[CONCEPT ART] Oldtimer - Thunder Crash member

[Quotidian]

Feeling slightly inspired by the Character / Art All Call! thread, I dug up an old concept of mine. Disregard the armor, it would be the typical green of the Thunder Crash squad.



Here's a quick initial sculpt



Think I'm aiming for a mix between Ed harris and Helio Gracie.

[screenshot]http://www.graciebarra.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Helio-Gracie-11.png[/screenshot]

For some reason I like playing as old men in RPGs and such, and with some cybernetic enhancements and a lot of veteran experience, this guy could be formidable in the Tournament. Not sure if there's any existing character profile from the previous games that would fit him, so I guess he could be a new character?

[HenrikRyosa]

Hahaha, I'd totally play as that guy.

[Nouse4livE]

Dude needs a cigar!

[Bosch]

I'm think I'm aiming for a mix between Ed harris and Helio Gracie.

Nice idea. Ed Harris alone would do just fine.
You can make your sculpt more similar to references, if you'll make its nose and lips thinner.

[Quotidian]

Turns out adding wrinkles and detail is way harder/more time consuming than I thought.. and he suddenly started looking like Terry O'Quinn (Locke from Lost) ...don't really like that.



if anyone with a lot of knowledge about normal maps is reading the thread, how fine can you go with details on the high res model? The ztl files Epic provided are very detailed, but the scars on Malcolm's face look very exaggerated on the source mesh to me. Is that to make the details transfer over to the normal map or is it a stylistic thing? Do the wrinkles on my model need to be much more pronounced?

[Quotidian]

In terms of wrinkles, I'm eventually aiming for something kind of like this:



I'm kind of worried it will just end up as a noisy mess once the normal map gets baked etc.

Any thoughts/feedback?

[luisf]

Hey, I like your idea and what you have so far is already looking great. I actually think the amount of wrinkles you have right now is close to enough. Looking at the original concept and at the last photo you posted I get the impression you're going for someone that's maybe too old. The "oldtimers" who can still kick butt in games and, well, in fiction are probably mostly in their late 50's or 60's (this is where I think you are with your sculpt). I feel like the guy in your painting is closer to 80 or even 90. I can't help but think someone that old will look comical running at Usain Bolt speeds and doing air acrobatics, and that's probably not what you're going for. So, um, maybe refine the wrinkles you already have going but I wouldn't add too many more. If you really want to make him that old I guess he could have some kickass prosthetics, making him some bizarre cyborg (and I say bizarre in a positive way). Or maybe give him an exoskeleton, like in Elysium or Edge of Tomorrow.

[HenrikRyosa]

I think he needs forehead wrinkles and some eye creases, the weathered leathery looking skin of that bottom photo is good but should probably be done as a separate layer somehow so you can dial it in to where it needs to be in game.

I disagree with luisf though, super old may be comical but this is the future and what a dude's skin looks like doesn't necessarily have a bearing on his physical fitness in such a setting. Comical isn't always bad either, providing it fits in the style in every other way.

[Quotidian]

so my Intuos 4 tablet suddenly stopped working (usb device not recognized, the tablet doesn't even react when plugged in. It was working fine 1 minute before it stopped working. Seems to happen to other people and is likely a wiring problem. So I'm f'ed)... and I was enjoying myself too Can't afford to replace it, so I guess all my creative projects that involve the tablet are dead. I'm so sad.

[Mangley]

so my Intuos 4 tablet suddenly stopped working (usb device not recognized, the tablet doesn't even react when plugged in. It was working fine 1 minute before it stopped working)... and I was enjoying myself too Can't afford to replace it, so I guess all my creative projects that involve the tablet are dead. I'm so sad.

Try completely uninstalling all the tablet drivers and software and stopping all the tablet services in task manager, reboot, then do a fresh install of the tablet driver. Driver issues with Wacom tablets are sadly very common but they aren't difficult to fix unless it's a hardware failure. I find they are pretty sturdy though.

[luisf]

Hey Quotidian, are you running windows 7? I've had a lot of problems with the Wacom driver malfunctioning, have you tried simply reinstalling the driver or downloading a newer one? And when you say wiring problem, do you just mean the cable? Isn't it just a regular usb cabel that you could replace?
Really hope you can solve the problem, I wish you the best of luck.

[HenrikRyosa]

I doubt it's the tablet itself.

[Quotidian]

yeah, tried a bunch of stuff. Switching ports, another cable, uninstalling/reinstalling drivers. Downloaded a new driver though it was probably the same one as I already had. I'm on windows 8.1.

I'm going to try and plug it in on a different PC when I have the opportunity, but from reading things posted by other people with similar problems, it seems like the intuos has a tendency to just brick itself for some reason

[papercoffee]

it seems like the intuos has a tendency to just brick itself for some reason

What Intuos version is it? the newest one?
I have an Intuos 3 for ages now. And had only the common driver problems from time to time.

[Quotidian]

I've only been doing google searches related to intuos 4, since that's what I own