Scratch Elfrogue Model/Skin!

[Darkholme]

I'm making a BE ElfRogue Model based on the Pathfinder Rogue design http://paizo.com/image/content/RiseOfTheRunelords/Pathfinder3_Rogue.jpg

I'm starting with the skin, then I'll make the model to fit it.

I'm doing all of the graphics in a japanese art program called Painttool Sai, which is kindof like photoshop, but has alot better tools for drawing things from scratch.

I figure I'll show my progress on this endeavor as I work on it in this thread. Feel free to comment.

As you can see, I work in really High res and then I'll shrink it later.
All of the black lines are vector lines on separate layers, so I can scale them, change line weight, or remove them, without any negative effect.

I also prefer a more elfy look on my elves than the standard Warcraft ones.

This is the Skin in Progress.

 

[skrab]

Maybe you should first make the model then UVW and then texture it. :/

The texture right now looks kewl

 

[Darkholme]

hmm. I could do it that way, I don't see it making much difference though. It's not like I'll be using someone else's model, so whether I base my model on the texture or my texture on the model shouldn't make that big of a difference.

[Edit: Here is the current part I have finished.]

 

[Wintermute]

The picture you're bsing it off is far too complicated to look good in game

 

[xXm0RpH3usXx]

well, this way round you can get really ugly unwrap stretches, but we'll see...
looks as if you know what you are doing!

only problem is that it doesnt fit with wc3 much yet, so you'd need to make a lot of elves this style to have a lore in the end...

 

[Darkholme]

Hmm True enough. The elves in warcraft are thin humans with huge arms and long ears. They don't really have elven looking faces. Oh, and they have funny long eyebrows.

If I get an ugly unwrap stretch it should be pretty fixable. All my lines are vectorized lines, as I mentioned, so I would have to move a line, and redraw the colored part inside that got cut off or stretched. It may be an issue, but i dont think it will.

I'm aware the detail is alot higher than on a wc3 skin as well, but I can always shrink it to 256x256 later. Besides, this way I should be able to port it to another game to use if I want, and that would be pretty nifty too.

As for knowing what I'm doing, I've never done anything like this before. It's always beed take someone else's model, change all the proportions, delete and add things until it looks different, then maybe change the original skin, or uvwrap it to another skin. Making a model from sscratch? nope, I've never done that at all. lol. But I can think of a workable clothing pattern in my head and know what the pieces need to be shaped like, and it seems like this is similar but less complicated.

Here's the next update. Not alot has changed, but there's a few things I've done.

 

[LiOneSS]

More contrast, also, it'll look like crap when you resize.

 

[Darkholme]

If youre thinking about the loss of detail, after resizing you can touch things up fairly easily. I'll have to test it first though. More Contrast? Really? On the whole thing or just the clothes, or what?

Here is is at 256, for example. what needs so much fixing.

also here is one with more contrast. Contrast adjustments aren't a feature in Sai though, so ill have to do it in photoshop. this is at +22, and only used for lightening. (so i remember how i got it). If you think it needs more contrast, etc, point it out to me and ill give it a shot.

 

[LiOneSS]

meh, all the folds and stuff will not be visible and it will just be a blob

 

[Darkholme]

The folds still show, though you may have a point, they may not be obvious enough. Now that the 256 sample is there lemme know what you think should be done & where.

 

[Devine]

You should add hair D=
blonde hair.
I think the eyes should use a more saturated blue
but great job so far.

 

[HappyCockroach]

It looks very good, but in my opinion the unwrap is too real, it should be 'fatter'. When you wrap this I think it will strech a little on many parts...
also the butt doesn't look like a butt.
After u apply symmetry these cloth folds will look V shaped.
Removing these black lines it will look way too smooth.
The back fold is exxagerated.

overall it is good.

 

[Darkholme]

Butt? There is no butt. That's v-shaped on putpose because it's the front. I haven't done the back yet.

When you say the fold on the back is too exaggerated fd o you mean the shirt? because it's a corset, so the back will have laces. That's not a fold, it's a pleat which will be being pulled by laces.


The eyes should be staying black, and the hair is now done. I intend to keep the colors like the concept, unless I add teamcolor. So Black Eyes, White Hair.

Here's what I have now.

The belt still needs alot of work, and I still haven't drawn a buckle.

 

[syltman]

I hope to see it when it's done!

 

[Devine]

You should add a neck and the cheecks from the sides.
Sorry, I can't explain this very good ... Take a look at the sorceress skin to see what I mean.

 

[HappyTauren]

Ehh, why not show it wrapped on a model?

 

[Elfsilver Lord]

It pwnz all. You better make a good model for the texture or the whole Hive will crucify you.

Excuse me for being a stickler, but don't Blood Elves have green eyes not those dark slate blue eyes?

 

[HappyTauren]

It isn't a blood elf, it's just used as a reference.

 

[Darkholme]

its an elf, not a bloodelf. hence the elf-like face and eye shape, etc. I'm going to add a neck, and cheeks, etc. I just haven't done it yet. as for wrapping it on a model, would wrapping it on some random model really help? the model i use wont have the same mesh as the model i make from scratch.

why cant you people look at my reference image to see why it doesnt look like a BE. o.o

It's mostly based on this, slightly just my own style, and slightly on another appearance type of elves, where the hairline comes from. Bloodelves dont look like elves anyways.

Also, no idea where youre getting slate blue from. Those are all just shades of gray on top of black.

 

[Wintermute]

Big. Picture. Ahhh. Black eyes look very freaky

 

[Tr!KzZ]

I like the style and your work it looks very good, wanna see the final model =)

and dude, seriously, use thumbnails to link to such big pictures, do NOT post such uberbig pictures directly in the forum, it's way better to link it with a thumbnail just so ^^

 

[xXm0RpH3usXx]

because people like me (64k/sec connection) are loading reaaaally long!

you must be generous here around about this elven stuff, wc3 lore is in all their minds, probably lotr people would compare it to their elves and find something thats not quite right, you know what i mean?

just go on, looks good, i'm seeing fowrard to the model!

 

[Darkholme]

I'll go fix the images, I guess I'm too used to my 1mbps connection.
I can appreciate people thinkins about wc3 lore, but I said I was basing it on this drawing more than once, and then everyone starts asking me weird questions about why it looks like the drawing. lol

OK, none of my attachments are loading so i cant fix a damn thing right now.

Here is most of what I'm basing it on. If it looks unlike a bloodelf because it looks like this, that's because it's intentional.

 

[Wintermute]

I have 54mbps. I just don't like scrolling the length of 3 screens to look at the next post. I just realised what was wrong. It's eyes seem too far apart.

 

[Darkholme]

Here is the next iteration!

Also, before more people say "Hey she has no neck", or "She has no 'X'". If it's not there that doesn't mean it won't be, just means i havent done it yet.

 

[Wintermute]

Don't mind me, but this looks like it's going to look cartoony.

 

[LiOneSS]

what tool in Sai do you use to paint?

 

[Darkholme]

Here is how I do my painting.

Updated with the thing I just painted for the purposes of the example.

 

[Wintermute]

Do you use a mouse or tablet?

 

[LiOneSS]

whoa, thanks a lot ^^ only one question, the stabilizer is...?

 

[Darkholme]

The stabilizer makes it so your lines are smoother and less bumpy. If you want a slight quick bumpyness back and forth along your line, the stabilizer would smooth it out, so you would want to turn down the stabilizer for that.

 

[expresso]

I would suggest blending your shadows in how you want them first, then lay your highlights over the top. The way you're working now, you mark out fine lines of highlight and shadow then blend it all together resulting in a lot of gray. Also I would use a higher saturation of color around the edges of the highlight to keep the intensity of "light".

 

[A.R.]

The texture looks great, shrinks well too

Honestly though, I think you're causing more trouble for yourself than strictly necessary.
Unless you crank an obscene amount of polygons (or use NURBS) into the mesh, there's
no way you'll get the full detail of all those curves you've drawn. By all means, do it this
way if it appeals to you, but speaking from experience, it is *much* easier to model and
unwrap first, then texture afterwards.

 

[Gyrosphinx]

This skin is awesome, and its based of artwork from Wayne Reynolds, He is my favourite artist!!!

I can't wait

 

[Darkholme]

Expresso: The way I tend to place the colors, both the shadows and highlights end up getting mixed with the midtones, not with eachother. Though if the shadows and highlights are right next to eachother, then I often do whta you just mentioned.

A.R.: I may use this skin for more than a wc3 model. I make a higher res poly model and just keep the model in 3ds max. I'll keep in mind that its easier to do the model first next time, but I've alreay started this one, and my skin is already like 70% finished.

Gyrosphinx: Yeah, Wayne Reynolds rocks. Not my *Favorite* artist, but probably my favorite artist who does RPG stuff. He kicks ass.

[Edit: Higher Res Model. silly me.]

 

[expresso]

Looking at it again I see it's not so much the highlights and shadows mixing, but your choice of a highlight color which is very muddy. Are you color picking from the source image you posted? The overall contrast in that picture is much higher, so the gray highlight at least stands out more because it is used sparingly, whereas on your texture you're blending it all over and making a big soft mass. I'm sorry if I am sounding negative, I just want to explain what I think needs fixing.

 

[Darkholme]

Hmm. Yeah, I'm color picking from the drawing. You're right. I've actually been trying to get it to the same level of contrast and thought it was getting closer. But if you're still complaining about the contrast not being high enough than I guess I still need to work on it more.

 

[Ner-Zhul]

Looks really good.

 

[Deolrin]

Looks awesome until now. Any progress?

 

[expresso]

One way to keep the contrast but also have more color instead of just the black with thin bands of red midtone/highlight is to introduce a faked "ambient" color, usually a soft purple works well. I'm at work now so I can't sketch up a fig to look at but if you're interested I'll try to illustrate my point.

 

[frostwhisper]

Holy shit, Dark. You're back.
I've missed your work so much. It really is wonderful.

 

[Darkholme]

Thanks frostwhisper. Yeah, I'm back, but it's looking like i need to do a PC format, so my work will be slowed for a few days.

As for the ambient color, I may do that, but if I do it it won't be until the end, because I don't know what color I would want to use. I would likely do it by having an ambient color layer, which I would overlay over the whole image.

The Colors for this model will come from the original artwork, so I gotta work on making the contrast with what's there, because I want it quite similar to the original.

No progress right now, as I left town for almost a week.