April Challenge_Lo PolyCharacter_Stwert
 

Okay, I think I'll give this one a go...
I don't play very many video games, but I thought I'd try mashing together a couple of my favorite game serieses, resulting in Gordon Wormman. Yeah Team17 meets Valve. Hope I can do it justice.

Edit: D'oh! Of course it's Gordon Freeworm.

Edit after the challenge is over: I didn't realize one of the rules was to post a image of the character to be redesigned, so here 'tis

Here's a quick start... haven't really done much organics, so any advice on the topology would be appreciated before I get too far into it. Not sure how to direct the top of the head. At the moment it goes straight over the top with two kites on the sides (if that makes any sense).
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/9503/wormwip01.png

Good start mate....another for the FAQ?? are you rendering with wires? I know you can turn contours on I assume this is it?

cheers bullet

I cant help with box modelling as I stopped doing that a long time ago. But the best advise I can give is keep using the 1 button and 3 button to keep your mest tidy. If you only use the 3 button you can end up in a mess..........dave

Thanks bullet... yep, that's contours comped over ambocc... think that might be a bit advanced for the FAQ, but we'll see. I know ctbram did a nice little explanation in some thread a while back with a soda can, that's where I learned it.

Dave, thanks for the advice; I'm not sure if I'll even use the smooth preview much since game characters won't be smoothed in engine, right? But we'll see how it goes.

I dont think this is a create a game engine model stwert but your take on that......dave

Fair enough dave, I'll keep switching between 1 and 3 and see where it takes me.

Just wanted to share a nice tip I came across maybe I'll post it in Tips and Tricks if anyone else thinks it's useful. So: I don't know if other people use a curve to extrude, then it's a pain in the @$$ to select the curve again cause it's in the middle of the geometry? (Besides using selection masks) Well, Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences > Selection tab > Priority Presets Custom > set NURBS Curve Priority higher, like 5 or 10. Now the selection priority is higher so I can more easily grab that elusive curve. Yay! Update coming soon.

Thanks stwert.....joey81 just gave me a run-down and I have saved his tips in my Maya tips folder on my PC...I am making a habit now of copy/paste tips into notepad and saving them for use with the author/tip as file name...quite handy and saves writing it down.

cheers bullet

Good tip mate....

Some progress...
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/403/wormwip02.png

that's a good tip. I've always had to go inside the thing to select the curve or just move the extruded shape somewhere else

are you going to give it a gravity gun?

Sorry, do you mean the zero-point energy field manipulator? Haha, yeah, we'll see if I have time. I figured the crowbar would be more classic, but that's a good suggestion.

Worm + gaming resulted in Earthworm Jim in my mind but this brings back vague memories. You have 16k polys to play with so splurge Stew, add that gravity gun! :ninja:

Yeah, I wondered if Earthworm Jim might be inferred, but I've never played it. There's only one worming series in my mind... I played Worms Armageddon, Worms World Party, Worms 4 Mayhem a ton, and now Worms Reloaded (which isn't as good as the old ones). The gravity gun brought to mind an idea for an animation, so I'm gonna go for it, but no promises on how far I get :P

Some more work on the worm... this won't be his expression, Gordon never got scared of no headcrabs.
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/9499/yikesambocc.png

A little under 1000 quads with everything together... the gravity gun alone is gonna be a few thousand I think :D

that. is. awesome.

Go the gun mate!!! gotta be done...yeh Gen I remember earthworm Jim too....not so much worms.

cheers bullet

Thanks guys... haha, alright, I'm doing the gun. Got some refs and I'm planning to do some full-on lasery dynamics. I'll probably finish the worm and the HEV suit first, since that's critical to the final piece.

haha love the expression on your last image, keep it up!

Man, I'm having so much fun with this... don't really know if it's any good, but it's just a blast to do :P
http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/1...onambocc01.png

The HEV suit is gonna be a bit of a trick, trying to figure out how to translate the various bits on the human version to this dinky little worm version... haha.

And I'm SO doing a headcrab... if I have time.

LOL thats cool mate! dig it man

Hey Stwert,

Looking great, I love Worms too, and the games! lol
It definitely looks like a lot of fun to do, making me want to join in now, wish I had enough time to!
Are you going to make an army helmet for him?
With the amount of time left you could probably make an assortment of clothes and weapons to choose for your final entry, good luck mate!

Thanks guys!
Dango, good to hear from someone else who likes Worms... seems like not very many people played them, haha. This is supposed to be the worms version of Gordon Freeman (of Half-life fame), so I'm styling it that way.

I have to finish modelling the suit, and make the gravity gun, along with all the texturing and tweaking. I'm not sure yet whether I should make the facial hair using geo or texture. Gordon doesn't have too much hair, so maybe texture, but then again in worms, mustaches and things are generally extra geo.

Very much worms (well done) but as you said some ways before we see gordon - great work

Thanks tweety... hopefully I can get the gordon look before too long.

I am a worms fan myself. This is coming along well.
I really want to start a thread myself...but got to find the time.
What's the polycount on this so far?

Thanks RockyMills, if you find the time, go for it! You can always pick something reasonably simple that will only take a few hours here and there to finish to your liking.

The poly count on this is probably somewheres in the range of 1200 quads. Still have lots to play with.

Man this is a really awesome spin on the two games. Keep up the good work!

Thanks CGWolfgang... I appreciate it.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/29/...un02ambocc.png

And a FPS view...
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/3...un01ambocc.png

Still needs a lot of work, I want to make it look quite cartoony, like the weapons in Worms 4 Mayhem (that's the game I'm aiming for).

And I couldn't resist a little pose with the gun... although nothing's finished here. Gun's a little big, maybe... :D
http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/5...un01ambocc.png

LOL sweet mate...Im loving this character man

:) looking good.

Started doing a bit of texturing for something different this weekend, and I've got the crowbar close to done I think. It seems like there's not too many "Photoshop for model texturing" tutorials around, which I'm sure has different skills than regular digital painting or photo manipulation. Any ideas? Comments are appreciated too :).
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/843/crowbar01.png

Oh yeah, I probably won't keep the blood on the end as it's not that way in the games.

Actually, after looking at the selection of texturing tuts here, looks like there may be some here, but they're all organic it looks like. Would be good to have a tutorial on hard surface stuff, like rust, dirt, weathering, metal and plastic, etc etc.

There was a bit of texturing tips etc in the jerrycan challenge stwert, have a look in there mate.

Cheers bullet

Quick metal in PS...create simple light grey...then add noise...add a shear...thats about it from memory.

Hi Stwert
I dont know how meny polys you have used so far but I think you need some more edge loops in there, If you have photoshop you should create texture in different layers (im looking at your crow bar), A metal layer (create a layer then fill with dark gray then use filter craulate and then motion blur). Then I would create a layer for your red colour but to get a effect of difference between the red and the metal double click on the layer to bring up the effects panel choise outer glow then choise a very dark colour. in another layer do the blood.........hope this helps.....dave

Thanks Dave. Regarding the edge loops, are you talking about the crowbar specifically, or the worm? Or everything... the crowbar's the only thing I was thinking was done, but looking at it again, I suppose I could smooth off the curves of it.

I am using layers for the texturing, but I will give your filters and effects a try. Thanks for the advice.

I was talking about the main worm and the crow bar ( use the bevel tool if you can aforded to it will do most of the work for you but you might need to clean the mesh after) the gun looks good as is. I dont think you are allowed to use the 3 button now..........dave

I think you're still well under the poly limit, and what the game would probably allow for one worm, so I think you can add a bit more geometry to the hands and see if you can do something about the funny-ness caused by the soft edges you got there.