New Character Model

[arkaos]

Well, well, well, well. It has been close to an eon now since my last W.I.P. Hopefully some of you might remember me, lol.

 

I have not spent a lot of time with A:M lately because I've been concentrating most of my efforts in story development. I

have finally reached the pre-production phase of modeling my characters.

 

This character is a semi-human, mostly human looking, character from an unknown race (unknown as far as the story goes).

 

I would like some feedback on my face model and any pointers/improvement I could make to my technigue. So far I have the

base facial mesh going. I'm still trying to tweak the patches around to try to bring out the character. I've been spending a lot

of time this year poly-modelling for work related stuff, so my splinemanship is a little rusty.

[KenH]

A good start. He seems abit face forward at the moment. When ever that happens to me, I select the side of the face and rotate it round the side abit. There may be one or two too many spline loops round the mouth.

[the_black_mage]

thicker hair,to many bald spots....but make sure you do that with HAIR OFF or your computer will be as slow as a snail stuck to a piece of gum

[tido]

It is strange how there is ONLY hair for his pinch and top of head. We should see shaved beard (very short hair)

[jon]

face forward = asian. ' ' ) that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

how realistic are you working for? my first impression is that you could loose half of those splines, and perhaps his eyes are too close together.

 

overall, a great wip!

 

-jon

[arkaos]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. They all gave me something to think about. This version

incorporated some of your comments.

 

The face is not quite as forward facing as it was. I eliminated a spline loop around the mouth and

over the nose and reconnected some splines.

 

I worked a bit more on shaping the facial features. I made the lips more full and emasculated

the jaw line a bit (I think). And of course, I regroomed his hair. I haven't done any work on

the eyes and eyebrows are coming soon to a W.I.P. near you.

 

how realistic are you working for? my first impression is that you could loose half of those splines,

and perhaps his eyes are too close together.

 

I am going for a fairly realistic face structure, but not so much that outrageous expressions look out of place.

 

One huge thing I notice is that his eyes appear too wide from the frontal views. Maybe I should change that.

What are your thoughts on what I need done there? Eyes have always been a weak point for me.

 

Thanks for the comments so far, they have been very useful. Keep 'em coming.

[the_black_mage]

It is strange how there is ONLY hair for his pinch and top of head. We should see shaved beard (very short hair)

 

maybe a 5 o'clock shadow decal...

 

EDIT: speaking of the goatee shouldn't there be hair on the bottom of the chin too, rather than just janging from the front?

[arkaos]

It is strange how there is ONLY hair for his pinch and top of head. We should see shaved beard (very short hair)

 

maybe a 5 o'clock shadow decal...

 

EDIT: speaking of the goatee shouldn't there be hair on the bottom of the chin too, rather than just janging from the front?

 

No way, dude....he uses Gilette - The Best a Man Can Get....lol

 

Yeah, there should. There will be before he is done, I can assure you. (I hope)

 

Last time I tried a 5 o'clock shadow, it looked like he had mud on his face, though.

Gotta keep trying.

[largento]

Cool character!

 

If he's an alien, I think you can make up your own proportions for the eyes. But if you're not wanting that, the normal human face is 5 eyes wide. So there's an eye's width between the two eyes and an eye's width between the outside of the face and the eyes.

[arkaos]

Cool character!

 

If he's an alien, I think you can make up your own proportions for the eyes. But if you're not wanting that, the normal human face is 5 eyes wide. So there's an eye's width between the two eyes and an eye's width between the outside of the face and the eyes.

 

Thanks, largento. Actually, I should have seen that to begin with after how many times I've read about that proportion in tuts (D'OH).

Yeah, the front view really shows it...eyes WAY too big.

[Zaryin]

From the front view I think the jaw should be slightly bigger than the neck. I also agree about the eyes.

 

Good job so far. Keep it up!

[arkaos]

Update:

 

1) Made eye a more realistic size.

2) ditched the hair. I didn't like it. The update is back to what my

orignal design was before I started this wip.

 

 

Now he's starting to look like the character in my head.

 

I still have to do eyebrows, but I am lacking experience there.

My first several attempts looked pretty bad. If anyone can give

me some pointers on that, I'd really appreciate it.

 

You people have been very helpful, I thank you.

[trajcedrv]

Cool lookin' guy... I like the eyes the way they are, but I feel that there is something missing about the lips... now they feel as slit in his face... you'll need more definition (and lips - i - ness ( ;o) ))... reference needed (and probably one good look in the mirror wouldn't hurt a bit)

 

keep us posted...

[the_black_mage]

Last time I tried a 5 o'clock shadow, it looked like he had mud on his face, though.

Gotta keep trying.

change the decal settings to "diffuse" and that will only darken the color of the skin...

[arkaos]

Well, I've been working on the body a bit. I don't have much muscle definition on the

arms, legs and abdomen yet. I still have a bunch of tweaking to do, but the base mesh

is getting there.

 

Oh yeah. Obviously the hands and feet aren't done yet.

[totlover]

very smooth mesh... good job

[arkaos]

I finally finished the modelling on the main body "YEAH". Next weekend (when I can afford Painter) I will texture this

bad boy. In the mean time, I will model the sparse clothing for his first scene and put on some fingernails / toenails.

 

I really can't wait to rig him and make him spring to life.

spin01.mov

[arkaos]

Well, after a brief vacation from A:M I decided to at least give this guy something to wear. Here is a test render I did last Sat. night. I havent really gotten all the texturing done, but in this shot it doesn't really matter.

[LeeAnderson]

Cool lighting, I like the new clothes too!

 

Any chance we could the new duds more clearly?

 

Lee

[arkaos]

Hey there, thanx for the comment Here is a pic with the keylight set back to normal and without the volumetric effect on the rim.

 

As I said, I haven't textured the clothing and armor at all, just slapped on some surface attributes. The basic coloring scheme I think

I will use, though. Since I got the new A:M Paint this spring, I think I will use that to get the texturing done. I DO have a copy of ZBrush 3

I've been using for my lightwave models, but I'm kinda limited for time (working 70 hr + weeks at my day job) so I think I will just stick

with A:M Paint for now. Some quick test stuff I've done using it really impressed me (and was easy and fast). Hopefully I can get a

final textured model sometime soon. Since my work schedule has been so busy, I've just been creating short re-usable actions and

other short snippets of my animation instead of texturing.

Spin.mov

[Nuba X]

Hey there, thanx for the comment Here is a pic with the keylight set back to normal and without the volumetric effect on the rim.

 

As I said, I haven't textured the clothing and armor at all, just slapped on some surface attributes. The basic coloring scheme I think

I will use, though. Since I got the new A:M Paint this spring, I think I will use that to get the texturing done. I DO have a copy of ZBrush 3

I've been using for my lightwave models, but I'm kinda limited for time (working 70 hr + weeks at my day job) so I think I will just stick

with A:M Paint for now. Some quick test stuff I've done using it really impressed me (and was easy and fast). Hopefully I can get a

final textured model sometime soon. Since my work schedule has been so busy, I've just been creating short re-usable actions and

other short snippets of my animation instead of texturing.

 

 

Man that Amazing Progress from begining to end!

Well done!

[arkaos]

Hello All!

 

Attached is a quick animation test I did this morning.

 

In this scene, my character is undergoing an emotional crisis which triggers an unexpected phenomenon (not shown wait for the final).

 

I just wanted some feedback on the primary motion and timing of this shot.

 

Note: secondary animation not keyframed, yet (fingers, facial expressions, etc.)

 

Enjoy

Action02_test.mov

[arkaos]

Here is another shot of the same scene with a little added. C & C welcome

 

The going has been slow, but now that I'm not working 70 hour weeks anymore, I can

get a little more done (whew)

test03B.mov

[Paul Forwood]

Wow! Excellent!

 

Top splining and beautifully animated.

It is so good that I don't really want to criticize anything... but couldn't help noticing a CP or two, on his posterior, that might benefit from some weight adjustment.

 

Would you mind revealing what the patch count is for this guy?

[arkaos]

Thanks, Paul . That means a lot coming from you .

 

The total patch count is 4931.

 

I am aware of the posterior, thanks. I created a smartskin to correct most of the

bad stuff, but I figure I can correct the rest in muscle-mode when I get the core

animating done.