3D character MODELLING - First King Project

[lostanimator]

After dealing with the shoulders and pectorals for a while, I finally got it right, although I'd like to teak a bit yet.

Have a look at these:









When I have all clear, I'll describe briefly the whole process.

[JP]

Muchos congratuletos!

Looks damned cool! And it's so low poly from the looks of the wireframe but has so much detail, i guess the texture provides a lot of good details there!

[MasterGod]

Wawawiwa. Amazing work indeed.

[Halifax]

Yeah, wow, that is amazing. That rig looks ridiculous too!

[lostclimategames]

cant wait to see it normal/parallax maps.

[lostanimator]

It already has a baked texture (normal mapping). The render is untweaked, though. No lights, filters, no even the definitve texture.

The process, in brief, was:

- Sketch with photoshop, based on references, and some anatomy resources (R. S. Peck, "Anatomy for the artist")

- Model in 3D max 2008, following Ben Mathis (http://www.poopinmymouth.com tutorials, and George Maestri's character animation book, plus some rigging tutorials I can't relocate (sorry)

- Textures and hires model made up from displace using the photoshop adapted sketch, and then baked onto the low poly model.

Ideas to improve it but no implemented yet.

- Normals teaking (amount, lighting, bump and brightenss...)
- finish rigging
- Animation for poses and actions
- Independent eyes (not in the main mesh)
- versions with slightly different anatomy (bigger, thiner, clothing...)

[lostanimator]

Here there is a basic sketch I started for the egyptian army soldiers in the game, which I though could use for a beginner's handout on anatomy.

I hope it can help non-drawing people as a background texture for 3D modelling and such. Please use it freely for any educational/practice purposes.

Please notice this is not meant to be very accurate (so Vermeer, I assume your teeth might be scratching... sorry) , but a bunch of tips on how to find out where the bones "should be" when you sketch a character.

More or less muscular volume can be added/removed from the "frame", and the figure will stay "believable".

Hopefully I'll improve this a little sometime, but it's a good idea to get a good anatomy book for reference, although the book won't compose body positions for you, so you need to understand basic structures of the skeletal/muscular system, in order to organise the bones and skin in your 3D character. Some of these are represented here, pointing in particular to some issues that are easy to miss.



Comments/Questions are welcome, I'm sure I'm not the only one in this thread that has something to say about this.

[lostanimator]

here's the main sketch, I plan to give it some variations (moustache, beard, beardless, uniform colors/props, caps, etc.), so we don't see the same soldier all the time. Also height/width scaling of the b3d animated model could help (tested with no problems in other models).

No particular intention about egyptians being baddies... I personally think they should kick occidental tomb raiders' ass for good...



Hope you like him (does it look scary?)

[Lekane]

for arms proportions

[vermeer]

heheheee
yeh
i told u with the doggy...so, wasnt a matter of hey it's a dog... You have a vice!!! big arms+hands....

compara con las piernas...
head a bit small..

so Vermeer, I assume your teeth might be scratching... sorry

too late...lazy to delete all above...hehe

he's not scary...but that's due to expression and being regular good solider looks and details...

good job. I just loooove to be such a pain in the ass... XD

but u certeainly have a tendency to put big arms, small heads, long necks. They happened in the doggy, and I guessed was not for dog race, that's why I mentioned...me, am baaad baad... ya te invito a una cerveza y me perdonas, seguro XD

[lostanimator]

Surely vermeer, they're big, but it's not casual, not either a vice (I prefer other "vice"). I just think it'll help body expression, reinforcing gestures. I could definetely correct it if Christian "Faramir" Clavet wishes so, or in case your ulcer grows bigger than your stomach. By the way, it's not so oversized, normally they would reach the lower fourth of the thigh, and they just a little bigger, and (let me say) not in the same plane of the body, but a little forwarded.

In any case, I like to see that you people don't say it's cool, or I like it / don't like it. Maybe I should fix it anyway in the "standarised" sketch, not to mistake people with less anatomical concerns...

About the head, I was probably expressing (partly conciously...), my opinion on military people, particulary body builder/crash nuts with your empty hands / follow orders / no questioning = smaller head...

Sorry about the incorrectness, but we are also allowed to do this kind of things, aren't we?

[lostanimator]

While we get Christians opinion on the soldier's misproportions. I reckon it is good to retreat and add a more proportioned sketch for the user that might find it useful as a base for modelling. I won't remove the previous one, so you al can see what we're talking about (yes, my vices...)



This one is more like the ideal proportions. I have to say a friend of mine who is not taller than 1,65 m, has the larger hands I've seen, I wouldn't like to be slapped by those... What I mean is that ideal proportions are something we tend to overvalue, as not so many of as are as "well" made.

[dlangdev]

very nice sketches...

keep up the good work.

[JP]

Yeah cool sketches David!

I like the idea that the Egyptian soldiers aren't baddies.. they're just protecting their country's heritage from thieves. But also i guess the player won't be a baddie either (i forget the exact reason why the player has to go through the 'stargate') so it's like two gangs of goodies fighting each other because they don't understand each others missions or something.

[vermeer]

er...yep, heard that concept several times in my life...but...leonardo , miguel angel, knew well proportions and deformed for pleasure(or made "ideal" ,or any range among several...)...the canonical, not actually 'ideal' is the word (ideal in the sense s.V bc , those greeks, Miron, etc, which wre pretty unrealistic (but hellenistic followed solid cannons and super realistic, and extremely natural modeled humans(children, old man, etc) ! )) , I'd say "average"...like there's "average" in animals, etc...helps one better know real anatomy and real deformations, possible ones, even if monstruous ones...(no matter how crazy is the deformation, they still follow some phisical, or evolution rules...)...Anyway, not relating this to these actual sketches...euh...yet not conviced with the arms-hands reasoning, but okeydokey...I'll shut my active mouth just ..now.... XD main point is having solid control of the average, and why it's the average and how, you can do the greatest monsters... Same as when sombody asked me often (I also was drawing teacher for a time) why was so important to understand the body in space, while being painted, ...is as he'd be able to rotate it in his/her mind, draw from mind, or build any human in a new drawing, with average proportions or not...as well as do better master piece in the end. Even if doing expresionism.

BTW, just random thought more about my own ramblings about the matter during years than actually related to even a single thing in this thread...

PS: Besides...trust me..."averages" do work among human bodies way more than we'd would like to admit...