Now to Add the Extras and Finish This Model:
Now I have past the polycount that I had set for my maximum. This is where some artists are getting lazy and stopping here, yes the model could be said to be finish and there are a huge number of artists that I know that would stop here. But not me this is the fun of model to a face count; trying to get a highest detailed mesh as possible to the point that you can have many people look at your model and are unable to find a face that is not needed for one reason or another.
By using the modeling and optimizing techniques I have shown you and fixing the poly flow of your character you should be able the complete your model. I also a highly recommend that you get some feed back around this point of your model. Maybe you have missed something or they just don’t like some of the elements of your character and also the best thing of all you may get a complement or two on your work. Also if you use message broads like PolyCount’s it is a good idea to post wires of your model, this will help people to point of areas that need work much easier.
Also I will use STL check from the modify panel. This will help you find any bad areas of mesh and should be able to help you find a poly or two you can delete.
MuiltRes is also another modifier I use when optimizing. MuiltRes is a better version of optimize that comes with Max 4. The technique I use with MuiltRes is to takes away one vertex at a time and see if I can tell the different when the vertex is gone or work out if that vertex is needed. This is a very help modifier when you get to the point were you can’t find any where else to optimize your model but you need to.
Here are the changes that I have made.
As you can see I have optimize the mesh a far bit and added all them extra things that were in the concept art. I also changed a few things like the spanner on the characters legs to keep it under the polycount limit. This step is petty much the reason I have written this tutorial, you can see for yourself what optimizing can do for you and the extra elements you can add because of it. There was also a number of elements add to the back pack.
Here is a render of the final model, you should note the amount of detail in the mesh were all elements are model in not textured. And most of all the elements I have add in the last step on this tutorial.
My Two Cents:
Game art is going through huge changes and the rolls of artist are changing with it, this is due to developer changing their techniques they have been using to create games to keep up with the technology available to them. The main change can be seen by two of the industries biggest engine developers Epic and Id. Mid-poly modeling is where this change will take place. UT 2003 has used the old school way of texturing a model, Doom 3 will have about the same polycount (maybe a little more) for characters in the game but with the use of normal maps (poly-bump) they end up at a much higher quality characters than found in UT 2003. Because of this many game developers are starting to use normal maps making the job of both textures artists and modeler to change. With the texture artists now needing to texture for high-ploy models, which is far different from today’s texture art. And with modelers needing to make very high res models for the normal map to be calculated and then optimizing it for the low res version of the normal map to be apply to.
These kinds of changes you as a real-time artist should be aware of, knowing were the industry is going and knowing what the developer(s) you are try to get work with are doing can help a hell of a lot in getting a position in the industry.
Just a little disclamer, none this tutorial is the golden rule to character modeling for every one. These are just the techniques I use; the techniques I use can be summed up in saying get the basic shape and mass of the object you are modeling and than add detail to it. I find this works just as well for texturing and animating.
I hope this has helped you out with any problem you were having and thank you for reading the tutorial (I spend a good slab of time on it.) If you have any questions or problems with the tutorial or any game art related subject or open positions (No Spam E-Mail) feel free to e-mail me at BrendanDoord@hotmail.com.
I would also like to thank Sebastian (Seb) Perri my tutor at the AIE for helping me out with the format and wording of this tutorial, also Matt (Sorceror Bob) Padovan for his feed back on my character and pushing me into writing this tutorial.
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Brendan George BrendanDoord@hotmail.com
Mid-Poly Modelling
09/2002