Female Punk WIP

[ElysiumGX]

This has been an on off project of mine for over a year. Something always gets in the way. She was intended to be low poly with basic texturing...but I'm switching to use normal mapping so I can gain more experience with shaders. I'm tired of her being pushed back, so I want to finish her soon before moving on with more environment pieces.

This is my progress so far, from today.

http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/model_01.jpg

She is loosely based on this concept, provided by a friend for use with this project only.
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/concept.jpg

Comments, critique, and advice are welcomed.

[ElysiumGX]

More progress. Lots of edges as I prepare it for Mudbox.
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/model_02.jpg

[moose o death]

looking good, the original low poly model is very nicely formed, not too detailled not too low either. is there any animations for her yet or is this going to piggy back source's stuff?

[ElysiumGX]

Some progress in Mudbox. Still working in the details.
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/model_03.jpg

[ElysiumGX]

Another look at the high poly detail before I begin baking it down.
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/model_05.jpg
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/model_06.jpg

[moose o death]

nice work, is there any resources or tutorials on organic modelling because it takes me ages to do something twice as detailled poly count wise that looks half as good.

and i'm using the character model as a clothes horse so it's not even 100% original workhttp://img516.imageshack.us/img516/5538/lcpsoldierearlyfz6.jpgit's progressed since this point, but that's taken way too long as it is.

[ElysiumGX]

There is a lot to cover to answer that question. You'll have to be more specific. Honestly, my results come from years of mistakes. There are a few simple rules I try to follow. These are rough notes.

Set a goal. Such as a platform, genre, and style. What is your target polycount, and rendering tech? Pick an existing game type, and craft your project based on its direction. Are you designing for a mobile platform, such as the DS, a fun casual platform, such as a puzzle game on the Wii, or a hardcore graphics platform, such as a FPS on the Xbox. Also consider how much screen time and space you would expect the peice to have. You shouldn't spend too much time and effort on objects, or even segments of an object, that will get very little notice or function on screen. Remove anything that is never seen, to reduce polycount.

Use only the density of edges you need to create the shape desired. Never more. The exceptions being, areas used for deformation, areas designed for easy UV mapping, and areas for clean normal map rendering..and maybe a few more depending on the situation.

The best thing is to think ahead of your process, and try to guess which areas may cause problems later on, or which aspects have no influence on the final results. Plan out each step ahead of time, the best you can.

I have now rendered the normap map for my low poly character, but there are errors. There are problems with the normal map due to XSI's vertex colors being applied incorrectly (the forehead). There is a problem with parts of my character's UVs being mirrored (the legs and arms), and the normal map rendering is not consistent on both sides. All of these problems are probably due to the fact that I'm using an old version of XSI, pre-Ultimapper, and should have set up my UV's to work around that, but I was trying to use as much UV space as possible. Hopefully I can upgrade to 7 soon to prevent this on future projects. For now I'll try to work with it, and do lots of touch up in photoshop.

A look at my process. The first image shows how I separate the floating geometry so that rendering the normap map will not catch overlaps from other segments. Some areas are removed that will later be duplicated or mirrored. All pieces are moved with snap enabled so they move back into their original place.

http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/normal_exploded.jpg

http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/normal_combined.jpg

I'll look for some basic organic modeling tutorials to share, or create some of my own.

[TheRazorsEdge]

Very nice work so far!

The delts look way too massive for my eye and there's something odd about the forehead (a little too squarish?) and biceps/forearm regions.

I love the subtlety you sculpted the leg, waist, stomach and chest regions with. Great work! Bringing the delts and arms up to par here will really make a difference. :)

Cheers!

[ElysiumGX]

Thanks Razor. Perhaps it's the camera angle causing the delts to appear large.

I took a few days off, as I'm now unemployed and have other priorities atm.

Last night, I completely remapped the low poly and cleaned up the mesh to prevent any more errors from rendering the normal map with my old version of XSI. I still found a few, so I gave up and used Xnormal to render the maps and preview instead. I couldn't get some shaders to work properly in XSI's realtime views (I really need to upgrade to 7 once i find a job). I prefer the lighting in Xnormal anyway. I'm now at a point where I can work on the texture and finish the hair.

Low poly renders in Xnormal:
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/karla_xrender.jpg
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/karla_xrender_b.jpg
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/karla_xrender_c.jpg

[ElysiumGX]

Texturing progress:
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/karla_xrender_e.jpg

Lots more to go.

[ElysiumGX]

More progress. I think I'm almost finished with the texturing, and should begin setting up a rig to pose her.
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/karla_xrender_g.jpg

[moose o death]

damn she's pale, i get she's a night person but surely she has blood? or is it female, punk vampire, goth/emo.

sorry didn't notice the second page, better.

[moose o death]

what engine is this destined for?

you should take a look at leadwerks2 (www.leadwerks.com) it'll handle pretty much anything you throw at it. it's almost on par with the middle point between stalker and clear skies.

it's best feature for me is the art pipeline, at this stage us XSI users need to use a file converter but if you have ultimate unwrap that's not an issue. export obj for static or fbx for animated, convert to gmf. load into engine. it's painless compared to the other engines out there.

and if someone can point me at a .b3d exporter for xsi the need for ultimate unwrap diminishes

[ElysiumGX]

moose: No engine in particular. Just for my portfolio. I've looked at that engine before, from an earlier post. I have it bookmarked. Looks impressive.

Ok, some polish work. Small adjustments to the mesh, and textures. I want to call this phase finished, or abandoned, mostly because I want to move on to other projects. I want to finish it off by using a biped guide to quickly pose her. That will be my next post...along with the image maps, and wireframe.

http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/karla_xrender_h.jpg

[ElysiumGX]

Last round of images to conclude this project.

http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/beauty_01.jpg

http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/beauty_08.jpg

http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/colormap.jpg
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/normalmap.jpg
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/specmap.jpg
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/glossmap.jpg

Additional:
Render (http://http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/beauty_02.jpg)
Render (http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/beauty_03.jpg)
Render NSFW (http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/beauty_04.jpg)
Render (http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/beauty_05.jpg)
Render NSFW (http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/beauty_07.jpg)

Wireframe (http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/wireframe.gif)
Wireframe (http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/face_wire.gif)

Rotation:
http://elysiumvisions.com/images/karla/final/karla.gif

I'm not 100% satisfied with the results. The face and hands need improvement. Those are areas I'll have to spend more effort on from now on.

Thank you everyone who commented.