Akira, Kaneda

[ysalex]

I'm going to attempt a Kaneda. Not sure about the bike, for now I just want to do a realistic character.

Here's what I have after pushing it around the screen for a morning. Spent more time on the body then the clothes. Clothing wise the pants are the only thing I've put anything into.

Right now I'm considering how to go about everything. The movie is from the late eighties, so I'm weighing updating the costume to something more sleek, or going full out eighties on him. Opinions wanted.

Crits and comments appreciated.

http://i.imgur.com/pBYgU.jpg

[ysalex]

I was also thinking something a little sleeker. Like pants and low-profile boots.

quick sketch:
http://i.imgur.com/F8aSO.jpg

[dirigible]

I would spend some time trying to get a likeness of kaneda in the face. There's a couple features that make him distinct which are lacking or could be exaggerated in your sculpt. Strong jaw, upturned nose, and perpetual glare, off the top of my head.

I think the original costume stands the test of time, so I would only change it if you want to approach the project as a reinterpretation of classic characters.

If you do end up modeling the bike, you gotta recreate the iconic cover!
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f92/neoakira28/Kaneda.jpg

[16bit]

Should be an interesting thread. I've always found that modeling anime heads are very hard to do.

[ysalex]

@16bit - I'm going to model him realistically. Or more realistically than not, I suppose.


@dirigible - Thanks for the advice. I'm looking into his face now. I've decided to do a re-interpretation. I don't want to loose everything that makes it so 80's, but I'm going to cut out just a couple things. I suppose, to me, the most iconic part of Kaneda is the Jacket, so I'll be keeping that un-touched, at the very least.


http://i.imgur.com/AfkAC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/wJ4PQ.jpg

[Jungsik]

I AM SO WATCHING THIS

i think you should def go with the poofy kind of jacket hes wearing but it looks good right now

[Carl Brannstrom]

Face have too much depth. Eyes are too far back into the skull and nose bridge is too "high"

Also, you should take a look at the eye-fold.

[wester]

This is definitely an exciting piece! It's pretty early on right now but i would say to stick as close to the source material as you can, unless you're doing a re imagining which i dont think you are. It will be alot more impressive if you "next gen'd" the movie and did it some serious justice, which it looks like you're capable of doing.

I would say based on your portfolio to really push your material differentiation on this character. Make sure that the fabrics look like fabrics, plastics like plastics....etc. Solid modeling and sculpting skills, just have to push those textures.

This is definitely going to be a great piece.

[Blaisoid]

lip corners are too low if it's supposed to be neutral expression. your previous character had a kinda similiar issue.

[ysalex]

@ Blaisoid - Thanks. Its supposed to be a bit of a scowl, but nice to know it doesn't read appropriately.

@ Carl Brannstrom - Thanks for the critique. I can clearly see the areas you outlined, I'll take another couple passes at them.

@ Jungsik - Thanks. The jacket is super iconic, so I'll attempt to recreate it best my skills allow.

@ wester - It was really nice of you to go into my portfolio and pick out the overall things I have trouble with. It's true that my materials are my weaker parts, so I'll try to pick it up with this one. Again, much appreciated. I've decided not to do a 1:1 recreation, but I've also decided to be picky abou the things I'm going to change. I won't change the iconic things: coat, goggles, bike (if I can find the time to do it). I might change the clunkier stuff - the snow pants tucked into half-boots being about the only major thing. I'll try not to make choices that will put people off. Kaneda is kind of an art icon of that era, so I can't get away with much.

[Sputch]

Woot! I went though a crazy period where I would watch this movie almost every day like a meditation.
Looking pretty good. You'll probably be tackling most of the things I'd crit on as it is still early, so I won't really nitpick just yet. I do agree however, that the original outfit is still very cool, so you better bring it with your re-interpretation. Plus, I think his ears sticking out was a big part of his personality and makes for a stronger silhouette. Excited to see what you do here!

[dirigible]

Rewatched the movie on youtube instead of sleeping. One art style quirk I noticed is that characters often (changes from shot to shot) have short noses, high mouths, and looong chins. Kaneda in particular. I realize you're going for realistic, but I would still skew his features in that direction.

[ysalex]

That is definitely one thing that is driving me crazy. The costumes change, or at least the details do, over the course of the movie (even from shot to shot) and in the promotional material released before and since.

Not huge things, fortunately. Like sometimes the boots and gloves have cuffs on them, sometimes not. Sometimes the goggles are square on the face, and sometimes they are rounded. Sometimes the characters have pointed/out-turned ears, and sometimes they appear to be missing ears.

At any rate, I suppose a lot of it is moot since I'm re-defining certain aspects anyways.

[ysalex]

I wish I could get more than an hour or two into this guy a day. At any rate, here is this mornings update. Went through the movie again catching refs for the face. I was modeling the completely wrong shirt, not sure where I got the yellow shirt ref. I believe I pulled it off some pre-flight concept art from the film.

I'm still blocking the elements in, although I've gone into higher detail on the pants because I'm pretty much done concepting them.

I youngified his face, reduced the jaw and added a bit more ethnicity. I like it more.

At any rate, for better or worse, images:

Crits and comments appreciated.

http://i.imgur.com/Djabd.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DyAoc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xDvxI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/vi0MA.jpg

[Free_Fall]

nice ass

[ysalex]

@ Free Fall -

Um, thanks? At any rate, when are you going to update your car thread? The high-poly clay render was looking amazing, I really wanted to see where it would go for real-time.

[Free_Fall]

Yeah, I was talking about the uaz with somebody yesterday.. I don't know when I'm getting back to it. I've started as an intern a while back and I can't be bothered to work on it afterwards :p Maybe someday soon.

[Jackablade]

Quite the tricky task you've set yourself.

For my money, I think if you're going with a kind of median of the proportional variation, his face should be a bit more on the round side.

It'd probably be a lot easier to get a feel for him if you tossed some rough hair on there.

[dirigible]

Yeah hair actually helps a lot. I mean, you wouldn't sculpt on his face without eyes, why sculpt on it without hair?

[Fomori]

As Jungsik said, make his jacket more "poofy"! It had that 80s bomber jacket feel with high shoulders. That was one of the strong characteristics of Kaneda that I remember.

[ysalex]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Finally got a chance to work on this some more today, spent most my time on the jacket.

Which one do you guys like most? a - more traditional; b - a little sleeker without the boots but also possibly a sin against amazing art.

http://i.imgur.com/Pyk31.jpg

At any rate, turn around for the second version. I'm not really married to either.

http://i.imgur.com/CngEB.jpg

[ysalex]

I should say I didn't finish the right arm because I'm still trying to work out a wrinkle pattern for the fabric that I like. From what I can tell the jacket isn't leather, more like plastic, but in some images it's made more like a plump windbreaker. Input there appreciated as well, but I think I'm going with this semi-hard material. Reason being that I figure the material is made to help in case of a crash, so nylon wouldn't work well.

[konstruct]

I like b better,

I like the liberties you`ve taken. (dont forget gloves!) The knee pads seem odd to me. Its like they cant decide whether they are part of the pants or a separate element. I think tightening up the back sides of the knees would help. for pants that tight I dont feel like they would look so "inset" more "on top"

The wrinkle pattern on the lower leg seems a bit forced. I understand your going for a pleated look, but generally those stem from folds at the top of the pants.

Also- the shoes should be upturned at the toe, similar to this (http://www.nexternal.com/armynavy/images/650-Waterproof-Combat-Boot2.gif):

[stickadtroja]

he doesnt look very asian...?

[Jigsaw]

Pants tucked into the boots looks way better, IMO.

[ysalex]

@Jigsaw & @konstruct - Thanks for the opinions guys. I'm leaning towards b myself, but jigsaw I understand why people would probably go for more traditional.

@stickadtroja - Yeah. I've decided not to do super asian features, since the movie is futuristic I figure I have that liberty. Here are some images of the face. I think I got a good amount of asian base.



http://i.imgur.com/Pov4t.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4kCVA.jpg

[ysalex]

By the way konstuct, your portfolio is awesome. 3d and 2d are both really inspiring.

[konstruct]

thanks man.! its old though :( yours seems like its shaping up nicely aswell

[mikezoo]

looking good dude! The knee pads do seem a litle odd.

I am also in favor of the pants being tucked into the boots. I just dont like the boots you have at the moment. His are brown and leather like you (http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&biw=1440&bih=796&tbm=isch&tbnid=slmTGLWFUirH7M:&imgrefurl=http://www.beyondhollywood.com/hey-wanna-know-how-warner-bros-akira-differs-from-the-anime-glad-you-asked/kaneda-in-akira-2/&docid=yTCSBm_OKxge4M&imgurl=http://www.beyondhollywood.com/uploads/2011/11/Kaneda-in-Akira-2.jpg&w=304&h=412&ei=nnQ9T9yFL-fI2gXw2YmvCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=328&vpy=85&dur=2689&hovh=261&hovw=193&tx=115&ty=83&sig=111757893762616194615&page=1&tbnh=142&tbnw=101&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=0CFEQrQMwAQ) have in the other versions. it adds alot I think

[ysalex]

Thanks for the input Mike. As for the boot color, it actually depends. The boots appear both red and brown at different times in the film. They also vary in the concept art. For some reason the brown boots are always plain leather, just straight boot. The red boots usually appear with three straps.

[ysalex]

Update.

I wish I had more than an hour or two a couple days a week to work on this. I know some people liked the boots better, but I've decided to go with full pants. Sorry. I also took some advice offered and have gone away from the pleated shins. Worked on the polypaint a bit on the jacket and skin. I'd really like to push myself in that department on this piece, but I'll wait a bit until I get the overall design modeled out.

Anyways, crits and comments appreciated,
Thanks.

http://i.imgur.com/Zoh6Q.jpg

[Tenchi]

Would've prefered the long boots but those lower trouser folds look good. The face looks great ^_^

[GragGunslinger]

I love the model, It's looking great!

However I feel that the cheekbones are a little too shallow, and the eyebrows end a little too far out.

[dirigible]

I'm gonna have to disagree with GragGunslinger. I think the cheekbones are plenty protuberant, and I'd actually say the eyebrows might be too far IN. This image might help.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh39OVYPa7E/TW_q0i9uiPI/AAAAAAAACP8/o8Ybl-guyno/s1600/average_faces_of_men-741954.jpg

[ysalex]

@ Tenchi - Thanks. I know that probably more than 1/2 of people are going to have wished I went with the boots. In the anime they were nice and iconic, but in a more realistic style they are clunky no matter which way I try to model them. This might be a problem with my own abilities, but I could honestly not find much in the way of reference where a man, particularly a rather skinnier man, looked in any decent with his pants tucked into a pair of boots. At any rate, I'll try to compensate by making the rest of him as well as I can.

@ GragGunslinger - Thanks. I'll look into that. Part of the eyebrow thing might be because his face is distorted by the low FOV, but possibly not.

@dirigible - You seem to pop up everywhere man, you're one of those prolific polycount posters. Thanks for the link. I saw the female version on reddit awhile back and saved it to my references file. Very helpful. I saved the male now too, so thanks for sharing. I think you're right about them being a bit too far in. It's also possible that his head is a bit too wide at the temples, making his forward facing skull seem small compared to his cranium. I'll have to do some reference diving.

[Jackablade]

Thanks. I know that probably more than 1/2 of people are going to have wished I went with the boots. In the anime they were nice and iconic, but in a more realistic style they are clunky no matter which way I try to model them.
Maybe something like this kind of lace-up military boots might be a happy medium.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FDiGo8A_egs/Tim-bwzLBJI/AAAAAAAAAA8/QY2gDBTQ4Ws/s1600/swat1eng1.jpg

[dirigible]

@dirigible - You seem to pop up everywhere man, you're one of those prolific polycount posters. Thanks for the link. I saw the female version on reddit awhile back and saved it to my references file. Very helpful. I saved the male now too, so thanks for sharing. I think you're right about them being a bit too far in. It's also possible that his head is a bit too wide at the temples, making his forward facing skull seem small compared to his cranium. I'll have to do some reference diving.

You're on to me! Yeah I've been posting a lot recently because 1. I need to stop lurking, and 2. I've tried to stop visiting time-wasting sites (and as a result I spend a lot more time here). Phase two of operation "stop being so worthless" is to start posting my own stuff on here...eventually.

The face-mixing thing is really cool. I think it might have originally started with this site (http://www.faceresearch.org/demos/average).

Upon a time I was trying to convince this one guy that the facial proportions of his model were off, so I posted an image of the average female mixture overlaid onto his model. His (and others) response was "not every face should be perfectly average, this is supposed to be a unique face!". That is true, making your face unique is a good thing. But I went through that site and compiled a bunch of different faces into a gif, showing that the positions of major facial structures actually change very little, even on "weird looking" faces. Curse me for deleting that .gif, it was pretty cool. Eyebrow height, eye spacing, base of nose height, and middle of mouth height all change VERY little, even across ethnicity and even for unattractive faces. It ultimately showed that his model's face wouldn't just be unique, it would be deformed.

[ysalex]

Thanks for the anecdote. I remembered this resource from awhile back, the 'beauty mask'.

http://www.beautyanalysis.com/mba_reposefrontalmaskapplication_page.htm

It doesn't seem 100% accurate, but it does a good job of pointing out what you were saying -- that in most people, features very little. It's the subtle difference and deviations that make something unique, and not really massive changes.

[Jackablade]

Do you have a link to that female version of the generic faces by nationality thing? It's make for a handy reference alongside the male one.

[zxcman]

I love his face man!

[ysalex]

@zxcman - Thanks!

@Jackablade - Yeah, it's a good reference image. I didn't know there was a male version so thanks again to Dirigible for posting it.

Here's a link to the female version - http://feministphilosophers.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/averageface.jpg


And also a link to higher-res images of average faces, male and female, sorted by nationality. - http://www.mediadump.com/hosted-id167-average-faces-from-around-the-world.html

[dirigible]

And also a link to higher-res images of average faces, male and female, sorted by nationality. - http://www.mediadump.com/hosted-id167-average-faces-from-around-the-world.html
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/Kuroda_Michiyo/Reaction%20Images/thisisdelicious.jpg

[ysalex]

Updates! Got another hour in this morning. Crits and comments appreciated.

http://i.imgur.com/I8R68.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Fw3YU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/95Vea.jpg

[dirigible]

Are you going to make him shaved-head? I, for one, would like it if you kept the hair.

Some of his facial features have been bothering me, did a paintover to show what I mean.
http://i41.tinypic.com/23syrd3.gif

[ysalex]

I will do Kaneda's black hair, although I might update it just a bit. Nothing wrong with bad hair, but the straight down thing over his eyes kinda bothers me a bit.

Thanks for the paintover.

[Noodle!]

It looks very nice so far!
I do think he looks a bit more Chinese than Japanese at the moment, and I feel the pants should be a bit more loose (if you want to stick closer to the original).
And as you probably guess, I also echo the boots.

http://www.modernbuddy.com/pix/motorcycle-injuries.jpg
http://www.toplessrobot.com/kaneda%20jacket.jpg
http://www.collectiondx.com/gallery2/gallery/d/528544-2/kaneda13.jpg

In these boots they have less of a big fold over, like you had originally, and they don't taper down as much. I think this might also have to do with his pants being slightly more loose in the original.

For all the great work you've put into it I'd say it's a shame to skip the boots without more trials, as it gives him a lot more character.

However, it's still coming along awesomely.

[ysalex]

Got some more work done, first in about a week. Did a quick glove pass and worked on the facial features, and then made a couple changes to his outfit. I wish I had more time for this. Mornings are all I can manage right now.

@noodle -- Thanks for the input (and the links). I can't say that much is going to change my mind at this point about the boots. I get why people want them though, I do.

http://i.imgur.com/Uqz5f.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/As9vd.jpg

[Sandro]

Dat's a nice model, good control of forms, very subtle and natural stuff.

Btw, I think you overworked his eyes on this update, previous one was spot on. Asians tend to have pretty thick skin on eyelids, so you don't get that much creasing and sagging, especially in younger people.

http://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/beforeafter31.jpg

[Blaisoid]

i guess it's meant to be a side effect of drugs and wild lifestyle, but it might be indeed overdone.

[ysalex]

Thanks Sandro, I did indeed overdo it. Blaisoid is correct in that Kaneda is supposed to seem a bit cracked out, he's a street gang biker on mood drugs, after all, but I went a bit heavy on the eyes there. I should add some grit to his skin too, maybe some scabs along his jaw-line or something.

At any rate, thanks for the replies, guys.

[dirigible]

I never read the manga, but I got the impression from the film that Kaneda's gang never took drugs, which is why it was a big deal when Tetsuo DID.

[ysalex]

I don't think that's right, Dirigible. Kaneda's jacket says, 'good for health, bad for education', with the image of a pill.

Their motorcycle gang is also called the 'capsule gang'.

I don't think they're drugs like we call them, like heroin or meth, more like steroids, and also mood changing.

I could be totally wrong about this, obviously, but that's what I got out of it. I suppose I'm due for another viewing.

[seth.]

wether he's a junkie or not you are doing a fine job on him man.....I think someone said before that the trousers could do with being a little bulkier I kinda think so too, but great stuff none the less

[Blaisoid]

they do take pills in manga. not sure about anime.

[Jackablade]

They take drugs in the anime too. Tetsuo comes back looking for "capsules" right after he escapes from the hospital.

[ysalex]

Images.

Worked over the face, I'm getting ready for hair. Also been whittling away at the details all over the body. I hope to finish the high-poly by next tuesday. Actually it has to be done by then, because I don't have any more time than that. Then I'll get started on the low-poly and the texture.

Face.
http://i.imgur.com/azmVz.jpg

What I'm thinking for the hair.
http://i.imgur.com/5nd5a.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0I1m6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/wPtNN.jpg

Unshaded.
http://i.imgur.com/HXVL8.jpg

[Blaisoid]

hmm. seriously?
with that skewed hair and a beard he's lost any traces of resemblance that he still had.

[Zelenkov]

Hey man, ur def straying away from the original concept of the character.

http://www.beyondhollywood.com/uploads/2011/11/Kaneda-in-Akira-2.jpg

http://images.paraorkut.com/img/animepics/images/k/kaneda-12310.jpg

You version with the boots was more like the original, but the face looks more like some japanese guy rather than Kaneda. He is 16 with a chilly bowl haircut. I am a big fan of the manga and the movie and hope to see this as true to the original is possible :) But if ur doing ur own interpretation that is cool too.

You skills are really good and i'm loving your sculpting process as well as its execution. Top notch stuff :)

[ysalex]

God.

I just typed about 2K words about why i've been making the decisions I've been making, and the internet ate it when I pressed submit reply.

EDIT: Here is the long and short of it.

TL;DR --

I'm not trying to recreate the choices that Katsuhiro made in the early 80's, which led to the design of neo-tokyo, Akira as a whole and Kaneda as a character. I am not that good of an artist on one level, and on the next I am simply not as good a creative mind.

All this project is to me is my own personal updating and re-interpretation of what the story of Akira might look like now.

I know it's going to bother people that I'm playing the foundations of the character. I changed his age by about three years because that's the age I believe this story would be told from if it was told now, I removed the boots and oversized gloves and bowl-haircut because it doesn't mesh with the direction style is going about now.

I get that people don't like this, but I'm not doing a 1:1 interpretation. I'm not even doing a 1:10 interpretation, I'm basically approaching this from an: if I was going to tell the story of Tetuso, Akira, Kaneda and Kei right now, how would I structure it? And, how would that effect the look of Kaneda's character?


___________________


And I'm asking people not to get upset with me for going in this direction. I truly do appreciate all the opinions and don't think I'm the super-awesome-shit, and that I'm not listening to people who are trying to be helpful. I have a long way to go before I can make good art decisions, and before my art progresses to the level of 'any good'. The best thing that people can do to help get me there is to challenge me, and the worst thing I could do for myself would be to dismiss them. My writing a 'why' of why I'm not going for a straight on interpretation of Kaneda is not a repudiation of these people. I still do really appreciate it.

[Sputch]

I don't mind where the beard and hair are going. I get what you're doing and if you'd posted it as a completely finished piece I bet people would have less to say about it, but hey, where's the fun in that? Still, I must say from a purely aesthetic standpoint, the high boots look better IMO.

[Blaisoid]

i get where you're coming from, and i don't think anyone's pissed off. it's your model after all.
but i can't deny that i thought that last few screens were a joke, until i read the post and found nothing that would suggest it.

Problem is that while idea of bring it closer to modern day is understandable, some of changes don't feel logical.
http://i.imgur.com/5nd5a.jpg
on this screen he looks like a slightly metrosexual fashionable dude. like a stereotypical young designer or something.
it doesn't have that "bratty gang member" vibe anymore, which i think should never be gone from Akira. while the original hair wasn't very gangsta, it also wasn't trendy or anything. it looked kinda like he and other guys didn't care about looks that much.

that said maybe it'll look better when you start posing him and give the face a more lively expression.

[ysalex]

And now for some nice old subdiv modeling.

Starting work on the laser cannon/rifle. I'm finding it impossible to get decent and consistent references on this. If anyone has any, or knows where I can find some, I'd appreciate it. Pretty much all the decent refs come from peoples home-made projects, and they've made changes for the sake of simplicity.

I'm considering one of two styles. Style a, marked in the image, has separate handles front and back for gripping and firing -- these are sometimes linked by a metal piece at the bottom. Style b has one solid handle, reminiscent of a p90, with holes for fingers. Opinions?

http://i.imgur.com/vh9KB.jpg

[dirigible]

I, for one, am fine with where ysalex is going with this. Like he said, this is "what if akira was made today". His version of Kaneda looks more like a gang leader from today.

Only thing, ysalex, is I would make sure you take this far enough in that direction. Nothing's worse that going for an innovative design, but only taking it halfway. Just ends up confusing. For instance the gun - I'd make sure to give it modern looking greebles to differentiate it from the original, probably also change up the shape a bit.
EDIT: Looked up reference on the original gun, I guess you're already on the right track. As for which gun shape of yours I prefer I'd say B, but I'd add a grip to the curved bottom part on the front of the gun.

[xtrm3d]

making abstraction of the fact that i am a fan of akira ,
i have to say that i really like what you have going on here ,
as it somehow ground kaneda in our ""reality"" ,
i am really looking forward to see where you would take it in teh end ..

ps ..also looking forward to a reinvention of the bike :-)

[Zelenkov]

Hey man, its cool if you want to do ur own interpretation of him :) I just just didn't know if you were going for that. I do like it a lot, especially the clothes. And since ur doing ur own thing , u could totally go all out on the cannon!

[Fomori]

Hey. Looks like his arms are a bit too low and may hinder any rigging for animation. His armpits are really low due to the "puffyness" of his jacket, so if he were to lift his arms in a t-pose style, the armpits would look really wrong and still be attached low. Might be a difficult thing to sort now, but work bearing in mind that when puffy clothing is involved there should be plenty of space around the joints.

[ysalex]

Thanks Foromi. I've been doing test poses, but I miscalculated the severity of the armpit drop on the coat. I tested it after reading your comment and you are correct, it is indeed too low for any useful rigging. It's an easy fix thankfully, just raise the arm where the shoulder would be naturally and re-sculpt. I appreciate your keen eye, it will save me some time down the road.

Thanks also Zelenkov, for advice earlier and chiming in now.


_________________


Work on the cannon continues. I'm mostly just 3D riffing on a base model. It is slow going and extremely wasteful, and if I were in a more productive mood I would do some sketches. I modeled it sub-div in Silo and imported to zbrush just so I could slap a matcap on it and take some pictures.

I am extremely open to suggestions on the gun. I feel like most of what I ended up doing was superficial takes on already overdone elements, like the 45 degree angle cylinder off the barrel.

One thing I have decided to do inside Zbrush is detailing the welds on the major intersection points, like the ibeam at the front, where imprecise welding would be practical. I'll also add some paneling and insert screws and details when the body is fleshed out.

Thanks for helping everyone.

http://i.imgur.com/AROUb.jpg

[ysalex]

Update -

Considered a mild pose and did my first true clay render, just to look into presentation a bit.

http://i.imgur.com/kwJy5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/wVDAT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/LhPsA.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/kgfSk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xuuvQ.jpg

[Tenchi]

I'd go with the 2nd clay render pose, looks a good generic heroic looking pose.

[killnpc]

awesome :)

[Denny]

I have a couple of suggestions for his carrying arm. Either point the weapon more to the left, so the back side points to the right behind him. This would match the angle of the elbow he has now, with the hand closed later I think it will look even better.

Second alternative would be to make the elbow point more outwards from the body (like when you carry a heavy bag) and keep a similar or a slightly more parallel angle of the weapon. (in relation to the floor)

Apart from that I really dig the remix. :)

---

Edit*
Paintover of how I imagined the pose could be. Proportions are wonky in the paint over but I think similar angles of the arm, hand and weapon could work. :)

[Sputch]

K, I'm totally sold now. Those clay renders really seal the deal. I think, with regard to the gun holding arm, you might try having it hang straight down and close to the body with the shoulder dropped and the hip tilted the opposite angle of the shoulders. Give it some weight.
Can't wait for textures!

[Torch]

Clay renders look sick, good work bro :D

[ysalex]

@sputch, I can visualize what you're saying very well. Seems like it would give the gun some real weight, and make the character pose more dynamic. I will implement this when I finalize the pose, thank you.

@Denny, thanks for the input, as you pointed out and sputch too, the gun should seem heavier in his hand. Also I like your idea of turning it a bit, so that it's not so 'front on' into the camera.

[ysalex]

Not sure why I'm doing these renders other than for my own frusterated enjoyment, they don't get me very far when it comes to realtime graphics, except that they are helping me visualize things a bit.

Here's where I got with the head. This is my very first half-decent SSS render. Not great, but I won't complain.
http://i.imgur.com/oZMhC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BQYKN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/LfRcY.jpg

[ysalex]

Finished the high, wish I could have rendered in Mental Ray with diffuse, but it's out of the cards on this old, memory low machine. No matter how much I optimize, I kill the thing.

Anyways, now to get started on the low-poly.

http://i.imgur.com/S4zFW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7VWk4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6BBsj.jpg

[Torch]

Nice background, looks swish :D

[toilet_bear]

very cool! :)

[konstruct]

VERY nice! I know mental ray is bunking out on you- but I`d really try and get a cleaner/crisper render in order. It might even be worth (in light of your PC setup) to render out various passes: alpha, Z depth- and compile the final image in Photoshop- that way you`ll have all kinds of control, without having to sit through test renders over and over.

[ysalex]

Thanks toilet_bear and Torch.

Thanks Konstruct. I will try to get a nicer render done eventuall. I did attempt to do separate render passes, but my (way, way underpowered 5 year old) machine chokes.

I figured I had two options:

1 - use low-res geo with displacement maps.
2 - render the high-poly straight using mental ray proxy objects.

The problem with 1 is that it's still rendering lightmasses and geo, so the machine chokes. Mental ray is also notoriously bad with displacement maps.

The problem with 2 is that it has to load all of those models to memory before it do its computations. After spending an entire day optimizing my scene, trying to lower texture resolution and poly count, learning about BSP/large BSP/BSP2 systems, and pulling my hair out, I finally started getting renders. The problem was that I had to lower the memory intensive stuff so low to do it (less polygons, smaller textures, no photometric lighting, crappy final gather etc.) that the renders looked awful.

So I rendered these images out without diffuse, used the high-poly proxies so at least that looked good, did a seperate AMB OCC pass and comped it in photoshop, AND then I ordered a couple more gigs of ram (from 2.5 to 5.5) and a much faster video card. Thankfully when I built the computer it had a nice quad core on it, and I'm running 64bit windows 7 so I can actually use the extra ram. Still, at some point soon I'm going to have to get a new box.

[ysalex]

Now I get to take a break for this one for awhile.

Here's what I was able to do with the extra ram -- finally, diffuse renders. They aren't great, but I am 'alright' with leaving the project here, until I come back to make him low-poly, and do proper textures.

Thanks everyone who helped, I'll update when I do more work on him. Also, I apologize to everyone who feels I butchered a school-kid hero -- just my take on a modern Kaneda, nothing else.

http://i.imgur.com/UU7Qt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Bvg5A.jpg

[Jackablade]

Give that man some chroma.

I think he's pulled together pretty well now. I wasn't sure about your direction for a while but seeing him there with the basic colours, he does look the part. I still think, when you get back to this guy, that it'd be nice to give a bit of a nod to the original haircut, even if you update it to something a bit more modern.

[Fomori]

Renders are looking a bit fuzzy? Don't know if it's from the noise (which I think is fine) but it should be sharper.