LPC vol2 #2 - action film - heros & baddies

[hawken]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e85U4QbYG7s/RoElLRYAtFI/AAAAAAAAAPk/gdnW2N3HswA/s400/die_hard-4.jpg

This months challenge is all about action films, heros and baddies.

The challenge:

Model a playable character, in 700 triangles or less, from an action movie. (to define action movie, please click here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_movie) but also open to any non science fiction with adventure-action, like james bond or indiana jones etc)

The setting:

The game type will be beat-em-up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_%27em_up) melee style, for a hand held device. Good examples are final fight, die hard arcade, River City Ransom and so on. Feel free to model an environment or weapons and destructibles, even opponents.

river city ransom (1989):
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b224/yearofthefox/oldschool.jpg

final fight (1989):
http://www.neo-geo.com/reviews/neo-reviews/BurningFigt/Final_Fight.png

die hard arcade (1996):
http://www.gameclassification.com/files/games/Die-Hard-Arcade.png

spikeout (1997):
http://media.ignimgs.com/xbox/xbox/image/article/601/601513/spikeout-battle-street-20050404070146169-000.jpg

the warriors (2005):
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/02/the_warriors_return.jpg


The rules:

character: 700 tris
texture space: 4 x 128px by 128px /or/ 1 x 256px by 256px (diffuse / alpha / specular)

(additional elements)
weapons: max 100 tris per weapon
weapons tex: 64px by 64px per weapon
destructible: max 200 tris per item
destructible tex: 128px by 128px per item
environment: max 500 tris
environment tex: 4 x 128px by 128px /or/ 1 x 256px by 256px
npc: max 500 tris
npc tex: 2 x 128px by 128px

Please post any work in this thread.
Deadline is end of september.
multiple entries are allowed.

Please see the various threads in this forum for posting images in the right format (no anti-aliasing, gray background, mobile device screen size)

winner is chosen by public vote. Brownie points for rigging or diorama for final entry.

Smash your way to victory!

[ander]

Wohoo, finally!

Gonna do one of the Tremor brothers from Smokin Aces!

http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2007_Smokin%27_Aces/2007_smokin_aces_008.jpg

[MattBradley]

Awesome, I'm gonna get on this!

[Joseph Pomeisl]

So, would an armor clad dude wielding a sword and a six-shooter be considered a science-fiction character?

[TeriyakiStyle]

Hell yeah! Sounds like fun.

[D4V1DC]

Very Nice idea, this link and list should be helpful to all who are interested:
IMDB ACTION FILM LISTINGS (http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Genres/Action/)

[cptincognito]

I'm in! edit: learned my lesson about multiple chars last time... better anyway
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T-MGa-GjFF4/SnoWX36cApI/AAAAAAAAA-I/iHJ4BDS-KOE/s400/24467.png

[ericamilhomem]

I want to participate!
One question: is Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) from the Get Smart movie ok for this challenge?

[JonConley]

Couple of quick questions.

1: this will be a fixed camera correct (can only see certain ways) no 360 viewing of the environment?

2: Any props inside of an environment (say a park) if I used a merry-go-round would that count towards the tri limit of the environment or would it be considered a "destructible"?

[Binxx]

Nice! I'm gonna do Leon from the Professional

Just curious would grenades attached to the body be considered Weapons?

also destructible kinda confused on what that means

[Vailias]

Jon:
1: I'm pretty sure that the exact nature of perspective is up to you (ie you can make it full 3d if you like or design for fixed semi ortho cam.) The list of games mentioned are almost all 2d so a 3d extension of that sort of gameplay could well be acceptable. Even the 3d versions that hit the arcade later are all 2d action except for the occasional dramatic quicktime sequence.

2: I think you can make it a destructable, just be sure to show that it DOES break. Remember that destructable environment bits in the mentioned games often can be come weaponry, or at least give bonuses.

Binxx: A destructable is some prop in the level which can be destroyed. Crates, Barricades, Oil barrels, Street Signs, the occasional cinder block wall, etc. Most often these either hide bonuses, such as healing items or point/money pickups, or they hide or BECOME weaponry. Ie knocking over or breaking a street sign nets you a limited use club in the form of the street sign, barrels can be picked up and thrown, concrete walls often let you pick up a brick and chuck it at enemies.

Hawken: The environment spec: Is that effectively one on screen background set or an entire level worth?

[hawken]

One question: is Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) from the Get Smart movie ok for this challenge?

it's listed as an Action movie on IMDB - so yes. For future reference, can people do a quick search before they ask, cheers.

1: this will be a fixed camera correct (can only see certain ways) no 360 viewing of the environment?

up to you, as Vailias points out.

2: Any props inside of an environment (say a park) if I used a merry-go-round would that count towards the tri limit of the environment or would it be considered a "destructible"?

anything you can pickup or destroy, is a destructible. See Vailias' perfect description above.

Just curious would grenades attached to the body be considered Weapons?

If he can take them off and throw them, they are weapons. If they are stuck to his body and can't be used in your game, they are part of the model. Up to you.

The environment spec: Is that effectively one on screen background set or an entire level worth?

it's the area where you can fight for just one screen, not the budget for an entire level.

hope this answers some Q's!!

Please fact check your own movies for "action" on IMDB, cheers!

[Japhir]

Indiana Jones! As long as my pc doesn't keep crashing on me ;). Good warmup :)

[Convoy_Avenger]

Hey, I'm the new guy. A little challenge should be some good motivation. Gonna do Beatrix from Kill Bill, how acceptable is that?

[Binxx]

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/04chiak/Pistol.jpg
Current progress on the wep i'm gonna give him. having a bit of trouble though.... I'm trying to optimize the space by cutting up the gun however it don't look so hot.. I'll probabaly remodel it again. also is there any programs that could let you draw directly on the model? even though i match up the colors they seemd to go wack ><
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/04chiak/leonpic.jpg
Progresson on leon as a basic model, I think it looks kinda boring though i think i'll make him without the coat

Last question I got is... um is this the right way of doing this? posting images and everything? I'm hoping i'm doing this right, and also was wondering if i should post this here or in the challenges and mini-challenge's area!

[Japhir]

Yo, here's my update:
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5728/indianajoneswip01.jpg
has been quite a while, so criticise me untill I start crying :).
ps: can't get the reference images to be more clear in the viewport, probably because somehow hardware rendering doesn't work anymore and I'm running in software mode.

[hawken]

Yo, here's my update:
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5728/indianajoneswip01.jpg
has been quite a while, so criticise me untill I start crying :).
ps: can't get the reference images to be more clear in the viewport, probably because somehow hardware rendering doesn't work anymore and I'm running in software mode.

It's a good start! You can probably do all the mouth detail with the texture, but the eye socket shape will need extra triangles to make the texture sit well.

[hawken]

Gonna do Beatrix from Kill Bill, how acceptable is that?

Welcome to polycount
green light. it's listed as an action movie on imdb.com

[JohnnySix]

If this helps guys- here's the IMDB's user voted top 50 action movies :

http://www.imdb.com/chart/action

I'm torn between Marty McFly from Back to the future or Marv from Sin City.

[StJoris]

Hah sweet challenge!
If I have time, it'd be boondock saints for me, hmm 'il duce.

[j4polaris]

I'm in! Gonna do the leader dude from the Seven Samurai.
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/filmimages/7samurai-kambei.jpg

[okno]

Cool, another LPC. I'm probably going to do the crazy policeman from Léon.

[Convoy_Avenger]

Here's what I've got so far.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/Convoy_Avenger/ActionHero_WiP01.png

I got a bit carried away on her boobs, as I often do when working on female models. I'll have to size them down a bit. Any Crit/comments most welcome.

[Avanthera]

mine: Marv from sin city. (bodys a stand in)

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6779/update1.jpg

yeeeeaaaahh!
ps. sorry johnny six


@convoy avenger- your model looks good, but like a generic model. not as a model aimed directly at copying a real person. it doesnt look like it was modeled after beatrix, rather a standard female.

[KonamiCode]

Well I've got two great ideas I'd like to do, but I'll focus on the one that's nearest and dearest to my heart:

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/5229/14511458l.jpg

[Convoy_Avenger]

I would have to agree, but I think most of the characterization will come out in the texture. Not much detail can be added to a skin tight jump suit. The hair and weapons should make it look more like her.

[KonamiCode]

Yo, here's my update:
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5728/indianajoneswip01.jpg
has been quite a while, so criticise me untill I start crying :).
ps: can't get the reference images to be more clear in the viewport, probably because somehow hardware rendering doesn't work anymore and I'm running in software mode.

Lookin' good! So are we getting Raider's Indy or Temple of Doom Indy? That whole segment on the rope bridge seems like it'd be a great scene to re-enact in a Beat 'Em up.

[ericamilhomem]

This is my work so far on Agent 99.
I realize some edges need to be turned, but I don't know how to do this in Blender keeping the quads.
Help and critics are welcome!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Motoko-chan/agent_01-2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Motoko-chan/agent_04.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Motoko-chan/agent_05.jpg

[JohnnySix]

Great work Eric, love the way you did the hair.

[IEatApples]

http://www.jordansheldrick.com/files/gimgs/33_v-v-for-vendetta.jpg

Might just have to do V...

[Avanthera]

update, making it quick due to crap comcast internet.
http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/1466/update2c.jpg
sitting at 641 tris, including a cigarette.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/6867/update3i.jpg
Edit: looking at erics i got a little ashamed... more work tomorrow!

[Squiggly_P]

We have until the end of September? Good god, I'm gonna do at least one full mockup. Gotta pick a movie, tho :P

Another link that might be useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_action_films
lists them by year instead of popularity or alphabetically. Lots of them I had forgotten about until I saw them on the lists...

[Avanthera]

might make some small changes, done for now though, (not my presentation)
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/7749/presentationcopy.jpg
might update a few things later but for now, back to real work!:)

[KonamiCode]

Put a few hours work into this last night. It's at 244 tris right now, but I'm gonna reserve optimizing it further until I see how far I can get on the body.

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1083/jbhead.jpg

[DoomiVox]

so are we able to make our 3d adaptations "chibby" like rivercity ransom? or is that bending the rules?

[ericamilhomem]

Today I worked on the UVs, tried to get the best out of the 128x128 texture (it's so small :(). Decided to put a lot more detail on the face.
I used a 128x128 checker-like texture to get the idea of how pixels will look like.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Motoko-chan/progresso_02.jpg

Great work Eric, love the way you did the hair.
Thank you!

[Vrav]

so are we able to make our 3d adaptations "chibby" like rivercity ransom? or is that bending the rules?
Shouldn't be any limitations to style, though I was wondering this too. Chibi would be fun.

[hawken]

so are we able to make our 3d adaptations "chibby" like rivercity ransom? or is that bending the rules?

Style is up to you!

[KonamiCode]

Today I worked on the UVs, tried to get the best out of the 128x128 texture (it's so small :(). Decided to put a lot more detail on the face.
I used a 128x128 checker-like texture to get the idea of how pixels will look like.



Thank you!

If I'm not mistaken, you can use 4 separate 128x128 textures, or one 256x256 texture. Don't tie yourself up into using something smaller than what you're allowed!

[Squiggly_P]

I'm gonna do some Lethal Weapon mockups. Just watched all four films to prepare for it. Riggs, Murtaugh, some goons and a boss (probably Gary Busey...)

I'm gonna treat the boss character with the same specs as the player models, since he'd be a unique character.

Two locations and two mockup screens are my goals. One scene featuring Riggs / Murtaugh fighting some goons in the club scene and a boss fight with Busey in front of Murtaugh's house. If I manage to finish one I'll be happy :D

[Japhir]

update:
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/5159/indianajoneswip02.jpg
waahh somethings going wrong! I think it must be the viewport because I can somehow only run it in software mode (not hardware or even opgenGL) which might be the cause for the weird overlapping stuff and the weird seem on the arm. (I resetXform a couple of times, made sure that the verts where welded properly, also made sure I had the same smoothing group.)
the face is actually asymmetrical ;).

[ericamilhomem]

If I'm not mistaken, you can use 4 separate 128x128 textures, or one 256x256 texture. Don't tie yourself up into using something smaller than what you're allowed!

Hm, I was a bit confused by the texture rules.
Anyway, 256 is gonna be much better!

[JohnnySix]

Hmm , can you tell who it is yet?

http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs48/f/2009/221/a/2/fail_3_by_JohnnySix.jpg

No, neither can I.

[Rorkimaru]

Hi, I'm new to polycount (I've had an account for a while but my first post got me banned by mistake so I'm basically new as of today)

I've been browsing for a while and am amazed at the quality of the work posted here. I'm going to give this competition a shot myself. I'm not much of a modeller but I'd like to improve and competitions seem to be a good way to do that.

I'm going to make Jane Smith from Mr & Mrs Smith. I've got the face mostly done and am going to start on the body before I get to work on the hair or dress. (I don't know if that's a good work flow but sure I'll give it a shot). The head is a bit pointy but I'll be deleting a lot of that when I fit her out with some hair.

By the way, reading the rules I'm not sure. Are we making just the character or an entire scene as it would appear in game?

Anyway here is a screenie of how she looks so far I think its about 200 tris for the head:

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/2658/screenshot1sgn.png

[ericamilhomem]

Are we allowed to use photos for the texture?
I used this for the face and it looks much better than my painting attempts.

WIP:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Motoko-chan/progresso_03-1.jpg

I had to add 8 tris for the eyes area, so I'm over 700. I'll try to compensate on the hair.
My model doesn't look good from the side though... Not sure what I'm going to do about this.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Motoko-chan/progresso_04.jpg

But the other side is ok, the hair covers everything.

[okno]

The thing about using that photo is that the light is from underneath. Shading with the light above seems more practical/versatile unless the game were to have floor-lighting everywhere.

[Joseph Pomeisl]

ericamilhomem: nice. maybe just use that pic as a template.

So, if the character has two axes, each one could be 100 tri's?

[Avanthera]

Eric-
She probably looks so weird from the side due to the plane the eyes are mapped on being flat, what if you cut the planes in half and bent the outer edges back? would help, I think.

[Convoy_Avenger]

@erica - looking really good, I'm kinda jealous.

Here's where I'm sitting right now: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/Convoy_Avenger/ActionHero_WiP04.png took a break for the weekend, the UVing isn't done yet. Way more than 700 tris so going to have to cut back on some. The knees and probably her butt will be getting a trim. Thinking I'm going to have to remake the head as well.

[KonamiCode]

@Convoy_Avenger: Looks a lot stronger than your earlier post. I'd almost pull in those verts on the back of the calves...looking at her in the motorcycle outfits, her limbs are pretty narrow/tubular.



I'm currently at 696 on mine; I was hoping to have enough left over to do hands/fingers but I don't think I'll be able to work it in. Might make some tweaks for animation and for aesthetics but I think i'll start on the UVs tomorrow.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8780/jackby.jpg

[hawken]

ericamilhomem: nice. maybe just use that pic as a template.

So, if the character has two axes, each one could be 100 tri's?

However many you need up to 100.



By the way, reading the rules I'm not sure. Are we making just the character or an entire scene as it would appear in game?


building a playable character is mandatory for entry, the other stuff (additional elements) is optional but recommended.

[Rorkimaru]

building a playable character is mandatory for entry, the other stuff (additional elements) is optional but recommended.

Cool, Thanks for the info. I'll try to put a cool background together. I've drawn up orthos for the body, gona work it up tonight after I get home from college.

Here's another quick question. Would multiple costumes count towards the same entry? At the moment I'm going with the costume from the film poster but I'm not sure if I'd prefer one of the other ones. (I'm not trying to spam with entries, I'd prefer it to count as one)

The other entries are looking amazing. I'm very jealous of the val kilmer model. The bride, agent 99 and indie are coming along awesome too. JohnnySix my initial reaction was buddah but his lack of appearence in action films makes me think I may be wrong...

[ericamilhomem]

The thing about using that photo is that the light is from underneath. Shading with the light above seems more practical/versatile unless the game were to have floor-lighting everywhere.
ericamilhomem: nice. maybe just use that pic as a template.
You're right, I'm already painting on the texture so it's lit from above.

Eric-
She probably looks so weird from the side due to the plane the eyes are mapped on being flat, what if you cut the planes in half and bent the outer edges back? would help, I think.
I will try this!

I was wondering if hands like this guy's chars' are a good solution -> http://www.tomtallian.com/
The fingers are just plans and they seem to work well!
Need to cut tris somewhere!


I got a bit carried away on her boobs, as I often do when working on female models. I'll have to size them down a bit. Any Crit/comments most welcome.

Looks much better now that you fixed this!

[psychotron]

I'm in, I decided to recreate Leon

700 tris seems to be a lot at first but I'm running out budget very quickly for sure :)

what does 4x 128*128 texture means? it's separate albedo, diffuse, spec and normal? or alpha instead of normal? hmm but hand held wouldn't have normal I suppose.. maybe no spec too?
and 1x 256*256px it's only mean one color texture?

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/172/lpc2leon01.jpg

[Avanthera]

Wow, never knew spacey's real name but yeah, those hands are hot...
but to psychotron, you can have 4 128x maps (1 for head, 1 for body, etc.) or have one texture 256x, which is the same size as 4 128 maps. alpha and spec maps are also allowed as the same size as your diffuse maps, their just not counted.
I think...

and Convoy, that looks much better, but I second the skinnier legs deal, keep it up

I think I might do a second character before I polish Marv, who though?

[Rorkimaru]

Made the body today. total tricount is 596 I think. That leaves enough for the dress and the hair I'd say. I hate the hands, might try out those plane fingers like tom tallian's models.

It's weird, I cant see my posts yet I got a reply though... I'm new so I'm not sure if you just don't see your posts or if it's because I'm still having to have my comments approved.

anyway, here she is:
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/2350/bodyf.png

[KonamiCode]

I was wondering if hands like this guy's chars' are a good solution -> http://www.tomtallian.com/
The fingers are just plans and they seem to work well!


I'm thinking about it like this: would the game require them to have fingers? Well, if it's a beat 'em up, they're going to be doing a a lot of punching/throwing, and you might be able to just get by with modeling fists. Or the art director might specifically want hands for animation purposes. It depends where you want to spend your budget to put detail. I chose to put a little more in the face of my character, but I might go back and optimize portions of it to give me enough to go in and add either one hand, or a fist with a trigger finger (if one of the props is a gun).

Can I ask, how many tris you used for just one hand?


@Shrew81: If you wanted to stick with Sin City, maybe dwight or harrigan? Miho or Nancy could be fun too.

[Rorkimaru]

I think I might do a second character before I polish Marv, who though?

Perhaps (forgive me for not having read the comic) The Man (Josh Hartnett) would give a nice contrast to Marv? A slick and more delicate killer to counter Marv's brute force.

[ericamilhomem]

Can I ask, how many tris you used for just one hand?

They were 59 tris each! And they didn't even look good.

I'll stay with plane fingers for now (28 triangles/hand) to help with weapon animation. This let me add more details to the face, which I'm still working on.
But thanks to your comment I took the time to watch videos from this kind of games, and yes, it's all about fists.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Motoko-chan/progresso_05.jpg

As you can see I chose an "awesome" angle to show my new hand...

[Rorkimaru]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Motoko-chan/progresso_05.jpg


Looks great! the new face is brilliant, Very dramatic eyes.

[Convoy_Avenger]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/Convoy_Avenger/ActionHero_WiP06.png

Re-worked the legs entirely. This totally screams April O'Neil to me. Going to make her an alpha map to get the decals that are on her suit on. Still not very happy with the hair. Going to start working on scenery and destructible(s) tomorrow.

[Rorkimaru]

@Convoy_Avenger. The suit needs to be a brighter shade of yellow. its far too orange. Also the hair looks a bit green and is shorter than in the movie. In Gimp to fix it up just make a selection of the area you want to change and use colorize. She looks good besides. Perhaps a bit more contrast on the face to make her features pop and add a few more curves to her body. I love the katana and sheath

[genericnamedave]

I'm liking the Marv and the Hathaway models. And I am looking forward to the Snake, V for Vendetta, Indy, and Leon models (damn you for stealing Leon!).

Beatrix Kiddo looks like she needs some tweaking. The pelvis and hips seem a bit off. Almost like the hind-quarters of a canine. I'll post a pic in a sec.

[genericnamedave]

I hope this helps.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s184/originaldave77/Beatrix.jpg
The profile knee is probably a tad low.

[Joseph Pomeisl]

psychotron: (4) 128's = (1) 256. I think we get diffuse, alpa, spec maps for this.
ericamilhomem: face looks great. not hard to imagine punchin' chumps in the fotch:D

not sure why this guy popped into my head, but here he is:
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/2629/gimlilayout.jpg

[genericnamedave]

Lord of the Rings, Joseph? Looks great! I ain't gonna enter now!

[hawken]

looks like someone just upped the game! Looking forward to any form of background + goons

[KonamiCode]

Finally gotten to the dreaded texture portion of the character. I threw on a photo for the face and the design on the tank top for now; and roughed in a basic color for the rest of it. Texturing's definitely not my strongest point, so I'm gonna be spending a lot of time over the next few days working on it.

I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along so far; I was able to squeeze in enough optimization to give me a trigger finger with 700 tris.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/9819/jacktexture.jpg

[fearian]

I'm in, I decided to recreate Leon

700 tris seems to be a lot at first but I'm running out budget very quickly for sure :)

what does 4x 128*128 texture means? it's separate albedo, diffuse, spec and normal? or alpha instead of normal? hmm but hand held wouldn't have normal I suppose.. maybe no spec too?
and 1x 256*256px it's only mean one color texture?

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/172/lpc2leon01.jpg

Thats spot on fantastic stuff!

[StJoris]

Sweet dwarf! Now I really have enter with a guy with 6 guns
http://www.ugo.com/images/galleries/boondocksaints_dvd/boondock_1.jpg

[Convoy_Avenger]

@Joseph Pomeisl: Wow, awesome stuff man

@genericnamedave: Thanks for the tips! I'm making some adjustments now and will post some pics soon.

[Rorkimaru]

Here's my Jane Smith so far. It was about 720 tris at first but I managed to get some optimisations going on. I though I was well under but there you go. The problem with blender is you have to convert to tris to see how many you have so I hadn't done it in a while.

The shoulders and chest is terrible I know but I'm working on it. I'll prob get some texture detail down first though. (posted a )http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/5915/wholegeom.png
(http://img182.imageshack.us/i/wholegeom.png/)

[Justin Meisse]

sigh, I wanted to do Archebald "Harry" Tuttle from Brazil :( I don't think he meets the criteria

[okno]

This one can go with psychotron's 8)

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j62/drain-body-confirmed/lpc2_1.jpg

Painting a rough texture as I model. It's a work flow I recently adopted, it feels more organic and controlled. I think I'll need to add more geo to this front part of the face if I have some tris left later; I wanna make those fists nice and chunky :p

Rorkimaru, you can use the decimate modifier to see the tri count.

[genericnamedave]

Mikeala from Transformers.
I'd like to argue that her boobs are her weapon, so I can model her a loose shirt-- as I am at 702 Tris.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s184/originaldave77/Mikeala2.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s184/originaldave77/mikeala1.jpg
I still have to texture her hair, boots, arms, legs.

[Rorkimaru]

Rorkimaru, you can use the decimate modifier to see the tri count.

What I usually do is press Ctrl+T in edit mode to check and then just undo it with Ctrl+Z. Then it says it up at the top right Fa:XX for faces = XX.

[psychotron]

here's little progress with Leon, rough sketch of body, trying to be anatomicaly correct but he don't be naked so that 'correctness' goes away with his trausers I hope

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3044/lpc2leon02.jpg

what causing me problems are lowpoly joints.. they don't deform very well hmm

anyway thanks for answers about textures so I stick with 256*256 then

genericnamedave: thanks but go ahead and work on your Leon too or it isn't allowed?
fearian: thanks I hope I manage it to the finish
okno: definitely, it can be final fight heh

Joseph Pomeisl: wow what a work!

[genericnamedave]

No that's okay psychotron, I'll stick to mikeala.
If you'd like to get more poly mileage, maybe give Leon his trademark toque, and give him some decal shades. His trench coat, if closed, would also help you out. You could literally chop off his legs that way! Just my $0.02. Oh, and you have to model his plant too. Okay? Okay.

Character work is very tough trying to stick to the poly count. It forces you to be creative with the mesh however.

[psychotron]

Hm I wanna give him white longsleeve, braces and trousers
but you can be sure I make his plant.. I think about it from start :)
if all things go well I try Mathilda as NPC too

[DoomiVox]

gotta say i love both entries from the proffesional

[Rorkimaru]

Began texturing the face. It's just a photo baked on but I'm in the process of retouching it to make it not look like ass. A bit of painting over it as well to make features stand out a bit better

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/6301/faceyrd.png

[okno]

Didn't get much done on this today except a few tweaks, proportion fixes etc.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j62/drain-body-confirmed/lpc2_2.gif
anim for better sense of shape

[genericnamedave]

Hey Okno,
Just throwing my $0.02 out there. A quickie crit: Your Mr Oldman has a 'flattened' facial appearance, which is more apparent at certain angles. He would benefit from a more pronounced brow, the eyes more inset, and the temples more compressed. His eyes seem too far apart (the rule is one eye-length in between). The overall head could be 'thinned' (the ears closer together).

I like to use what I call a 'Batman cowl' (circa 1989 movie) approach to low-poly modeling. Batman had a pointy mask in the brow, temple, and nose, as well as prominent cheek bones. It works because it covers all the facial features using triangle shapes.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s184/originaldave77/batman1989.jpg
Without sounding too long-winded, I grabbed a few pics of Oldman, and mapped out the face using this technique. It not only fits his facial structure, but also helps give a decent silhouette from any angle. Looks like he lost some hair and gained some weight between the right and left pics, so it is not exact.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s184/originaldave77/Oldman3.jpg
Obviously it's not perfect, but your textures would do the rest of the heavy lifting. If you have extra Tris to spare, you can add more geometry to the lips and/or eyes.

[psychotron]

nice informative post

I want to ask if shading of mesh is important too or can be 'ignored' in name of lower polycount.. simple: does that low hardware spec do all that fancy diffuse and specular shading.. and support normal maping (if yes it's normalmap worth even in 256*256)?

[Joseph Pomeisl]

I would say you want your mesh to smooth as best as possible(smooth groups and whatnot). Normal maps not important/necessary, I think. Using the Gimli created for this challenge - the Self Illumination is set 60%, so lighting doesn't affect it much - which doesn't confuse the light sourcing as painted in. Hope this makes sense:D

[hawken]

I want to ask if shading of mesh is important too or can be 'ignored' in name of lower polycount.. simple: does that low hardware spec do all that fancy diffuse and specular shading.. and support normal maping (if yes it's normalmap worth even in 256*256)?

shading style up to you.

no normal maps, only diffuse / spec / transparent.

[Rorkimaru]

Here is the lovely Mrs smith. The arms are a bit crappy and I'm not too happy with the texture. But the variety of other things, mostly college related I have on my plate means I cant be too picky. 698 tris, 256*256 png diffuse map with 1bit alpha included in the file. I'll get around to riging and cleaning up the texture when I get a bit more free time. Thank god we have until the end of sept or this would probably by my (disqualified) entry image!

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/747/animh.gif

[Japhir]

she looks nice! looks like you used the one reference image that everybody uses when modeling her, so her forehead is too big. other than that I think your doing good! (the boobs are also slightly too capped off ont he bottom in side profile). Looking forward to the texture!

[JohnnySix]

Think I made this too low poly on the body. Still debating to model his bodywarmer or not. :poly117:

http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs49/f/2009/227/d/2/McFly_01_by_JohnnySix.jpg

[uneditablepoly]

I don't do much low-poly or character work in 3d so I figure I'll give this challenge a shot. Should be good practice and fun! Gonna go with one of my favorites:

http://www.empireonline.com/images/features/100greatestcharacters/photos/84.jpg

[Rorkimaru]

she looks nice! looks like you used the one reference image that everybody uses when modeling her, so her forehead is too big. other than that I think your doing good! (the boobs are also slightly too capped off ont he bottom in side profile). Looking forward to the texture!


Yeah I took a look at her face when I was finished making the spin around and noticed how scrunched up she is. I've fixed it a bit now. The boobs do still bug me, the are rather strange looking and a bit too big. I'm sure I'll figure a way to fix her. Perhaps I'll use my two remaining triangles...

[DemonPrincess]

I'm in as well! :poly142:

I decided to go with Cherry Darling from Planet Terror. She's 700 tris on the dot. :D

http://www.wayuki.nl/images/forums/Cherry_Darling_wip01.jpg

[genericnamedave]

here is a turnaround, textured her hair now, and arched her back (a more confident pose!), and did some more body work. I am trying some transparency with the hands too, so they look out of wack at the moment.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s184/originaldave77/Mikealaanim.gif
I shall park her for awhile til this challenge is nearly over! I also have a low-poly Bumblebee she can use as her 'weapon'.

[DemonPrincess]

Hey Rorkimaru! You picked a cool character to model. :)

If you find some time between college work, here's some things that I would look into tweaking on your model. Hopefully it helps!

http://www.wayuki.nl/images/forums/wholegeom_example.jpg

[Rorkimaru]

Hey Rorkimaru! You picked a cool character to model. :)

If you find some time between college work, here's some things that I would look into tweaking on your model. Hopefully it helps!


Wow! Thanks for the tips. Its always great to have a second pair of eyes look at a model. Those tips will make the model look so much better. The photomanip makes it look like something I could be really proud of.

Thank you so much for going out of your way to help me that much! I'm going to keep this picture on file to make sure I never make those mistakes again!

[JohnnySix]

I'm in as well! :poly142:

I decided to go with Cherry Darling from Planet Terror. She's 700 tris on the dot. :D

http://www.wayuki.nl/images/forums/Cherry_Darling_wip01.jpg


Awesome! Can't wait to see it rigged and textured. Bonus points for incorporating the weapon in the the model haha :D

[JohnnySix]

Filling out the detail, not sure whether to go with the costume from the first film. The collar is giving me headaches. :p


http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs46/f/2009/228/2/2/McFly_03_by_JohnnySix.jpg


Full body :

http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs48/f/2009/228/3/d/McFly_02_by_JohnnySix.jpg

[Mtg_kirin]

this is my 1st real low poly character. so hopefully I will be able to finish him. still alot of tweaking to do (especially to the face) and adding hands. Any crits would be appreciated. especially on the joint topology

o also is i am legend actiony enough? or is it to much thriller/horror?

http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee3/Mtg_Kirin/Untitled-2-12.jpg

[genericnamedave]

Filling out the detail, not sure whether to go with the costume from the first film. The collar is giving me headaches. :p


I could only recommend making the collar a 'floating' unattached piece to save tris, with something in the front that ties it up. Make it render two-sided as well. Delete any covered neck tris too.

I also see some people who might be preserving tris on the head covered by hair...those can by deep-sixed. My Mikeala is pretty much a mask framed by hair.

[CrazyYarick]

Hello, I saw this challenge and decided that it was so fun that I needed to create an account and join(I'm not much into joining new things even those damn discount cards at stores). Anyhoo I'm going to create Rick O'Connell from The Mummy.http://i650.photobucket.com/albums/uu221/CrazyYarick/081609_OConnell.jpg

[okno]

Thanks for the advice, genericnamedave. I was modelling the face in ortho view which was a big mistake since the photo refs are obviously all shot with perspective cameras, hah. I've tried to give him more geometric definition as you said. I still can't get his likeness, I think I need to work on the texture alot more, but first I wanna rough in the body.
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j62/drain-body-confirmed/lpc2_3.gif

@DemonPrincess, nice - can't wait to see texture

@Mtg_kirin, for the knee and elbow joints, I have found them to collapse badly the way you have them now. I prefer to put the extra edges on the opposite side; they may be pointy when they bend but they retain their volume. I could be wrong though

[genericnamedave]

Wow that is quite the improvement! He registers a lot nicer. As for the texture he is a nice 'painterly' interpretation (like the new 3D Clone Wars show) as is! He looks video game ready to me.

If you are trying for a photo-real look you may have to resort to splicing together a bunch of photos, and fortunately you can rely on the actor not just the character for that. His default expression right now is ideal for rigging, but if you can capture that 'sleepy-eyed' menace he used in the film, you'd have a home run!

He looks great, can't wait to see him completed, possibly holding a double barrel shotgun!

[j4polaris]

Here's what I got goin' on so far for Kanbei from Seven Samurai. Current tri count is 678.

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/1930/frontview01.jpg

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/9766/rearview01.jpg

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/2632/frontwire01.jpg

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8773/textureflat.jpg

[hawken]

Here's what I got goin' on so far for Kanbei from Seven Samurai.

would be cool to do the whole thing in black and white!

[j4polaris]

Yeah! That's what I was thinking. :)

[dolemite]

http://johngaltfla.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/Mad%20Max.jpg

Is it too late for me to claim mad max mas as my action hero to model?

That's I-35 Kansas behind him right?

[Avanthera]

I was waiting for a mad max, gonna make the dog too?

[dolemite]

hmmm... Might do. I guess we'll see :)

[okno]

Blocked in the body and painted a really rough base for it. Can't wait to do the creases and details etc. I can't believe I've only used 336 tris so far! I'll have to put more in the head later.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j62/drain-body-confirmed/lpc2_4.jpg

[Mtg_kirin]

a bit more on will smith, suggestions? especially looking for help on low poly hands. will spend the rest of my tris on the head/fixing hands, adding a little more detail to areas.

http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee3/Mtg_Kirin/Untitled-1-113.jpg

also if we have left over tris on the main char can we use those + 100 tris assigned to making a weapon? cause i was trying to make his rifle, but was having trouble with 100 tris. Will be trying again, but was just wondering

[ericamilhomem]

Gimli looks great!
I also love DemonPrincess' model, the anatomy and topology are amazing! Very inspiring!

Finally an update on mine...
Any advise to improve her proportions (or anything else) is welcome.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Motoko-chan/progresso_06.jpg

Rigging is a pain!

[Rorkimaru]

Eric it's great! the second pose reminds me of Lara Croft (back when the games were good and the character wasn't overdone) Got a lot of strength and confidence.

[DemonPrincess]

ericamilhomem: The proportions look great to me honestly! Really nice feminine flow to both the mesh and the posing. :thumbup:

If I were to change anything, I would add some extra dark shading under the hair and along the hair parting, and possibly pick out a few extra bright highlights in the hair as well. :)

[Snader]

Dibs on Jason Statham.. still figuring out which outfit though.. but probably something from Crank 1/2

[genericnamedave]

Dibs on Jason Statham.. still figuring out which outfit though.. but probably something from Crank 1/2

Haha I thought about modeling Statham as well. I was just gonna brag that he was a 2 for 1: Crank and Transporter dude.

I am surprised there have been no superheros so far. Or is that outside the 'action' genre?

[D4V1DC]

Really nice choice dolemite! Can't believe I forgot about MadMax.

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5538/scc.jpg

Doing this on and off while I work on my comic con entry, glad to see a lowpoly comp :).

Edit really nice work erica!

[Rorkimaru]

Really nice choice dolemite! Can't believe I forgot about MadMax.

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5538/scc.jpg

Doing this on and off while I work on my comic con entry, glad to see a lowpoly comp :).

Edit really nice work erica!


Great choice! The upper torso looks a bit big though

[melkior]

first blood john rambo
http://studio-erebus.com/misc/rambo/RA-rambo-theman1.jpg

[Rorkimaru]

first blood john rambo
http://studio-erebus.com/misc/rambo/RA-rambo-theman1.jpg

Please tell me you've read First Blood and you're not just going on the film! The book is epic.

[melkior]

ha .. no I had no idea there was a book! Now I've got to find it. I'm a huge book nerd .. wow thanks for the tip. ... and unfortunately yes going totally off the movie for the character design doh!

[melkior]

in progress
http://studio-erebus.com/misc/rambo/rambo-shot1.jpg

[Joseph Pomeisl]

ericamilhomem: really nice! the pose on the bottom right is perfect.

[Convoy_Avenger]

ericamilhomem: Nicely done. I'm going to have to agree with everyone else, the second pose looks great.

Here's some destructible props, surprised no one else has done any yet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/Convoy_Avenger/ActionHero_Env_WiP01.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/Convoy_Avenger/ActionHero_Env_WiP02.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/Convoy_Avenger/ActionHero_Env_WiP03.png

Still working on the "level" and generic enemy.

[melkior]

ok finished the base mesh, need to tweak him for appearance and optimize a bit. not sure I like the hands at all at this point.

He definitely feels off I will have to tweak him a nice bit before he looks right I can tell. But i wanted to share my work as I go along. Comments are fine .. maybe someone can help me find where to tweak him - you know how it gets when you stare at something too long you lose perspective.

http://studio-erebus.com/misc/rambo/rambo-shot2.jpg

[j4polaris]

@ericamilhomem : She looks great! You really nailed her likeness.

@Mtg_kirin : I tried to do mitts for hands, but I found I needed a lot of geometry for it. I ended up going with fists, and was able to add a lot more detail elsewhere. It's really up to you though.

@melkior : You might be able to mess with his proportions a bit to make him a little more muscular. Right now his torso looks a little boxy. It could be worth tweaking those verts to round him out a bit and give his torso a bit more of a gradual curve. Hope it helps!

[hawken]

mitts make the most sense in the genre.

[Mtg_kirin]

this is my 2nd go at texturing him. also added a gun. texture is still wip
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee3/Mtg_Kirin/j-1.jpg

gun is exactly 100 tris and my char is 564

[melkior]

mtg_kirin: I like what your doing with will smith there, but change the background to grey so we can make out whats going on with the jacket easier.

update from me: his head was too big, and his feet needed some minor tweaks. I was over limit so I took his hands to mitts and now I'm way under budget, so I've started adding some details to his face / hair area. I also started the skin as it helps me figure out those subtle details about what seems wrong with him some times.

http://studio-erebus.com/misc/rambo/rambo-shot3.jpg

[achmedthesnake]

melk -can we have some wiresz? , i swear you could emphasize the silhouette of rambo a bit more, even stylize it a bit when you think it'll be in a side scroller fighting game.....

from recollection, spacey and japhir's LP stuff were effective in using tris to do this i think...

and a minor crit, make the hair longer (moar opacity planes ?) he kinda has Ringo hair @ the momnt.

[JohnnySix]

Man, I've slacked this week, I'd planned to make a Delorean too , better get cracking to make the deadline. :p

Not sure about the jeans, shoes or bodywarmer.

http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs47/f/2009/234/5/5/McFly_04_by_JohnnySix.jpg

[JohnnySix]

Started on background - trying to make the car under 500 tris (Currently 514 with wheels, and I still need to model the big vents at the back. )

http://fc09.deviantart.com/fs49/f/2009/234/1/e/Delorean_01_by_JohnnySix.jpg


McFly is 672 tri currently.

[genericnamedave]

Really nice choice dolemite! Can't believe I forgot about MadMax.

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5538/scc.jpg

Doing this on and off while I work on my comic con entry, glad to see a lowpoly comp :).

Edit really nice work erica!

The upper torso does seem pretty big, and her head looks masculine-- reminds me of a character from Small Soldiers.

I hope this helps with the modeling:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s184/originaldave77/SarahConnor.jpg

[GugloPWN]

JohnnySix: I've seen people save poly's by replacing modeled wheels with quads and an alpha to make it a circle. Replacing all 4 wheels will give you the poly's you need for the misc doodads on the car.

[Rorkimaru]

Here's an update on my Mrs Smith. She's spinning around in the Blender Game Engine.

I've riged her, which was a pain thanks to the dress, and given her a quick pose. I have to try and find some time to give here a background scene and a few props.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMBfVe7yVLI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMBfVe7yVLI)

[DemonPrincess]

The upper torso does seem pretty big, and her head looks masculine-- reminds me of a character from Small Soldiers.

I hope this helps with the modeling:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s184/originaldave77/SarahConnor.jpg

I agree with genericnamedave's comments on proportions here. In addition to that, I think you made the hands crazy detailed, leaving you with far too few polygons on the body. Get some curves in there! :poly142:

[Rorkimaru]

Made an NPC for Jane to fight. He is still in the early stages at the moment but I got to where I am by quickly using a new method. Rather then using two orthos to model from I made a character in make human and then used him as a 3D reference as I box modeled around him. Then I baked a render of the make human mesh onto the low poly one I made to get the beginings of a texture going.

(Starting off that way isn't against any rules is it? I did model each vertex myself so I don't think using a 3d reference as opposed to a 2d one should be against any rules)

Still needs a lot of work but here he is, weighing in at ~450 tris

http://i29.tinypic.com/11h7a84.jpg

[JonConley]

This is my first go at trying to model a low poly character after someone. (I normally just set out with a general idea).

John Constantine (a not so accurate representation at least):

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/6361/constantine.png (http://img44.imageshack.us/i/constantine.png/)

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1166/constantine2.png (http://img23.imageshack.us/i/constantine2.png/)

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/6108/constantine3.png (http://img269.imageshack.us/i/constantine3.png/) http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/constantine3.png/1/w288.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img269/constantine3.png/1/)



The head seems a little wide (from the side view), and I just realized I'd probably have a really hard time animating him at the waist, shoulder and ankles.

[genericnamedave]

The head seems a little wide (from the side view), and I just realized I'd probably have a really hard time animating him at the waist, shoulder and ankles.

Your character seems to have several proportion 'problem areas'. The shoulder line is bowed and looks hunchback-ish, and his head is a bit big (making him only 5.5 heads tall-- should be about 7 heads tall for a man. I highly recommend you borrow Rokimaru's images for his NPC in the previous post as reference. It has excellent geometry flow and proportion.

[melkior]

melk -can we have some wiresz? , i swear you could emphasize the silhouette of rambo a bit more, even stylize it a bit when you think it'll be in a side scroller fighting game.....

from recollection, spacey and japhir's LP stuff were effective in using tris to do this i think...

and a minor crit, make the hair longer (moar opacity planes ?) he kinda has Ringo hair @ the momnt.


Achmed -- thanks for the tips. I had a busy weekend so didn't get to work on him much but I touched him up a little bit today. I was over budget so some areas were under detailed, and then I clipped out his over-expensive hands and redid them with mitts -- now I have polys to spare.

So heres an updated with some wires. I have some room to improve now for poly count. I'm not sure where I want to spend it though, any suggestions?

melkior

http://studio-erebus.com/misc/rambo/rambo-shot4.jpg

[achmedthesnake]

melk - i did a qk paintover and had a some suggestions:
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g192/achmedthesnake/paintover.jpg

if you had some poly's to spare, try and make his hair assymetrical,
or atleast have some non-symmetrical hair planes(alpha's) from his fringe.
I've widened his head width-ways
and you could put some stronger shadowingcast by limbs or clothing,
under the arms/arpits, under the jacket on the jeans etc...

oh an you could do his bedroll for accessories?

[melkior]

cool thanks, all good suggestions - and yes you bet the bedroll will be an accessory :) he wouldnt look the drifter without it

[Slaught]

Yo, here's my update:
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5728/indianajoneswip01.jpg
has been quite a while, so criticise me untill I start crying :).
ps: can't get the reference images to be more clear in the viewport, probably because somehow hardware rendering doesn't work anymore and I'm running in software mode.

So I thought about joining this contest, but appereantly I already posted a wip.
Just kidding...cool stuff Japhir. :D!!

Really nice work everyone!

[Japhir]

haha thanks for the compliment ;).
ok ok i'll work on him some more. I still didn't fix the weird shading but I'll just restart on the torso.

[DemonPrincess]

@ Japhir: I've had a similar problem recently where I was getting insane z-fighting on parts that should really be far away enough from each other. What fixed it for me was simply resetting the XForms. Maybe that'll work for you as well. :)

EDIT: Just reread your old post and saw you already tried that. Oh well, it was worth a shot. XD

Another possibility is that your model is tiny compared to the unit settings (like maybe he is one inch tall). You could try and make it 10 times bigger, and see if you still have the z-fighting on the overlapping parts.

[melkior]

also RE: weird lighting problems. Try welding verts together .. select all and weld. see what happens :)

[DemonPrincess]

also RE: weird lighting problems. Try welding verts together .. select all and weld. see what happens :)

Also, if you tried that and there's still a hard line, just try clicking on one of offending verts and move it. If it breaks apart, it means there could be some degenerate polies along the edge of the arm hole, which could be the reason it doesn't want to weld.

[genericnamedave]

Also, if you tried that and there's still a hard line, just try clicking on one of offending verts and move it. If it breaks apart, it means there could be some degenerate polies along the edge of the arm hole, which could be the reason it doesn't want to weld.

Add to DemonPrincess' advice, in that the direction of the normals might not be conforming. Check all the normals, and you might have to reverse/conform them. It's happened to me a few times-- and there is a noticeable lighting contrast,

[Japhir]

ok so I restarted some part and it happened again! only in this scene!
by now the z-fighting stopped becouse I was finally able to set it to direct3d again, but still it appears like there are smoothing groups that are not there.
hard edges out of the blue!
what i tried so far:
-reset xform
-weld verts (there was only one vertex there so didn't work)
-apply one smoothing group (which was already there ;))

so the next thing I'm gonna try is export the head to an obj, reimport it in a new scene and start from scratch there. meh. But honestly I don't really feel like it anymore ;)
we'll see how it goes.
thanks for the feedback!

[SomberResplendence]

FTW.....

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/8944/wesleysnipes.jpg

[genericnamedave]

FTW.....



Interesting choice. I figured Blade would be a strong candidate for this contest. I'd have to say he looks perfect for a Final Fight/Streets of Rage character!

"Always bet on black." -Wesley Snipes

"All I know is never bet on the white guy" Boxing according to Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen, Naked Gun 2 1/2)

[Japhir]

scuse me? blade? haahah

(or do you mean blade could also be a cool choice for this contest?)

[DemonPrincess]

so the next thing I'm gonna try is export the head to an obj, reimport it in a new scene and start from scratch there.

You could try that with the body itself as well, honestly. Maybe it's just the scene that is effed up.

Or try making a new box primitive, attach the body to it, and then delete the box polygons. This is also a way to fix objects which are somehow corrupted.

[Remmers]

Eey people,

This is my first post on the forum!

okay to the point, some math.

Beat 'm Up game + Movie action hero == ???

Chuck Norris ofcourse!


http://jeffwilliford.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/chuck-norris-002.jpg


And so i started on Mr. Norris (he said i can call him Chuck)

http://www.timremmers.com/Polycount/Chuckfacewire.jpghttp://www.timremmers.com/Polycount/ChuckSSone.jpghttp://www.timremmers.com/Polycount/Chuckwire.jpg

Tell me what you think!
Polycount so far: 642

~Remmers:)

[Japhir]

DemonPrincess: thanks :) I'll just restart, who cares ;)

So at least the head still works, and I hadn't posted an image of the updated version yet. Don't know if it's turned out too highpoly, but we'll see.
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/7893/indianajoneswip03.jpg

[is X y Z is?]

Allright this is major cool!! I'm in, I found this film it's due 2009 (Ain't sure if it's gonna be good or anything) but the character design is awesome!! So I'll be doing Mr. Black Dynamite himself!

see link for more details;
http://www.blackdynamitemovie.com/

[poopinmymouth]

Wanting to get as much of the outfit as I can before working on the head/hands. I tend to give them too much if I do otherwise.

I want to see if anyone can guess before it becomes super obvious.

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/net/pcount/pitt_basterd/pitt_basterd_01.jpg

[SomberResplendence]

Rorschach?

[ericamilhomem]

Luke Skywalker?


*edit*
Thanks for the positive comments! :)

[okno]

Haven't had much time to work on this. Added the rest of the mesh and roughly painted in in the lower trousers, shoes etc. Still got to begin the rest of the tex. I've got about 100 more tris to work with so I think I'll spend them on his head and the various creases on his clothes.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j62/drain-body-confirmed/lpc2_5.jpg

[achmedthesnake]

poop - yeah it's got a rorsarch/jedi silohette at the moment -looks good!

[cycloverid]

I'm just going to make this post so people know I'm officially in this.

I just started on my character, and while I have the texture started, I don't want to give away my secrets quite yet. See if you can guess (not Indianna Jones)!

He has an object on his back that might give too much away, but wow this is a low-res mesh!! 700 tri exactly.

http://www.justinkenneallyart.com/wipLOpoly.jpg

I'm assuming there was a typo on the page here, the comp is done in like 4 days right?

[SomberResplendence]

Well I read that the comp ends at the end of Sept. I hope it's not a typo :(

[hawken]

this is a long compo, ends end of sept

[Neo_God]

Didn't realize this comp was lasting as long as it was, so I'm gonna give it a go.

Doing Mani from Brotherhood of The Wolf in his Highwayman outfit.
http://www.qwipster.net/brotherhoodwolf.jpg

Probably see to recreating that scene from the movie to make it look like a brawler game.

[Rhinokey]

http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/zardoz.jpg spent the last few days getting this concept fleshed out, hope you like,, think i'll start workin on it now

update:
goina start texturing now, got about 125 tris left to make any changes needed when texturing
http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/zardoz_mesh.jpg

[poopinmymouth]

http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/zardoz.jpg spent the last few days getting this concept fleshed out, hope you like,, think i'll start workin on it now

lol

[poopinmymouth]

20-30 more triangles to give him the other hand.

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/net/pcount/pitt_basterd/pitt_basterd_02.jpg

[cycloverid]

http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/zardoz.jpg spent the last few days getting this concept fleshed out, hope you like,, think i'll start workin on it now

update:
http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/zardoz_mesh.jpg

WHAT WHAT WHAT?! This changes everything.

[Rhinokey]

20-30 more triangles to give him the other hand.

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/net/pcount/pitt_basterd/pitt_basterd_02.jpg

i would guess sky captain but the knife seems unlikely barring that i would say

http://filmgeek.fr/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/bradpittbasterd_big.jpg

[j4polaris]

"Bongiorno"

[j4polaris]

WHAT WHAT WHAT?! This changes everything.

Chibi-Zardoz will destroy us all!!

(whoops! Sorry for double-post!)

[Justin Meisse]

Make sure you use those extra triangles in the crotchal area, Mr. Murderclown

[hawken]

chibi zardoz head baddie ftw

[poopinmymouth]

i would guess sky captain but the knife seems unlikely barring that i would say

http://filmgeek.fr/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/bradpittbasterd_big.jpg

Bingo.

Chibi Zardoz looking ace. Be sure to get a good crotch bulge going in the texture. It should look like a python straining to get out of a tight burlap potato sack.

[Rhinokey]

http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/zardoz_text01.jpg roughin out textures now

[Rhinokey]

Made an NPC for Jane to fight. He is still in the early stages at the moment but I got to where I am by quickly using a new method. Rather then using two orthos to model from I made a character in make human and then used him as a 3D reference as I box modeled around him. Then I baked a render of the make human mesh onto the low poly one I made to get the beginings of a texture going.

(Starting off that way isn't against any rules is it? I did model each vertex myself so I don't think using a 3d reference as opposed to a 2d one should be against any rules)

Still needs a lot of work but here he is, weighing in at ~450 tris

http://i29.tinypic.com/11h7a84.jpg


i usualy start off any chars by making a biped armatuer and modeling around that, altho with biped you have to make all your proportions and stuff yourself cause vanila biped does not resemble an actual person. not familiar with make human so not sure how that works, but i would not consider that cheating too much, but its getting close. projecting its texture may be a bit iffy :) but personaly i dont care what you do as long as the end piece turns out well and i cant spot any obvious "cut n paste" bits

[Red Handed Gamer]

@ IEatApples ~ Yes. Yes. Yes! I couldn't find any WIP screenshots, but I really hope you finish him. :)
@ RhinoKey ~ Das Pro. :thumbup:
@ Ericamilhomem ~ I love the poses. :poly124:

As my entry for my first challenge on PC (who I'm very surprised no one else chose yet)...

http://easyandy1webpage.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/jack-sparrow.jpg

[DemonPrincess]

I haven't had much time to work on it lately, but here's a start on the texture. :\

http://www.wayuki.nl/images/forums/Cherry_Darling_wip02.jpg

[poopinmymouth]

I haven't had much time to work on it lately, but here's a start on the texture. :

http://www.wayuki.nl/images/forums/Cherry_Darling_wip02.jpg

Love it! Great job on the face, she's very attractive and has a very uplifting look to her. Really nice anatomy so far as well.

I realized last night that there are extra polys for the knife and gun, so I got to add some more to my Pitt model. Started the UV layout too, but no update yet.

[Japhir]

wow that's great demonprincess!

I won't be able to work on it for a couple of weeks since my university is starting and I don't have a new pc in my room yet. (just a laptop that's old as crap and runs on linux).

[Rorkimaru]

i usualy start off any chars by making a biped armatuer and modeling around that, altho with biped you have to make all your proportions and stuff yourself cause vanila biped does not resemble an actual person. not familiar with make human so not sure how that works, but i would not consider that cheating too much, but its getting close. projecting its texture may be a bit iffy :) but personaly i dont care what you do as long as the end piece turns out well and i cant spot any obvious "cut n paste" bits


Well Make Human is basically a free version of Poser. Basically what I did was import a High Poly Mesh to use as a reference, made it unselectable and then modeled around it. Instead of ortho planes so I could see my reference from any angle.

Then I lit the scene and baked a full render of the high poly mesh onto the texture map of the low poly mesh I made so I could have a starting point for textures and shading and so on. I'm thinking of making a few enemies of different styles and basing them of the low poly guy I made. (You can have a few different NPCs I assume?)

Going to have to make a few weapons first though. I wish she used a sword, I like swords... Might have to make another entry of a sword user. I also hope someone makes Charley Baltimore from the long kiss goodnight, I love that film.

[melkior]

I haven't had much time to work on it lately, but here's a start on the texture. :

http://www.wayuki.nl/images/forums/Cherry_Darling_wip02.jpg

q @ Demonprincess: So for the texture are you painting by hand or cropping pieces from photos? I ask because the face particuarly looks pretty photo realistic?

[melkior]

ok I've updated Rambo a bit.

head resized and made less uniform
added more polys to hair and face
made neck longer
added more polys to jacket arms & cuffs
updated the skin
added ears

http://studio-erebus.com/misc/rambo/rambo-shot5.jpg
highres here http://studio-erebus.com/misc/rambo/rambo-shot5-highres.jpg

[GugloPWN]

Rambo is too clean! Dirty up those jeans! ANd his hair looks like its been combed, Rambo doesn't own a comb! Looking good though. You probably want to raise the contrast on the textures a little bit too.

[hawken]

whatever you do, don't mention the giant pink blob of bubble gum on his back

[DemonPrincess]

q @ Demonprincess: So for the texture are you painting by hand or cropping pieces from photos? I ask because the face particuarly looks pretty photo realistic?

It's all hand painted, but I obviously spent a lot of time on the face and used reference to try and get a likeness of the actress. :)


Thanks for the comments, people! :D

[dolemite]

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_mIj3zK3phKE/Spr1YtI7QXI/AAAAAAAAAKs/OMv2RU6ETjg/s800/madmax.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_mIj3zK3phKE/Spr2DD2Il4I/AAAAAAAAAKw/SDnNmtvsgBc/s800/madmax.jpg


Making my first steps towards modeling this out. What do you guys think about the way I made the collar? Should I just paint the collar into the texture instead of doing it this way? I thought this would give me a chance to break up the silhouette a bit.

I'm not used to working quite this low, so any tips are welcome!

[DemonPrincess]

I think modeling the collar is a good idea, but it's probably better to build it into the mesh, and not have it as a separate piece on top.

[Zwebbie]

I made a whole set, but every single one is under 500 tris.

Guess who!

http://www.joeyspijkers.com/misc_img/LPC2Zwebbie1.jpg

[DemonPrincess]

Holy crap! Will you have time to texture all of those? Looking very cool though. :poly128:

[Rorkimaru]

I made a whole set, but every single one is under 500 tris.

Guess who!



Big Blue Penis

[Zwebbie]

DemonPrincess: Probably not, but we'll see how far I get. It's good practice either way :) .

Rorkimaru: That's... one way to put it, but you are correct :) . I could've modeled the version where he has underwear, but a penis is better for the err... silhouette. Yes, that's it. Because I'm totally not juvenile.



Question: For NPCs, we're allowed 2x128^2. Is 256x128 good too? If I use no alpha? Pretty please?

[conte]

zwebbie, so coool!

[Rorkimaru]

DemonPrincess: Probably not, but we'll see how far I get. It's good practice either way :) .

Rorkimaru: That's... one way to put it, but you are correct :) . I could've modeled the version where he has underwear, but a penis is better for the err... silhouette. Yes, that's it. Because I'm totally not juvenile.



Question: For NPCs, we're allowed 2x128^2. Is 256x128 good too? If I use no alpha? Pretty please?

I'd like that to be allowed too. At the moment I'm working of sheets like that but there is no overlap between the two halves so I can easily split it

[hawken]

a 256x128 isn't allowed.

unless someone can prove me wrong, the DS / PSP / iPhone can't do un-square textures. Plus it's bad practice (most 3d software will bork under these conditions when you come to uvw map)

More wang for the blue guy ;)

[Justin Meisse]

a 256x128 isn't allowed.

unless someone can prove me wrong, the DS / PSP / iPhone can't do un-square textures. Plus it's bad practice (most 3d software will bork under these conditions when you come to uvw map)

More wang for the blue guy ;)

I don't know about the DS, PSP, or iPhone but most 3d software is fine with rectangular textures.

Sure UVW functions act a little funky in max, so I've gotten into the practice of setting the grid size to 0.5 in the edit UVW window which splits it into 4 quadrants.

When I'm done I just double the width and offset the UVs by 0.5, we've got custom uv tools but they are similar to Chugnut's UV tools.

[GugloPWN]

The DS can use rectangular textures.

[poopinmymouth]

Definitely a wip. I like moving away from the face, doing some other areas, then coming back when I clearly see something that needs improvement. Low poly likenesses are hard! Unless your DemonPrincess, who makes it look easy!

Pitt's exactly 700 tris, both weapons are under 100

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/net/pcount/pitt_basterd/pitt_basterd_03.jpg

[Rorkimaru]

Definitely a wip. I like moving away from the face, doing some other areas, then coming back when I clearly see something that needs improvement. Low poly likenesses are hard! Unless your DemonPrincess, who makes it look easy!

Pitt's exactly 700 tris, both weapons are under 100

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/net/pcount/pitt_basterd/pitt_basterd_03.jpg

EPIC!! Seriously,that looks great!

[cycloverid]

I'm taking notes Poop ^

I'm just going to post my WiP, even though no one will have any idea why I chose this character until the very end - most likely. Hopefully I'll have good execution on this.

Alan Grant:

http://www.justinkenneallyart.com/grant3.jpg

Need to add a bit more color variation, and perhaps play with the overall color tones.

Clothing folds on this resolution are insanely hard......

[hawken]

I don't know about the DS, PSP, or iPhone but most 3d software is fine with rectangular textures.

Sure UVW functions act a little funky in max, so I've gotten into the practice of setting the grid size to 0.5 in the edit UVW window which splits it into 4 quadrants.

When I'm done I just double the width and offset the UVs by 0.5, we've got custom uv tools but they are similar to Chugnut's UV tools.

c4d goes mental when you try to unwrap anything not square

[DemonPrincess]

Low poly likenesses are hard! Unless your DemonPrincess, who makes it look easy!


Haha! I pretty much spent an entire weekend on the face alone though, so it was tricky for me as well. :poly128:

[Jasonin3d]

This is my Wip based on a 2009 parody of 70's action flicks called '' Black Dynamite''
I think the character design is awesome!!
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn203/jasonin3d/ModelBd1.jpg

[Zwebbie]

Low poly likenesses are hard!
I pretty much spent an entire weekend on the face alone

*feels guilty for making Rorschach*

http://www.joeyspijkers.com/misc_img/LPC2RorschachRender.jpg

Some geometry was added, he's now at 486 tris.

[SomberResplendence]

Competition is heating up, all the models are looking great!

[Harry]

oh fuck, is sci fi 100% out, even if it's action-heavy?

[EarthQuake]

Hey, zardoz is sci-fi!

[Harry]

mine is pretty majorly sci fi though. I only just noticed the "anything non-scifi" line now.

[achmedthesnake]

noooooooooooooooooooooo

[cycloverid]

I figured the no sci-fi line was mainly just to prevent crazy robots and such. I think my character is perfectly fitting of the 'style' of this competition (being almost identical to indianna jones), but I guess an official ruling needs to be made.

[SomberResplendence]

Yeah I figured if the movie didn't have space battles, you are pretty much in the clear....

[hawken]

I figured the no sci-fi line was mainly just to prevent crazy robots and such. .

exactly

check with IMDB - if your film is listed as action then you are in the clear.

[Rorkimaru]

c4d goes mental when you try to unwrap anything not square

Makes me glad I'm a blender user. Its the only "big" 3d program I've ever really used. I've played with max and all the others but blah blah bla....

Anyway, I've only ever unwrapped in bender and I have been told it's one of the best software suites for unwrapping stuff but I wasn't sure before now.

Obviously this compo is all about the square textures because of the rules but anyone looking for a nice alternative that lets you unwrap anything any way for another purpose you should give blender a shot, for only that if nothing else... (it is free after all...)

I didn't even know there was software that didn't let you unwrap to non square textures!

[Harry]

"action drama scifi thriller"

alright. I'll post up. If it gets rejected i unsderstand

[JohnnySix]

ARGH BTTF is Sci-Fi....

Rapid rethink....

[poopinmymouth]

Grrr, slow going. Glad we have till end of sept.

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/net/pcount/pitt_basterd/pitt_basterd_04.jpg

[cycloverid]

Those boots look fab Poop! Your rendering style works well for this comp.

[okno]

DemonPrincess, really nice texture so far.

Cycloverid, if his hat's staying on, I'd make it cast more of a shadow over the top of his head, like Zebbie has done. The folds look good, but what about painting at a higher res then resizing? I do that with linear filtering to keep more detail. I noticed his face is lit with very direct light but the rest of his body has more ambient lighting.

Poop, nice work so far. I agree, those boots are really good.


I've been tweaking the head for better likeness, but it still needs more. Still got a lot of the tex to do too.

Edit: I just noticed he looks a bit like hawken's avatar, hehe

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j62/drain-body-confirmed/lpc2_6.png

[Harry]

Poop, I know I probably seem like some random with no scoreboard compared to yours, but I humbly suggest you rework the face a little. I'm aware of how "used" to a piece you can get and miss the little things. For example, I think brad's eyes should be slightly more squinty- as well as some slight bags under them, his forehead taller, more defined folds on his cheeks (as i think theyre pretty characteristic of him) and probably darker eye sockets with very slight crow feet.
But, i think the forehead is what stands out most to me.

just my two cents

[poopinmymouth]

I agree Harry, the face is not final, I'm just leaving it for a bit while I work up the rest.

[Zwebbie]

Poop, maybe it's me, but I think you're losing a lot of detail when you scale him down. At 100 pixels height (which is not unreasonable for a 256x192 screen), it's pretty hard to make out the features of his jacket, because they're fairly low on contrast.



Another one done, and 'done' I mean 'will go back with fresh eyes when I have the chance, but probably won't have much time since there are still four more to do'.
http://www.joeyspijkers.com/misc_img/LPC2SilkSpectreRender.jpg

[conte]

w00t, can't wait for others, zwebbie ^_^

[mrmmaclean]

I can't believe I just saw this contest now!!! AHH!

Either way I am totally in.
Tequila!

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx11/mrmmaclean/random/hardboiled.jpg?t=1252198296

I'll be getting started pretty quick here. Some entries so far make me wish for better skillz, but I'll give it a go!

[flamingice]

http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx244/flamingice_photos/nada_wip.jpg

started on Nada's head currently at 309 tri's lotsa places to get rid of a bunch of tris though

[sokken]

Hello

Starting a bit late, ~week ago, but this is what im going for;

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1889765/3d/lpc%202%20-%20elektra/elektra-superhero-400a062507.jpg

have this so far;
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1889765/3d/lpc%202%20-%20elektra/elektra-wip.jpg

[poopinmymouth]

Leetle more:

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/net/pcount/pitt_basterd/pitt_basterd_05.jpg

[mrmmaclean]

Thought I'd put up a WIP of Chow's head. I'll be roughing out the body and unwrapping things today as well. Maybe take a crack at the texture for the face.

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx11/mrmmaclean/random/chow1.png?t=1252359618

[poopinmymouth]

FlamingIce and Mrmmaclean: One thing I find that helps on models this low poly, is to model everything *but* the head first. We always get so fixated on the face and head that we tend to "rob peter to pay paul" and use up our triangles that could really benefit larger areas like legs or arms or the torso. I think you are both going to have a hard time getting a good volume on your bodies with the triangles you've already used on the heads.

[mrmmaclean]

FlamingIce and Mrmmaclean: One thing I find that helps on models this low poly, is to model everything *but* the head first. We always get so fixated on the face and head that we tend to "rob peter to pay paul" and use up our triangles that could really benefit larger areas like legs or arms or the torso. I think you are both going to have a hard time getting a good volume on your bodies with the triangles you've already used on the heads.

Thanks a lot for that, poop! I am pretty new to 3D modeling in general and I'm never quite sure where to start. Since I am doing a specific likeness to a known person I chose the head first because it'll be the face that makes or breaks it (at least with my choice of Detective Tequila, since he only wears casual clothes through most of the film). I see what you mean though as my head is already 146 tris, eek!

By the way, yours is looking totally awesome so far! :thumbup:

[flamingice]

managed to cut out 50ish tri's its now down to 246 with plenty more i can cut out but time to move onto the body for now!

http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx244/flamingice_photos/nadawip2.jpg

[mrmmaclean]

Another wip, coming along nicely I think. The silhouette looks pretty natural, but it could be my biased eye. Any crits or comments?

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx11/mrmmaclean/random/chow2a.png

[cycloverid]

Loving the pose poop.

Okno: Thanks for the hat-shadow suggestion. As far as working at a higher res, I personally think that all details can be painted at the target res without problems, but I could be wrong.

After a little hiatus, I'm back to finish this comp. I'm basically done with my character unless I get some additional suggestions.

http://www.justinkenneallyart.com/grant5.jpg

http://www.justinkenneallyart.com/grantTEX.jpg

The backpack looks a bit pixel-y compared to the rest, but what can you do.

[DemonPrincess]

The backpack looks a bit pixel-y compared to the rest, but what can you do.

Even texture density, mainly. :poly121:
There's no reason for the head to take up more space than the torso, when the torso is in fact much bigger. I think a good rule of thumb is to use no more than a 5th of your entire budget on the head (both texture-wise and polygon-wise).

You used about a quarter, a little too generous IMHO. :poly136:

Overall it's looking nice though.

[Zwebbie]

Conte: Thank you very much :) .

Poop: Much better! I think the frontal view makes the likeness come out better too.

flamingice: Ouch, 246 is a lot for just a head. That said, it's cool how much character is in the shape alone.

mrmmaclean: Personally I always like to make more of a S shape in the side view. People don't always tend to stand like that in real life, but it does make a model just that bit more spectacular and dynamic, IMO.

cycloverid: Instantly recognisable and great attention to detail. I'd play around with his skin tone some more if I were you though, it appears to me a bit too red and saturated. It's also rather high on contrast, but maybe that'll only benefit you when you zoom out.



Two more from me (446 and 470 tris):

http://www.joeyspijkers.com/misc_img/LPC2DrManhattanRender.jpg
http://www.joeyspijkers.com/misc_img/LPC2NiteOwlRender.jpg

[Joseph Pomeisl]

good work, zwebbie. the shin/calf area looks abit weird on manhattan.

[GugloPWN]

I want to see Grant smashing an oil drum over a raptors head!

[Jasonin3d]

I love the texture work on nite owl!! Good job Zwebbie!

As always I'm a great fan of your work poop, only thing if I may, and this is with great repect! Youre dude looks a little cross eyed.

Maybe you made it that way so that he can see more Nazi's!

Either way very sharp piece!

[mrmmaclean]

Thanks for the pointer, Zwebbie. I actually plan on rigging the good Detective up for posing once the texture is done, but if that were not the case I would totally shape him for the dramatic effect. (great Watchmen characters btw!)

Here's another WIP. I am currently working in double the resolution for texturing so far but shrinking it to 265 for tests has proven quite nice.

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx11/mrmmaclean/random/chowFace.png

[hawken]

this challenge is hotting up!

[Rhinokey]

mmrmrmaclean tequila was my first choice for this contest in fact my chibi zardoz is made from the base mesh i had roughed in for tequila, hard boiled is one of my fave movies,

[Jasonin3d]

this is a rough color block-out, can't do much at work without photoshop
I also enlarged the fro a little bit

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn203/jasonin3d/Modelbd2.jpg

[Emil Mujanovic]

Thought I'd give this a crack.
I'm doing Snake Plissken (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&um=1&sa=1&q=Snake+Plissken&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&start=0) from Escape from New York.
Mesh isn't exactly finished, I need to rework the hands a little and the touch up the head, but I'm going to give it a quick unwrap and base texture and see how it goes.
Current tri count is at 692.

http://www.artbyemil.com/images/polycount/wip-LPC002-001.jpg
http://www.artbyemil.com/images/polycount/wip-lpc02-001.jpg

[duncan]

Hay everybody, I have decided to do the Rocketeer I have never done a comp with you guys and I am keen to see how this one goes. I have to say that things are looking amazing. Here is my WIP

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1323/10931027.jpg

D.

oh an I tend to go overboard with presentation sorry :( ....I guess I just try to make things look better than they really are.

[Harry]

Even texture density, mainly. :poly121:
There's no reason for the head to take up more space than the torso, when the torso is in fact much bigger. I think a good rule of thumb is to use no more than a 5th of your entire budget on the head (both texture-wise and polygon-wise).

You used about a quarter, a little too generous IMHO. :poly136:

Overall it's looking nice though.


I gotta disagree with you a little bit there. I think it's best to distribute the density based on what actually "needs" it to look right. In a competition like this the face is where a lot of the likeness comes in so it needs extra attention. Another example is, with this guy and his backpack, i think he could afford to shrink down the shirt to make more room for the backpack, seeing as the shirt has a grid-like pattern on it anyway and wont really suffer much from lower resolution, like the backpack has.

edit: having said that, he has gone a little crazy on the size of the head uv space.

[cycloverid]

I gotta disagree with you a little bit there. I think it's best to distribute the density based on what actually "needs" it to look right. In a competition like this the face is where a lot of the likeness comes in so it needs extra attention. Another example is, with this guy and his backpack, i think he could afford to shrink down the shirt to make more room for the backpack, seeing as the shirt has a grid-like pattern on it anyway and wont really suffer much from lower resolution, like the backpack has.

edit: having said that, he has gone a little crazy on the size of the head uv space.

Hey thanks for both of your input. I don't usually do characters, so obviously there was a bit of experimentation involved. Next time I'd use a little less 'head UV space'.

I wanted the head to be higher res for the reasons you listed Harry. The face is the centerpiece for expression and likeness of a character. The reason why the backpack ended up so low res is because I wanted the grid lines on the shirt to be horizontal/vertical in UV space (for ease of texturing). The backpack was merely squeezed in.

Again, thanks for the comments!

Great start btw Duncan! Can't wait to see it finished- great silhouette.

[DemonPrincess]

I gotta disagree with you a little bit there. I think it's best to distribute the density based on what actually "needs" it to look right. In a competition like this the face is where a lot of the likeness comes in so it needs extra attention. Another example is, with this guy and his backpack, i think he could afford to shrink down the shirt to make more room for the backpack, seeing as the shirt has a grid-like pattern on it anyway and wont really suffer much from lower resolution, like the backpack has.

edit: having said that, he has gone a little crazy on the size of the head uv space.

I still think having a heavily pixelated area right next to a crisp one is rather unsightly. People may look at the face first, but they will probably look at the torso next. If the density difference is too much, it won't look good.

I also think you can paint goodlooking faces at surprisingly low resolutions. :\

[Jasonin3d]

The rocketeer!! I thought of him after starting my dude!! Great design! I like the direction your going in with him!

[Harry]

I still think having a heavily pixelated area right next to a crisp one is rather unsightly. People may look at the face first, but they will probably look at the torso next. If the density difference is too much, it won't look good.

I also think you can paint goodlooking faces at surprisingly low resolutions. :

I agree with you there. (maybe cause I, like you, come from a pixel art background). I usually only size up the face a little bit and downsize parts only if the actual nature of the material being represented permits it, but it was worth providing a counterpoint to your notion in an effort to provide our subject here with a truly balanced critique, you know, the whole, no real right and wrong, etc etc. ;)

[Zwebbie]

I still think having a heavily pixelated area right next to a crisp one is rather unsightly. People may look at the face first, but they will probably look at the torso next. If the density difference is too much, it won't look good. Is this a likely scenario in this case, though? Even on a PSP or IPhone screen, the resolution is isn't going to be much more than 1:1 for his body, so the only reason to actually scale up something would be for zoom-ins, and I don't think anyone's going to have a cutscene and zoom in on the backpack. Of course it's all theorycrafting at this point and it depends on the game, but I'd imagine the face could get more close-up use than the rest of the figure.

[DemonPrincess]

Is this a likely scenario in this case, though? Even on a PSP or IPhone screen, the resolution is isn't going to be much more than 1:1 for his body, so the only reason to actually scale up something would be for zoom-ins, and I don't think anyone's going to have a cutscene and zoom in on the backpack. Of course it's all theorycrafting at this point and it depends on the game, but I'd imagine the face could get more close-up use than the rest of the figure.

Not on the backpack, no. But in a close-up of the face, you'd still see the neck and upper chest, so those areas are important as well.