An attempt to revive and finish an old WiP.
The plan is to make a “game-ready” character and reinforce what I learned from the last model. Thought maybe it’s worth to post the process. I would be grateful for any constructive critique.
Revised my male base-mesh and started blocking out clothes. The hands still bug me though, even with the weird angle in mind something feels off…
Mens fashion is hard: this shirt is too simple, that vest is too complicated, too many high collars in this costume, some weird silhouette in that one. AAAAAAA
Can’t stop overthinking it.
With this in that, at first I didn’t have the time for this one. And then got distracted to make another thing. And then I got stuck… somehow nothing looks right anymore. So I did some “quick” texture and hair to see where this is going…
And now I’m thinking again that something very important is lacking 
Can’t quite point my finger at it: everything seems fine… but irks me to no end.
Hej @stray, good work, coming along nicely. You asked for some feedback, some small things caught my attention, the hands could need some slight adjustments, the thumbs second segment (tip) looks a bit long, especially for a male hand and the palms border where the fingers are connected is a bit to angular, what gives the fingers the impression as if their direction is slightly off. They could also be a bit shorter (they seem longer than the palm) and the middle finger thinner. They should also not be that parallel as they are not touching each other.For the face I think the eyes could be bigger and and the whole eyesocket placed slightly lower.
Really cool work so far, looking forward seeing it finished! 
The eyes be made a little larger and the ears might stick out more. (But that may be a style thing you are going for)
I would also play around a little with the 3 hair cards at/in-front-of the hair part. Maybe bend the center one more to the left and tamp them down a lil.
I would say a little more color in the lips.
The collar also seems very stiff and straight ahead.
But is really great the model looks nice in profile and front-on!
Bit by bit, working on it. Figured it was hard to try to solve both design and sculpting at the same time, so I made a little concept drawing. Now the focus is purely folds and wrinkles. It’s mostly trial and error, probably would have to redo a lot.
I was thinking about reviving this thread as if it were no big deal… but re-reading it now feels deeply embarrassing. Just abandoned like this? Whyyy~ 
…because back then I felt less and less capable. So I switched to other models to “test” things like cloth sculpting and whatnot. Then, when I looked back, this model seemed way too weird to continue as is.
So I’ve started from scratch a while ago.
Face-shape tests:
New body build - lower legs still might change.
Temp outfit (he’s got to wear something for now and it’s not going to be a towel):
As always, critique and advice is appreciated.
Though there is no guarantee it won’t end like the last time, I can at least promise to do my best to finish it this round
Right now, I’m working on outfit/color design.
Though it’s the same guy, he looks very different now. I mean I’m still figuring out the details, but he’s whole color scheme suddenly changed: his hair now firmly blond for instance. It’s one of those times when the character doesn’t particularly care for your opinion anymore XD
Here’s the old concept for comparison’s sake:
Then things stated to get a bit out of control…
And now he’s got this cheerful orange as his main color. Though for the life of me, I don’t know what kind of coat can be worn with it 
At the moment I’m more or less satisfied with colors I have (unless someone offers a fresh perspective). Just need one or two more iterations to finalize the design - don’t want to have to decide on these things in the middle of sculpt or even texturing
Currently I’m figuring out the sword-belt (plus sword and sheath). Or rather a metallic ornament I want on the thing.
Let’s just say, these creatures are put down to paper just to get them out of the way =D I don’t know how to properly stylize this yet (Pinterest being surprisingly not helpful so far) 
…it was supposed to be a ferret… at some point.
Somehow I didn’t get a notification for this, excited to see your update 
The ornament looks beautiful! Still looks like a ferret to me 
Stylization is hard and you’re very good at it.
Thank you
As it is, it looks more like a book ornament to me… what I’m struggling is translating it into “metal on leather” sort of thing. All the examples I can find are usually of “higher class” animals: cats, wolves, deer and birds. Maybe some horses… perhaps I need to look at dragons
I don’t know how I missed this thread, it’s so cool seeing your progress, and I love your sketches!!
Maybe something like this: sketchy, somewhat minimalistic compared to what I had in mind (which was too vague so doesn’t count), the inner pattern will probably change when I get to model it.
Let’s say it’s a character from some old fairy-tales / myths: Conjuring Knight. Wise and brave, he’s a defender of hearths and a symbol of perseverance…
…or something.
ooh… i like those
Thank you
One might question the wisdom of using a traditional medium (that I don’t know how to use) for this sort of thing.
Meh. I figured I’ll find something to whine about anyway, so might as well try something new and fun
Don’t want to say anything about what happened to legs here though 
This should be it. There really not much reason to procrastinate further, right? Patterns and color variation might change slightly, but that should not affect anything except texturing. I think.
I’ve finally added boots and charm designs.
The one for Heart/Courage almost drove me insane! I wanted to make it the most simple of them. “Circle in a circle” type of thing. Well, circle designs made me think of cookies with jam, and diamond - of baklava (here it’s usually made in diamond shape with some nuts on top in the middle). Let’s just say, now I keep snacks close to the workspace. Anyway, it’s a very stupid thing to affect a very simple “design”, but I’m going with it anyway.
The red scarf is still supposed to go with the outfit - I just keep forgetting to make a final colored version. I sure hope it still works, but I can’t tell anymore =D
As always, I’ll be happy to hear any critique if you think of something.
Returning to this after a while reminded me that things are never as bad as I remember them
Initial blockout for clothes:
).It’s more modeling then sculpting at this point - like a weird iterative manual retopo process that never ends.
On the bright side: everything is very clean and can have a Multires modifier on it when it’s time for sculpting (which is nice, because it can be used with Multires Eraser brush ).
A test of a GN curve object for some non-destructive details:
There is no guarantee that it actually will be useful in the end, of course.
Look the look and feel of this Character.
Stuck sculpting folds… again.
I’ve started from the beginning like a dozen times already.
I’m telling myself to just push through it and be done -_-
More iterations. The main blockout is pretty much done.
Got to trust in the process. Not overthink the design…
Still, some current considerations:
