W.I.P Feedback required plz. British Infantry World War 2.

[NiGHTS2o06]

Hello guys, this is a model im working on for a Red Orchestra mod (Darkest Hour).

The model is based on the Standard British Infantry from World War 2 (See below).

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/3938/britishmkiihelmet31ta.jpg

The current tri count is approx 4200 triangles. Wanted some opinions on the model before I decided to unwrap.

Thanks.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d91/NiGHTS2o06/WEBBINGFRONT-1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d91/NiGHTS2o06/REND1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d91/NiGHTS2o06/PERSP.jpg

[Marcus Dublin]

Hey NiGHTS2o06 before moving on I'd suggest that you take another hard look at you’re source image. At this point the mesh lacks character, I know that may sound silly considering he’s not textured just yet but at 4200 tri’s he should feel a bit more organic. First we’ll start with the helmet, it doesn’t carry the same shape as the reference image, and the brim on the source image is much bigger and looks sturdier. Next is his head, looking at the mesh without wires it’s hard to read the shape but from what I’m seeing the proportions look wrong. The corners of his mouth should line up with the corners of his eyes in a perfect “V” shape. He could also use some solid lips as well to make his face seem believable; right now his lips are pinched together as if he just ate something sour.:s When making the human figure all of the body parts should fit together accurately, unfortunately parts of the soldiers’ body are out of proportion. Most men are six to seven heads tall, and for the most part you nailed that, but his shoulders should be at least 3 heads wide. From what I can see his shoulders should be widened by at least 15%. His torso looks as though it’s strait throughout and needs a “V” shape treatment to add to the overall definition, doing this will instantly give him a sense of weight as well. “Always keep this in mind; a man’s center of gravity lies within the sternum area.” The arms also have a bendy straw feel and one way to avoid that is to build them in a vertical position, make sure you nail the form and proportions and the rotate them horizontally. Once you do that it’s just a matter of snapping them into place.

The models legs are suffering from the same problems as the rest of the body, everything feels like extruded cylinders. His legs are not coming off accurately due to the fact that he lacks a crotch area; one thing I like to do when tackling this area is to imagine making a pair of brief underwear. Yea it sounds weird but it’s gives you a mental template on where to add your cuts, once you do that you can then start building the legs properly, another tip is to separate the legs by at least two heads in with. They should not be close together the way you have them now, I used to do the same thing but I find having the legs slightly apart helps to add to add balance and weight to the character not to mention it makes rigging and skinning much easier. Last but not least is his gear; it could use a little more variation. Little things like bending one of the flaps out of place rotating it in a slightly different angle, making one strap longer than the other, etc. I’d play with the mesh some more to break up the symmetry, which will help add to the organic nature of the character. With all of that said I hope you take another pass on this guy, sometimes as artist it’s good every now and then to stop what your working on and go back to it the next day with a fresh pair of eye’s. Good luck NiGHTS2o06 and I hope you share your updates with us.:)

[onelung]

wow, okay, so, kinda hard to follow marcus... so i'll just make a few points :)

weight, think of how things would fall on your character, whats in those pouches, how heavy are they, think about your materials, whats the shirt made of, how will it be pulled on by the straps. Things like that, and apply it to all things.

ref- i'd have that pic open in your 3d software, along with a human male (if your going for realism) pic for proportions and to see what's going on under the clothes/ accessories.

good job on thinking about asymetry in the back, but keep it flowing through out your character, not just folds, but all the subtle things making one pouch more heavy than the other, etc.

keep going man, a good start.

[NiGHTS2o06]

Big thanks to the both of you in terms of your opinions as I have based the improvements on most of these factors.

OK, here are some updated versions:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d91/NiGHTS2o06/WEBBINGFRONT-2.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d91/NiGHTS2o06/WEBBINGBACK-1.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d91/NiGHTS2o06/REND1-1.jpg

Here are the changes from the previous:

* Attempted to add a crotch area to the model using the cut tool (whilst keeping everything 2/3 sided).

* Added more baggyness to the trousers, adding the idea of weight from the side.

* Completely modified the helmet (now based on the Mark 3 helmet instead of the Mark 1).

* Gave him some weight as it was felt that he was wayyyy too slim to be a soldier.

* Widened the gap between the legs to allow for easier rigging (hopefully).

* Modified the face very slightly.

* Added some asymmetry between items within the webbing, legs. Left the body and arms symmetric as these will share the same UV space and size (will probably clone UV mapped body parts to ensure everything fits).

The model is based on the references shown previously however the helmet is completely different.

Tri count: Approx 4500.

Again, all crit will be welcome openly and I am indeed grateful for all the help you guys are offering (from both a artistic and modelling technique point of view).