April Challenge_Low Poly Character_Ben Hobden

# 1 15-04-2011 , 11:30 PM

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April Challenge_Low Poly Character_Ben Hobden

HI folks. Id like to partake here if that's ok?...

I've been zbrushing alot lately and would like to practice some more with it and the whole normal map generation and render in Maya process. Im not really going to do a redesign of the character I've chosen, so if that excludes me from the comp, thats ok. I just wouldnt mind the practice of character modelling and integrating Maya with Z, and this seems a good place to fit that in. Maybe, I could update some of his accessories or something if I have enough polys left over...

I figured Id make someone from Street Fighter 2, and as I was interested in sculpting some anatomy, I thought Id go for a mostly naked character and have gone with Sagat...so my emphasis here is to hopefully create a nice base mesh which I can focus on building some nice muscles on in ZBrush, and try and render the results back in Maya.

Following Dave's tips on face modelling posted elsewhere recently I made a start on the face over the last hour or so and this is where Im going to leave it for the night...

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# 2 16-04-2011 , 04:53 AM

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Street Fighter SWEET! Another Classic character in the competition! Good luck! user added image

~To create a new world through the imagination

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# 3 16-04-2011 , 07:58 AM

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Hope you found that use full Ben, I can do a rough face in about 1 and a half hours and Im slow. Then only thing to look out for is 6 edge poles on the mirrored edge this will cause spiking in zbrush...........dave

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# 4 16-04-2011 , 12:31 PM

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@cgwolfgang: it was a toss up between sagat, e honda, dhalsim and blanka. I was going to do blanka at first. Decision to go with sagat was pretty arbitrary, I just wanted a character I could kind of connect with, Street fighter is up among my most played games ever.

@dave. It was. About an hour so far, I did a couple of box modelling attempts back in jan,and though they worked, I found this way a little more natural. Closer to drawing....for me.

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# 5 16-04-2011 , 09:22 PM

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my favourite character in the game

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# 6 16-04-2011 , 10:40 PM

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my favourite character in the game

Originally Posted by murambi

Sagat?? To be? or just for his look/character? He was very tough. But you cant beat Ryu....

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# 7 17-04-2011 , 10:19 PM

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a few shots after some work today. The final body came out at under 4000 polys, so have plenty to play with for the eyepatch etc. Into Z now to see how the sculpting goes.

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# 8 17-04-2011 , 11:41 PM

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A pretty good start.

Couple of points,

Some of the proportions are off... The head is especially small, and his feet seem rather massive.

While the ZBrush sculpt you're using for reference is relatively good, though distorted horizontally, it's best to use actual photo reference; like the other references you have. Or you run the risk of unknowingly copying that artist's mistakes.

Anyway, this is a nice start... It will be cool to see how this looks once through ZB.

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# 9 18-04-2011 , 12:01 AM

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Hi Steve. I've been adjusting the proportions on and off all afternoon and evening. Theres so many pictures of Sagat about on the net, showing him in all different styles and from different time periods, so Ive been wondering how best to present him, whether I should try and make him realistic, proportionally, or slightly exagerate him. Ive seen some nice Zbrush bust sculpts of him that go for more of the realistic treatment, and then Ive seen some other good sculpts where his torso and tib cage in particular, are so exagerrated, you could fit his head about 6 times inside that area.

Remembering him from the original street fighter his 'thing', was his massive height, and I remember the victory screen with him, where he had his arms crossed and he laughed, and I remember a similar proportion about him, with his head seeming slightly smaller than it should be...perhaps this was a ploy the artists used to stress his height, giving him a smaller head as if to exaggerate that distance looking up at him. In the end I decided that a slight exageration of proportion would let me be a little more playful in the sculpt.

But I shall keep an eye in it. The feet weren't intentionally big though. I shall have a look at them.

P.s....what do you reckon about the topology of the face in the first post?

Last edited by ben hobden; 18-04-2011 at 12:04 AM.

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# 10 18-04-2011 , 11:29 PM

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Continued some more with the sculpting tonight. I tried to readjust the proportions on the head and feed. A little better perhaps...it's still pretty wonky over all I think, and it's not really saying, 'Sagat', to me...but I'm hopefully learning some more about muscles and their placement

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# 11 19-04-2011 , 08:58 AM

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Looking good Ben...good to see you back in action mate!

cheers bullet

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# 12 19-04-2011 , 06:02 PM

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Looking good Ben...good to see you back in action mate!

cheers bullet

Originally Posted by bullet1968

Ta man. Hope your'e good. Ive added the eyepatch and some shorts so its becoming a bit more recognisably sagat. Its just the pose is so lifeless and ...undynamic. Id like him to be more sleek and angular, where hes becoming quite round. Will see where it goes, been getting 'on it' recently so should make progress again before long.

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# 13 19-04-2011 , 11:00 PM

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Hey Ben,

Nice update. Some of the anatomy is off, but you already mentioned you thought it looked wonky, so no point in pointing that out.

I think a lot of the reason that he's not looking too Sagat at the moment, is the proportions, while almost correct for a man of this scale perhaps 5'10" - 6' but you need at least a seven footer! Try looking at basketball players for reference, look at what distinctive features are prominent in tall people, such as the almost inverted curve of the clavicle which you mostly see on the REALLY tall.

Here's a Sagat Spacemonkey over at PC did. https://www.polycount.com/forum/showp...&postcount=144

I know the proportions of his piece are contradictory to my previous crits, but I feel this is more the style you are going for.... and besides, if you ever looked at any of my sculpts, you'd know i'm an odd-ball when it comes to proportions.

As for the topology, it's not too bad at least for holding the basic shapes for sculpting, though I find having holes in the mesh when sculpting REALLY limits your freedom. In some cases that's a good thing, but for something like this where you're going to be constantly making changes Id fill the holes, then just retopo at the end, once you know what it is you've got. Plus that's pretty much the industry standard (next-Gen at least) for creating realtime characters.

Anyway, have fun!

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# 14 20-04-2011 , 12:39 AM

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Mayaniac: yes!! That is exactly what im after... Particularly like the angle of the chin on that links sagat, the more pointy chin, as opposed to the square jaw ive put on mine. And yes again. It is that sense of a giants height that I cant get in mine. The basketball player idea is good. Until now ive just been playing about with transpose to try adjust the pose and scale. I didnt want to do anything too drastic to avoid having to retopoligize but I may just throw that caution out the window.

I dont think ive seen any of your sculpts??

Another small issue for me is im maxing out a just under 4 million polys so am thinking about decimating down a little so I can subdivide again.

Im not sure what you mean about holes in my base mesh? Do you mean the eye and nostril?

Great link!

Ben.

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# 15 20-04-2011 , 05:03 AM

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You havent seen Steves sculpts!!!! Im going to fly over to the Motherland young ben and slap you!!! LOL

https://simplymaya.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34415

bullet1968

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