This was posted up over a CGtalk a week or so ago. I thought I might shamelessly pimp it up over here too since your all such nice chaps :) Apologies if your seeing it again.
A character for a UT2k3 mod I'm working on.
4957 triangles, character textures 100% self illuminated
Textures comprise of:
2 x 1024 Legs and Torso
1 x 512 Head
1x 256 Helmet
1x 1024 Weapon
C&C welcome :)
Thanks Makk. Actually painting textures of this size is fairly new to me, so I kind of found myself wondering what to do with all that space. You make a good point though, perhaps I could add more detail into the actual texture of the material... make it look like canvas or something.
I didn't want to chip up the weapon too much as it's supposed to be US military type stuff and imagine all their tech would be pretty new. Perhaps a few scratches wouldn't hurt though.
The mod is [url]www.futurecombatscenarios.com[/url]
Very nice model Ionized. My only crit goes to the pants. Not so much the fact the the texture has just been mirrored, but that all the creases on his legs run parallel to the other ones. They should angle together, and meet up around his crotch. Either that or just change some to more random angles.
Very nice though. I really like his pose.
First of all, I like it.
overall a nice piece, sits very well wholistically - but the specs are a real let down for me. Loses a lot of it's impressiveness and appeal for me to see that little detail in such a high spec piece. Looking at the model form and silhouette, the tri count is justified, but that amount of pixel real estate for the little detail that's been captured I can't agree with. Pet peeve of mine seeing something which would sit equally happy at half the texture density, or could so obviously be brutally optomised without losing any visual loss in quality. It is the difference between having the flexibility to have 1 or 4 on screen at once with no loss in visual quality.
...Then there's the polar opposite. With that amount of pixel real estate, instead of brutally optomising, why not take the texture further? tonal and colour variations, pop fabric highlighting to give a greater impression of folds with depth, pull out your base high tonal ranges to better communicate different material properties and surface curvature etc etc
Very tidy, I really like what you've done.. I agree with what joel has said, and think you could do the same for the model..
I'd like to say I think there is nothing *wrong* with the model, just that you could make it so much more *right* :).
I think if you further break up the symmetry, maybe putting a little emphasis on character he would really start to grab people by the balls and demand they look at him.
Not saying you should go crazy with accessories, just make small changes to what you have. eg, those extra rockets on the back, maybe rotate them 30 degrees to the right.. They look a little odd square like that..
Anyhow, great job!
Cheers, thanks very much for your replies all...
Jacobt: There really isn't much inside those tubes except black plastic... and a big nasty rocket... which I admit I havn't modelled.
Aven: Good point, you could be right. The folds are kind of going the wrong way arn't they...shit...hehe
Ninja: Thanks man. Happily plugged..lol
JI: It's not really a matter of reducing texture sizes as UT2k4 can handle multiple 2048 textures on a single character. I think I know the style of texturing your referring to and I intentionally avoided going down that path too much. Mainly because he is a semi-realistic character dressed mainly in subdued camo fabric which is why I'd be hesitant to highlight some of those areas much further. It's more of a gritty rather than shiney look I'm going for which is what I think loads of highlights tend to do to a texture. Your point is well taken though :)
Also, whats 'pop fabric highlighting'? I've never heard that term before.
BoB: Thanks, thats a very good point, I will adjust some of the packs to make him look less symetrical.
Also, heres some wires
Apologies in advance for the long-ish post [:D]
Ionized - sorry not to be clear on my meaning; I usually keep it shortened so not to come across as "there's all these things bad, this is a bad thing" and look like a blind arsehole [:)] I do like the piece, and I know you're someone that appreciates constructive crits and I think that's a very good thing
in regards to the texture sizes, I was referring to more of a pet peeve that more could be done - it's my belief that you should always communicate as much information through your textures as is possible. It's all about getting everything you can out of what you have - Eg, ultimately always down to a pixel by pixel level.
most people do double/triple res down-sampled to achieve this, others do a final 1 pixel width pencil pass.
It's really a personal expectation that I have that I expect to see details communicated at a pixel by pixel level to justify the texture sizes used - whether it's a 64^2 decal, or a 2048^2 character sheet. We work in a very strict medium with both artistic and technical limitations always telling us no - a very big part of that is pushing that to make the best visually appealing thing comforming to those limitations.
That's all a bit generalistic, so to summarise, what I mean here in this situation is I think it's looking good and you could take that further and achieve more details in the textures, working with that amount of pixel real estate. Hope that makes a lot more sense [:)]
Second thangy, I wasn't really describing a particular visual style, more commenting on the lack of tonal range difference to describe the different surface types and ways to pull them out to make a visual distinction. Not talking the cliche super shiny highly contrasted busy type o' stuff [:)] - more that some parts are hard to distinguish as different elements (apart from the obvious ones which are intentional to blend, eg. camo). Little things like hard edging to describe the folds and creasing of fabric pulled taut, or more diffused tighter lit leathers. It's more a distinction between rim and cylindrically lit surface curvature - when I usually mention this type of thing people think I'm saying make it shiny plastics, so sorry for the bad explanation [:)]
Anyways, I hope I've explained my dribble a little better and some of this was at least of some help - looks good, and I look forward to seeing him in play [8D]
Thanks JI, its always great to get good strong feedback. That all makes a lot of sense. I guess it's just part and parcel of working with higher res textures that achieving the sharpness of detail that you see in lower resolutions is going to take more time and perhaps different techniques. It's so true that you can always go further in your own work also. Thanks for the help :)
Nice models there Ionized. The top half of the model looks really cool.
But looking at those resolutions and the amount of maps you got on them, you could squeese more detial in them. Like the pants look like there mirrored. The gun could use some more work on the texture of it (surface scratches,paint chips etc).
Whats the mod?