Feedback Please - Nariko, Heavenly Sword Attempt (WIP)

[system]

Hey everyone,

So I need some help with my modeling. I am definitely not a character artist by any means, but I love ZBrush and after playing through Heavenly Sword recently, I decided to try and model Nariko since she’s now a favorite character of mine. I’ve never posted on here before because I did not want to disgrace all the amazing artists here on ZBrush Central with my poor attempts at modeling, so please forgive me for my noobness.

Anyway, please provide me with feedback regarding my anatomy thus far with Nariko. I’ve been using quite a bit of reference, going back and forth from real anatomy and shots of Nariko, but I feel that I still might have quite a bit of work left. If you could, please disregard the hands and head as I’ve yet to really work on those areas much. I was having some trouble with her face, so if anyone had any recommendations as to how I could approach that area, I would greatly appreciate it.

I am attempting to make Nariko a bit more defined, since I believe that her character was somewhat “soft” for the role she played, at least in my opinion. I’ve also begun work on her clothing, but I’m not sure if I’m going about the process correctly. I’m pretty much masking off areas and then extracting the pieces and going from there. My plan is to do all of this in ZBrush, but I could use external programs like Max or Maya if most think it’s better, similar to this tutorial: Max Cloth for Zbrush
My poly count is getting pretty high for my computer (around 12mil atm) so I have to be careful.

I’m attaching images of progression thus far, as well as a turntable video link (below) just to give all angles. The turntable includes some updates I did to the stomach area this morning, but otherwise it’s the same.

Youtube Video Link

Thanks in advance to anyone who’s able to provide me with feedback. I really appreciate it. There’s roughly 6-7 weeks left for me to complete this (school assignment), so hopefully I’ll have the time.

Main reference

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[HD_CG_ADDICT]

Firstly don’t worry about seeming noobish every one has to start some where.

My advise would be to take a step back from trying to define the muscles and maybe even drop to your lowest sub d. from there really try to nail the proportions before moving on; at the moment your character is quite masculine in appearance.
Subtlety is every thing when It comes to modelling the female form, I know you don’t want to make her as soft as she is in the game but even very athletic women are generally far less defined muscularly (with the exception of female body builder). If your not already doing so try to keep reference images of Nariko in sight as you are sculpting as this will allow you to see more easily where your going wrong (or right).

Once you are happy with the proportions step up in sub d levels slowly addressing the form at each level; only moving up when your satisfied that you can not make the changes you want with out more polygons.
If you reach a point where adding polygons is slowing down your machine to much think about changing the topology of your model. Efficient topology will make defining forms much simpler and will require less polygons to do so.

Hope this helps

[system]

Thank you for your reply HD CG ADDICT. Everything you’ve recommended is very helpful. I was referencing some female body builders in order to get the correct muscle structure down, haha, but I will see if I can soften things up a bit to make the model look more feminine.

Really appreciate your time, so thanks again.

[Sparky3d]

Its a really good start, i like the detail in the legs,

The head is bugging me a bit, its seems a little to big, and also the fingers need fattening up as they look to skinny

[system]

Thank you Sparky3d. So far it seems that the legs are my best part, haha, as I’ve heard similar comments from others I’ve asked.

I mentioned that I hadn’t worked on the hands or head really yet, but I’ll definitely keep your comments in mind when I get to those portions.

Thanks again for your feedback. I appreciate it. I’m really enjoying working on this project.

[Sparky3d]

I would also suggest , give her bigger Boobs

[system]

Hahahaha. I’ll see what I can do, haha.

[Sparky3d]

Inflate those beauties hahaha

[aurfax]

Hi insipidus. I believe what cg addict mentioned is the best advice right now for you. Don’t worry right now about muscle definition or detail. Just go back to basics and check your proportions and silhouette. I drew some lines over your render for a simple critique. Check your line of action on your character, the rhythm of your silhouette curves. I realized your proportions were off once I started to draw on your front view render ones. So recheck all that and then you can advance on your planes and further anatomy aspects. Hope this helps and keep it up.

[system]

Thanks for the comments aurfax and for taking the time to do that. I really appreciate it.

I actually brought into ZBrush that reference I posted above on an image plane and literally sculpted my mesh to the proportions of the drawing, so that is where I got my front silhouette from initially. I bent her head forward in order to get the same angle as the drawing and attempt to obtain the facial structure from it as well. I had a tough time doing so though, as her face is nothing near what it should look like, imo anyway. In the reference she is also walking towards the viewer, but I kept the pose closer to a t-pose in order to have an easier time modeling. I will transpose the mesh at the end of the project, but what pose specifically I don’t know yet, haha. Probably will stick with the reference to begin with at least.

I’ve done a few adjustments here and there since my last post, and I’m going to try and work on her some more tomorrow. I’ll try and share an update for those who are interested if I do get to work on her. Really helps a ton aurfax, so again thank you .

[aurfax]

Hey Insipidus, not a problem. I’m just trying to help another fellow artist. Now regarding about sculpting into a pose, it’s not easy and requires a lot of practice and skill. I’ll recommend for you to help yourself with some symmetry as a start. Then once you get your model’s basic structure right, then transpose it to the desire pose you want it. This will help you out a lot to get right all those proportions and landmarks. Then, once you transpose all you have to do is some more finessing and tweaking. Another little tip I’ll give you is to practice a lot doing gestures, either in zbrush or just with paper and pencil. This will help you a lot with good silhouettes. All right insipidus, good luck.

[system]

Thanks aurfax. Yeah, I’ve had trouble posing in the past, but I’m determined to give it another shot and hopefully come out with something interesting. Guess we’ll see when I get there, but for now this symmetrical pose will do for modeling. Thanks for the gesture tip as well. I don’t get much time to do this type of stuff with production, level design/modeling, and other game fun going on, but one can’t forget about the basics. Thanks again.

Attaching a small update that I did today. I just “softened” the muscle tone a bit on the upper body, widened her hips a touch, messed with her hands and feet, and added her headband thing. Oh, I also worked on her face too. She seems to have this weird pouty face, thin and angry eyes that are similar to Angelina Jolie’s, and a unique round head. It’s different, which I guess is another reason why I like her. I have quite a bit of decent reference though, which is definitely helping. I’m curious who the the artist who created Nariko referenced, if anyone.

Comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated. One more thing. If anyone can figure out how her hand wraps are done, please let me know. I was staring at those things for a little while tonight, but couldn’t figure out how the overall wrap and particularly the palm-side was completed. Thanks in advance.

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[system]

Right now you off to a good start. I would say right now continue to refine the proportions on the face like the eyes in relation to where everything is located on the face. Also on the rest of the body, her shoulders are look a a little broad compared to her waist and thighs. Don’t worry too much about wrinkles and small details or expressions, get her proportions down and continue to build the form. Good luck man I’m going to be watching this one

[system]

Thanks jmlg3d. I’ll mess with the shoulders and continue to work on the proportions of the model for sure. I think I’m getting closer with the face, but I’ll keep at it.

Thanks a ton for the feedback. I appreciate it.

[system]

Here are a few updates, for anyone who’s interested. Since my last post I’ve messed with the proportions of Nariko’s body, widening the hips and shrinking her upper body a bit. I also changed her breasts, softened her overall muscle tone, and played around with her height. I’m sure there were a few other adjustments to her body that I’m forgetting at the moment. As you can tell, I’ve also added the wraps on her hands (took me a while to figure out how to do 'em) and a “block out” of hair, just to get an idea of the overall look going.

Obviously there’s still a looooong way to go, but I feel that this is going in the right direction (at least in my mind) and I’m building some confidence as I continue to work on it. By all means, anyone and everyone please continue to provide feedback and suggestions. The more the better. I kind of feel like detailing some of the armor pieces next, but I’m not sure yet. We’ll see how I feel next time I work on her

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to view my work.

YouTube Video Link of Turntable

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[Sparky3d]

Your showing really good progress with this

[system]

Thank you Sparky! I appreciate that.

[Shockblade]

I like the work on nariko i really like how its comeing out.

[system]

Thanks a lot Shockblade! This character modeling stuff is pretty tough, but I’m having a lot of fun with it. ZBrush makes it so enjoyable. Just gotta keep working at it.

Thanks again!

[system]

Hey everyone, so here’s another update to the Nariko model I’ve been working on. This time around I painted her hand straps, part of her belt, and the thing around her midsection. I also changed the color of her headpiece, added her leg pieces and her arm band (not pictured), and painted her sandals. Finally, I changed her face again because I felt it still wasn’t close enough to Nariko’s. It’s better I think, but just like everything else, there’s still work to be done.

Comments and critiques are greatly appreciated, so if anyone sees something weird or thinks I’m missing something up to this point, please let me know. Oh!! I can’t figure out that design on her hip plate piece thing. I have a ton of reference and can make some of it out, but it’s really tough. If anyone knows what the design is/has an image with it handy, I would love for you to share it.

Thanks to everyone for viewing.

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