low poly Sionnach (version 2)

[Doofus]

OK. So here is the new version concept.
This one will be much lower poly than the last attempt.
Didn't draw face, hands and feet cause frankly I can't draw 'em.
I know I should practice but yes. right. moving on...
Here she is.

We will see how I get on.
Wish me luck peeps

[DAKLOL]

looks like a great concept, kinda like a female robin hood. Clothing might be a little difficult but it would look great if you can do it. also, are you going to add details to the body? or just leave the cloths over it? you might even get away without adding a body, just have the neck extend down into the cloths and make shoulders. it depends on what you are going to do with her of course though.

[Doofus]

Initially I was going to have the clothing set up with the cloth simulator so they reacted to the body underneath, now she will be much more like an ingame type character. I was just going to model what you see with the neck going into the clothes and the same at the wrist. I am hoping to make up a lot more detailing with the normal mapping and keep her much lower poly like for example studs and buckles will be flat polys detailed in zbrush. But ultimately I still want to be able to do some morph targets for facial animation so the head will be slightly higher poly relative to the body but not as high as before. She will have to be much more stylised than before though. I want to try and get a distinctive 'look' that can be consistent through the characters that I need for this project. I think this will probably come through hand painting the texture maps instead of using photos like I usually do so there may be a fair bit of trial and error when I get to the texturing phase. My other biggest problem I find with low poly stuff is deciding exactly what to model and what not to. I tend to get more detailed as I go on so keeping her low will be a challenge. That is why I have set myself poly limits of 1,000 for the head and 1,000 for the body with one 512x512 map for each. OK. Enough rambling. I am off to start modelling.
I will post up my start later.

[Jelmer]

Nice, i like the concept, more appealing than the last one, at least to me.
The 1000 polygons is too low though, in my opinion, even next gen characters can have 10 times the resolution, i would also increase the texture size to maybe 1024x1024, which is 4 times as large of course, or just use 4 512x512 maps.. Even with normal mapping 1000 is not enough, things will start to look square and blocky, certainly in closeups.
For now you can try to keep it low, but along the way you should probably increase it, at least a few times.

[Doofus]

I think you are probably right Jelmer about the polycount being too low but I am not sure I will have that much choice if I am to stand a chance of creating this project in my lifetime. lol.
I certainly wouldn't be able to stretch to 10 times the poly count. 20,000 polys per character will become unrealistic for my pc to animate very quickly I think. I might have to double the limit but realistically I think that would be about it.
Anyhoo. Here is what I have so far tonight.

Crits welcome

Thanks Daklol for attatching the image for the thread pic. Appreciated.

[DAKLOL]

looking good so far, so, are you just using smoothing groups for this?

Yw...

[Doofus]

I am just using smooth groups rather than chamfering edges. Although with the doubled poly count limit there will be a few more well defined edges than before.

Started the legs and boots. I moved the top of the boots up over the knee compared to the concept just cause I thought it looked a bit more feminine and less like wellies.
Also with the increased poly count in mind I did some extrudes on the strapping around her body and on the wrist guards, figuring I could spare some more polys for the extra detail.

[Jelmer]

looks pretty nice and clean! i like the style so far, and the changed boots are certainly a great idea too, keep going!

[Doofus]

Thanks Jelmer. Glad you like her.



Finished the boots. Shortened the legs and thickened them a bit.
Modelled hands. Started the shoulder pad. Lengthened the Jacket.
Just need to add some buckles and a head I think then unwrap and get into zbrush. I have a much better feeling about this model than the last one mostly because I have a more definite idea of where I am going than I had with the higher poly version.

[Doofus]

Just about finished the modelling I think.

A shade over 4000 polys all together. I don't want to add any more than that really. I am sure I could have been a lot more efficient with my polys along the way but I am fairly happy with how she looks. I think once she is unwrapped and then zbrushed she will look pretty good and will be a lot more useable than the previous version.
Crits always welcome.