Warrior on Steed - Low poly game model

[ironikart]

I've had to drop my other projects in favour of some new game design models. I'm trying to flesh out my portfolio and I've started by modelling for an online competetion. The title is "warrior on steed" and so far I've modelled the basics for my "steed". I'm limited to 7000 triangles for both warrior and steed and so far it's at about 1800. It'll have 2 texture maps, 1 for the warrior and 1 for the steed, both at 1024x1024. This is the first low poly model I've ever attempted...

My idea is to have a polar bear type steed with an armoured warrior. Here is a quick render of the bear: (let me know what you think. Be as critical as you like... I'm re-doing the back legs at the moment because it looks a little like he is squatting. I want to have a slight bent leg to indicate the weight of the rider).

[mdipi]

the low poly look is sooo cool! that looks really good! i dont think the legs are that bad acctually. i donno it just looks really good

[replode]

that's cool.:)

btw, hows that Millenium Falcon you were making coming along?

[morse]

Howd you make this? Is there a good tutorial somewhere?

[Jubba]

Can I ban you?!

lol, its great, even at low poly. :) Love your work... :)

[eyeinfinitude]

Not too shabby, I like it. I can't wait to get my hands on Maya, I want to make cool animals and robots too!! :P

[mdipi]

cant you poly model in c4d? and he is using 3ds r4

[ironikart]

Originally posted by Replode
that's cool.:)

btw, hows that Millenium Falcon you were making coming along?

hehe, don't ask! I've had to restart it from scratch because of a few mesh anomalies that wouldn't let me use booleans without ruining the entire mesh. I'm going to get these low poly models out of the way first and then get stuck back into it.

Texturing this is alot harder than I thought... I'm attempting to unwrap the mesh so I can texture it properly, but I can't find the tool to split the edge so I can lay it flat. If anyone knows how to split edges apart in max let me know!

[eyeinfinitude]

Originally posted by mdipi.com
cant you poly model in c4d? and he is using 3ds r4

Yes I can with c4d, but I will be taking a 3D modeling class that uses Maya pretty soon so that's why I'm excited.

[ironikart]

I found how to split edges apart by using edit poly, unfortunately I failed in material mapping because after I unwrapped the mesh it couldn't find it's morph target to put the mesh back together :(!

I'm going to just try and put textures on it by unwrapping the UV's instead of the mesh... hopefully that'll work, it's just so tedious!

[ironikart]

Almost finished texturing the bear. I used UV's and sub-object mapping instead of unravelling the whole mesh. It turned out ok, but not as nice as I would have liked. Still a bit of tweaking to do. I'm going to texture the saddle and other details next and then model an armoured headpiece.

Can't wait to start on the warrior. I'm still undecided about whether to make it male or female, but I have some ideas on modelling the armour already.

[iLikePie]

that looks so cool.... you've really got talent for 3d stuff ironik
i recently started with maya, and it's so confusing... i have trouble with basic stuff, and you're talking about UV stuff and meshes and poly modelling, which all sound very complex and i have no idea what they are!

i think that if you made the rider a male, it could be really chunky and have bigger armour, but if it was a female, she would have sex appeal

actually, that didn't really help anything did it? i'm sure either way it will be sweet

Stuart

:thumb:

[PierceG]

Real nice.

[cybergold]

That is really nice texture Ironikart, I really like it, how did you make it?

[cybergold]

Hey Electron, wait till you see the environments you can acheive with Maya (I've only seen it in the movies) :thumb: . Anything is Possible :bounce: Do they sell a student version of the UNLIMITED version? If so, that would be Great! :beam:

[Soul]

Wow!!! :thumb: Love the new textured version, so real! Whens the warrior coming?

By the way EG, I love the new footer :beam:

- Soul :s:

[nobody]

thats amazingly good man
your so good at 3d
keep up the amazing work

[asphaltcowboy]

good work man! keep it up!

[eyeinfinitude]

Thanks soul =)

Cybergold, I don't know if they sell a student version or not, but most likely I'll be at school all day using their rendering setup since their computers are much faster.

[mdipi]

lol electron sets up a tent outside the class room....hehe i can see it! j/p man. Anthony! WOW!

[ironikart]

Another update with the headpiece and more texture work. For those that asked how I made this I'll do another render in wireframe. Hopefully that'll give you more of an idea. I also put an example of my texture map for this model in the bottom left hand corner. It's 1024x1024, which is fairly generous for a game model I gather.

Anyway, here is the update. I'll start on the warrior soon!

[replode]

lookin nice:thumb:

[ironikart]

...wireframe shot. Time to start the warrior now (-: I've got over 5000 triangles to spend still so I can add more detail where necessary.

[dr.ew]

ya, they do have an educational version of maya, we had it beginning of last year at my university...but there were a few glitches: they upgraded and we were using the full new version before november...this year theyre getting some new pcs to match, the old sgis just dont cut it nymore... took me 4 hours to render a 10 second robot animation.. (**** texture maps!!)

Electrongeek, you will totally dig maya! i look forward to seeing what you come up with ;)

[andr.in]

You should be making games! This is great!

[ironikart]

Originally posted by Syko
You should be making games! This is great!

I'm going to apply for some local positions when my portfolio is a bit more fleshed out. I'm an IT support consultant by trade, but hopefully I'll be able to break into game design and 3D modelling.

[Black_Lightning]

I think you could very well get a job in game design....

The model looks really cool

hope to see the warrior soon :)

[PierceG]

IS this warrior going to be an Eskimo type warrior? Or even human?
Excellent work so far.

[ironikart]

I'm struggling so far. I've gone through a few different concepts. I wanted an eskimo type (large coat, or furs), but I've been trying to incorporate some armour into the design... The objective for a fantasy type character so I have to add some more fantasy like characteristics. I think I might ditch the metal armour in favour of some leathery type armour... might be more natural looking.

[ironikart]

Acting on a few suggestions I've fixed up the steed. I'm in the process of re-mapping and redrawing the textures for the face. I've also given him fangs for that prehistoric Smilodon look. I think it adds an element of the nasty to him.

[prstudio]

it does, but perhaps his forhead should be higher? looks mean in the teeth, but soft and furry in the head

[s-fx]

Aww, I liked the polar steed as it was without fangs :) Reminds me of warcraft 3 :sigh: Except that the rider of THAT polarbear was actually a PANDA with a big kinda "samurai" fighting stick and a "rice hat" (whatever you call those things the people who work at ricefields use :P). Anyways, it looks really good!

[morse]

actually, i think i liked the first polar bear. The rider should have a long spear.

[asphaltcowboy]

Originally posted by morse
The rider should have a long spear. he'd have to if he wanted to hit anything from on top of that thing!

:smirk:

[PierceG]

I prefered him without the fangs. The great thing about polar bears is that they look so huge and powerful, but have a softness to them as well. A nice contrast.

[Black_Lightning]

i agree, if you want to give it fangs i suggest start over and make a sabertooth tiger.... or keep this one and also make the tiger ;)

[PierceG]

Or two tigers! And a moth!

[ironikart]

hehe... due to overwhelming advice I'll ditch the fangs :( - lucky its way easier to delete geometry than add it!

[mdipi]

yeah the fangs just didnt fit right, but be sure to keep the head gear! that is dope! man you should write some tuts. please!

[ironikart]

The headgear didn't fit in with the whole polar look. I've had to ditch it. I'll try and make something else that looks cool though.

[mdipi]

i thought it fit in real nice cause you know the bags complemented it.

[ironikart]

It'll still have head gear, but I'll model it with higher poly's and a bit more attention to detail (Looks like I'm gonna have a few poly's to play with when this is finished, so I'll be putting some more detail in). Thanks for the spear suggestion, I think I'll give the warrior spears, and perhaps a bow and arrow...

[replode]

uuuummmmmmm...

you could make a battle scene or something with a whole bunch of them.:crazy: or just keep it simple:)

[c!rYx]

ironikart , get a job, they take you everywhere, i bet...

[ironikart]

This is the warrior, just blocked in at this stage. Looks like I'm going too far under the poly limit so I can add alot more detail. Unfortunately its easier to delete, rather than add! I decided on a female character from an older concept sketch. It's not welded at this stage as I work on making it look a little better (and add feet and hands). My concept sketch was "willowy" so she looks like a bit of a stick. I wanted that contrast between the warrior and the bear though.

[.soulty]

Hey dude, sorry I'm late to the show, been working my butt off at work. The models look nice, especially the texture on that polar, nice work.

The warrior is looking interesting, be intresting to see it progress. :thumb:

[mdipi]

wow man! that is looking GREAT!

[cybergold]

Wow Ironik, you are really creative! That is great work! :beam:

[ironikart]

Another update on the warrior. She doesn't have hair yet, or the rest of her armour, but it's getting there. I'm going to start texturing so I know how much armour I can make with the texture space available. I find people hard to do... Hope this one turns out!

BTW - thanks everyone for the positive comments. You should check out the other entries in this though... mine is right down the bottom in terms of quality. Sumea competition (http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=18)

[ironikart]

A quick texture test...

[PierceG]

There's a Playstation-like quality to these low polygon models...