The Empire has fallen and a New Republic is born out of the conflict. But in the ashes of civil war, yet another life stirs...
Regardless of whether you're a fan of Legends, Disney Canon, or both... We can all agree that Han solo is an icon in Star Wars. Even though my mod takes place in the "Legends" universe, I decided to use the Force Awakens outfit for him because I kind of liked it and because Han would be only slightly younger in my mod than he was in the movie (between 5-10 years). The outfit just seems to suit an older Han better, in my opinion. The blood-stripes and vest are awesome, but they seem to reflect the cockiness and suave of a younger scoundrel. This outfit, like the older Han would be, is more rugged and seasoned.
But enough of that. The smuggler-turned-rebel that we can all most likely place in our top 5 characters list comes to Rise of the Mandalorians with a fresh new model and texture. However, unlike the vanilla game, he won’t be using Sprint and EMP as his abilities. His new abilities will be “Thermite Charge” and “Shoot from the Hip”.
Thermite Charge will be just like the grenade toss in the original game but will do much more splash damage.
Shoot from the Hip will allow Han to fire rapidly for a short period (yes, just like his ability in Battlefront).
Quick note on this... The rigging is still in progress. There are some areas where I feel like the weights aren't painted as good as they should be so some parts of the mesh might look distorted. Additionally, I'm trying a new way of rigging infantry that will hopefully make animating them much faster. There are some limitations with this method however, so these poses/animations are subject to change.
Love the look! His face looks a little strange though, he looks more like Sylvester Stallone then Harrison Ford, I think its the shadowing on the face that's the problem, regardless, keep up the great work Farseer!
Yo Adrian, may the Force be with you!
Who’s Adrian?
Rocky's love interest.
Wait wait... The guy who brought up Stallone doesn't recognize the reference I was making? The reference to Rocky, not only Stallone's very best work but possibly one of the greatest movies of all time??
That one flew right over my head lololol... I love Rocky haha I'm just an idiot haha
Haha consider your transgression forgiven, my faithful follower. You may continue on with your day.
Just like Luke, his face is weird as heck.
You have to keep in mind that a I have to work with low-poly models and low-rez textures. Even if I paint a 100% accurate Harrison Ford face, the shape of the low-poly head can warp the texture enough that it looks like someone else.
On that note, I actually pasted "old Han's" face right onto this texture and painted over it, detail for detail. I even left the copy-pasted photo in the texture to pic up finer details that I may have missed while painting.
I can adjust the mesh to a degree but I still have to work within poly-limits in order to keep the mod somewhat playable on non top-of-the-line computers.
Lastly, getting a 100% accurate face texture for a person who is SO recognizable is pretty tough. I do my best but even look at Solo as he appears in the new Battlefront games. Luke is an even better example (especially in new Battlefront 2). These are super experienced professionals and they even have a rough time at it.
Example: I.ytimg.com
Not saying I won't work to refine it... Just keep in mind that is a really difficult task, even for the pros.
Don't sweat it man, it's already really good. Hardly anybody checks the models up-close anyway, and yours blow others out of the water
I think the hair's a big contributor on the effed-up-meter. The side hair looks too far from the front of the face like he's nearly balding or something.
Well he is getting old. Lol. I'll take another look at that though, in seriousness.
It's one of the hardest things to get a real actor's face right for a video game. There is a simple reason why your take on Kyle Katarn looks more like Kyle than your take on Han will ever look like Harrison Ford.
A character designed for a game can be reduced down to a few noticeable, and easily reproducible features, get those features right, and you have the character. (Look at The Witcher's protagonist over the course of the games, vastly different, still the same character)
A real face can't be broken down that easily. Even if you list several of Ford's facial features and the signature smirk, and implement them properly, it'll still look off, because the tiny details that make the face are missing. Tiny detail that's not even there on video game characters, but essential for a real face.
Exactly Kad. It's called the "uncanny valley" and it's an artists worst nightmare when trying to mimic a real life person in their art...
Consider asking how the Age of the Ring team does it. Rider and his team have created semi-photo-realistic faces on low-poly models. Some examples:
Moddb.com
Moddb.com
Moddb.com
It's not 100% accurate or realistic but it's probably the closest I've ever seen low poly content get to it, and lets be honest it's goddamn close.
Those are pretty dang good.
A couple of thoughts right off the bat...
It looks like the topology on the face geometry is pretty simple. It almost looks like the face is mostly flat, with a literal photo of the actor Photoshopped onto the texture. Additionally, it looks like no normal mapping has been applied. It looks like diffuse map with ambient occlusion. Lastly, it's a different rendering engine being used.
My mesh needs works, that much is clear. The face topology is not doing the texture justice and doesn't look like Ford. That said, I also have normal mapping applied, which might be overdone in some places, making it look like the eyes are too sunken, among other things. Then there is the ALO engine... Don't even get me started on how bad the ALO engine is at handling normal maps. Things look worse without them, so I use them...but it just doesn't utilize them very well IMO.
Anyway, I'll start be revising topology and also reducing the contrast on the normal mapping. That's a good place to start.
I really liked your take on Luke, there's something comic-like about his serious face. Like others have said it's harder to find the likeness here. But all in all it's a good model, you'll get to nail the face (not lit.) eventually ;)
Han Solo looks like he's been through 1 too many Kessel runs
Ford is pushing 80 years old now. One might say that he's "too old for that sort of thing".
from the expression on his face he looks like he has a "Bad feeling about this"
Yep. Almost like the chances of successfully reproducing an actor's likeness in low poly are approximately 3,720 to one!
Ah well, I doubt anyone is gonna be that scrutinizing of his face in an RTS game
I actually really like this decision as well, Han would not still be wearing that outfit in his 40's or 50's. Plus the outfit looks great.
Glad you like the choice
Loving the outfit as well, even though you left out the pouches on the leather jacket. I noticed because I have a replica of that same jacket. XD
Oh snap you're right! I included the metal tube things and totally forgot those. I guess that's something to add as I go a revise the other parts...
Honestly Farseer, I wouldn't worry too much about the face; it's higher quality than anything else, and most people won't notice it.
I already did make some changes that I do think help out a bit. However, there is just a point where you say "enough is enough" because you're right. It's a small unit that will not be seen up close about 80% of the time. Then there are the issues I've already covered above (uncanny valley, low poly, low rez texture, etc). So I think the changes I've made will be enough.