buttocks. If you know where your prehensile (sp?) tail is, you'll know what I mean. ;)

[eMPeck]

That's a good start, but You have 2000 triangles already, I think You should start to form muscles, and body details. One more thing - never count polys. Always triangles, You're aiming at 5000 polys - that is about 10000 triangles. It's very much, even in these days.

Keep updating.

[MrJames]

Thanks Simon: I'm still refining so I'll try to implement the changes. On the concept the tail is in the same place as mine, however I think you may be right, i'll play around with it.

btw, I had a look at your portfolio the other day and that Street Fighter character is really nice. The video of the guy with the water bottle rocket pack made my housemates laugh too ;) Thanks for the crits..

Peck: I did mean tri's not polys my mistake m8 ;) currently the model stands at about 1000 tris the statistic in the image is misleading as there are actually two copies of the charcter in the scene to show both views.

So for the record I am intending on 5000 tris ;)

Thanks for the crits :D

[ojko]

So you've got another 4000 tri's to play with, which is always handy. Generally you should put a lot into the head, but as you've got a few to play with you could spread them out. I'd be tempted to put more into certain key areas, like the hands, wings and even the hooves.

Yeah, the water bottle video had me in stiches too. The poor guy obviously doesn't expect to go that far! Thanks for the comment about Oro. I'm pretty pleased with the way he worked out, especially as it was the first texture I bothered to fully paint. Previously i'd just done photorealistic stuff.

[MrJames]

Last update before I go to bed... I've moved the tail down a bit, it looks a lot better now, added hands and wings. I'm not sure what kind of mesh layout you need for wings, hopefully i'm going along the right lines. As it stands so far its exactly 2594 tris. I'm hoping to add more detail to the hands and hoofs and generally fill him out a bit. Then after that spend about 1500 tris on the head... hopefully all goes well.

Thanks for the comments so far. Would love some crits on the general mesh and topology. Cheers ;)

[MrJames]

No more comments :(

Ok I've pretty much finished the body now :D I've added more geometry to the hands and hooves and added some spikey bits to his back. Going to move on to the head next..... As it stands the model is currently 3194tris which leaves me with 1800 to use on the head. I may add some geometry to the torso if I have any left over, we'll see....

Again would love some feedback..... :thumbsup:

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1857/impfront5bo.th.png (http://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=impfront5bo.png)http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/2575/impback6jt.th.png (http://img47.imageshack.us/my.php?image=impback6jt.png)

[ojko]

The wings look good, though i'd extend the wing right to the tips of the wing bones. That way you have more to play with if you alpha the wings to make them look tattered. The hooves look like they came from a camel at the moment, I think the original sharper, horse like hoof worked better. :)

[MrJames]

Thanks Simon,

I've extended the wings and changed the hooves a bit, I think you were right, before they were quite thin and didn't really look like they could support his weight.

I've started on the head, although i'm finding it quite hard, he looks like a cross between an old man with no teeth and a frog :shrug: Going to plough through though and hopefully come out with something half decent by the end of tonight....

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/8012/imppersp3in.th.png (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imppersp3in.png)

[MrJames]

Again made a few changes, going to call it a night now. I think I'm about 70% done now as far as modeling goes. Main areas I need to sort out are his teeth and lower jaw which I will work on tommorrow. At the moment he has a massive grin which looks ridiculous.

I hope to have all the modellng done by tommorrow so really would appreciate some comments to get him finished. As it stands its 4100tris so I have 900 to play with, I think I'm going to put the extra in the torso and face. Once I've finished that I'm going to atempt to normal map him in Zbrush, which is a first for me ;)

Comments and Crits are needed, cheers :thumbsup:

http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/6145/impfront8ss.th.png (http://img468.imageshack.us/my.php?image=impfront8ss.png)http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/9535/impback0wa.th.png (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=impback0wa.png)

[MrJames]

Ok been playing round with the head some more,

I'm trying to make him look a bit more evil, I've lowered the brow a bit and tweaked it some, added horns too which I think look a lot better than the bat ears I had before. I'm still working on it, I just really need some advice on making him look a bit more menacing...

If you have any ideas please share them :D

http://img308.imageshack.us/img308/3836/headback0bf.th.png (http://img308.imageshack.us/my.php?image=headback0bf.png)http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/9566/headfront1vm.th.png (http://img505.imageshack.us/my.php?image=headfront1vm.png)http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/8682/headside2ip.th.png (http://img477.imageshack.us/my.php?image=headside2ip.png)

Oh yeah I haven't given him teeth yet ;) they will come...

[Howitzer]

Awesome modeling work! I love the hands and face. Very sinister and evil looking.

[MrJames]

Apart from the teeth I've decided to finish the modelling now. It currently stands at 4576tris and I'm failry happy with the results so far, the head is still bothering me a bit. I think its the lower half that needs work. I haven't given him teeth yet, not really sure how to approuch it, should i extrude or is it ok to use seperate pieces of geometry as teeth...? So anyway here are the final images. Going to UVmap him tommorrow and then take him into Zbrush for normal mapping...

I would really appreciate some comments, been a bit low on the ground so far :( I really want to get the model done to the best it can be before I import and start working on him in Zbrush. Also any tips on the process would be great... thanks! :scream:

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8388/finback4hm.th.png (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=finback4hm.png)http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/1295/finfront3kh.th.png (http://img407.imageshack.us/my.php?image=finfront3kh.png)http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5743/finhead1xt.th.png (http://img441.imageshack.us/my.php?image=finhead1xt.png)http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7936/finheadback1zj.th.png (http://img441.imageshack.us/my.php?image=finheadback1zj.png)

[Psyk0]

Just a quick observation: the abs are too low, usually those muscles start closer to the pecs.

[ojko]

Just a quick observation: the abs are too low, usually those muscles start closer to the pecs.
Yep, it's pretty easy to see that he's missing his crotch area in this image (http://img407.imageshack.us/my.php?image=finfront3kh.png). Give him a cod-piece or something. :)

[MrJames]

Psyk0: Good spot can't believe I didn't notice that, fixed now ;)

Simon(ojko): Yeah I noticed he was lacking that area this morning ;) I've sorted it out now.

Thanks for the crits guys, appreciate it.....I've tweaked yet a few more things today and fixed the head to a state that I am 90% happy with. Going to wait for a few ore crits and then I'll go and UV map him ready for Zbrush. Which I have never really used much before so is going to take me forever to do :D

Edit: Oh Yeah and a non-wireframe version of the final base mesh:

http://www.3d-tvu.co.uk/Attachments/modelsheet.png

http://http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/2914/modelsheet9sy.png

[MrJames]

Hi again guys,

Been sitting on this model for a few days while I've been busy with my Uni work. I've UV mapped him and am about to go into ZBrush to generate normal maps. The problem I have is this; I've heard that you have to have all quads in your mesh before you import, my model has a few Tris in it... Will this cause a problem? Or should I smooth my mesh before I import?

Advice please ;)

[ojko]

I'm no zbrush export, but I can't see a few triangles causing a problem. The only thing I can think of, is that you may get a few odd bits when you increase the mesh density in zbrush.

Just try to clean the model up as much as possible and make sure that any triangles flow smoothly into the rest of the mesh.

[SHEPEIRO]

are you sure you are no Zbrush export, your clothes look very detailed for a Max/Maya mesh.



hahahahhahahahhaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahha
oh dear, to many late nights with nothing but my freind mr mouse and mr stylus for company

[MrJames]

Hi Simon, thanks for your support again, I wouldn't have thought it would cause any problems either... but it would be a shame to spend all my time modling in z brush and then get an unexpected reslut when it came to taking it back to Maya. So, If there are any ZBrush pros I would love to here your input too... :D

[Wayne Adams]

that was kinda funny, there Shep...hehehehehe

[MrJames]

Well I had a go at Zbrush this evening, I've never used it before and this is the first time I've imported a charcter into it. So far I'm amazed at the package even though I've just scratched the service, I would recommend anyone to buy it. So anyway, it was pretty hit and miss but after a few different attemps and a couple of hours of messing around here is what I came up with:


http://www.3d-tvu.co.uk/Attachments/zbrushtest.png


I only really worked on the torso and the upper arms, its pretty rough atm, I'm looking forward to having a proper bash at it when I have more time.... I still have some mesh problems also, so will have to scrap this and go back to maya to tweak it.

[MrJames]

No comments? Going to play around more with ZBrush tonight so maybe I'll be able to tempt some lurkers to come out and post....:shrug:

[MrJames]

I found a little bit of time tonight to work on the model some more.... I would really appreciate feedback and advice etc... so far its been really low on the ground.... This is my first lowpoly character and the first time i've ever used Z-brush so your input is really appreciated.... :thumbsup:

http://www.3d-tvu.co.uk/Attachments/impbrush.png

So far I've detailed to 3 levels of subdivision, I think I may go one higher and then add all the small details, scales and various other bits.... The texture is just one I found on zbrush central, its not how I'm going to texture this guy... Comments welcome as always...:thumbsup:

[ojko]

I would go all the way and add lots more details to the model, it would look really sweet. :)

One of the problems with normal mapped models, occurs when people don't put enough detail into it. When this happens the model ends up looking like a burn victim, or piece of melted plastic.

[Psyk0]

Some suggestions: i think you could tweak the wings a bit, give them curvature between the "fingers", make the toes more like claws...unless you're trying to stay away from that.

The torso looks very straight right now, the rib cage usually curves and becomes wider as it goes down.

Any plans for a projection master pass?

Keep it up.

[ojko]

Any plans for a projection master pass?
Care to enlighten me as too what exactly a projection master pass is or does?

[Psyk0]

It's a quick way of "cutting" details like skin pores, scales, bumps etc, using alpha maps. Of course this requires a fair amount of polys for details to stick.

Here's a quick how-to:
-Click projection master, check deformation, normalized and fade, then click drop now.
-Change your tool to directional brush
-Change stroke to "dragrect"
-Select desired alpha pattern
-Turn off RGB (at the top)
-Change add/sub settings to suit your needs

All you have to do now, is click and drag over your model, you should see patterns appear on the mesh. You wont be able to rotate the model in this mode, so just add details following your object's angle (to prevent stretching...), to work on other parts of the model, click projection master again and select pickup...

Hope this helps.

[MrJames]

Thanks for the replies,

Yes Projection master pass is on its way ;), I'm going to detail two more levels of detail and then do the projection master stuff on the 6th level. I'll post more when I work on it some more, to many assignments at Uni at the moment...

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