Work in progress

Awesome! Absolutely love the progress [:D] more more more!

Quite nice man, what did you use to make the model? and how long did it take you?
could you show us some low-poly wires?

nice work man im a big fan of Range Murata..... you should buy his new artwork collection book.
I guess you would know a korean artist Hung Tae Kim his artwork looks similar to Range's style.

looks nice :)

Hi guys,

Thanks for comments. Last days were extremely busy so no real updates this time [:(]

Lewis.u ? I?ve used Maya in most cases and ZBrush to detail cloth parts. It takes me about 4 days for base work and about 1 hour in ZBrush. Here a couple of shots.

[img]http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/7893/wip01wire016oi.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/9052/wip01zbr016av.jpg[/img]

Ninja ? Thanks for advice man! I?ll definitely do this [;)]

Cheers!
Metro3d
http://metro3d.narod.ru

Quite nice.. i also use Maya (and i love it lol) i think 4 days is not that bad... for how long have you been using maya?

Keep up the good work! :)

Hey Cody, model looks good. Some of the texture could use a tweak, like the collar around the coat top looks a little low (or did you model that on?. The creases at the bottom need to be looser, since they dont really tighten up down there; they hang more then anything. And what about a belt? Also his tie could be a little longer to look like he is more neater ;)

agreed on the tie, id extend that down a bit. Also try to avoid an over saturation of grey in the texture as at the moment he's looking a bit too close to the wireframe render in colour! I know its WIP but dont forget to add some elements of blue in your grey for example (assuming your sticking with grey)

Thankaz for that comments and crits guys, will check it out later tonight.

one more with the mesh

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/my3dcreations/20065521629_woman_…"]woman_mesh.jpg[/url]
72.61 KBmesh

Black makes it a little hard to really see the model. If your a max user just hit the "8" key for a shortcut tothe environemtn options where you can change the bg colour of the render. Model looks ok, pretty good for a beginner. Something that you may want to focus on is the proportions of your models. Its a pretty easy way to really enhance your characters.

It's reall simple. I like it. What are you using it for?
-Parka

I?m afraid we can't help you, unless your post some of your work[;)]

Like Djenx said, if you want feedback, you'll need to post images for us to critique. you can upload images directly through sumea, or of course host them elsewhere and post them here.

Just a few crits

*your seem to be working with a very low poly limit compared to what's out on the market today, if your going to use normal mapping then go all the way with it & use denser meshes as well. Though I really like the low poly look you have going there.

*the hill in the background looks way to sharp

*The big/chunky tree looks really out of place/proportion next to the black trees.

*It looks like there's supposed to be a road to the left of the house, but then it looks to bumpy to drive on and blends in with the rest of the ground a little to well. Maybe you could lower it slightly, where it curls around the house to help sperate the two areas.

*the neglected house looks like it just received a new coat of paint (looking at it again I?m sure it's just a fill in texture)

*the lighting looks nice but you need to move your sunlight out a little further towards the background so that it catch more then just the big tree & roof top (the hill to the far left seems completely unlit). The sunlight could be a lot stronger as well, at the moment it looks to diffused.

I really like your modelling style, it's refreshing to see such a high level of detail on what I assume is still a low poly house, it really give's it character[^]

Hey Djenx thanks for your crit, most of the points that you put forward are caused by me trying to quickly get something renderable that looks ok. Not a very professional thing to do......
For example the trees in the background have just been placed there for now because it conveys the atmosphere im going for a little better.
Same with the ground, I threw an FFD box on a plane and just made the ground uneven so I had something to work with.
You?re definitely right about the big tree and the little trees. Not just just the size but the colour as well. Those background trees are only temporary.
There's no road as of yet, but I can see how it looks like that, im hoping to get one in there soonish, more dirt tracks from a tractor rather then actual road though.
Your right about the house, it does look like it?s got a nice new coat of paint haha, and your right again, that?s because I haven?t applied a texture as of yet. There's also a checkered wheel barrow next to the house. I haven?t unwrapped anything inside the house yet either apart from beer bottles...

Thanks again Djenx for taking the time to give some good critique

Good work, full marks for effort to making a complete scene, that's something that goes down very well.
Looking at this objectionally as a portfolio piece, one of the biggest things holding it back is the use of recognisable stock textures -- you mention you used them, credit there (and you may just be using them for placeholder), but the fact you can recognise a number of textures sourced here, it lets the rest of the scene down. There's two bad things about this, first is how much effort someone is going to think you put into your work, and second is the implication of using others material in a professional environment. Not an issue now, but since it's a folio piece, it's an issue for an employer looking at this. "Will this person do a google image search and slap someones copyrighted material onto a mesh and call it done? Will they use stock material from the max map library or another potentially legally troublesome source?" It's something to be aware of how it comes out for someone viewing it. Sorry if this has sounded harsh, but it's a pretty prevelant reason of why person x gets hired over person y.

So general rule of thumb, if you're going to source resources instead of creating completely hand made assets (nothing wrong with that), then use resources which are royalty free or that you've paid for, AND make them your own "original" work by using them as resources to create new textures, instead of using them straight off the shelf.

Hello J.I. Styles,

I definately understand what your saying. That was drilled into us last year at the AIE, so before i get this thing into my reel the trees and background textures will definately be replaced. I dont want any confusion over what is really mine and what isnt. I was going to create my own tree TGA's before posting it, but decided not to spend time on that yet and created a ground texture that was mine instead. As you said its mainly just placeholder texture for the moment.

Thanks a lot for the critique

Looking good jebus.

Sky looks really nice.

Hey junkers

The sky does look nice, although its not my texture. The sky is just one of max's standards, but i think it goes well with the scene for now. Its probably the last thing i will create..

Thanx for the nice comment.

Nice Jebus. Keep up the good work

"emaglobin and melanin layers" lol! I had to read that line twice, sounded like you made that bit up, but I'll take your word for it ;) But seriously, mind giving a quick explainiation of what that means?!?
Whilst I have no idea about that, I do know that the end result youve posted looks super sexy :)

hehe, I understand that reaction - the amount of digging through research papers and feeling like it's a completely different language has been a pretty big learning curve -- basically hemoglobin and melanin are the main things that give visual pigmentation to skin. Here's a pretty good paper on the subject:
http://www.mi.tj.chiba-u.jp/~tsumura/Tsumura/projects/Siggraph2003/Tsum…
it's way over the top of what I'm doing, they're doing crazy stuff like light analysis and image synthesis. Still explains what it's all about if you just check out the pictures though. My method is an absolute bare bones of layer combining in a way to hack the general look of it togethor for real time, using the basic theory behind it.

quick note, released an initial version

grab it off my site under the hlsl area
http://www.jistyles.com

copy+paste: Just a note too, the micro detail map is a tileable normal map, but with the blue channel taken to 50% so the overlay works. Just the same as doing a photoshop layer overlay for a normal map.

I'll probably get another update soonish with source files for a head or something, just for example settings.

I will have to try this out :)

Downloaded but unsure how to use it, could u tell me how to use it please J.I. Styles?

Ben's got a good tutorial on his page on how to apply viewport shaders -- check it out here:
http://www.monitorstudios.com/bcloward/tutorials_shaders1.html

for a look on what people are doing with it, check out mr. eq's thread here:
http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=120096&page=0&fpa…

looks great, i really like the background too. can we get a wire of the highpoly?

Looks fantastic.

I absolutely love the background, and the character looks great. If i had to give crit, I would say that the character looks a little out of proportion, but that could just be to do with the armour size being big in some places and not so big in others..
The feet look a little lacking in length, and maybe a little too thick, as if he is in clogs. but thats just me, it could be perfect.

Again it looks fantastic.

wow, looking really good picpoc :)
I really like the painting as well. Yeah, can we see some shots of just the model?
Something to consider is upping the spec and some of the gold detial, like the eagle for example. Not that it really needs it but its just a suggestion.
Great stuff.

Thanks

There?s a couple of other images of the knight on my website, there?s a big pic of him, close up of the helmet and his head. Gonna post wire later on.

Cheers

www.picpocgallery.com

*Awsome picture*.

If there's one thing I could crit, it's that I think the character's pose could be improved to better complete the picture. Perhaps give him a more dynamic stance, or even a sense of movement.

Bumskee seems to be a master of character poses, you should check out his thread at http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3620

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/picpoc/200642902536_knight_wire…]

Thanks for these comments, yeah you?re right there is a lot I could fix and improve, but I don?t really want to spend any more time on this.
cheers

tbh, i actually like the wireframe render more.

very good :)

I really like this artur. I've checked out you website and I like the way you set it out.

some things to note:

the pose could be a little more dynamic(souri already mentioned this)
I'd like to see some highlight variation on the gold bits so they look like they are a different material from the grey.
perhaps a little more care could be taken with the background, just make it look a little cleaner, eg. sharpen some of the edges. only because the character looks really well rendered and finished while the background looks a lot less so.(dosen't mean going for a photorealistic finish mind you)
I dig the armour on the knight, and most of all, that is the coolest shield i have ever seen.

cheers bro.

thats the greatest run cycle ive ever seen on sumea!

[;)]

oooh coming along really nice mate :) Nice design.
I really like how youve painted her top, some nice folds in there. Metalwork is llokn good too. Interested to see where you are going to giver her the different materials. Painting the wool I think will be hard.
Are you going to do something with her forearms? at the moment they look rather thick.
But yeah, Im really digging this, keep it up :)

thanks Makk, the front of her top is meant to be wool, i guess i failed haha.

[img]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/shika01/56c9aa10.jpg[/img]

the large shield on her leg will be in the same style as the large shield on her arm

another update to soil your eyes! dont look away

[img]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/shika01/3473759d.jpg[/img]

all forms of critique accepted

input on the design would be AWESOME

black rubber usually a bit shinier eh?

design is good, i think you doing a bit much of this belts in wierd positions thing though, I imagine having a belt there would be awkward as hell, would spend half the battle trying to make sure your belt stays up...
Interested to see what that crazy lookin weapon turns into...

I love the face, awesome painting, she look like cold evil bitch... I think the wool looks plenty like wool too...

lol! upon closer inspection it actually does look like wool. I didnt look hard enough! :) :P
Agreed with the crit about the belt.

good point necrobator666, so i made it ride up on her rear upper thigh :)

i put a piece of cloth to the sword to add a little 'not-brown'

[img]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/shika01/fa8ee763.jpg[/img]

i know the pants and leg shield look like poo, and i gotta dirty up those boots some. the whole thing is a work in progress :)

fuk, no the belt was better, don't listen to necro, dun hav a clue wat the fuk he thinks hes on about,

dudes wore belts like that in to battle, chiks do it as a fasion thing, and it looks cooler on the model.

But yea mate thats fukn hot, id go her for sure. metal looks rad.

edit = woops church posted sumthn daft on me,clown.

saw this one over cgtalk way - looking good so far.

I'd suggest balancing out the contrast in her face compared to the rest of her, and also I don't know if it's just the renders but the recent ones she looks slightly cross-eyed.

Good work, it looks pretty cool. He sure looks like he's on PCP or something.

Hey LOOM, it looks good, however i noticed that the texture seems to be flipped compared to when its on the model. Not that this is a problem, at least i dont think its is, ive just never seen it before.

Keep up the good work.

ah , you mean the uv's.
i dont remember who mapped it, but they didnt check for this error.
although it is anoying - its not a big deal(unless i was putting on text) and with my luck the jumper uvw i bet, will be flipped also[xx(]

haha yeh - he does look like he is on drugs :)
i mite ask the modeller if i can alter the eyes. unless he looks cool like that?

texture looks pretty good but yeah, those eyes are mega wide!

Hey LOOM looking good but it look's like you have the eye's as a seperate element in which case you need to pull the top eyelid just above the top of the pupil and the bottom eyelid just above the bottom of the iris. That should help it alot e.g. just like you have in your texture [:)]

Anyway good work and keep on going with it.

ok , fixed the eyeballs + eyelids. Much Better?
Also started on some leatherish gloves. ( burgular/theif) style.

well its a kinda werewolf concept and theres sort of a lot of that floating around. Only thing that springs to mind though is perhaps shaths entry in the last modeller challenge http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2172

Could be similar to this one.

http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2172

Scott.

model is pretty good , but the texture is need of alot of attention.

especially the gun texture - id suggest alot more defining on each of the parts.

Hi, Octane Im no pro, but it might help if you post some bigger images and with different shots so we can help you out.

i recently embarked on the same project and your allready miles ahead of me :P second what tedledz said, larger orthographics would help crit

Hi Octane

The structure of the face is looking good. The side of the face looks like it needs some work though. It looks a bit like a chessboard at the moment (I assume you started with a segmented cube) and there's quite a few polys there that are unnecessary. There are many ways to skin a cat, but it looks good if the mesh structure has a circular flow to it opposed to horizontal and vertical lines. The ears look like they need to be pushed forward towards the face and the back of the skull looks like it needs to be pushed back out away from the neck. It's looking good so keep working at it.

Looks great Rizo :)
Only crit would be you might want to add more detial to the boots

That looks really interesting, it does seem like a fusion of popular aspects seen in the two genres (not a bad thing at all) but the ability to actually enter the buildings you placed had me the most interested. After all they seemed like little more then a placemarker by which to locate certain functions in some RTS games, that makes the buildings themselves appear to have much more function if they actually change the terrain upon which you battle. Do you (or are you planning) to limit where buildings can be placed? (within a certain border of your specifie "home base" area for example). Because being able to change the feild of play anywhere could be really cool and really hard to handle. btw nice to see someone whos mostly focused on code posting in exhibition

Thanks for the nice comments MoonUnit [:D]

Well, my thinking came about aaaages ago from when I imagined one day that every infantry dude in my favourite RTS (Dark Reign of course!) was actually a squad of infantry (each with their own weapons, personality, fighting style etc), and that tanks were actually groups of tanks, aircraft were squadrons of aircraft etc

I then imagined that buildings were MASSIVE (The Dark Reign manual and associated documentation makes lots of cool references, I've also seen some concept pics and buildings such as the Headquarters are HUGE! [:0]) and that they were like buildings in real life, ie. constructable, destructable, interactive, and full of people doing stuff, in essence like a level for an FPS.

Basically all I did was imagine a war on a real life sized scale. This game is a proof of concept of my massive idea... Sure it can't handle as much as i'd like (yet! *evil grin*) but it's still fun.

Atm you can place buildings wherever you want and most likely I'll leave it that way. Which means if you can sneak in a construction rig and build up a bunker or something your troops can really bug the enemy [:P] Naturally of course the current construction speed is WAY too fast for a proper game... Buildings will be as interactive as I can get em, which means you could say walk into a barracks and change your weapons or walk into a factory and order a new vehicle. (Kinda like Renegade but it'll be better I hope!)

I also have plans to integrate RPG elements (eg. gain greater ranks (levels) and be given more powers on the battlefield, or wander around and chat to your troops or whoever really, eg. recruit some NPCs to your cause) and also other bits and pieces too such as proper vehicle support (as good as in BF2 for example, minus decent physics probably unfortunately - my physics skills aren't too good). Naturally what I can do is limited by my programming skills but I hope with persistance and time I can accomplish my goals. The RPG elements are ridiculously easy todo - I already have the code and it's just a matter of copying it all over.

Many of my ideas will only take time to implement, other ones will be alot tricker. Of course the main (and really the only) two problems are art and scaleablity. If I want 128+ characters in battle at once with the player and over a million going about their lives on the map I'll need some SERIOUS optomisations. And i'll need A LOT of art for all the 'stuff' about the world and the massive buildings and environments.

But what the heck [:D] I'll give it all a go! I love this stuff...

Edit:
Quick addition - I figured I may as well add this too... It's a raw FRAPS dump of a battle from an older version of QFusion Reign
[url]http://darkreign.buysmartpc.com/temp/QFusionReign.avi[/url]
Sure it ain't 128 characters but it's a start! [:P]

the hybrid fps/rts ordering management reminds me a lot of battallion wars on gamecube.
[img]http://www.hanshansen.com/images/battalion-wars-20050826072606396.jpg[/…]
That game's a lot of fun but frustrating to do any specific orders in the heat of battle (eg, select anti air units and detach them from the main group and attack choppers). If you figure out a fast and easy way of ordering while in fps view, that'd be awesome.

Here's some feedback:
Since this is a hybrid system, I'd suggest doing a over-the-shoulder style camera instead of centered third person. Reason for this is that all that middle screen real estate is very important to be clear to focus on both attack and ordering field of vision. Something like the resident evil 4 camera style?
[img]http://ps2media.gamespy.com/ps2/image/article/662/662600/resident-evil-…]

Ordering I'd suggest basing heavily on traditional selection/action style such as c&c -- click+drag to make a selection, single click context sensitive to move/attack/interact. Maybe shifting this over to the right mouse button clears up the left for fps actions?

Well, the thing with Batallion Wars is that it doesn't seem to be a 'true' RTS/FPS hybrid. While you *can* order stuff around in shooter mode as you could also see it was possible to use a traditional top down styled RTS view. I already knew some games combined RTS with FPS (eg. Battlezone) but they didn't do it with a proper RTS view. While atm the RTS view isn't very much like a normal RTS game I'm working on making it so that it's like a normal RTS [:)] ie. You use a cursor to select things, click menu items etc

For selection and ordering and all that in FPS... Well, I have some ideas for that too [;)] eg. Hold a key and your cursor is unlocked allowing you to select units and perform other RTS-type options easier.

Thanks however for the suggestions - I've still got to investigate camera views a bit more, I like first person more for some reasons (ranged), 3rd person for others (melee) but 3rd person saves me having to do view weapons [:P] However... I could do it Ghost Recon style.

For mouse stuff currently I'm using the mouse buttons in the normal way depending on what mode you're currently in.

Note: Atm you can swap modes anywhere... this kinda sucks cause it means you can easily run away before you get killed [:P] The final game will only allow you to swap modes at your team's buildings. However from the FPS view you still can do most RTS actions, it's just a bit tricker to get that overall view. And while in the RTS view it's harder to get that 'on the battlefield' intelligence and general battlefield fun! Plus there will be other stuff you'll miss out on... But you won't *have* to play in both modes.

I like the idea of only being able to go into FPS from your base. Preparing your attack and then playing the risk of leaving your base actually right at the helm of your prepared squadron. I can also imagine noticing an enemy coming in with his FPS character and realising this seriousness (thats a word right?) of the situation if hes actually taken to the battlefield. Opens up a whole risk and reward system of leaving the base to have a better handle on the outcome of the battle, but completely removing your attention from whats happening back at base.

Reminds me actually of a old school yard game called 40 40, for those that dont know one person is "it" and gaurds base. Everyone gets a count to 40 to go hide and their job is to try and get back to base without being spotted (at which point the person at base yells "40 40 i see at ") where they touch base and yell "40 40 home!." The thing is the person whose it is actually allowed to leave base, but they can only make the "i see you" call when touching base. Thus a risk and reward system works where you might have a better chance of catching someone if you move around to find them, but someone else might get home whilst you make your cautious steps away.

If you stay at base you mount a better defense, but you cant win on defense alone and leaving base allows a much better attack. As i write this i wonder if what im talking about has relevance yet i suppose school yard games have stood the test of time better then any video game so perhaps my ramblings will be of some use :P

Eek... long reply delay. Didn't get a chance to reply earlier cause of Uni!

But anyway, when I read your response MoonUnit it got me wondering... TA has a similar idea present in it. ie. The Commander unit. It's crazily powerful due to the D-Gun but it's still vulnerable to air units and stuff. As a result it can be a risk to send it out but a Commander can also make a nice suicide nuke [8D] Plus interestingly enough I think it'd be capable of taking out a Krogoth in one hit... LOL never thought of that tactic before!

The point is i guess that such a game feature can cause people to innovate in all sorts of cool ways (Like Commander stealing using flyers [:P]) and in QF Reign, due to it's hybrid nature, a commander on the battlefield would be a serious threat. But it also leaves open their main base (As good as I hope the Strategic AI will be, it can't beat a really good human [:(]). But for all you know that commander may be sabotaging your armies or even recruiting the locals to rise up against you [;)] So many options...

While of course you're not entirely stuck on defence when in RTS mode you sure do get a better feel for the battles on the ground

One idea i was wondering about could be a vehicle that's like a mobile command center. It'd be specially armed and armoured and quite a nasty vehicle but the key feature would be to allow the commander to swap between shooter and RTS without having to be near one of their own buildings.

Note on code status:
Menu system looks fantastic [:D] It's now much like a traditional RTS, ie. Click on buttons to make stuff on a sidebar. The next video should be *MUCH* better than the old one I hope. I'll try to emphasise the fact it's a shooter/rts combo more too.

hey turkeyplague, good start so far.its 2am so i wont go into much detail [:)].

about the proportions, the arms are a bit short, the wrist should reach down to the crotch and the elbow should be around belly-button height from what i know.

im still learning myself, but i have a couple nuggets of wisdom that i can pass on concerning low poly mesh flow. for starters your mesh should be more evenly spaced out (itll help with unwrapping and rigging), you have more detail in the feet than you do in the characters chest, you shouldnt be afraid to terminate some of those edges into triangles above the knee and put the polies youve gained into the chest. the ears also have too much detail for this poly count, a good texture on a flat plane will do the job and look fine.

concerning the face: dont have a single vert in the corner of a characters mouth, unless you want him to talk like pac-man.

check out http://www.bobotheseal.com/ for inspiration, his work is good and there's also a bunch of links to other equally impressive artists in the extras page

p.s, i hope i didnt sound like an arse, im sleep deprived [|)]

My only suggestion is that in his head try to push the cheek bone out a bit more by moving the verts under his eye's out a bit and mabey pull his jaw in a bit more so it come down to a wierd U shape.
Also pull the vert that is at the bottom of the ear Upwards to try and get that ear lobe thnigy happening [:)]

Only a suggestion others may think diffrent.

But keep going with it its a good start!!!

Thanks. Some good suggestions there. I've started making some of the changes.

A couple of issues though:

I've taken a look at the mouth, moved some vertices around and it doesn't look like it will suffer from pacman syndrome. I took a look at the work on http://www.bobotheseal.com/ but those meshes seem to end the edges of the lips with vertices in a similar way to mine. Maybe I'm missing something?

[IMG]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c35/nightmareturkey/human_screen07.jp…]

As far as ears go, I thought completely replacing them with a plane was a bit of a drastic step, although I have cut some of the detail from them. I tried to make ear lobes my pulling down the vertices like what Bob said, but unless I add more polys to them I'll get those hideous shadows that result from faces intersecting on sharp 90 degree angles. How do more advanced games like Doom3 work around this problem? I hear that even normal mapped meshes suffer when faces intersect to sharply.

Sure is quite around here. Anyway, I started mucking around with hair and clothing today and thought I'd post my progress.

[IMG]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c35/nightmareturkey/human_screen08.jp…]

[IMG]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c35/nightmareturkey/human_screen09.jp…]

quote:Originally posted by turkeyplague

...A couple of issues though:

I've taken a look at the mouth, moved some vertices around and it doesn't look like it will suffer from pacman syndrome. I took a look at the work on http://www.bobotheseal.com/ but those meshes seem to end the edges of the lips with vertices in a similar way to mine. Maybe I'm missing something?

This is just something dictated by the asset budget and what it's used for - ending at a single point we call it shovel mouth, and that's fine if it's not going to be put through a whole heap of verbal gymnastics. However if it's needing fully articulated phonemes to communicate subtle expression and a full range of lip synch then the curvature of the muzzle into the mouth should be structured like the underlaying facial muscles, which include points overlap on the mouth corners that loop into the internal mouth sock. If it only needs to show basic movement and/or talk like a muppet then only basic geometry is needed.

quote:Originally posted by turkeyplague

As far as ears go, I thought completely replacing them with a plane was a bit of a drastic step, although I have cut some of the detail from them. I tried to make ear lobes my pulling down the vertices like what Bob said, but unless I add more polys to them I'll get those hideous shadows that result from faces intersecting on sharp 90 degree angles. How do more advanced games like Doom3 work around this problem? I hear that even normal mapped meshes suffer when faces intersect to sharply.

As for the ears, at the moment the whole character is looking a bit plastic wrapped -- you should aim less for an approximation of what you're modelling and concentrate more on how it actually is in the real world. Ears are thin, and bucket out with a sharp connection at the back. Yours look plastic wrapped, or melted out onto the head. The hideous lighting artifacts are all due to the lighting model being limited to per-normal vertex lit and at the moment you're using only one smoothing group so those normals are completely averaged over the entire mesh.

Laymans terms, introduce hard edging to the lighting by learning to use smoothing groups.

More advanced engines like doom3 use normal maps to light on a per-pixel basis, so each texel on the mesh is a normal in and of itself, instead of having normals limited to vertices. In other words, the lighting is based off the texture instead of completely off the mesh. I'd suggest concentrating on pure geometry and get a firm grounding in that before you graduate to that however.

http://www.jistyles.com/content/resources/helpers/orc_prog01.jpg

the image above is from a series of progressions I've posted on my site of an orc character I did a few months back - his head is less geometry than the amount you've used, but notice I've used smoothing groups to seperate hard ridges like the mouth and nose, the muzzle and cheeks, and areas of the ear. This effectively eliminates lighting issues.

I hope this stuff helps you out, keep on going, and definitely grab some photo referance for proportions - it's pretty easy to find some, even if you use Da Vinci's vitruvian man

Thanks for the help so far guys. I've gone ahead and rigged it, UV mapped it, and started on the textures. I still have quite alot of work to do and have things to go back and fix, but I thought I'd post my progress since I'm starting to get towards that finished stage.

I decided against normal mapping and went with using plain textures and smoothing groups.

[IMG]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c35/nightmareturkey/screeny.jpg[/IMG]

ha very cool looking design, has a bit of a incredibles feel to it. cooky cartoon style and all that, well done

Look's SWEET!!!

Only a sugestion but mabey put like a cloth wrapped around the front middle handel in a cross pattern e.g. like the handel on a samurai sword might look kewl and add some more colour to it [:)].

But awesome work.

Loving the diagrams at the bottom - I'm a sucker for diagrams. painting looks good on the whole, (perspective is a little off at the back end). Don't know if I would personally go for the wrapped cloth look but I know where Bob is coming from. I would have like to see the kevlar in black to break the forms/materials up a little more. I would be interested to see some posts from gun enthusiasts on their take regarding usability.

not much for painting technical crit but the design looks quite beleivable and expert, well done

cool concept, I really like the design and lighting. The scuffs and chipping on the paint looks really cool too.
The shading doesn't really explain the change in width from how thin it is at the trigger to how wide it is around the barrel though. The shading is quite flat above and behind the trigger in the green patterned part where I imagine it would be getting thicker, with some ridge, curve or something.

Nice start man. Others than the shoulder and hand area which you've already spotted, I reckon you may not need those chiselled abs, if your fighting poly limit. You can probably get away with pure texture there and save polys for the juicy intricacies of his machinery.

His pecs also need defining, however if you interpreted the concept as a chest armour piece, then I suppose it's cool.

Also with the neck, you'll notice one of its major muscles (sternomastoid something or rather) should stretch from around the back of the ear towards the pit of the collarbone area. Right now it seems to butt up under the jaw.

Keep us updated! It's coming along great!

Thankaz for the crits IronhideNT, really helped me out. A lot of things I didn't really notice untill u posted. The poly count I am aiming for is around 3500 or more, at the moment it is around 3000, so I will see if I have enough for the abs. I will update with a pic tommorow.

Update, done the pecks, the bicep, the shoulders, tweaked the hands a bit and done the traps. Comments and crits appriciated.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/1947_AL.jpg[/img]

The overall anatomy of the upper body is looking great, I'm assuming theres work to be done yet but itd like to see a bit more of a dynamic shape to the cloth wrapped around his waist. Obviously a lot of that feel will be defined with the texture but the silouhette looks like a tube right now.

I think you've done the upper arms bent/curved and you should straighten them out to make it more anatomically correct.
Just softselect the verts halfway between the shoulder and elbows and move them up till the upper arm straightens up.
Right now I see the bone in the upper arm would be curved, where as in a normal human the bone in the upper arm is straight.

He looks pretty good, no real crits other then id like to see orthos, cause his beard looks a tad confusing... is it on seperate planes or just modelled as an extrusion off his chest?

Yer here's the orthos you asked for.

His Beard is more or less a seperate elemetnt to his chest. Its a part of his head with a few plane's overlaying slightly over his cheek's with alpha's, it took a while to get the desired result but im happy with it.

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/bob_lives_here/20063265307_Dwarf…"]Dwarf_Orth_1.jpg[/url]
34.22 KB

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/bob_lives_here/200632653042_Dwar…"]Dwarf_Orth_2.jpg[/url]
47.84 KB

Nice .. I like it . Only crit i have, it would have been nice to see some sort of mucles definition for his arms and legs .. at the moment their looking a bit blocky. Good job on the texturing :)

yeah the alphas look a bit odd, kinda got three prongs to his beard. Get some photo refs and perhaps change it to be a bit more rounded. Thats what stands out the most to me

Kratos - when i get some more time ill looking ot that ATM with work and not much free time i wont be able to do it anytime soon but yer good point.

MoonUnit - His Beard has 3 "prongs" becuase thats the way i drew it from the concept, also I didnt give the beard enough texture res in retrospect to make it how i wanted it.
[url][/url]http://sumea.com.au/simages2/1923_AL.jpg[url][/url]

But I am only using a 512x512 for him and a 256x256 for his Axe.

ah then perhaps some more definition to the different sections of the beards.. what im trying to say here is perhaps put some lines between the "prongs" in the texture so it actually looks like three more seperae ellements at the bottom. if that makes sense

Yer thanks MoonUnit that makes sense [:)] good point.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!

Cool model, a nice tweak would be to push the metal's highlights so they pop a bit more.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!

Thanks for the Happy Birthday message eightbitnasty [8)]

And another good point thanks [:)]

When i get around to those tweaks I will post another render [:)]

And it was my 21'st on the 29th of March for those who have no idea what eightbitnasty is on about.

Hey man that looks cool!
As for critique, her top coould use some more wrinkles and stuff.
Also you could put in some more shadows, like under her chin, below the buttocks, etc To really push out the detial (this is something I need to work on as well!).
Keep it up as its coming along really well.

thanks Makk, good point about the wrinkles and the shadows. cant believe i havent touched this in 2 weeks [xx(], ill have to get back to it.

Nice work .. keep it up . Only crit would be the hair . The strands are bit to big .. maybe you could make them thinner. Heres a nice hair and cloth tutorial that might help .
http://www.creativedust.com/downloads/tutorial1.zip

pretty cool tutorial Kratos, i bookmarked the flash version.
the texture resolution is a limiting factor though when painting strands of hair

- David

Maybe soften some of the noise around the shadows. It's taking away a lot of the nice depth you have in there. Remember those smaller details will be obscured if theres no light to brighten them. As it is, it's uniform all over the texture, and makes it look flat.

I could be talking shit. Been a while since I've done this stuff hehe, but give it a try.

Also more colour variation in areas where the skin is thinnest - and therefore most translucent. It is a lesson joel taught me ages ago that I never really picked up.. But things like some reddy tones around these areas.. Can make it pop. (depending what colour blood the guy has i guess). It does come off as being very two tonal though. Have a look at some ref pics of faces and stuff. Look at where you can push colour in etc.

Just a thought.

Tis a nice job though :)

ahh, good tip about the shadows, might just play around with that.
Yeah, I totally agree that the flesh doesnt have much variation. Should have a go reworking that.
Thanks for the crits bob :)

Hey no problems.

Thank joel though haha, he's the one who tried to teach this stuff to me years ago. It's only NOW sinking in.

Yay brain

haha! but it HAS sunk in :)
Anyway, did some editing, the new pics should be showing above.

Nice one :) Starting to pop out a bit more. Maybe try push the shadows further back with some cooler purple/blues or something?

very good start , i think defining and really bringing out the details in each part of your textures ( darker shadows + more "shine")will show more vibrance, as some parts look a little washed out.

love the face tho.

Yeah, definately love the work you've done in the pectoral area.

Right now the metal areas don't seem to emphasise their weight and it seems they are just grafted on rather than being a solid piece of armour - particularly round the legs. Perhaps you can think about some reflected light hitting the armour and bouncing back into the skin? Might give it a little depth.

Maybe the triceps area can do a little bit more work too.

The face is great! Great work

Thanks guys :)
Yeah it could probably use some better lighting, especially around parts of the boot.
Tried to have a go at some reflecting light, but I wasnt happy with the results so I got rid of it.

Hopefully it gets into Q3 as I have never had anything go in game before. Cant wait to gib that sucka with a nice rocket to the face!!

nice work Makk, the face really caught my eye when i was skimming through that thread on polycount. ill do a version of my own some day, already downloaded the SDK :)

if you wanted to work on it any further(i know its been a week since the SDK was posted on polycount) , id say put some stiching in the fabric and maybe even a fabric texture multiplied over the top. it does look like some sort of fabric, but its a little ambiguous at the moment.

Just a small update, the ppm has now been released.
You can grab it from here-
http://ldaustinart.com/paul/gladiator/q3mdl-provocator.zip

Here are some screengrabs of how mine turned out in game
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/shot01.jpg[/img]
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/shot02.jpg[/img]

Its been really cool to actually see something that you done in game :)

haha , sweet [:I]

awesome makk, dont suppose you have a copy of the game yourself? thats a lot of fun, blowing up your own characters :P

yeah, though it doesnt have any bots. But still fun seeing it run around in game though

Awesome work Makk, looks sweet as. Keep it up please.

Nice Work Makk!

Hey mark,

Very nice work. Your getting way better.

I see that sumea challenge is coming up. You better finish this time and come up with something kick arse.

Sorry havent been on MSN. Im working in Japan right now.... I will get internet soon so message me when you get the chance.

Chris

Heya Chris :)
Good to hear from you. Hope things are going well in the land of the rising sun :)
Yep, we should catch up over MSN sometime.

Looking good JohnN, good to see you posting again too! Personally the undefined feet are bugging me, id put some more detail down there. Ill leave the rest to people better qualified :P

Thanks for the comment MoonUnit. I ended up using the piece as an under painting and redid the whole damn thing. Added a little more detail to that foot too.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/johnn/2006321211631_final_monste…]

Looking really sweet now JohnN, good design to it. The 3D version is going to be wicked.

looking good, much improved. Not quite sure whats going on with the neck there though.. he only seems to have one below his chin. And the sqaurish line along the spine confuses the issue more when it hits the back of the head.

Very nice :o

they look great :)

Heh, I was scrolling down going "That's a quickie? Thats great! .... Hey that one's really great... that one too... tha... w... okay now he's just showin off"

awesome weight man, they look like they're really well "placed" and its a hard thing to pull off sometimes, like their action lines and stuff are really well balanced and you've got foreshortening down pat.

noice

good stuff - a quick thumbnail feeling to them but with an air of tight quality. Definitely communicates strong character in the majority of them and gets the design elements across well.

Only thing I'd really crit on would be the balance and hip to leg relationship; a few have an unbalanced bowlegged look, there's one or two where the weight's on the wrong leg for the hip angle, or one leg is shortened to compensate for the angle of hip + leg positioning to hold weight.

I wouldn't say that's a huge crit, but it wouldn't hold up too well if these where further refined from their (tight and "noice" as loom put it) thumbnail form.

I actually rather like the balance, even the ones that are off a little, looks like they're in mid action and compensation. Actually now that I look again there are a few that are off yeah, Styles is right, but the third from the bottom and I think the fifth, the chick leaning forward with the wakisashi to the right, they're my faves.

Nice work bum, that last one looks like she's got a bit of a package at the front. LOL, trust me to look there. With regards to the balance of some of the figures, there are a few that look a little awkward, but only just. But since the emphasis is on costume design it dosen't really matter. The costumes are pretty cool by the way.

Church: Can you write that last paragraph in english

cheers.

yea fukn rad.

imho tbh irl ji's comments don't hold much weight themselves, these are spot fukn on like the don mate.

heh only an opinion, take it or leave it [:)] my opinion is they're pretty rock solid, and look very cool. Just some have the weight planted on the wrong sides and #7 is slightly bowlegged.

Apologies for the wanky terms church, but I don't appreciate that reaction. You have a small history on Sumea so I won't assume you're another anonymous troll searching for attention. If you don't agree, fine - tell me why. If you don't understand, fine, ask. Maybe thats how you get your kicks, but as a moderator I can only suggest not keeping that attitude up and spamming the boards with all the immature "asl" crap.

oooo, firstly thanks guys for the nice words. More to follow and I will post my sketches and studies.. They were suppose to be quick and more emphasis on the design. :)

Jackydablunt, hehehe, no no hardly showing off, just some studies I guess. Well 2d section is a little dead here in Sumea. :) cheers dude

J.I. Styles, Thanks for the crit, and I do agree that I have overlooked some weight and leg issues. It was probably because I am rather crappier with the lower half. I think 9th from the top, right, the chick with the spear suffers quite a bit, she looks confused. I do have issues planting figures rightly on a plane. That's probably why i am trying to do more of these, so I can quickly get them into gear. More dynamic and weird angles and poses to follow. Also the 11th on the left too, her weight is definitely all messed up. Not enough to throw it off I guess but enough to make her look unnatural and clumpsy. cheers dude

LechY!!! :) how u going mate? we should catch up soon mate!

cheers everyone.

these are awsome, copied all of them into my resourse folder.

alot of variety in the costumes maby work on some different faces.
waiting for more :)

I love the costumes! They are very nice indeed.
Good inspiration.
-Parka

Very nice. amazing. simple but still stunishing... you planing on modeling any of these?

wow your artwork looks like one of the concept artist i work with.

Awesome stuff. they are just quick sketches as well.....

keep up the great work.

these are great, nice and loose. Who cares about weight issues just pump them out, its all about the ideas isnt it?

ooop, here are some more...

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_5.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_6.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_4.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_7.jpg[/img]

cheers, Min

Hey thanks for showing us these they're great!

Yknow, I've always struggled with line work...I enjoy painting because I can just slap things here and there...but there's just so much life in these sketches. Are they just confident lines or do you lightly go first and then pin them down? I'm trying to go back to basics and study contour drawing...but still I'm finding it difficult to lay down line on my own that looks "sure" (for a better word). any tips?

Oh and if you're the same dude who did those PS tutes on Concept Art Thanks!

Hey, :)

ermm, most of the time I do a really loose quick overall gesture sort of figures and go over them with details on top. Erase the whole lines with 80% eraser or just work from head down to bottom depending on what I feel like I suppose. You can sort of make out the faint gray lines on most of these.

oo for line works, check out.. this guy, Cotron on CA..
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=968062#post968062
beautiful control, always look upto him for inspiration.

As for confidence, it's quite simple I think. THe more knowledge you have about figures the more confidence you will be, so start doing some figure studies and gesture studies if you haven't been doing so. From technical point of view, try and loosen up your strokes, always go for a clean single line. Even if they don't look so confident now it's a good practice to get into I think. choppy lines can be a hard habit to break.. it's like drawing on a whiteboard!

If you are talking about the PS fruits and veggies thread on CA, yeap. :)

cheers,

Min

some more this week.....eeeeeee

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_8.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_9.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_10.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_11.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_12.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_13.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_14.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_15.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_16.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_17.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_18.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_19.jpg[/IMG]

oooooo your my new idol, there all such pretty lovely outfits...

Hey whats that I smell?.................oh thats right! improvement! :P
REally nice work buddy. These feel a lot more confident and looser. I like the way you have drawn in the folds.
Goodluck in the LMS round2 :)

awesome sketches. there's something new and interesting about each one.
Your anatomy is great and they all feel quite alive,
and you've got real creative clothes/costume design, so much range in ideas.

I aim to be able to draw and concept like these one day, to have the characters look so dimentional and alive.

keep posting :)

awsome and solid lines, very confident work.

thanks for posting, inspirational stuff.

Thanks guys, :)
makk, hehe I think I am going to need it. cheers

some more sketches from last week..

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_20.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_21.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_22.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_23.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_24.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_25.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_26.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_27.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_28.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_29.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_31.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minart.net/temp/meow_30.jpg[/img]

c&c welcome,

cheers, Min

Fantastic work, realy makes me want to get some more digital painting practice in.

Don't suppose you are an Ashley Wood fan?

:) aren't we all ashley wood fan?

some more......ermm scribbles last week..

cheers,

more delightful smaples! The Silhouettes on red are really graphic and powerful too, I'm liking them a lot.

The black&whites are very Beardsley like with the mix of solid shapes and linework... a good thing indeed.

Keep it up.

Dear Bumskee,
Love the contrasting approach to line in this. Esp the bottom of the skirt!
Regards,
EtaCarinae

John, thanks!
EtaCarinae, cheers mate.. I think i got lazy towards the skirt with that one..haha

some more.. yesterday...

bumskee2006-10-12 19:48:10

great work bumskee, all I can say is keep em coming

thats awesome eh, no crits, great lighting, very cool city.

Awsome Work!
I think the use of colour is great.The lighting looks fantastic aswell.
Well Done!

looks very nice mate.

1 question , where do u start "painting"?

If I had to give one critic, I'd say the guy on the bottom right seems to have some anatomy problems - his torso is too long, I reckon. And the way you have him twisting his body looks pretty awkward to be working like that for a long period of time [;)].

Anyway, fantastic work indeed [:)]

Hey everybody, thanks a lot for your coments, Loom, i really don't get your question.. well i did the first "doodeling" in Painter, i define all the colors and values in Photoshop (all of this in a small thumbnail) and after that i scale it up to 3200 pixels wide and star adding details by layers first, and adding textures by areas them. Souri, yeap, my art director at work told me also about that guy, characters or human figure isn't my strong point but i'm working on it. I'll give that guy a few touches before adding that piece to my portafolio, Again, thanks for your coments.!
Cesar

That?s a really cool painting Rizo. I like the lighting and the mood it sets. The city in the background helps set the scene, but if I can make a suggestion, I think it could really use a few small craft flying back there. Nothing over the top like in Star Wars, but I think a couple of small flying objects here and there would suggest a more lively city, and also give a better sense of scale and realism to the scene.

Nice ship design also.

the polar bear is pretty cool , but i think the penguin looks a lil retarded.

the penguin looks a little lumpy around the neck, id bring that in a bit... looks pretty good otherwise :)

Thanks for the comments guys.

As for the penguin looking a "lil retarded", i'm not sure thats going to help me fix it at all LOOM lol. I will take a look at the lumpiness around the neck Moonunit, however this penguin's anatomy is slightly different in areas to a real penguin, as it's going for a more comical look. These guys will be quite small on screen also but I will definatly sus it out.

Thanks.

Wow, what a great day! I got offered a Prop artist position at Krome. Can't wait.

I'v been busy training away at HOK architecture over the past 2 weeks with the 3d guys there, great bunch of lads...will miss the foosball games [;)], so I finally got back to my artic stuff for Gridwerx. Heres a little render of my polar bear.

All comments welcome.

[IMG]http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/1861/polarrender29cd.jpg[/IMG]

hey nice polar bear, i like the ice pedestal, very cool [8D]. why dont you rig it up and put it in an interesting pose?

i have to disagree with LOOM's constructive critique :/ the penguin has a nice style, although the poly distribution could be fixed up in both the models.
looks like too many loops around the eyes of the bear, you could put that detail in its back above its hind legs, cause its looking a little pointy
the flippers on the penguin have too much detail as well IMO

congrats on the job offer [:)]

- David

Thanks Shika.

You?re probably right; I didn't really need that many edge loops around the eyes on the polar bear. As for the poly distribution, I guess I was aiming at keeping the models fairly consistent all over. I would usually texture that detail into the penguin?s flippers, however, as these guys will be rendered out as sprites, I thought I would treat myself and just add some polys ;)

Cheers.

--LLOYD--

Hey congrats on the job! texture great as well :)