I’ve wanted to do a Lord of the Rings, meets Samurai, meets Final Fantasy style character for a while now. I have some free time so I said what the hell.
VERY ROUGH work in progress (most of it will change as I go):



I’m doing something new with this one. I've roughed out the body with basic shapes and am now finalizing and detailing (model, UV's and texture) as I work my way down. I’m on the head now. Once it’s done I’ll move to the torso and finalize it, then the arms, etc…



just started the skin. I like the face but I'm not sold on the colors of the head gear. Still trying to figure that part out



I don't really have a target polycount but it's sitting at 8,000 at the moment with a full body modeled under the clothes. I'll optimize out the unseen body parts as I work down the mesh but I’m not going to sweat the polycount much. I’m just going to have fun with it.

- BoBo

Looks good. Very clean and well built.
I don't think the helmet really fits in very well. It just doesn't feel like it comes from the same time period as everything else.
And the head looks a bit small. What does the figure look like without the helmet?

Top notch work as always Bobo, great model.

The helmet is looking very Gladiator (not as in ancient Rome...as in the foam padding and spandex sport), dunno if thats a good thing or not, just seems a tad bland I guess.

Top notch. The head piece does look like wrestling gear though. Maybe less padding, not so thick, would help get away from that. And his face looks a bit flat from the side.

But overall it looks awesome. Can't wait to see what direction you're going in with the armor, and what all those planes are for on his "skirt".

Man this is awesome. 8000 polys is nice too. I'd prefer a larger sword but that's just me. No complaints here, can't wait for the finished version. Perhaps you could release an SDK?

VERY bloody nice man! I dunno, I kinda like the helmet.

jesus, very cool.
Really like the mesh, the face texture is just awesome. Im really jelous [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
I still want a video tutorial!!

The main crit is the helmet. It just dont fit if you ask me. But we will see how it will look like textured. The polycount seems to be high for me some wasted areas maybe, but as you said, you dont care. Art is still art [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Can we see the yummi flats? and do you use a 1024 texture? would be a waste not to do so.

I agree with the people saying the helmet looks out of place.
I think the problem with it is it looks too "chunky", like it's been made out of a big piece of polystyrene - if you're considering the fact it's a mix of LotR/Samurai then I would think a little harder about what material the helmet is actually constructed from... I don't think they would have been able to construct a helmet so ... umm.. "one-piece" and solid, form-fitting the head. IMHO that's why this part looks out of place.

On the whole the model is looking excellent though. I love the design and idea behind it, and the face texture is superb. Love the sword.

I find his lack of knees disturbing.

(Oh and FFS give him a better name than just your own spelled backwards! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] )

Yeah that is awesome, but yeah... the helmet. If I were you, and from seeing most of your stuff I wish I was.. I'd make his helmet some crazy Tetsuya Nomura-style Final Fantasy helmet. Or no helmet at all... Why not make two versions?

Looking ace man. I am really digging the hair, and I can't wait to see that done. The face is really nice, seems like a bit of asian blood mixed in his ethnicity, but I'm liking the blue eyes. Did you make a concept? I would be interested to know how you are approaching the design aspect, whether its designed as you go, or if its got an overarching scheme.

Boots are looking really nice, and you are giving him all those dag on packs you always like. Why don't you wear those in real life? At least a fanny back or two strapped on like gun belts. Hahahaha. 8-)

That texture is looking great. Like poop said it's got a real asian feel to it. I think the character as a whole is great. I can see what Mop and others are saying about the hemet though. I think with just seeing the headshot I'd think it was a boxer of some sort. But in the context of the whole character I think it'll work rather well when finished. Oh and I second Brome's request for an SDK also.

AHAH rocking I like it!

The small ish head, is giving a bobo feel to the model hehe

I hope this model will inspired people to get out of the Unreal ish model ( dude with uge high tech armor and chick with insane boots)

nice!, Glad to see u pimping stuff again, Did u start the new gig yet?

I have to pimp so stuff to now hey !!

b1ll

Holy :O
Man that rox [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Are the planes for the hair going to share the same UV space, or will they mapped individually?

Thanks guys!
I put in a little more time on his head tonight. Should be able to finish his head tomorrow and move on to the torso. I’m thinking about holding off on the hair for a bit as there might be more alpha areas on the body that I will need to allocate to the hair texture map (trying to limit the 32 bit texture map needed for alpha to one 512x512).



Now to answer some questions:
Heh, yes the headgear was based off of sparring headgear. Most of the armor will be leather. I want to keep him pretty light armored and agile.

I’m going to break him up into 512 x512 chunks

I’m afraid I can’t guarantee a SDK as I have a plan for him. If the plan falls through then yes by all means I will release him to the public.

I’m doing this one quite differently than I normally do. I’m designing as I go. I normally like to at least rough out a concept but I just felt like “freeforming” it this time.

Yes I must start wearing pouches and packs they are the coolest accessory you can add to a character. Why wouldn’t they work in real life? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I start at Iron Lore in February. I’m going to spend all of January on personal art. I can’t wait!

I’m still working on the hair. I will probably mirror some of the UV’s to save on texture space.

thanks again guys! I’m having a lot of fun with this one.

- BoBo

Very cool, a few things i think would help the head would be changing the ear mettal to something rusted or redish brown. The feal of the current skin is dirsty and so a shiny mettal next to it just feels wrong IMO. That and also a bounce of the material surrounding his face onto his skin along with a shadow.

Looking nice ... 1 question , when you lay out your polys for the hair , do you edit verts? then uv map or the other way round? i just cant get to grips with hair...

Damn BoBo, you've made a lot of progress since ya showed it to me last week. Looks great so far. I agree with Soul, that the helemt seems a bit mis-placed right now, but I'm sure it'll tie together flawlessly when it's complete.

Holy shit, Bobo; your work never ceases to amaze me. Awesome model, kinda like the skin so far. I've always wanted to be like you. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Wicked.
I love that face mesh, and the texture is gorgeous as always. You da maaaaaan.

Aaaaah there we go. Likin the helmet a lot more now. The stitching of it all is my favourite. The only thing bothering me is how it seems the helmet is just floating around his head, not actually resting on it... which could be the result of lack of shadows which I'm sure will either a.) be added later or b.) relied on by the engine/renders.

Good job bobo, as always.

Christ almighty, thats some nice texturing. Very natural looking, lovin' it.