Elven Woman *Mild Nudity*

[parleee]

UPDATED: July 7, 2008





Yes, yet another armor clad, sword toting fantasy female...

I'm trying for an atypical portrayal of a well known archetype. 90% of the elf type creatures out there look very similar to humans, I wanted to break that mold a little. I'm hoping for some measure of beauty, while making a memorable character.

More to the point, it really was time for me to start working with organics. I've not had much success in the past, but I've alot more passion for fantasy than cars. This will most likely, and hopefully, be a very long project. (don't let me quit, lol.) That said, I will greatly appreciate any crits, comments, rants, and dancing bananas that you have to offer. Software is uniformly C4D. (zbrush someday, sigh.)

You may notice the thus far lack of nudity. It's an eventuality, figured I'd save the mods the trouble. (Sides, it never hurts a topic's number of views...)

[moley]

I really like what you have so far, I'm not too sure about the little 'tip' you have on the nose, doesn't look quite right to me. I love what you have done with the ears, they are great and it looks like they flow into your geometry really well. Keep going with what you are doing but just be wary of those tris on the brow.

[parleee]

So here we are, more screengrabs.

I'm really trying to get my anatomy right here. I'm not going for an extremely "muscled" approach, rather a more elegant, graceful look if possible. So please, tell me what to change if needed. I still have quite a bit of detailing to do, need to define the ribs, navel, and underarm a little more. Not too sure about the back at the moment.

moley: Thanks for the crit. As to those tris, I'm working as a symmetry at the moment, I'll merge them into a single quad once done.

Please critic and whatever else you do!

[Bigley]

hey Parleee! looks like you have a pretty solid start! I would say that the face needs more work. In my opinion it needs to be thinner and the jaw line should be defined more.
That and the face overall needs to be smoothed out. Looking good though! Keep those updates coming.

[parleee]

Jeremiah_Bigely: Thanks for the comment.

I've continued with the torso, while reworking a few spots. I've also widened the ribcage by a few inches, and tweaked the face a tad. Not really happy with the arms, trickier than they look. The backside still needs serious tweaking, but I'll get to that.

Please crit.

[parleee]

Small update.

Please tell me what you think.

[parleee]

A little more work. Close to done with the body, though I see I've quite a bit of tweaking yet. I realize that the groin needs some attention, and I'm not too sure about the scapula. Please tell me what you think.

[tolae]

Looking really good. Proportions look good. You did a really great job on the hands and feet. I really like the face also. The way the nose looks is really cool. Keep it up.

[RockstarKate]

This reference might help you:

Female anatomy (Nudity) (http://fineart.sk/show.php?w=1367)

More (Nudity) (http://fineart.sk/show.php?w=1368)

The part that stands out as needing the most work to me is the shoulder/neck area. The shoulders look quite hunched now and the arms are connected very low down on the torso.

[Shadow Wolf]

hey first I would like to say: nice work parlee!!!

I think the head, legs, arms, back, hands and feet, are looking amazing!!

but I think that there are some parts a bit weird on the torso, here is some advice (sorry to paint over your model).

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/4754/editii4.jpg

[parleee]

Thanks for the comments. I reduced the shoulder area by about 25% and moved the arms up a bit. Plus a bunch of general tweaking. Seeing any improvements?

[moley]

You might want to try widening the hips a bit, they are usually at least as wide as the shoulders on the outside of the leg, sometimes even more.

[Shadow Wolf]

besides what moley said, its awesome! nice improvements!

[Bigley]

I think the hips need to be wider. They are looking like male hips because they don't have enough curve to them. Her calves need to be thicker as well.

You know I am not sur if the hips need to be wider maybe just the legs seem really skinny.
Good work though man.

[parleee]

I think the hips need to be wider. They are looking like male hips because they don't have enough curve to them. Her calves need to be thicker as well.

You know I am not sur if the hips need to be wider maybe just the legs seem really skinny.
Good work though man.

Thank you for the comments. They are much appreciated. As to the hips, don't want to sound like an excuse, but I had intended both the hips arms and legs to be narrow and thin. I realized that the hips were much narrower than normal for a human woman, but this is not a being often suited for child bearing, so i figured wide hips were unnecessary. It could be too much so though, I'll work on it some more.

Thanks again.

[parleee]

Update. Did a bunch more tweaking, really refining the shape of the torso a bit. Most obviously, I've started the armor. These portions still need alot of tweaking, especially around the breast. I've also got a bit of clipping going on, but all things considered, I think it's going pretty well.

I'm a lot more prepared for this model than my last character. I've a good wad of pages filled with my own diagrams, and concepts, which turned out to be a huge help. The armor will have well over 50 separate pieces once finished, so the more prepared the better.

Please crit!

[xmaster55]

It's coming along nicely
Keep it up.

[tolae]

It's looking really good. I've always loved overlapping styles in armor. What I mean is the sides of the shoulder armor. I like the little strips of detailing on them too, those designs are cool looking. Looking forward to more updates.

[parleee]

tolae and xmaster55: Thank you both, comments are appreciated.

Here's the armor as it stands now, still many, many parts to add. I think the hip guards could use a bit of tweaking, but I'm happy with how it's coming out.

[Shadow Wolf]

Very NICE!

but I think the navel is a tad low.

[living_for_cg]

looking nice..the topology is cool but i feel the forms need more work.
wish the best with the rest.

[parleee]

Heres the progress on the legs, still alot of work to go.

[Shadow Wolf]

wow this is turning out into an amazing piece, great work! keep it up

[Buzzy]

Yeah this is looking really nice. I love those eyes.

[tolae]

This is looking really cool, keep it up.

[parleee]

tolae, buzzy, ShadowWolf: Thanks for the comments, appreciated.

Update, I've continued with the plates, and I've finally got most of them done. The next step has been lots of belts and rivets, with cloth portions on the way. I've also rendered it with some slightly modified shaders, showing the colors I'm working with. I'm not sure if I'll keep it anistropic or not, but I like the highlights you get from the brushed surface.

Please crit.

[xxxcubanxxx]

wow dude that is one sleek looking armor I love how clean it is and the design is top notch. Also the style for the elf is unique thats what is setting you apart from the crowd. Keep the good work up. :evil:

[Shadow Wolf]

wow! sick!

[leo_pecina]

COOL !
that brushed surface is really great
I really like this whole model and her armor.
the gold and silver color look great together.
belts and rivets for the win.

[parleee]

Thank you all for the comments, much appreciated as always.

Update: Honestly, I think I shall go mad. A gazillion toruses turned into byzantine chain. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with this once I get to the rigging, but I'll figure something out.

I really need to get this done, even for after work and weekend time, it takes me too long to get stuff done. I just go accepted into vfs (yeehaw :smug:) so I really do need to get moving.

Please crit.

[Shadow Wolf]

what you could do is make a curve constraint on the chains, and make it colide with the body, the program will do the rest when you animate, I've done this before, well, in maya. If you want a more realistic movement, you could make all of them as rigid bodies (I've done this too hehe) but well, it will take a while to calculate.

[hihosilver]

VFS! congrats! That sounds really great, I've always loved the look of that school. Do you plan on pursuing modeling?

The model is looking awesome as always. That chain is simply insane! The previous render with the brushed metal looks great and realistic. Keep it up!

[KGB]

this is some nice detailing with them chains man love it i actually have the same pattern of chains arroung my neck right now :P the model is also cool keep going dude

[parleee]

Thanks for all the comments.

Shadow Wolf: Sounds like a plan, not sure if I can do that in c4d, but there's probably a way.

Update: I've mostly been working on the crown lately. I found it very problematic, but I think it came out well, a few issues to work out yet, but it does the trick.

Please crit.

[parleee]

Well, time to move onto mapping I think. I've never really mapped anything before, at least not completely. I would really like to do a decent job of this though, so any tips would be appreciated.

I've posted my unwrapped mesh as it is, how is it looking? Anything in particular you think I should work on? I'm not really sure how this texturing thing works anyhow, but hopefully I can figure something out.

[wintermute]

Man, you continue to improve... A LOT.

This is looking great atm. I haven't got any crits at this stage. Just get it done!

edit:
You might consider separating the head and neck uv's and scaling them larger. Usually you'll want more space for the head/neck/face thing. Also you have a lot of unused space. Try to use your uv's more efficiently.

[parleee]

wintermute: Thank you. I have reworked my uv's a bit, hopefully it's a little better. I've doubled the size of the head, and moved everything around to fit.

Here's what the texture is looking like at the moment. Can't say I'm particularly pleased with it, but I never am. Hair texture is absolutely temporary, and I need to work on the eyes. Is it bearing any semblance of acceptable-ness yet?

I realize that such luxuries as SSS would help, but I don't really get the c4d sss method. Any help in that would be appreciated. (dreams of zbrush and mental ray...)


Thank you.

[wintermute]

For your skin material I suggest changing the spec to something other than white. I have found that a dark grey works. Also you might want to change the overall level of specularity. You can also play with the hardness.

I'm not sure what it's called in C4D ambient or under Lambert or whatever it's the reflection level. I suggest you turn this down as well.

The texture itself looks ok so far. You could throw in some more layers of color variation, noise, wrinkles and whatnot.

Another important part of making skin look real is the lighting in your scene. She seems to be way over lit on the right hand of the image.

Finally, you should try learning how to use the SSS. It'll boost the realism to the next level.

Give us some updates!

[parleee]

Well it's been a long time. I'm basically finished with the project now, just a few little things to fix before I move on. I'm open to suggestions about what you think should be done. I realize that there are a ton of issues that could be fixed, but I figure that it's better to take what I've learned to something new rather than procrastinate over this for the next few months.

I will be fixing that terrible platform yet, and I'd like to give some kind of background, though I'm not sure what. For some silly reason, this took over 32hrs to render, so that's another reason to move on.

[Rych]

Great pose and feeling to this character, but I think the lack of a ribcage is really bothering me about this women, plus at the same time her boob shape is quite weird. The fact that her waist goes straight down with no bulge for her ribcage almost shows lack of skeletal support. Which is giving this character almost a stick feel.

Baron