Dominance War II: 2byts

#21

the stealth guy is looking pretty sharp, please let us see the low poly mesh! :slight_smile:

#22

this is the low poly mesh…it is UVd already…but after further development with the midRes mesh I will go back and tweek it to fit more to the normal map. You know how it is with creativity…sometimes things just come up in the process. I basically took this mesh, put a proxy on it (subD) and brought out some more detailing to help guide me with the normal mapping.

#23

Wow coming along which reminds me I should probably get going myself:D I’m curious to see how you will normal map this. I’m not too sure how to do it because of all the creases and 90 degree angles created by the high poly mesh. I’m thinking about UV mapping my low res and then doing seperate normal map passes for each part of the mesh, then combining those layers into one file in photoshop. I don’t know if that makes sense. :hmm:

Anyways I’ll be looking to your next update:)

#24

ahh, there it is! I suggest getting rid of unneeded sharp angle changes of direction, like on his belly, that will normal map better without that hard edge, you can then take those unused polys somewhere else to make him smoother or rounder

#25

i agree on the sharp edges on the belly. Such situations are more appropriate for the normal map. The low poly mesh is certianly not final…it was pretty much the step before going to the mid res mesh. I did a bit of baking tests on the normals for the boot…and it worked wonderfully. But to enhance the quality of the normal map i think i am going to change some topology on the low poly mesh.

Cyborg…i am doing exactly that…normal mapping pieces at a time and then compositing them in photoshop.

tip: you can blend seperate normal maps perfectly using the “overlay” blend mode.

#26

his feet look a bit too small.

#27

really nice concept, but there is one thing that bothers me.
I can’T see human skin anywhere. This could easily be 100% mechanical.
You should add some parts where skin is visibile, because otherwise this entry might be disqualified.

#28

wow you work pretty damn fast!! Nice concept and model :thumbsup: A minor critique is (in my opinion) feets and hand are a bit small.

#29

wow, you are very fast dude…

i like the highpoly of his feet very much, its damn hot. some crits were mentioned previously so i don’t have to add something yet.

@katzeimsack: i have to disagree, he will bulg out his muscle system (like you can see on his feet), so it is very clear this guy is not mechanical…

#30

You are swiss knife fast! Anyway, no crit except that I find either the head is too big or the overall proportion could be exagerrated more. Good job fellow.

#31

i have some time now that we are between projects at work… :smiley:

Hmmm…proportionally the hands and feet are correct…although the large torso with armor may make it feel off a bit. I have not gone comic style like Quake or Unreal where hands and feet are big clonking clubs. This guy is supposed streamlined and fast in terms of design and functionality. The style of concept requires him to disappear in shadows…so he should not have anything that disrupts his profile.

Beauty of normal mapping is I can change the proportions on the real time model without having to remodel the high res model.

I started first on the boot…it being the least visual part of the model where I could experiment with workflow and learn more about mudbox. This is my first time using mudbox…and it is awesome.

Expect to definately see the organic muscle coming through :smiley: !! I am working on the thigh section now. BTW…kind a hard to show muscles and bones when its covered in armor -especially on a foot :wink:

#32

Hi 2byts, thanks a lot for your explanations! just what I wanted to know about it :slight_smile: when you talk about cutting up the model in parts, i suppose that you have already uv mapped the low rez cage? and then you export back to maya the normal maps back in to the low rez?, can you make a little example if possible?, thanks a lot again, thanks for the low rez screenshot, a wireframe would be great!, Keep it up!

Vortex

#33

here is the thigh …was done really fast actually…so fast i think i need to add something to it.

#34

its looking sweet.

#35

Vortex,

Interestingly enough…the low poly cage is needed only at the very ended of the pipeline.

In fact, you can start with your midRes mesh and bring that into mudbox and model away with no regards to UVs.

When you are ready to bake the normals, just go back into your normal modelling software and model a lowpoly or realtime model around the midRes mesh. With this low res model…you then need to UV in 0-1 space with no overlapping UVs. Now, you open the lo res mesh in Mudbox, and use the texture baking tool to bake the normals. Mudbox has a function where you can point the texture baker to the hi-Res mesh without actually having the file open.

I am just doing this piece by piece…and will probably recreate the real time mesh based on the midRes mesh. I will then composite the normal maps in photoshop.

#36

Wow! awesome concept and some really nice progress! i´ll be watching this one.

btw, did you modell those hardsurface things (armor, screws, straps) in mudbox? if so, could you please elaborate your technique and your workflow for that?

cheers
JDX

#37

if you go back to page 2, you will see a full body mid res mesh. This was all done in Maya with an extensive use of the poly crease tool to get the sharp edges of the armor.

Of course everything looks like its smooth and lifeless at this point.

I take it into mudbox at this point…(after creating selection sets for easy isolation of areas).

The way i am getting a lot of these affects is the way i use the layers…i have the following layers:

  1. base mesh (i dont touch this one…need it for the erase tool)

  2. level 2: volume sculpt for the muscles and tendons…

  3. level 4: Detail geometry outwards…with this layer i flood the bulge tool over the entire mesh to offset everything uniformly, I then flood this layer with a mask…which hides the effect like an alpha channel. I then return with the mask tool with different fall offs and paint in the mask channel to bring back the bulge effect. The advantage of this is that you can erase quickly, and your brushes have a maximum depth…which is ideal when you want to do panels, stitching, buttons and such where the depth needs to be controled.

  4. level 4: same as the previous layer…but the bulge is applied negatively

  5. level 4: detailing without any masks…i actually have not really needed this layer at this point…but is intended to polish any thing where the previous 2 layers i couldnt do.

**special note:
mask tool has a major disadvantage : you cannot easily smear, blur, or smooth with this tool…

#38

This is going to look really sexy. It’s awesome how fast you’re moving…at this rate you’ll be done 4 weeks early haha. Plenty of time for clean ups, extra tweaks, and perfection!

#39

normal maps are working…this was actualy done by importing mudbox mesh into maya. I did that because i wanted the ambient occlusion baked. These maps are not finals…just tests to make sure the pipeline works. the normal map is severely clipped by the search distance…

#40

and the ambient occlusion…