Zombie Fathers of America

[bmilos420]

Here's my thread for this. I also posted in "Brainstorming Ideas" thread....

I'll tweak the style to fit better, and add Ben Franklin to the mix. So far its Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, and George Washington.

[jnguyen3d]

Haha! Brendan, these are great. I'm liking what you're doing with the mandibles.. I'd love to model Jefferson.

[DrEvizan]

Ah, the wooden teeth nice touch. I think Washington should be dragging an axe.

[Scott_TallChair]

These guys are awesome!

The only comment that I can say on these is that we don't want to make them too recognizable as specific presidents. From what I see here, if we just removed Lincoln from the line-up Jefferson and Washington would be fine - they are obviously modeled after the presidents, but if we saw a horde of them shambling towards us it wouldn't necessarily be too hard to believe. A horde of Lincolns though would look sort of repetitive - he's just too distinctive of a figure.

The other guys though, should be fine - it will look like all the guys that signed the Declaration of Independence have been turned into zombies and their after our brains!

[bmilos420]

So you're looking for models that can be instanced many times, and won't look too repetitive?

I'll make some more general variations of whig and federalist party looking zombies then if this is the case....thanks for the tip!

[bmilos420]

I revised the Zombie Fathers of America to match with the art direction better.

From left to right: Paul Revere, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Ben Franklin.

I could add more detail, but I had to stop myself. Let me know where I can improve before I start modeling....

[dabu]

Those are awesome. Can you crank out a series of four civil war cavalry soldiers in this style?

Also, for future ref, would be good to see some quick line orthos for each, side and front. Can do?

fingers will probably be mits, given the tri budget...

[bmilos420]

I'll get those four cavalry for you by tonight, orthos will have to be later tho.

Any special requests in those designs?

[dabu]

I'd just get a set of soldiers that while almost the same on a base level, show all the variation of the costume (different hats, sabers, saddle equipment, etc)

And of course, drawn in a consistent cartoony style with the fathers of america you drew...

check my thread for references...

[Scott_TallChair]

These guys are perfect!

Honestly I wouldn't change a thing. But now you've set yourself up for another challenge - can I model these guys in the tri budget? I'm looking forward to seeing these concepts evolve into models.

Good concept work here (and the calvary soldiers - nice job)!

[DrEvizan]

I second that. You're the first on the forum to which I say - your ready to model.

[bmilos420]

I'm glad you like them. I enjoyed the challenge of tweaking my natural style to meet the art direction in the game.

[bmilos420]

Here are orthos for the four guys in my set. I'll start modeling tonight....George Washington is first on the list.

[dabu]

sweet, get the s curve into the profile of benjamin franklin

[bmilos420]

Oops, its prolly cuz I needed to re size and rotate the side view senior franklin.

Good eye, I was tired after work when I put these together...

[Scott_TallChair]

Great ortho work!

For anyone out there watching this thread - these orthos are pretty much perfect. I would have no problem handing these off to an artist, and we'd get back exactly what we wanted from them. You've got a future as a concept artist, if you want it!

[bmilos420]

Thank you, I'm flattered. Here is the George Washington geometry,it's at 1000 on the dot.
I had a question about the underside of his coat. Can I delete the highlighted faces, or do you want an airtight mesh?

[spurn]

this is gunna be siiiick!

your thigh-hip connection should have another edgeloop near it or it'll pull greatly on that "flat bottom" area every time he walks

[bmilos420]

All of the three that I will be modeling are at 1000 tris, but I think I used too much in the face. How's the use of geo?

[bmilos420]

Theses are the Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Paul Revere models BTW. Someone else will be doing my design for Thomas Jefferson...

[Scott_TallChair]

These models look great! Good job.

As far as the geo, it generally looks good. I would like to check the edge loops around the elbows and knees in particular - I'm used to seeing three edge loops in these areas and you currently have two.

I would throw a quick rig in there and bend the arms and legs to see how they deform - if you're getting a bad result, throw in that extra edge loop and it should be good to go.

If you do check it out and you're not sure, just put up an image of it with the elbow and knee bent and I'll let you know what I see.

It could be totally fine, but like I said I'm used to seeing three edge loops on elbows and knees.

[bmilos420]

I reworked the joints in the models. Three edge loops on the side of the knee and elbow that expands, while only two on the side that contracts. This helps reduce clipping and collapsing geometry on the inside of those joints. Will this format be ok to stick with? I'm going to texture if that's the case...

[bmilos420]

Also, how stingy should I optimize the geo? would you prefer 950 to 1000, or will 50 tris per character not matter?

[Scott_TallChair]

Hello,

This looks like a good solution for the elbow and knee joints. As far as geo - we haven't really gotten to stress testing the game yet (probably a month away on that), so I don't have a real answer for you, but if experience is any indication, we're going to be fighting for every bit of data that we can on this. So the cheaper you can model these guys in terms of poly budget the better overall, so long as you don't compromise the look of the model.

[bmilos420]

Here's the rough of the George Washington zombie with a 512 all hand painted.... I have spots to fill in and refine, but I thought I'd post progress. Feedback is always appreciated....

[bmilos420]

992 tris on that one

[dabu]

Id outline the teeth with some black lines, so they read from a distance. way to rock this out in a few hours.

[spurn]

maybe try a different eye color?

[bmilos420]

I agree the teeth srent feeling wooden enough, and they need that black outline...

I was hoping to keep GW's eyes red, to go with the red theme for his skin, mby ill give them more glowing effect with some lighter value gradients in the middle...

[Scott_TallChair]

Hello,

This model is fantastic - really good job here. See in the post above how the model reads so well even at a really small size? That is exactly what we are looking for.

I agree with Dabu about outlining the teeth, and the red dot in the eyes may not totally read, but even if you lose that red eye thing the model is still great so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

[bmilos420]

Heres some changes to the model, prolly about where ill stop. I did a crude rig to show the mesh in a jumping swing. Ill start texture painting the next one.

[dabu]

Id take down the line weight around his lips, and maybe push the contrast of the teeth a bit more...

[bmilos420]

I refined the teeth, added some blood, and put some more outlines along hands and feet...

[bmilos420]

Wow this board has been really helpful in how I have refined my concepts. Messing with changing hue on the mesh. Any ideas for details that I could swap on the texture?

[LMP]

the middle two look pretty good, the left one, it not bad, but I'm not digging the pink one.

[dabu]

blood spots maybe, dunno would there be more than 1 washington?

ditto what Leif said, I like the middle 2.

[Scott_TallChair]

I agree - the middle two are my favs as well. I don't want to get too fantastical in the colors (avoiding a "World of Warcraft" undead look).

This model is great - don't go too far with the blood stains (I'm selfishly steering you towards doing more models...).

Great work here!

[bmilos420]

Here's the next base mesh, and I've planned a bit better for variations this time. I'll do two versions of the one armed American Revolutionary, and two hue shifts of the two armed zombie, so four more zombies. Then its on to the final base mesh of the short fat one, which should give me four more.

I also attached a desat version of the Washington zombies. Would you want this as four variations or two variations in the end?

[bmilos420]

My Paul Revere base mesh has 4 varieties, and the last one will have four variations similar to my method here....

Also put up an approximate iphone rexolution (128 pixels high at 163 ppi)

[bmilos420]

Need to finish these up. More shadows and drapery, a little more outline refinement...Right now these are 1024's but the 512's have virtually no quality loss.

[dabu]

I would boost the hi lites on franklin a bit, good midtones and darks, not enough brights

[Scott_TallChair]

These guys turned out great! Good job bmilos!

[spurn]

man i could totally see Benfrankenstein running around, haha these are awesome

[bmilos420]

I rigged these up, and did some sample walk cycles. Haven't finished the textures yet....

[bmilos420]

Here's the final product. I will be making more screen caps for unlit, and wire frame, and diffuse maps...I've refined the walk cycles to make more sense too, but I didn't post yet.

[Scott_TallChair]

These look great!

I would increase the stroke on both Paul Revere and Ben Franklin - the black lines are getting lost in some places because they are too delicate. George is reading fine, but the other two could use thicker black lines.