Dominance War 2 - Seforin

[seforin]

ok so Im reserving my spot and I need to figure out what sort of character to work on, Thinking maybe a theme of angel of death assassin with stealth pieces that make him invisible / can fly if situation gets bad (thinking backpack piece admits energy that turns into wings when situation becomes sticky and arm pieces conceal a multitude of weaponary that can launch gas to emp based attacks, and has hand to hand combat skills which include his arm piece to become a energy based chain saw (dont worry I have the idea in my head it looks cool!)And a energy based Sythe that he conceals on his side pouches that he can use when desimating larger enemies/forces (robots/ small military units)


more to come when I think of this design better.

[seforin]

ok so I decided to redo my character take after alot of sketching today.

After OC challenging with Polyhertz I dedcided to work on my own spin of warrior class

"Tech Mage"


These units have highten psychic abilities which through agumentation and mechanical inhancements to the brain can control small nano byte machines that live inside the body of the tech mage,

The nanobyte machines work in small colonies that can super heat themselves , freeze , or electrify or just overwhelm a enemy as they are slowly ripped apart nano byte by nano byte. This giving the feeling that the Tech mage is using "magic".

But due to the extreme amount of nano bytes and augmented surgerys gone to the user , control over the clusters of nano machines require high intelligence and concentartion, in which in the heat of battle most Tech mages fall victim of lost of focus or "Blinding the 3rd eye" as many Tech Mages refer to it, which can cause the user to have backfires with his nanobyte colonies or lost of control over the larger cluster.


I did a few sketches but I feel pretty happy with the design of this one, Any suggetions and crituqes are welcomed

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/wip-1.jpg

[gauss]

hey seforin! great to see how much you've already got posted, and you've done a good job in thinking out how your character would work in battle and what his technology means. i think the idea of the techmage is strong and could earn you a pretty slick looking entry at the end of all this, provided you put the work in.
my main concern at this point is that while the idea is strong, the execution at this point is a little too obvious, too basic.
what i mean is that it's clear from looking at your sketch--which is a pretty good one, by the way, nice job in illustrating how the weapon canisters work--that you've more or less gone with your first inclination, or your prevailing idea of how certain things are "supposed" to look. i made some very similar points in dejawolf's thread, if you care to read, (http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=179508&an=0&page=1#Post1 79508) about the same thing. dejawolf is doing an angel of death style character, which is awesome, but the way he's representing the character in his first concept uses all the same token artifacts you'd expect from the character. the skull looks like a skull, the big angel wings look exactly like the standard image of angel wings, the scythe is a scythe, etc.
in a very similar way, you're doing the same thing on your concept, albeit with slightly less standard (but all the more stock) imagery: glowing eyes, wires coming out of his head in the way you'd expect, glow-y canisters coming out of the arms like we always seem to see, for some reason, glow in the center of the chest. you see what i mean?
there's very little that's surprising. while it's still a good idea and you're presenting it fairly well, there's not a whole lot to interest the viewer because there isn't a whole lot they haven't seen before, especially if they play a lot of science fiction games or watch sf movies.
you can still do a tech mage, with wires, glowing bits, nanobytes and the whole nine yards, but you need to consider novel ways of representing these elements, and arranging them in an interesting fashion. glowing canisters are the expected route--how else might you incorporate that sort of thing? might you find a more interesting and novel way to fuse them into his body, same with the wires? does it really even make sense to have them glowing at all?
don't get me wrong, there's a damn good reason that even the best artists end up using glow-y bits in their designs...because it's an easy, great way of making something look cool. but if you do the glow-y bits in all the familiar ways, then the viewer's brain shuts off. so i think you can still keep with your tech mage idea (after all, General Corum basically looks like a high-tech mage), but you need to reinterpret the signifiers of the character in different ways.

if drawing a detail "feels right," or reminds you strongly of a design you've already seen, then you probably need to change it. genuinely new and different looking designs are little uncomfortable to draw, frankly, because you're breaking new ground. so don't be afraid to get beyond what seems comfortable while you're concepting--that's the territory where the greatest rewards still remain unmined, my friend. best of luck, and keep us posted with your progress!

[seforin]

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

*falls out of chair wow*

Well I can safley say this is the most indepth critique ive gotten in some time, well me and polyhertz where talking online today and figured to do a 2nd revision to our characters, and I got more into the grove today of drawing out this character, after looking at some armor references of table top games and some mech designs I decided to completely revamp the design to this character and give him a more infused tech to flesh kinda deal (but not boarder lining the whole cyborg deal) again the same concept of the nano machines but he has infused "Nano Centers" that build the clusters from raw material in his suroundings and body itself) OR the giant gem looking pieces, I figured to go more of a spin of a mage mixed with a futuristic matrixy/ ghost in the shell style body, My color schemes are to be changed soon but lets see what you think of this new character revision first, as always critiques and comments and suggestions and all.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/char_revision_2.jpg

[Shady-D]

i like the biostuff going on there but im not so sure about his body.. it looks a bit hard to move in there.

[seforin]

just so everyone understands I will have a final update with the help of a few artists friends of mine by tommorrow night, and I will begin 3d modeling starting saturday on.



IM NOT SLACKING IM JUST JUGGLING!

[seforin]

I figured I would post the little thing I got a chance to work on, allthough for the record I realized after I modeled and started to MASSIVELY duplicate these to form a shape of cloth my pc promptly took a piss on me and told me to atleast kiss it on the lips if I plan to fuck it that hard.

Oh well just going to have to dummy down the shape and fake it with textures when I model it, but heres the render anyway

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/nanomachines.jpg

[seforin]

ok sorry for the lack of updates, I have been bothering 2 good friends of mine to help me out with this concept (IE: I need to get better at 2d for a while)

but in the mean time heres some posts of the finalized concepts of this character, I have a final version thats a combination of the 2 different artists works that will be posted hopefully some time monday at the latest, well heres what I got


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/con1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/con2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/con3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/con4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/mage2.jpg

[Nilium]

Looking good. Not much I can say to actually critique the technical aspects of the work.

However, your latest might have you either looking at scrapping/reworking the idea or switching teams. Either way, we can't have too much 'cybernetic' stuff, and your guy is looking to be almost completely that.

[seforin]

well to be honest the head is having a rework one last time because I was told by many to cyborgish, but I wanted it to more in that mid robo-copish style and just normal body.

look for the final design hopefully in the next day or 2

[seforin]

alright and heres the design based more on my other concept artist friend, I will be combining pieces of lower and upper body between these 2 drawings, I will begin modeling as of tommorrow /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/mage.jpg

[Slum]

That latest one looks a lot like Daz's entry from last year.

[seforin]

daz?

Cant say I know who that is, can you link me to the artwork so I could see (know what to avoid)

[seforin]

sorry for the lack of updates, I was at the moment working 2 jobs and I had zero free time, I finally have gone down to just 1 job and school so I can get more on the ball with everything, so I present to you boots

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/boots1.jpg

and for no added reason puss in boots

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/catboots.jpg

[seforin]

well just wanted to toss up another update, Final day at my 2nd job is saturday so sunday is all day working on this, hurray!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/prog1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/prog2.jpg

[seforin]

hurray for updates

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/1-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/3-1.jpg


Working on having some more updates consistant during the week. so stay tuned , the Brush work is coming!!

[Davision3D]

I really like your armour design, only the boots looking too much like simple knight boots.

[seforin]

hmm maybe Ill add in a few ribbits or something to it, as soon as I get to the upper details mainly head and arms I will go and touch up those little pieces. should have a update some time this wednesday if all goes well

edit: Forgot to update a bit

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/test1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/test2.jpg

[seforin]

well just another update, arm and upper armor pieces.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/1-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/2-2.jpg

[rooster]

starting to look good /images/graemlins/smile.gif my advice is don't worry too much about being perfect, worry about finishing. I would personally block in the rest of your model before getting too fine with the details, since itll help you be sure you're putting everything in the right place

[seforin]

well did a few updates, decided to fill out that whole torso area from hell, mind you its just pull deformation so I get the idea where things where placed or overlayed, again all the funky colored stuff will be touched up in z-brush (Seeing a pattern of the funk?)

All thats left is the head and then z-brush to t3h end!

The last of the goodies Im waiting till near end to try/pull off.

Until then enjoy a update

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/funky1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/funky2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/2-3.jpg

[seforin]

THE GOGGLES THEY DO NOTHING!!!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/google.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/goggles2.jpg

[seforin]

Part 2 of the goggles and there non workings
----------

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/avaator.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/aviator2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/avator3.jpg

[rollin]

haha.. the head is going to look realy cool

and happy you dropped the crazy colors for rendering /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[seforin]

well I thought I was going to just z-brush this guy, but I realized the ammount of hassel I would have to go through to honestly do it, and I figured It was about time I made the plunge and learned me some mudbox, and I have to say hands down, z-brush is the way of the past, I love the mud /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

first attempt and my head model as to date, not bad eh?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/head3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/head2-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/head1-2.jpg

[seforin]

mud box is the king, but brining everything all together in max causes crash after crash, heres 2 renders before I got that insufficent memory crap again =\

here you go

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/full1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/bodyz2.jpg

[seforin]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/myfrontisshiny.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/thisismyback.jpg


Well my computer nearly crashes every time I have the high poly render, so no more nice lighting like before =(

On a plus note all thats left is the hands and the lower cloth stretchings and I can start normal maping this bad boy, already got the head normal maped and it came out really well, im very pleased with the results /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Next comes the body!

[Devoid]

Looking good, but that pose looks like it's gonna be rough to rig and pose. An animator would kill me if I handed him a model like that - the shoulders are going to tear pretty badly , and you don't really have room for the lats to connect. My suggestion would be to have him in a more natural relaxed pose, arms spread a bit fingers slightly curled and legs spread a bit. Try to think like you are modeling him in one frame of his idle animation and that might help.

[seforin]

well unfortanetly I learned about that big issue around the time it was like 3 quaters of the way in, but oh well, live and learn

finished the last of the high, onto the low poly and more details in photoshop /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/IamClossis.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/thisismyhand.jpg

[seforin]

well dont want people to think ive been sleeping on this, I had a bit of trouble finding a good way to uv unwrap alot of pieces, but I found a very nifty program that helped relax my uvs to near seamless unwraps!

all I have to do is the legs and the cape pieces and im off to texturing /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Also I did a pass in z-brush on the head to get more defined features (pores and such) damn near destroyed my pc just importing it, thank god I didnt have to do anything other then render to texture when I imported it /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/backwire.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/char_lowpoly.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/normal_low.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/backlow.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/close_low.jpg

[seforin]

well after some more extensive testing 4 maps in total and 5498 tris at the end, and the energy cape area really added to the final model, Now a full week of texturing, HUZZAH!

/images/graemlins/laugh.gif


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/wire1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/wires2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/backarea.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/frontarea.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/3auter.jpg

[seforin]

got my color scheme down and started the energy cape area right now, all thats there is just diffuse and normal maps,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/slow1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/front-1.jpg


Specular and glow maps coming soon /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[seforin]

man dosent even look the same now that I look at the last screenshot I posted, Gettin to the head now and then working on specular and emissive maps, and tryin to figure out what im going to do for his scene, need to tweak his rig a bit in some places, might need a buddies help on this one

well heres where im at

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/gettinthere1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/gettinthere2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/gettinthere3.jpg

[Jackablade]

He's coming along pretty well. Does he have a weapon or is he just going to be a melee kinda guy.

[seforin]

[ QUOTE ]
He's coming along pretty well. Does he have a weapon or is he just going to be a melee kinda guy.

[/ QUOTE ]

no no those things coming off him are his weapon, there the best way I could visually show of the nano machines, just imagine a Crap load of those things all attacking you and ripping you apart from a molecular level (like you see your self literally melting away being chiped at)

When I do a beauty render im going to have more of those things swirling around attacking more at you if I can fit it in the poly limit /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[seforin]

well after pulling a all nighter, I think Im finally satisfied (and im leaving out of town tommorrow so I have no choice)

so heres the final version of this guy, just going to get some old props and get with a buddy of mine and render this bad boy out, in the mean time some shitty viewport quick renders

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/nice1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/nice2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/seforin/nice3.jpg

[seforin]

even though this may not be the nicest model compared to most others, I would like to thanks all the people who supported me in Real life and online to complete this

I would like to thank my buddy polyhurtz for constantly telling me anatomy points I screwed up on, I would like to thank my buddys cargill robernson and John (I will never learn his last name) for helping me with the inital concepts, and I would thank my buddy kris creco for riggin my character and nicely posing him, and I would like to thank my buddy joshua goteriez for helping me render out a nice scene. Ive really learned alot from this contest and hope to continue to be a active member of the polycount community in more challenges to come!

Now im in orlando now and Im going to kick it with mickey mouse for the weekend, so I'll catch everyone when this contest is done /images/graemlins/laugh.gif