NECRO'D!


Current Progress





So i signed up for the Game Characters with ZBrush class over at cgsociety, taught by Jon Rush. The assignment for the class is to take a retro game character and bring that character to the current gen. I picked Frog because he's a cool character and i wanted to do something that hasn't already been done like Mario or Samus.

The first one is a shot of Frog from the animated cutscenes and second is just the concept and his block in.

Cool.

Looks like a good start so far. Looks like your concept is a little off from the screenshot of him. You may be changing it up a bit on purpose, but if you aren't there are some noticeable differences in clothing, and you made him a little too chesty/buff.

Your Zbrush grab looks pretty spot on to the concept. Your feet seem a little small (not sure if its from the Zbrush perspective) and your hands are definitely too small. Your fingers are the size of one finger joint in the concept.

thanks gsokol

Yeah, i wanted to update the original and kind of put my own spin on him. So the proportions being off is on purpose Giving him a little more attitude and such.

a little update of what i did today, worked on the proportions more and fixed up the arms. and now with whiskers!

Hey!
I dig the whiskers, but it gives a sort of cat-fish style feel to it (in my opinion). Even though the original ref has whiskers, I would still tone them down a bit.
I would also like to see some leather straps holding onto the armor at some point.
I love the form and how it's all coming together though.
Now get back to work!
:p

Gotta say, I love the form and the face. He looks like he has a lot of personality!

And Andrew just said almost exactly what I was going to say; tone down the whiskers just a bit. Maybe make them less wide and a little longer. At the moment they seem to stick out a bit too much and almost read as weird extensions of skin rather than whiskers.

Other than than, awesome work so far! Keep at it!

a little update, doodling armor and tried getting some glove action going, was thinking of making the gloves somewhat plated, not a full-on gauntlet. Or should i try for the full armored gauntlet?

I've been learning 3ds max along the way so that's why there is a lack of updating. Armor shall be coming soon.

mackie - yeah, straps will be coming once i get the armor set. I really want to make him look more like a traveler but still battle ready, which means more leather than metal. That scene of your's is coming along man. I'll talk to you soon about it

uneditablepoly - Thanks! and yes, the whiskers bother me as well. the original character has them, but wondering if i might just cut them out all together. I'll play with the size a little more

YAY Update!

Been trying to keep on track, lost some time for the holiday. But here's where I'm at as of right now.

Here's a block in of the armor, most is just place holders. Not too sure how to tackle the traveler's cloak he's wearing.


Update of head sculpt. Getting to the point of adding in all the fine detail and such


The position of the head is the dilemma I'm at right now. The top set is how it's been.

hahah, Frog has been hitting the weight room! Looking good so far man. Not sure which head position I like better. The raised one looks better from the front, the lowered one looks better from the side. Maybe a position between the two? That's a tough call.

Nice, I also had somewhat of a same idea for a character but ended up with something else.
I'm loving the concept and wat you have so far The neck area seems a little too tight for me, unable to move his neck around as much. It does look better with him facing straight on ^^

nerf - yeah, I wanted to switch him up. Either short and squat or more human like but with really long legs like if you stood a frog up on its hind legs. and with the head, that's what i was kind of thinking, so i lowered it a little, but not too much.

Jungsik - thanks the neck area is what i've been struggling with for this whole project. I really wanted to keep the arc from his shoulder pads over his head, so i kept it low. Because otherwise i would have to make the shoulder pads huge to compensate, and it looked really off.

So here's some more updates, started on the boots and pants, and been trying to get some detail going.




was just trying to figure out how i was going to do the detail


second attempt, turned out way too geometric and gridded out


so i'm going to try a combination of the 2 detail pics, the random warts with the nice stress lines between them.

shield wip, still can't figure out what to put in the middle >_<

Originally Posted by wretchedgoat

shield wip, still can't figure out what to put in the middle >_<

a fly.
or a crown.

nice progress so far

nerf - yeah i agree, it's not chaotic enough to look natural, it's what i'm working on now.

divi - fly is a solid candidate, and i like the crown. Also in the animated cutscenes for the game, there is a flag with a dragon on it in the castle that frog walks out of. So might try all of those as well as this idea my teacher for the class, jon rush, drew up! which is crazy and i'll be trying it out. It's supposed to be a frog's mouth open with a giant spike coming out o_0

In the last detail pic I almost though he had armored sleeves on because the detailing is very uniform, it almost looks like a studded pattern.

Excellent work. I for one can't wait to see this when it's finished.

oh man, its certainly coming along now, keep up the good work! Definitely look forward to seeing this finished piece.

Is this your first time using Zbrush, or have you dabbled in it before the class that you're in now?

matt- Thanks man, appreciate it

UnstoppableTank- Thanks and no, this isn't my first time using zbrush, been using it for a few years now. Took the class to better my skills within the character pipeline.


update, here's that shield

Now that's a cool shield design! XD I really like that frog head you put in the middle, it's intriguing.

damn man! This is coming along great.
The texture work on the skin is coming along so well. I can't wait to see how the normal maps comes out, definitely post your workflow on that.
Shield is going great, I'd start thinking about texture for it as well. Is it going to be made of wood or metal or both?

yeah, keep it up! that frog skin is going to look cool when you're done

lol this is awesome. I love it. Will be keeping an eye on this one

Awesome stuff. Makes me wonder what a realistic version of Chrono Trigger would look like. (Well, as realistic as can be.)

jessica,nullfed,bigjohn - thanks!

mackie - yeah dude, ill see what i can do with the normal map process. The shield i think would be cool with the main portion being wood with a metal rim. But not sure. most likely will be all metal though... but if i go with wood i'm hitting alot of different materials with one character...hmm...

habboi - thanks! i know right? i wouldn't mind seeing a realistic Magus, who was my second choice for a character if i didn't go with Frog.




ok, so here's an armor update, played around with noise, fun stuff!




also throwing in the ugly attempt shot of the top of his cape. Going to be redoing this for sure. Anyone have a good way of making layered cloth like this? Im kind of going for how the capes looked in 300.




And here's an update on his gloves, found a good ref of some welding gloves