So I'm going to be teaching myself how to model, rig, texture and animate (crudely) over the next several months. I figured I'd start with a character design. Right now I'm feeling hair style #2, though I like #1. The kid is supposed to be latino, and I'm trying to figure out a way to make that come across without getting stereotypical.



Any suggestions would be welcome!

Ok so I cracked open Blender, got my tools some what under my feet, and started extruding. Problem being I cal FEEL something is terribly wrong about how I'm approaching this.



Every time I find myself dissatisfied with the way some form or shape is coming together The solution, on the surface, seems to be "Add another edge loop" but I'm already not doing well with the limited number of loops I have, how will adding more fix whatever inherent problem exists here? Anyone with better trained eyes have any suggestions for me?

Also dont look at the butt... just dont. I am ashamed of that butt...

Block out your basic shape first. Extrude your arms and legs and head, give him some feet and hand shapes, then refine from there. You'll have a much easier time once you can clearly see how everything is supposed to fit together.

That's a good point. Should I focus on building up a human body shape first, and then modify that, or should I concentrate on building the model to account for the various shapes that build up the space suit? Like the connecting ring around the neck and the oxygen monitor on the chest.

build the whole body out of appropriately shaped boxes to give yourself an idea of forms and balance then use that as a reference to build the mesh around.

No matter what any tutorials you might find tell you, for the love of god don't build him in a rigid "arms at 90 degrees and locked knees" t-pose because they're impossible to rig properly.

Build him in a symmetrical pose that's approaching his natural standing state

/rant

@Jacknlade / Poopipe:
Thanks both of you, that was a great bit of advice. I was able to get up and running and instead of getting caught in an edge loop nightmare I got something started! Here's the current progress:



So I'm a bit nervous about making the jump from the neck to the head,I feel like I need maybe two more loops to make the neck work, but I'm already worried I'm bordering on too complex for what I have right now. Thoughts?

Also that ass is still really sorry. Better than yesterday, but still just terribly sad.

Are you plnning on taking this guy into a sculpting package? That'll have some impact on your next step? Regardless, I don't think your mesh density is too bad at the moment. You could push the shapes a bit more here and there.

Given the way your model is structured with the head inside the great big collar, you could easily do the head as a whole seperate mesh if it makes things easier.

@Jackablade:
No, no sculpting package for this. The visual style and how large the character will be on the screen wont really warrant it I don't think. At least not for first pass developer art.

So the feet and legs are about where I want them, the arms need work though, and the body still feels too thick for my liking. I need to press in on the lower spine a touch, pull the chest and shoulders back to give him a bit more curve. That might mean an adjustment to the legs to emphasize that too.

What would you suggest?

Also, a separate mesh for the head? I'm about to ask a serious noob question here but, isn't that cheating? I mean I know a lot of models were assembled that way back in the good old days, but is that still a thing? How does that affect rigging and animation?

It's still a good thing. It doesn't really effect lighting and animation at all -- and as far as I can tell from your concept, he's wearing a suit that covers him from the neck down, so his head isnt really attatched to it anyway!

Good progress so far. I love your 2d stuff, looking forward to seeing more updates.

@Joseph Silverman:
Hey thanks for the vote of confidence!

Here's the latest rev. I pushed some of the shapes a bit further, reoriented the elbows, added the collar lock, oxygen tanks, and a head. That head is just terrible though, I'm not sure my art style for faces really lends itself to dimension. I'm actually inclined to make the head a broad flat surface with a nose, then have my programmer swap textures on it to make him appear to change expression/talk. Hell those things might not be necessary at all based on what the game is supposed to be. So that head is likely coming off very soon.

He also needs something on his back pretty badly. I think I might try and make some sort of little rocket pack with a fish tail to tie the theme together.

Oh, I also figured out global versus local settings for translations way after I spent half the evening hand adjusting the rings on his ankles and wrists. That is like learning you can fly when you've been monkey rolling everywhere. Or maybe not, that metaphor is a little strained...

Popped his head clean off, just as promised. Discovered orienting the scale tool based on the normal position tonight. Big fan. I tried to figure out how to make a hose out of a cylinder. It would need to hang from one of the boxes at his waist, drape over his thigh, and extend up into his backpack. Doable, but once I realized the scale of that learning experience I wisely decided to leave that until tomorrow.



I'm definitively thinking I'm going to need to clip off the oxygen canisters and their brackets at some point here. They need to fit snugly with the helmet and I think it will be easier to build that, and then fit the canisters to however that ends up taking shape.

Feedback and suggestions especially welcome.