Sept/Oct- Noob - THX1138
 

Ok, I have finially forced my self to finially enter a challenge. I'm going to do the Snake from Konami's Life Force, It's a 1988 NES release. I didn't notice any 3D conversion of this game to date, and I checked alot of Google sites. I hope this entry qualifies.

And here is a screen shot of the character.

cool, I remember copying that cover when I was a kid. Whoever did the artwork had a nice style :)

good luck!

Thanks, I'm going to give it a try. I plan to give the snake a trans-organic look ( metal on the outside organic on the inside ), and give it some nice litttle features that will hopefully make it an eye catcher. The only thing I'm not sure about is how to present it. I know I don't want to present it as a standard game model, so I'm going to give it a bump map and some other stuff. I hope the result will look satisfactory.

Well, here is the first of many wip's on this project. I hope this project turns out well. I will post a concept sketch soon as I am still working on it.

Latest update. Sorry I haven't posted much, I'm only working on it a few days out of the week. I really haven't done much to the model in terms of modeling. I started adding a little to the body today. I have been more focused on developing the metal and lumanance textures so far. I still have a bit more modeling to do.

This stylish WIP pic just shows the metal finish I'm working on. I'm still working on the concept sketch.

Another angle.

Update.

Here is a concept sketch of what I'm trying to achieve.

Just a opnion.
You could take him out from being a snake but not taking out the idea of it, making his body like muscler for his chest, without shoulder and arms, abdominal part, and from the pelvis do directly to his rest of tail like body.

Thats a very intresting idea, but I think I'm going to stick with the snake motiff, and with my lack of modeling skills, a snake is the easiest thing for me to work with. Right know I'm having trouble with the jaw area. I really have no technique for it. So I have been doing endless google searches for model refferences and tut's, and so far I haven't found hardly anything.

Thanks again for the reply! :attn:

groovy metallic shader :)

Here's a couple of reference pics, I especially like this first one

and some more

Thanks for the reply and the pics. I really need some help on modeling the jaw area ( in the open position to show it's fangs ). Have any techniques on how to?

I'm going to use a different metal shader than the one pictured. That shader is not very light friendly.

I remember a demo i had a lot of time ago from a game called lifeforce tenka, it was an FPS and ,of course, in 3d but all i can remember is big polygons and huge pixels (one of the first games for playstation).

I couldnt see any snake in that demo. Maybe that snake could be a boss?

Good luck with your modeling!

What have you tried so far? Modeling the inside surface of anything can be very frustrating and disorienting at times. Try using extrude face and just take your time sorting the verts as you go. Use Xray mode and switch your view often to keep a handle on how things progress. Post a screenshot too:)

So far I have only tried box modeling ( extruding faces ), and single poly modeling, and single poly modeling is very time consuming. I guess I will explore more areas on box modeling. It looks like the only practical way for me to work with.

Thanks again for the help.

Update.

Ok, here is the start of a new snake head. Finially got the jaw figured out.

Update.

Starting to rough in the shape of the head.

Nice job shaping the head!

Update.


Roughing in the lower jaw. Starting to look more like a snake now.

Thanks swankymonkey!

It looks a little gekko like at the moment but no doubt that'll change.

Looking sweeet, I like how its developing :)

Yeah it looks a little Gekko right know because of how I modeled the eyes, but rest assured that will change. It's still in it's rough stages. I'm working on the inside of the mouth right know. After that comes the fine tuning. Thanks for the comment!

Looking good so far, nice and clean. Keep up the good work, only thing I would say is what others have and that is just to define the snake shape more. Again great job and keep up the good loops and geometry!

Update.

Starting to fine tune the head a bit. Looking alot more like a snake now. Here is a low rez shot.

A smoothed version.

And here is a version with temporary fangs.

definately looking better :)

dont know whether its the angle but its eyes look slightly too forward facing in the last render

The eyes are facing forward a bit to match the bridge of the nose as it tapers off to a point. Two of those snake refferences you posted share the same feature. I guess I can change it if I get too many complaints, but until that happens, I'm keeping it as it is.

Thanks for the reply, I'm glad you like the progress. :)

ah, thats it, the eye sockets aren't as inset into the head as the reference pics. That is by no means wrong though as some species will be like that :)
Just an observation

Thanks for the observation! I'm going to make the eye balls fuller to better fit the sockets. Right know I'm searching refferences on the mouth to work from. Hope to post results in a few days when I'm not busy with other stuff.

Update.

Working more on the mouth, and added the horns. The tongue is next. Didn't think it would have tooken me so long to model such a simple character. Got to get this thing done pretty soon. I still have the body to do, then the texturing, which should be fun to do.

Here is a render via MR with some directional lighting.

Ok, this head is basicly finished.I did model a tounge, but it did not look good with the model. It was a distraction. I will go back to the head in the end to do a little bit of sculpting around the mouth. Now on to the body.

I like the mental ray render. Nice horny projections too, it'll be good to see how the body turns out :)

Thanks for the reply! Glad you like the progress. I'm going to have horns down his whole body. They won't be as large as the ones on his head, but they will compliment them. This is a change from my original idea. They will make it look more menacing. Thanks again for the reply.:)

very cool, you have really improved this model from the beggining!
that render in MR is very well. I hope we can see the full body soon

Thanks for the reply Legolas_hv, I don't get many here, but then again I never begged anyone to, heh. Yeah, with that first one, I was aiming to go directly off the game art, and only giving my spin to a small fraction. My only boggle with the first attempt was modeling the lower jaw area. There was not a practical way to do it. This second one only resembles the origional in concept only.

Thanks again, Glad you like the progress!

To get a more menacing look you should think about increasing the size or the brow (up and out). Maybe reference some viper or rattlesnake pics. Some of them have a very intense 'stare'.

I agree on the quality of your progress. Keep it up, dude!

Dave

Thanks for the reply swankmonkey! I see what you mean. I refferenced many rattle snake pics and some python pics. Both of which are evident in the model allready. I guess it could use more menacing brows, but before I sculpt different brows, could you look at this better MR render and give me a second impression, if you don't mind ? By the way the lighting in the pic is getting close to final concept.

Thanks again for the reply and I'm glad you like the progress!:)

Your new lighting is a big improvement! You're getting some nice contrasts. Are you going to keep it black and white or are your gonna go for some warm and cool colored lighting for added effect?