Sketchbook: Minimoose

[Minimoose]

Ready to finally start a digital sketchbook.

*critiques are welcome*

first of all I'm a student at the art institute of dallas, and a lot of what i post here will be school projects.

[Minimoose]

this project is for the character modeling class I'm auditing. I got approval for use of the concept from a dominance war 3 2d artist named Stefan Atanasov. sorry he fought for cgsociety and not polycount :) anyways, what you see here is my initial base mesh. I'll be doing a lot of hard surface modeling for the high poly of the armor. Then I'll be taking the head into zbrush, before kicking out my normal map and final low poly. Ill keep updating as i work

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/Base_post1.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/Base_post2.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/Gun_Base_post1.jpg

[Japhir]

very cool! i love those feet! maybe make the side profile a bit less rigid, by bending the arms slightly backwards and forwards at the elbow. (stand in a relaxed pose and see for yourself what i mean). His lower legs seem weird and broken too. (feet are too far forward). hope it helps!

[Minimoose]

ok here's my first session of zbrush for this model. im also grounding the concept a bit, the face is a little exaggerated. really ill only be doing the head, arms and legs in zbrush. the armor ill keep in max.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/zbursh_head1.jpg

[Ged]

I think you need to step down a few levels and define the planes of the face, the concept handles the bones and musculature quite harshly and this makes the character very well defined. you gotta really squeez as much info out of the concept as you can.

[Minimoose]

like more exaggerated sharper edges?

[Jaco]

I think just more developed forms. For example the cheek area of the sculpt only hints at the cheek bone, but on the concept it's very pronounced, along with other details like the naslobial fold and the muscles of the jaw.
You've definitely got the knowledge of the face, it's just a matter of getting used to expressing it in 3d.

[aesir]

Its like everything is a curve. You have no straight lines. The drawing is FULL of straight lines. I will admit though, getting things flat in zbrush is annoying.

[Ged]

OK to clarify what I mean I did a paintover on you model based on the concept and then put red lines to show all the areas from the concept which need to be visibly shown in the 3D model. hope you dont mind.

http://www.gd3dart.com/images/head_paintover.jpg

[Minimoose]

not at all, thats actually very helpful. i just cant wait till after work when i have some time to work on it :)

[Minimoose]

ok so i've continued to try to define the shapes, especially the ones Ged pointed out. i think it's working quite nicely. but the shape of the nose i kept a lil more natural and less straight like in the concept, although i did flatten it out some.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/zbursh_head2.jpg

[illybang]

this guy is looking really bad ass so far. if you're comparing him to the concept drawings, i agree that the face needs more straight and chiseled features.

[Minimoose]

started working on my unwrap, omg it took forever :) concept has so many little pieces.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/unwrap_post.jpg

[Minimoose]

ok so after class tonight, it became apparent we were all having some similar problems with our unwraps. first off, we all kinda (as in we def did) used our base mesh instead of creating our low poly. we have another 2 weeks b4 we have our char modeling class (because of the holiday next week) and in that time I'm gonna finish creating a high poly for every piece of my character. cast the normal, and reduce off my base mesh to create my low poly. which is gonna have to be especially low, because the entire class screwed up... our teacher reduced our final poly count from 9k to 6k.

[Minimoose]

ok, next project I'm working on for my Tuesday night class. It's the blaster hon solo used in star wars.
reference-
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/post6.jpg
low poly-
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/LowPoly.jpg
high poly-
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/HighPoly.jpg

[Minimoose]

after looking over this model while posting this... i realize a few things as i work that i had forgotten. a couple of small pieces, and the trigger itself. obviously i fixed them :)

edit: yeah i"m gonna need to keep working on this thing. I'm still missing a lot of detail. not to mention the handle and clamps for the scope are wrong

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/three-quarter.jpg

[illybang]

i think that the blaster is looking awesome. post up more pictures of your character. would love to see the progress. can't wait till i can be able to model something as complex as a character. i can barely do a phone!

[Terrorcouple]

Nice work on your character so far! The ZBrush work on his face has definitely improved, and he is getting closer to the concept. However, his face still feels a little too rounded on the sides. Looking at the concept, the front view of his face is very straight, aside from the top of his head. Also, there are a few features that still need to be more angled and sharply defined, such as his nose and eyes, as he currently exudes a sort of peaceful demeanor. Lastly, as an anatomy note, his jawline extends a little far towards the back of the head. Keep up the hard work, and I look forward to seeing your final piece! :)

[Minimoose]

so i've kept working on my Ahaetan character model. here's my finished low poly model. he's sitting at about 5k tris. I still need to finish off a few high poly pieces before i do my normal casting and diffuse.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/Low-post1.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/Low-post2.jpg

[Vig]

Awesome stuff!

That blaster takes me back, it was one of the first models I ever made.
If you had more time I suggest packing some more detail into the high poly, like the ribs in the grip and some of the other metal bits, like the strip of metal that goes over the barrel.

Keep crankin it out!

[Minimoose]

oh i did, a lot more detail :) but i havent posted it yet. ill get to that later this weekend.

[Ged]

nice gun, your characters lower legs still look a bit wierd and broken to me, they just bend the wrong way too much and dont have enough volume in the knee or upper colf muscles to look strong enough to hold him up.

[illybang]

hey minimoose. your character is looking great man! can't wait to see the completed high poly armor!

as for the leg, i can see what Ged is saying. the back of the knee or the very top of the calf seems to be way too thin. i think it's caused by the extreme angle the the shin muscle ends at the top along with the bend that is on his shin. maybe easing up a bit on both of those should even out the look and make the guy look more sturdy on his feet.

anyways, awesome job so far man!

[Minimoose]

so ignore the fact that parts of him are cut down as I'm unwraping this... but here's the profile with the profile of the concept. i am aware that the legs aren't anatomically correct :) it's just the concept.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/Ahaetanprofile.jpg

[Ged]

did you draw the concept? if you did and you are free to make changes? its not a huge difference just a little tweak to make it look balanced and more human...unless of coarse he is alien?

[illybang]

yeah, the concept does make his legs look a bit funked up! lol.

i do notice that if you compare your model to the concept, the front of your shin seems to bend too much. maybe move that whole line cutting through the middle of the shin up a bit and maybe even pulling the vert out some at the front of the shin. it almost looks like he has a second 'back of the knee' on his shin.

also, i think your calf muscle angle is too steep.

hope that helps a bit.

[Minimoose]

nah i didn't draw the concept, it was done by an artist named Stefan Atanasov. im trying to keep this guy pretty close to concept. my next character model ill prob take some more freedoms with the concept :)

[Minimoose]

saw this one the forums, thought id give it a try. just blocking in shapes first

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=53195

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/polycount/MDK_post1.jpg

[Minimoose]

hoping around between projects during the summer break. right now im working on a nissan skyline. doing nurb modeling. first going in with the basic shapes, then defining them.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/10-13.jpg

[Spark]

Wheres the breaks update of the car Mini? Curious to how this one turns out for you.

Spark

[Minimoose]

i actually havent had a whole lot of time to work on the skyline. i did create a seperate version of it which im not using nurbs. i have been working at my new job... unfortunately we work on creator :(
here's what i worked on while i was learning the program
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/Update1.jpg

[Minimoose]

lil texture work i did. gonna go work on my skyline now :)

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/Update2.jpg

[Minimoose]

ok so ive been watching a few other car models that ppl have done. and for whatever reason. i decided to start over with my skyline. so here's an update of what i got so far.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/artwork/6-26-1.jpg

[Minimoose]

sry i haven't updated in a while... been busy at school. This is a wip from my animation studio class. It's a Mitsubishi Evo 9. any critiques would be greatly appreciated
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/school/Progress_week4.jpg

[Minimoose]

after finding reference for the rims. i redid them. also working on rebuilding tires with treads
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/school/Progress_tires1.jpg

[Minimoose]

working on something new, this is a m24 sniper rifle. this is the high poly model. working on lowpoly and unwrap atm.
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Minimoose87/polycount/polycount.jpg

[Johny]

you could push alot more that highpoly because right now it seems like a lowpoly with polywaste all over :(

[Minimoose]

good to know, what kind of polycount should i be pushing for on the low poly? any opinions

[konstruct]

DOH, wrong thread- muh bad *deleted*