Oct '16

Hi Cubebrush! This topic is for my personal game character 'Ninrod', I
will be posting WIPs and I hope you can help me with feedback.

The concept (paintover):
Imgur

Where the high poly sculpt is at:
Imgur

Feedback on female proportions and anatomy is highly appreciated! Next up will be the retopo...
Thanks for taking a look ^^

~Enalya

malcomModerator
Oct '16

hey there always cool to see 3d artist. it's always a reminder to practice it myself.
Now time for some c&c
So lets start off on a good note. The anatomy is good. I don't see any real problems in that regard.
Design wise if where I believe it can use some work. To me she looks to be some kind of warrior sea mermaid of some sort so we can try to push that some more. To make her seem more aggressive we can give her some shark inspired armor. Sharper claws on hands and feet. Another thing that can be added are gills. They can be located in either her neck or head or stomach area. She needs to be able to breath underwater. Another thing that can be added are some scales to the legs and arms to give her more of the aquatic look.
Other things would be to diversify the colors but you can do that when you texture her. Hope I wasn't to harsh or anything.
Keep up the good work. Look forward to future updates.

Oct '16

Hey Malcom, thank you so much for taking the time! Not at all, I really appreciate the feedback!

I agree on most things - I will definitely use more interesting colours and do another paintover before texturing. You're right, the gills are there in her neck but I'll make them more apparent and maybe add them on the belly. I indeed planned to add scales at certain places. Lastly, I'm not sure about adding armor but I'll think about it!

Thanks again and I'll keep this thread updated :smile: Still waiting for some feedback from other places.

malcomModerator
Oct '16

No problem. Armor isn't needed but can be cool. Not all warriors need armor but I just thought it would be cool. Maybe tribal tattoos can work as well.

As I said I look forward to more updates. :smile:

28 days later

Nov '16

UPDATE
So the last month I have been receiving critique from all over the web, even an hour long live stream crit session of the legendary HazardousArts :open_mouth:
I have done my best to listen to them all and worked on her during streams, so here is where her high poly sculpt is at:
Imgur

It's time for the retopo. I've been asked to also live stream that painful process, so I will ^^" If you're interested: Enalya Twitch

Hope you like her! :smile:

Nov '16

Wow this is looking great! seems really interesting as well. Only thing that stands out are the eyes, which I can't quite figure out what is going on.

The material around her breasts and her forearm doesn't really make sense either. Is that some form of fur or cloth? You did an amazing job with the hair on her head, maybe you could define those things a little bit better too? It'd make it more appealing to look at! :smile: Great job so far regardless!

Nov '16

Great work with the 3d model.

I think you can find some really solid references with Zelda's Zora concepts, can help you to take your design further.

Here some good references:

Nov '16

Reply to

achronic

Hi @achronic, thank you very much for your suggestions! The eyes will be modeled and textured, of course, so it will look a lot different. She will be made game-ready, I forgot to mention.
The material you are asking about is supposed to be fin-like material, since she is a sea humanoid. Hm yes, I agree it's too undefined. I plan to define this better after the retopo phase with a normal map and with texture. Thank you :smile:

Nov '16

Reply to

Iago_Cavalcante

Thank you @Iago_Cavalcante for your many Zora references!
I won't be taking the design any further though, that phase is already over after many adjustments and feedback I received. I also want to avoid her looking more and more like Zora, because she's already compared to them all the time :smile:

I will do paintovers for more interesting colours and textures though, and she carries a nice staff.

12 days later

Dec '16

UPDATE
Topology fully completed! After some feedback I upped the polycount to make her a current generation game char :smile:

Next step is UV unwrapping.

Dec '16

Nice! Now for the UVs, the best part

Dec '16

Hah that was sarcastic, right? :v

Dec '16

@schmigel Thank you :smile:

UVs are done! A screenshot of the process in 3D-Coat:

I finished them up in 3dsMax.

Then I did a Normal Map bake with xNormal and fixes + detail defining in 3D-Coat again. This is the result so far in Marmoset Toolbag3:

I am quite happy with how things are going; faster than I thought! Next step will be texturing.

11 days later

Dec '16

UPDATE
Still some tiny Normal Map issues, but I'm quite pleased about the bake, detail refinement and scales :smile:

Imgur
Dec '16

UPDATE
Now that her Normals are completely done, I did paintovers for
colour exploration and received feedback. This will be her final
colours :smile: I'm very excited to make this happen!

Imgur

13 days later

Jan '17

She looks great! I love the colours you chose, really digging the toxic purple :heart_eyes:

Jan '17
1

@JennifElizab Happy to hear that, thanks (:

UPDATE
Almost everything is done, I'm quite proud! I might add a Flow Map to the hair, but then I will rig/pose her in a simple environment :smile: Here's a close-up shot: