Ok. Inspired by Marvel Comics, The Incredibles, and this really cool 3DS Max or Maya book cover that I saw once and now cannot find, I have taken it upon myself to make a way-cool low-poly superhero guy, and actually rig him. Much to my dismay, this guy was looking especially powerful, the facial rig was about done, his suit was really cool, etc. etc… and then Blender crashed because I forgot about this dumb bug in the SVN build I was using: if you try to save a render, it just crashes. I don’t know if anybody else knows about this, but there it is.
Anyway, I was able to recover his head, from which only the weight-painting on the bones is missing. I actually had his body too, but alas, it was in a completely start-over-worthy state.
Here are a render and a screenshot of the wireframe and rig. There is actually one tri on the model near the eye; I had fixed that before, and now I have to again. However, I have to leave my computer for a while, so it’s as-is for right now.
Note: This was originally titled BlenderMan, but I wanted something a little more original than that.
Anyway, I have fixed some various edgeloops, weight-painted the bones, and found there is definitely some room for improvement on the mouth/cheeks. Here are a few facial expressions I did with the current rig. Some things look a little off since he lacks eyelids, a mouthfull of teeth, and his eyes currently don’t move.
I’ve given him eyelids, a shaved beard, and I fixed the eye texture. Also, his face isn’t as elongated. Tomorrow I’ll fix his mouth rig and hopefully get started on his suit again (though I know the facial uv mapping still needs some work).
Edit: Couldn’t help myself, so I fixed his mouth rig and made the expression below.
I’ve completed some of his suit. Currently the colors are just done with materials; later I’ll try to UV map them. I’m still a big newb when it comes to UV mapping, so it’ll probably take a while to get it right.
Looks pretty good so far. But what is that bulge in the middle of his chest. It just doesn’t look natural. But the materials don’t look half bad. Good luck with the rest!
It’s supposed to be the end of his chest muscles, although it needs a bit of tweaking. Right now, he doesn’t exactly look bulky enough for it to look right.
Notice Mr. Incredible’s chest below.
Looks a little better. Try making his whole chest stick out more to indicate more muscle then have that little bump where it comes down. That might improve the look of things.
You may want to give him a little more calf muscle. His legs look a little feminine at the moment. I realize you’re going for the stylized-cartoonish-type look, but a little more calf muscle couldn’t hurt.
He now has pecs of epic proportions, along with other muscular improvements. I’ve given him more detailed lips, tweaked a few facial features, and UV mapped his head. There’s a color map, a normal map (which only affects the lips right now), and a specularity map. I don’t know why, but the top of his head will not be affected by the spec map. Help would be appreciated.
Arms? What are arms? We don’t need no stinkin’ arms.:evilgrin:
He now has arms and hands. Just wondering: should the hands be attached like so in the rest position, or should they be parallel to the ground, in order to be animation-friendly?
I like the look and the textures on the suit. Looks like this should be a compelling character.
As far as the hands go, I’ve only done palms down on the only two characters I’ve animated, but I’m too new at this to give you any advice on that. I’ll be interested to hear you experience in trying to animate with a palms-front model though. It’s something I’m curious about as well. Let us know if it causes any problems.
I’ve given him more detailed lips, tweaked a few facial features, and UV mapped his head. There’s a color map, a normal map (which only affects the lips right now), and a specularity map. I don’t know why, but the top of his head will not be affected by the spec map. Help would be appreciated.
