Lowpoly modeling

Delzhand

I considered resurrecting my old AC thread, looked it up, and realized it was 4 years old. Yikes. All the links were dead anyway.



Wires


This is the base male mesh. It's definitely my best model to date, but I wanted to get some serious feedback before proceeding with the rigging.

I originally wanted to make something with proportions closer to 'chibi' characters, especially Bravely Default, because I'm not a great animator, and I thought simpler units would give me less to screw up. Since the game is an SRPG, the characters will be viewed almost exclusively from 3/4 overhead perspectives.

I think I did a pretty good job of keeping quads aligned, with the exceptions of the shoulders, where I reduced the geometry down.

Wilhelm_III

I like it. Very clean mesh. I think you may want to add another edge loop in the elbows (like you have in the knees) for smoother animation though. (You might get stretching as is). Great work overall though!

Delzhand

I considered that. 2 loops are the minimum to preserve volume, and it seemed to look okay with some test deforms. I'll toss a half-loop in there if necessary once I start rigging it.



Here's the female version. Minor modifications along the jawline, hips, waist, and bust, otherwise the same. If I was modeling unique characters I'd probably bring the female shoulders in a bit, but since this is for a game engine where all units will share the same skeleton and animations, that's not really an option.

I also spent some time on the face(s). Eye spacing has been widened a bit, and the eyebrows don't have their own geometry anymore - I just couldn't think of a way to deal with it in the game engine, so it was just hassle for little benefit. I'm going to be painting variant expressions for the eyes and mouth anyway, might as well do the eyebrows at the same time.

But I'm still not 100% happy with them. They seem a bit... fish-faced, and I'm not convinced it's just the lack of nose. I think the eyes are okay, so maybe it's the mouth width and position?

NightDragon

What do you mean by fish-faced?

Delzhand

Well, without a nose it's harder to gauge whether the position and size of the eyes and mouth look right or not. I think it's okay, though - the addition of a nose seems to greatly improve the faces.

MagicToaster

Because the girl's eyebrows are thin and yellow, they don't show up as clearly as the guys. I'd darken them slightly.