HD Models

[golden_boy]

Very nice sculpt.

It occurs to me that his arms have a lot of anatomical detail to them, while his legs look like columns (pronounced calves would help) and the way they join his body doesn't look quite natural. To me, anyway. They are quite far apart.

Another criticism that isn't specific to your model is that in 2015, apparently, monsters still can't have genitalia or hair or anything there. That contributes to the unnatural look that a lot of models have in that area. I don't expect anyone to model shambler ****s, but a shock of hair or skin folds would go a long way IMHO.

Cool piece of art though.

[Spike]

firstly, where is 'there' on non-earth life? maybe its in the mouth? (and if it is, you'll try extra hard to avoid it spitting at you...)
secondly, it doesn't have any eyes, but you want it to have genetalia?
thirdly, 'the black goat of the woods with a thousand young' - these things don't need to reproduce themselves. or maybe they reproduce by mutating others (hence the grunts). maybe the knights are only still recognisable as knights because the armour prevented it from growing into a larger beastie? its a common theme with id, from doom's former sargents+lost souls to quake's grunts+dogs, to quake2's entire strogg army, to rage's mutants.
fourthly, similar enough to be recognisable, but wrong enough to feel uneasy in its presence. that's a good thing. if it was wearing a large leaf or some y-fronts or something, you'd just laugh at it.

I agree that the legs appear to be the weaker part, which is a little bit of a concern considering the size of shamblers - if you're axe-dancing with one, you'll probably be staring at its legs+crotch for noticable lengths of time, at least if you're looking directly forwards.
so its probably a good thing that there's no giant 'member' there for people to be disturbed by...

ultimately, whats important is how it looks in-game.

[s13n1]

There's a turntable on the blog. I don't think the legs look weak. Any thicker and they would look stupid.

Also, this model is the original Shambler model imported into mudbox and then extra detail added. The proportions have hardly changed.

Some areas look a lot different, but when the original model had square legs, a square head and 3 sided fingers, of course things are going to look a bit weird when suddenly more detailed.

And this was made in like 4 hours total. It's rushed.

But it's got a pretty big reaction and the most likes of anything. I think it's probably because it's bloody and gory. I might have to spend some more time making it look really good.

Criticizing the anatomical correctness of a quake or doom monster is pretty funny. I seen a thread over at Doomworld recently where they got pretty heated over the location of Doom 64 and the accuracy of the skies.

It's a fantasy game.

[gdiddy62]

Shambler is epic looking! How about the whole set remade with your vision!!!

[Adam]

@s13n1

Thanks a lot for the lengthy reply.

So you use Mudbox & Zbrush for creation, I guess with photoshop for skins?
Then 3Dcoat will be used to process the model down to a lower poly count and does it also produce the normal maps that replace the poly detail?
Do you then port it to Blender to animate and convert to md3 or can you do that from 3Dcoat as well?

Apologies for all the questions, I am only just getting to grips with Blender for making models.
My process is to draw out a texture/skin, Create the model, skin it and animate it in Blender then export to md3.
I haven't started high poly/normal mapping yet but will get there eventually.

Thanks again, it is very informative.

[s13n1]

I don't use zbrush, just mudbox.

I'm not a fan of Zbrush, the interface is horrid. An example of how to not make an interface. I've used a lot of technical apps over the years and i struggled to make sense of it. Its a mess.

I use mudbox for the textures too. Paint directly on the model. If there is some kind of layer effect you want to do, like a luminosity overlay or something, you can actually capture the screenspace and send to a PSD file, which is then opened in PS and you can paint on the model from that screenshot, with layers as well. Its pretty incredible.

I would continue learning blender and tradition tools, because they will help you when it comes time to make the low poly mesh, and of course animating. But modeling is now done all inside of a application like mudbox and then you make a low poly mesh over top and bake all the details over. Its the only way these days.

[s13n1]

I added a bit more definition to the legs and fixed some details lost when i last retopologized.

Some added texture work and tweaks here and there.

Added some black scorched marks on hands, where the lighting builds up. Made fleshy bits on cuffs look more jagged. My idea there is that the flesh on his feet and hands has been ripped away.

Being such a ferocious beast, its just torn away its own flesh while attacking and stripped its feet bare. I'll tweak the leg flesh some more later.

I'm really surprised people have liked this as much as they have. It seriously the fastest most rushed model ive ever made. Anyone familiar with mudbox would be looking at it and seeing all the generic shit i've done. But hey, if people like it, who cares, one more down.

I'll probably do the Scrag and Vore in a similar style of skin, but without the torn away fleshy parts.

Shub Niggurath will look pretty cool in this style.

This higher detail look means ill have to add some more texture detail to the Ogre now :-)

shambler experiment by Doom 64 HD, on Flickr

[Adam]

Thanks for the info, I will definitely look into Mudbox.

Please, when you decide to animate and port into Darkplaces (or similar)
could you post your process & progress?

I would very much like to see the changes that occur, up to the point where it is running around in game.

[Henry]

s13n1, even though this model is the original Shambler model imported into mudbox and then extra detail added, it looks just right. Maybe just because it has the original proportions.
That was clever!
That is the way a replacement hd shambler should look like. Keep it original.
I like it!

[s13n1]

Thanks man.

I know the shambler is "supposed" to be furry, but i dont care.
I want to make models that are high detailed versions of how they look in the original games.

After all, we fell in love with these games as they are, not how they were "supposed" to be.

I honestly doubt too many actually thought the shambler was supposed to be furry when they first seen it, and some can argue all they like that they did and i should stick with the original design, but this is my project and i'm more fond of a pale skinned freaky beast than a big bloodied yeti.

Early in the sculpt i did actually texture the whole model with fur and it just didn't look right. The level of detail required to produce good looking fur with a normal map is immense, and I think to do the shambler properly with fur, would be with some kind of hardware generated fur, or many many layers of alpha fur.

The shambler was a very rushed model that amazingly turned out looking pretty cool. The kind of oceanic look to it is something new and gives it a real alien look. I think the details will catch the light nicely and not be too intense that they're a distraction or disturb the overall design.

I thought about adding a series of larger spikes on the back that flowed down the backs of the arms to the hands, so when he charges up for a lighting strike, the energy forms in the back and makes its way down to the hands. But this is a bit too Godzilla-ish and i think would over complicate the design.

I've got the scrag looking pretty cool. I still need to do a lot more fine tuning and tweaking, but its a start.

By the way, whats with this site spamming mobile devices with ads and redirections to the Android Play store? Not good.

Scrag / Wizard WIP by Doom 64 HD, on Flickr

[PrimalLove]

Q3Map2 Shader Manual

But seriously, these models look pretty great! Thanks for sharing. I really like this look of the scrag. It is what I would imagine his actual skin would look like in reality. He certainly looks much more scary!

[s13n1]

Looking better now.

Turntable on the blog shortly.

Scrag / Wizard WIP by Doom 64 HD, on Flickr

[gdiddy62]

Looking great!!

[ezzetabi]

I always thought the Scrag as many other monsters have no eyes, just a slight glow you can see through the skin...

Looking great though..

[Henry]

s13n1, this scrag looks REALLY good!
When will you start animating it?