Eagle Guy, modeled after Joe Mad concept

[haikai]

I recently finished a game model based on an old concept by Joe Madureira. I have no idea what this character's name is, but it's from a game called, Dragonkind (I don't think it was ever finished or released). I thought he looked really cool. You can check out the concepts here: http://www.joemadfan.com/gallery.html?p17_sectionid=15

Here's my model and wireframes/textures:
http://haikai.net/content/3d/EagleGuy2.jpg

http://haikai.net/content/3d/EagleGuy.jpg

Diffuse only painted model. Poly count is a little generous, but I wanted to see what I could do with modeling out shapes where possible. I'm calling the model done because I'm tired of working on it, but welcome any feedback on it.

EDIT: Check him out animated at: http://issamz.com/. It's the 3rd clip in the latest demo reel. Animation by friend and former coworker, Issam Zejly.

[DerDude]

i love it

[Disting]

I really love it!
I have one suggestion though. Have you tried sharpening the diffuse a little bit? It looks a little blurry atm. It might be the render though. :)
Also, the eyes aren't very defined. Maybe make the white whiter and the black blacker, if you understand what I mean?

Great job on this!

[crazyfool]

This is beautiful, congrats :D I love the colours and you got mads paint scheme down to a tee. truly fantastic :)

[P442]

bad ass!@

[madmuffin]

Beautiful work, I remember seeing the concept art it was based from a long time ago and when I first saw this model I thought it was just a picture of that until I saw the rotations.

[rawrsie]

gorgeous work man, I love it

[pior]

Inspiring!!!
Fantastic work

[woogity]

wow excellent work!

[Ged]

awesome! really really I mean that :)

[Dado Almeida]

That's a great model. I'd love to play a game with that.

[hobodactyl]

*HEAD EXPLODING*

This is fucking incredible! It looks just like the concept came to life. Definitely my favorite game art in a loooong time :)

[StevenEgan]

Yeah, amazing work man!

[Sectaurs]

lovely

[Japhir]

yeah that is the awesome!

[marks]

fabulous.

[OrganizedChaos]

Very nice! I really like the way you captured the concept and an artistic, soft feel of it overall. I also thought the 3d render was the 2d concept! :D

[Josh_Singh]

pure Badassery My Friend. Great work!

[Snowman]

Awesome work this is very impressive

[BoBo_the_seal]

Love it! I showed it to Joe and quoting him "I jazzed in my pants"

Nice work!

- BoBo

[b1ll]

nice!!!!!!!!!

[mathes]

Beautiful. Could easily be a new WoW race.

[MartinH]

that's bitching man, awesome work!

[arshlevon]

that is how its done!

[soulstice]

Wow very nice, has the joe mad comic feel and the wow painterly looks. Great job!

[haikai]

Thanks for all the kind comments, everyone. It's a great honor coming from you guys who've inspired me a great deal for some time now.

Disting: I agree, the eyes could use more punch. I think the blurriness in some areas is the filtering on low res areas. All of these shots are actually just captured from Maya in fullbright/no lighting mode except the first one where I also added a very slight "glow" effect in PS (which may be hurting it in some ways!).

Crazyfool: I guess technically it's Udon's coloring and painting in the color concept, but I imagine Joe Mad must have had some sort of say in it? :poly121:

Bobo: Haha, wow, thanks so much for showing him. I've always admired his work and am just glad I didn't screw up too badly translating his character to 3d!

When putting these shots together, I noticed that I made the head larger than the concept... I'll just use the excuse that I was trying to draw more attention there :poly124:

[Spatz]

Great Work!

[Peris]

that looks really awesome man! Fantastic job :). My only crit would be that it's maybe a bit inconsistent with where you painted shadows and where you didn't (like the floating armor bits at his belt vs the ones at his shoulders).

[Generalvivi]

I loves it! both the model and the concept are kick ass! Good work you guys!

[Clintus Maximus]

Dude! This is BEAUTIFUL! It came out amazing i really like it. You nailed the style.

[Thegodzero]

Really great work!

The only thing id do to it is up the contrast and sharpen the texture up. If you pull the levels up to about .75 it will up the contrast a lot and make you details pop even more.

[natetheartist]

thats pretty slick man.

[Squiggly_P]

This is the sort of art that more games should go after. Definitely going into my inspiration folder.

[Joseph Silverman]

Totally boss, dude.

[Archanex]

kick ass man! I also thought it was a concept till I saw the turnaround! Beautiful texture work!

[stoofoo]

oh hey hai! This is 7 kind of advanced. Nice nice.

[moose]

gorgeous!

[moof]

Hey dude great work! I think on your final shot you should up the anti-aliasing and maybe tweak the lighting a bit; for portfolio purposes.
It looks very view screeny right now.

[JFletcher]

That is the most fucking awesome character i've ever seen. D:

I love the glove/hand stuff, very nice. Some amazing hand painted work!

[ArtOfBrad]

Bro I am in LOVE with this...and Joe Mad is my boss! Im gonna show him this as soon as he is back to the studio....

Vigil games, creators of Darksiders...Great work my man.

[Nitewalkr]

Amazing work indeed.

[Ausonian]

Wow, really beautiful!

[haikai]

Peris: I know what you mean. I suppose the way I decided where to paint cast shadows was based on proximity. Armor pieces that were further away from a surface underneath didn't get a shadow because I thought it might look odd at off angles.

Thegodzero: I have a tendency to work slightly low contrast because I'm wary of introducing too much and making the model too busy, but of course this can sometimes lead to the opposite problem!

Stoofoo: Oh, hey, Joe. What is going on? :)

Moof: I admit I tend to get lazy with presentation. It basically is just a screenshot right now, and I didn't even think about doing stuff like cranking up the AA, but that's a great point.

ArtOfBrad: Haha, I think Bobo beat you to it already. I actually got an email from Joe himself about this. I think he's now on the top of my "most famous people who have ever contacted me" list!

Thanks again, everyone. The response here has been even more than I could have hoped for. Makes me feel like I should be making even more Joe Mad models or something. :poly121:

[Willburforce]

brilliant work. Thanks for sharing this!

[tottarie]

Simply awesome, grats!

[RazorBladder]

Really lovely work, my only critism would be to further define the rendering of the grey chest area.

Thank you for the breath of fresh air, there's not enough of the old diffuse only stuff :)

[JordanW]

That looks fantastic!

[Jesse Moody]

Yeah this piece is gorgeous. Not much to crit. Great painting that nailed the concept. Can't wait to see more :)

[crasong]

I love this! Er, noob question, but was the texture painted on the UVflat? or in 3dspace? Not quite sure if i'm phrasing it right ><

[shinobix]

That is AWESOME!!! Great job!

[Massbot]

Yep proper awesome. Nice and packed uv's also :D

[Autocon]

Looks fanfuckingtastic! totally captured the essence of the concept art. the hand painting is phenomenal. He just needs a badass pose now!

[haikai]

I love this! Er, noob question, but was the texture painted on the UVflat? or in 3dspace? Not quite sure if i'm phrasing it right ><

I use Maxon BodyPaint 3d for painting so it is mostly in 3d space. I would go crazy painting it flat these days. For old school diffuse painting, I probably do at least 90% of the texture work in BodyPaint and the rest is adjustments/tricks in Photoshop.

I recommend trying a 3d painting program if you haven't used one yet. Aside from making it more convenient to see what you're doing right on the model, I've found that it's helpful to avoid painting unnecessary details. When I used only photoshop for my painting, it was easy to get lost in adding detail that may not be seen. It kind of forces me to think of it more as a painting and less of a sacred system of layers and effects. At least, that's what I believe, but I know many wonderful artists who still paint flat entirely in Photoshop. :\

[yiannisk]

awesome model awesome textures!
great job man ;)

[zxcman]

awesome!

[undoz]

Sweet work there!

[crasong]

Thanks for the tip! :)

[man_o_mule]

i need to learn how to paint like that. looks fantastic!

[ScudzAlmighty]

freaking excellent, can you post the 3d next to the concept so i can tell which is which though?

[gavku]

Great stuff haikai!!

[SubPablo]

Niiiice! Great style transfer. My one immediate crit is that you lost the nice thinness in the feet. Totally badass regardless though.

[JoeCyriac]

Wow, that is beautiful. Amazing painting skills. Wonderful painted work on your site as well.

[elte]

Man that's so awesome

[Lightweight]

Wow this really reminds me of some WoW-character.. perfect!

[ultra]

lovely work! Great model, great texture love the hand paint style...oldschool for ever :)

[haikai]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but a good friend and former coworker of mine, Issam Zejly, animated my model and I thought some of you might be interested in seeing it in action. You can see it at:

http://issamz.com/
(3rd clip in the latest demo reel)

Shameless plug: He is also currently looking for work if anyone here needs a great animator. He's an Animation Mentor alumni and worked at Ubisoft.

[marlfox8]

dammit, i made a thumb. of a character exactly like that. you took it out of my mind. did better than i could have done. awesome:)

[A R K A I K O]

Awesome model,I saw in Cg talk,congratz again!!

[Purplepaint]

GREAT job, also a GREAT concept :D

[Naso]

Really epic character you have there, thank god you had that superb concept art and awesome skills to make it look even better.

/claps

Also, have you ever heard of Riot Games (http://www.riotgames.com/)? They are the company that makes the game League of Legends (http://www.leagueoflegends.com/), there are a lot of custom characters that really remind me of this eagle here.

They have many job openings (http://www.riotgames.com/careers/) and looking for "talented, creative individuals". You should definitely talk to them and land your self a awesome job with them unless you already have one. They could probaply make that model into a playable character in League of Legends.

Anyways, this is a really awesome inspirational peace of art, thanks for showing it to everyone and best of luck to you if you actually go for the job! :)

[er910]

Wow this looks great. I was looking forward to this game years ago. I'm a big Joe Mad fan.

[slipgatecentral]

awesome job Haikai
good skills you got with handpainted textures, /applause

[FirstKeeper]

Well done, like this handpaint texture very much.

[GninjaGnome]

Hey, I joined this forum just so I could comment on how cool this piece is. Are we going to see him in action any time soon?

[haikai]

I didn't notice this new Showcase section of the forum. I'm surprised and honored to be here, and can only hope that you all don't get too sick of seeing my image on the banner!

Naso - Thanks for the heads up!

slipgatecentral - That's high praise coming from you. Your work has been a big inspiration for me :)

GninjaGnome - You can see my model in a test animation here by my friend, Issam Zejly: http://issamz.com/ (3rd clip in the latest demo reel).

[explorer3d]

s

[ngs616]

This character is awesome. He's like an eagle angel.

[goktugg]

Completely very nice work, bravo.

[Alberto Rdrgz]

I'm taking a bow right now. lol it looks amazing.

[smurfbizkit]

Makes me feel like I should be making even more Joe Mad models or something. :poly121:

As a huge Joe Mad fan I'd suggest Calibretto (http://www.joemadfan.com/gallery.html?p17_sectionid=10&p17_imageid=289), but half of what made your translation to 3D work is that it was based on a concept that was painted.

No crits here, just want to give thanks for doing it and sharing...is a huge inspiration. :) In an age where normal mapped ue3 models are spammed, its awesome to see an awesome model with just the diffuse that is rocked.

[A R K A I K O]

Insane work,congratz!

[3mm]

brilliant work,i love joe Mad style,Vigils guys mus hire you for next dirksiders :D

[grinnock]

I really love the warmth of the texture work. Awesome!

[Draco9898]

Why can't they make a freaking J-RPG where the models look EXACTLY like the concept art and are freaking AWESOME like this?:thumbup:

[jokerking]

AWESOME!!! Great job!

[jeep911]

i love it

[Zelenkov]

great work man!

[Jonathan Marshall]

One of my favorite texture jobs of all time. Your stuff is good.

[Dimfist]

I watched your animation reel. Very impressed by your ability to convey expression and your use of exageration in movement.

[haikai]

I watched your animation reel. Very impressed by your ability to convey expression and your use of exageration in movement.

I want to clarfiy: that is NOT my animation! A friend of mine took my model and animated it as part of HIS demo reel. Details in post #66 (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1131453&postcount=66).

But thanks. I'll pass your appreciation along to him :).

[bigninman]

Awesome work! really good

[kengkard]

I like shader so much,great job!

[RoboBunny]

Loved it so much, amazing textures, superb model.
It gives me inspiration.

[Gunta]

awsome! :D

[cyncmawnNic]

You probably very clever? or cunning?

[Buwx]

BAMF stuff. O_O

[Cirker]

Fantastic!

[supyeo]

oh nice haikai. it's almost like you're working in the video game industry.

[RedLehari]

Amazing! "What else?" XD
All the details! very nice work indeed!

[Mister_Nice_Guy]

Excellent result!

[Mister_Nice_Guy]

This looks very professional. I'd love to see this in a game.

[ESeay]

Love the concept and love the design! I'd give any game he's in a try! :D

[Baron Flame]

Looks awesome.
I'd most definitely play the game this character's in.
Amazing work!
Hats off to you!!

[Rexxigar]

This is truly lovely.

[stubs3d]

It reminds me very much of something you'd see in world of warcraft, though much higher quality. Very nice work indeed.

[illybang]

this is really awesome! i've been a big mad fan since the battlechaser days. great job.

[Ozimul]

Oooh! This is a great model. : ) I can only hope he would be put in a decent game...!

[pt200]

great job man

[Liamodearme]

Really admire your hand painted texture's this is a skill I am trying to master. There is something so unique and artistic about this style of texture. I love it well done :D

[GabeLamas]

6000 triangles and one 1024x1024 diffuse map and your character looks that good?! This would run so well in an engine, and totally NOT be resource hog. You should take this further by at least baking out different texture maps. I don't know if it's just me being a character artist but this looks so awesome!

[amile duan]

I will not post spam.

[amile duan]

Beautiful modeling and textures!

[Strkl]

Impressive! I love the way you modeled/textured the wings

[Link702]

That's awesome

[TheLaLiLuLeLo]

Absolutely love this. Nicely stylised.

[King Mango]

That is an inspiring piece of work right there. :cheers:

[pǝlloɹ┴]

that is freakn fantastic xDDD im loving it! You should really consider using this in a WoW like game ;)