A little help with character design?

[Ryeko]

Nice neck, I'm not good at necks. His legs really need work. But it's still in the low poly-stage so I can't crit much.

 

[J-Dude]

Nice neck, I'm not good at necks. His legs really need work. But it's still in the low poly-stage so I can't crit much.

Thnx! I think things are improving quite nicely. I connected the legs (well "leg", because its symmetry'd) to the main body and tried to follow anatomy as best I could. Its still low poly there. Created a "glutias maximus" (if you haven't heard the phrase, take some gym class).

Something about the hip bothers me a little, but I can't put my finger on it. Afterward I added some small yet essential details to the legs (ie: kneecap, primitive muscle) and connected some more edges to work with. Legs are pretty easy imo.

The arms are still disconnected, but I'm prepping them for the delicate procedure. No work yet done on the arms themselves.

Defined the torso a bit more. Used a tool from the video tutorial called "use edge as hinge" to extrude the pecs. Didn't turn out too bad I don't think. Set up the main "cells" of the abdominal area. I've tried really hard to stay away from careless poly-wastage. I've really tried to make each vertex count for something. So far it looks like that is working.

Had to do a little work to move the pecs forward to match the ref and to become part of the soon-to-be arm connection.

I've stayed away from the head as of now. I'm mostly concentrating on the main body.

If anyone has any crits, I'd love and be honored to take them. I'm glad to say the mesh is at a perfect point for editing due to its full-form yet low-poly structure. Here are some screens!

 

[Almighty_Gir]

*sits down, depressed & defeated & begins to tear up*

Great...tutorials aren't there...obviously I'm a total F***-up at modelling...and now I'm supposed to make my whole face over...just perfect...this is a major blow in my self-esteem.

im quoting this post because its the most relevent of your recent posts...

in modeling, you'll find many, many, many times where you'll have to just stop, and restart from scratch. in many cases its the only way to improve, because you'll find newer, better ways of doing it.

as for your current model, all i can really say, is that your modeling a human. humans arent made up of horisontal and vertical lines. i dont want to see any in your mesh, there should be flowing curves all over the place.

 

[J-Dude]

humans arent made up of horisontal and vertical lines. i dont want to see any in your mesh, there should be flowing curves all over the place.

Could you perhaps post an image describing this? Because I can find several ways to interperate that statement. Also, are you commenting on my original, or the one I'm working on now?

 

[ShadyD]

Here is an image showing what gir means. Model is courtesy of Psyk0
http://www3.sympatico.ca/psykopat/

You can see how it all just flows in the shape of the muscles rather than just straight lines.

Now its up to you to figure out how to use this in your own work

 

[PiXel]

that points somehow my "flow" word out

 

[J-Dude]

Hmm... doesn't seem too far off from what I'm doing. Dunno, maybe I should look at one of those conceptual drawings of human muscle structure. Wouldn't hurt. Thnx for the tip

 

[J-Dude]

Hey, I attached the arms and improved a little upon the polyflow, just tweaking things here and there. I thought I'd take a break from the body and start working on the head, or more accurately, the face.

I've been following the poopinmymouth low-poly tutorials and I'm really surprised at how little time this has taken. The head is coming into detail far more quickly than the original. And I think the polyflow is much improved. I'm following the polyflow based on structure rather than by vertex-by-vertex. Therefore I'm making use of the connect tool and cutting edges with more accuracey. Its not gridlined anymore Not that I'm focusing on the face before detailing out the other planes of the head, so the rest is still low poly, but is easy to catch up on.

By following the plane of the face to the cheekbone, I have made certain the face is more rounded and not pointy. The nose has been tough, but I think I'm getting closer. The mouth is in the beginning stage of preparing for edge-loops.

Here's some screens:

Well, I'm enjoying the process, and I'm so far very satisfied with the overall shape, though of course more tweaking is required.

Go ahead and fire your crits at me! If you REALLY hate it and think I'm digressing into old habits, tell me what's wrong and what needs doing, because I've been making saves by increment, so I have back-ups of less developed versions I can return to if need be.

Please remember that though I am following your advice as best I can comprehend, that I'm am going by the rules of a tutorial (courtesy of poopinmymouth.com) and that their method might differ from your prescribed method.

 

[davidhalo]

yeh btw. maybe dont try to post parts wich are not connected to the body, >_< its just me i gues, i hate that because.

You need to follow Pix's advice here. What we don't wanna see is edges or verts hanging in mid air, everyline should be connected to something. Every line is like a river, it has to end up touching something and it has to flow.

"Water can flow..or water can crash" So far it's kinda crashing, but don't lose hope, you can only get better!

Advice, don't model on eyebrows and so on, that will only lead to problems later on. Just model a plane flat area using normal squares, the texture will take care of the rest.

 

[MF29]

The best Green Goblin iv'e seen.

 

[J-Dude]

You need to follow Pix's advice here. What we don't wanna see is edges or verts hanging in mid air, everyline should be connected to something. Every line is like a river, it has to end up touching something and it has to flow.

"Water can flow..or water can crash" So far it's kinda crashing, but don't lose hope, you can only get better!

Advice, don't model on eyebrows and so on, that will only lead to problems later on. Just model a plane flat area using normal squares, the texture will take care of the rest.

I am so far totally lost as to how this works. I just don't get it. I don't see where I would connect lines or what a flow should look like for my characters. Its hurting my head. Are the verts in a good postion, but the edges need to connect differently? If that's it, then I can just remove edges and re-cut them where it needs it.

I thought I WAS following Pixel's advice... He showed the muscle structure for the abdominals and I added that. Where my arms are now connected the pecs flow into the structure.

I cut the spot on the back of the calves where he suggested, and I don't know what the line on near the hip means...I have a feeling I'm completely missing your point, and I ask you to forgive me of that, as I'm a fast learner, but also I don't seem to realize meaning very well, so grasping this concept is tough.

:idea: or...do you mean that from the bottom, to the top, that the edges running vertically should extend all the way to the top in some form without sharp angles/dead-ends...?

I'm thinking his is what you mean, but it would also help if you could give me a small list of rules for character modelling, ie: the do's and don'ts. Thank you for the advice, I hope that is what you mean. Please tell me if it is

EDIT:

Oh, and about the eyebrows, I was just putting points there to suggest the eyebrow ridge itself, which is part of the head's shape. Notice I have an edge running along the bottom of the ridge, at the top of the "hairy" portion of the brow, to the top of the brow ridge. I thought it would come in handy for animation later, setting "control points" and also forming the shape of the ridge for accuracey. I can ge rid of it, but I thought it would set up groundwork for facial animation later on. Thankfully I've come to learn the "remove" function for vertices and edges which is quite useful in remedying mistakes, like an eraser on a pencil.

 

[ZeroNightmare]

hes got baby making hips.