Gogh: working on the realistic one

I've been working on the realistic version of Vincent for a bit. Thing are going well. I modelled the hair. I'm not going to use "hair & fur" or something like that. I want that perticular 3D look. 

I'm not sure jet, what I'm going to do with the diffuse map. I kind of like this blank look. It could fit the concept.

Van Gogh proof of concept

This whole project is moving very, very slow. But it is moving. And I'm still quite enthousiastic about the whole idea. It's just hard to get the right look.

This is still just a set up. 

The shirt and jacket need to be painted, as well as some skin. The textures for the hand and hair are just drafts. The Vincent on the painting needs some serious Mudboxing for realism. 

I do enjoy those few hours I can work on it. A drink, Spotify,... time flies.

van Gogh draft composition

So, I got a bit stuck on the painted face-texture. To regain some momentum, I decided to leave it for now. I worked on the composition. This should be it. Of course it's a draft.

In the final version (if there will ever be one), everything except the painting will have Van-Gogh-like painted textures. The painting will be as realistic as I can make it.

First, I think I should start modeling the details in the hand and the clothes. And unwrapping them. And decide what to do with the background in both the image and the painting.

van Gogh 5

There's always something wrong. 

I don't like the mouth too much. The strokes of the eyebrow are too paralel. And the stretching in the tip of the nose is a serious problem. 

Apart from that, it's an improvement, I guess.

If I ever finish this one, it would be interesting to render a realistic face as well. I think combined, they could make a strong compositions.

van Gogh 4

Slowly getting there. 

The thing is, I don't want to use too much paint-strokes. So if there is a problem area, I can't just paint over it. I'll need to redo that area all over.

There is too much paint in the eyebrows. There is not enough variety in the forehead. Also, strokes might be wider there. (Because of stretching in the UV.) The tip of the nose is a problem area, since there is lots of stretching in the unwrap there. I'd like to distort the border between the beard and the skin more.

Basically, I need to start over again. But I'm optimistic. I'm getting closer to the picture in my head.

van Gogh 3

Phew... That diffuse map is very, very tough! But I've got a plan now. And this is not it, but close.

I did the canvas bump in Mudbox. I draw guide-lines on the face in Mudbox. All the rest is going to be Photoshop. I created a good enough brush. I did get some hi-res images of paintings, as reference images. And now I'm trying to copy the style. (Which of course is impossible for me.)

I use nDo for the bump from the paint. It's a Photoshop plugin.

The strokes in this test are too small. They need to be wider. Luckily, because that could save me some time. Also I need to fix the colors. I need more white.

Van Gogh 2

Dear Vincent is properly unwrapped. I choose to make the whole head one surface, so I can sculpt over the hair-borders. Now I'm testing which tools work best in Mudbox, to create the paint-look. (I only tried the area around the eyes for now.) I'm not there jet, but you can see what the idea is.

Coloring the diffuse map is going the be even tougher. I did a first test, but I'm not going to publish it here. (That bad.) Perhaps I should start with the diffuse and then do the sculpting? And perhaps I can use bits of the real paintings to create the diffuse? We'll see.