New Years Update on Models

So with the new semester starting (and with the unfortunate passing of David Bowie and Alan Rickman), I decided it would be an... alright time to update the 4 people reading this on what I'm doing.

I'm working on multiple models, as usual.

First on the list is updates to Big Boss from MGSV

"Kept you waiting, huh?"

Not much new on him. Added objects for his legs along with making Boots. Unfortunately, I had hidden the dark grey shirt thing he has under the black vest but on top of the light grey shirt. Very happy with how it's turning out. But I'm kinda worried with how I'll make the hands. Hopefully, I'll be decent at it when I start working on hands again.

Next is a cigar

"JFK liked these, too!"

It's specifically a H. Upmann No. 2. Specifically, it's the cigar Big Boss smokes (supposedly). Making it to go along with the model. I didn't make original textures for it (just got a pic of a H. Upmann No 2. from google and used that, but maybe I'll actually get good at making textures in the future. I also will most likely make the sticker on the cigar it's own object and make it shiny.

Afterwards is the Ragnarok Sword from Golden Sun

"What's scarier than a giant sword falling from the sky?"

Took a long time to make, considering how simple it is. But I like the result. Will probably texture it (along with all the models) in Mudbox, but that might take a while considering I have never textured before in my life. This goes along with the next model.

Which is Isaac from Golden Sun

"I haven't played a single game from this guys series"

Most of the model is finalized, except for the scarf, hands, gauntlets, and the things going around the pauldron on his front. In reality, nothing is really done. Although I won't be making major changes to anything that hasn't already been listed. I'll be working on his head later aka when I get good/have time to do it.

Up next is Lyn from Fire Emblem 7

"Lyn for Smash5?"

She's currently set up to use the Brawl textures, although that can easily be changed. I changed the model a lot since this picture (the brown wrap in the middle doesn't have perforations, the hands aren't as high poly, neither are the gloves. She also has new-ish boots (her boots have some indentations along with some cloth around it, so that was added. Can't really see it when her skirt is covering it). I also changed the rope hanging off her side so that it has an end like the artwork. Overall, I'm very happy with her progress considering I haven't done much since then.

Don't know if I've shown this or not, but next is Luke Skywalker from Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi

"I have really good lines, unlike my father before me"

The texture and the head model are from Star Wars the Force Unleashed, although the body and boots are mine. I'm quite close to finishing it, but lack of experience with hands and heads is what's holding me back. Along with the lack of experience with making lightsabers.

Right up next is his father, Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

"Sand gets in everything, is coarse, and stuff."

The head, belt, hands (includes the robotic hand), and the lower body cloth hanging from his belt downwards aren't mine, but the rest was made by me. Model parts that are being shown are from Star Wars the Force Unleashed. Same problems as Luke does: I suck with making hands and heads. And apparently, so does the developer of The Force Unleashed.

Last on the list (for now) is Gray Fox

"Stop hurting me pls"

I started this model on a whim, and he's really shaping up. I have to redo his bronze arm sections because it looks... kinda odd. I'll be reusing the base mesh to make a Metal Gear 1 Gray Fox (when he was actually human). Just need to study how to make actual clothes. Those are really hard to make for some reason  >.>

After I finish with remaking the arms, it'll probably be sword, feet, head (because it's not completely organic, yay), and hands. Then it'll be off to Mudbox/ZBrush (I think), and then texturing in Mudbox from there.

That's it for this time. As you might have noticed, Omen isn't on the list anymore. For the same reason that LoL cut him, I did too: I didn't like him. Okay, that's not the real reason. But it's because I really am not ready to make him. I'll need more practice with models before I start on alien stuff. That and I actually want to finish a model soon (preferably Big Boss and Gray Fox being the first ones done, with the rest following). But we'll see how things turn out.

Thanks for reading!

Custom Model: Omen - The Scrapped LoL Champ

So I just started working on a new model earlier today/yesterday (depending on your time zone). It's Omen, a scrapped champion from LoL

Pretty much all the sources I'm using:

Non-turbosmooth'd

Turbosmooth'd

I will be adding control loops near all the joints plus touching up his body pretty much everywhere. I'll also be remaking his "hands"/"feet" as they came out terrible and I messed up big time.

Stuff like spikes and an actual face will come later. But I'm kinda happy how far I got in about twenty minutes. Much better than previous attempts at making models. It's probably because he's not as complicated as other characters.

That's it for now!

Custom Model: Metal Gear Solid V - Sneaking Suit

So, I think I've shown this off before, but I scrapped all of my previous work and started over. This time, I started with a self made model reference sheet to make sure I got my proportions right.

To be completely honest, that's all I really needed it for. All the other details are completely possible to make using reference images off the internet. Plus, I'd like to think that I learned a lot from when I first started, so I think that's helped the quality of the model lol.

Old:

New: 

You might wonder "Why did you start over?" Well, the biggest reason is that I screwed up. Somehow, I lost some work on a version of the old model and all the modifier stacks were baked into the model, so I could change old geometry. So, I decided to scrap all my work and start clean. Less chance of stupid things happening, plus I started saving after making large pieces of his model (all straps made plus some buckles and then I make a save, etc).

Aside from major material differences (color, specularity, and glossiness to be specific), the new model has less of a defined chest and more of a belly. I'll probably use a FFD modifier to edit the proportions of the waist a bit so he doesn't look as fat. The forearm is also much less defined - although it was over defined in the old pic - I'll most likely change it so it's more muscular after I add another edge loop on the underside to add more bulk to the arm.

Something else that I'll be editing is the dark grey material that's above the light grey body, but under the black kevlar-esque armor. That's going to be modeled into a small vest that Big Boss wears under the Kevlar and it helps define the shoulder area a bit (at least I think it does imo). 

There's still more detail that needs to go on top of the front, such as straps and whatnot. As a comparison, here's what the Sneaking Suit looks like in TPP:

and here's an even better pic showing off the Sneaking Suit

Not including textures, I still have a long way to go. Need to define all of the muscles (pecs and abs), have to define the kindey cover thing (I think it covers his kidneys...), crotch pouch thing, along with finishing the hands, and the robotic arm. That's just for his upper body. His lower body needs the boots, those circle things, and knee pads. Then there's props. Although I don't think they'll be too difficult. And last but not least is the head, but there's a long way to go before I get there.

The rest of the detail that I won't be adding in 3ds Max (such as creases and stretching) will be added in ZBrush/Sculptris depending on which one I decide when I get to it. Sculptris is really easy to pick up and use, but has very few options in comparison to ZBrush. The difference almost feels like as if I was comparing GMax with 3ds Max. Although to be fair, GMax/RenX weren't that simple either so...

More about textures... they make the model. They really do. I've looked at the geometry of the MGSV models and they're incredibly low poly, at a measly 17k tris. That's insane, for a PS4 game. That essentially means the engine and the textures handle the rest. Heck, with just the diffuse textures, I could have sworn I was staring at a scrapped PS2/PS3 model. 

Maybe the low polycount is to make up for the fact that it's such a huge world in comparison to SFV, for example. SFV has the map (which is relatively detailed, but nowhere near as much as MGSV) along with the models. The models are around 30k tris - which is a lot, when my usual workload is anywhere from hundreds to at most 20k. Although there are fringe cases where I worked with 60k, and let me tell you, that's not fun at all.

In comparison, in MGSV, you have your character, optional people running after you, the vast environment, NPC enemies, buildings, vehicles, weapons, just a bunch of things in general. So it's understandable that the heavy workload would be left for the textures and engine as opposed to the model. But... just look at the pics above! There's no way that 17k tris can look that good. It's just insane. That's Fox Engine, I guess. Shame it's only going to be used for PES from now on, and supposedly a modified version of it too.

Yeah, that's pretty much it this time around. Hope to update sometime in the future with animations and stuff. Hopefully more models. I have 1-2 more models lined up to be started in the near future. I might take a break from the Sneaking Suit to start on those models to not burn myself out. But we'll see what happens.

PS: my b if I make mistakes about the whole texture/engine/model thing v:

Custom Model(s)

Earlier this year (or near the summer?) I started to gain interest in making my own models. I enjoyed importing models from other games, but there were some models that were just impossible to make fit. That, and with the possibility of making models by hand just feels awesome. Creating things in general feels awesome!

I started working on Big Boss's Sneaking Suit about... a month ago? Using box modelling, I have the general shape of the whole body planned out. I'm working on the specific details (which are more difficult than one might expect >.>)

There's a bunch of improvements that could be made (for example, it's a damn vest and it shouldn't go around his whole arm, plus his elbows being weird and his leg objects not matching up with his waist which I'll be hiding with a belt :3)

Considering this is my first model, there's a bunch of mistakes... not enough backups, for starters. And the neck, which I forgot to edit before (turbo)smoothing* the model to death. I'll end up deleting the neck and just making the collar by hand anyways, so I'm not too worried about it. I know there's a bunch of inconsistencies with the model (the pecs look off, plus other things), and I've resigned to them looking weird. I want to keep my motivation high, and constantly redoing things doesn't help that - in my case, at least! I'll definitely be revisiting the Sneaking Suit some time in the future. Who knows when that'll be?

Haven't been too motivated to work on it recently, but I think they drive will return as soon as the semester calms down (Thanksgiving Break can't come soon enough), and I know for a fact I'll be plagued by urges to work on other models as well. I personally want to work on MGS3 Big Boss, and MGS1 Solid Snake from the MGS series. As for other series, props and objects are what's my interest. Mostly because humans are so damn complicated. Well, props are too. Just not as complicated as humans...

Oh! Before I forget. I was working on making a custom model for Super Smash Bros Brawl that would be a skin for Marth. It was (insert drumroll)

Leif from Thracia 776. But as you can see, he never really got anywhere. I plan to start him over waaaaay after I'm done with all the previously mentioned models.

So that's pretty much it for this time. Might throw in some other goodies this weekend depending on whether or not I can get Maya to work properly.

*Turbosmoothing - turbosmoothing is... pretty much smoothing the model out. If you look above, you'll see what an un-turbosmooth'ed model looks like (if it's low quality/resolution/poly/etc). Turbosmooth essentially raises the quality/resolution/poly and can lead to a bunch of awesome results and even cool little details if you know how to use it properly - which I obviously don't know how to use. At all.

Animations!

I got into animating back in... 2011 or 2012. Since then, I'd like to think I've improved a lot, but there's a bunch of things I'm still unhappy about that you'll probably be able to see for yourself. Here's a couple of gifs of what I've done within the past two years.

Link performing the sword salute from LoZ: TP (ignore the jittery-ness at the beginning, I sucked at making gifs)

Link performing a spin attack from no specific game

Link tightening his gloves, inspired from Hyrule Warriors

Ganondorf performing a vertical thrust with his Lance (lance not shown)

Gfycat Version (higher frame rate)

Roy from SSB4 performing a one hand, overhead slash 

Gfycat Version (higher frame rate)

Roy from SSB4 performing a spin followed by his attack animation inspired from FE6: The Binding Blade

Gfycat Version (higher frame rate)

Roy from SSB4 performing a spin followed by his taunt animation inspired from Super Smash Bros Melee (ignore that weird thing at the ending)

Gfycat Version (higher frame rate)

That's all I have on me at the moment. I'll put up more stuff when I remember to do so. I'm planning to make a few animations soon too! And who knows? Maybe I'll remake or polish some animations and post them up again!

If you like these animations and want to see me make them in person, check out my stream at Picarto. 

I try to stream on Thursdays and Fridays, but haven't been able to lately (internet issues plus exams). I plan to get back into the swing of things soon (as long as I don't have exams or papers to write). 

Brawl Models

So before I started dabbling into model making (which is awesome, btw), I used to import models into Brawl. This involved optimizing the mesh, resizing and re-rigging of the model to fit a boneset. I've imported a couple of models, here's a link to a few:

NOTE: I didn't make any of the models. They were made by their respective companies and the whole spiel.
NOTE: Only one or four of these saw the light of day

Akuma from SF4

Cloud from FF7CC with shoulder pads and incompleted wrist thing from Dissidia

Naked Snake in Scientist Suit with a really bad crocodile cap from MGS3 and a random model off of DA 

Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening (was a collaboration with a guy who goes by the username: KazeCoyote, he modeled, textured, and did some rigging, I just cleaned/fixed the rigging)

Goku from DBZ, the specific game is from Battle Stadium DON. The Red circles were places I needed to fix

Dante from DMC (model was from UMvC3)

Zed from League of Legends (Normal Skin and Shockblade Skin)

Zack Fair from FF7CC

Tidus from FFX, model was from Dissidia

Sothe from FE: RD

Dark Link from LoZ: TP (model was from Brawl, texture was by Tormod, I imported the sword)

Protoman.EXE made by a person on DeviantArt. Deleted the files because I was unhappy with the helmet

There's a few others I've forgotten about (Ken from SF4 and Whisper Sothe from FE:RD), but that's pretty much it. There's a couple of others, but I can't show them at the moment. I will when they're ready to be shown.

Hi there!

Hey there to whoever is reading! I'm Abdullah Mir, although I go by Large_Leader on some places on the internet. I don't do too many interesting things, but the interesting things I do will most likely/probably be put on here. I'm a character rigger, coder (edit Super Smash Brawl and Project M), programmer (barely, know a bit of Java, Python, and C++), animator, and I'm starting to dabble into model making and (eventually) texture making.

So I hope you like what you see, and if you don't like it make sure to tell me why and if there's something I can do to change it!

Thanks for reading!