Character: guild thief, semi-realistic

[nightwing]

Hi.

First post here, so quick introduction...I'm a web and multimedia designer, started playing with 3D in my spare time about 2 years ago when I discovered the company had a copy of max 2.5. Been using max exclusively until a month ago, when a friend lent me his copy of lightwave to try. Still have loads to learn but I'm really enjoying the modelling tools particularly.

OK about the model, I decided to create my dnd character in 3D, and it also served as a nice project for me to learn the lightwave tools. No reference was used, modelled using subpatches. Textures painted in photoshop (no photographs). Rendered with a basic 4-point light setup and radiosity. Oh, and I used saslite for the eyebrows, beard stubble etc.

I'm happy with how he turned out, much better than my first character...but I'm such a newb at character modelling I could use comments and crits :)

Here he is:
http://196.14.184.200/terry/final01.jpg

another view:

http://196.14.184.200/terry/final02.jpg

[Da Artist]

No crits, like your style dude :wave:

[nightwing]

Thanks Illusion :)

Check your PM, sent you a reply. Explaining the process of painting his skin is a bit long and complex to post there, so let me know if you want me to post a couple of shots of his skin here.

[evil_radish]

yeah, great style, good textures and overall an excellent head =)

(i especially like the fuzzy hair effect you got going there on his shaved head, looks great!)

[nightwing]

Cheers, much appreciated :)

The stubble on his head was initially part of the texture, as were the eyebrows, but they just didn't look right at all. I'm V pleased with how the saslite plugin has worked out.

[Sublime420]

Great model and texturing. Although he looks more stupid than a clever guild theif.
ANIMATE IT BABY!:D

[sneaky_d]

Nice work - the hair's cool - how'd you get that effect? I'm kind of new to 3D :)

The textures are good, but I agree with Sublime - he needs more intelligence (maybe a change of expression?).

just my 2 cents
sneaky_d

[nightwing]

Thanks for the comments guys :)

Now that you mention it he does look a bit dim....

I'm going to try rigging him and see what sort of expressions I can generate, which might lead to some animations as well...but all of that's new territory for me.

When I get to that (and modelling his torso, clothes etc) I'll start a thread in the WIP forum.

Edit: Sneaky_d, about the hair, I used the lite version of sasquatch that comes bundled with Lightwave 7.5

[sneaky_d]

Thanks nightwing - I'm a 3DSMax man myself :)

just my 2 cents
sneaky_d

[Cynical Saint]

Looks great to me man. Please do post an explanation of the process for painting the skin. Tutorials on Head Textures are very hard to find, at least for me.

[nightwing]

Cheers for the comments guys :)

OK quite a few people have been asking about how I did his skin. I'm no skinning expert (goodness knows I have tons to learn), and I probably made a bunch of mistakes, but I'm happy to put together a brief rundown of the steps I followed.

I'll try find some time tomorrow to put it in an html file since that'd be easier than doing it in this thread. I'll post the link here once it's done.

[crashcyrex]

nice style of modeling!!!

[tegmo]

Hi,

You modeled this in MAX or LW? If you modeled this in LW, after only using it for a month, that is pretty impressive!

Cheers,

Tegmo

[nightwing]

crashcyrex: Thanks!

tegmo: Thanks, and yeah I modelled him in LW. I'm new to character modelling, but have about 2 years experience fiddling around in max, and I find LW's modelling tools V intuitive and powerful. I've attempted one character before, so I have an idea about how to go about setting up the face topology. The LW manuals are detailed enough to show me the basics of how the tools work, and the rest was down to experimentation :)

[jaykar]

hi Nightwing
not able to figure out whatz ur real name... anyways work is more imp for us. hey ur model looks good for it being ur first head. I think more defined jaw line could make him look a lot beter... he looks deformed now.. (if intentional it looks good..).. Second like u said the topology of a human face is ever interesting. U might need to figure out the distance of the lower eye-lid distance from the eyeball in the second image.. it looks slightly far..
Goodwork overall
cheers
Jaykar

[nightwing]

Thanks Jaykar...good, valid comments, just the sort of thing I need :)

The jawline was intentionally "weak", I guess I was just trying for something different to the strong jawline we see in many characters. Your comment about the eyelid thickness is spot on, in fact it probably needs another, thinner fold which will emit the actual eyelash, because if you look closely you'll see the placement of the lower lash looks wrong.

If you have any other comments or crits to add, please feel free to post them....best way for me to learn!

Cheers

[Aliens]

first head in LW....wow!! great nothing to complain for me light:wave: is awesome for subsurface modelling but a bit hard for rigging.....keep on good work