Batgirl

[Zaryin]

I saw a few days ago that they were redesigning Batgirl after darkness of the New 52. I saw the pics, and decided to roll with it. They are going for a more fun Batgirl so they can get away from some the darker sides of Gotham. The only thing I really don't like about the design are the boots, but I have decided to stay fairly faithful to their representation.

 

I am at the point where all my pieces are separate and I will begin to add the detail. I have SSS on everything, and the only decals so far are on the eyes. The boots are placeholder, though they will look similar to the ones in the image.

 

I can't find the original story where I found the images I was using for my guide, but it was on the IGN website. If someone can find the link and post it I would be grateful.

 

Thank for looking.

 

 

[Rodney]

She's looking great Jeff!

 

I haven't picked up a DC comic since they went all dark and gritty so I'm glad to hear there's some lightheartedness in the mix.

I fear it's only a matter of time though before some genius decides to take this one dark and gritty as well.

Hopefully I'm wrong there. If I wanted dark and gritty in comics I'd just watch the news, tv and/or read the newspapers.

 

Was this the link with images?

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/07/10/dcs-batgirl-comic-gets-a-major-overhaul

[ludo_si]

good work. with small details as the characters will be really great. possible to see the wire?

[itsjustme]

Great stuff, Jeff!

[Zaryin]

Yes Rodney, thankyou for finding that .

 

Thanks for the comments. I will see about the wire when I get home from work.

 

Thanks again.

[John Bigboote]

Hey Looks good Zaryin! Here is that image link:

 

http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2014/07/BATGIRLMODEL2-720x10181.jpg

 

Looks like she has flowing red hair... you should grab my hair material from the 'Hair Salon' forum and let it flow!

[Zaryin]

Hey John, thanks for the comment. I was going to go with my hair from my x-32, but I might check that thread out .

 

Here's the wireframe of her. It will be getting much more detailed. I like to put as much detail into the splinage as I can.

[John Bigboote]

If you do use my hair, I'd like to see how it goes. You may want to take the geometry where the hair will emit from and copy/paste it and use the splitpatch utility to double/quadruple it's density... which helps collision-detection to work, if that makes sense.

[Zaryin]

I don't think I have that in the version I'm using. Now that I think about it I probably won't be able to use your hair if it's made in the newest versions. I'm using v14, by the way.

[Zaryin]

I've updated the lighting. Added some tweaks to the face. And finished modeling the gloves and pants.

 

 

[robcat2075]

Wow! that's sensational!

[Fuchur]

Very very cool . Keep up the good work... you really got that shiney leather-look very right .

See you

*Fuchur*

[Zaryin]

Wow, thanks alot guys! I really appreciate it.

 

I've tweaked the pants and gloves some more. I've finished the cape. And I have started on shaping the boots.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

[ludo_si]

Very good work. I like very much

[Zaryin]

Thanks for the comment, Ludo.

 

Well, I am having way too much trouble with these boots. So this is it. I don't think I'll be doing anymore with them in the modeling department. I think they turned out ok.

 

 

[Shelton]

Jeff

 

Ok? They look great. She looks great!

 

Steve

[Zaryin]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Steve, I appreciate it .

 

Progress on the jacket, and the very, very start of the hair. I also tweaked the boots a little more.

 

Jeff B.

 

 

[Zaryin]

Just for the "lulz", I added the bat symbol in to see what it looked like.

Jeff B.

[Rodney]

Nice!

 

I am very impressed by your talent.

That isn't anything new to say though... keep on impressing us!

 

 

 

I'm looking forward to your approach to the bat-belt but even moreso to a bat-pose from here in the future.

I know... I know... I'm trying to be patient.

 

In the interim can I suggest that her gloved fingers be tapered just a little?

They appear a bit stubby at the ends and looking at my fingers... I most definitely shouldn't have sexier fingers than Batgirl.

[Shelton]

Emblem looks spot on. Jeff great work

[John Bigboote]

Looking good... here's more reference from talented CG artist Carlos Ortega's Facebook page, with a nice pose for Rodney:

 

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10498670_710595029012110_6628952404570965155_o.png

 

and from Mathieu Reynes:

 

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10530911_10204532182166981_7753830864903307074_n.jpg

[Zaryin]

Thanks for the comments.

 

Rodney, you are right. Hands are hard, haha. I'll see what I can do.

 

John, thanks for those reference shots. Besides hands, posing is the worst for me .

[Zaryin]

Thanks again for the help with the hands, Rodney. They still don't look perfect, but they're a whole lot better than they were.

 

I will probably still be tweaking this, but I think the costume is all modeled. Now onto the utility belt .

 

 

[Dpendleton77]

That is some excellent work.

[Rodney]

Jeff,

Much better on the fingers!

 

There is something different (from the drawn images) related to the curvature of the bat-ears.

In your model they are more horn-like which.. probably looks more like real bats but aren't as straight as in the drawing.

I can put together a collage of images for comparison if that will clarify.

[Zaryin]

Thanks alot, Douglas.

 

Once again, you are right, Rodney. I still want to keep some of the curve and pointiness of what I originally had, but I did want it to look a little more like the references.

 

With the face; I tweaked her lip shape and added color to bring them out more until I add a face decal. I also brought the eye sockets forward. I had them positioned according to the side ref I had, but that doesn't transition well in three dimensions.

 

I also made the eyelets on the boots a light metal color like the zippers to bring them out and add more dimension to the shoe laces.

 

I also have the start of the utility belt in this version.

 

Thanks again for the comments.

 

 

[Zaryin]

Here's the finished Utility Belt. My lighting setup is making the lids of those smaller boxes shine some .

 

Should I be leaving this "clean", or should I make texture maps for all of it?

 

I'll be starting on the hair next and then onto a facial texture.

 

 

[Zaryin]

Here's the Hair and the Facial Texture so far. Should I add textures to everything else, or should I leave it clean?

 

 

[Rodney]

She's looking great. Love the hair!

 

Should I add textures to everything else, or should I leave it clean?

 

 

That's a bit of a tough call but I say...

 

Save. Save. Save this version. Burn it onto read only CDrom and double/triple check to make sure it opens all the way.

Then texture everything else.

 

Additional textures will really take it to the next level.

 

BTW - Did I forget to say... "Awesome looking hair!"

[ludo_si]

super model, with hair that is even more beautiful

[John Bigboote]

Yeah! What is the trick with the hair to get it to separate around the shoulder so well...? Is that A:M particle hair?

[Zaryin]

Haha, Thanks for the comments, guys.

 

Matt, the hair is actually three separate hair emitters. Two smaller ones on the side-back, which I comb towards the front. The larger one is all the back. I don't know how this world work for animation, but for stills I think I can get it to work.

 

I got some responses from friends of mine that when looking at a close-up of her face she was looking way younger than I wanted (13 to 14), instead of 16 to 17. I'm horrible with telling peoples ages, so I took their word for it. I darkened both the lip color and the eye shadow. I sharpened the jaw and hollowed the cheeks enough to get rid of the "baby fat" look. I think it looks better now, and I think I will let it go at that. I also thought I would post this so you can see the hair from different angles.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

[itsjustme]

She looks fantastic, Jeff!

[Fuchur]

She looks a little older now, you are right .

(still excellent of course )

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[Zaryin]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I seriously appreciate them.

 

Well, with all the talk of her not looking old enough, I took a good look at her and realized it's not where I wanted it. I reshaped the face to make her look a little more like the artwork I was using as a base. So, although it isn't perfect, I think the face looks better.

 

 

[Rodney]

I'm sure some of her age will show as you put her into specific poses.

A pose that is weightier (suggesting confidence and experience) will hint she is a little older.

[John Bigboote]

Looking great, I like the face improvements. What are your plans for a rig and for the dynamics of the cape?

[largento]

 

This may not help you in trying to make her look older, but it seems to me that her nose and mouth are too low on her face. Note the tiny change to the right. Looks more appealing to me.

 

I'm 46 now and even 20 something girls look like kids to me these days. :-)

 

I think you've done a great job of bringing the costume design into 3D. There are a lot of things I like about the design, but it occurs to me that wouldn't exposed ears be a detriment to maintaining a secret identity? Earlobes are like fingerprints ...except easier to see.

[Zaryin]

Thanks alot for the comments, guys.

 

Hey Mark, I actually went the other way and enlarged the chin. I also thinned the entire skull. I think I am going to leave it here with her head .

 

Matt, I'm glad you asked that. I have no idea what to do now. The last time I fully rigged a character was when TSM 2.0 came out -- so that'll tell you something, haha. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

 

pic of final head below (although you never know, haha ...)

 

 

[ludo_si]

Can we know your settings for the sss. I think you have a great result.

[Zaryin]

Here is quote I just gave from the "Phillies Diner" WIP topic:

 

"Sub Surface Scattering. It would be in "Group"/Surface/Subsurface Scattering. Turn it "On". I set my Levels to Red: 6, Green: 4, Blue: 2, Relative Density: 100%. In the chor when I render, I just make sure I have a strong reddish light set behind the model to really show off the SSS. I also like to add a 1 to 4% reflectivity on my skin group depending on the setup (that I got from Noah Brewer).

Hope some of that helped .

(Note: this is all done in v14)"

There ya go.

[Zaryin]

Ok, I know I post too much, but I thought I would really quickly put her arms down and relax the cape just to see what it would look like. It's not perfect, but it gives an idea of what she might look like when fully rigged.

 

 

[ludo_si]

you do a great job. For the cape, I think we do not quite see the creases in this pose. can increase would give more volume?

[Zaryin]

I have no creases built into the cape. Maybe when I get it fully rigged it will hang better...? I don't really want to rebuild the entire cape to get them though .

[Zaryin]

Well, here is the fully textured version of Batgirl. I have decided to keep the texture fairly simple to keep with her comic book beginnings. I am pretty much done with her until I get some advice on what rig I should try to use.

 

Anyone think I should add some earrings?

 

Thanks again for looking. I'll have to start think of a scene, or pose, or both for her.

 

 

[John Bigboote]

Great boot details! Earrings yes, something simple, black. What are the rig options? TSM2... A:M Rig... simple rig... what else? For kicks... at this point you could export the model as an OBJ and use mixamo.com to slap a quick deformation-based rig into it to see how that works... but unfortunately that would not import back into A:M... it's FUN tho!

[Fuchur]

2008 or squetch rig... are the most advanced as far as i know...

[John Bigboote]

Ooooh yeah! Use the SQUETCH RIG! And keep us informed on the implementation process! I used it back in 2006 to do a test of Woot walking for TWO, I liked the squarshy-stretchiness and I think you can see I used it some in this test. No knock against whoever did the animation of the Scarecrow in the movie, but I thought the motions were rather rigid and the full potential of the Squetch rig was not fully realized.

Woot Walk Test MC2.mov

[Zaryin]

To be honest, I did animate the Scarecrow for two scenes. Yeah, um -- sorry about that, haha.

 

I'm using my ipad to reply, so will have to watch to mov fil later. You would think a mov file would work on an ipad *sigh*

 

Thanks for the advice, guys. I will definately keep the Wip going until final image.

[Zaryin]

So I can't decide which type of rendering I like better the last one, or this new one. With the new one I did what I did with my Spider-man by rendering different layers and putting them together in Photoshop. This way I get more control over certain thing, but I lose things as well, such as SSS and the hair is a little sharper. I can kinda fake the SSS though.

 

Let me know which one you like better because it will affect my final render.

 

Thanks.