Hi all. I’ve started a new project inspired by a previous post from, I believe Claus82 in the finished works section. I really liked the reference he used and wanted to give a go at my own version. I googled the image and started working on this guy focusing on having clean topology. My plan is to rig for posing and compose a single scene just to get a single project to completion instead of starting for the nth time on something. At any rate…here’s what I’ve got so far (the ref artwork is from the unknown artist).
Also…in attempting the head I’m struggling with keeping the polygon count low. Right now I’m at 75k quads. I don’t want to animate now but if, sometime in the future, I choose to do so I didn’t want the model to get too complex. Any ideas on how to approach modeling the face (pulling details/features off the front of a spherical surface) would be much appreciated.
It’s hard to give advice on keeping polycount low if you don’t have wireframe. Could you show us a screenshot of the head in wireframe mode from a couple angles?
Thanks Javalodge for taking a look. I’ve attached a couple wire frames for review. The model is just under 6K quads without subdiv on. WIth 2 levels of subdivision, it pushes quads up to just over 95K. I don’t have enough experience working with models to know if that would be a problem when animating or not. At any rate, I think the mask portion for the facial features turned out ok for my first try (actually, it took a few attempts but this is the first that was finished that I like.) Any input/critiques re: topology or otherwise, or suggestions for possible scenes for this guy are welcome…
The only thing is, that the geometry is not dense enough for the two rounded structures above his “ears”. They appear to be stretched and squashed. I guess they should be circles too?
If you have such a high vertex count for such a character, the head isn’t the most dense part, right?
On a modern machine, this probably would not be an issue at all…but I should have mentioned before that my machine is ancient and I’m only running on 1.8ghz and 2G RAM. yeah…I know. But, a poor man has poor man’s ways as they say…I prefer to look at it as a limited palette…forces you to make creative, artistic decisions.
I’ve got 6032 verts before subdivision. Is that a lot? There are a few spherical joints (elbows, hips) that take a lot of verts to define the shapes…and the crevices on the armor/shell take some extra loops to keep the edges sharp. Other than that, I don’t know where the vertex count is coming from. This is probably the first model that I’ve finished that I liked the result and was close to what I was shooting for so I guess I’m ok with the vertex count if it’s what it takes to get the shape. I just don’t know if I should be ok with it? ya know?
I did take subdiv levels down to 2 and didn’t notice too much lag in the viewport so maybe it would be ok to animate with? Or just turn off subdiv while animating the keyframes? Options, i suppose. That’s the problem with being a noob…you don’t know what you don’t know… hehe.
About the rounded structures above the “ears”…those were purely to add interest on such a flat surface (the side of the head.) I suppose it might be better to do that with a texture rather than add geometry but I was curious to see what the feature would look like and ended up leaving it. Does it look bad? Messed up? or like I tried but failed to do something? I don’t want that so be sure to say if it looks that way.
One more render then I’ve got to explore scene composition ideas…
6K vertices for the model is not that much. And for animating you can - as you said - either turn subdiv off or set the scene to simplify. With newer versions of Blender the simplify settings are split into viewport and render settings. Before that I always forgot to disable simplify before I did the first render. Now that is no problem anymore. There is a good chance to get decent frame rates with that.
Hm, in this environment he looks displaced. That’s because the robot is all modern and new and high tech and the environment is old and “low” tech. Perhaps that is what you was going for. And it could be worth to play with that contrast some more.
On the other hand he would feel at home in a SciFi scenario also.
But I like the idea of the current composition. Make it dirty and rusty and steamy And if he is a mechanic he must have some wear and tear also. Just a little, perhaps
On a modern machine, this probably would not be an issue at all…but I should have mentioned before that my machine is ancient and I’m only running on 1.8ghz and 2G RAM. yeah…I know. But, a poor man has poor man’s ways as they say…I prefer to look at it as a limited palette…forces you to make creative, artistic decisions.
@jdover thanks for the new way of looking at the situation. Being in a similar situation with regard to animation I will try to keep that in mind.
@ghost, thanks for visiting my wip. The limited resources are a frequent frustration for me…no dynamic paint (really)…no complex physics, etc. But, in reality, my skill level is such that I probably don’t need a lot of those bells and whistles yet. It tends to make me focus on modeling and composition. I enjoy modeling but having developed the ability to put together a good composition yet. @minoribus, you are exactly right. He is too pristine. I do like the juxtaposition of the new robot in an old tech environment and wanted to play with that some in this scene. Maybe if I scuff him up a bit, he will look like he fits in this environment a little better…
But, still your effort is coming together with a limited palette as you put. And, god knows I can understand the flustration. Just keep moving ahead with that thought in mind. The Blender Guru had several short films and I happened to watch them today. One was done on laptops. And, what it lacks in polish was made up in the story line.
Wish I could remember the name but all of them are worth checking out. Take care and enjoy the gift as we all are. And, who knows where this might take you. Maybe just a rewarding hobby but a fascinating one you have to admit. Then again a studio job might be in the future. Regardless enjoy.
@ghost: ha! No delusions of studio work in my future here but I do enjoy the hobby. Here’s the latest render and…maybe the finished work. Going to let it simmer for a while and take a fresh look in a day or so to see if I still think it’s done. Hope everyone’s doing well…
There were some suggestions to change the barrel textures and it was the right thing to do. So…here’s a couple renders of progress. I’ll get some last critiques and maybe call this done…
Hey all…I had so much fun working with this guy before I’ve decided to expand the project to a short animation project. I figured this would be an ideal character to start my first animation project with since the animation can be legitimately “mechanical” with a robot character. Hopefully it will be convincing…but I’m learning a lot even in the short segments I’ve put together so far. If you have time, take a look and tell me what you think. It’s just a short clip but I’d love to get your feedback. And here is a still shot too…
Thought I would post another update before I start another rendering session from the latest animation. This was a challenging clip in that the animation climbing the ladder took several tries and tweaks to get it right…at least as right as I can get it. In the first attempt the robot had very little “weight” to it and was too uniform in the movement. A little over five hrs rendering wasted…grrr. But, you learn by mistakes I suppose. Here’s a lo-res render of my latest animation attempt for this project (just checking things out before final render). For the final render I’ve changed: the speed of the climb (will be slowed down slightly), and the ladder was moved so that the feet remain in contact when the robot moves up to the top rungs. Take a look and feel free to comment on what you like/don’t like.
Still working on this…hi res version here: https://youtu.be/rt9H0ZA-NLc . Next, on to some more modeling and texturing for some other objects in a final scene. I plan on putting this guy in the mechanical room (from the original still shot that started all this). I’ve got to figure out how to do some mesh deformation/transformation for that scene and animate it. Then, a final animation for the opening scene…then transitions, sound and video editing. Lots to be done yet but excited to see bits and pcs coming together.
[video]https://youtu.be/rt9H0ZA-NLc[/video]
And if he is a mechanic he must have some wear and tear also. Just a little, perhaps 
Here’s the latest render and…maybe the finished work. Going to let it simmer for a while and take a fresh look in a day or so to see if I still think it’s done. Hope everyone’s doing well…
