Builder Statue Wip

[BlackThief]

Hi folks,

 

here are some screenshots of a high-poly builder-statue I've been working on for about 3 days (3 evenings actually). Lowpoly model will follow.

 

 

My *very first* hands

 

and that's my second attempt in modelling a human head:

not perfect I know, but I think it's a lot better than my first try. I don't like the mouth on this one yet though.

 

Head wireframe:

http://www.thedarkmod.de/intern_screens/builder_statue4.jpg

 

wireframe of the whole model:

http://www.thedarkmod.de/intern_screens/builder_statue5.jpg

 

 

I haven't started on the cloak and on the upper arm yet - they're just placeholders. Legs and feet are WIP too.

 

I mostly posted it to get some tips, how to do the cloak (I'm a bit afraid of all the creases and stuff.... ), and to get some general feedback.

[Fingernail]

Nice work.

 

Talking of statues, I'm finishing up that angel pillar thing I started on a while back.

 

It's a bit more stylised, though.

[oDDity]

Opposite to ,my advice for modeling a character, a statue actually should be modeled as a one piece mesh, apart from the shield and hammer obviously. It doesn't look like a statue right now, it looks like a character, but you've obviosuly a long way to go on it yet.

You need to give it a molded one-piece look, like it's sculpted from one piece of stone.

[Springheel]

Yeah, the hands look good, but too realistic for a statue. What looks good for a character may not look so good for a statue.

[BlackThief]

Opposite to ,my advice for modeling a character, a statue actually should be modeled as a one piece mesh, apart from the shield and hammer obviously. It doesn't look like a statue right now, it looks like a character, but you've obviosuly a long way to go on it yet.

You need to give it a molded one-piece look, like it's sculpted from one piece of stone.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

good point, but I'm not sure how to do all the details with a one piece mesh. but anyway when you look at photos like this:

you can't really tell if the whole thing is one piece or if the helmet and other stuff are seperate parts. of course statues ARE made of one single piece, but when they're detailed like this you can't really tell imho.

 

I'll see what I can do to make it look more like a statue, but I think it won't be hard to make the lowpoly look more like a statue than this because all the details will be just normalmapped, so it won't look like details are seperate meshes like on the highpoly object.

 

Yeah, the hands look good, but too realistic for a statue.  What looks good for a character may not look so good for a statue.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

don't agree - have you seen Roman or renaissance statues? Just look at the photo above and you can see how detailed such statues are.

 

Here you can see some hands - they looks way more realistic than mine:

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/larrymyth/im.../ID-Laocoon.jpg

http://www.jenskleemann.de/wissen/bildung/...evangelista.jpg

[_Atti_]

nice work,with little improvements it could do as a character as well

[kfmccall]

I could draw up some concepts if you'd like. The modelling is cool but his pose looks a little stiff. Let me know if you want some concepts for poses etc.

[sparhawk]

don't agree - have you seen Roman or renaissance statues? Just look at the photo above and you can see how detailed such statues are.

 

Actually Michelangelo studied anatomy to make sculpture look more real, most of the better artists did that. He even went so far to open dead bodies to see the flow of muscles. When you look at his statues, you could almost see them breathing. In Scientific America there was an article about doctors recognizing that a model for one of his statues seemed to had breast cancer, because it was so detailed.

 

IMO it depends more on what we want the statues to look like. Which direction? Do we want classical roman statues? Or more abstract ones like they had in TDS (not that I really liked them)?

[kfmccall]

I believe the statues should be more grandious and heroic looking than the characters in game, for thats what most statues are, these fantastic representations of culture etc.

[Springheel]

don't agree - have you seen Roman or renaissance statues? Just look at the photo above and you can see how detailed such statues are.

 

That's a valid point. I've been assuming the Builder faction would be a little more early gothic in their style. I don't see them as exceptional artists. But that's my personal take.

[Darkness_Falls]

Not all statues need to look like they come out of a Marvel comicbook. Modesty is sometimes better, depending on the application. I'm not saying I like the below photographed statue, but it's at least an example of a non-dynamic pose:

 

[sparhawk]

Why did you post that advertisment of worldisround.com???

[Fingernail]

follow the url it is meant to be, it's a picture of a statue.

[Darkness_Falls]

What happened now? I posted a JPG image using the IMG tags. Does it not show for you? It shows up for me as the JPG image. Here's the URL of the image: http://www4.worldisround.com/photos/3/234/160.jpg

 

Maybe their site is like Angelfire where links to images housed on their free servers don't reliably show up in forums.

 

But are other postings of mine doing this, too... like the Angel Statue thread? I posted a series of images in there.

 

Sorry, but it sounds like a forum, browser or 'worldisaround.com' issue to me.

[Springheel]

All I get is that 'image is not available' graphic, both from the post and link.

[Darkness_Falls]

Very strange. It's always worked for me. Oh well, I just now saved the picture in our FTP area and relinked it. You should see it now. The new URL:

http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/Art-Conce...alls/statue.jpg

[sparhawk]

Now it works. LOoks good. Exactly the type of statues that we can also expect. Heroic postures are more on public places.

[kfmccall]

heres a possible pose for the builder statue. Let me know if you want some detail studies of particular areas of the body. Or if I should make adjustments to the pose. (I'm happy to do so anyway )

 

[sparhawk]

IMO that looks really good.

[oDDity]

Yeah, it looks great, you just can't put tht pencil down, can you?

I had better model that myself though. To be honest I think people like BT, who have only just started learning to model, are getting a little out of their depth trying to make organic models at the highest end of the difficulty scale. It's not a good idea, since it only leads to frustration when the results aren't satisfactory. Better to work your way up slowly, like we all had to do)

[Schatten]

I've been assuming the Builder faction would be a little more early gothic in their style.  I don't see them as exceptional artists.  But that's my personal take.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

While I agree their style should be more Gothic than Renisance (or god forbid, Roccoco), I think when it comes to elaborately working iron, wood or stone, the people I'd ask would be the Builders.

 

Style is a completely different beast than talent though.

 

Personaly, I'd like to see the statues and gargoyles like if they leaped out of Tim Burton's Batman - designed to intimidate rather than to be enjoyed.

[sparhawk]

That reminds me: We should not only have statues from marble or such, but also from metal for the forgers.

[Springheel]

While I agree their style should be more Gothic than Renisance (or god forbid, Roccoco), I think when it comes to elaborately working iron, wood or stone, the people I'd ask would be the Builders.

 

The Builders focus primarily on, well, building. I don't think they'd be very artsy at all, especially with their whole 'suffer and toil' mentality. Things would be well-made, but ultimately functional. Of course, since we're doing gothic-style cathedrals we might as well deck them out appropriately. I'm sure there are stonemakers and other artisans willing to donate works to the Church for the sake of their souls.

[SneaksieDave]

Ooh, Builder statue, very nice! I do have suggestions:

 

Head: Needs to be somehow "godlike";

-perhaps no headgear, but just strong wavy hair? Or even long, grey hair? Something to seem "fatherly".

-on the other hand, perhaps the exact opposite direction - a face covering helm (think Sauron, but not LIKE Sauron's), and the point there being, no one sees the face of god.

 

Pose: I feel he needs to be doing something grand with his hands, like a Michelangelo work. And this could be anything;

-a fist extended forward, eyes fixed on the viewer

-an open hand, palm up, extended forward (as if he's going to take your hand in a regal or fatherly manner)

-an open hand, palm down, as if extending a blessing, or touching the earth below, or accepting a hand-kiss

-holding a second hammer?

-something completely different and symbolic, like grasping a (insert beast here), or something construction-related, or a globe of fire or light or whatever fiction and creativity can allow for.

[BlackThief]

I had better model that myself though. To be honest I think people like BT, who have only just started learning to model,  are getting a little out of their depth trying to make organic models at the highest end of the difficulty scale. It's not a good idea, since it only leads to frustration when the results aren't satisfactory. Better to work your way up slowly, like we all had to do)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

go ahead and model it - I quite like the concept.

it's right that I just started modelling a while ago, but I want to improve - and when you want to improve you need something challenging. If you always just model easy stuff like furniture you'll never improve - I feel that I'm already quite confident in modelling furniture and other simple stuff. The actualy modelling takes often only 1/5 of the time I need to create a good uv-map + textures.

So I'll finish my statue and if it turns out ok we can use it - otherwise it was a good modelling exercise. We'll need several statues anyway.