Twyla {WIP}

[renderbunny]

Its been so long since I actually modelled anything in 3d - i think the last time I did any serious modelling was a few low poly models at the top of the year - that I decided a few months back to start a character model - Twyla, a character I designed a year or so ago.

I thought I would put up a Work In Progress, because I've got into that limbo of not having anyone able to give it a decent crit, and I don't think I could take it any further without anyone elses input.

I was originally going to model this character with a mind to animation, but I realise I should just stick to what I'm good at, and it's more or less being designed now to be posed for a still render as a lighting and texturing showcase. I'm not sure how much of the model I will need to carry on building as I might just put as much effort into the areas for the still as possible.

I'll post a sketch of the stillI have in mind, but for the moment, heres the original character sketch, the smoother grey model, and the low poly cage.

http://www.subdivision.btinternet.co.uk/bay12/Twyla/twyla_190803.jpg

Comments welcome :)

[Vertigo]

I think this is looking very nice. I love the concept sketch, it has great style to it. It seems to look angular in silhouette, but has nice curves within the character boundaries. Kinda a similar to my own style. (Whch is probably why I like it :D )

As for the model, it looks like it is turning out nicely. I think the hair might still need some work. Maybe it just needs to be unsymmetrical. Which will kinda give it that slighlty messy look that the sketch has. And make them get fuller towards the tips of the hair. You're gonna need one or two more edge loops around the elbow too, in order to pose it nicely and not have skinning problems.

Other than that, it's excellent! Please keep us posted. I'd love to see the progression of this.

[sarN]

thats a very interesting sketch, the eyes scare me though lol
the model looks pretty good, but i agree with vertigo, i think it might be that she needs a little more hair on the model
very cool, what type of scene are you plannign to make a still with her in?

[rubberduck]

Looks good:D Looks alot like the sketch

[insect]

Hey, Renderbunny, good to see your works again. :)
I totaly love the concept. And judging by the wireframe, the topology of your mesh looks pretty good.

Though, imo, the wrincles at the bottom of the pants are "too humble/small". Some exageration should come out really nice...

Anyways, great work! :D

[pratapkp_1]

hay renderbunny cute work,

cute sketch n 3d model good job keep it up

[kuman]

dig the design and sculpting done so far rbunny

only crit so far is that in your concept there's a curl of cloth at the bottom of the shirt by the hips, above the side pants pocket that i think could be really accentuated in your geometry. i think that little turn of cloth there adds a lot of body and will really pull together the shirt as being fabric in terms of geometry and sillouette.

i'm impressed by how you've excecuted cloth with a minimal of cloth detail. kinda like letting the observer's mind fill in the details. (i gotta try that more instead of slaving over every fold ;) ).

lookin forward to updates
-k

[Splurgus]

I've always loved the way your characters convey so much personality. Even and especialy the entry for the old mascot comp. This one has that too. Good job.

[Daniel]

Really cool model, I like the style. I agree she needs more hair though, and the eyes don't quite look like the sketch. Keep at it, can't wait to see it textured and posed. :D

[renderbunny]

No update just yet, but I thought I'd drop by and say thank for the replies. I'm glad people think that I'm not too far away from my 2d style with my models - its something thats always bothered me when I look at my high polygon models that I can't seem to get my angular drawing style to translate into 3d.

I agree with everyone about the hair - my plan is to add more, I'm going to go for the clip map on geometry approach I think, just to add a bit of raggedness to it.

I'm going to do a bit more work on the shirt and trousers - I've done a couple of preliminary bone tests, and because of the way the shirt covers the hips the deformations just dont seem to work right. That and I think i need to take a serious look at the mesh in the trousers anyway - when I deform them at the hip, they loose their volume and just look like a folded tube.

Any hints and tips on creating good cloth topology is much appreciated :)

Thanks all :)

[renderbunny]

Well, after I had a bit of spare time tonight, I thought I'd try and do some more work on this model. Addressed a few problems I was having, and took on board the suggestions/crits so far...

I'm still trying to work out a better way to make the mesh for the trousers so they deform properly, so I'm going to start scouring for tutorials on that sort of thing, and of course weights and rigging {shudder}

Anyway, heres the update...

http://www.subdivision.btinternet.co.uk/bay12/Twyla/twyla_270803.jpg

Haven't had a chance to look at the hair yet - and totally forgot to put in those extra edgeloops on the elbow, as suggested by Vertigo - just noticed that now :o

Comments welcome :)

[Mille]

Hey renderbunny, long time no see mate:D
I remember that drawing, it's a great character, and you've done a good job so far putting it into 3D. If you texture it in the same way as the drawing I think it's going to be great!

Compared to the drawing the model has a larger mouth, and I like the smaller mouth better. There's something about the lower part of the head that looks not as smooth as the design, like it's sloping inwards more on the design if you know what I mean.
Are you going to model the patches?
Keep going, man:cool:

Mille:)

[wolfy]

Hello there buddy.
I just love the simplicity of this character and all.
Though i do have a question regarding the hair, is it just a series of planes or boxes??? Is just that my hair never comes out like that.

Love the cuteness of this one dude.:D :D :D :xyz:

[Goj]

Wow man, great style you have there, and it seems that you captured the 2d cartoonish-ness in the 3d model.

[renderbunny]

Mille - Yeah, I see what you mean abou the head shape - I think I might just be the angle of the render, but I will look at adjusting the shape. I'll be adjusting the mouth too - it was modelled to be a default shape, but I think as wide as it is, it might cause some pinching problems with textures when I come to make some morphs. Not sure about modelling the patches yet - I was looking into doing something about them with a displacement map. I'd like to keep the mesh as simple as possible for {shudder} rigging.

Wolfy - the hair started off as a basic polygon wig, and I've just split off doublesided faces and slightly rearranged them to make layers of hair. I'm going to probably clip map it to add some detail and add some more polygons for detail.

Goj - Thanks! It's something I work at quite hard to keep the angles from my original artwork in a character model.

[Jojomondag]

I need an update on your eutifull model. And thought about something will you set your charcater in some kind of enviroment?

[renderbunny]

Just thought I'd stop by and let everone know I haven't stopped working on this - I've just had a lot of other stuff to be sorting out, work and the like, and Twyla has had to sit on the back seat for a while :)

Jojomondag - Although the model started off intended for use in a texture demo, I think I might very well be making an enviroment to set her in. It might be a bedroom or something like that, but as yet, I haven't put pen to paper for that just yet.

Anyway, I hope to have an update soon.

[Mille]

I want an update, now!, mr. bunny!:D

[Ferry P]

I like the mouth more in the sketch version...take another look at that.

[renderbunny]

A few hours this evening and a few more bits worked on....

http://www.subdivision.btinternet.co.uk/bay12/Twyla/twyla_020903.jpg

Had a look at the head this time - made the mouth smaller, and yeah, it does look a lot better than the wide "Wallace and Gromit" grin :). Added more hair too, altho this is giving me a bit of trouble. It might look better when I get the textures and clip maps done. It might be down to the symmettry, but I want to keep this until I UVmap the mesh - it'll just make life a bit easier.

Not a huge update, but comments welcome :)

[Mille]

Looks good!
The mouth looks better, but I think you could go even smaller; to add to the cuteness. Also you could round off the lips a bit, like in the design. There's something about the transition between the neck and the head that looks wierd to me. Maybe the neck is too far back, dunno.:dunno:

Kepp going, it's going to be good.

[renderbunny]

Thanks Mille - Yeah, I see what you mean about the neck.
Again, I think it might be down to the angle of the renders, but I think I need to have a look at that area again.

Just wish I'd brought the model to work with me now... :D

[CountZero]

Very cool caracter. The only problem is that the mouth looks more like just a hole as there's no lips. Work more on that and I think it'll be a great character!

[FireJin3]

looks nice.

[Marty]

This is truly beutifull man, just could'nt resist posting :)

As with all this about the mouth i think that it dos'nt matter about the size of it since it will probabbly change with each diferent emotion you want to give her.

Again this is great

[Zytrex]

I think it looks really great. The pose on the sketch is really great too. I think the model would benefit from a little more detail in the folds of the clothing, and maybe even a few more folds. Also, a slight increase in brow ridge definition, and I mean slight, might give the face a little more life.

[renderbunny]

Crikey, its been a while since i've been in here.

Thanks for the comments everyone - poor old Twla had to take the backburner for a while, as the day job was taking too much of my time, keeping me doing stuff I actually want to be doing, and well, you know, spare time seems to be really hard to come by these days :crazy:

I have been working slowly on the model just recently, been trying to work out how to make the jumper deform properly without going to the extremes of using a cloth plugin - and, well - I was having a bit of an artistic dilemma actually, and maybe people could point me in the direction of tutorials or pass on some hints and tips.

The main problem I'm having is trying to capture the angular look of my illustration work. I've tried a few things out, like using sub-d weighting and adding in geometry, but it just doesn't seem to cut it. Indeed, I've been giving serious consideration to doing the model in low resolution to try and get the right lines.

Any suggestions?

[renderbunny]

heres a render and a wireframe of where the model is at the moment. I've done quite a lot of the cloth folds with a normal displacement. its procedural at the moment, but I'm hoping to hand paint it when I come to doing the UV's

http://www.subdivision.btinternet.co.uk/bay12/Twyla/twyla_060304.jpg