Gender Bender - Raziel (Riza) Soul Reaver

[Harbinger]

Raziel from Soul Reaver


http://images.legacyofkain.net/defiance/fankit/characters/Raziel.jpg
http://utenti.quipo.it/imperatore85/sfondi/sfondi%20raziel%206.jpg
http://utenti.quipo.it/imperatore85/sfondi/sfondi%20raziel%203.jpg

[Harbinger]

My concept for Riza the Soul Reaver.

[Quintonius]

Yo son, this gon be nice, I've seen a Raziel on here already, but yours is gonna **** on the others guys LOL and I didn't see anything in the rules that says u can't do something someone else is doing, but ne wayz I'mma stay tune to this post, Holla

[dhin]

Hey Quin watch the personal slams there, this is a friendly comp, and we all help each other out where we can here. ;) <-Edit: thinking faster than I type again...

I don't mind someone else doing Raz, it make for interesting comparisons on interpreted styles. Beside my total of completed entries is dismally low, so... I really don't care. I enter for the fun of it.

Harbinger, nice start. Proportions seem off a little though, legs look too short and fat (angle issue I think) and the head looks too large (it looks like overcompensation for the scarf, I'd drop the size slightly.) Anyways be fun to see how yours turns out.

[VinsanityV20]

Very Nice, Harbinger! Someone else is doing Raziel, but to be honest it didn't look too promising (shh. No offense to any artists around here; these comps are great for learning new stuff);) This however is looking excellent! I'm gonna be paying attention to this one.

[Quintonius]

Hey (dhin), sorry about that bro, didn't mean to offend you or anyone else. I just gotta a little bit rowdy for my friend here (Harbinder), he was a little worried so, I thought I'd cheer him up with that comment. No hard feelings bro, Good Luck Guys

[Harbinger]

Thanks Dhin for the critique. It will be cool to see how each of our raziels turn out.

[dhin]

I forgot a smilie, my bad :o No offense meant, and none taken. It's easy to misread the meant tone of a post.

And Vinny20 get ready for a beat down!!! First the boots comment now this, its war I tell you, WAR! :evil:

[Harbinger]

this is the model sheet for Riza (Ri-sa).

[Buzzy]

and by Riza, I'm sure you mean this guy:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/RZA_2005.jpg/336px-RZA_2005.jpg

j/k


In all seriousness. The model sheet looks very solid. I like where you're going.
Will she/it have clothes? Perhaps see-through ones?

[SnappedStrings]

The model sheet looks good, but I would suggest exaggerating the size of the calf and forearm muscles just a liiiiiiittle bit more. More so in the calves

Also, the thigh muscles look a little funny, maybe just take another quick look at that spot

The only other thing I can think of is the hairstyle. There's nothing wrong with it, but it seems like you're playing it safe, toy around with it a bit, see what the other female vampires in the LOK series are doing with their hair, have fun with it. But this is just a suggestion.

Everything else looks fantastic

[Harbinger]

Thanks SnappedStrings for the critiques and suggestions. I realize I added muscle groups in the thighs that don't exist. As for the hair, that's still up for debate. Sadly, i haven't any vampire women in Soul Reaver. But, i search/research more on hairstyle for vampires and dark ages.

[Harbinger]

look at possible hairstyles. but, gonna get started on the body.

[Prince-G]

Yo "I'M LOSING BLOOD" :) but all inside jokes aside, nice character pick. Ummm yea bro exaggerate the character a little more. I dunno make her skin color lighter and you know about the hair situation so... yea. (I'm sorry don't get mad bro jeez)

Can't wait to see the modeling tho, keep going.

[Harbinger]

ok, so here is my WIPs of the modeling. Keep in mind the cloth is made out of NURBS ( i plan to convert to polys later on). I'm thinking about lowering the cowl to cover more of her breast and adding more wrinkles on the cowl. I plan on also adding more edges for those big face since i see I'm still under 6K Tris. I'm working on fixing the back and adding the torn wings. So, yeah. Critiques are welcome. BTW, I included what her hair is going to look like too.

[SnappedStrings]

I like what you've got here. I would adjust the knees, they curve inward way too much (or maybe the calves curve too far out)

And I would make the toes just a wee bit longer/thicker

Also, the head seems too round, almost a perfect sphere, elongate it a tad to make it more skullshaped

I really like how this is coming so far, looking forward to seeing it finished!

[SnappedStrings]

Oh, and Nice concept painting, looks good

[Harbinger]

thanks SnappedStrings for the critique. I going to make those updates. BTW, the concept painting is not mine. I got it from and Soul Reaver Fan Site.

[Harbinger]

ok, so here's my WIPs. I think I'm really to start zbrushing, photoshoping and layout UVs.

[JarHeadRed]

lookin good man. i like the legs. the shape of the head from the side looks a little odd to me, i dont know if that was intentional. btw how much tris you have so far?

[Harbinger]

Thanks. As for the shape of the head, u probably think it looks weird because of the lump in the back of the head (it's suppose to be clump of her hair going in to the cowl. But, I think I am going to push it in a little bit. It's 7616 Tris (a lot heavier then i expected it to be).

[SnappedStrings]

I would cut off the whole back of the head, and model the hair as a completely separate piece of geometry. This way you don't end up with super high poly hair. It'll probably cut the number of polygons needed for the hair in half. And, if you adjust everything right, none will ever be the wiser.

Looks great. I like how this is coming together

[Harbinger]

Here my WIP. I'm having problems with the normal maps. In some areas the normal maps make the details coarse and unrecognizable. I post some screenshots of the problem. I'm using maya for the modeling and xNormal to generate the Normal maps.

[adena22]

I have not used XNormal but so I do not know if this will work but you might try to soften the edges or the color changes in the normal map by going to Photoshop. Use the stamp tool or the smudge tool to blend the colors better and avoid "cutout" edges.

Let me know if it makes sense.

[gegrazion]

talk me thorugh your workflow and ill see what i can cum up with :)

[Harbinger]

thanks adena22 for the suggestion. I might try it that way since I haven't found any reliable researching online. It seems these types of problems go unsolved.

TO Gegrazion my work flow is as follows:

Maya>Zbrush>xNormal>Maya

I even used the zMapper from Zbrush.

To be specific on what I done: I model half the model in Maya. Layout UVs in Headus UV Layout, copied the uvs back to the model in maya, mirror the model and export it to zbrush (because when i had half the model the border edge would move). I sculpted the geometry in zbrush then exported the normal map zMapper. Everything was right except the face and some of the seams. So, I tried xNormal and to my unveil there was no difference. I will post up my Uvs to see if that a factor in my problem. Otherwise, I will do what adena22 told me it's the quickest solution. However, I seek the proper solution so I can avoid this again the future. Thanks in advance.

[gegrazion]

hmm ok ive had a very similar problem, what you do is get ur highpoly model and go to the lowest subd level, polygroup half the model, and then split it, then try zmapper it shud work then. hope it helped :)

[SnappedStrings]

Hey wow, this is coming along great. Unfortunately, I can't offer a lot of insight into your xNormal problem. But keep up the nice work

[gegrazion]

if ur doing it in xnormal set ur normals to average normals, calculate ur scan ray distance in tools - ray distance calculator and leave it running for 2mins, then enter the info in the low poly section. edit your edge padding ( i choose around 2-4 ). hope it helps

[H2olt]

The render you've got there looks like what you get when you try to do a simple scanline normal render in maya. What I'm saying is that i think your normal map is probably fine. try ading some lights to your scene so that it's not using the default(crappy) light setup. Also, and this is my main suggestion, don't try to render out normals in maya unless you're an expert at maya rendering. It just takes too much work to fix maya's crappy defaults. Over at the poly count forums there's a tool made by 8 monkey labs called marmoset toolbox. It's simple and I recommend it to any novice trying to preview normals on their model. Here's a link to the thread with the download in it. (http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=61346) I know there's a lot more stuff that can be done in maya, but screenshots from in marmoset are really good, and more than is required by this competition. Try it out, and pass on the love.

Also, here's a couple tips for use in Marmoset.
-spacebar = hides UI
-shift + LMB = rotate light environment. (IMPORTANT)
-the "post" tab may look daunting at first, but there is a button on that tab to load post production effects, and there is a whole folder full of them to try out under the install folder directory in a folder called "post"
-There are several light environment presets availiable as well from the "sky" tab. also in a subfolder of the install directory.


well hope this has been usefull. looking forward to seeing some nice renders of that normal map which i'm betting is just fine.

One other thing that can really mess up normal maps (though yours don't look like this) is it's really easy to accidentally have some normals reversed in maya and not notice.

If you post up your actual normal map that you got I can probably tell you what exactly, if anything, is wrong with them. cheers and good luck finishing up.