Boots and lace

I found it quiet interesting that with the volume of modeling tutorials for so many objects there are not many tutorials for modeling laces for shoes, boots, sneakers etc... I might have to write a quick tutorial to aid aspiring 3D artists in creating an optimal look,using as few polygons as possible. Although I did find a tutorial for modeling a boot in silo at http://www.silo3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15999&page=2 Here is a quick test render for an ankle boot I created with laces in 3Ds Max.

Facial sculpting

The model was created in 3DS Max and the character sculpted of course in Z-brush at 5 subdivision levels. I will take a look at how the normals look when applied to the face and body. but it looks like I might export the character back into Max at sub division level 2 for the body and face since they carry a more pronounced silhouette of the character, however the lower one is great for LOD applications or low poly game work as originally started.

Funny thing is when you try something different it can be fantastic or blow up in your face. Here is a test I tried sculpting half of a face for the supporting body below. I thought I would try my hand at creating an afro for the hair but it seems that the effect works better when you use individual planes for the hair and duplicate the hair and use alphas. But since this is to be an in game character I went with the easiest and fastest approach. i will have to see how this goes as it progresses.

Sculpting from low res mesh

Here is the sculpt of the character shown below @ what was around 1,200 plus polygons. Personally I like creating a low res mesh or even a higher res mesh and sculpt for the details this is the progress so far done overnight. I think I might take this higher and now I like the high res better than the low poly but high and low all depend on what platform you plan on running or using in game. I will start work on the face and hair today sometime.

uv and checkers

I love the look of checkers when they line up on the model correctly. Here is the low poly model with half uvs the other of course will be duplicated after the texturing process.

Low poly

Low poly characters are still used although with the advent of next-gen high resolution characters it is still possible to create a low poly character and a mid or high poly character for the use of animatics or still frame in game sequences. This
model was inspired by the movie resident evil extinction. I will continue this piece in all the appropriate workflow to create detail maps and normals to overlay for the texturing even with all weapons this character comes in pretty light.

Color maps

Learning how to model and sculpt are only two parts of a three part equation when it comes to creating a next-gen or portable game model, laying down good color structure and reference is paramount to getting the best looking model. Here is the primary texture sheet with a few colors applied no lights and a face reference render to make sure all seams line up, or are not visible.