Tara Multon - Los Perdidos B-Girl, all that spunk, funk, and jazz
high dynamic range
Hey Polycount:
In an effort to fill a gaping lack of any realistic characters in my portfolio, I'm making a realistic (think CoD, Uncharted, etc) character asset this time around.
Tara Multon is B-Girl (Breakdancing Artist) from Los Perdidos. Lots of inspiration is being lifted from "Urbance" both in terms of fashion and strong blocks of color. I want to keep this simple so I can give myself the time to concentrate on good sculpting, realism, and texture work. It's not the sexiest thing next to a multi-plated armored knight, but hopefully you guys like it.
GOALS:
I take inspiration from Yuri Alexander specifically in terms of his forays into his pieces like "Space Dive." As much as I like awesome ninjas and evolving predators, I eventually would like to specialize in human character with a fashion/costume design focus.
Style Board and Rough Concept (just to lay down what pieces of clothing I am making)
CURRENT WIP:
Draft beauty shot
[IMG][/img]
In an effort to fill a gaping lack of any realistic characters in my portfolio, I'm making a realistic (think CoD, Uncharted, etc) character asset this time around.
Tara Multon is B-Girl (Breakdancing Artist) from Los Perdidos. Lots of inspiration is being lifted from "Urbance" both in terms of fashion and strong blocks of color. I want to keep this simple so I can give myself the time to concentrate on good sculpting, realism, and texture work. It's not the sexiest thing next to a multi-plated armored knight, but hopefully you guys like it.
GOALS:
- Reasonably create a realistic human character
- Maintain/assert a strong aesthetic style (In this case, taking a lot of inspiration from Urbance and urban clothing lines/fashion
- Prove proficiency in creating complex and simple clothing assets.
- Complete this all before GDC
- Get this as "Next-Gen" looking as possible. Realistic texture work, etc Whether or not that actually involves Physically-based Rendering, I do not know. I'm still on Marmoset 1.
- Learn and use 3ds Max and Substance Designer.
I take inspiration from Yuri Alexander specifically in terms of his forays into his pieces like "Space Dive." As much as I like awesome ninjas and evolving predators, I eventually would like to specialize in human character with a fashion/costume design focus.
Style Board and Rough Concept (just to lay down what pieces of clothing I am making)
CURRENT WIP:
Draft beauty shot
[IMG][/img]
Replies
My naked sculpt right now.
Of course, there's a big personal issue of whether I should spend the time to absolutely nail down the anatomy to absolute perfection, and my artistic side definitely wants to. Time, though, may force me to back out of certain areas sooner than I want. But I definitely want to get down to details, such as pores, etc.
Tha being said, I know there are anatomy issues, and would love to hear your guys' critiques. Hopefully she looks African (American) phenotypically.
I've been trying to find clean, A-post orthographic nude female models online that are free, but most of these seem hidden behing a pay wall. Does anyone know of a place where they can get decent/good A-posed nude female models?
Can anyone help me with the arms? I can't tell what I am missing for a muscled arm.
Concentrating on the head at the moment.
So I'm starting to hit an artistic wall again, and I believe it has mostly to do with strategies and techniques on dealing with low-level details of the face like creases, crows feet, moles, etc.
From what you guys can observe, does anyone have any suggestions, tutorials that I should reference, for this stage of face detailing?
I have a feeling there are rules of thumbs regarding the density of pores in certain areas, or where certain folds are usually created.
You have a lot of similar structural issues in the arms and back as well. The scapula/deltoid/pectoralis major connection to the humerus doesn't make much sense to me either.
I think a lot of the anatomy is being fudged a little bit, but if you are trying to do something realistic you really have to pay attention to the tiniest of details. I think a good place to start is place all your land marks so you can begin to better shape the muscles around it. There is no reason not to have clavicles and the ribcage line in there at this point because they will help you with the structure of the anatomy in those areas better.
There is some good info here for reference http://www.pinterest.com/cocoacanoe/anatomy-for-artists-female/
Sorry I sound kind of vague, its hard to describe anatomy via text, but I hope that helps a little bit. Maybe some kick ass character guy can do a paint over for you or something to help.
Good luck!
If anyone has critiques, I would definitely be open to hearing them
What I see is that the calfs have too much volume, in the profile figure you can see it better. I'll smooth it out and make the transition less noticeable. Also make the division between the two muscles so It'll look more natural
Just my 2 cents! Keep up the good work!
Looking through Google, but if anyone else has suggestions, I would definitely be open to hearing ya'll out!
Are you using a lot of reference? Best thing I would advise is to go back and fix the anatomy, get it really solid before adding any clothing as it well help out a lot in the long run.
I will go back and use the Move Tool and Scaling to shrink and adjust stuff, I just hope I don't run into, I guess, "artistic decision" as the reason why things are off.
Yeah the face feels off, but don't Africa phenotypes have big lips?
Widened her torso and hips.
Scaled down her shoes.
Continued work on her face, mostly more distributed skin pores and slight moles. Additional skin creases were added. Attempted to play with the lip sizes (is it still to big?). I will try to touch the nose later. Actually, I will do face passes later, do a cople variations, see if I like a different style. It probably has to do with the nose, a t least in my opinion.
Continued sculpting the clothing, adding in seam details and tightening up folds so they don't look too lumpy in certain areas.
Thank God, Torch, VictorHrz, BARDLER, and and kosh_fotsirk I've been able to get this far.
Anyone have any critiques up to this point?
Don't be afraid to scrap bits that aren't working and jump back to level 1 to rework folds, etc, its important not to get too attached to first iterations. Looking forward to more updates, nice one
Hey Jade!
I'd recommend you to go back on some areas and try to rework on them.
The face looks really "harsh" not sure how to say it :S i think all in all it lacks some female features except for the obvious (boobs, etc.) lol.
maybe this here helps.
As for the folds. you have any refs? I also strongly recommend to use many refs as possible! i know it can be very frustrating to go back and forth but i hope i could help. I'm not really the person who'd post so much and giving some "tips" but those are just my 2 cents.
Nevertheless, keep it up! looking forward to see more stuff.
best regards,
Bao
I think the blobbiness is because I'm not using the Selyws Cloth Pinch brush a lot right now. Just give me a run, and I will be back with hopefully something that reads better.
Regarding the face . . . could I assert that I'm fine if it looks not aesthetically pleasing in a conventional sense? Or is it rough in the 'polish" sense?
i did a quick overpaint maybe that explains it better. Also I think the eyes were too wide opened .it didnt feel right.
I want to end the sculpting tonight or tomorrow. Right now, I'm hoping the clothing folds I have are in a better place, and that all I really need to do is tiny touch ups here and there, maybe add buttons to the jacket.
Anyone have any feedback before I do a final sculpt polish and detail pass and start polypainting?
Also her ankles look a little strange especially from the back view.
And for some reason it looks to me as if she has her shoes on the wrong feet
Her shoulders are really wide and made to look even bigger by the cloth billowing out on them, fairly sure the clothing would hug tighter to the body than that.
face seems very masculine to me. I'm not saying it's 'not cute enough' or something - but it does kinda feel like some of masculine traits were unintentional.
It might be a good idea to go back to the reference and compare all the lines and proportions again.
For retouching volumes now I advise you to go down in subdiv levels, It would be less painful and you'll control better the shapes as it looks that you reached a high divided mesh.
In the other hand maybe you could make some quick doodles/studies of female heads. That helps a lot.
Have fun!
Quick update:
More studies will come, definitely.
==Retopologization Question==
Do you guys know of a better, more efficient way of retopologizing between hanging pieces of clothing that are layered on each other right where the juncture where the two clothing meshes separate WHILE still maintaining some thickness?
I'm advising to rework it because for realism you need to be looking at games like Uncharted, Batman games, The order, etc. and be shooting for that level of quality. It wouldn't hurt to even just create a bust and get really solid facial anatomy down.
Again, awesome you're keeping it going. I find I struggle with producing high quality work as well, it's a never ending learning process - character art is hard as hell man!
hey Jade i did a paint over, hope it's a bit useful. I do think I might have made her look less African American though. I agree with Torch on that you should define your head shape more before jumping those subdivisions.
just some explanations on my notes;
- Her eyes i think could use more eyelid and be "softer" unless you want an aggressive character. women think soft and curvy
- Noses have a lot of variety so you can go with whatever you want. but i think the wings could be pushed out a bit further
anyway these are just suggestions
keep it up!
(i also realized that I took the wrong screenshot and this may not be the current one ._. my apologies...)
This was done using both Paula Patton as explicit reference and the 3Dmotive Demon Girl tutorial.
The eyes aren't correctly observed. The eyelid should be shaping around the eyeball and maintaining the same thickness. You currently have it too thick and extruding around the eye in an odd fashion. The crease above the eye is a fold not a line. If you don't have to fat of the eyebrow overlapping the eyelid it just won't look right.
Here is a quick paint over it's not perfect, but it should point you in the right direction. Also here is some ref to illustrate a few things:
Sorry for being harsh, and I hope this helps.
I don't know if it's not looking weird anymore to be sure, I've been staring at this for a long time and I know it's been like 3 passes already ><. Not to say more passes are not wanted, just worried you guys might be getting annoyed that I might not be "getting it."
Will see if I can get to them tonight.
@Stephen: Were there any specific take-aways that you found extremely important?
But here's what I have for the planas of the heads at the moment. Any proportional issues compared to the Paula Patton Reference?
Did I make huge mistake or is it safe to continue forward?
Redoing the hair. Going for thick cornrows, but sculpting a single cornrow first. Then going to dupe it in the LP across the head.
Are my base folds for the leather jacket making sense?
I think the ears seem a tad small and a bit too far back and the neck shape makes the head seem too small or it makes her look like she has a very muscular neck.
I think a few of the things that make it seem more masculine are the hard planes you have going on the face. The brow especially near the middle above the nose seems much sharper than you would see in a woman's face in a default and relaxed pose.
I feel like eyebrows tend to be relatively thin so I feel like that maybe something that would be better off adding later via texture painting. The nose itself seems a bit masculine as well, with its hard edges and seems a bit pointier and narrower than the reference TeriakiStyle posted.
Here is a little paintover gif explaining some of the stuff I mean.
Roughly sculpting out the folds on the jacket, but I still feel it's not reflecting actual leather jacket folds, but I can't spsiecifcally nail down what I'm missing, even reference. Can anyone with a better eye helpe me out with this?
Doing the pants as leggings, make it easier for myself to find reference.
I've been finding it hard to find something that explains the "anatomy" of face wrinkles and pores. At best, I've been using existing high-quality sculpts. I did finally find this website, so thank God I finally have some decent pore alphas and references. http://nioncapul.net/zbrush/skin.html
Does anyone know of anywhere that has a good explanation of the "Anatomy" of face wrinkles, pores and other details?
Definitely looking for critiques!
Also, in regards to the cornrows I'm planning to do. I know they're not doable with just planes, so just having a bunch of them weave in and out seems inefficient. I'm gonna try to make an actual repeatable mesh that I lay across her head, and then add in planes to represent the loose, fuzzy hair that naturally comes with that hair phenotype.
Sound like a decent plan?
Instead, maybe try to find a black woman with a smooth face free of age lines and wrinkles. It doesn't mean find a super model or something it just means yes there are black women out there whose faces don't look like they just came from doing hard work out of the field.
I'm going to want to use Nathalie Emmanuel, then. What key words am I supposed to be googling to find tutorials on doing potrait sculpts / drawings of other people's faces instead of just the "how to make a human face" tutorial?
Here's the face redone:
Look at your refs, but also look at character sculpts from other games to see how they do eyebrows and try to emulate that.
I don't want to be stuck in a perfectionist rut if all I need to do is take a direction and stick to it.
I'd step back from anything even close to pore level and look at the main features. I did a terrible paintover, not sure if it helps at all