Dominance War V - 3D - Wreched God- 3DT

[Neil_F01]

i have no idea what i am gonna do.. i have no idea whether or not i am gonna actually be able to finish this...

i'm hopeless to say.. but textures arent always great.. and need work.. (hopefully some friendly faces will rip my work to shreds so i can i make it right)..

[SnappedStrings]

Bad textures? that's all the more reason to see it through!

I probably textured 50 characters really badly before I finally grasped texturing lol, and I still need work. Practice makes perfect, so they say.

Don't worry, if you place concept art under your forum, the criticism fairy will pay you a visit :-P

[Neil_F01]

Bad textures? that's all the more reason to see it through!

I probably textured 50 characters really badly before I finally grasped texturing lol, and I still need work. Practice makes perfect, so they say.

Don't worry, if you place concept art under your forum, the criticism fairy will pay you a visit :-P

indeed the crits normally do help.. even if sometimes they are a little hard to read..

[Neil_F01]

just a quick thing.. not a hundred percent convinced i wanna go this route.. but still thinking.

[Neil_F01]

i didnt draw that by the way.. i;m not that good at drawing..

[Neil_F01]

done a couple of rought sketches

[Neil_F01]

just playing around for the first time with this sketch tool.. not sure whether i'm coming or going with it.. but it is fun..

[Neil_F01]

After playing around a bit

i like the idea of a fly.. but i really couldnt see anyone preying to a fly god.. so dont.. was interesting experience to use the zsketch... been watching some good tutorials on it.. so am still figuring my way with them..

[miclepickle]

I think a fly god could work... think of it as a boss in a game rather than a god...
I think you would need to figure out a more badass design since this looks like an average monster rather than a mean boss monster.

I would recommend trying to get away from a "humanoid" buggy creature though. if a creature looks too human, it can look unoriginal..

as for technical stuff, you are going into detailing before you have the basic shape/anatomy down. you need to get as much shape out of each level of subdividing as you can.... also use referance... learning human anatomy will contribute to any character you ever make... animals typicaly have very similar anatom to humans, so it really applies to every character/creature.

your details look pretty good, but it looks like you rushed into the detail phase without developing the overall shape and form of the character.

[Puckducker]

Fly guy looks kinda interesting. I'd say keep experimenting with zspheres though, looks like you were making good progress!

[Neil_F01]

yeah i totally rushed into it... it was just a concept and i havent used the zsketch before.. i am hoping over the weekend to get back and create another concept.. and take a bit more time about what i'm doing..

but cheers for stopping by..

[miclepickle]

while looking up some referance I found some stuff I think you could benefit from...

http://www.autodestruct.com/images/ds_spider2.jpg
http://www.autodestruct.com/images/ds_spider3.jpg
http://www.autodestruct.com/images/ds_spider5.jpg
http://www.autodestruct.com/images/ds_spider6.jpg
http://www.autodestruct.com/images/ds_spider4.jpg

[Neil_F01]

oh wow man.. thats for that...

[Neil_F01]

right i have done the concept.. yeah i know i snipped out the head and torso.. but i cant draw.. which should be obvious at my lame attempt at the rest of the body..

[Neil_F01]

have no idea how i'm gonna build this bugger.. so should be interesting.. to say the least.. lol..

hope i can get a nice render at the end.. with a cool skin material and what not.. hope my machine can render it as bless her she aint all that... she's kinda like a fat bird.. you love her and what not but hell you just wish she looked more like natalie portman.. lol..

[miclepickle]

I would recommend making a referance sheet montage of referance images (look up game concepts, real life bugs, people, animals, anything) then have that visible while working in zbrush and start with a mesh that is really low poly so you can build up the forms, then only subdivide when you have gotten everything you can out of your current subdivision level.

use other people's work to influence your own original idea...

[Neil_F01]

yeah still looking around.. and playing around making it what i need it.. have a close up on the head..

[Neil_F01]

and now a weapon..

[Warlock 279]

Face looks quite interesting. Have you considered decreasing the size of the eyes as they move up the head? Right now when I look at him, my eyes focus first on his lowest set of eyes, and he's got a really intimidating look, but the second set of eyes right above quickly distract my focus and that intimidating gaze of his is lost. I'm thinking if you made the secondary and tertiary eyes smaller, they wouldn't compete for attention quite as much. Just a thought.

I think of the three guns the bottom is my favorite, I really like the lines it has.

[washka]

Welcom to the comp'.
Man, your concept sketches are amazing, great works!!!

[miclepickle]

Welcom to the comp'.
Man, your concept sketches are amazing, great works!!!

I think those are referance images, not his concepts.

also I agree about the eyes, they just look copied... changing the size/shape of each set of eyes would go a long way.

[Neil_F01]

Welcom to the comp'.
Man, your concept sketches are amazing, great works!!!

yeah they are not my sketches.. i found most of them on the site that mickle posted a link to.. very usefull..

yeah i changed them a little.. so that they roughly look like what i want.. but again they are only reference..

[Puckducker]

Keep working on your full concept, you'll have a lot easier time modeling everything out if you've already got a really strong grasp on exactly what's going on with your character. Working in reference from other sources is perfectly fine, just be careful that it doesn't leave your design feeling too disjointed.

If you feel like your 2D skills aren't up for it though, start out with rough quick 3D models, and then just do quick paint overs over top. Even your very initial notebook sketch you could start off with, model it out and then do a paint over. Plus, being in 3D gives you the added benefit of being able to view your proportions from every angle.

[miclepickle]

Keep working on your full concept, you'll have a lot easier time modeling everything out if you've already got a really strong grasp on exactly what's going on with your character. Working in reference from other sources is perfectly fine, just be careful that it doesn't leave your design feeling too disjointed.

If you feel like your 2D skills aren't up for it though, start out with rough quick 3D models, and then just do quick paint overs over top. Even your very initial notebook sketch you could start off with, model it out and then do a paint over. Plus, being in 3D gives you the added benefit of being able to view your proportions from every angle.

you dont even HAVE to even do the paint over, for some people it is helpful, but some concept artists will make design sculpts without ever drawing anything.

Neville Page(lead Creature designer for avatar) will sometimes work totally in zbrush while only having a basic idea of what he wants to make. He will go into zbrush thinking oh well this character will be kinda humanoid, but he wont have a clear vision of his concept. then he just sculpts out an amazing creature in a few hours... he features this workflow on his gnomon DVD..( http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/862/Creative-Character-Design-Techniques-with-Neville-Page )

the same workflow is also demonstrated on
( http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/712/3D-Character-Design-Volume-1 )

so, that is an option if your not great at drawing, however in the long run it would be good to get better at drawing not only because you can think up a lot of ideas quickly that way but also you will get better at sculpting by getting better at drawing... and you will also get better at drawing by getting better at sculpting.

also, I think that some things are much harder to sketch out in 3d than others (like armor)

[Neil_F01]

Cheers everyone.. i know what you mean about the concepts and what not.. i will be spending a little more time in making sure i've got some good reference material..

for things like skin and all that kind of cr4p..

my 2d skills suck at best.. so i have got very used to either working from others concepts, or reference material...

[Neil_F01]

just working on the head for now..

[Neil_F01]

on to sub div 6 :dance:

[Neil_F01]

Done a few more hours..

gonna start on the next eye hole.. and work my way up the head..

[Neil_F01]

how do i export normal maps in zbrush again.. its been a while..

[Neil_F01]

done a few more hours.. any comments would be nice.. if you feel i could do something to make it pop.. or something.. you know..

[Neil_F01]

bit further along the line.. might start shading it soon.. not sure... hmmm.. gotta do some teeth and what not next..

[Neil_F01]

btw am loving this uv master tool.. its F ing awesome.. so simple.. love it..

[Neil_F01]

liking the colors i think.. works for me..

[Neil_F01]

Just went and bought - Eat3D - ZBrush Hard Surface Techniques from the 3dt shop..

is very fu*king cool.. should really help me get the effects i'm after for the suit...

[miclepickle]

they moved normal mapping to the tool pallette in zbrush 4 there is just a section for normal map I think... but I still prefer xnormal.

get it free here http://www.xnormal.net/1.aspx

[Neil_F01]

yeah cool.. i have downloaded some other tool already for the normal mapping.. but cheers for the response..

[liquidbear]

i recommend x-normal to you 2.

[Neil_F01]

cool cheers

[Neil_F01]

armor

[Neil_F01]

does his dimensions look right for the body..

[Puckducker]

It's a little tough to tell right now with the texture on his upper body, but I'd say his shoulders aren't broad enough for how thick and meaty you've got his lower body/torso right now.

I'm not especially sure what's supposed to be coming out of his mouth either, it kinda looks like a hand of someone/thing he's eaten. I'd say you could probably use more development on that.

Keep working at it, don't be afraid to really focus on and rework area's until you think they are perfect.

[Neil_F01]

It's a little tough to tell right now with the texture on his upper body, but I'd say his shoulders aren't broad enough for how thick and meaty you've got his lower body/torso right now.

I'm not especially sure what's supposed to be coming out of his mouth either, it kinda looks like a hand of someone/thing he's eaten. I'd say you could probably use more development on that.

Keep working at it, don't be afraid to really focus on and rework area's until you think they are perfect.

the thing in his mouth is the tongue.. but i still need to do some teeth for the insides of his gums..

as for the body.. yeah i know what you mean.. i'm tempted to shrink the body a little bit... i wont be detailing much of the body as he will have a suit on.. i'm hoping... so the detain in the body wont mean much...

[Cordero]

On a short term, I agree with Puckducker.

On a long term tho, you must really improve your drawing skills in order to get better in 3D fast.

I also don't understand why go with a human body, and with an alien face. You could go with an alien body, where you can basically just need to balance the proportions out. On the other hand, when you make humans there are a thousand and more rules you need to understand, and apply, and if any of it looks just a bit off, you whole character will look not right.

gl

[Neil_F01]

yeah i did think about an aliene body.. but then the concept that is in my head.. i see it with a man like body.. as such..

but cheers.. i do need to get better at drawing 2d.. it would greatly improve things for me..

[Warlock 279]

I'm gonna make a rather odd suggestion, have you considered giving him a serpent body by any chance? [You know the old head/arms/shoulders human + snake body type thing.]

The reason I suggest this, you seem to be struggling with things a bit, both getting your concept out of your head, and with some of the technical aspects of the 3D process [you mentioned early on you struggle with textures, and you seem to be fighting the body shape now]. I think if you went to a snake like body, it might simplify some things for ya, and let you really concentrate on getting the whole character workflow down.

You could still keep most of the ideas you've got with armor etc for the human upper body, so it wouldn't be like you're completely abandoning what you've been thinking about, and where you want to go with it.

From your other work, you appear to be a pretty competent modeler, so I think if you had a little less to chew on in terms of making a full humanoid [which is about the toughest thing you can tackle] you'd be able to polish things up much better.

Anyway, just something I thought I'd throw out for you to consider.

[Neil_F01]

where i think i'm trying to head with this model..

[washka]

This armore concept sound an interesting idea imo!

[Neil_F01]

he does look a bit more bad ass now.. you can kinda see what i wanna do with it..

[Neil_F01]

tomorrows task.. sculpt the arm...

[Kaiune3D]

Unless each arm is going to be very different I wouldn't pose them yet. He is looking very soldier like not too god like at the moment try and push the topic a bit. Also his expression looks a little too happy. You may want to pull the corners of his mouth down a bit so it doesn't read as smiley, as well as furrow his brow a bit if your looking for the mean bad ass look.

here are some soldiers vs their Boss "god" counterparts.

http://suckerpunchcinema.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/alien_poster_small.jpg
vs
http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/film_images/Aliens_mother_queen_anguish.jpg

or

http://cynicwithagamepad.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/inside_imp1.jpg
vs
http://www.doom3.fre3.com/images/boss_cyberdemon.png

[Neil_F01]

I disagree with your opinion... (yes he does look a little soldier like)... but still...

i disagree about the boss type thing..

god in all its power and glory right... could be the size of a lemming and still be all powerful.. why does a god need to be oversized... its all about the powers of the god rather than the size of the god..

for the best part of this.. i am trying to use this competition as an excuse to show that yep i have the skills that are required to do the job.. and also as an excuse to use new methods and learn new things and what not...

so yeah i agree that it does look soldier like.. but i disagree that it needs to be huge to be bad ass..

[Kaiune3D]

I think you missing my point. You don't need to make him "larger" Size is relative, epic is not. I revert to alien the queen was their god you can make her the same size as the average alien but she still reads god. To use your words push the Power and Glory. Really think about those terms and what those who worship him would find glorious and and powerful, and really push that with him.

[Neil_F01]

yeah the story kinda behind this character in my mind.. is not that there are people following him.. as such.. preying to the god..

this is a god draws all its power from everyhting that is wrong in the world.. all those horrible things people do to each other..

[Neil_F01]

not sure i'm gonna make it.. this time... i've had some problems recently again with my mental health.. so its been a stuggle.. i would like to hope.. but hope is something that has left me.. so hmmm... anyway..

[hulahuga]

Keep at it man, this sure has potential! :)

[Neil_F01]

cheers dude.... i do like the idea.. but the comp is over.. i struggle with mental issues... that takes its toll... but i'm working my way to getting back on my feet... its a hard road.. but i'll get there if i keep trying i guess.. and if not.. at least i tried...