Beast WIP

[silver]

both of his rear legs looks wierd... way too fat, nothing like mucles

[DaanO]

Because it's step 1/4 big mistakes should be corrected right away. And i think the dog in the picture does look balanced. I think the main problem is that the dog now has a body and the legs look like they were put on later.

[capone_adam]

As I said stage 1 is just blocking out. I have just about finished stage 2 which is adding the detail...but even at this stage things are still mirrored and unattached. Still...I'm not a confident modeller so any tips reguarding my geometry/topology would be appreaciated.

Not sure if to either add some detail with a extra 1000-2000 so polys or just to use a high poly version I'm also working on as a normal map (I have had bad experiences with NM in the past). This model here has about 6100 tri.

[DaanO]

Just make a high and low poly version and use the highpoly one to render those normalmaps. Personally i like the beat, but i really don't like how those legs are attached. It lost everything organic about it and has the feeling of a robot. What i liked about the drawings was the combination of both.

[capone_adam]

Even in other forums people just don't understand the unattached thing...they will be attached soon and modelled INTO the center piece so it becomes organic like the concept. Them being unattached is just the way I like to work up the piece

[DaanO]

I don't mean unattached in a technical way, but i was talking more about the basic shape, those legs just don't look like they could carry all the weight or something. Well, i'll wait for the next wip's then

[capone_adam]

daan, I think I'm starting to see where you are coming from. I have attached legs, arms and head...seems wrong somehow, is this what you meant?

any crits anyone, this is stage 3 nearly done and now I'm onto fixing it all up. Optimizing etc

[von*ferret]

man normal map that shit. Get some awesome mapping of scratches and shit on the armor and really just deck it out so a simple diffuse map is all you need. Than you'd have a bad ass model.

[capone_adam]

I don't quite understand what you mean, I don't have much experience with NM and was going to 'bake' the high onto the low?...is that what you meant or is there another way?, thanks

[Zacker]

He just ment that there should be a lot of scratches and other details on the normal map, which would make it look great even with a weak diffuse map.

"baking" the high poly version onto the low poly is one way of doing it. Things like scratches as ferret mentioned are probably among the things you could just as easy just PS onto the normalmap.

[sensee]

For that model I strongly would recommend ZBrush. You can make a kickass highpoly model out of the lowpoly one and then make a normal map.

That would really be great and ZBrush isn't that hard to learn

[csharp]

DONT ADD THE LAMP DONT ADD THE LAMP!!

[capone_adam]

Yeah, the lamp officially died...R.I.P...

PS a normalmap????...I've been wishing for tht ability!, so you CAN make a normal map in the same way as a bump map? My painting is far better than my modeling.

Not touched Zbrush yet, its on my 'to do' list. Basically, I really need this modeled and textured next week so can't be spending too much time exploring new methods.

Anyway, I'm having to stop work on it for 2 days. So please continue crits, I'll pick em up on monday and tweak the model. Unwrap on tuesday...finished on thursday/friday...

Thanks for all support!

[Lee3dee]

hey capone_adam,

the model looks great! I agree with everyone that normal mapping your character would look kick ass! Looks like your using 3dsmax for modeling. If its version 7, the normal baking render is included.

Since, your already familiar with 3dsmax, i'd work on the model until ure happy with it, and then start cranking up the details. Add lots of new geometry where needed, make a really high detailed model.

Then follow this tutorial that got me learning normal mapping

http://www.cgchat.com/forum/showthread. ... tid=196134

[Skjalg]

it looks good, reminds me of those "lickers" in Quake 2...