Wow Fan Art For Lunch!
interpolator
LATEST:
video turntable: https://vimeo.com/61412746#
So I’m a real big fan of FirstKeeper’s “Windrunner” http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76301
I have been wanting to make a wow character like this for some time now. My plan is to use the same texture types as FirstKeeper’s to achieve a similar look. So Diffuse and Specular only, NO normal maps.
Here is the concept I am using found on google image search:
And here are the small modifications I made to it for my purposes:
My workflow however is most likely different from FirstKeeper’s in that I want to create a high poly even though it won’t be used for normal map baking. I’ll probably use it for some simple lighting baking, but the main goal with the high poly is to really nail the proportions.
The proportions don’t have to necessarily be the same as the concept, I just want it to look really cool in the end.
I’ve been making this during lunch at work and here is where I am so far…
I made a base mesh and have done some rough sculpting on it refining forms and such. Not looking to make a master piece as the high poly won’t really be used far beyond building the low poly.
video turntable: https://vimeo.com/61412746#
So I’m a real big fan of FirstKeeper’s “Windrunner” http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76301
I have been wanting to make a wow character like this for some time now. My plan is to use the same texture types as FirstKeeper’s to achieve a similar look. So Diffuse and Specular only, NO normal maps.
Here is the concept I am using found on google image search:
And here are the small modifications I made to it for my purposes:
My workflow however is most likely different from FirstKeeper’s in that I want to create a high poly even though it won’t be used for normal map baking. I’ll probably use it for some simple lighting baking, but the main goal with the high poly is to really nail the proportions.
The proportions don’t have to necessarily be the same as the concept, I just want it to look really cool in the end.
I’ve been making this during lunch at work and here is where I am so far…
I made a base mesh and have done some rough sculpting on it refining forms and such. Not looking to make a master piece as the high poly won’t really be used far beyond building the low poly.
Replies
I wasn't 100 percent sure what you were talking about with the shoulder area, but I refined the proportions some more and added more details for the hell of it.
I think those first sets of images were with perspective off, so that probably wasn't helping much with judging proportions.
Unless anyone has any major issues they notice, I think I'll move on to the low poly.
As you can see, she sits just under 7,000 tri's. I'm planning on adding alpha planes for hair and I figure that gives me 1,000 tri's of wiggle room. (8,000 tri's would be acceptable for a character like this I think.)
I don't have a ton of experience with making the alpha hairs so if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. Also, I left some empty space in the uv's for the painted hair, but now that I look at it, I'm wondering if its enough space at 1k resolution.
Not a big deal if I have to change the uv's at any point here, I can always use that texture transfer trick in max since I'm not using a normal map.
Oh yea, and I made a basic ao bake off that high poly which you can see here. It will only serve as a guide for general lighting as I will be painting over everything.
I noticed you baked in the chain but not other details like the scales.
Seems kind of strange.
Keep it up.
The main purpose of the highpoly was for me to figure out the proportions. The proportions are still not set in stone yet, but I think they are close enough that if I make small changes from here, it won't totally stretch out the texture and make it look terrible. I do in fact intend on modifying the lowpoly a bit more still once I get some paint on there, and tweaking stuff as I progress.
So to answer your question, I didn't bake other details like the scales because I didn't bother making those in the high poly. They should be simple enough to just paint, the chains however can be a little more tricky so its nice to have a good starting place with those (baking that in initially). Thanks for the feedback.
Btw, 100% self illuminated here.
also, you need to alter the angle of the jaw line, rotate it up toward the ear to soften the face a little, it's really square right now.
Here's a small update. I adjusted the proportions of the head quite a bit and widened the hips just a tad. I think its definitely a step in the right direction but not totally satisfied with it just yet. I'll get some more painting in first though before I mess with proportions any more. As you will notice I also started the lp hair.
Btw, the hair solution I'm going with is Bogdanbl4 solution with his Barbarian female. (I'm sure you have all seen it in the polycount showcase). I think that would be a perfect look for this and since he was so kind as to share his construction sheets with the model I'm confident I can pull it off.
Nice to see some crazy looking awesome aweosome from you
just wanted to drop by and say that
Man, its been a long time, thanks for the kind words and watching as always!
Sorry not too much of an update here, just didn't want to let this go without updates for too long. Every time I start to get into this during lunch before I know it, its over!
Here is where I am currently, and def. not nearly done with anything yet. I'm planning on roughing this all in, then adding more subtle details, unifying lighting more, adding subtle color (especially to the skin tones) and basic specular highlights to describe the materials better.
My current workflow is just screen capturing in mudbox, painting in photoshop, and project back, then erasing projection errors and clean up with painting in mudbox and repeat.
The leather scaly thing in front of her robe is reading really bad currently, I'll work on that some more when I rough the rest of this in. I have to rough in the side dress bits, the gauntlets and the shoulder pads yet.
Got the main texturing done. Its not finished by any means but its ready for a final pass.
Worked on the hair a lot recently, and I am starting to make the sword now.
Here is the swords texture...
My co-worker who is an animator said he will help me make some nice idol animations so I can make a turn table. So still not finished yet! I'll probably make a pedestal as well.
Looks like the spec she has is handling more than I though, so I should dial down the painted in spec in the diffuse.
Also she has a black outline on the silhouette in her render, She unified the texture with that effect by adding black lines in the diffuse. So I'm going to go ahead and give this a try.
So let me know what you guys think about this vs. the other direction...
Feel like the eyes could definitely use heavier upper eyeshadows / eyeline.
But overall, I like it! Wish I was just as good.
I agree about the eyes as well, and I'll def. give it another pass.
Thanks for the kind words and great advice!
If I had to crit anything I would have to bring up the lack of long crazy eyebrows and that the hair could use some more variation, some low-lights and highlights painted into the diffuse would help it along I think. Right now its coming off a bit too yellow like straw and probably needs to be closer to "straw-berry blond" to fit into the whole blood elf color scheme of red AND yellow.
crappy quickie paint over
TLDR:
- Put some more berry in strawberry blonde.
- Add crazy long eyebrows.
Yea, I'll def. play with the hair color, I've been looking at this so long now I totally didn't notice the hair being so off. Probably won't make the eye brows though sorry. lol. I think it looks way too weird. haha.
"any self respecting blood elf wouldn't let a fire hazard like that get so long"
"sadly she lost those in a training accident..."
"she was a spy that infiltrated the highest level of human society and assassinated the archbishop of Yourshire" "What? You never heard of either? She's that good... wiped him and the town clean off the servers"
Vig: Seriously made me lol. Good ones, haha!
Here are the textures re-worked again, lighting changed a bit, and a base for her to stand on. Going to have her holding a fireball most likely when I get her posed and do the final renders.
Might push the hair color more red, and do some other minor tweaking still.
Here are the results:
video turntable: https://vimeo.com/61412746#
However, if you checkout the video turntable in hd you can see exactly what it looks like on the model as it is pretty much impossible for me to photoshop the 1,000+ images used to make that video. So what you see in that video is 100% what the model looks like real time (minus the fireball effect I rendered)
The diffuse texture looks nice with a painterly style to it - much like in the original reference picture, good job on that!
You've obviously put much time into this and it's time to present the work in the best possible light. I think that for presentation the character's posture could be tweaked still a little more to make her seem more powerful and in control of the situation. Her torso has a nice twist but I feel her feet position is a little dull. To make her posture more dynamic and in tune with the less static upper body, I'd suggest moving her left foot a bit further away from the other. I hope you don't mind that I made a quick overpaint to demonstrate what I mean.
I think it would also make the character more in control of the platform space. Also, I think the cracks in the ground texture could be a bit more subtle because it looks like her feet are standing on a flat surface. I think them being more subtle would also push more attention to the character instead of strong and busy contrast values in the platform.
Ps. also, have you considered of adding some Blood Elven patterns running along the platform side? Just an idea!
Keep up the good work, I like her armor and clothing very much!
I was also afraid the base was too busy and might draw from the character, so maybe it wasn't the best choice. And I especially like your idea of the patterns along the side!
But I'll probably just take that advice future projects and move on to something else. The rendering for this took a really long time, I spent a whole day rendering shit for that turn table for example. Its been a really good learning process for me since I have never even used after effects before, and a lot of the stuff I did with presentation here is also new to me. I used fume fx for the fireball too, which was a first for me also. It's been a lot of fun, but happy to call this one done now.