My alien in progress....Spot....

[lwgal]

You may have seen these over at CG Talk posted under a friends ID, but I wanted to post him here and see if anybody else would notice him and give me any feedback. He is a science fiction type alien (I'm an SF nut), but I want to try to make him fairly realistic in how he's able to move (ie musclulature and bones).

Anybody see any details that are just bugging them to death? Any thoughts? Praise? Somebody already suggested detailing the tail some... This is just a test texture and lighting too....I get to paint a lot of spots for the final one!

http://pages.prodigy.net/need4speed/spot-080503-2.jpg
http://pages.prodigy.net/need4speed/spot-080603-1.jpg
http://pages.prodigy.net/need4speed/spot-080603-2.jpg

Thanks for any and all constructive criticism and help!

[starbase1]

It's quite nioce, but much will depend on how you texture him.

There are a couple of things that bug me though - the chest shape looks a bit extreme, and sort of half way between plates and muscles, rather like extruded plastic boxes, and I really hate the teeth on the shoulder. These sort of extra fangs in unlikely places are a bit cliched, and wildily improbable if you are going for the realistic look.

The feet look very good, with lots of potential or bouncy steps, and flexing.

Nick

[kellyv]

lwgal,

I think it's off to a good start! For me with the creature I have some issue/questions that came about. Many of the plates/extruded areas on it's, chest, would the be more skin like with movement or more fixed, ie a shell or exoskeleton? If they are fixed, [from deforming], I think your character wouldn't move that much on the top.

Also I think there should be more detail on the creatures sides [oblique abs/ love handles] Right now I'm seeing your object with flowing a little too well from metaNURBS, I think you need to break this up a little [the anatomy of your alien]. Why I also comment on this is, you have randomness in the creatures teeth, this IS the only place you can find this at, Now I think you could fix its teeth and clean them up like the rest of his body, but we both know that isn't the direction you are going This is the reason for my comment on a little more randomness to its body! :)

I do love the neck! It's just hella kew! I think it's great how you have it looking like it digs in and out in a verticle pattern! WOOT! :D

What I think would work is play with the back part of the head [how it's flat and detailed, like plates]. I think this would be a great addition to the creatures chest, legs, muscles. To me that seems really kew vs the puffy chest look.

Well these are my ramblings, I hope my suggestion give some ideas for ya, if not.. oh well! :D

Laterz,
Kelly

[richpr]

The ridges between the chest ribs/muscles are a bit too deep... same on the back...

The tail doesn't connect nicely to the body...

But a nice alien! The head is pretty cool...

[hrgiger]

Looking at the full body shot, it seems like the head is a little small for the body. It makes it seem a little less manacing perhaps then it could be.

[lwgal]

Okay, I'm back :-) Thanks for all of the ideas everyone!

I finally got some time to tweak on Spot and here are some little revisions....I still need to make him less symmetrical when all of the details are in place. I have added some test details to the head, removed the shoulder spikes, flattened the muscles down the back and smoothed the chest pectorals. I also worked on the tail smoothing into the body although it hasn't been detailed yet and I removed one of the other details on the body.

I have tried the head a bit bigger compared to the body, it just didn't work too well for him. It made his neck look strange and kind of made him top heavy...that was about a 10% larger one. 2 or 3% didn't make enough noticeable difference.

He does need some more detailing, but I think part of the reason his chest and back muscles looked so deep was the poor lighting on him last time. I changed that this time around and made something a bit better looking.... His chest is supposed to be muscle, basically like 3 pectorals somewhat overlapping, just to give him a different type look. Hopefully I'll get some more time this week to finish tweaking his muscles and add some further detailing to his body. I did get some muscles added down along the sides of the body and tweaking where the tail connects, he does seem to have more shape going on there now, but maybe not yet enough.

http://pages.prodigy.net/need4speed/spot-aug-18-2003-1.jpg
http://pages.prodigy.net/need4speed/spot-aug-18-2003-2.jpg
http://pages.prodigy.net/need4speed/spot-aug-18-2003-3.jpg