Nicolai... finished?

Mayday

Seriously, I managed to finish the model this time... I think. To make sure, I want to hear your opinions, especially regarding the proportions.



Here's an alternative version of the calves that I'm considering, with old feet though, because the new ones are hard to match with these "megaman" calves.


Here's a video where the camera circles around the model, so you can see all the details:
http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/files/aroun.avi (Xvid)
http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/files/aroun2.avi (WMV9)

Please crit! I need to be sure everything is ok with the model before I do some UV texturing and proceed to rigging. Also, I'm having trouble with the arm bondage textures, would be great if anyone can help me out.

Cam

Looks amazing. The only thing I might do is make the toes bigger, but that's an incredibly small gripe. Great work dude! And you're still using Blender, right? I think I may take another shot at that program, because after a few days of struggling with it, I kinda gave up. Keep posting this kind of stuff!

The One Dark Knight

I have to say, that's amazing modeling, Mayday.


I think the hands are a little small on the first one? Not sure.


Either way, REALLY awesome.

DE?AD

Got to agree - looks great. I really like the burlap tunic over hooded-body-suit thing, very cool. The hands look a little small from front view, like the ball of his hand isn't quite defined, but it's just the angle that's doing it.
I'd say you're done.

Virum

His eyes need a cornea (I can't see one at exact profile, but it could be the lighting?) , but it's awesome otherwise.

Edit: I think it's the lighting actually cause it appears on the shadowy side that I can see the cornea.

saltiness

Virum wrote:

His eyes need a cornea (I can't see one at exact profile, but it could be the lighting?) , but it's awesome otherwise.

Edit: I think it's the lighting actually cause it appears on the shadowy side that I can see the cornea.

He definitely has cornea, they're apparent in the first two shots.

Virum

I think it needs to be a bit bigger/rounder then, it looks too flat/ovular to me. Arent' eyballs generally completely spherical?

Of course it is a cartoon...I dunno, something about the eyes as we near profile, even in the first shot, looks off to me.

But I still really like it.

Ape2001

He has no cornea =_=? Can't comprehend that, but doesn't matter.

I'd say go with the first pair of legs, those nails look pretty good.
What appears a bit strange to me are his banana-like shaped arms. It looks like his lower arms bend. I would go for a bit more realistic look in that point.

At all: Yay, he looks really alive. Good job

Tweaked_Bat_

Nice! I think it's looking pretty sweet. Now show us some animations! Hurry up and rig! :P

Mayday

Thanks, dudemen.
Yes, he does indeed have corneas, that's pretty obvious in the videos I posted.
I'm tweaking the face and playing with vertex shapes a bit.


Any constructive crits are still more than welcome.

Ape2001

Hehe ^^ this is the first time I realize that he got four fingers in your ava pic but only three in the original.
That emotion looks good. Why don't you make him go through some more various emotions like: happy, surprise, fear, grieve and then the inbetweens?

Mayday

Like this: http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/images/Gobs/v0.35.avi ?

Sure, I'll be doing that soon enough.

Ravenshadow

the model is very nice mayday, very nice indeed.

Ape2001

Yep Mayday, that way. I'm pretty excited to see that on the new model ^^

Lly

Looks great and that vid proves you know how to get great expression out of it, so looking forward to seeing that on the new model.

Crits: I am not feeling the textures on the clothes (i used to be a texturer so this is a picky point for me!). The hoody looks like plasticene and the weave on the jacket thing looks eirther way too large or not ... textured enough. I mean that kind of fabric usually has lots of tiny hairs sticking out of it that catch the light differently. Maybe add some extra details in the specular map (maya terminology, i assume Blender has an equivalent) to give it a rougher feel. At the moment it looks too smooth and against the rocking texture job on the skin it looks off.

Mayday

I don't see how "specular map" is maya terminology...

Anyway, there is no specular map on the burlap. I guess that means I'll need to make one, eh? I'm not sure how, I guess I'll experiment.

Johannen

Well... that's just... incredible! I'm pretty much as average joe compared to you guys as it gets, as i have near no artistic talent. You guys though do some pretty amazing things. Hell! Why don't companies just come to these pages to scout for talent! Nice work.

Tweaked_Bat_

Now do all your battle tourney entries in Blender! Do it! :P

The_Rat

Mayday wrote:

I don't see how "specular map" is maya terminology...

Anyway, there is no specular map on the burlap. I guess that means I'll need to make one, eh? I'm not sure how, I guess I'll experiment.

I think he means normal map, or bumpmap, or parallax map, or whatever it is that gives the bumpy effect.

Lly

The_Rat wrote:

Mayday wrote:

I don't see how "specular map" is maya terminology...

Anyway, there is no specular map on the burlap. I guess that means I'll need to make one, eh? I'm not sure how, I guess I'll experiment.

I think he means normal map, or bumpmap, or parallax map, or whatever it is that gives the bumpy effect.

No, i do mean specular map. It's what gives a surface the effect of more complex/subtle reaction to light. There already appears to be a bump map on there, but bumpmaps can only get you so far.

Mayday

How about the old version? I still can't remember how I got it, but I can try to recreate it with pure luck :P
http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/images/nic3d_V6.2.jpg

Lly

I prefer the two tone two different materials idea of the new version, but that old one does look a bit more like real hessian. Up to you lil buddy!

If you want i could knock together a basic guide to specular mapping if you're unsure how to use them. It wouldn't be in blender obviously but the fundamentals are obviously universal.

Mayday

Yeah, of course I will keep two different materials, and I will work on a texture for the black shirt and pants. I just need to work on the "burlap" (which is actually a photo of my sweater, edited heavily to achieve a seamless colour map, a bump map and an alpha map).

I know of course how specular maps work, it's just a matter of putting them to good use, ie. making it work for a realistic material look.
If you feel like whipping up a tutorial, I'm sure it will be very useful to me.

To be honest, texturing is the part that I'm worst at (I have the least practice). I'm glad you like the skin though, because it's not even finished yet! I will be improving it with UVmapping, adding a lot of detail I hope.

Lly

A cheap way of getting a good specular map is to take the colour map, desaturate it and then adjust the levels so that it is entirely black and white, with just the very highlights as white. Then add some scratches and dust noise in ps, then map that as the texture map. You may have to change the black to a grey to get the right value specularity for the rest of the material, but the white highlights should help a lot.

The same can be done for skin and other materials. Even a subtle amount can make all the difference.

Mayday

Ok, I'm gonna try that. Until then, here's what I managed to do with the textures. (One of the things I did was making the bump map affect the specularity as well).
http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/files/big.jpg

Mayday

I edited the nosebridge a bit, because it was bugging me somewhat. I made it more straight but prominent.




Still looking for a compromise with the calves and feet...


This pic shows a bit of change with the burlap.

superglue

you know, there's something about three fingered characters i never really liked (like the ninja turtles).


When they point at things it looks like they're flipping you off.

Rye

personally, I think the legs would benefit from a locking joint as opposed to a socket knee. By that I mean the upper legs (thigh etc.) to the knee should be in FRONT of the calves/shin. It would make for a more dynamic model.

Give the upper leg a little arc to it, then give his calf and shin the opposite foreward arc. When I look at his knees, he reminds me of Torgo from Manos, the Hands of Fate. I mean, this is what I would do, having been given that model to work with. He's got cankles, which are cute, but they look weird considering the rest of the body musculature. I don't think his thighs need ot be any bigger, but I do think, again, that they need a very slight arc. Smoething to suggest that the knee is supposed to bend and not simply snap.

The muscle on top of the shin is way too bulgey for any creeature. All it would do is allow him to touch his toes to his shin (muscles contract.. that's how they work). While that's creepy and cool, it wouldn't be a very positive trait for attracting females. Larger calves provide much more agility and power than their counter balance. The large forearms to wrists is consistent with the large shins to feet, but it needs to be tweaked. Stylistically it fits, but anatomically, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Also, even if they aren't going to show for posing, he needs eyelids. Eyelids are like 60% of expression.

Congrats... you win the shitty sketch from Rye award today. Presented by Lipton soup. (not really)



Please don't be offended. I'm only trying to help.

Mayday

Wow, that's a bunch of useful crits! Thanks man. I'm going to try these out as soon as I can. He does have eyelids, they're just not visible when the eyes are wide open (tried to make them visible, but it made him look permanently stoned and we don't need another Jack Sparrow).

Glue: the threefingers stay. No way you're talking me out of this.