Keiths Polybook

Thanks for the comment Peter, I really appreciate that! 👍

Looking forward to seeing what you will create for your next project!

I've continued to block a few more shapes in with this little guy. I did notice that he's tooled up with a knife and a pouch of something?? I hope that's legal Mr Nisse 😅 so I added those in too. 

I'm thinking the sheath and handle could have a nice detail similar to this reference I found, it might be nice for a close up in the final render perhaps.

Next step is to  add some more details everywhere! I also need to think about how to approach the beard and hair, whether a hair system would look best or if I should sculpt it. 🤪

Here's some progress on the little guy. I always find it nice putting some detail in face first - I'm sure it's psychological, but it feels like a big step towards completing the model if the face is looking half way good! At least in my mind it does anyway!!!  😅

The first picture is how far I have taken the detail with dyntopo, at this point I have re-meshed and then will use the multi-res modifier to add in some finer details and polish it a bit further.

I've been thinking today about how to approach his hair and decided that this time I will try and sculpt it, because that way it's pushing me out of my comfort zone of using the blender hair system. So a spent a little time exploring the beard and hair, mostly with the snake hook tool to get the form. It's not exactly what I want just yet, and will take a couple more iterations I guess, but I do feel that it could look really nice if I can get it right!

And shame on me for my naming convention, I really need to tidy that up later! 🤪

Thanks @jlampel I appreciate that! It's definitely going to be a challenge getting the hair good, so I'm glad to hear it's going the right way! 👍

So here's a little update from me. I've put in some temporary materials just to help me visualise the model a little better. I've also been experimenting some more with the beard and some bevelled curves, the same technique as the smoke in my Witch project. I quite like the way this looks so far, I might apply something similar to his eyebrows too. 

I've also cleaned up the bowl and the hat!

I've been loving the updates that automagically show up in my email inbox from your progress updates.

I would say you have the emotion down perfectly. And the beard looks wonderful thus far.
You'll definitely want to showcase him from a few different angles to show off that knife and pouch as well.

He looks like that cocain turned out to be too good.

Thanks blanchsb  for the comment I appreciate it! Yea, I'm gonna get a few different beauty shots later on for sure.  michaelmirn suggested to me using Sketchfab which sounds like a good idea for this project - so I'll need to make sure he looks good from all angles!

michaelmirn haha so that's what he's carrying in his pouch..... , it all makes sense now  😅

Very nice! Looks like you're nailing it so far. I especially like the eyebrows.

Hey, thanks jammingammon I appreciate that! 👍

Here's a little update on the Cocaine Nisse. 

I couldn't really see from the artwork quite how his pants joined to the jumper, so I've spent some time looking at other works from the artist. I'm quite lucky here because Midthun has made alot of these guys and I saw that some of them tuck the jumper in - so that's what I've done.

I also changed my mind on the knife as I noticed that this style of hunting knife is used in more of his artworks. I've tried to keep it more stylized than the original one that I modelled - I think it fits in better now.

I spent a bit of time tidying the shoe up, I'll figure out how to finish the laces off later.

her glam spell must be working!!   :D

Here's a little progress today! 

I was starting to get a little overwhelmed with this, I think mainly because of all the hair & beard pieces cluttering up the outliner. I mean, I can only blame myself for that but there we are! 😅 

So, I've popped all the parts into logical collections and I feel so much better about the project now - It's a weird one for sure - does anybody else get that feeling?

I've had another crack at his eyebrows and I quite like where they are at now. I also tweaked the hair and beard to lose any obvious symmetry along the centreline.

It's not in the artwork!!!!👀 , but I added a knob of butter in the porridge - I might make it a bit smaller now I look at it again.

I'm gonna say that I'm pretty much done with modelling now, just the shoe laces to think about and the little bells on his ankle could use another detail pass. Once I've done that I will start unwrapping and laying those UV's out and get the model ready for substance painter.

beefkeef I salute your persistence. Maybe we should make a character race sometime? Just for fun)

And Keith, could you compare your experience from both working with particles and modeling type of hair? Is that a realism/stylization thing?
I kind of like the modeling type the most but I've seen lots of characters on the web (and your page too!) made with particles.

Oh a race, that could be quite fun Michael although I'm not that fast with my projects! 😃

I've used the particle hair because I love the way it looks even though it takes a good while to render! It's definitely the more realistic looking hair, but I do think that it looks kinda cool on a stylized character too. Personally, I find that it's not a very creative workflow though - I tend to be doing a lot of trial and error, moving various sliders and punching random numbers in until I get something I like - but most of the time I won't quite know how I got there! 

Sculpting the hair feels way more creative and for sure is the more stylized look - and it will render much quicker! But, it can be a bit tedious trying to sculpt each clump of hair. That's probably the reason why I've not sculpted too much hair in the past - it's quite the challenge to get it looking nice! But I agree, it looks great when it's done well!

Here's a couple more WIP shots, nothing too fancy! This guy really needs to learn how to tie his shoelaces before he falls over!😅 

It wasn't clear from the artwork whether these laces were tied or not, but looking at some of his other Nissers they tend to have untied scruffy laces - so I'm using a sprinkle of artistic license and going for that look here.

I must remember to finish those laces off at the end though, they just have a hollow bit right now!

I've moved on to UV unwrapping the hair - it's not that exciting....   Thanks @jlampel for your excellent video on UV unwrapping - I got some brilliant tips from you it's very much appreciated! I used the technique of aligning some verts vertically 👀 and pinning them in place to keep my UV islands pointing North/South. Seems like that will be a big help when it comes to texturing 👍

beefkeef doesnt look like I am the fastest too) still stuck in that retopo nightmare.

Anyway, if you are up for a race -- that would be nice. I am thinking something anthropogenic.

My dayjob goes a bit crazy this time of year so I haven't had a great deal of time to work on this guy! 

I have managed to get him all unwrapped and ready for painter now - I think😅 As is usually the case I needed to resolve a few issues here and there with the UV's but I think that I've turned the corner now.

I also used vertex paint to block in some colours in Blender - this is really useful in Substance as I can then use the vertex colours to generate an ID Map.

I've then used that ID Map to block in some colours - hopefully I can start painting next!