Mies-Gender Bender- Zorro

[mies]

Hey guys, desided i need alot of practis so thats why ima try to join this chalange. Im gonna try to make a female Zorro, but i cant do it withoud the help of you guys. I started moddeling and havnt started the texturing yet just rough collours and stuff. this is what i got sofar :

[Agent-X]

get photo reference for the anatomy for starters. Get your proportions right. If you want to make a realistic human first and for most is proportions and anatomy. If those two things are off, everything is off. Good job on the low res mesh. So now you need to tweak the proportions to be correct. Rework that for starters then I suggest creating a highres model

[mies]

ehm, i did use a photo..and i ended up with something to realistic so i scaled her some here and there, so she would have some more extreme female shapes. but the length of her body, and her arms should still be exactly as on the photo. though ima check to be sure. oh and i used a diferent photo for the head..so there could be some diference. thanks alot for ur advice thus far

and the foto on her face is just a test to see how it looks, i think im going for not super realistic..

and im still working on my lowpoly some more, especialy the outfit needs more details in the low poly b4 i go higher poly. any suggestions?

<edit>

i checked and ur right X, during the proces i must have moved to many parts around cuz i layed her back on my reference and she doesnt fit there anymore. what an artist eye you have for seeing that i will try to work her back to fit the real life proportions abit more. her rack though, isnt to great on my ref..so i need ur eyes on them

[mies]

ok hope this is an improvement, this time i also used reference in the screen shot so that if i made anymore mistakes you guys can spot it even better next is to refit the cloths and stuff.

[mies]

ok made the cloths fit again, so now we can see how it looks al together..still need to make a cape.. and some other stuff. friend of mine and i have a discusion atm bout if i should make a mask in 3D or texture it. what do u think?

[SnappedStrings]

You need to rework the neck a little bit. As it is now, it comes up out of the shoulders like a stick in the mud, you need to have the edge loops of the neck slope down into the shoulders so they appear as one cohesive piece.

Speaking of cohesive piece, you have a strange blend of cartoony and photorealistic and it's just not working well. You've got this huge, oversized cartoon beltbuckle and these stylized gloves, but then you're using a photo for the face texture. I would recommend changing the size of these objects, or painting your own diffuse map for the character. You have to pick one or the other, the blend doesn't work well

Either way, I think you should have done a lot more concept work with this piece. Concept art is more important than any other part of the process. If the concept doesn't work, no matter how good you are at texturing/modeling/lighting, the piece will suffer

The breasts look nice.
I'd like to see the poly flow of the model. Keep working at it

[SnappedStrings]

One more thing, I just took a look at the first picture you posted and the face is looking a little flat. Try pulling the nose forward and pushing the cheeks back to give the face more dimension

[mies]

SnappedStrings: ur completely right : ) atm head and body are still seperate. so thats why they dont link. and just looking at the neck hurts my eyes to hahaha. fact is im not sure if i should use that head al together or do another atempt on one. so thats why things are so messed up in the neck area atm.

also on the face, i mentioned earlier that ive just put it there for modeling its not a final texture. im gonna try making a handpainted one but never done that b4 so well see how it goes. i really need a photo to guide me on my head modeling cuz i dont do it enough

on the concept art, yes. i agree like 200% and still i didnt do it this time. the fact is that this was sepose to be just a 2 min test to see how it looked b4 id desiding if id go for zorro or not. But then it got kinda outa hand and its just a wrong start. I cant agree more with the things you say

thanx alot for the time to look and give me some pointers.

[SnappedStrings]

You're welcome, glad my critique was helpful

I would recommend trying to paint the texture. I mean, you may not end up with a contest-winning piece, but you'll certainly be all the better for it. And then the next time you have to paint a texture, you'll be that much more prepared. I've found that doing things I don't want/know how to do, forces me to learn it.

Good luck with whichever you choose!

[mies]

Originally Posted by SnappedStrings

You're welcome, glad my critique was helpful

I would recommend trying to paint the texture. I mean, you may not end up with a contest-winning piece, but you'll certainly be all the better for it. And then the next time you have to paint a texture, you'll be that much more prepared. I've found that doing things I don't want/know how to do, forces me to learn it.

Good luck with whichever you choose!

Defently gonna hand paint it now

[VinsanityV20]

I'd definitely say that next time you should work with 2D some more. Firstly, just to play with different costume designs. Secondly, to nail the proportions in the first place - generally speaking, if it works in 2D, than it will translate in 3D. Of course, once you get really confident in your stuff, you don't need to put as much focus on it - lord knows there are more than a few artists here who are experienced enough to just open up Zbrush and sculpt away at something that looks great.

But you say you think you need practice; might as well practice your 2D skills a bit too, if you ask me I mean, personally, I just think it's better to be proficient in both 2D and 3D, but also it could be practical. For example, once you model a base mesh, you could render it out and draw costume designs over it for ideas before moving forward. Or pose a biped in Max, render it out, and then use it as a skeleton to draw over. You could also draw over problem spots in your wireframe to better identify problems with poly flow and fix it more easily in 3D.

Just remember man, SnappedStrings is right. It's a lot more important to try things, maybe fail, maybe succeed - whatever, you'll just be stronger for doing it. Nothing is a better teacher than experience, so think outside the box. Do something you've never done before. HERE is where you get the chance to try it out, and also get help from your peers. Go crazy with it, man!

I say paint the texture as well. I know that ALOT of people who hate drawing just steal photo reference like crazy - it was rampant in college. Those people never get jobs in the industry. They're shortcut takers. Your best bet, and what would help you grow as an artist - go hunt down some photoshop tutorials. 2DCreative Magazine and 3DWorld regularly feature really, REALLY good Photoshop tutorials - very focused stuff, like how to paint face textures. You can also poke around 3DTotal's free tutorials - I haven't looked at their Photoshop stuff personally, but lord knows the Joan of Arc tutorial damn near taught me how to model. All of these sites - though don't let it get around that I ever endorsed them -, like CGSociety, Polycount and the like; they all have great, knowledgeable communities and very detailed, very helpful tutorials. You'll be doing yourself a favor if you painted your texture, man.

[mies]

VinsanityV20: thanks for ur advice its really cool to see how people take the time to share there thoughts here. On the Concept part i agree a thousent %. ive been strougling now to make the outfit abit more detailed afterwards and im really noticing how bad it is to just start modeling and not do a atleast some sketches. Next time i will most defenetly start with them.

On the painted textures part, the head ive put on there was never ment as a final texture. ive tried saying that from the start. the entire model isnt even unwrapped yet. And i will hand paint the entire textures : ). but b4 i can start with that i need to be sure im done with the low poly model. and atm im halfway my tris limit..so i could add more details b4 starting the texturing.

i gues i just need to refine what i got sofar since what i got already has everything the model need. ima show what i got atm soon.

thanks for the reply and best of luck with ur model!

[mies]

Ok some updates! things starting to come together. i really need ur thoughts on what i got sofar and once again many thanks on al the help you guys gave me already, here it is:

[M575]

last update looking much better in my opinion. You could probably take some tris out of the mask and face imho though. Maybe even the cape.

[mies]

M575: funny u say that cuz i agree. i had less b4 but since im atm at half my tris budget im adding more detail. So i started to add more tris in specific places. thnx alot for ur time i really apriciate it : )