warrior concept

[moose o death]

not an erfworld thing but the forum says it doesn't need to be. and i figure this community is a good place to ask given the mutual interest in erfworld

anyway, something i'm working on requires fantasy style characters. given i guess many users here are into wargames and others are into good art, i was lookin for some constructive crits.

warriorconcept.jpg (198.51 KiB) Viewed 4904 times

just on the clothing design etc. be brutally honest, no-one gets better by getting their arse kissed. (kicked on the other hand...)

edit: changed the size and compressed more to utilise the boards built in thumbnail setup..also added the ranger concept

rangerconcept.jpg (168.86 KiB) Viewed 4904 times

[Mikalyaran]

Cool drawings man.

[Hhean]

I like the work on these guys.

As for feedback...

Are they grunts or main characters? What are the characters for? (I can understand if you don't want to go into detail on that one, though I assume they are initial concepts for something that will be made as a 3D model judging by the text?). Who are they, and what do they do?

As is, they are good looking characters, though I don't have any idea what you're working towards with the feedback.

[atteSmythe]

For the warrior, I like the leather around the waist, and I love that you're actually adding the strapping.

The size of the spaulder/top lame of the pauldron looks a bit WoW-y to me. Blizzard does love a good spaulder. Given the note about the bone, I imagine you're making the top lame big enough to cover the lack of an actual spaulder. May be a good compromise!

The knee of the armor isn't jointed. Between the length of the upper leg armor and the boot, I'm concerned that it only looks right because the model's leg is straight. When he bends that knee, the top of the boot will stand up, and the joint will be completely exposed...you'll probably cover it in mail, but that's backwards - armor evolved to cover the joints first, slowly adding sheets of mail outward, and leaving mail underneath. Elbows have a bit of the same. I imagine it's something to do with animating the characters that has driven fantasy armor design this way, but it always kind of jumps out at me - don't know if it's something you'd care to address.

The upper leg armor is visually tied to the bracer via the 'border' that each has. Perhaps continue that tie-in to the solid center ridge?

Alternately, I think it's the bracer that's throwing me off a bit - everything else is overlapped and strappy, but the bracer is sleek and whole-formed.

Your helm is somewhere between a salet and a barbute. The T-faced barbute's always a favorite because it leaves the character's face visible, but IMO your design is crying out for a salet and bevor. If you don't go with a bevor, consider bringing the neckline of the chest piece up. Like Hhean said, though, it really depends on what they're going to be used for.

And, of course, take all of this only as requested criticism given by someone without a lick of artistic talent of his own!

Edit:
I like the ranger. Good fantasy ranger. The collar on the mantle/capelet is a nice touch, and while I've seen that style of boot a lot, I think it works really well on this design.

[moose o death]

OK that's alot of good information to keep in mind, i'm not real happy with the warrior concept as it was so i'll defenitely go work it over.

there is other chracters as well one of which is a female ranger. i mention it now as i started modelling with her (i had a blank woman to use, we need archery earlier than magic and combat, boobs are fun)
so here she is for now

ranfwip.jpg (109.45 KiB) Viewed 4382 times

...somewhat late to modify too much but i'm still open to suggestions. i'll scrap days of work for a really good idea.

now the reasoning behind the shoulders all being seperate is a practical limitation of animation. when you move your arm your skin stretches, in an animated model the same happens, but unlike your body the skin is simply where i place it. there is no internal parts to hold it in place. the only control i really have is adjusting how strongly one "bone" affects a certain point. this comes to a head at the shoulders where you need near full hemispherical rotation at two pivot points. by having a seperate pauldron mesh i can move it around more easily but also hide some things happening underneath that don't look great.

i'm sure you've all seen video games where shoulders do things they don't look like the should've. that is why.

your not the first person to tell me to cover the joints up, the issue i see is the weapons are pretty much fatal regradless i prefer the idea of maintaining full mobility the plates and hardened protection are more for stray arrows than swords in the game they will be in. unlike our history i have magic to dodge as well.

for the moment i'm avoiding armoured joints, but the warrior redesign (male and female) may change that.

[Secret]

I like them!
Unfortunately I'm not an artist or a costume designer so I can't give you more in the way of feedback...but I like the two rangers better.

[moose o death]

she's still evolving, head changed shape, she is now coloured, boobs got reduced to something semi realistic. numerous small adjustments to things like collar bones, shoulder blades and tricep size.

next step is getting the high polygon and the textures out of z brush, i can usually only get one or the other not both.

RANF2WIP.jpg (69.96 KiB) Viewed 4347 times

[moose o death]

background art is not mine, i can do better, that grass is horrible.

Untitled-3.jpg (225.15 KiB) Viewed 4235 times

there she is in an early in engine test. she will have hair eventually. i'm just avoiding more research required for it too happen.

[Happyvampire]

hahahaahahahahha the picture looks a little funny, with all of the clones standing with eyes closed and arms out. :D:D
anyway, the boobs look a little weird, but maybe it's just me.
are you going to add a cloak/cape? any bucklers on forearms or extra fabric around elbows? is the color scheme going to be grey and brown, or, since she's a ranger, green and brown?
and if she's a ranger, i would think she would need long sleeves to act as a buffer from thorn bushes, sticks and leaves on trees.

[moose o death]

yeah the boobs went funny on export i have since then fixed that. however it's pretty likley we're doing something more user defineable for characters. so she gets dropped on the dead art pile. the programmers need a test world so i've been working on that.

[Sieggy]

If you want to know more about armor, armor construction, and how it's actually used in combat, go to http://www.armourarchive.org/, which is a site by and for armorers. This is not theoretical armor, LARP, or fantasy armor, it's for medieval re-creationists who build & fight in the stuff on a regular basis. For more general info on constructing armor that won't bind or bite you, do a YouTube search for 'SCA Armor', or if you want some interesting shots, look for 'SCA Fighting', or SCA Pennsic'.