Southern Rise

[makoa]

What's up fellow game artisans!

I've been working on some characters for an upcoming UT3 mod called Southern Rise and I'd just like to pimp 'em out and get some feedback on them. There are two factions in the mod, the Condeaderates (undead zombies and what not) and Union soldiers (human soldiers) that will go at it in a fast-paced, twitch style shooter with RPG elements thrown in. We're going for a more stylized look, so I've tried to exaggerate the proportions, punch up the colors, etc.

Here's the first character, Lumpish - one of the condeaderates. Thanks to Christian 'Cold' Fell for the concept art:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a241/kendobi/lumpish.jpg

Please note, I wasn't trying to follow the concept art 100% faithfully, but was given some freedom to interpret it and make it my own:

http://www.kennykong.net/southernrise/lumpish2.jpg

And Claude Patrick, a union soldier:

concept -
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a241/kendobi/CPcolcopy.jpg

high-poly model so far:
http://www.kennykong.net/southernrise/claudep_hipoly_preview.jpg

As always, I could use some crits and suggestions on these guys. Thanks!

[TryForce]

wow makoa, didnt knew you could model his great aswell. Im quie impressed. Though i cant crit those concepts or models at all, they look flawless to me, good job!

[Frozan]

hmm cool stuff. wondering why the boot on the leg is dif from the other boot though. nice work.

[Japhir]

realy amazing! I love your concepts and how you brought them to life! Also the pose of the soldier guy is great and very typical!

[kirilot]

I like the high boots in the concept, how come they didnt cary over? unless hes riding a bike why is his pant leg rolled up? great work, lovely concepts, i like the dudes atitude in the concept but i dont think his jaw carried over to the model

[Ramseus]

Kekeke, Condeaderates, that's great.

Slick work, but I liked the knee high boots too.

[simple_minded]

Great Work! Love the style all around, can't wait to see more!

!BAMF!

[ShadyD]

The jaw is deffinately something you should exagerate in the model to style it :)!
It looks awesome!
I love the zombie the dude looks slick too!

[Kalango]

cool stuff man, loved the fatguy concept. Keep it up i want to see it done :)

[Marcus Dublin]

Wow you've been a busy bee, this is a nice double dip! Honestly though I don't have much in the way of crits, these guys should look pretty cool in Unreal. Nice job makoa.

[poopinmymouth]

Nice work. The zombie in overalls is quite nice in terms of materials and all the maps working together.

Honest I really can't stand the "thugifying" you did to the soldier. It looks like you put untied timberland boots and a pulled up pants leg to emulate some current urban trends, and it doesn't blend well with the subject matter at all. It's your piece, so you clearly have say in the outcome, but I'd suggest following the concept and the time period a bit more closely, as the boots from the concept are much more stylish than your change.

http://www.mr-chompers.com/images/poop.gif (http://www.poopinmymouth.com)

[sagleon]

I really dig the zombie. The exaggerated anatomy and the color palette is nice.

[El Scorcho]

Awesome zombie, just out curiosty are you using normal maps or you are baking out the shading for a single diffuse.

[makoa]

thanks for all the feedback everybody!

tryforce - thank you sir!

frozan - thanks! mirrored the boot in the low-poly, hopefully looks cool now.

japhir - thanks man! should note though, the concepts are NOT mine, but were done by christian 'cold' fell, much respect to him for the cool artwork.

simpleminded - thanks!

shadyd - thank you! good catch on the jaw, i'll adjust it in the low-poly

kalango - thanks bro!

marcus dublin - thanks a lot! appreciated.

poop/ramseus/kirilot - thanks guys! haha you're not feeling the LL Cool J one-pant leg up?? seriously though, i switched it up for a number of reasons - i wanted a more unique silhouette, make him asymmetrical, and to make him different than all the other union soldiers who will have the knee-high boots:

art by christian 'cold' fell:
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/9692/groupun24my.jpg

i guess the idea was that he injured his leg and tied up the pants leg with a bandana to stop the bleeding. hopefully it'll all look better once the texturing's done. for real though, thanks for the input i'm taking it all into consideration.

sagleon - thank you!

el scorcho - thanks man! i am using normal maps, although i've been painting in some depth information to the diffuse just to make things pop more.

update! low poly and flat color map:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a241/kendobi/claudep_normalmapped2.jpg

thanks!

[bb0x]

Looking nice man.. Tho' I'm not sure about the pants... your points seem valid.. but what the other guys said is true also. It just doesn't fit it that environment imo. Also those boots he got on right now.. seem way to big to be walking in comfortable, especially if you are supposed to be in combat and especially when it inst tied up. It would feel like they would pop out any time when running. (lol, ever ran with untied timberlands?)

Also why are his fingers so fat?

[Ramseus]

It's stylized, it doesn't have to be logical.

As long as someone gets the knee high boots I'm happy ;)

[typhus22]

wow pretty cool stuff man. hey just wondering but why is the zombie's pants so blue? i thought he was a confederate? oh and as a side note, dont put a barrel of a gun in the dirt, it puts crap in the barrel and that will not only screw up a shot by throwing off the trajectory but thats just bad practice. anyhoot, really cool stuff!

[ThatDon]

I think you're trying to hard on the asymmetry, you should take a more subtle route much like mop did in his naruto piece.

http://www.ldaustinart.com/paul//tenten/wip11.jpg

edit: image > link as requested by poop.

[makoa]

updates!! sorry i've been lagging on keep everyone posted - i mentioned in the brawler thread that traveling and holidays have kept me away from here, but i've steadily been working.

typhus22 - thanks man. yea, lumpish has blue-ish clothes on, but not nearly as blue as claude patrick, hopefully it's distinguishable in-game. thanks for picking up on that though, i'll keep it in mind.

thatdon - yea man, i see what you mean. check the changes below, but i'll keep that in mind. and thanks for changing the image to a link, it's appreciated.

lumpish - the suspenders had to go due to difficulty in animating, rigging, etc. so i gave him a fat belt and a cut-off vest, here's the update:

http://www.kennykong.net/images/lumpish_v2_preview.jpg

he's almost done, just need some finishing touches on the texture.

claude p - thanks again for the crits, we still liked the pant-leg up, even if it 'thugifies' him, but how about a compromise? i took away the tims and gave him more realistic civil war boots, hopefully this works a little better:

http://www.kennykong.net/images/claudep_txturz.jpg

the texture is far from done, but please let me know what you guys think of the changes.

[monkeyboy]

Nice stuff, Makoa - you've really got some good work coming along here. Yeah the textures can still use some love - in general they aren't particularly descriptive. It also looks like you've got a seam around the shoulder. Does he have his shoes on the wrong feet? - it looks that way from the front view for some reason.

[East]

Good to see you back. I was actually starting to wonder where you had disappeared to :) Changing the boots really improved things. The folds in his clothes seem very pronounced somehow. Are they painted into the diffuse somehow? If so, you could try toning them down. If not.. then I dunno :)

[EDIT] Talking about the latest model you posted.