Female Robot

[Anchuvi]

Looking good :)

Is this the final model? If so you could probably optimize her a little more, around her torso and the joints mainly. Freeing up these polys could help you add more definition in other places.

[CodeVeroby]

Wow ,nothing to critic ,is her mouth soppoused to be this evil looking ?

[FreakyDude]

If you're going for human proportions, then you are nowhere near finished, sorry.
Human heads aren't nearly as flat, in fact the head should be slightly larger horizontally then vertically. the back should be more curved, the belly a little more to the front, the knees are to low, the legs to straight, the arms, well the length of the arms may be right if you make the upper legs shorter. Actually the wrists make this weird twist that in a human would mean their wrist is broken metinks. The elbow should bend back a little. Not enough definition of the chest area, and I don't mean the tits, I mean the chest as in the ribcage. Her lips are awfully large, then again, so are they in the concept art, but then again, that doesn't mean it should be the same in the 3D piece. It should be what fits best, and I don't think that's the one from the concept art.

If you're not going for human proportions, well then keep it up as you are going now, but I think it will look better in the end if you go back a step and trace the figure better. this may sound harsh, but that's unintentionally.

[WebDragon]

Thank you guys for your comments and criticism...

Anchuvi: This is close to the final, but I am still making changes. I'm attempting to give her joints the polys they need for bending, while also keeping the count low. Most have three edge loops to keep the deformations consistent through bending. As for the hips/bum area, that was one area in my last project where we never seemed to have enough polys for bending, and that was on a 10k poly model.

CodeVeroby: Yes and no.

FreakyDude: Wow, you noticed a lot of things, and I can't say I see them all, but hey, isn't that what the WIP forum is for? I took a reference picture and rendered my character in roughly the same perspective, and she seems to line up in most places except for the hips/trunk. That area is a little higher than normal. That may be why the knees look too low, plus the "knee" is a plate that hangs over the knee. I used the concept for those proportions, so I'll have to decide how much I want to change it. She's supposed to look humanoid, but I don't think anyone would mistake her for human. I'm not sure what you mean about the wrists. Her wrists end at the palm, and a short distance after that is the larger plate that goes around the hand. That may be what you are seeing.

After I finish the normal map, I'll play with her proportions a bit. I don't want to start the high poly model over again. :)

I finished the unwarpping and made a render with a quick color version and reflection, just to get an idea of how she will look.

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlUVWs.gifhttp://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlChecker.jpg

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlTest.jpg

Thanks for looking,
--WebDragon

[emorhconoM]

IMO, the model is fine, but the concept is really good! I really like that simple sketchy style, it makes the character look so alive.

Still, about the model, are you gonna stick with that yellow-plated metal skin? I think a less polished look and a darker tone would suit her best.

[WebDragon]

I finally had a chance to finish the high-poly version of the robot and make the normal map. This is the third version of the map, after figuring out how to make it so that the texture baking only picks up the areas it's supposed to, and realizing antialiasing is off by default. I'm really happy with the final result.

I also made several changes to her polys to smooth the silhouette at certain angles, and have changed the unwrap because the wires are asymmetrical. The normal map is 2048x2048.

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlNormalMapping.jpg

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/NormalMapSmall.jpg

--Webdragon

[matsman]

Very Nice look!

you actually made the old metropolis robot style modern. I like it a lot. Also the preliminairy colour is quite promising. Looking forward to textures!

Cheers!

[WebDragon]

Thank you for your comments matsman.

I finished the textures last week. I went with a slightly different color scheme... blue instead of yellow, and I dirtied her up with scratches and dirt. I'm curious to hear what people think about it. I used 9 maps and put 8 of them in the picture below. The only one not included is the reflection map, which I made from several 3ds Max maps, blown up and blurred.

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlTextured1.jpg

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlTextured2.jpg

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirl-Maps.jpg

Thank you for viewing.

--Webdragon

[matsman]

Well it is very nice texture work with all the scratches and small abbraisions. I have two things that bother me though...

One is that the head has almost no damage, while the body is almost covered. I get why but I think you may want to add just some slight scratching around the edges of the lips and on the side of the head.

Second is purely personal. For me the light brow isn't working... I would suggest going with a darker colour (blue) instead.

The muscle shapes are really nice and add a lot to this character. Good work. Be proud!

[Rilman]

I like it although I would change the brow and breast colours.

[XepptizZ]

I prefer the old colourscheme, perhaps with some orange thrown in. The Brow, I have to agree, it takes away the more sympathizing look she had.

[GArriola83]

i like the way it looks, cept for the brows i have to agree. also i think you couldve packed the UVs better. but looks great. definitely different

[WebDragon]

Thank you everyone for your comments. Since it's unanimous that the lighter metal parts aren't working, I've made them the same color as the rest of the metal. They still stand out a little, but not as much. I also threw in some more wear and tear on her head.

I also started the particle system for the fire on her head. For some reason I was thinking as a kind of "fire of life," some kind of phenomenon to explain how robots become intelligent, yet also serving as an analog for hair. My original idea was that it was green fire with hints of yellow. I've tried out several ideas though, and now I'm drawn to my second idea... purple and white fire. I like the ethereal look it has.

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/HeadFireColors.jpg

I've also made a couple of animations comparing the green and purple fires.

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/FireTestGreen-Yellow.wmv
http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/FireTestPurple-White.wmv

And here is an animation of her rotating with the green fire.

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/MaterialTestRotateFire.wmv

--Webdragon

[matsman]

Hi... I think the green goes best with her eyes... and the blue is very integrated, however the fire still needs some work before it actually has some flames.

BTW where is the fire coming from... has someone poured gasoline on her head and put it on fire? I think some exhausts would be in order here... that way the fire will form be more integrated with the model (which it does not ATM) and you can actually create the flames coming from certain points across the head... making it easier to create good looking fire.

What other wild plans do you have with this model?

[WebDragon]

Hi matsman... In my original design the fire is just generated around her head, like a metal ball heated to the point where the atmosphere bursts into flame around it. Except her head isn't that hot and it's not true fire. :) The "fire" was burning without consuming fuel or making exhaust. That's kind of why I like the purple, it almost looks like clouds.

The way I was creating the particle was along the lines of the last small game I helped work on... we could set up a rectangular area and have the particles come from it. I'm open to making it more complex though.

She also has two lights on the palms of her hands that she uses to generate similar fire. I was including them in case she needed some sort of weapon.

My next stage is to rig and skin her, and then add animation. I'm not sure what kind of rig I'll go with though... character studio's Biped is quick to make, but I'll have to add a lot of bones, while I could fully customize a Max bone rig. On the other hand, with a Biped I could throw on a lot of dance animations from my last project. :D

--Webdragon

[matsman]

Ah yes... I see. Well I would still recommend green for the flame colours since then the flame will truly come from within the bot and eyes, handweapons and headflame are all the same technology.

And btw a character on fire + dancing moves = coolness in my opinion.

But I don't want to sway you. I have kind of a grudge against biped myself... I simply cannot work instinctively with that system. So I only use it when time is short and the animation/pose simple. Otherwise a custom rig it is.

Can't wait to see your plans go into action. Great stuff!

[XepptizZ]

Personally liking the second one, the purpish white one. But the matching eyes and hair colour statemment, I do concur with that it's nice to have that, but I still have preference over the purpish fire.

I agree that the flames don't feel integrated at all though i like the generall flow of them. I'd suggest making the fire more volumous upto the point where you can barely see the skull peeping through, like real hair. Also, adding a bright area on the head in the self-illuminationmap would help out too.

Denser flames/hair with a white base, fanning out to purple is what think would be nice. However I am afraid that coz of the brow issue, having elegant hair with that brow will make it look quite odd. Pay no intention to the crummy photoshopping, but you get my drift
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/9871/test3nz8.jpg

[matsman]

XepptizZ yes that is a nice example of more integtrated hair/fire... but far too much bride of frankenstein :)
I must confess that purple looks rather nice when seen in this state, I am still with green... but WebDragon you have to decide for yourself on that.

looking forward to an update! :p

[WebDragon]

Thanks matsman and XepptizZ for your comments. I've added more to the fire, but I'm still working on it. I'll have to make a comparison where the purple version has purple eyes and see which looks better.

I finished the rig. I decided to go all custom and include a bunch of extra controls. I've attached pictures of the rig and closeups of the foot and face. The foot includes controls to rotate and move the whole foot, rotate the toes, rotate the heel up from the ball of the foot, rotate the foot up at the toes, and rotate the foot up at the heel. For the face I included some bones for rudimentary facial animation.

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlRigFull.jpg

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlRigFeet-Head.jpg

--Webdragon

[matsman]

It's coming along nicely... I like your control handles :)

there is something bothering me though... note that it might nog bother you... You got some mouth bones in... breast jiggle... and eye and brow possibilties.

But all those are metal so shouldn't move without any seams of bits opening up.

Again you might not find that troublesome...

Very nice work... looking forward to some motion.

[WebDragon]

I had the same concerns when I was setting up the rig and I decided to add the extra bones because I might want to use them and figured it would be easier to start with them than to add them later. One other benefit of the facial animation bones is, even if I don't animate them, I can set up her expression.

On the other hand, I had this idea that the metal was somewhat maleable. Something along the lines of her being animated by a magical life energy. There's even a bone in there so I have the option to make her look like she's breathing.

As for the rig and skinning, I wanted to post an update... The skin is working great, but I have a few changes I'll need to make to the rig. All three leg joints are off a bit, and the back and neck joints need to be moved in farther. I'm considering adding some twist bones for the upper arms at the shoulders and the legs at the hips, but I'm worried they may cause more problems then they solve.

You can also see the latest version of the fire. I've added some bright particles that only stay close to the head, and some small sparks that fly out periodically. The fireball uses the same particle systems with small changes.

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlTestPose1.jpg

--WebDragon

[matsman]

I like it! :thumbsup:

I think things look pretty nice right now. But problems need to be fixed, and I don't know If you plan to do some extreme motions with this character, but if twists already give you some problems, I suggest putting in that little more effort into the skinning and maybe add even some rotational bones.

BTW for your skinning make some arbitrary motion with the limbs flying around on just the bones... that makes it easier to see if everything is working optimal... But you probably know that already :D

Good reason for adding the facial bones BTW... I think that might be the most logical and still very new insight someone has given me this week. Thanks for that.

Looking forward to your next installment! Keep up the good work!

[XepptizZ]

I like it :). Though I'd like to see a render where the firey stuff also lights the model.

[Rilman]

She's looking really nice, I like it a lot.

[blacker]

I was a bit skeptical of the design at first, but I've gotta say, it's looking great! The fire effect is coming across really well now!

[Malkalypse]

My own take regarding some of the previous comments: It's not necessary for all parts of a robot to be metal. There are real life robots that have soft components overlaying a metal structure underneath. So I wouldn't worry about that.

Beyond that, I also prefer the original color scheme, but as a game character wouldn't it be preferable to have multiple color schemes anyway? That way you can do teams (for team deathmatch first person shooters), a customizable look (if it is a player character), or multiple versions of an enemy that would use different weapons, etc.

So, as far which colors work best for the metal and the flame: all of them.

[d3cl4n]

This is brilliant, the robot was good enough but I love what you done with the flames even more.

[Buzzy]

this looks really well-made.
As technical artist, I would have to say that you have some superfluous maps that can be combined to make the character render a little faster in realtime and save memory. The spec color and spec level maps can be combined. There really is no such thing as a spec level....its just a multiplier for the spec color. What you should do is take your spec level map, go into photoshop, and add it as a multiply layer on top of your spec color. And voila, you have done the multiplication yourself and saved the renderer the trouble.
Similarly, you have a normal and a bump map, which should probably be combined as well. This can be done using some trickery with the nVidia filter.

Nice job though.

[WebDragon]

Thank you everyone for your comments! They have helped me out a lot as I have been working. I'll have to make a bunch where I can mix and match metal and fire colors. :cool:

Buzzy: Thank you for those tips. I've looked up the nVidia filter and how to combine the normal and bump maps. It sounds a bit confusing, but doesn't look too difficult. It'll be nice to cut out the bump.

I've finished the rig and skin. I had helpers that were wired to the swivel angles of the knees and elbows (something I've done before with adequate success), but they just refused to work. They would work for a while, and then the connection would stop. If I disconnected and reconnected them they'd work for a while, but then stop again. I switched to helpers that set the IK Solver Plane and they are working great. I linked them to the helpers on the wrists and ankles with an intermediate helper that allows me to rotate them easily. I also added extra bones for the shoulder and hip twists.

Here is how she is looking, including lights for the fires.

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlRigFinal.jpg

http://www.webdragon.com/3dwork/fembot/RoboGirlTestPose2.jpg

--WebDragon

[CodeVeroby]

Very good progress ! youv'e come a long way from the starting point but don't you think it's time to wrap things up and say "the model is done" ?

[blacker]

Very good progress ! youv'e come a long way from the starting point but don't you think it's time to wrap things up and say "the model is done" ?

I agree. Call it done and move on to something new! :) It turned out great and I'm sure you learned from the experience, now make something that tops this!

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