Sijun Forums :: View topic - You don't have to be slim to be beautiful

dkimblad · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2001 10:39 am

I modeled this just for fun but my imagination ran out, as you can see.
Any suggestions for possible employment for this guy? He needs some more details.
Should he have scales or skin?
c&c please.

Bilbo · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2001 1:07 pm

i really like it so far, the head looks great! the arms need some tweaking, most of it looks like a smoothed box right now.. the hands and feet also need some more definition.
a general tip for adding detail- use reference.. even unrelated photographs can help get some ideas flowing.
i once read an interesting article about character design, (unfortunately i can't remember the name of the author or even where i read it).. what it basically suggested is that you should start with a random global choice, and then expand your options from there. for example- decide about the employment or habitat of your character/creature, and based on that you can create a myriad of information and visual details. (for example- lets say that
your creature lives underwater and lives by hunting enormous whales. this opens up a very large number of questions - what/how does it breath , how does it move, how does it communicate, how does it hunt, etc.. and all of these questions have to be given an answer within the limitations posed by the basic general decleration.)
took me a while, but i noticed that i write too much here. sorry.

LoTekK · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2001 1:42 pm

bilbo, i believe you're referring to don seegmiller's lecture on character design at the 1999 (or 2000) game developers conference... i can't find it on his website (www.seegmiller-art.com), and the copy i have on my hard disk is downstairs on my laptop... i'll try and upload it to my webspace later tonite after i finish my astronomy final...

and btw, it's a damned good lecture...

dkimblad · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2001 5:03 pm

Actually, many people suggest that. Bill Fleming have a whole chapter about it in his book "3D Creature Workshop". It's kind of why I wrote that thing about possible ideas for employment. Believe me, I have read enough. I'm just fishin' for ideas.

I haven't begun the detail modeling yet. I model the same way I paint. I start with the big picture and work myself down to the details (except when I model faces).
Here you are, about an hour of work: