Most of the work doesn’t show yet: I have made UV map for the whole character, but it turned out too cluttered for my taste and so I divided the mesh again (face, mustaches and hair, body… ) and UV unwrapped it again. Most of the body and hands are UV unwrapped in mirror mode but I have decided to apply mirror modifier for the face (UV map makes more sense that way)
It just occurred to me that I have yet to make the teeth and inside of the mouth… just when I thought that I was finished modeling…
Any thoughts? (I still hope for some advice and perhaps link to shader library that I could use…)
Once again, critiques, comments and suggestions are welcome!
As you may already know (from reading my previous posts) for the last few days I was UV unwrapping my character.
I have decided to be fancy and to bake color and ambient occlusion pass into the texture so that I would have starting point and some reference in further painting of the textures. Of course, I didn’t know how it is supposed to be done, so I visited Blender.org, looked for that feature and downloaded test file. AAAAND! Although I think that my texture is properly done (I checked Cornelius file), I always get the message that there is no image to bake to! It is frustrating!
EDIT: following no longer applies as I have managed to do the baking!!! I just had to try it in several ways that I haven’t tried and it worked in the end…
Although I am perfectly aware that some frustration is normal part of the learning, I have tried everything (that I could think of) and I can get no results. So, can (please) someone give me fool proof step by step instruction how it is done or point me to one?
I have finally managed to make some baking of the renders into texture. I am sooo happy! This is baked normal map (no actual need to show it, I just need to brag to someone what I did ;o))
I plan to incorporate Ambiance occlusion pass into my color (diffuse?) texture, so I’ll be able to (hopefully) cheat some time from the final renders.
Until then… well, having no better advice about the texturing I have researched (read: shamelessly borrowed) some materials from the “Elephants dream” and I have modified leather material that I have found elsewhere on this forums. And, here he is in all his (materialized) beauty!
For the hair… I wasn’t going for realism there, otherwise I would have used particles… I am aware that eyebrows look somewhat strange (misalignment of the texture) and I’ll have that fixed soon…
I have used some noise as the background for the facial wrinkles which I have painted with 5 point and 3 point brush (trial and error mostly ;o))
Also: I have used AO render of the face for facial diffuse texture and I have added few specks of color here and there, so in the final renders I should be AO free, but I’ll have something of that effect.
Really nice you’ve come a long way with this. I was wondering what your materialsettings are for the skin because MAN that it some beautiful skincolours… especially on the fourth pic. Keep it up
It might be just me, but the cloth seems pretty plastoid. Maby give it less specular?
Also he doesn’t seem as dwarfish as at first. He looks more like an old man now. With pointy ears. Making the nose bigger might help, or mabey you could give him a full beard.
The eyes need work as well.
Otherwise, he looks great. I LOVE the skin. Great work!
it all looks very plasticky; play with the spec values to get a softer, less harsh highlights, and also, turn the nor down a lot on the noise for the skin.
UPDATE: I have added displacement map modifier to the clothes. The effect is visible in the closeups, but it can also be noticed from the distance: clearly visible on the boots.
I’ll probably add some details to the displacement map (read: smaller wrinkles on the clothes here and there, especially around the groin area)
I have modified somewhat facial bump map (added wrinkles, I have moved some of the wrinkles which were in wrong places and I have removed grain from the nose and ears, which adds much to the believability of the bump map)
I have yet to model teeth and gums, and the tongue.
One advice please: having in mind that I am coming close to the rigging part (not too happy about that… believe you me), should I unify the mesh (all in one object – but then I’ll probably have more materials in one mesh than Blender allows) or parent everything to the armature separately?
foCus: Thanks!
tigger, Red Yoshi: Plasticity of the clothes comes from the material which is used and which was downloaded from this forums. I have managed to eliminate its mirror properties and change the colors. Unfortunately, I am so new to blender that I am having great problems finding my way around the materials panel (mea culpa, mea mahima culpa)
Red Yoshi: I am planning to make minor remodeling here and there… I just love that nose! However I’ll probably make super chibi version of this character… one of those days…
I have tamed down the specularity of the shirt a bit.
I have textured the eyes.
Someone said that my dwarf looks like an old man! old man, he says! yes, yes you know who you are! My wrath will fall upon thee and… sorry, I got carried away a bit
SOOOO: Super chibi version of my dwarf character is here! He can’t get more dwarvish than this, believe you me!
I am withering under thy wrath! Yes, it was I who call thy creation an old man!
Anyway, he looks better now! Maby a bit fatter? The cloth looks better. Also if this is the chini version i would make the head a tad bigger. Plus the nose. I think he would look better with a large slightly redder nose. Maybey not the red part, but definatly bigger.
Also I think he would look much better with particle hair. But particles ofen turn out to have a mind of their own. Every time I try to use them, I end up spending more time tweaking the curve guids than it took me to modd the charecter!
Finally, and this is jus’ opinion, I think that he would look better with short sleeves and hairy arms. Even cooler if the hair on the arms were particles. But even if you dont want to undertake that modding, I would still make the arms more muscular.
Hope I’m not critiquing too much. lol, tuned our more than I had anticipated.
Yes, the guy on your avatar is a bit cubbier, and his had slightly more round. I know you aren’t going for an exact 3D replica, but I second him being slightly fatter. He needs a little bit of a gut.
UPDATE: Thanks for all the comments, they really inspire me to me to work harder! I am considering everything very seriously and they help me to stay on the right way (even those that I don’t agree with)
Some minor remodeling has already taken place, but I’ll probably change his shape even more… (I still have to make teeth, gums and tongue… gambblll… I hate those)
Also: super chibi version will be remodeled after I finish rigging the character (I’ll resize the bones and then geometry accordingly – I wonder if this could work?)
I have imported armature from my previous project and I have struggled with it for the last two days… and here he is! His first armatured rendering (he looks scared, but anyone would if hi had passed through the last two days)
Second rendering, Einsteindwarf says hi! This has made several things visible – I have to fix the armature in the elbow area, do some fixing of the thumbs, tweak the facial bones…
when i am at it: strange thing happened when rigging the face: I have assigned some vertices to the bones that I decided should move the cheeks: they are assigned (they change color from blue to green (50%), but when I move the bones, vertices do not move. Could it have any connection with the fact that I have used those bones as ipo drivers in previous armature?
What do you say? Guys? Gals? Any gals? (;o))
I’ll probably keep quiet for next two or three days and do some (read: a LOT of tweaking) and then I’ll show you… what? Walkcycle? Facial expressions?.. we’ll see!
One last thought… I’ll have to change the material of his clothes… alas, it just shines too much… though, I have to admit that I liked its leathery look…
p.s. Red Yoshi: I have visietd your blog and I just ADORE those amazing paper models… could one put his greedy hands on some (language barrier jumps in again) … wireframes? My son would be soo happy!
Ok, first thing to do is remove most of the specularity on his skin. Sorry to say it but it is WAY overdone :eek: Also, I think the clothing looks fine.
And to rig the face you need to use vertex keys. They are the easiest way to achieve realistic mouth movements and lipsync.
(read: shamelessly borrowed) some materials from the “Elephants dream” and I have modified leather material that I have found elsewhere on this forums. And, here he is in all his (materialized) beauty!
you’ve come a long way with this. I was wondering what your materialsettings are for the skin because MAN that it some beautiful skincolours… especially on the fourth pic. Keep it up 
