Tyranid Ripper Model
I started this model alittle while back but I finally have time to pick it up again so I thought I would start posting my progress. Based on the awesome concept by Ted Beargeon
Head that I started awhile back:
Progress on the body
Head that I started awhile back:
Progress on the body
Replies
Some work on the tail. Whew it was tedious making all the scales and positioning all the spikes.
Here is small update. I made some legs and did a detail pass over the body. The first leg is just duplicated and rotated for the other ones. I am going to make them alittle different from each other in the end.
And NEVER be discouraged by ones awesome work, only inspired!
wretchedgoat: Thanks for the good feedback. Very good observation. The image helped. I am going to work on that now.
darbeenbo: Whew.... the scales were kinda tedious. As you can see the scales sorta fuse into the body so I couldn't keep them separate meshes. I did a few tests and I found a pretty good way. I made the underlying body with Dynamesh first. Then I sculpted one scale about 3/4ths of the way done and duplicated/positioned each of them. I changed their shape close to the concept as I went. When I was sure I couldn't do anymore I merged the scales one-by-one with into the Dynamesh body. I went back and added unique detail to each of them (the tedious part). I had to set the Dynamesh rez pretty high to get a nice edge and make sure they didn't weld to other scales. I think my 1st subD level is like 1.5 mill 0___0
seth.: Thanks man! No need to apologize. Everyone likes to hear that. I love your new work on the Quake remake BTW
And because the arms sorta get in the way a screen shot without the arms...
Proceed with this bugger, I want more
Here is some progress on the Polypaint. Some color really makes a difference.
Nice job on everything. Sorry to be 'that guy', but the only thing I would change is the plating on the head. I'd rather see five plates on the head (standard plate amount for almost all tyranids). And just an aesthetic thing, but it would look better in my opinion if the legs were different sizes
selaznog, that's interesting. What else are common characteristics like the 5 plates?
-5 head plates
-three oxygen holes (not sure if that's what they are, but there are 3 indents on each side) near the base of the tail
-5 basic body segments; head, ribcage, thorax (waist), hips, tail. The hips and ribcage are large while the thorax (where the abs would be) is generally smaller. Hips attach to tail.
-3 sets of limbs; arms, second set of arms, legs. All the arms are attached to the ribcage and the legs are attached to the hips.
There's a lot more, I just forget
Yep.
I am torn. I want to stay as close to the concept as possible but I also want to stick to the Tyranid paradigms.
wretchedgoat: Thanks for checking back man. Are you still working on your CronoTrigger Frog? I haven't seen an update in a while.
uncle: Ha! Thanks man. That cracked me up.
So I did a little paintover making the area where they connect to the body darker and adding some more purple to the legs.
My concern with this one is that it creates a big separation where the legs connect. I sorta like the way the other one more seamlessly transitions into the legs. What do you guys think?
Ha yeah, that frog, I've been using him to test various texturing methods. Will hopefully post something of him soon
Just in a different state...
Here is the low mesh with normals. It's about 15.5k tris. A little high... but sorta had to with all the spikes. I got a little clean up to do around the teeth but over-all it was a very clean bake. I was sorta surprised. I expected all those spikes and folds to wreck havoc. All those spikes took FOREVER to retopo too. I don't want to make another spikey thing for a while....
Here is the wires... It's not pretty. There is alot of triangulation from the spikes and such. I could have made some of the interior spikes just in the normal map maybe... but I didn't want a disconnect between the others? They all sort-of effect the silhouette so I wanted to model them in.
And here is some progress on the diffuse and spec. I had most of it done from the Polypaint. I just have some tweaks and texture overlays to add.
Electro: Thanks!
TeriyakiStyle: Thanks! Yea it needs something... I will try that.
Justin DeVore: Whoa look who stopped by. Thanks man. Yea moving really slowed this guy down. That last 10% is a killer.
Screwonhed: Ha! That made me "lol" in the middle of the night.
El Scorcho: You sir are too kind to speak to the likes of me. I need to work on the spec some for sure. I am not sure what else to do other than that... Come over and tell me if its done.
Blaisoid: Haha man! Complement of the highest order!
what did the basemesh look like for the head? Im curious how you handle such crazy forms to begin with in zbrush
was the low poly retopod?
I didn't use any basemesh for the head. I started out in Zbrush with Dino-mesh just pushing and pulling. To make the cutouts in the jaw I inserted a squished cylinder with the subtraction boolean. That was the easy part. Getting in there and sculpting was another story. I made rough Polygroup selection sets to hide parts but it was still difficult to get in there and sculpt.
The low poly was completely retopoed from scratch since I didn't have any basemeshes. The only basemesh that I used was a temp one for the scales as seen in the last image. I didn't use it in the retopo tho.
Ok. I am pretty sure I am done. It doesn't look like much changed but I added alot more spec and alittle red as TeriyakiStyle suggested. Here are some big images for yinz.
And my flats
I can definitely relate to the "the spikes took forever to retopo" comment. My beholder has a lot less of them and it took me ages. And they sure add to the poly count.
Can you please post some bigger shots so we can see all the details? Maybe some close-ups too.