Comp 27a Healers vs Dealers

[BiG ToE-3DT]

Low Poly Mini Contest #27a
Subject – Heaven’s Healers vs. Death’s Dealers

ALL WIPS AND CONCEPTS ARE TO BE KEPT IN THIS THREAD.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/DJBiGToE/HealersvsDealers.jpg

We here at Threedy have had our fair share of battles, be it mini or Dom War massive. So, keeping with tradition, its time that Good and Evil battle it out once more. Heaven’s Healers, vs. Death’s Dealers. Choose a side.

Heaven’s Healers:

A group of warriors hand selected to defend the innocent from evil. They correct wrongs, and willingly put evil doers in their place. Wielding powers that revile the gods, Heaven’s Healers are recognized for the good work they’ve accomplish. As a safeguard, their maker fitted them with one major fault, the more they use their power, the weaker they become, ultimately becoming human once again. The Healers recognize this and still use their powers to hinder the dealers.

Death’s Dealers:

Histories worst can not compare to the Evil the Dealers represent. Creatures of all shapes and sizes, weaker humans loose their lives from the mere sight. Known for working alone, but not uncommon for a group to lay waste to small cities. The world’s governments try to cover up the Dealers actions, but the masses know the truth. There is a darkness that exists and when the ground trembles and the skies cry, Death is not far behind. They kill for only one reason, they can.


Have Fun!

Judging: You will pick what you believe is the top 3 entries. First place gets 3 points, 2nd place 2 points, 3rd place 1 point. The person with the most points when the voting is over, wins.


DUE DATE: January 6th, 5 weeks and a few days from today! 11:59 pm GMT - TUESDAY

Idea:
Choose either a Healer or Dealer. Healers are humans that have good on their side; your model should represent that. Dealers are evil. More than just looking scary, your Dealer needs to scream evil. At first glance any on looker should be able to tell if your character is good or bad.

Poly limit:
10,000 Tris Total. You can do whatever you want with these, just don’t get carried away and don’t exceed the 10,000 Tri Limit. Remember, the limit tells you where to stop, there is no minimum, so use as much of the limit as you see fit.

Textures:
2048 x 2048 texture. This means 2048 for color, 2048for bump, 2048 for normal, 2048 opacity, so on and so forth. You can chop it up into whatever you want, but you still need to go all out in your texture.

Textures can be hand-painted or you can use photographic sources. Do what you do.

Pedestals/Stands:
You do not have to create one, but if you do, understand that there is no texture or tri limit. You can go as crazy as you want, or keep it as basic as possible.

Prizes: (only available with 6 or more final entries)

1st Place gets the following:
- 12-month subscription to the 2DCreative magazine
- 12-month subscription to the 3DCreative magazine

2nd Place gets the following:
- 12-month subscription to the 3DCreative magazine

3rd Place gets the following:
- 6-month subscription to the 3DCreative magazine

Final Pictures:

Required In The Final Post (1 post per entry):

- 1 x Winning pose shot. This image should consist of your character(s) in some sort of a pose.

- 1 x Beauty shot of your character(s). Feel free to put multiple angles of your character(s) or just one big version or your character(s) on this page. Even better, try to composite a nice art piece similar to the ones in the Winners' Gallery. Be careful how you do this though, simple is often better. It’s up to you.

- 1 x wire frame shot of your character(s). Feel free to put multiple wire frame shots or just one big wire frame shot on this page. It is up to you. Must have polycount included.

- 1 x texture sheet that includes all your used sheets squeezed into "one" sheet.

- Concept Sheet

A Final Entry Thread will be up and waiting around the end of the third week/beginning of fourth week. Don’t forget to submit your work by posting it in the final thread.

Good luck everyone!
BiG ToE.

[Chung Wong]

Ace, thinking of something along the lines of a death nurse

[Perversonality]

I'm not committing to making an entry just yet, but I'm thinking something along the lines of a fallen angel as a death dealer... I could possibly squeeze a healer version out of it too, time and enthusiasm allowing. Still feeling a little burnt out from the last challenge though, but we shall see!

[Buzzy]

Does the concept have to be our own? And can we enter both halves of the comp with a single entry?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

concept does not need to be yours, but you will need to give props to the person it belongs to.

If you want to do both a Healer and a Dealer as one entry that is fine, but you still only get the 10,000 tris to play with. Might be better to make two seperate enteries.

[Buzzy]

By "both halves" I meant the Pedestal and the Character.....not Healer and Dealer

[BiG ToE-3DT]

oh, yeah, you can do both, as one.

[Mr. Bluesummers-3DT]

Hah! The title is classic!

[the_bromox]

Sounds fun, I will be doing the Headless Horseman

[mastein]

wow, nice !
Hope to have time..
;P

[Novian]

Nice! I'm in. Big Toe, I'm very impressed how you turned it around. Honestly another "scary/evil/death" thing wasn't sounding that fun.

My entry will be a healer. Probably a Paladin.

Cheers~

[Warlock 279]

Schweet!


BiG ToE - Nice brief, +1 for the Title.

[Tank[NL]]

sounds cool. i think i'll do something a bit less organic this time. something like a powered exosuit and a big gun ( for the death dealing... :) )

[jodas]

oh man just got my semester stuff going on, better start working now as i might have not enough time :S gluck everyone. really nice idea weve got here !

[mies]

hmmm sounds like fun..

[poopipe]

Buzzy in ?

this could prove to be pretty entertaining

[Madara13]

I like Death’s Dealers.

[warrior21]

interesting contest, just might enter. been wanting to do a creature for a while. quick question: do you keep the w.i.p.s in this thread or do you create one yourself?

[FrZnChAoS]

i think ill try a healer type character, will come up with a concept in the next day or so. hopefully lots of entries on this one :).

[BiG ToE-3DT]

warrior21: wips stay in here.

[dagoned]

This sounds badass. I'm pretty new to this forums but i'm actually pretty exicited about this new challenge. I think that i'm going to do a healer.. if time allows me to. thank you

[defaultalias]

lol, 5 min sketch... it's still the holidays so i might finish this(!?). i like the head design and arms, not sure about the rest.
btw, it's a healer in case you were wondering
->>Old Image<<- (http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i101/defaultalias/dealer02.jpg)

EDIT: spent a bit more time on it.
jpg compression sucks
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i101/defaultalias/dealer03.jpg

[jodas]

here's mine concept. not exactly the way i wanted but my skills couldnt get any further. im still new to PS :blah:

himself

http://i373.photobucket.com/albums/oo178/jodas_alus/ddhimself.jpg

and his mace

http://i373.photobucket.com/albums/oo178/jodas_alus/ddshellspike.jpg

still wips

[novarg]

something i dont get...

i have to choose healer or dealer or i can make both of them?

(sorry for my english in case of something is bad writed)

[jodas]

heh. you can do one of them or you can do both of them as well. i think you could even make a few entries

[lampshadehead]

My entry is a take on Frank Frazettas classic Death Dealer. I'm hoping to compete in the stand competition as well. Here's what I've got so far on my version of the helmet :D

PS. I'm working in Blender

[xXm0RpH3usXx]

i made a healer for another competition (actually for real Warcraft *pointing to the Arthas/Lich banner in first post*)
may i be able to enter with that when heavily modified?
(the texture is now from blizzard, i'd make a new one and redefine much stuff)

and people would need to lead me a bit and cheer me up! would someone do that?^^

[Perversonality]

Still not committing to entering the challenge, but I've started on a concept. I have a load of work to do over the next month or so, but I might get somewhere with it.

http://www.lowpoly.co.uk/images/threedy/angel/angel_001.jpg

I drew out the torso, "skirt" and wings separately and combined them into this one image. Obviously it's pretty generic so far, but I want a template for both the healer and the dealer, so this starting point is simply about style and proportions. Unfortunately I used a lined pad when drawing so there's some horizontal lines left over from the scan! I also mirrored half the torso and the wing to make it more consistent

[jodas]

hey lampshadehead is it still polygon mode or youve smoothed it already ? and if its polies then how many tris are there ?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

xXm0RpH3usXx: you can use the same design, but with the increase in the poly limit, you would have to do more than just modifiy your current model. Would be easier to just make a new one.

novarg: easy answer is, pick one. But, if you have the time, you can do both, I wont get mad at you for it.

[poopipe]

I was going to do a straight interpretation of frazetta's death-dealer but after a few hours sketching up concepts I'm just not feeling him as an interesting character to model. He makes a great picture and all but I'm just not into making him :(.

Anyway, remember the gorgon concept I dropped for the last comp?

I think I'll be undropping it for this one :D

[dhin]

I'm in. Thinking along the lines of Healer, but the Dealer sounds fun too... DO minions count towards your limit? Kinda like the Darkness' power to create those darklings (goblin things) that are always around him... :D Too many ideas.

Mr ToE how could I have doubted you.

[Novian]

xXm0RpH3usXx: I believe it was mentioned in a previous comp that all entires must be original works for the comp itself. The rules may have changed for this one althought I don't see it written (and wouldn't imagine that they would). To be on the safe side and avoid DQ I'd take Big Toe's advice and make a new model. You can use the same design as he states and even improve the details with the increased poly/tri limit.

Cheers~

[lampshadehead]

It's all polies and there are about 1500 tris. The horns are pretty heavy but I want them to have a good smooth shape. I'm not sure the best way measure tri's in blender. It's mostly quads so I multiplied it by 2. :)

[Chung Wong]

xXm0RpH3usXx: you can use the same design, but with the increase in the poly limit, you would have to do more than just modifiy your current model. Would be easier to just make a new one.

novarg: easy answer is, pick one. But, if you have the time, you can do both, I wont get mad at you for it.

Will he or anyone else be able to enter both?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

I would like to say yes. But when/if you do, you would need to label them as entry 1 and entry 2.

[neokyubi]

yay, this sounds like fun.
unfortunately i'm having finals in a few weeks...
I don't know if i can finish this,however i still want to
toss in my 3D sketch of my Death Dealer.

and some funny idea i had in mind..
It'll be a humongous flail smashing heavens healers :)
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/2748/flailos9.th.jpg (http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=flailos9.jpg)

[newhere]

This seems like a cool comp to enter but i'm still working on the Anomaly project. Great models and concepts so far and i hope to see more.

[jodas]

quick 3d sketch

http://i373.photobucket.com/albums/oo178/jodas_alus/progress3.jpg

[Chung Wong]

I would like to say yes. But when/if you do, you would need to label them as entry 1 and entry 2.

Sweet, I'm guessing that if anyone did two, it would have to be one death dealer and one healer? Not two death dealers or vice versa yeah?

[mies]

I think...Im going for an egypt ancient warior something..will post soon something..i hope.. great work already guys..is it me or are there more dealers than healers sofar o.o...we need more good guys XD

[Joseph Pomeisl]

Don't worry, mies, I've got a healer underway. What's your's gonna be?
2,000 extra tri's goes a long way, eh?
So, if we build a character we can team up with someone who's building a pedastal?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

So, if we build a character we can team up with someone who's building a pedastal?

I dont see why not.

[dark_maggot]

Wow it has been a while since the last time I entered the low poly challenge, but I will join this one. I am working on my concept at the moment so expect that in a few days.

[poopipe]

ooh, 10k - i may have enough for the snakes

[Perversonality]

Looks like I'm going to have to drop out already as I'm not going to have access to my home computer for a couple of weeks during the duration so I already know I won't have time to complete my entry. I'll still be able to get on here and post comments though, so at least I can still contribute!

[strict9]

I'm just not feeling him as an interesting character to model.
bah humbug hehehe

(your concept looks wicket...4 boobs and all(starting to see a pattern in your designs-not complaining tho ;)
anyway....i am going with the pony...blocked out the concept and thinking of making a huge Axe and some trinkets (trinket depending on tri's i have left.
anybody got blender that can tell me where it counts tries?

128780

[Sylverstorm]

Poopipe: Yay! after all this time we get to see the medusa in 3D.
strict9: Looking good, that is one cute looking death dealer. :haha:

[mies]

so.. cool....love the pony not sure if its a bad or good guy though like this :P cant wait to see more from that.

[strict9]

will add a big ****** axe and if it's still not clear..probably hang some skulls on the back of the saddle.....nothing spells death like skulls, i'm open for suggestion hehehe i model as i go along

[mies]

its wasnt ment as critisism o.o its just so cute and cool at the same time ^^

[Joseph Pomeisl]

Glad to see you, strict9. Not sure about getting the count in blender, but from the looks of it you are still quite short of the limit (even after refining)- you should easily be able to fit in the extra bits.

Applied STL Check and it shows the red areas as 'open edges'. This seems to be the reason xnormal is having problems generating the normal maps - I've tried rebuilding the polys; welding verts; turning face; flipping face; but the offenders remain. Anybody know what the problem is?:wall:

[Buzzy]

I know I've seen problems with xNormal if you have UVs greater than 1.0

[Ignaselis]

anybody got blender that can tell me where it counts tries?


I had the same problem myself, however did not manage to find the place where it says it. The workaround I found though was add the decimate modifier to it (without actualy using it). Then the face counter on the top of the screen displays the tri count

[dhin]

I think that I am getting closer to a concept that I want to use. Defiantly gonna be a healer, but I'm gonna try to see if I can use the same base mesh with only slight alterations to make a dealer to if time allows. Call it my own personally challenge for getting in there getting it done and really pushing myself. I'll post what I have as I clean it and get it ready. Probably not gonna have anything to show for a day or so.

[Buzzy]

Alright, I'm in. It's official.
I will be doing a death dealer....a brutish undead sort of abomination inspired by Tomas Giorello's work in the Dark Horse Conan books. I'll get some concepts and refs posted soon.

[poopipe]

this is going to be tricky - looks like I've got some work on over December.

I'm not bowing out but updates may be sparse.


I'm looking forward to the fight buzzy ;)

[Darchand]

Not sure if I will be in this one either. I do have several good idea's of what I would or could do but I am not sure if I will enter.

[strict9]

Not sure if I will be in this one either. I do have several good idea's of what I would or could do but I am not sure if I will enter.

Show me:roll: hehehe

anyway i decided to give deathhelmet a sidekick/pet....hyhyhyhyhyena
depending on room on texture maps if it will stay..maybe a pack of them lol
heres a update....maybe a few more trinkets like a big belt buckle or something to be added:
128834

[mies]

i cant wait to see some textures on that. looks very promissing.

[Novian]

Strict9: Looking good. Is he a mini-character or something like that? I can see him as truely powerful but the good guys never take him serious and then he turns them into a big, smoking crater.

Cheers~

[Novian]

I'll have my concept art up by the end of the week and the rough pass of the mesh to follow shortly thereafter.

Cheers~

[strict9]

i cant wait to see some textures on that. looks very promissing.

hehehe yeah that makes 2 of us.
i'm not sure when to stop modeling and start unwrapping.....ones it's unwrapped and some parts painted...i don't really want to mesh around with uv anymore.
but it will be soon...i promise ;)

novian..yup it's a mini...allthough i had to make the legs longer than planned.....but short legs sitting on a horse looked a bit wierd

to all:
do i need to make a strap for the sword or when it's a mini....it can just float?
i'm not familiar with the "rules" of 3d world

[setschaos]

So I want to ask before I commit to a final concept, can our healer be a dealer of the light? Does it have to be a healer verbatim, or can it just be a good guy, like a Hellsing kind of good guy. Vagabond-ish, vigilante kind of thing going on...

[dhin]

@strict9 - It's up to you with the strap, totally. You could just paint it on or model it or leave it out you are the artist. Now you do have a 10k limit on pollies, so if you're already there then fake it, but if you still have room to play then go wild as long as you've got it.

@setschaos - It's up to you on what you do... I sound like a broken record. The only limitations you have is at first glance a viewer has to be able to tell if it is a healer or a dealer. So if your concept doesn't read well to your characters alignment then you might have some difficulties in the end. I'll give you this bit of advice: if it doesn't look like it fits add a very easy to see icon. Icons like holy or unholy symbols will likely make a bad-@$$ looking character fit his charter. An undead lich wouldn't be wearing a holy symbol for a good god, and a paladin wouldn't use a defaced or desecrated holy symbol. If they look like they are too evil looking, well make them less, or add a cute little bunny or squirrel.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

yep.

[Martin_x]

I'll go with death dealer. Started with helmet

[Joseph Pomeisl]

Nice modelling, Martin_x. Very clean ane neat shape. The only thing I can see is that the horns, verts closest to the helmet, lose that nice curve. I probably looked at this one too long. Really neat design.

[FrZnChAoS]

heres my healer concept. hopefully finish on time for once.

[Warlock 279]

defaultalias - Nice sketch, looks like a fun character.

jodas - Not bad. Should make for a cool creature. I'd maybe beef up the handle of his mace a bit, looks a little fragile right now if its gnarled wood.

lampshadehead - Nice start, very faithful to the source, nice and smooth, looking good.

xXm0RpH3usXx - I'm looking forward to seeing your character beefed up to these specs. I like his mace.

poopipe - Your gorgon should make for a very interesting dealer. [Or healer if you really wanted to twist things around ;p]

neokyubi - Your creature has nice proportions and a good silhouette. Hopefully you can find time around/after finals to get in on this challenge.

strict9 - Nice to see someone going with a stylized entry. Looks great so far. Little script for checking the tri count in Blender (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=91&t=651532) Give that a try if you have python installed, should do the trick for counting tris for ya. [Never used it myself tho.] If you've got the available tris, I'd cram every detail into that little guy you can.

Buzzy - Glad to hear you're in. Should be interesting to see what you come up with.

Martin_x - Nice start, looks like an interesting take on the helmet. For some reason, I kinda think it should have a plume tho.

FrZnChAoS - Not bad. Any thoughts on how you're planning to do the feathers for the wings yet? Nice sword design, a bit elegant in a way, suits the character.



WIP Going the dealer route, hopefully that'll become more obvious as it progresses. I'd like to have him on a mount in the end,The armor style I'm using seems to eat polys up pretty fast, so we'll have to wait see about a mount till the end. :grr:

Anyway, helmet, mostly done, swords, done [I'll add or switch to a pole arm if I do get him on a mount]. Note no mouth, as he'll have on a black balaclava, and the skin around his eyes will be painted black so as to add to the surreal/intimidating look of the mask.

[mies]

wow...thats impressive..i tried to make something like that withoud the poly limit and it didnt look that cool. with the textures on it its gonna be so cool! im not sure i should compete anymore with al you guys making such awesome work XD. very nice!

[poopipe]

Wee! warlock's in too.

this is going to be a good one. I can feel it :)

[Novian]

Just when I thought I had a chance, Warlock joins >.< :P hehe Great to see you back guy! Your dealer is already looking quite menacing.

I have my finished concept, now working on model sheets. I should have those up by the end of the week.

Cheers~

[Darchand]

I was thinking of something like a Native American Death Dealer. Or possibly counter some ones entry. Say for example the gorgon poopipe is making I would counter with a mythical healer type character like a mer-type person or something along those lines.

[Buzzy]

Thats a cool idea Darchand. Counter some one elses entry.

This is looking to be a cool contest. Some good artists entered so far. Looking forward to the challenge. I will post some inspiration and reference soon. I'm not much of a concept guy, so I may not do an official concept, I may just piece together an amalgamation of inspirational artwork.

[poopipe]

I agree, that's a sweet idea.

I may not be the best person to counter since I'm not sure I'll have time to finish.

I've been developing the concept a bit more using pencils and paper since I didn't fancy sitting in front of a glowing box much this week.


edit:

i got round to scanning and slapped some paint about in artrage

[lampshadehead]

I'm curious to see what her back will look like where the 2 torsos come together. I know you will think of something :)

[Buzzy]

Here's my inspirations sheet.

http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/inspiration.jpg

[Joseph Pomeisl]

Glad I checked this before going to bed; looks like bad dreams for me tonight.:)
That one in the 2nd row, far left - I can't remember his name (Dave K, I think) but he posted a really great piece on Game Artisans 2d challenge, worth checking out.
Oh, sorry 3dtotal...I mean, I never go anywhere else. Come on baby, you know I wouldn't do you like that.

[ryvick]

what do you guys think not serious enough?
i was thinking dual weapons maybe and he is a heavens healer.

[poopipe]

I'm curious to see what her back will look like where the 2 torsos come together. I know you will think of something :)


I've had a think about it. She's definintely going to need 2 sets of shoulderblades and collarbones but I can't quite work out how the ribs will sit and whether there would be two separate sternums or one long one.

I may need to put the sets of arms closer together

[FrZnChAoS]

warlock 279: edge flow & shape look solid. looks good so far.

poopipe: your concept ability is amazing, cant wait to the finished model.


nothing to post really yet, just working on the female body so far. probably get some pics up after work. anyone have any good strats on doing wings. Was thinkings about just modeling them with very little definition on the z plane, except for areas where the bones would go. Than just trying to zbrush and bake the details. Will probably be the most painful part of this project.

[NitroLiq]

Buzzy: You should add the old Rodney Matthews cover art for Nazereth's No Mean City album to it:

http://www.rodneymatthews.com/gfx/nomeancity.jpg

It has a bit of the 80s Heavy Metal comic illustration style but I remember staring at the cover for hours as a kid imagining a background story to the character and place.

[neokyubi]

Buzzy i think that fat dealer in the far left bottom corner is nice :D those souls or humans he ate and shining through his stomach just gives me the creeps :)

Warlock 279 thanks for your kind words.. they actually inspired me to work a little on that guy today. So i'll take some time later on to comment you guys' work as well. But for now its studying for me... :xx:

so here's an update.
He will wear some dragon/demon skull as his helmet. Still missing the teeth and some nice horns :)

edit:
and here are the added horns

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4651/helmofdoomcy5.th.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=helmofdoomcy5.jpg)

[poopipe]

thanks for the kind words

I had half an hour spare between monumental cockups at work so I knocked up a quick base and started a rough sculpt to get an idea of how I'm going to structure the body.
I think the front is going to give me more trouble than the back actually - there's less muscle mass to hide mistakes under so I'm going to have to get the bone structure right

um, about 75k atm ;)

[neokyubi]

Wow poopipe,
that is a great start! :) i cant wait to see more of your details.
the muscular structure beneath her skin is nice.

[Firehazurd]

Here is a very rough concept of what I'm thinking. Old man tailor who sews you back together.

Man that is the worst hand and leg I think I have ever drawn... but it serves its purpose.

[neokyubi]

Firehazurd so he's a tailor and no doctor? :D creepy brrrr i wouln't want him to sew me back together :D

i changed some stuff, removed the horns,added some armor and changed the weapon. I'm still thinking on how the weapon should be... a huge bone-axe? a huge bone-mace? a huge-bone...bone? :) or should it be with metallic parts... hmm..

[Firehazurd]

Yeah, he would stitch you back together like he would a article of clothing, but you would actually heal back together instead of just being stitched... I think I can illustrate it in action somehow... Also thinking of creating a little grand daughter apprentice kinda thing.

[Warlock 279]

Darchand - Yeah, that'd definitely an awesome idea to counter someone else's entry. I hope we get a few entries like that, or some of us can find the time to have a go at a second entry.

poopipe - Your sketch looks pretty good. Give Google a poke, see if you can't find out how others have handled the multiple arm conundrum, can't say I've really ever thought about the physiology of that before. Sculpt looks plausible enough so far, so I think you're on the right track.

Buzzy - I'm not one for successful concept sketches either, I tend to end up with a undecipherable scribble, that doesn't do much to convey what I'm thinking. Looks like you've got a nice pool of reference there to work from tho for sure.

ryvick - There's no harm in taking a less serious approach. Should be refreshing to see actually since most people seem to be going for the hyper-realistic look.

FrZnChAoS - Thanks, the body's topology is likely to get all changed around tho as I figure out what armor extruded from the body/what armor isn't etc, as well as adding the appropriate baggy clothing.

Wings (http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w303/Warlock279/Mini%20Tutorials/?action=view&current=Avian-Muscles.gif) <--- for what its worth there's a couple images of a bird's wing's structure, might help get you started.

neokyubi - Looking good, I kinda liked the horns personally. How about a combination of brass knucles/mace. Like a half sphere that he'd wear like brass knuckles, with the outside covered in spikes like a mace. He looks like a brute to me, someone who can take a good bit of damage in close combat before it effects his ability to fight. Any kind of heavy weapon should work I think, axe/hammer/etc.

Firehazurd - You're going the flesh-tailor route then? Should be interesting to see how it shapes up.

wow...thats impressive..i tried to make something like that withoud the poly limit and it didnt look that cool. with the textures on it its gonna be so cool! im not sure i should compete anymore with al you guys making such awesome work XD. very nice! Thanks, I'm hoping it turns out half as cool as the idea in my head.

Of course you should jump in, regardless of the competition. You'll learn plenty as you go. One of the nice thing about challenges is you get a diverse group of people all exploring similar ideas/characters/creatures, with the same specs, facing a lot of the same technical challenges. Thus you get to see a variety of ways of going about the different tasks all at once all in one place.

Just when I thought I had a chance, Warlock joins >.< :P hehe Great to see you back guy! Your dealer is already looking quite menacing. Haha, thanks. I've been itchin' to get back into the arena.

[Firehazurd]

Poo: Yeah, I'm getting excited about some of the imagery I could use. Can't wait to see how your 'dusa comes out.

Working with some creative smoothing groups to get a cool contour on some parts of the face. I'm a sucker for that crap.

[ryvick]

thanks warlock. cant wait to see your progress.
i made him a lil bit tougher looking instead of funny looking.

[Firehazurd]

Some, perhaps, un-noticeable changes.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

think I'm going to play with you guys. Here is where I head is at.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/DJBiGToE/concept-2.jpg

[Firehazurd]

I head is at top of body.

;)

[chun]

BiG-ToE: That looks awesome.

[jodas]

looks like were going to have a nice bunch of entries :dance:

anyways i got a problem while working. i can no longer use the right mouse button in maya. its working everywhere else but when i want to use it in maya - it does not. anyone had anything like that ? oh and the RMB works in hotbox mode : |

and yeah ive reinstalled maya too

[YdoUwant2know]

Man it feels odd posting is this forum again... but this competition sparked my interest.

The plan right now is to crate two models using the same base mesh. My hope is to crate both a good healer, and an "evil twin" dealer. I'm looking at going with an angel/fallen angel combo. I figure 5000 +/- 500 tri and a 2048 by 1024 map each should be more than enough to create what I'm envisioning.

If there is time, I hope to create a custom base as well to enter into the part b competition. The concept I'm working on right now would use the same basic scene customized for the healer or dealer. Think of it as before and after type thing. The idea is to show the same place, just for the healer, it would be full of life and green plants, while for the Dealer, it would be rotten and brown.

I have a few sketches and such worked out for both characters, and their respective bases, but nothing I am ready to post. I spent most of today cranking out a base mesh to use for both character.

[poopipe]

Toe : yes!

neokyubi : brilliant - weapon wise. A dirty great dinosaur leg bone club thing would be excellent

Buzzy : are you going fat? fat would be good

Warlock : I'll say it again - I wish I was generous enough to put the time you do into looking at everyone's work and commenting. you're a real asset to this place.
Are we going to be seeing a full sculpt from you this time round?

[Stereo-Kid]

Here is where I head is at.


I think that goes for most of us ;P

Nice entry so far neokuybi!

This comp sounds great, I'm in. I'm gonna go for a healer. He'll have four arms and two blades that curve out at the top that I could show you now if Imageshack would work! :roll:

[neokyubi]

YdoUwant2know nice idea to make an evil twin :) That for sure gives some nice action/fight pose possibilitys.

Stereo-Kid thanks, your concept sounds interesting. you can always attach image to this forum.

poopipe i decided to go for a flail. It somehow fits him more i guess.

Firehazurd the head is coming along nice. I still dont want to get sewn together by that guy haha.

BiG ToE-3DT Thats a nice collection of concept art for reference. I'm looking forward for your combination :-)

ryvick I like that style.. it somehow reminds me of kingdom hearts monsters. Also that jacket is very nice with that fur

Warlock 279 yea, Maybe I'll add those knuckles you described.. it sounds brutal :-D and thats what he is going to be muahahaha

Somehow I lost sight of my duty to study for finals... ahh !!
well here's some head and skullhelmet progress
(I'm having problems with the extracted displacement and normal maps from mudbox.
Does anyone know how to "show" those in 3Ds max? I used a material where my bump slot
has a normal bump with the normal map set to 30. and the displacement slot has the displacement
map set to 5) the cracks in the skull somehow cant seem to show.. just the texture)

[Joseph Pomeisl]

Ah, Battle Chasers...how I miss you. Probably some of the coolest comic drawing I've ever seen.
Neokyubi: the maps seem to look fine(the bottome left is with them applied I imagine), but maybe try swapping the color channels in the normal map's slot - or paint the cracks on the diffuse texture.

[poopipe]

you'll need a DX shader to display the maps in viewport - I've not seen one that handles displacement maps yet but for normals there are lots available

check buzzys DirectX shader thread in the low-poly section - he's put together a really nice shader and there are instructions on how to use it.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

neokyubi: do what poopipe said, and, stay away from the displacement maps for your game art, it will change the flow, look and poly count.

Also, for more help with your issue, can you post up a screengrab of your material editor.

[poopipe]

hmm,

DX10 and the new openGL stuff can support displacement mapping/on-the-fly geometry creation so there could actually be a case for allowing it.

it'd be hard to lay rules down in the context of a competition though.

[silverflame]

here's my concept for a sea creature controlling healer i did in my free time hopefully get some free time this week to start modelling, if not it'll be the week after.

[Buzzy]

poopipe - I wasn't planning on going obese, but my character will have a gut....he's rather gorilla-like

On another note, I actually have a displacement shader, but its REAL rough....I more or less copy-pasted some code from another shader and hacked it together. So, it is completely feasible to use displacement maps....but they really don't look that good....you get weird parallaxing effects along UV seams. It is really best suited for tiled terrain

[BiG ToE-3DT]

hmm,

DX10 and the new openGL stuff can support displacement mapping/on-the-fly geometry creation so there could actually be a case for allowing it.

it'd be hard to lay rules down in the context of a competition though.

this is true, guess I should just sit back and relax on this one.:dance:

[poopipe]

hmm

Buzzy makes a very good point in that realtime displacement isn't going to look the same as the displacement materials you get in offline renderers - I know that's the case with lighting etc. but the difference could be dramatic in this case.

[Firehazurd]

Now the Tailor is finally clothed. The golden days of working on the nude body of an old man are over... *sniff*

[mies]

hmmm when im looking at ur guy it doesnt feel like a hero..or evil guy neither. now maybe thats just me ofc but maybe you could share ur own thoughts bout that with us :) would be cool. btw guys i almost done drawing my first ever concept art and gotta say...i dun really like it XD

[strict9]

yeah i think you should allow displacement hehe mainly because thats the only thing i have discovered of making..that "normal" business isn't working for me.
tried the nvidia plugin for photoshop...but it doesn't seem to work on my ps elements.
anyway...heres a bit of paint...still need to tweak the paint ALOT but you get the rough idea
129067


going to try and figure out glow map....nice red glowy eyes would be good hehehee

[mies]

its cool, looks like something i would run into with a zelda game orso lol. very nice. heres first ever serious attempt to making a concept art. be nice but please tell me what you think and how i can improve it. side note: my model wont be an exact copy of it. its more an idea of what way i want to go with it. so please tell me what you guys think.http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii153/misaelbroertjes/lolfirstsketch5.jpg

[DeadlyFreeze]

Been meaning to catch a comp in awhile, so you got me for this one.

Cyber punk healer with some kind of shield power? Ill just go with that... speedy concept, still need to work up some kind of weapon for him. Maybe some gear on his back or something.

http://home.comcast.net/~dfart/healer_concept.jpg

[Madara13]

everyone so cool > <~

[Martin_x]

Feels like lot of entries)
Big Toe great choice) Who she gonna be dealer or healer?
Here's my dealer's base mesh.

[Darchand]

wow Martin that is looking great. Can't wait to see the final product

[Joseph Pomeisl]

Congrats to Poopipe, Martin_x and Daddy OH! Will we see a three-peat?

Hope to have something up in the next day or so.

mies: maybe more trinkets around the neck? the snake-piece could be living? some kinda hieroglyphic tattoos running up his arm?
DeadlyFreeze: cool shield idea...kinda like Shell in Final Fantasy. Maybe if you go with the generator on his back there could be tubing and wires that connect to different areas of him.
strict9: nice start - just a little too shiny. For the plugin - play with the settings a bit; there's no reason it shouldn't work. Also, set to a higher bit rate, and have it in RGB mode before applying the filter. Afterwords use the 'magic eraser' tool on the base blue color - helps in defintion, especially if applying to single layers you plan on flattening later. Kinda reminds me of the hyena from Lion King...
Martin_x: really cool so far. neat concept and excited to see where this goes.
everyone: ...I will never be Warlock...

[mies]

Joseph Pomeisl: That are some nice suggestions thank you! i like the snake piece living not sure houw i can make that clear in a still though, any1 else got an idea bout that? would really like to do that. the Tattoos is a cool idea to. Maybe it will make him abit more though guy..also been thinking bout giving him a tiny egyptian beard. u know those kinda "weird" ones. thats gonna be awesome. also started on the face heres what i got sofar:

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii153/misaelbroertjes/WIP.jpg

what do you guys think? must be plenty to improve :D

[Tetsuya]

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b132/windreaver6/ThreedyChallenges/scanx020.jpg

i think he's cute, do you? >.<

[omnicypher]

healers have a good selection of symbols to use for decoration, like the caduceus or the red cross so i might join this and make a sexy nurse with a sword and shield.

[roel]

Hi all, I'll try to make this: viking-celtic, winged warrior.

[YdoUwant2know]

Just a quick update, Started playing with the healer a bit, just trying to rough out the geometry right now. I'm sitting at about 4100 tri currently. I still have a lot to add, but I also have not started to optimize yet.

For for my healer, I'm going with looser fitting clothing, Lots of whites and silvers, vs the dealer, that will be tighter clothing and much darker.

The hope with the weapon is to create more of a natural look. A wooden staff with a gleaming gem or something like that. Still needs some tweaking, the goal was to make it look like the roots grew around the gem. Thoughts?

[strict9]

Hope to have something up in the next day or so.
strict9: nice start - just a little too shiny. For the plugin - play with the settings a bit;

your right about the brightness...i couldn't figure out why it was doing it...so i went looking at all the settings....uuhh my colour texture was set to glow and spectacular ...woops.adjusted that

as for the plugin....ps element is saying it doesn't support the plugin..so i will need to do some googling at some point

129109

[Buzzy]

Ok, first pass at my base mesh. You can get an idea where I'm going with it.
I've not decided on the weapon yet. I was thinking a big nasty bludgeon...like a morningstar maybe. Any thoughts?

http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/BaseMesh01.jpg

[Joseph Pomeisl]

YdoUwant2know: that should be great with the opposing pair idea. And she is eerily similar to what I had initially created. Best of luck with the wings. Ont the staff, maybe if some of the roots intertwined? I think it looks good as it is though.
strict9: looks better:) maybe the mouth area could be lightened up, it's mixing with the helmet a bit(could just be my monitor). Your far along with alot of time left - focus on the texture, especially since you don't have normal mapping available. Maybe the mane could use a more disheveled/strandy? look; same with the tail.
Buzzy: tree stump? dead body/ies? excellent start.
mies: maybe if was strecthed out and hissing? maybe narrow the face abit.

John the revelator, who's that writin', John the revelator, tell me who's that writin', John the revelator wrote the Book of the Seven Seals. - Son House

[BiG ToE-3DT]

Buzzy: I would play of his size, since he looks huge, you could give him something tiny, or better yet, give him something we all know to be big, but it would be tiny in his hands. Like a car, or a semi truck. Or like Joseph said, but instead of a stump, make it the whole tree, with just a few branchs and leafs.

[Agent-X]

Inspiration Reference Sheet
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r125/extremecreations2001/DeathDealerReferenceSheet.jpg

[mies]

Joseph Pomeisl: wow..we get a poly limit for 1 character and you make 8?! thats amazing. only thing thats bothering me is do you have enough texture space for al of them? and each one of them is so nice :D makes me wonder if ur days have more than 24 hours :P

buzzy: lol i dont want to run into that in the middle of the night. Already got some ideas what u gonna do with texturing? im very curius :D and i think his legs and feet seem abit small but im guesing u did that on purpus to make him look more huge?

DeadlyFreeze: thats one nice concept! he doesnt look that dangerus yet but sure want him on my side in any war if he can save my life :P cant wait to see a model of it. somehow got this feeling that he should have a flame trower thingie or something. i dont know why :S

roel: keep going there mate. if i get on some further i would like to see some bigger pics of ur model and the wire renders of it. :D its gonnabe one hell of of a Viking! nice.

[YdoUwant2know]

Just a quick update on the clothing before I call it a night. Not 100% sure how I feel about the top and the midriff. I'm hoping to be able to play with it a bit more after some shut eye.

[lampshadehead]

These entries are all looking amazing. Buzzy, the face and hands look great on your model, any chance you could show a wire?

[rockydsign]

this competition look great, many entries:halo::evil:

i think i am interest on this;P;P

[Buzzy]

Joseph, are you seriously doing 7 characters for a single entry? You're either crazy or brilliant. We shall see.

[neokyubi]

Hey guys,
unfortunately I have to drop out. Final exams shouldn't be taken lightly :-/
But I'll be watching this thread, since there are so many new nice entrys.
This battle will be interesting :) At the end somebody should make an action posed picture with all healers on one side vs all the dealers on the other side.:dance::dance:

[MiyamotoMusachi]

I am join in as a female black archer.

Here head i did today help me with topology in front:xx:.

[Joseph Pomeisl]

MiyamotoMusachi: check out this link -
http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8911&highlight=face

Buzzy: crazy and brilliant walk hand in hand.

mies: thanks. Each character took about 2-4 hours. The only reused parts are the scroll and the halo.The texture space shouldn't be an issue, I'm worried about rigging them and getting some decent poses - I plan on an action sequence still kinda feel with all the cloth and hair blowing in the wind. At this point I'm leaning more towards the crazy side - would like to do 100% Self-Illumantion diffuse only, the main problem being that my painting skills are not so hot.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

it's official, my character will be a healer.
weapon of choice: the tunning fork sword of the heavens.
it controlls the wind/sound.

edit: new sword for the ladiy.

[poopipe]

Buzzy : maybe give him a subway carriage to hit stuff with? I don't think I've seen that done before :D


oh, nothing from me yet btw. can't get at my big computer this week :(

[omnicypher]

strict9: those textures are comming along nicely, painting armor on his torso might keep that area from standing out so much.

ydouwanttoknow: that base mesh is looking great, but the corners of the lips seem to come to a single point. if you chamfered that, it would animate better.

joseph pomeisl: WOW, thats some serious ambition, i cant wait to see how thoes come out.

inspired by joe, im thinking about making a team of RPG like characters, probably 3. a feminine humble boy hero, a dumb big guy with armor, and a female sorcerer/archer. maybe even somthing for them to fight, if i have time. my final shots could be composed like a turn based RPG, using an empty open field and a sky box as my pedistal

[YdoUwant2know]

Omnicypher: Yeah right now the mouth is not set up to open or close, it is welded shut. I was focusing on the silhouette and figured I could fix that later. Good eye to catch that.

Buzzy: nice base mesh, I kind of liked the idea of using a full tree or something like that for a weapon. I guess, the only question is how bit do you want him to be. 10 ft? 50ft?

Joseph Pomeisl: Ambitious. Just a thought, why not use a single plan with alpha for the halo's? It would use a bit more texture space, but it would free up a lot of tri that you could use elsewhere to better define your models.

Toe: You always surprise me. I thought for sure you would go dealer on this. especially after all those ref images. Looking forward to see what you come up with.

[omnicypher]

ive done some orthographic concept painting, its far from finished, but im working on the proportions for now. hieghts will eventually vary.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

started on the little ladies helmet. Doesn't look like much, but if everything works out, that will change.

[Warlock 279]

Firehazurd - I like the style the face of your character has taken on. Seems pretty faithful to the style of the concept sketch. I think the shoulders are a little low at the moment, either that or the neck too wide/sloping for a frail old fella'.? Bend the knees some, old folks always have bent knees ['sides it makes the IK work better]. ;)

ryvick - Ah, that is a bit "cooler" looking than your previous sketch. Either way, I think its got potential to be a pretty rockin' piecel. I think he could use an element or two of flair yet [piece of armor, maybe some glowing magical element], but that's for down the road aways; its looking good so far.

BiG ToE-3DT - Quite a collection of reference you've got. Any idea about the source of the one in the upper right? I'm really diggin' that one. Healer? Didn't see that coming, should be interesting.

Sword looks cool, interesting take on using it to control the wind/sound, how about some earth quaking too? You know, give it a good bash, get it ringing, plant the base in the ground, radiant earth quaking chaos ensues. Just a thought.

Mask is looking pretty slick so far, not sure where you're going with it, but its a solid start at the very least.

YdoUwant2know - Base mesh looks good, and your concept sounds pretty cool with the before/after dichotomy. Your healer's progress is looking pretty good so far. Maybe an extra row of feathers if you can spare the the polys later on.

If you're wanting the staff to look more like it grew around the gem, maybe have it more knotted up and even thicker at the base of gem so that the gem is a little inside that knot and then have the fingers grow out from there. Also, gnarling the

Warlock : I'll say it again - I wish I was generous enough to put the time you do into looking at everyone's work and commenting. you're a real asset to this place.
Are we going to be seeing a full sculpt from you this time round? Aww shucks. :o Thanks! :) I'm still learning this stuff too. Can't say its not completely without benefit to myself tho. The more time I spend looking at someone else's piece, what's working and what isn't, breaking it down, and thinking about what changes I might make were it my own, the easier it becomes to look critically at my own work, and with a broader palette of ideas to draw from. Full sculpt? 'Fraid not, that's something that's still not in my tool box. :blah:

neokyubi - Shame you had to drop out, hopefully you'll have more time to jump in on the next challenge. Best of luck with finals.

silverflame - Concept looks good. Nice color choice. Maybe a small side arm or some sort? Most magic users seem to carry at least a small blade of some sort, short sword or a dagger, etc.

strict9 - Not a bad start, are you planning to go more realistic, or more stylized with your textures? I think your piece so far, begs for some wicked stylized textures personally, either could work tho for sure because the modeling is pretty strong.

Only crit I've got right now is that the style of the hyena could be tightened up some. Right now in silhouette its not that different from the horse with the flat back and high arched necked. When I think of a hyena, I think of a straight sloping back from head to tail, just my two cents anyway.

mies - Its not bad, maybe a tad "plane" tho if you will, not that you can't make "plane" really shine with solid execution, but with the poly budget available for this, I think you could dress it up some. With some interesting elements, maybe some shin guards, a piece of armor, etc; the jewelry is a nice touch and certainly on the right track, and I'm sure you've already got some other ideas along those lines. Joseph's suggestion about the tattoos would be a pretty cool element to work in as well. The original Stargate movie is always a good place to look for some pretty slick Egyptian based elements, if you're looking for inspiration.

Its the littles details that really take pieces to the next level. but by the same token, don't get lost in adding stuff for the sake of adding stuff to the point that it interferes with your ability to execute.

Modeling so far looks like you're off to an alright start. Face topology isn't bad, wouldn't hurt to give the SubdivisionModeling thread Joseph linked to a look, see if you can't refine it some more, that's a good thread. I think you could follow the flow of the head/hair covering/cloth thing/whatever you call it, a little more than you have, and you'll probably have polys enough later on too smooth it out some more. Nice start tho.

DeadlyFreeze - Slick concept. I'm diggin' the shield idea, protect the healer and the victim on the battlefield, pretty clever. Definitely could use a pack or some sort at the very least [gotta power that shield], maybe a briefcase type medi-pack as well, or an anti gravity stretcher maybe. I think the colors should work. Only comment there would, and this depends largely on you choice of colors for the boots, maybe orange pants or at least some orange accents on the pants?

Martin_x - Not bad, hips look maybe a little wide, like there might be a bit too much space between the legs. Being heavily armored the way he is, I'd expect his legs to have a bit less clearance between them. Armor, and model, look pretty cool so far.

Tetsuya - Yes, quite cute. :p Looks like you've got a lot of fun elements to work with there, should be an interesting entry.

roel - Your image is a little on the small side, but looks like you're on the right track. I like the weapon design. The horns on the helmet being as low as they are may interfere with movement a bit, depending on how far forward they are, keep an eye on that. Could probably use an extra "finger" in the wing. Not bad, keep it up, a flying viking sounds pretty sweet.

Buzzy - Nice start. I like the shape you've got so far. Definitely a heavy bludgeoning weapon of some sort would work, maybe even something like dual hammers for twice the smashing.

Joseph Pomeisl - Argh, you suck! :p Its not fair, that's too cool! I have polygon envy. :xx: Any reason why you've modeled the halos instead of billboarding them which would allow for a smoother circle, as well as some simulated glow around them? I realize its not costing a whole lot of tris either way. Alternatively, a fatter ring of polys would also allow you to billboard a smoother circle with some glow, without eating as much UV space as a single quad would. In a lot of ways tho, the segmented look of the halos could end up working if you can come up with a nice stylized texture for them.

Anyway, great idea, and they've all got unique silhouettes which is one of the keys to pulling the idea off I think. I like the animal and its rediculously large halo, its body looks maybe a little long, kinda dachshund-ish. I'll be watching this with envious eyes for sure, I hope you can get it finished.

Somebody [or you if you can work quickly enough] needs to counter your entry with the "Seven Seakers of the Scrolls"

Agent-X - Well played, the most classic and famous of all Death Dealers. Should be interesting to see where you go with it and how you make it your own.

MiyamotoMusachi - Not bad, shape looks alright and the flow isn't that bad. Joseph's right tho, you could probably refine it some yet, and the thread's a good place for some reference.

omnicypher - I'm liking the look and feel of the bottom right one for some reason. Not sure why, but it "speaks" to me if you will.



Here's where I'm at with mine. He's mostly done I suppose, still need to sort out the forearms/hands and wrinkle up the pants yet tho. While I'm not thrilled with it or some of the things I've had to sacrifice for sake of poly count, I'm determined to get this guy on a mount. I've got 3200 tris clear yet, and I can probably scrounge up 500 to 600 [maybe upwards of 1k if I really bit into it] more yet if need be.

[Novian]

Warlock: Awesome, awesome work man. I've learned alot from you; not only your work as an example to strive towards but also you're suggestions and constructive comments to others. Thank you for taking the time to help everyone else.

Cheers~

[Joseph Pomeisl]

Warlock: Thanks! Now that you've got a reputaion as 'The Criticizer' you sure didn't disappoint:) (I've had that link bookmarked since you gave it to me on the cyborg challenge). Will change ring to single plane for halo...Was trying to come up with a joke in regards to polygon envy and thought of this: You can have my extras ---

Big Toe: it would probably be hard to monitor, but what if someone could donate or loan their extra tri's to another?

[Martin_x]

Horse

[dhin]

Damn... the level of quality in this thing so far is very intimidating. Nice work to everyone so far... expect you Joseph, you're just showing off (and I love the holy cow btw...)

I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

[Buzzy]

Wow that was an impressive post Warlock.

Really nice horse martin, but looks like its already more than half your budget and you don't have a rider.


Tri sharing just sounds like trouble, Joe. You could get lots of people abusing it. For example, you could have 10 people all do crappy 100-poly entries that they know can't win just so they can give all the extras to one person who now has over 100k tris to work with. Maybe for a team event it would be cool....maybe 30k tris per team and you can split that up how ever you want between as many team members as you want, but it all counts as one entry.

Anyway, someone asked for a wire of mine so here it is:
http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/BaseMeshWire.jpg


And here's the progress on his head so far:
http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Face01.jpg

[BiG ToE-3DT]

Warlock 279: that image would be from James Hawkins (http://www.hawkprey.com/James_Hawkinsconcept.htm), if you've played or eevn heard of Gears of War, or Unreal Tournament, most if not all the concept art comes from him.

[roel]

Hi all, nice stuff around! I made some adjustents here and there. I added a finger to the wing. I also added the skirt (tartan) and sporran (the bag). I will also add some daggers ('dubhs' it seems). 8780 tris in total, so with the adjustments it will be 10M.

PS Warlock , the horns are really rediculously long so I don't think they will be a problem.
Joseph Pomeisl: can't wait to see the final result!

[aaronkny]

Here is a Demon I modeled for use in the torque engine. It's 4,356 polys which is much less than required for the contest. I could easily bumb the poly count up but the geometry is so nice I feel I don't need to. I've been modeling for a while now and aggressive critique would be much appreciatted.

[dhin]

Just a quite token update.

I should actually finish modeling tonight and then start unwrapping it and texturing it by the weekend. Only image I have at the moment. She has a full torso, arms and legs now, but I sill have the feet, hair, hands and clothing to model... Her face here is about the same as my final, think I played with her lips some but that was it.

[mies]

Great to get some input of u guys! i realy appriciate it. I did some more modeling but didnt had much time. School is taking up some time for now. Ehm, i was thinking, and please correct me if im wrong, but would it be wise to first finish the basic plane model and then ad some more details on it? or is there a better way to work?

love al the idea's. the tato for sure and ye he needs more little things. the snake is the best idea ive heard sofar, defently gonna try that..but, still not sure how to make that work..

another question guys, what would be an tipical egypt wepon?

[roel]

Hi mies, there is a typical egyptian sword. Have a look here: www.chinahistoryforum.com/.../t10097.html
Greetz

[roel]

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t10097.html
that will work...

[Buzzy]

That type of sword is called a KHOPESH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khopesh)

Also common were the SAPPARA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappara), the ADZE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adze), the JAVELIN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javelin), BOW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_(weapon))
And really any weapon common to Bronze-age Greece, Persia, Syria, and other surrounding places would be found on Egyptian battle fields.
XIPHOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiphos)
KOPIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopis)
FALX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falx)

[Warlock 279]

Novian - No problem, glad to be of help when I can. :)

Joseph Pomeisl - I've been thinking a little more on the halos, and I think I may have been wrong to suggest billboarding them to a single plane, especially in the cows case, given the size of its halo, it'll leave a big chunk of UV space in the middle unused. So I played around a little, and I think something in the middle might work the best, both in terms of polys and UV space used.

[CLICK FOR IMAGE] (http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w303/Warlock279/Mini%20Tutorials/HaloBillboards_01.jpg?t=1228781661) - The five in the bottom row are pretty straight forward, the three in the top row, are variants of the bottom, but using overlapped UV space instead. I think personally, I'd go for the overlapped UV approach, its a mix between what you had and billboarding it to a single plane, since it doesn't look like you're really in danger of running out of polys, using 12 or 16 tris for the halos shouldn't hurt, and its got a nice compact UV footprint.

Haha, I like the poly sharing idea. I know I sure could use a few spare ones here and there.

Martin_x - Your horse is looking good, very powerful looking. Like Buzzy said, I suspect you'll have some optimizing to do.

Buzzy - I like the direction you're going with the head/face, very creepy.

BiG ToE-3DT - Ah, I'd never seen his character concepts before I don't think. I remember seeing his vehicles concepts for a while back for both UT and GOW. He's got some wicked designs.

roel - Coming along nicely. I think you are going to want to use some of your remaining to smooth the wing, specifically the skin folds, because you'll probably need another edge or two in there to get a decent deformation out of it. Is he going to be able to carry all those weapons and fly?

aaronkny - Welcome aboard! Your demon looks pretty good. You're right the poly flow/distribution are pretty nice, I can't really see a need to add more polys if you don't want to, of course the more you add, in theory at least, the smoother/better it will look.

I think maybe an extra loop between the head and shoulders might help ease some deformation in that area, since he lacks a neck. If you don't intend on the head having much of a range of motion, then what you have now should be fine, but the more the head moves, the more likely you're going to be to run into a minor issue with the shoulders.

I don't know what plans you have for him, but adding some more to him wouldn't hurt. Maybe some clothes, a weapon, and cool look book or artifact of some kind, etc. While you certainly don't need to use the full 10k, you'll be up against people who are, [some of which saw fit to squeeze out 7 characters ;P], so it may not be a bad idea to explore some ways of adding to your character. Maybe a pair of demons with different textures instead of just the one, or doing a good/evil version like YdoUwant2know is doing, or maybe adding a few minions [smaller versions of him using les tris] or a pet of some kind. Just some food for thought anyway, and of course, there's certainly nothing wrong with taking what you've got and just finishing it up really nice without adding tons of stuff to it, if you'd rather go that route.

dhin - Looks pretty good, I'm guessing she's wearing a mask of some sort. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

mies - As far as workflow, whatever floats your boat. Some people like to start with a base, then model over top of that adding elements as they go, some people like to start with nothing, and model everything as they go, starting from the head down, including the details.

If you have a really solid fleshed out concept and a model sheet/orthographic drawings you can put in the background and model over top of, then you can probably model everything as you go. If you've got just a rough sketch, then I think its usually a little easier/safer to make a good human base, and then add your details to that. Everyones different tho, so, whatever works best for you is what you should stick with, don't be afraid to try a couple approaches out either.

Looks like you've got some good ideas for the Egyptian weapons from roel and Buzzy already. Any late roman weapons should work as well, as there should have been a Roman influence in the later Egyptian periods, around Cleopatra's time.





Hmm, I need to do a little less yakkin' a little a more hackin' on my model me thinks. :p

[omnicypher]

a little progress:

[roel]

it is said that Abraham fought with it... :>)

[setschaos]

Just reserving my spot, I have about four pages of study and concept work in my sketch pad, but alas, I have no scanner. I'll be posting WIP on the geometry soon.

It all looks great so far guys!

[Joseph Pomeisl]

Warlock: I've switched to just a plane - although that idea of overlapping the faces is brilliant. Textrure space shouldn't be an issue - I've kinda taken to painting on 512 maps - and the scroll and halo share their own 512. So, if I did the math right I'll use up the 2048x2048 with (8)512's.

[omnicypher]

16 512 maps could fit into 2048, so you have plenty of room.

[x99x]

Hey guys,

Sorry im runnin a little late on the concept. I’ve had some other stuff goin on but I keep putting these competitions off, so it’s about time I get in on one. I do mainly environments so this should be a good opportunity to do something a little different.

Here’s the concept I’ve come up with so far. Not completely finished, but enough to where I think I can start blockin it out.

[aaronkny]

Thanks for your critique WARLOCK it was much appreciated. I will add some more stuff and update in a few days.

[dhin]

dhin - Looks pretty good, I'm guessing she's wearing a mask of some sort. Looking forward to seeing your progress.


You sir, are correct, it is actually a shield, but yes it will cover her face, I'm still debating the mouth, I may cover the entire face depending on the final shield design I go for. I'm too tired to night to finish up though, so I'll try to work more on it tomorrow.

[YdoUwant2know]

Did not have too much time tonight to work on things. Life got in the way. Plus I just cannot seem to make up my mind how I want the shirt to look. I cannot decide If I want to go with more conservative full dress, or a more modern skirt with midriff showing.

I worked up a couple of versions, quick and thought I would see what you all think.

[DeadlyFreeze]

2 isnt bad, 3 and 4 are to high imo...

here is my update, I'm way under 4k tris so I should have lots of room to play when hes all blocked in.

[mies]

DeadlyFreeze: its really nice. somehow i already got a "cloth" feeling from the shirt and stuff. And you got so many polies left. thats very nice. just dont forget u need fingers to. those always take up alot of polies with me.

YdoUwant2know: i like the first style best. it has more drama to it and a more clasic feel. Also i think its kinda weird to see some belly and she does cover her entire arms like that..kinda feels like 2 diferent things.

[Novian]

Hey all, got the shield done. I'm now working on the unwraps and then moving on to the weapon. Let me know what you think.

http://www.mentallic.com/LPC27/ShieldWIP1.bmp

Cheers~

[omnicypher]

novian: nice shield, seems expensive, but we have 10,000 tris to waste anyway.

im almost finished with the concepts, so i made a quick model and a quick sculpt to test things out. so far im only at 870 triangles.

[Buzzy]

Some of these entries are starting to look pretty good. Keep it up everyone and this will turn out to be a pretty awesome comp.

Here are some updates to mine:
http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Sculpt01.jpg
http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Sculpt02.jpg
http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Sculpt03.jpg


I'm pretty positive I invented alot of muscles.... but he's not exactly a real anatomically ideal specimen, now is he?

[Buzzy]

And a quick test of the Normal map in max

http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/TestExport01.jpg

[ryvick]

that's a huge cup he is wearing buzzy. your normals look really good.

[omnicypher]

buzzy: nice details with those veiny muscles, if you pulled the end of the forearm muscle more towards the deltoid, getting it more behind the bicep, it would improve the flow of the arm. and pulling the middle of the collar bone down would add some strength to his pecks. i like the whole "no lip" thing it has going on, maybe some jagged, rotten chompers might suite him well.

[ryvick]

ydouwant3know : i like number 2 as well. number one is too renassance and 3 and 4 are a lil bit to the rebellious phase.

deadlyfreeze : you have going on a very nice silhoutte. watch out on the shoes, make sure they dont come out as mickeymouse shoes. i see that your going for the armor class shoes very cool.

Novian : cool shield, since both top and bottom sides are sharp edges it seems that you went with an offensive shield. you might have spent a lot of polys on the shield but with 10k it should be ok. lets see what kind of sword you have in mind to compliment that shield.

omnicypher : you concepts reflects the character as a cunning person. what are his weapons? also your progress is crazy fast, good job.

Buzzy : seems like one of those brutes that you throw in an enemies main hold to cause havoc. like that guy from 300, awesome normals, the neck part seems to uniform (all lines going straight down into a horizontal chest bone) watch out for that.

aaronkny : yay maybe your guy can fight my guy seems like my guy can be a good punching bag for him. i am imagining his size is small as a hobbit or so. whats his weapon?

dhin : as long as you have the parts we can oogle, comments will come rolling, j/k. your model seems very low poly atm but obviously its because your getting shapes down. its very hard to make breasts look right, great job on a low poly breasts for your character so far.

x99x : i seem to be confused is that a girl or a guy? i can see some shapes of femininity as well as masculine shapes. also are those wings or cloak? i like the idea though seems like an evil character that once used to be a hero.

BigToe : are you keeping both swords? they look like the twin dual weapon of choice. the mask is looking really cool, cant wait to see what the rest looks like.

warlock : thats sick. your model is nicely composed man. definitely taking pointers from you here. the shoe style you got going came out really nice.

martinx : nice horse. are you going for the viking style horses? their legs seem to be more muscle bulking and strong.

roel : cool concept, thats a lot of luggage he has to carry around. there is somethign weird with the skirt, i thnk the belt is too big height wise and it seems as if his skirt is falling off. he might need some shoulder pads to go with his prize winning helmet.

rest of the people, amazing ideas nonetheless this brings back some cool fun memories of DW. great job.

[Novian]

Omni and Ryvick: Thanks guys! I'm glad to see that the shield is well received. It "looks" expensive but its actually under 500 tris. I used a few old tricks to pull it off. :) My rough budget is:

Body - 6000
Weapon/Shield - 1500
Armour/Misc - 2500

These are rough numbers just so I don't have to worry about too little or not enough detail on all the important areas. More hopefully on the weekend. The miss and I are moving into a house next Sat so I'm putting things in boxes and then running over to my laptop and moving verts lol :)

Cheers~

[omnicypher]

ryvick: thanks, i thought a good mix of lead characters would be an intelligent youth whos world is rapidly changing from humble to epic, a battle hardened knight who knows his weapons and tactics, and a sexy love interest who can use healing magic and summon defeated enemies as rideable mounts or reinforcements. all i need then is a half animal comic relief and an overly eager main character that dies in a cool cutscene, and ill have a party. the story almost writes itself. 5 towns people, 25 enemies, and 10 environments later, ill have a small game that might work well in XNA.

and as far as weapons go, i want a variety for each character. the boy gets a sword and crossbow, the girl gets a bladed staff and magic, and the knight gets to choose between using a hammer, axe, mace, grappling hook, and maybe an ancient form of sawed off shotgun might be fun. i might work bombs and potions in there as well.

[dhin]

dhin : as long as you have the parts we can oogle, comments will come rolling, j/k. your model seems very low poly atm but obviously its because your getting shapes down. its very hard to make breasts look right, great job on a low poly breasts for your character so far.


Glad you like what you see and I agree that low poly breasts can be hard to get correct. I've had trouble with the hind end more though. I'm not too worried though It will all be covered. I think the model is currently around 2k (plus or minus a couple hundred)

Here is where I was at. I'm hoping to actually get time today to work on her more, but this week may be a bit more than I can handle and get it done. That is the trouble with this time of year.

[x99x]

x99x : i seem to be confused is that a girl or a guy? i can see some shapes of femininity as well as masculine shapes. also are those wings or cloak? i like the idea though seems like an evil character that once used to be a hero.


Hey thanks for the feedback. There are support to be wings, I was going for sort of a fallen angel, death dealer thing. That’s part of the reason I used some male and female muscular features. Angels are support to be A-sexual so I figured I tried to blend a little of both. I agree though, with how big the upper body is the waist area could use some bulking up.

[lampshadehead]

Lookin good, roel!
Those normals looks awesome, Buzzy!

[roel]

Hi all, I finally got the model UV mapped. And I really hate it!

Warlock I've redone the wings as their atonomy was not quite correct. The fingers actually all concide in 1 point in the wing, so that should be +- ok now. I'm not sure where I should add more edges, though (still 1200 tris to spend). Maybe I will make that shoulder pad, not sure yet. On the ability of the creature to actually fly: I don't care too much really (as long as the wings don't look rediculously small). I upsized them a bit. I also lifted the belt as it was looking as he was going to lose his skirt (poor fella). Maybe I'll lited it some more. I want to put some bones in the shield, but I will do that with the normals, I hope (I haven't quite figured out how that works)!

Ryvick, I found a picture of that helmet on the internet.... :lame:

Mies, any news on that sword, lookin quite fancy to me...

YdoUwant2know, I'd go with nr 1, it just looks more mystical somehow.

omnicypher, man you go fast. And only 870? You make me nervous! Which weapons will they have?

buzzy, lookin sweet, any news on the weapon? a train maybe? the eifeltower?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

I almost jumped ship and headed towards the darkside today. All because its hard to make a model look slutty but still have a heavenly feel. But that's the challenge, shall see what happens.

Played with the helmet some more, and started on the shoulder pads/gaurds.

as for the sword, she wil be using the skinnier one. Depending on poly count, she may have two of them.

[ryvick]

dhin : show wireframe i see some weird shapes forming on your mesh. the breasts underside seems to be coming out. same thing with the butt there is some clump form in the mesh there.

x99x : oh i see your point hmm.. asexual eh.. maybe instead of mixing feminine and masculine shapes use a slim body that can be either or and a pretty face that can be used as a neutral mix.

roel : haha nice, there is somethign weird about his pelvis area still. its the skirt and belt the way are forming there makes him look stretched in taht area.

Bigtoe : incredible. a female spartan :drool:

i am trying to see if a very primitive base can help me in zbrush. while saying that i have already added proper edges in different parts of the model.

[YdoUwant2know]

Thank you to everyone that added their two cents to my wardrobe dilemma. 1 and 2 seem to be the popular choices so after some thought I decided this was a case of akums razor: the simplest answer is usually the correct one. #2 was what I original modeled, so what is what I stuck with. After adding a bit of color and a few accessories, I am very pleased with the result.

I also added another row of feathers to the wings, and got them attached. I rotated them to a 45 degree angle for easy rigging. With staff, the model is just shy of 5500 tri which is exactly where I wanted it. Her "evil twin" will have a lot tighter clothing and no wings so I should not need as many. Wost case, I can still trim out some if I need a few more for either.

I think I am just about done with the low poly for my healer. Not sure if that means dealer time or normal map time. But I should start on one or the other soon.

[FrZnChAoS]

spent a few hours and roughed out the main body over the last few days. still trying to clean up the edge flow. will post more details when im more happy with it lol.

[poopipe]

ryvick: a very primitive base will help a lot and that one looks pretty sound.

You want to try and keep the polys as square as possible - another loop running down each side of the leg will mean you can get more sculpt in at less subDs.
I'd probably remove some loops from the head and even out the edge spacing as well cos you simply don't need that much detail in the base.

At the base of the thumbs you need to eliminate the tris cos they'll be murder later on - don't think too hard about it, just put another edge in on the hypotenueusuueusse (whatever)
I see some tris in the ****** as well - you can strip the mesh back to a simpler form around there to eliminate them and sculpt the shape back in later

[BiG ToE-3DT]

YdoUwant2know: the only thing I see that isn't a huge problem, but could give you some trouble is the dress/skirt. The edge flow should follow the same flow as the legs, then when you pose her the dress' flow wont fight with the positioning of the leg.

[dhin]

Good Advice there BiG ToE.

[Martin_x]

Started to sculpt

[Buzzy]

YdoUwant2know: Looking pretty solid so far. I like the choice you made on her shirt. My only real crit so far is her feet. Something about the front of her arch just doesn't look right. Can't put my finger on it.

FrZnChAoS: Looks like a really good start to a base mesh. Where are you planning on going with this? Healer/Dealer? Do you have a concept?

Martin_x: Scuplt's looking good so far. I can't wait to see how some of these entries turn out.

[aaronkny]

Here is my concept work, it was done by my friend Alger Tam. They are two spirit demons, both dealers. I imagine I will give them a weapon if they sit lower than the poly limit after modeled.

[Chung Wong]

Very nice work everyone. I hope to enter this sometime this week.... But I've just got a ps3....

Aaronkry: Nice looking concepts there. I prefer the bottom one.

[roel]

Hi all, just stumbled upon a problem. I unmapped everything, but to have 1 texture sheet, I should attach everything together, right? I would like to have the sword and axe as a separate object ánd have only 1 texture sheet. How can I do that?? Thanks...

[Buzzy]

Hey roel, if you're using max, you can select multiple objects and add the Unwrap modifier to all of them at the same time. That way, they have the same Unwrap but remain separate objects.

[roel]

...wonderful... thanks

[dhin]

Wires... as per your request ryvick. Thanks for the advice too, I'm looking at those areas.

[setschaos]

Dhin: The calves and feet look pretty damn good. Good job on those, but your going to want to add another loop or two around the butt cheek area, you really want to avoid there being any 90 or 180 degree lines when your making an organic model.

Otherwise, comments on the breast; they look good, just make sure that they are 'housed' in cloth not something firm like leather, mail, or plate. Cloth will give it the shape you've already given them.

[Warlock 279]

omnicypher - Coming along pretty well, I hadn't realized that you were intending to model the whole party. Should be interesting to see how it turns out, seems like you've got it all planned tho. Your base mesh and test sculpt look pretty good. Looks like you've got a pretty good work flow down after that whole figure speed modeling spell a while back.

Joseph Pomeisl - Yep, Omni's right, you should have two 512²'s per character if you want, with two 512²'s to spare. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for textures.

x99x - Interesting sketch, pretty dynamic with a good bit of energy in it. I hope you can carry that energy over to the actual model and the final piece.

YdoUwant2know - Looking pretty good, If you do get in a pinch for tris later on, you could always convert the feathers to single triangles instead of quads like they are now, that'd cut the tris used on the wings in half.

DeadlyFreeze - Nice start. Shape looks very faithful to your concept. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on this.

Novian - That shields looking pretty sweet. I suspect it isn't, but if it is, remember that there's no real need to connect the cross to the shield it can sit on top if that helps with the flow on the surface of the shield any. That's a pretty complex shape and it seems like you've handled it pretty well tho.

Buzzy - Looks good, most of the anatomy looks pretty good. I agree with ryvick's assessment of the neck tho, that could use some retooling. If you could sculpt the sternomastoid [or w/e its called, you know the really obvious one, that goes from behind the jaw around down to the collar bone], over top of what you've got now, I think you'd be alright. The point boots are a nice touch. Looking good.

dhin - Shapes looking really good. I agree with setschaos, you could clean up the flow some around the hips and maybe the shoulders some. Often times, simpler is better, especially with normal maps handling so much of the perceived shape now-a-days. Take a look at Ancient-Pigs Tutorial (http://www.pig-brain.com/tut02/tut02_01.htm) for some ideas on the hip, that method works pretty well.

roel - Ah yeah, good call on the wings' fingers, I'd missed that before. Raising the belt was probably a good idea as well, might even be able to come up a tad more yet if you wanted. Looking pretty good.

You could probably try to even out the scale of things on your UV map a little more. Especially things that are going to be right next to each other on the model like the belt/skirt. You can run into trouble sometimes if you have too much of a disparity between adjacent textures on your model depending on how you paint them.

BiG ToE - That mask is looking cool, I really like where you're going with that.

ryvick - Certainly looks like a solid base for sculpting. If you make the changes poopipe suggested, you should be good to go.

FrZnChAoS - Looks pretty good, can't really see anything to crit right now. Maybe the waist is a little thin, but otherwise its looking solid.

Martin_x - Sculpt looks really good so far. Lots of detail. Should turn out pretty sweet once you get it all sculpted.

aaronkny - Those are awesome sketches you've got to work from. The second should be pretty sweet when you get it into 3D, after seeing how well you handled the first one.






Here's my latest. Finally got his mount sorted. Took a couple days of horrendously disfigured heaps of polygons that I couldn't even pretend looked like a bear before I finally got a usable one. Proved a lot harder than I would have thought.

I'm at 9829 tris now, and pretty heavily optimized to get to that, almost feels like I've had to down res the whole model to come in under 10k, oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.

I'll use the remaining tris for some touch-ups, and maybe some tufts of fur on the bear. Time to sort out the smoothing and all that now I guess. Let me know what you guys think. :)

[Buzzy]

Hey Warlock, this looks sweet! The samurai guy is really looking nice. The only minor thing I see immediately is his hands. They appear rather flat in the heel of the palm. Could probably use some more meat there.

The bear looks great too. The first thing that I notice is the big cleft on his forehead. I'm no bear anatomy expert, but it looks odd. Other than that, everything looks good.

As for your polycount. I see some places where you could shave off some extras. First, the spear is 8-sided the whole length of its shaft. It could probably stand to be 6 for the majority of the length, only going to 8 where it meets the blade. And you could probably do without the little rivets on the side of the spear handle. Also, the fasteners on the bear's stirrups look fully modeled. Those are so small, they could just be flat loops or alpha cards even. I could probably point out a few more, but its difficult to see the edges in the more detailed areas.

Can't wait to see this guy finished! A samurai on a bear!? How cool is that?!

[Joseph Pomeisl]

That should be great Warlock; keep it up:)
So many cool entries...
Took a break from texturing and came up with this, kinda Death-Dealery, thought I'd share:

[Sylverstorm]

Warlock 279: Cool samurai and bear, I agree with buzzy about the bear's forehead though.

Joseph: Nice concept.

Once again another try from me, hopefuly I will be able to finish it this time. :o

[Novian]

Warlock: Thank you. Not to brag (a little) but I guess great minds do think alike. The cross on the shield is modeled seperatly and just barely passed into the surface of the shield, so yes it looks like one congruant object. ;)

Secondly, *jaw hits floor* Way to make the rest of us look like chumps. lol j/k A warbear!? F---ing sweet man!

As for saving a few polys I can only suggest maybe deleting some of the faces on the "inside" of the armour flaps on both the guy and the bear. For example his upper thigh armour layers are 3 faces wide. You could delete the inner middle face. If that makes sense. You could also save a few if you reduce the flag and make it a seperate piece from the flag pole, that way you dont have to worry about lining up verts, unless of course you want it to flap in the wind. But hoenstly, dude thats some sick work.

I've learned alot from seeing your works. Even last night at Panera the miss was telliing me *points to Warlocks entry* "I want yours to look really cool, like that guys!" :)


Current progress:

http://www.mentallic.com/LPC27/BodyWIP1.jpg

I got most of the basic form blocked in. Now time to smooth out some areas and add the details. C&C are welcome! Let me know what you think and how I can improve. EDIT: I'm at 450 polys as of this stage.

Cheers~

[dhin]

So I guess I should tell a little about my healer because I have some questions I'd like some input on.

My character is completely a defensive and healer type. Complete non-combatant. Her story in short is. She was a young queen of a small but influential and powerful city-state, the Death Dealers swept across the lands. In an effort to save her people she stood alone against the Dealers and their armies as they advanced on her city-state, and sacrificed herself to save her people. At the moment of her death she was given the choice to enter the heavens and rest or become a Healer and continue to protect the innocent and weak. She chose Healer obviously.

Her powers are Protective, she can shield anyone (or thing) from the Dealers' gaze, and she can restore life where it has been lost. Part of her change to become a healer was the total lose of identity. Her people do not know or remember her, and her name has been lost from history, (even after her powers are gone and she truly dies none will know or remember her, but that is the price of her power.)

So the way I see her is she holds a large tower shield in one hand, and staff with the medical symbol in the other. She's wearing loose flowing robes and her face is covered with a shield. Her hair flicks like flames.

Now that is my concept... first time I didn't draw one. The nice bit is I can change it and refine it faster this way, the draw back is I keep thinking of things I want to add.

I was telling my wife about my idea and I said I was thinking that since she was a protector I thought she should be riding a turtle (think large Galapagos type.) She said she thinks slow and boring when she thinks turtle, and that I should do a lamb and lion at her sides to play on the old Judaic-Christian icon of piece (she has a Bachelors in theology and literature so it make since to her.) So should I have her standing on a turtle or have a lamb and lion at her side? Also as I was talking with her she mentioned that she should have a flute or something to put the 'bad guys' to sleep, "like in Mario Brothers 3 with the music box, so you can get by the Hammer Borhters." (Yes my wife can be random at time and yes I still have a working Nintendo with Mario 3, we play in the evening when the boys are in bed.) Should I trade the staff or tower shield for a flute of some sort?

I just wanted the advice of the forum since some of my wife's ideas weren't bad.

[omnicypher]

ive been busy so i havent had much time to work on this recently.

Warlock: yeah, that speed modelling practice helped me alot, but im still modelling a different way every time. so far the best low poly body topology workflow ive made was for the Death Knight challenge because it handled the ****** and shoulders better. i might start this model over with a more similar topology to fix the ****** flow. your samurai bear rider is comming out great! somthing about the front wrists of the bear seems off a bit though.

Dhin: looking good so far, but i have a few anatomy tips that might help. from the side view, the calf seems a bit too thick, the thigh is a bit too thin, and the breasts seem slightly low. looking at the front/back, the shoulder blades should reach a little lower, the breasts shape isnt bad, but where it meets the ribs should be a sharper valley outlining its form, the edge leading from the deltoid to the breast should be emphasized more to create an armpit, the shape of the ass is good, but the thigh next to it should buldge on the outside, and the front of the feet seem like they could get a little wider.

martin x: that sculpt is comming along nicely, but some of the details seem so small that they would be hard to read from an average distance. aslo, for hard edge sculpting, masking and inflating parts will give you a clean edge, and the pinch brush could help clean up the edges of some of the hand sculpted details,

ydouwant2know: great progress so far, but somthing about the hands seems odd, and the skirt going below the feet looks a little strange. i cant wait to see how those wings will look with an alpha map.

ryvick: its good to sculpt on a primitive base, but with 4 sided cylanders, when you export the lowest subdivision back into max, the arms and legs may end up thinner than on your sculpt, so it may be good to overcompensate on the thickness of the arms and legs in your sculpt so the low poly ends up right.

BigToe3DT: thats a cool looking helmet, but the bottom of it makes looking down look painfull, and the eye slit seems like it would be difficult to see out of. it looks cool, but if she fought a small animal or a dwarf, she might not see it comming.

Novian: the hieght of your character looks good, but the width of everything seems to get smaller as you go down, as if you used a photo taken from eye level as an orthographic reference. the hips knees and ankles should be a bit wider, and the feet should probably not be so long. also if you brought the feet back and pointed them slightly outward, it should help his balance. nice flow so far, especially for only 450 polys, his pecks and knees have good detail to them.

[Novian]

dhin: I like the idea of the flute and perhaps a collection of pouches in which she could carry around medical supplies or good luck charms. The flute could even be houses or a part of the staff. Or if you make the end of the staff a unique shape it could be an instrument, like one of those wind sticks. As you swing it the wind that blows through the end piece makes a sound. She could fend off enemies with the music or perform last rights a la Yuna from FFX.

Just a bunch of random ideas for you. Take them if you like. (My brain is starving for creativity at work :( )

Cheers~

[Novian]

Omni: Thanks for the critique and the compliments. :) I plan on retackling the shoulders/chest and ******/legs this weekend. I will re-evaluate the lower body proportions. Right now the model follows my drawings (which I still have to post as Concept Art) exactly so it's quite possible I drew it wrong. Getting back into the habbit of drawing everyday.

Cheers~

[BiG ToE-3DT]

dhin: Novian's idea of making the staff a large flute sounds like a good idea. Mulitasking shouldn't be too har dfor a healer. As for the animal issue, turtles are col and all, but unless they are in water, they are not something you would want to ride on. I understand that the shell represents a protection which is what your character is all about, so maybe think about an armadillo, or something along those lines. A giant armadillo could be cool to see, with a female riding on its back, or better yet, the sucker rolls up into a ball, and she was to keep her balance as it rolls over people that get in the way.

[Buzzy]

dhin: You could make the flute and staff one and the same. Think of Bill's flute from Kill Bill....it was pretty big and could have passed for a staff..or a cane at least.

As for the mount, how about, instead of a lamb, make her riding a ram....so, its sort of a lamb....but big and beefy with gnarly horns. I think doing 2 animals in addition to the character will be too much work to be feasible to get done before the deadline, so I would nix the lion idea.

Novian: can we see a wire frame?

[Joseph Pomeisl]

Dhin: I like the idea of the turtle - but as your character will be rescuing others it would make it a long ride to them:) As for the lion or lamb, I'd recommend lion since I am doing the seven-horned, seven-eyed lamb (ask your wife about him). If it were a lion, there would be an intimidation factor and more speed.
Warlock: tufts of fur would be nice, especially around the neck-line. But thinking of Kung Fu Panda, they talked how the fur is short and doesn't really hang over anything, it just kinda gets rubbed or bristled.
BiG ToE: can the pedastal have like a hand or something rising from it? I'm trying to think of something to battle; it's the only idea I've come up with.

[Novian]

Buzzy: Yeah I will post a wire tonight when I get home. Hows it look so far from what you can tell?

Cheers~

[roel]

if you make the turtle bigger, it will look faster...

[Buzzy]

Here's an update on mine. I was rather bummed when Vitaly posted his latest work and was somewhat similar to this character. Oh well.

http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Sculpt04.jpg
http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Sculpt05.jpg

[NitroLiq]

Buzzy, cool creature but in thinking about proportions...how do his legs support that much mass? Or would he move on his hands/legs like a gorilla?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

Novian: the way it looks now, the upper body looks to be too long. Ways to fix, widen the hip area, this will give the impression that he has a waist, or you can slim down his waist, so that he has a waist. Or you can do a bit of both. for posing, I would bring the arms down a bit, this will also help with the shape of the shoulder. And the feet are too long. But then maybe he just hangs that way.

[RHedendahl]

First of all. Great WiPs everybody. And even better, great feedback on the others work.
And now to my own entry. Are going to try to make this (http://keun-chul.deviantart.com/art/Monster-Concept-37615257) great concept made by Jang Keun-Chul.
Here's what I've done so far:

[dhin]

Thanks all good input. As far as a mount goes I wasn't exactly thinking about the tortoise as a true mount, more like the diskworld Great A'Tuin type thing... Now I'm sort of thinking about doing a stag or something. Sort of a nature spirit / companion type creature. I like the big flute thing though.

[poopipe]

I finally got a chance to sit down and slap this about some more.

still trying to settle on proportions for the torso, face, tail area - I havent been near the lower arms which is why they look very much like a smoothed basemesh.

any ideas?

[dhin]

I think the tail needs to be longer. Aside from that it all looks good.

[omnicypher]

i started over with a new base mesh, this one being 2170 triangles, unwrapped, zprojected, sculpted, and then i baked a normal/diffuse test. im still not very happy with the shoulders mesh flow, but ill eventually figure it out. heres my low poly so far:

[Buzzy]

Can you show us the offending edge flow?

[Buzzy]

One more sculpt update. Going to start the texture now. I added some fancy baroque details....what do you think?

http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Sculpt06.jpg
http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Sculpt07.jpg

[Warlock 279]

Buzzy - Thanks! I beefed up the palms some they were kinda flat, cleaned up the spear a lot, don't know what I was thinking, I'd thought I'd already cut it back to 6 sides. I guess I overdid the valley in the bear's forehead, they do have a valley there, but not the grand canyon quite like I had. I cleaned up the loops on the stirrups some as well. Didn't reduce them all the way down to alpha cards yet, those never seem to work out real well for me, so I'll leave that as a last resort. I figured a bear would be a little more interesting than a horse, and I'm glad its going over well.

Awesome update on your piece. The ornamentation on the armor is really nice, and plays nicely against the otherwise grim disgusting nature of your character. I like the stitched up pants, that's a nice touch.

Joseph Pomeisl - Thanks. That's a pretty sick sketch, not the start of a second set of 7 warriors is it? ;)

I'll definitely be doing some fur tufts, on the back of the legs at the very least, and probably under the chin, Might end up mixing it in around the armor some, not sure yet. He is a grizzly/brown bear and they seem to have longer fur than pandas, which are just overgrown raccoons. :p

Nyuu! - Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Nice start on yours. There shouldn't be any need to model the blue accents tho. You'll be able to get a smoother edge to them if you just paint them in your texture. As well as using fewer triangles, you'll also have the luxury of changing/adding to them down the road if you want.

Novian - I'd guessed the cross was separate, but couldn't tell for sure.

Not just any warbear, an...infamous..one at that. I was looking for a mount for my samurai, and I wanted something other than a horse, so I was looking for large animals of Japan, my choices came down to a bear [I didn't know they even had large bears in Japan] or a boar. While poking around the different types of bears, I ran across this [Kesagake] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankebetsu_brown_bear_incident) and figured that would make a pretty fitting mount for a Death Dealer.

Inside faces of the armor were long gone [did them awhile ago, exactly how you'd suggested], as is most of the inside of the helmet, etc. I try to optimize as I go, which unfortunately makes optimizing now, a real chore. Flag is separate from the pole already. I'm down to 9727 now, so I should be alright.

Looks like you're off to a decent start. I agree with Omni's and Big Toe's comments, I think they hit things right on the head for ya so far. Its not a bad shape for 450 tris tho, and still plenty of room for building.

dhin - You've got that pretty well thought out, I like alot of the ideas you've got in her back story. I've gotta jump on the bandwagon with the flute/staff, sounds like a great idea to me. I kinda like Buzzy's suggestion of a ram as a mount as compromise of ideas.

Turtles are cool, but they're at their best when they're snapping turtles with spikey looking shells etc, and I'm not sure that fits here. Maybe something altogether outta left field, like an ostrich [read Chocobo], that would allow for greater speed of movement, without really adding to her offensive capabilities?

omnicypher - Thanks. I'll have to take a look at the wrists, I may have mixed up the flow a little when I added the grieves.

Your latest is looking pretty good. I think the boots could be a little more shapely tho [I'm kinda thinking you didn't really do anything to them], and I'm not sure about the pinch in the pants behind the knees. While you would get a distinct wrinkling there, it feels a little too pinched almost like you find around cloth where a strap binds it or something.

kirgan - Nice start, and that's a cool concept to be working from. Looks like you've managed to capture the face of from the concept pretty well, The chin could maybe be a little a wider, and the horns a little beefier, but you're off to an excellent start so far I think.

poopipe - Looking good. I second the motion for a longer tail tho, it does seem kinda short for how tall she is. The face is looking good.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

playing with armour

thinking I will go with straps, everywhere.:dance:

[poopipe]

....what do you think?



I think the following

a: you should give me that matcap
b: that you're probably going to win
c: that the detailing was a very good idea

[BiG ToE-3DT]

got an idea, but i'm not sure it will work, so everyone chime in on this one:

what if someone was to create a simple light setup and camera and save it, then everyone could use that setup to render out an image of their character, this way we can plop all the characters into one big image, and they would all match, light wise as well as camera angle.

[Novian]

Big Toe: I think that would be a cool idea. What if we also gave out numbers (i.e number in line) and we could create a widescreen desktop image of all the entries one next to each other? The numbering would also allow each artist to pose their model (for that shot) accordingly. For example if your entry is going to be on the far right or left they could pose it right.

Just a thought. Sounds good. Who is really good with light's and cameras?

Cheers~

[dhin]

@BiG ToE - It is a cool Idea, do the same with the stands and it's all good I'd say. It would have to be multi-format though, since some use max, maya, xsi, blender, etc. (And a veriaty of different rendering plug-ins.)

[BiG ToE-3DT]

the format is whats bothering me. Not sure if lights and cameras will save out in obj format. As for the rendering plug-ins, we would have to stick with the simple default renderers, this would keep all the renders looking the same. Not sure if the numbers would be needed, as long as everyone uses the same camera at the same angle, it shouldn't be too har to photoshop the characters together.

I'll play around with file formats tonight as well as rendering out a few characters all from the same camera, then see if photoshop can handle it.

[Buzzy]

Big Toe: The character is coming along very well. And lots of straps are always cool. I feel however that her mask is a bit too flat. Like, there is no room for her to have a nose under there. Or maybe that's your intent.

I also think the uniform camera idea is a good one. Another problem I forsee, however, would be scale. Everyone would have to build their character in the same scale for the cameras and lights to hit the model at the proper angle and look right. But don't give up on it. I think its worth pursuing.

poopipe: That matcap is one of sathe's from his MatCap lunchbox (http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?t=59477).

[BiG ToE-3DT]

I was thinking about the scale issue as well. A simple fix, would be to pose your character, get them to where you like it, then, in max anyway, you collpase the stack, saving the skin info into the mesh. Then you can scale the model without worrying about screwing with your bones and what not.

Buzzy: there is a full face under the mask/helmet. She's fine, she said she likes having the cold steel pressed firmly against her face.
Omni: the eye slot is just for looks, most of the people she fights, run away when she steps onto the battle field. The ones that don't run away, a single swing from her sword takes care of them.

[mies]

isnt it an option to send our obj files to one person and that that person can render them together? kina stuck with moddeling..:S dont know how to break through this..

[dhin]

Okay small progress update time.

[mies]

okies call me stupid but i got a question lol. how can she see like this? would she walk into doors and stuff? :S

[dhin]

Mundane sight is of no concern to her. ;)

[mies]

how come? o.o me is noob please explain..:P

[Martin_x]

Big Toe that's really great idea. Agree with mies. We can pose our characters, get rid of sceleton and stuff, combine whole geometry and save it as obj. Then just send someone this obj file and textures.

[Novian]

Miles: What he means is she "sees" magically. Take a VR (Virtual Reality) helmet for example. It blocks their whole face, yet they can still "see". Kinda like that.

Cheers~

[Warlock 279]

got an idea, but i'm not sure it will work, so everyone chime in on this one:

what if someone was to create a simple light setup and camera and save it, then everyone could use that setup to render out an image of their character, this way we can plop all the characters into one big image, and they would all match, light wise as well as camera angle.

...I think its a great idea, I'm all for it. Tho perhaps we should have two, one for the Dealers, and one for the Healers, depending on how many final entries we get, it could get kinda crowded [keeping in mind Joseph has 7 characters coming and Omni has a small party as well]?

I think Mies presents one of the easier solutions, with everyone sending the posed OBJ files to one person for rendering [LW can save out a posed/transformed model as well]. Even if we do manage to get the light/camera scene to everyone, and they can make their render, those renders will still all need to be composited together. I think its definitely worth pursuing tho for sure.

For some reason, I'm seeing the Dealers in a police lineup. :p

Your model is coming along well. Straps are great, so long as she doesn't end up looking like a mummy. ;)

dhin - Looking good. Her attire so far reminds me a bit of a toga.

[mies]

ow and guys..i think my model isnt the right hight..its al far to big. and combining meshes..lol u gonna find out 0.0 might be others with the same case. so keep ur eye on that one. defently scale the model b4 rigging! and i think because at its al seperate objects and some use symetry for now ima keep it like this till its collapsing time..just check guy to be sure.

also some progres. though not sure if it is..:S please tell me what you guys think sofar.
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii153/misaelbroertjes/Leg_testrender.jpg

[dhin]

@Warrlock 279 - Toga is sort of the style I'm going for.

@Mies - her sight is a mater of power. She is a being of Shielding she sees danger. Where there is no danger she see only the next place she must go to and goes there. So magic, is how she sees. Plus her god Isayso makes sure she sees just find. :D

I'm playing with a symbol for her shield that is a triple eye. That will be seen on both her face shield and tower shield, so if you like that is how she'll see.

[lampshadehead]

Here are a couple concepts for my dealer character. I was having trouble just making the classic dealer. I think I need to put more of my own spin on it so here they are.

[Buzzy]

Hey man, looking like a pretty good concept so far. I like the outfit on the left more than the one on the right. Plus the one on the left looks easier to make....cloth is always difficult in 3D.

[setschaos]

WIP

Nothing special yet, seems that everyone else is into the helm too.

[Joseph Pomeisl]

lampshadehead: I concur with Buzzy.
Warlock: Thanks:) I've started painting more concepts of that dude - maybe for a later day; seven should be enough for now. That makes sense about the fur. Looking forward to what you do with this one - oh, and late admit of defeat in the frog battle...
Poopipe: I was wondering if you plan on having that screaming expression from your concept?
BigToe: Neat character, really like the sword.
Great idea about the lineup. Will it be used for any special purpose?
And maybe for the light and camera positioning problem, you could set some boxes to mark where the lights/camera(action?) go. Then we could just align the camera/lights to the boxes - is it possible to align the camera target to other objects?
Buzzy: Awesome.
dhin: She looks to be coming along well. Cool concept; any more ideas on the mount, if any? That triple-eye-idea is neat.
mies: where the shin meets the foot has a sharp crease. and for some reason the face doesn't hit me as Egyptian. Maybe if you post the wires you can get some better pointers.
setschaos: what is a death-dealer without a helmet...one ugly chump, just take a gander at Buzzy's specimen:)
Should have the first character done tommorow. Messed with scroll a bit as well. All I'd like for Christmas is a Wacom...

[YdoUwant2know]

Well I played around with the wings today to make sure they would work. After a little fun with alpha maps, I came to the realization that what I had original created would not work as well as I had hoped. After some tweaking I think I have things set. The alpha shown is just for test. It is not the final texture, but you can see about how things will look when I'm done.

[roel]

Hi all, just a small update on my sculpting... Haven't done too much really.
dhin, love the design. Don't give her eyes, it makes her more mystical.
Lampshadehaed. Nice concept. I would exagerate a piece of armor to make it even more interesting. A huge shoulder pad?
Buzzy, I also like the stitches on the back, really cool
poopipe, will both pair of arms be of the same size? Maybe you want to downsize 1 pair to break the 'duplication effect' you have right now...
BiG ToE-3DT, caracter coming along quite nicely, love the chest piece.

[RHedendahl]

Poopipe: Good start. But has people said before, it would be nice with longer tail that has more mass.Also the breasts look fake and don't fall like they should.
omnicypher: Don't know why you going with so lowpoly, I maybe missed something. But I think you should use more.
Buzzy: Looking really good, nice details. The legs are very thin though. It wouldn't hurt if you make them a little thicker.
BiG ToE-3DT: Nice start here also. The ribcage area looks to small. The head "armor" looks good. But right now it's more like a mask then a helmet, and it doesn't look very useful or comfortable. Maybe make it more like an helmet?
Dhin: Haven't got much to say on this one. Keep it up.
setschaos: Keep on going :)
Joseph Pomeisl: The scroll is looking good.. Interesting to see what you will come up with.
Warlock 279: Thanks for the comment.

Back to my model. here is an update. Haven't done so much with the legs and hands yet.

[Martin_x]

Wip

[dhin]

Update: still have hair, armor straps, the flute/staff and the tower shield to model. Then depending on poly budget I may do a Deer Stage. 6k ATM but that number is easily dropped.

http://www.alanmecham.com/IMAGES/OTHER/LoS_wip_clothing_01.jpg
http://www.alanmecham.com/IMAGES/OTHER/LoS_wip_clothing_Wire_01.jpg

[Buzzy]

Hey everyone, this comp is shaping up to be a good battle! Can't wait to see these characters all finished.

setschaos - I like your character's mask alot. The rest of the model is coming together nicely. The edgeflow looks good. You could probably use some more resolution in the chest.

Joseph - That is one fine scroll. And did I read that correctly...did you just call my character an ugly chump? Them's fightin' words!

YdoUwant2know - Your model is looking really nice. Very clean and well-proportioned. I really like how the wings are looking. Good stuff.

roel - Nice beginning to your sculpt. The anatomy looks good, but its hard to see from a single orthographic front view.

kirgan - This is looking great so far. The face especially looks great. Everything else appears to be very WIP, so not much to say. Although, the crease above his abs might be a bit too well defined.

Martin_x - The armor is looking really nice. I'm not sure what you were going for, but it looks like leather armor rather than metal armor. Some of the details don't really make alot of sense...like the thigh pads. But that helmet is badass.

dhin - In general this looks very nice. There are a few areas that could be tweaked though. Her calves look great from the front...nice proportions and curves...but from the side they look too big. Her feet also look really long...although high heels can create optical illusions so maybe I'm seeing things. The toga looks nice and I love the mask. Lastly, I'd say the topology is a bit messy on her chest and back.



Here's my first pass at colors.
http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Colors01.jpg
http://duocartoons.com/David/threedy/G/Colors02.jpg