Fantasy Characters : dragon warrior and others

[Threedeemer]

here is that link;

other characters (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/badlanders.html)

[Threedeemer]

rig testing:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/shldrtest1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/shldrtest2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/shldrtest3.jpg

[PvtRyan]

Great modeling, can't figure out why no one responded? :shrug:

Maybe give his neck and belly some more defined muscles.

[Threedeemer]

Thanks, for responding PvtRyan. I like your suggestions, particularily about the neck detail, it is kinda empty in that area. For this guy I will attempt to remedy that with a bump map that will show some wrinkling, hopefully I will achieve a baggy skin look. But for my second creature I will model in those details. Thanks again.:thumbsup:
I working on some tests for the scaley skin. In the test sample below you can see my start on a small section of its face. I think the scales need more of a "pillowing effect" they are too seperated at the moment.
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sampleraktest.jpg

[scott2600]

I like :beer: texture is starting to look very good....keep it up

[Iysun]

looking good i like him :) cant wait to see it all textured

[three]

cool :)
finally found the thread.

this looks really cool.

I like his new head better than the old one. so :thumbsup: for that.
Can hardly wait for the other stuff you've got going. Speaking of going, I've got to go now, take care Greg.
:beer:

[Gremlin]

oh crap...
rig looks nice, textures look awesome!!!
I dont really like the creature design, but your modeling it superbly! :thumbsup:

[Threedeemer]

Thanks for the new replies! :)
I was not expecting this thread to get resurrected. I'm glad you guys like how the texturing is starting out, this apect of 3d always gives me problems. Feel free to give ideas for his armor, I was leaning towards a samurai influenced design. I will post a clearer shot of the body. I didnt go too crazy with the details cause I only wanted quad polies in the mesh.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/fullrig.jpg

[Threedeemer]

I was also starting on a stone golem type construct that would be summoned by my female character. I was going for an octopus head look, but he kinda has a "Man Thing" theme happening, hopefully I can solve this as he develops.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vandalhd.jpg

[xasteycracker]

holy shitakei mushrooms that texture is the bomb. the modle lookes great too. I agree with you when you said you only want quad in your model. YEAH QUADS they are the best way to go. i hope you post a few poses when you get done great work.

[Ionized]

This is a very nice model. Looks technically sound and the textures are coming along nicely.

Have you thought about adding more horns or spikes to him? Just a suggestion :)

Good work

[Threedeemer]

Ionized, good suggestion, i will incorporate that spikey idea into his armor. This is a quick sketch I came up with, most likely the neck guard will be more spikey and menacing.
xasteycracker I will continue to post updates, got any poses in mind, this would be a good way to test mesh deformation. I'm starting to think I'm juggling too many characters at once, need to get more focused and methodical.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/samcap.jpg

[Ionized]

Yeah man, awesome... interlocking plates are a must!

I love modelling armour. Not only does it have to look cool but has to work functionaly too.

You could inlay gold and silver into it too... wikked...

[Threedeemer]

I'm back working on the textures again, So far its still focused on the bump map (the color map so far is just a colorized version of the bump). For the color map I may go with some type of subtle caiman or snake patterns. Maybe instead of blue tones I will use rust color or a slate grey.
The progress of painting each scale is crawling along slowly, I must have spent over 4 hours on the face alone. Here are those views; texture size is 1440 pixels.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sampldrakf.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sampldrakp.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sampldraks.jpg

[hiko_]

Good work !
Beautifull textures beginning.

[Threedeemer]

Her are some updated images. The body for the automaton will probably be simplified in the end, so I can rig and animate him easier. Usually I try to stay under 10k quad polyfaces.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vandal03.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vandal04.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vandal06.jpg

more views: view1 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vandal01.jpg)
view2 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vandal02.jpg)
view3 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vandal05.jpg)
view4 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vandal07.jpg)

[Threedeemer]

The devil guy:
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar01.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar03.jpg

Other Views:
1 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar02.jpg)
2 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar04.jpg)
3 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar05.jpg)

[Threedeemer]

2nd Dragonoid (revision of my avatar character)

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voraggo01.jpg

[misu]

good work, but i'll like to see more details on the legs ( first character) :thumbsup:

[Threedeemer]

Great point Misu. I kinda realized that as I rigged and UV mapped him. Maybe I can hide that with some leg armor.

Here is a female character Im working on Its pretty rough though.
BTW for this particular model I had to use photographic refs instead of hand drawn ones. Eventually I will figure out how to stylize it to fit the other characters.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/phaedra01.jpg

I would like to model a more athletic amazonish build.

[three]

Looking good, my man :)

That's the britney-model you were talking about, right?
Better than I manage :D

If you stumble over some tutorials on texturing (the photoshop-part) give me a holler :)

Keep up the good work.
:beer:

[Threedeemer]

Im too used to UV mapping in Maya, I've never really found any descriptive tutorials on UVing in 3dsMax though. This is a different female character, dont remind me of that Britney thing, (bad experience with that model, learned alot from it though as far as rigging goes, :D.

[three]

I wonder, didn't you say that you were working in 3D Studio MAX? Or am I confused?
Do you find MAYA easier to UV-map in? I wonder if it would be worth the trouble of exporting from MAX into MAYA, just for the rigging and UV-mapping :)
But still, 3D Studio MAX 5 seem to have a really powerful Unwrap, or, so I'm told.

That texture on the top guy (blue, snake-like) is really lovely... that's how good I wanna be :D

:thumbsup:

[Threedeemer]

Actually I start out most of the time (for faces anyway) with 3dsMax for the splines, surface tools are great. It kinda forces you to use quads. When I layout the face topology I convert that to polygons then import it into Maya as an OBJ file, from there I continue the tweaking of the details, extrusions, connecting seperate body parts, and so forth. I still use 3dsmax 3.1, higher versions dont work on windows NT4 from what I understand. (out dated OS I know. :D )

[three]

haha, cool :)
i've got windows 3.11 on my other can. works like a charm ;)
i tried MAYA some, that free version that you can download from their webpage... but, well, i feel more comfortable with max... i think I'll stick with it, and try to figure the UVW-mapping out.

Now, updaaaaate.

[Threedeemer]

In the past couple of days I have been able to continue with these characters, a little slow going but here are the updates. Last for the human characters:
before stylizing (photo refs used)
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/phaedrashade.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/phaedrawire.jpg


other view 1 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/mesofem1.jpg)

exaggerated style:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/mesofema.jpg

Since she will be a sword wielder, shes got stronger upper body.

[Threedeemer]

For the muscular build my drawings were influenced mainly by Adam Hughes, but not quite as exaggerated:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/fairchild_ahughes.jpg

unfortunately my sketches were not as good, but the model turned out OK nonetheless. :D

[Threedeemer]

As for the dragonman;

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/chestwrinkd1.jpg

I think my original spec map settings are off.

view2 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/chestwrinkd2.jpg)

view2 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/chestwrinkf.jpg)

[Threedeemer]

still working this one out.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/skullplate2.jpg

alt view (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/skullplate1.jpg)

:wavey:

[three]

looks really cool :) Love that armour stuff, but I was thinking, wouldn't it be cool with like, something that goes down to protect the nose? It would be most logical I think, since his face extrudes giganticly from a human being (and we too have helmets that cover noses/jaws and stuff. I understand if you don't want to cover up your model though :D

Aaaah, that superwoman looks really nice. Still, with the body of hers, her tits should be larger. Since you're going for a bit of an excaggerated body-build... her tits like, "disappear". Atleast that's what I think. Otherwise it looks really nice, clean mesh and all... still, it probably wouldn't become you to have a screwed up mesh ;)

Take care my friend, hear from you in a bit I guess? ;)

[Dravenfr]

Great , it's really awesome , I'm a beginner and it's really cool I can see some meshes like this :bounce:

Bravo :)

[luigi]

great work hear

a lot of modelling and rig


are you going to animate it too?

suscribed for your thread waiting more updates.

the piece of armor in the head is a great idea ;)

[Asgar]

Very cool!I like a lot the dragon!!!!:thumbsup:
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[bJekX]

great start with the textures !!

[Raul-Reznek]

Everything looks good but i think u should work on one at the time and make each excellent :D


Looking cool!

[Threedeemer]

Thanks guys; all your feedback is really helping and giving me new ideas.

Three, you make a good point about the protection the helmet would provide, I never really considered that. I was thinking more of an ornamental head gear to distinguish his rank among the other dragon-dudes. But I really like the face mask suggestion, I will be sure to use that for the 3rd character I'm developing. Sorta like those angry/smiling faces on some of those samurai helms, but in reptile form. Cool idea Three. :airguitar

Dravenfr, its nice that I can help in any small way. :)

Luigi glad you like the helmet progress so far, I do plan on making an animation from these. BTW, I like how you are rigging the face of your characters, I will be checking your thread as well. :thumbsup:

Asgar, you can probably tell that blue dragonman is my favorite, since I focused on it the most, I've been drawing versions of this character ever since elementary school, eventually to creating him in 3D. Have you ever seen the comic book "New Mutants", my inspiration came from the little dragon called Lockheed, especially the underbite in his chin.

bJekX, thanks for giving me encouragement about the texturing, that is always a chore for me, but with kind words from you and the others who commented on the texturing progress, I am gaining more confidence there. :beer:

Raul you make a valid point, I really should work on one at a time, everytime I get a new idea I lose focus on the task at hand. I will try to take your advice, makes alot of sense. Any new ideas I get I will just sketch them out, for later. :thumbsup:

[michelleblue]

Good looking model, I like the defination on his back. :bounce: :bounce:

[Ionized]

Just thought I'd swing back and check if this tread was still going... glad to see it smoking!

Love your blue dragon dude 3Deemer it really is an awesome piece. I can just picture it when it's finished, all dressed in his battle armour. Have you thought much about its sword?

Three... check out this thread for tutorials

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19859

I went though and picked out the best of the litter, but you might want to check the thread for more...


Illustration/concepting...

http://www.epilogue.net/art/tech/
http://www.drawthrough.com/tutorials/index.html
http://div.dyndns.org/EK/tutorial/
http://www.1art.com/tips.htm
http://www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials - good feng and mullins tuts!!
http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/index.htm -manga
http://www.dccdesigner.com/Htm/Tutorials/Canhead.htm - painter

Photoshop techniques...

http://www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop
http://www.go.to/designstudios
http://www.designsbymark.com/index2.html
http://www.geocities.com/nessele
http://www.eyeball-design.com/fxzone/frames02.htm
http://www.eyesondesign.net/pshop/tuts.htm
http://user.fundy.net/morris/redirect.html?404.html
http://www.phong.com/tutorials
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials.htm
http://photoshopgurus.info
http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/pho...rials-tips.html
http://rainworld.com/psworkshop
http://www.retouchpro.com
http://robouk.mchost.com/tuts/ps.php
http://www.siteformat.com/tutorials/photoshop
http://www.stridingstudio.com/tutorials
http://www.teamphotoshop.com/photos...ials/ps_tut.php
http://www.thewebmachine.com
http://twh.telefragged.com

[Threedeemer]

Thanks michelleblue! :beer:

Hi Ionized, yeah I took a little break from the models. Thanks for the vote of confidence, this will be the first time I model and texture some serious armor pieces. Great set of links, very useful; Thanks.

I spent a couple days trying to figure out a way to model a rugged, somewhat hard but still feminine face. She is intended to be in mid 30s to 40s age range. If you have ever seen Reign by Peter Chung, I was trying to get a slightly similar face style, but not as anime-ish.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/raver3.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/raver1.jpg

view3 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/raver2.jpg)

[Threedeemer]

A newer version with puffier cheeks.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/phaedraface2.jpg

view2 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/phaedraface1.jpg)

not the prettiest face, but hey! :D

[Threedeemer]

Texturing sure is tedious. Check out the arm scales I'm still trying to figure this out.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/armscale2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/armscale3.jpg

[Threedeemer]

Oh yeah Ionized, he will have one of those 5 or 6 foot long samurai swords.


http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/armscalz.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/swordstance.jpg

Check this character out. (a Scarran from Farscape)

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/plonek_sd3.jpg

thats kinda like what I'm trying to achieve with the skin, but with more complex coloring.

[SEPHROTH64]

lookin good...

reminds me of something out of the orriginal hobbit cartoon

[Grub]

Cool demon, and I like the scaly texture effect you're doing for it.:) Haha, I agree with your earlier comment about texturing being tedious, having spent a week of faff on my own project.:hmm:
Continue with the good work:thumbsup::wip:

[three]

Man, I've only got one thing to say: WOW.
Or, maybe more :D

Love the scale-effect you've got going. You're really talented when it comes to 2D art. Are you doing with with a wacom or with the mouse?
I'm really thinking of buying a so called Digitalizationboard :D

Those lines on the side of him, is that a bump or a displacement? I'm guessing bump, but what the heck :D

Take care, and I really hope to see that demon too :)

:thumbsup:

[Rokki]

:drool: :drool:
WOW perfect texture!!

[Threedeemer]

Thanks SEPHROTH64 and three.

Grub, and Rokki, I am a bit lazy when it comes to texturing, but Im really inspired to finish the textures this time, big thanks for the encouragement. :beer:

Three I'm mostly using a Wacom Tablet (4X6, smallest one). Yeah, you should defineatly consider buying one of these you will benefit from it in so many ways, when your dealing with artwork and stuff. So far I'm only using bump map layers. I havent been able to figure out displacement maps yet.

Here is a small update on the human character, Brom style. (just a simple quick planar map to get an idea how the face will hold up with texture)

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/facepaint.jpg

[Threedeemer]

Heres my bump map test for the studded scales, all the smooth soft parts will contain the the wrinkles and vein bumps. I think I finally have an efficient workflow ironed out after a few false starts. The color maps should be easier to create as they will be derived from the base bump maps. :wip:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/ruffback1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/studz04.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/studz06.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/studz07.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/studz08.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/studz09.jpg

last image (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/studz15.jpg)

[Threedeemer]

Stopped posting for a while but here are some recent updates. I'm trying to work out the armor with a wrap deformer but so far no success, luckily the armor is not crucial to the character;

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/armordraketest.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/helmethead.jpg

originally this texture was to be ringmail but it looks more like chainmail.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/ringmail1.jpg

Head with basic color variations;

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/skullvar.jpg

[Threedeemer]

Here is what I'm talking about with the failed wrap deformer.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/armortestwrap.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sturmarmor.jpg

without armor.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sturmnoarmor.jpg

[Threedeemer]

His buddy:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voragbkwire.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voragvisage.jpg

The sensory flaps around his mouth are intended to be cartilage based like ears, this character will be blind or have poor eyesight thats the reason for the heat pits etc.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voraggrill1.jpg

New feet.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voragtoes.jpg

last image (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voraggrill2.jpg)

[Threedeemer]

Any feedback welcomed! :)

This is an idea for an elf-like character, found some interesting photos of a half Dutch half Chinese girl, that kinda gave me the idea. Not to crazy about copying photos but this is just for the basis of the structure.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/elvishface.jpg

Maybe later I'll post some flatshaded and wire images of this.

[Man]

really nice...can u show the bump map??i liked the second monster better

[three]

Hello there my friend :)
A bit of water have flowed under the bridge since we last "spoke", I sent you an email, but didn't get anything back.
I love the last picture you set up here. She looks lovely :) Dunno why, though. Might be that I like that kind of skin and empty eye-balls :D

By the way, I've grown more and more attached to the green skin on the "dragon". Looks more, natural, sort of. Kind of hard to explain.
I'm keeping my eye on you, keep working! :D

:wip:

[Threedeemer]

Hi Knoxville! Here is the bump of the face and back also a spec of the face. The final color and diffuse I will start this week, also I forgot to add the veins in the bumpmaps. I lost alot of sharpness and detail when I dropped the resolution to a more manageable 1024 by 1024.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/backbump.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/skullbump.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/skullspec.jpg

[Threedeemer]

Hi Three! sorry about the email, I did have a few problems with email last week.
Glad you liked the green I was thinking of a final contrasty version of that, almost beige on the belly and black on the back.

Some nictitating membranes:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/nictates.gif

:beer:

[three]

heey, sweet :D

Beige and black go well together. Seems like we have the same taste in colours ;)
Waiting for that.
I'm trying to figure out how to do nice metal in photoshop and so on. Gonna texture a spaceship for a 2d "sprite" game.

I'll resend that mail.

:beer:

[Gremlin]

Looks great so far!
Have you considered increasing the bump map or even switching to displacement?

Also, how DID you make that incredable bump map?
Cheers,
:beer:

[octopus77]

Wwwoooooohhhhhhh:eek:

What a wonderfull work my friend, haven´t seen this display of talent in this wip section.

Love the personality that your character has, and really love those textures of you man!!!.

It´s really an inspirational work.

I´m doing my first character and have to texure it, but never did such thing before so i was hoping you could give me some tips,
for example how do you disimulate de beams that remains from the diferent unwrap parts?, do you aply a blending mask or somthing?

well, you are definetly going for an A+ :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[saj]

man this stuff is really really nice, cant wait to see some more updates.:bounce:

[pencil-head]

nice job on the textures so far. especially the bump maps. although i think you should put more colour variation on the crature guy. not just all blue. maybe throw in some yellow or green somwhere

[Threedeemer]

Gremlin, thanks; yeah I was starting to notice that the knobby scales were somewhat subtle I will try to boost the contrast on those. I painted the dragonskin with a base layer of a seamless scan of a leather wallet.
The next layer I used a fine point brush in photoshop, to draw all the large protective scales, which I then used the dodge tool to 'raise' the bump of the studs.
The third layer was the wrinkling also drawn with a small brush with black paint. Then I used gaussian blur with a setting of 4, followed by the Maximum filter to with a setting of 2, to get the lines of these two layers to look tightly packed (a pillowing effect). Once the layers were merged I tweaked the curves, and contrast to produce the spec maps.

Hi Octopus77, that means alot thanks. :beer:
I'm glad he has a bit of personality, that means I'm going in the right direction.
Actually the seams didnt pose to much of a problem since I utilized Deep Paint to draw all the lines, a bit like a template. I then transfered this to photoshop since it has a more "what you see is what you get feel" this is were all the details took shape like I wrote above. As soon as the maps were flattened I exported back to deeppaint to get rid of any seams left by using sort of a cloning brush technique. Deeppaint was a huge help with this, the only thing though is I had to drop the resolution from 2048 to 1024 because of lack of RAM, the character will be moving around alot anyway, so the lo rez should work ok.

Saj and Pencil_head, thanks also, I'll keep updating, I should have alot of time to work on it this week; yeah the color maps will be more complicated than it is now, It will have some blotches and patterning, maybe similar to a crocodile.

[eLm0]

texturing is amazing great job keep us updated

[DrakeX]

i love the dragon.. not only is he a top-quality model, but i loke the concept and the look of him! he's one of the first things i saw when i came to CGTalk a few months ago and still one of the best!

you should make people pay to view the images, lol

[Maximus Groff]

Man... this is lika a show to me... very inspiring!!

No crits for me.. ;) jus keep it up with this quality.

:thumbsup:

[garyturner]

hey you whant feedback? what can i say? i lost my words... woooow wanna see more ;)

[Man]

oh my god you are sick.......i gotta start learning how to use photoshop or something so my models get nicer u know....like your for an example!!!maybe i'll start posting my stuff here....yeah..maybe...hey man,the girl's face is the best!!!keep it up:thumbsup:

[PvtRyan]

Awesome bump!! :eek:
You can give him some scars or something?
Specular needs a lot of work though, maybe use his bump map for that too? Or an invert?
As for the diffuse map, braunish green with beige for it's belly and underside tail would be sweeeet :applause:

[Threedeemer]

Hey guys thanks again! Your kind words mean alot, very encouraging and inspiring. :bounce:

Here is a small update of the chestmap, I didnt add the beige tone layer for the underbelly yet; I will probably paint that last once I finish the main color scheme for all of the other parts.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/chesttest1.jpg

:beer:

[Threedeemer]

Heres where I've reached so far. Still no light underbelly, also, if you look closely you will spot the seams, I will adjust those tommorrow, and maybe I will be able to start on the veins. :wip:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/skullcol.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sturcolor1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sturcolor2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sturcolor3.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/sturcolor4.jpg

[Threedeemer]

I've added the lightened palms and belly, for some reason the body area is not as pronounced as the palms, guess there was already alot of brightness there to begin with.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/colorstage2a.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/colorstage2b.jpg

The seams were removed when I switched on Mip mapping for the textures.

[PvtRyan]

Diffuse map looking good! :buttrock:

Maybe raise the bump on his head a bit? :thumbsup:

[rsalonen]

Holy macaroni! :eek:

This is really cool!
Your comp must be really slow working with these HIGLY detailed models.

Keep it up man!
Can't wait for finnished version!

[DrakeX]

with the black skin and black BG, it's a little difficult to tell what's dragon and what's BG. :shrug:

from what i can see tho it's coming along great, from the poses you have him in he looks like he's able to convey emotion well.. not to mention you must be a good rigger :)

[Threedeemer]

Hi guys! Great suggestion PvtRyan, I was thinking of adding some battle scars but I figured it wouldnt fit his character too much, I wanted to give the impression that he was untouchable in combat, but for my second dragon warrior he will show some scars since he is more of a brute.
Veqtue, yeah my computer gets bogged down when I add the textures, also when I tried using a wrap deformer for his armor, for interactivity purposes in animating him I will need to avoid the armor wrap, but I will include it in some frozen poses, for stills. Otherwise the character mesh itself is fairly simple.
DrakeX, Im adding a few shots with a gradiation in the background. Actually I still could learn a few things with rigging characters. :beer:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/prowldragon.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/stalkdragon.jpg

I think I'm pretty much through with the body textures, all thats left for this character aside from the sword, is the textures for the horns, claws, etc. Anxious to change focus on to the second dragon. :D

[William b. Hand]

Beautiful work, Threedeemer! As I begin to learn how to model, I'll be visiting your site for tips. And i just wanna say, specifically, great job on the mouth/snout/jowels area... love it. -Wm.:thumbsup:

[Spirit2029]

ok I was sold all the way up to the last renders with the red gradients behind him,...common.. Ok that said, the texturing is very well done, nice detail, must have taken quite awhile. I have to say I like the blue one better, but maybey with a faded blue grey instead in the chest. I want to see him lit properely...lets see those textures in all there glory...

spirit2029

[Zytrex]

Outstanding work! You're working and updating so fast that I'm not gonna bother to crit unless you have a specific question about something. You seem to know what you're doing.

There's a thought. Make a femail Scorpy!

/me dreams of his hopes for Farscape, season 5 "What? No! It can't be Scorpy's kid! Noooooooooooooooooooo!"

[liQu1d]

could be a creature for diablo III :p

[Threedeemer]

Sure thing William and thanks, I wanted his snout to look somewhat like a mandrill/baboon.

Big thanks for the compliment, liQu1d, hopefully one of these days I will be working in the videogame industry.

Spirit2029 lighting is my weakest point i suppose. When he is finalized. I will try to make better renders.

Zytrex, cool another farscape fan. I seriously miss that show. A femail scorpius would be hideous. :D

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/huncheddragon.jpg

[Threedeemer]

Just thought this was an interesting pose. Overlook the insidious shadows. :D
Not sure what happened with that, It was quickly put together.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vaultdrk1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vaultdrk2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vaultdrk3.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vaultdrk4.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vaultdrk5.jpg

[Fahim]

Woow really nice mate, you're modeling skills are excellent, and so are your texturing skills. I really love these models! So much details, and so realistic. Keep up with the good work!
Hum, wich software did you use for the modelling?

Good luck! i love these characters.

[Grub]

Very good work and love the poses.:cool: Nice texturing too, only crit I can think of is to maybe add some more colours to him. Great stuff!:buttrock:

[Mahlikus]

OMG I think I am going to cry!
This is an amazing thread, models, textures, bump maps..:wavey: :bounce: :beer: :buttrock: :love:

[rrobert]

Gooood Heavens! :eek:

Nice! :buttrock:

[Jashugan]

Wonderful work! I checked out your site too, you have some really nice character designs. It's stuff like this that makes me wanna go model something. Which is, in fact, what i'm gonna go do right now. Really great work.

[dominicqwek]

massive respect! A whole plethora of characters, my gawd. you are one crazy cg artist alright! :airguitar

[Threedeemer]

Hi again!
Fahim, I am using Maya 4.5 polygon modeling for the body and limbs, the heads or faces I started in 3dsmax as splines, then transfered to maya for detailing.
Grub I was thinking of adding splotches in certain areas kinda like the Predator alien has, maybe some banding on the tail.
Thanks alot Mahlikus and Straightmark. :beer:
Jashugan I really need to update that website. :)
Thanks Dom, I have so many other old character designs I would like to create in 3D. Mostly superhero and villain types.

Here are some new images.

The automaton: Im pretty content with the design but not to sure about the head and feet.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vand1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vand2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vand4.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vandfoot.jpg

And here is the dragonman's hat and sword.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/stormcrest.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/stormsedge.jpg

Didnt have that much time to work on these the past few days.

[Threedeemer]

I decided to focus on a the more human characters at the moment. Here is the old and and new revised versions to compare.
OLD VERSION
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdold.jpg
NEW VERSION
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdnew.jpg

In this base texture, the current bump map is just a rough guide mirrored to help with the detailed map later on.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdfacetex2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdfacetex5.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdfacetex6.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdfacetex7.jpg

[Iysun]

love the demon dude there he looks sweet!

[William b. Hand]

That doesn't even look like a "new version"... it looks like an entirely new character! Looks fantastic. It already has a lot of life... Very believable. The eyes remind me of my grandfather... the nose works great... the ears need some work, but this is in progress. As usual, your already excellent talent improves!
Off the subject, but are you ever going to revisit that shark-headed dude? I absolutely love that, but wanna see a more high-res version! I bet a lot of people would like that... Just a thought.
Inspiring stuff!

[Threedeemer]

Thanks AnotherHell and William. :buttrock:

William, yeah the ears are kinda strange. :D
I do plan on finishing the shark head dragon character soon also, I figure with this demon and the two dragons I can put together an interesting throne room scene; that if it turns out decent I can enter that CGTalk Expose thing, would be cool to get something in there. Here are some comparison shots of the old and new versions.

BTW. Excellent painting and design for your bulldog creature, William. I just clicked your link. :airguitar

OLD VERSION: as seen in avatar.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vorgold.jpg

NEW VERSION:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vorgrev.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vorgrevdiag1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/vorgrevdiag2.jpg

[r2d3]

damn i hope one day i could make such amazing models

the automation' s face is ok i think but his feet arent
on your scetch the heel (back) is also mutch furter away and has more height maybe it would give extra dimension in the model to
the front really doesn't look footlike

maybe give him more elephant-alike feet

nice work keep it up :bounce:

[that damn kid]

the second head looks a bit like godzilla the (new) godzilla....i really like it a lot:applause:

[three]

Oh, man, I just love exo skeletons.

That's why I've got to crit on the brown demon guy.
He doesn't look at all as evil as the old design, and dude, that nose really bothers me :D

Otherwise, I'll be waiting for that throne room. :drool:

Take care

:beer:

[Maximus Groff]

Wow... incredible... you are fast! dev 3 chars at the same time
(im doing one and its tough)...

awesome armour!

Do u du procedurals in ur models ? In what field (terrain/gadjets)
3d procs textures are best ?

C ya!

[Threedeemer]

Great input guys, Yup, that new Godzilla was really cool. I defineately have to redesign the feet, more like a tree stump or something simple like that. I havent really experimented much with procedurals, but I did implement Maya's anistropic shader along with a few standard maps to get an interesting metallic effect, nothing too complex here is the setting for the texture map of the sword for example. Also, three; here is the throneroom start, need to start creating more non-organic models.

Metal Shader Setting (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/anistropy.jpg)

blade bump (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/blademapb.jpg)

blade color (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/blademapc.jpg)

blade specular (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/blademaps.jpg)

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/thronerm1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/thronerm2.jpg

Still designing the armor, while the cuirass will be easy, Im sure I will have trouble with the gauntlets. :wip:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/devcuirass1.jpg

last view (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/devcuirass2.jpg)

[dominicqwek]

Nice work as usual. Keep it up. Your pace is amazing!

[liQu1d]

looks amazing! keep on it! :applause:

[ZVAN]

im doing an animated short something like ures, it's amazing the way ur models are... i've got nothing else to say. im so awestruck..:eek: :eek:

[three]

mmmMMMmmm... Inka inspiration? :)
:thumbsup:
It'll look massive when finished. My eye is fixed on this :D

[Threedeemer]

Thanks again for the replies. Not much progress lately, but here is an update. :beer:
Trying to make the armor functional for animation later on. I would like him to be articulated, but I may make an exception in this case, unless I can figure out how armor truly works. In particular the shoulder area.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/devpoint.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/devgear3.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/devgear4.jpg

[Seo2]

really neat models!:applause:

[Threedeemer]

Hi Seo2! Here is a temporary rig test. I made the shoulder armor smaller. I did not add the straps and buckles yet.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/dntagrking1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/dntagrking2.jpg

[PureFire]

i love everything.....your sense of design is inspiring...makes me wish i had that ability now!.

[phoenix2k]

wow.. your speed is amazing... by now i would probably just have thought up an idea for a project. lol.... keep going... looks amazing!!! :thumbsup:

[ME3D]

Great looking models. Cant wait to see the renders of that throne room.

Cool work.

[seb4d]

:drool: :bowdown:

[Maximus Groff]

Oh... thats insane!!! LOTR modeling.. ;)

[Maximus Groff]

Are u set-driven-keeying the plates on the shoulder, so they
rotate acoordinly to the bones ??

[3dioot]

With the risk of sounding like a fanboy (and making my first appearance on this forum aswell) i just have to say i really love your characters. You must be a great concept artist to come up with such living, characteristic characters. I love their muscle flow and heads. So much character. Im really impressed by how they deform when posed too.

Wouldnt mind if you updated the badlands page where you showed progress shots of each character. Ive been checking that a couple of times aside from this thread but it doesnt seem to be updated.

Just go on.. this is my favourite thread on here right now :)

GrtZ 3dioot

[XTitan]

Damn that's crazy. It gives me inspiration to go back to my PC and get back into the 3d stuff.

Great job keep it up and keep us posted. :eek: :buttrock: :beer:

[Fetus23]

Just had to drop in and tell you this thread is fantastic! So much great stuff going on in here! I can't wait to see it all come together...Have you got a story line or background info on these characters? Again, fantastic artwork threedeemer...Keep posting more!!! :wip: :wip:

:beer:

[dominicqwek]

yeowch! freaking good stuff! i love the finger armour..they accentuate the postures of your char's finger. Is this for some short? Keep it going dude. :buttrock:

[Threedeemer]

Thanks everyone, Purefire, phoenix2k, ME3D, Seb4d, Maximus Groff, 3dioot, XTitan, Fetus23, and Dom for the new feedback.
Motivating words I really appreciate it. :beer:
Maximus, Yeah I used set-driven keys for the shoulder and elbow parts. But the rig for this devil guy has no IK applied as yet for animation but I plan on revising the armor in certain areas, as well as the rigging in the near future.
ME3D I hope that that throneroom environment turns out decent, I can see you have alot of skill in that area, I have yet to create a convincing environment.
3dioot thanks for the generous reply, yeah I have to overhaul that website its seriously neglected. I'm glad you noticed the design aspect, on some of these models, thats always the most fun part of developing a character with unusual anatomy structures.
Dom, I rushed this latest character a bit so the outfit is not exactly like my reference sketches, but the gauntlet turned out better than I expected it would.
Fetus23 Amazing work, I viewed your website. Your Snowbioard is super detailed. I gotta learn to do stuff like that. :buttrock:

Nothing new, but heres a few other angles. Wasted alot of time the other day trying to create the draped cloth for the background banners, and his kilt/gown, hence the missing lower body.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/dracochair1.jpg

view2 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/dracochair2.jpg)

view3 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/dracochair3.jpg)

[lildragon]

You got skillz Threedeemer props. One thing that would really made that scaly hide pop out is the use of displacement maps. I've still yet to figure this out for two of my main characters in my story, but yeah displacements maps would rock this model to the next level.

Btw is that a basic rig you're using?

nice job

salud

[Threedeemer]

Hey hi Lildragon. Thanks, yeah same here, I never never seemed to quite figure out displacement maps yet. Those texture and shader trees in maya can get confusing, I also havent understood the layered texture node yet. I just select certain poly faces like the ones that make up the arm etc and apply seperate textures to those, not the most efficient workflow. :D
So far the rigs I've made are pretty basic, Ive seen some cool looking rigs on cgtalk with interesting icons and such. For the dragonman, I follwed the rig style from the 'Learning Maya Character Rigging and Animation' book. Great info in there. :thumbsup:

[dominicqwek]

your stuff is really inspirational. Really dig this thing you got going..its as if you've recreated an enitre realm out of these few characters.

[deddy]

hi there,
kind of too late
but i think it's ok to give some comment...
I like the weighting...looks cool...
could you give me some tips to do the weighting?
i'll be really appreciate it...

[Threedeemer]

Hi Deddy, here is some general info on binding and weighting i usually follow.

-I never bother with painting the weights, I just use the component editor and assign the weights directly to the vertices of the lowpoly version of the character. Its not potentially as intuitive but far more predictable. First apply a smooth bind with these settings: (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/smoothopt.jpg)
In the image below, I would switch to vertex mode and select all the points of say the arm and give them all a weight of 1.0.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/armbinda.jpg

(a tip to speed things up; with the arm vertices selected, in the component editor I would choose a neutral bone thats not sharing any of the weight with the arm, like for example the head joint or the knee joint, drag select all of its zeroed out weights and apply 1.0 at the bottom input area. here (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/compedit.jpg) This is just to normalize the weights, I then scroll over to the correct bone, the arm joint and apply 1.0 to that to switch the weights over were they should be, I do this procedure for all of the joints following the flow of the topology and the positioning of each joint. in the end all major joints will have a weighting of 1.0.)

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/armbindbones.jpg

-Next step is to have the specific joints share weights with each other; in the picture below you can see the general settings where the two joints meet, one at a time you select a band of vertices and divide the weighting accordingly, as you may already know normalization always keeps the weight of a point at 1.0, so if you apply 0.25 to the shoulder the arm setting automatically drops to 0.75, etc.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/armbindb.jpg

Hopefully that was helpful in some way.

[Threedeemer]

Hey Dom your posting of your spec map was very helpful, It influenced me to start the armor texturing, heres where I'm at, unfortunately since I got lazy and didnt use deep paint I got some weirdness with the smoothing of the UV map this is apparently a wonky Maya phenomenon. Still looks OK from a distance though.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/bodyarmor2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/bodyarmor3.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/bodyarmor5.jpg

[dominicqwek]

love the patterns on his chest plate. nice detail you got going. Im sure this will turn out really good! :thumbsup:

[Teyon]

Wow. It's official. I suck. :) This is really great work, bud. I like where it's going. Hope to be at this level soon.:thumbsup:

[Cyborgguineapig]

Wow, you make this look easy, and you can do multiple projects at the same time, Holy cow nice progress:eek:

[danbucknam]

you are killing it on the maps and modeling, do you do this for a job?

[danbucknam]

you are killing it on the maps and modeling, do you do this for a job?

[William b. Hand]

Egg salad work threedeemer. It's nice to see your talent so consistently materializing throughout these different aspects of the project, and I'm diggin' what you've got started for the environment. No crits, just enjoying.:wavey:

[Threedeemer]

Thanks again you guys. :beer:

Danbucknam, unfortunately, I only do this as a hobby for now, havent had luck finding 3d work, If anyone has any job leads let me know, what I lack in experience I make up for in potential. :D
At the moment I do the occasional freelance 2d animations for interactive cd-roms and web.

Here are some new images, I may not finish the throneroom in time for the Expose deadline, but it will get done eventually.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/devilgeared1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/devilgeared2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/devilgeared3.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/devilgeared4.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/devilgeared5.jpg

arm1 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/armplates1.jpg)

arm2 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/armplates2.jpg)

arm3 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/armplates3.jpg)

I'm thinking of making the runes glow in some parts like the arms, to show that he is protected by magic. Also when I find a suitable pose to freeze, I will tweak the mesh interpenetrations, I rushed this character to much I guess.

[iBlue]

amazing detail on the armor! i love where your going with these models, i cant wait to see them finished, im sure it will be gallery material for sure! :)

[3dioot]

Thanx for updating the badlands website! :) At least i think you did; havent been there in a while.. :rolleyes:

Your demon is turning out really cool. Its a fancy demon ;) I am curious about his history. What position is he in that he wears that beautifull armor and how did he get there. Now i understand why you made him more human halfway through aswell, this isnt just some badass demon that happens to be wearing cool armour (which is kinda silly when you think about it). This guy seems to be about more. I think the glowing glyphs would be cool. I also think of him as very scary even though he doesnt look very angry. He seems to be hold back now. Like a king who has to tolerate the errors of his staff and people. But its still a demon; so be very afraid when he does get mad. Very cool. :cool:

PS
Sorry for making up stories.. ehe


GrtZ
3dioot

[Raul-Reznek]

wow! great stuff man

love the gloves, looks like LOTR anyhow

i think that the nose is teh only aspect i do not like bout the model and the arms aren't too precise, the armor that emphesises the biceps is too think next to teh torso


good luck! :thumbsup:

[Threedeemer]

Thanks iBlue to get something in the gallery would be great. :buttrock:

Raul good point about the shoulder, while armor does sacrifice flexability, I think maybe I should of made his shoulders wider or at least the placement of the bones to get his arms to lower better, In the near future I will have to revise this character, Usually I like to dedicate at least four weeks for a character with all the rigging, and UVing, etc; so they can function well for animation later. Animateability is one of the reasons I avoid adding alot of fine details like in my sketches, but armor would be an exception since it is parented to a skeleton rig and not bound like the body parts. So In my second version I will boost the detailing of that. :wip:

Hi 3dioot, I love your comments, we seem to have a similar imagination with characters and stories, you understand my ideas alot. The story behind the armor is that it protects him against mystic forces, since he is a demonlike being he is impervious to normal iron weapons, but I figured in a world like I envisioned there would be lots of magic swords, rival mages, etc. So he wears an enchanted armor guarded by glyphs, when he is preparing for battle. ( lots of dungeons and dragons influence I guess ) I already have alot of new ideas to improve this character. :airguitar

[Teyon]

Not to disagree with my friend, Raul (but I'm going to though), I like the nose as is. I think it gives just the right kind of not human look.

[three]

Threedeemer!
Thanks for the input on the character I'm working on :)
This one is getting better by the update.
Love it!

Really appreciate the small tutorial on how you weigh meshes as well... I'll see if I can import that method into 3dsmax when I'm that far with my model.

Love the swirlies on the armour, deserves an :applause:
But I am still bothered by that nose :D

[aazimkhan]

....how do u EVEN get the envelopes working on that THING!!
WOW!..Besided the amazing mdoeling, texturing work...how many hours does it take to rig and envelope that guy!??!?!

AWESOME!...Its taking me hours to envelope a simple human model of mine..and yet its not perfect!

gr8 work....:bowdown:

[deddy]

threedeemer,
thank you for your weighting tutorial...so much..
i'll try to apply this method after I texture my second character :)

again thank you...

[aazimkhan]

acutally I could use that weighting tutorial too...

can someone please pass it to me too....


thank you...

[Teyon]

It's in this thread a few posts back.

[PureFire]

ive gone thru a few tutorials on painting weights and i always end up with a deformed joint....lol...but im a newbie.

I might try your method. :D

[Threedeemer]

Sure thing Deddy, if you have more specific questions about that let me know.

Purefire, using the component editor can be tedious the first few times but after a while, it makes alot of sense, and the results are fairly predictable compared to painting weights.

And Three I will be keeping an eye on your progress with your new model. Cool reference sketches you made for that. :thumbsup:

Aazimkhan rigging can get tricky with the different armor pieces but in some ways hard gear like armor can be easier to setup than a fully organic body as far as speed. For instance while this devil guy took about four hours or so, the dragonman I made earlier took possibly 3 times that long around 11 to 12 hours, UV mapping is another slow process.

Hi Teyon I'm glad you liked the nose I thought I was the only one :D Teyon do you have a comic industry background, I remember alot of your cool character ideas a while back on CGTalk, both 2D and 3D with Rhino. I'm trying to achieve a comic book style with my models not too realistic or too cartooney. My favorite influences are Adam Hughes, Arthur Adams, Alex Ross, and Joe Madureira. :buttrock:

Face texturing, while I like the harshness of the wrinkles on his skull, the muzzle area may be too harsh. Im also considering more contrasting face tones but I dont want him to be too reptilian looking.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/visage1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/visage2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/visage5.jpg

[Teyon]

Thanks! Yeah, I do have a brief background in the industry. I was helping a company try to get off it's feet and make comics but they went into album cover design at the end and that wasn't my thing. I would say you've got a definite Alex Ross thing hapening here in terms of mood, volume, and physical power. He always managed to convey a character's weight no matter what that character was doing and I totally get that from your models so far. Theme wise, this is something the Madureira would do in Battle Chasers (if he ever finished it). I only know Adam's work on the old Justice Leauge comics but I do remember he drew some killer babes (can I say babes? it's not too PC.)

The recent renders of your demon dudes head (sorry, don't know the name) reminds me of the Evil character from the Time Bandits movie. It's the mouth and horns mostly.

Personal influences of my stuff (major ones only...there's a lot): Travis Charest, Mike Mignola, Barry Windsor-Smith, Alex Ross, Joe Madureira.

-T.


P.S. I like the glowing, no pupil thing and the texture is kickin'. Very cool.

[Threedeemer]

Great input Teyon. :beer:
Yeah Battle Chasers was great, and how could I forget to add Travis Charest he has a nice style also. Whenever I choose to buy a comic, Its mostly for the artwork as opposed to the story. :)

Here is the devil guy, I call him Tholdar for now, with a different color scheme. Also a Hardware shaded view. Wish I could achieve a shader effect that is the combination of the two.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/tholdarphong.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/tholdarhdtex.jpg

BTW. Teyon, I posted this a while back, but check this link out, it has lots of comic art and stuff like Sorayama and Frazetta.
imagenetion (http://www.imagenetion.com)

[Corth]

Threedeemer - your a god :bowdown:

When you get your animation with all this (You must make an animation now, or you'll dissapoint all the children, think of the children!) I'll definitly download it, weather I'm still on 56k or not :)

As for the last pictures, it would be really cool if you could somehow merge the two, but he's quite blue for a demon, how about diffusing a little brownish-red where his leathery hide isn't so thick? And a little critique, the armor on the fingers looks plastic to me. How about lining the little plates with the grey/white metal (like on the cuirass) and black on the inner area? (sorry if it's not too clear).

I've been following this thread for a long time, and I've enjoyed every picture I've seen, keep up the awesome work, and GL with a job, employers should be jumpin on ya, what's with them? :)

[DrakeX]

just wondering --> are all these characters for the same project? and if so how are they all related? i.e. hero etc.

[Teyon]

Hey! Thanks for the link! As a thank you, I threw together this little Photoshoped number. A combination fo the two renders, hope ya don't mind...you seemed to really want to see them combined.

Oh, and Soryama has an excellent style, and of course everyone love's Frazetta. I see they have the SPectrum collection there too! I'm gonna go check a few of those out. I let a friend of mine borrow some of the early books and never got 'em back.

[Threedeemer]

DrakeX; This demonish character Tholdar, is neutral but ruthless, so are his dragon warriors, so I guess they could be referred to as bad guys, If you look at the "Badlands" page (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/badlanders.html) the Magnus and Phaedra characters are the true evil ones corrupted by mystical power, With the Magnus, I want his appearance to look like he is posessed by his magic almost like a vampire or ghoul. His hirelings are the Crusader the misled hero type and The Ruiner a berserker. Ever see 'Wind Ninja Chronicles/Ninja Scroll', the Ruiner is inspired by Genma. The Automaton, which I call Vandal is just like its name suggests, A mindless destroyer (It is summoned and controlled by Phaedra.) Magnus the wizard is intent on overthrowing Tholdar, Thats pretty much the basis for a story.
With the dragonmen (former humans transformed) Sturmiir is the general, an efficient fighter. Vinzabre is an agile warrior that can scale walls like a gecko, he is the crafty sabateur. Voraggo is the brute force, (he has poor eyesight, but has other sharp senses to compensate and can regenerate lost limbs). And last is Maekro, the runt of the pack, he is the archer and avoids combat. (similar to a poison dart frog he has venom glands in his skin, located by his jaw, he tends to coat his arrows with this venom)

Teyon that looks cool, gives me an idea to layer a lambert and blinn shader, I wonder if thats how the final fantasy games or Blizzard does it, shader networks are so complicated to layer. I need to figure that out, I think they would fit my characters more since they are neither realistic or cartoonish.

Corth thanks for the advice, your right about the metal trim and finger plates, I will try to fix that. And for the face I think I know exactly what you mean make the soft parts more warmer toned. Im learning alot as I go. Thanks. :buttrock:

[Maximus Groff]

Awesome ...

Hey, how u use photoshop to get the best of cells of ur textures ?
Do u use "Convert to file Texture" ?

This is the best journal i had meet in the net.. kinda like the
rico holmes dragon.. just excelent..

artists like u who freely expose the techniqs are something
apart from the community.

:bounce: no bounce, no play!

[Maximus Groff]

oh.. its in page 5 the description of ur photoshop techniq..
sorry!

;)



:p

[dominicqwek]

nice. my 2 cents worth, the specularity is too evenly spread out. i guessed maybe you've not worked on it yet. perhaps u want to add more detail to the spec(to a per scale basis) so that each scale is clearly defined. (i dont think scale is a good term to use... but i cant figure out a better word to use. :D )

Your background story of the characters is really cool. very in depth. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Threedeemer]

Thanks Dom, your right about him needing some sharper, thinner highlights.

Maximus here is that procedure for the scales I mentioned in the PM.
-First I use a seamless texture of some leather similar to this image, to paint a base layer over the entire mesh, I use deeppaint to simplify this process, and for extra control, but you could apply it with photoshop alone.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/leathbump.jpg

-next I paint the general scale and wrinkle patterns with a simple finepoint paintbrush. (You could use your mesh UV topology as guidelines for the flow of these scale and wrinkle patterns)

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/scalelines.jpg

-once that is done, with photoshop duplicate this line pattern layer 2 times, the bottom layer apply gaussian blur, I used a radius of 2. then in the same layer apply a Maximum filter, setting of 1, this gives that pillowing effect.

BLUR
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/scalelinesblur.jpg

BLUR and MAXIMUM
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/scalelinesmaxblur.jpg

Now for the top layer just apply the Maximum filter alone and switch this layer to Multiply instead of Normal. (this adds detail to the grooves). Now you can flatten the scale line layers.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/scalelinesmax.jpg

COMBINED
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/scalelinescombo.jpg

-Open the base skin layer and add the scale line layer above it, switch it to Multiply mode so you cans see the base layer below.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/leathlinescombo.jpg

Now you can paint in the bumps with dodge and burn tool at a low setting say 25, directly to the base leather texture, you can also use the paint brush tool with white paint to paint the scales, just create a new empty layer sandwiched between the previous two, when you finish coloring all the scales white you can switch this to Overlay mode and tone down the transparency. (this way is faster but I feel the dodge and burn way looks a bit more natural.)

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/leathlinesdodge.jpg

[Threedeemer]

-Once done you can flatten the layers, and use this bumpmap as a basis for the color, spec, and diffuse maps.

COLOR
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/texcolor.jpg

SPEC
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/texspec.jpg

DIFFUSE
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/artists/texdiffuse.jpg

I did these samples in 10 minutes so they are a bit rough looking. :D

[Threedeemer]

Some new images, just began rigging This dragon character, still have to apply some falloff at the joints, He was easy to bind since his poly cage is only 8600 plus polys. I will add corrective set-driven key blendshaping to fix the shoulders, pelvis, knees, and elbows.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voraggo/vorigged1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voraggo/vorigged2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voraggo/vorigged3.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voraggo/vortextstart.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voraggo/facebumpvorg.jpg

scene placement 1 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/camroom3.jpg)

scene placement 2 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/camroom5.jpg)

[William b. Hand]

BEAUTIFUL! Bigger thighs might be more appropriate, though...

[Threedeemer]

Here is a render of the dragon commander, I'm happy with the simple composition but I still can't get the sharp highlights to appear, either my spec map needs even sharper contrast on the boney parts, or its just my lighting. Any Maya users know of a good shader network for skin let me know. :wavey:

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/lordofthedragons.jpg

[lildragon]

Great tut and progress there Threedeemer. You should put that tut up on your website because it's a winner! Something I've been looking to do myself :) also the character are just awesome, can't wait to give you an award :p

This is fricking killer!

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/voraggo/facebumpvorg.jpg

what's your bump level set to here? mindblowing work

salud

[Threedeemer]

Wow, Thanks Lildragon, good suggestion also, I will take some time to update that weppage one of these days. The bump setting I used on the skull was 0.05, on his right arm I accidentally used a negative number thats why it looks embossed there.

[Teyon]

Excelent. I love it. It's just so...just so...*sigh*

[Corth]

damn! I hit the post button but it wouldn't post because I had too many of the smilies doing this : :bowdown: *sigh* I'll try and remember what I had before...

Your bump, Difuse and Spec maps are amazing, they inspire me and most likely other 3D'ers to achieve better, and more realistic results!

Though, you need more variety in your colors! think of blemishes, pimples, birthmarks, even dirt (for those that don't think hygenically!)

Dragon Commander's eyes, wow, perfect, I really like those! (I was hoping for more red than pink though, for the skin ;) )

[goodlag]

omg :eek:

My jaw dropped!

:thumbsup: :love: :drool: :bounce:

[3dioot]

Woohoo, looking great. Thanks for the tutorial on scales. I cant believe you made your demon blue. I swear i am not making this up but i have a demon in the running too and he is planned to become blue aswell. There i thought i was going to be original! I personally liked blue cause i think of my demon as a cold critter who destroys your will to live. Removes all passion and drive. Brakes you beyond recovery. What better color then an icecold blue? Anyway, i like the blue :p

Although i have to say that it doesnt look as good as a previous shot i saw of him. you posted one earlier shot with a less finished texture and it had less purple in it. It wasnt finished then but it appeals a little more to me then this one. Maybe there is too much contrast between the blue and purple regions. His lips also feel very extreme. His little mouth gets empathized alot this way.

Not to say i dont like it (you know better) but maybe something to think about :)

Ill keep watching ;)

PS
Here is an old wip:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~willemvd/3dioot/ears.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~willemvd/3dioot/too_cool.jpg

[Threedeemer]

Glad you liked the progress Teyon, Later I will post the Dragon Commander in the finished section, He's 80 percent complete though, I plan to re-rig the body. :D

Corth, good suggestion, I never got around to adding some color speckles and such on the dragonmen yet, but that could easily be added in the future with a new layer of painting.

3dioot, your right, blue adds a coldness to him, we think alot alike on this. :) great character you have started there, by the way. I especially like the chest muscles and arms, but the shoulder needs more volume, keep up the good work.

Goodlag, I recently found your Matrix, inspired models, Brilliant. :buttrock:

[Hexodam]

looking soooo goood and thanks for your tutorial :P

my only crit is the nose on the guy, its just not real looking

[p0lym0rph]

great work :applause:

[Maximus Groff]

WOOOOW!

Thanks sooo much!

I could not reply sooner 'cause i was on 'vacation' weekend..

;) I will try that out today!

[Threedeemer]

Sure thing guys. :)

I slapped together a basic scene in the Gallery section, no throneroom yet.

Lord of The Dragons (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66631)


http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/dragoncomm800.jpg

[three]

"You da man!" :D
Love those tutorials. :thumbsup:

By the way, you've won me over, regarding the nose. It really ROCKS now. Not only the nose of course ;)
I like the lines around his mouth and the vein in his forehead :) Man, I've got a ways to go, before I end up with this sort of produce.
Nothing to crit on. Yet ;)

Take care dude.

:beer:

[William b. Hand]

Are you planning on leaving your signature as it is? If so, I think you should emboss it differently... or maybe just nix the metal sig., and stitch it into the fabric instead? Just a teensy thing that I keep noticing.

[Threedeemer]

Hi Three and William, thanks for the ideas, I changed the sig location. :)

[Maximus Groff]

Your tut works and rocks!

Here is some proof:


http://sycraf.myftp.org/wip/snake_text_1.jpg

Thaaaaanks!

[Threedeemer]

Looking good Maximus. Dont forget to add a bit of noise (irregularity) to the overall surface. Love the way you did the teeth. :thumbsup:

[Threedeemer]

Check this out, I was working on modeling a realistic kid's face, and for some reason decided to make Tholdar Junior. Not a serious model obviously, but I thought it turned out interesting enough to post.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/devjunior1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/devjunior2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/devjunior3.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/tholdar/devjunior4.jpg

[ME3D]

I like the model. It does somewhat remind me of my oldest daughter, save its not as scary looking due to the hormones...lol
You should build a young lady in this style... :)

Seriously: good look to him so far. Could add a nice twist should you decide to animate this. With the features now he looks a bit innocent. Underlying though I'm seeing him as more fearsom than the adult with several of his features enhanced.
After all arent the younger animals usually more dangerous....?.....or more less out of control therefore .....extreme and vicious.

My imaginations running with this..... Woah.

[NZO]

Very good model
Congratulation

[razzi]

This character is fears though...
It has a very good touch on modelling as well...Good Job !

[Maximus Groff]

This is a great model! :eek:

[inkyspot]

Suggestion first: As I was watching the demon in the armor, maybe if you find the time you could create a helmet. He has a great face, but the armor looks like it would have a helmet, of course he doesn't have to be wearing it, maybe holding it or it resting somewhere close by.

Comment: I like the thick dragon guy, he looks a lot more creepy with that texture you did. Made me feel like itching.

Great work, but you know that.

:buttrock: :thumbsup: :love

[Threedeemer]

ME3D, a good eye you have there, yeah the model did start out as a young girl, I used a photograph I found on the net, I do plan on making a realistic human girl, It should test my abilities at more realistic characters. For this altered version it will be a boy. Cool ideas, if he turns out good I may place him in the throneroom scene along with his mother and father. Just need to figure out what the mother would look like.

Thanks Maximus, Razzi, and NZO. :beer:

DaKingPen; Hey my influential big bro from California, you gotta start checking CGTalk more often, your giving out cool ideas, didnt start on the horn glyphs yet. If you have any specific ideas for the helmet be sure to let me know. Better yet I'll give you a call. :)

[TheGhostDragon]

good job
.. kept the good work up bro

[William b. Hand]

Hullo?

Threedeemer, you there?

Things sure seem quiet around CGTalk....

[Threedeemer]

Hi William! I got seriously distracted a few weeks back trying to find 3d work, Lost alot of creativity during that time but I recently got back to modeling some characters. Here is the demon elf girl, surprizingly it took me 3 days or so to model a feminine hand. I can defineatly say hands are the hardest things to draw or model for me, Im pretty happy how it turned out though.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/femelfhand.jpg

[Threedeemer]

Also here is a sea creature idea I just started, this character will be for a future world scenario.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/urchinstart.jpg

Last I decided to replan my old website, this will be the home page more or less. (I tried using mental ray thats why he is so shiney still need to learn a few things.)

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/webdrako.jpg

[ME3D]

Nice texture painting man.
Mind if I mention some crits? Or is it just beginning?
Some displacement on there to bump the scealing of the body just a bit. Obviously to still have the veins show the whole maps intensity would increase. Really just sucking the creases between the scales is what I'm heading towards.
The shader is still pretty glossy making it seem plastic, or flat skinned, placing a specular painted B+W map ont that channel could give a lot of control and lend more depth still.

Looking pretty cool. Cant wait to see all of this in scenes and such. In fact looking at this makes me want to jump back on the character for my castle scene.....

[Threedeemer]

ME3D, Your right the bump needs more depth. Everytime I render a mental ray image it gets ultra glossy even if my spec map is near black, I really have to figure that one out.
Hear is some more demon girl images.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/femdev1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/femdev2.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/femdev3.jpg

I may still stylise the body proportions more, such as a longer neck and legs. Possibly a thinner build also. Instead of starting totally fom scratch again, The body is a rehash of one of my older models, the shoes as well.

[Mondo]

Awesome, looks rad!

[Lordrych]

I love your work man awesome, exactly why are you doing all these characters? you doing your own movie?

Rych

[Threedeemer]

Thanks Mondo and Lordrych. Yeah I was planning to make a demoreel, I still have a lot to learn with animation though, so these characters should get me past that hurdle. This should be my last work in progress post, here is an update of the female creature. She may end up red however. Later.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/diavaladpthshde.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/diavlahwtex3.jpg

[Threedeemer]

hear are some hardware shaded images also.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/diavlahwtex1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/diavlahwtex2.jpg

[Maximus Groff]

Hey Threedemer... :)

The ear isnt right, i think needs more definition and for a female
model needs alot more 'graciousness' (if theres such word..)

hehe...

BTW , for the cloths, did u use "Make Live" and them copied
the curves to another object?

c ya!

[jampoz]

Hummm, the female is too feline-like.... too Thundercats, know what I mean?

Well if the point is to make a feline-female you're definitely on the right direction, but... don't think you were headed this way....

[Threedeemer]

Hi Maximus, For the clothes I used syflex cloth with simple model of the clothing, to get it to drape on the body. Yeah she looks a bit strange, could be the lack of eyelashes and defined eyebrows.
I exaggerated the cheekbones and overbite to make her less human but not too monstrous.
Hey Jampoz, I did go with a feline theme for her and the male demon, for the guy I considered a cleft lip and slight fur around the face and such, but I was unable to get the fur right. But now that you mentioned thundercats I see your point, I will revise the eyes and face tone pattern, thanks. :thumbsup:

[jampoz]

My bad! ^_^

That's perfect then! 'Cause the first thing I thought was "man, she's such a pussy" ehehehehe :o)

[Corth]

Hi Threedeemer, it's me again! I was wondering what was up with those ears? did you want them to look like human ears? If so there are a few anatomy problems, I can help out if you'd like by making a few guidelines on a pic.

I think you should keep the "Thundercats" look of the demons, cause any time I think of an animal that most symbolizes a demon - hands down, it's a Cat :)

I'm just imagining that face with a 'snarl'ing' morph, she'd be one mean demoness. :D

[Threedeemer]

Hi Corth, sorry about the slow response. Feel free to show me your idea for the edits. I tried to get creative with the ears. She is intended to be a hybrid elf / demon. Yeah cats have a cool slightly creepy look about them.
As I started rigging her, I discovered this great melscript by a fellow cgtalk member that allows making corrective blendshapes much easier, here is the thread (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37993)

Before that used to be a bottleneck with rigging areas such as the shoulders, and especially tricky areas such as the knees and elbows.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/elfrig5.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/elfrig4.jpg

[Threedeemer]

I'm tempted to recreate the bones of the arms and legs to work better with the script, right now they are not centered within the surrounding mesh, for ideal rotation. (the knee and elbow joints almost slightly protrude through the surface).

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/elfrig1.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/elfrig3.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/elfrig6.jpg

last view (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/elfrig2.jpg)

[character]

these are great. really inspirational. i love the style of your characters. it flows throughout all your pieces. the eyes on that elf girl are freaky. can't wait to see more

[houston3000]

WOW:applause: This is the most amazing work I've seen in development in a long time. I think this is my first post on CG Talk forums (If it's not then forgive me) and.... man, your models are awesome. Good Work. I can't wait to see the FINAL render it'll be great!

P.S. your bump map work is amazing:applause:

[p0lym0rph]

nice models,and great skinning work:applause:

[Corth]

Those scripts look pretty useful, and if I was a maya user, I would have downloaded them :)

Your ears still look good threedeemer, it gives that 'not human' feel to her. but if you wanted to make more human ears I'll show a little guideline: (I don't know the actual names for the parts of the ear, so bear with me ;) )

1). There should be a ridge like bump here that points to the top most part of your ear that connects to the head. If you feel this part of your ear, you should notice that this is what also connects to your head.

2). There isn't usually that much room from the end of the ear to #1, I've never seen an ear with this part smooth either, there's always a curve that's going back to the head and coming away again.

3). This part folds over #1 and flows into the middle of the ear. If you follow it with your finger and squeese the back you should be able to feel the actual fold.

4). This part connects to #1 and is still the part of the ear that extends from the head. Always make sure there is a dip on the inside of the ear, kinda like the inside of a ball.

[unicron]

man... the whole thing looks really cool! I can hardly wait to see it finnished!:D

I agree that that ear needs a lot of work. Everything else is looking great!

[William b. Hand]

You still with us, Threedeemer?

[mehdianim]

Yo i just realized how old this thread is and how long it's been since your last post. Your stuff is impressive both in the amount of work and the quality! Hope to see you back on here soon with your little platoon of models all fiinished.
It's very humbling.
Cheers

[seantree]

WOW! very nice work, love the designs. keep it up!

[Ganimed]

I`M ABSOLUTLY FREAKING OUT!!!!

:beer: :beer: :buttrock: :applause:

What will this become, Motion Picture CG Shots, or for a Game?

This is ... i find no words.

You are a magician!!!

best regards

Ganimed

[Threedeemer]

I just lost track of the thread. I kinda took some time off modeling the previous characters. Recently I made a few structural tweaks to the genetic sea creature not much progress there. Also I attempted to model the Scarran Pennoc, from Farscape. (couldn't find very useful refs though, so my drawings are a bit off mark) :surprised

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/recent/urchinskull.jpg

Pennoc
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/recent/scarranbase.jpg

[Threedeemer]

Also I was in the midst of creating a workable quad mesh topolgy for my human character faces. (Corth that ear diagram was much apreciated). Here are some samples, photographs were used here.

Eliza Dushku
http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/recent/dushku.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/recent/faithtopo.jpg

:beer:

[Threedeemer]

These other face versions are derived from the same base mesh as above.

Zhang Ziyi (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/recent/zhangziyi.jpg)

Pam Grier (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/recent/pamgrier.jpg)

Clint Eastwood (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/recent/clintface.jpg)

[Corth]

Hey Threedeemer, how are things going? It's been a while with no updates :(

[William b. Hand]

Yeah, Threedeemer...
Where you at now?

... Of course, being a holly jolly part of the year, you might not best be reached at this very moment...

Uh... And I might best not be experiencing a time in which to use clear and logically structured sentences, also. /=

But I am experiencing the full effects of a vacancy (created over the course of an oh-so-busy day by lack of eating) that is now newly filled with the enriching and dizzyingly out-of-proportion disorientation and foolishness of cheap dry champagne.

So.



Have you abandoned this project for a spell, or have you merely taken a hiatus from the CGTalk forums?

[AvidWriter.com]

I guess he lost track of the thread again.....bookmark next time eh? ^_^

[MajinPunisher]

Really nice work you've got going here.

[JFMG]

I have three words for you...
OH.. My... GOD.... =O
Thats absolutly wonderfull

[matrixreality]

wow great work

[Threedeemer]

Hey thanks guys. Its nice to see this thread still gets a couple views here and there. I havent done much new creative work on these characters in a long while. But here is a recent skull variation for the automaton. Those squiggly projections are not horns but sort of like tendrils.

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/vandrev.jpg

http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/vand2.jpg

view 3 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/vand1.jpg)

view 4 (http://www.3demption.com/media/pics/posts/cgscenes/vand3.jpg)

[three]

Long time no seen :)
Hope all is well, your models sure are.
Man, it must've been like, a year since we spoke last :D

Take care, Greg.

[DizzyTreeFrog]

Not that you really need anymore praise for your works, but WOW! Your models are fantastic!

[Zocky]

Just found this thread. Man! These models are simply fantastic! Great work!

[DrakeX]

hope you like my avatar threedeemer ;) if you're still here, that is!

[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.