The Necromancer

[NatDis]

Well, I have decided to create a short clip on a battle between a pyromancer (fire mage) and necromancer (death mage). I'm currently working on the necromancer. It is all in Maya 8.5 and uses Maya's native features like Fur, nCloth, and Hair. I'm currently working on the head:-

As you can see, I've added some wrinkles, raccoon eyes and a small scar at the right end of the lips. The only thing is that I'll fix the texture tomorrow of the eye to make them match the rest of the face - the eyes are supposed to be bloodshot. I've worked on this quite a lot today. I made the texture and bump map in Photoshop, made the model in zBrush and exported it to Maya, and also I made some changes to the model in Maya. Due to some problems with my internet connection, I won't upload the images of the other parts of the necromancer I created. Criticism appreciated. Thank you.

 

[anetherond]

His skin doesn't look very realistic. I suggest you use Maya's Fast Skin Shader to create a better base for the skin and use Poly Painting with Zbrush or real photos to create a better color map (I usually combine both methods).

By the way, have you used displacement maps or normal maps?

One more thing, try to "ruin" the symmetry a bit; it will give him a more natural look.

 

[NatDis]

I've used a bump map. The texture's horrible, yes. I've only defined scars and some wrinkles. By the way, I've added a small scar down his left cheek and also made his left eye a bit smaller than the right one. I've fixed the eye texture to make him look look like he hasn't been sleeping for a quite a while. I'll look at the skin texture later. In any case, the finished version will have a beard, moustache, long hair, and a helmet so that not much of the skin is visible.

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09 August 2008

Reduced the unnatural black lining and added more specularity to the eyes. Also added a moustache and some [silly looking] thick eyebrows. The necromancer looks quite tame now, doesn't he? I didn't mean him to look docile but I don't know how to make him look evil. Any ideas?

 

[anetherond]

What material are you using for the skin and the eyes? Because it looks really bad. Also you must improve the textures of the skin and eyes. In order to achieve realistic skin, a color map is not enough. But it depends on the material you are using.

I don't think he can look evil with this kind of expression. When you are about to set up the blend shapes for the animation, make sure to make them so he will look evil.

 

[NatDis]

Blinn for both. But I don't think it's really causing problems with the skin. I'm not using reflections in his eyes because there won't be any close up shots but I don't want to lose the shines completely. I think I have corrected the specularity of the eye by reducing Eccentricity and cranking up the Specular Roll-off to Maximum. The new screenshot is taken at a distance closer than the minimum distance I will render the face with in the final animation. I've also made the left eye smaller to give him an even uglier look...