Finished tau head

After completing all the low poly pieces for my models body I decided that it was time to revisit the head model as it wasn't completed the last time I tested it in quixel.

As you can see below, I followed up on what I said I would do with my low poly model and used the high poly zbrush model of my head that I created as a live surface in maya and modeled my low poly model around that, so now the previously far more humanoid low poly face has a far more gaunt look, with a flat nose. This now means that when I bake my high poly model onto this there wont be any obscurities. 

Bellow Is my first attempt at creating the head again within quixel. This time I got it much closer to how I wanted the final piece to look. A noticeable error at this stage though was that I had forgotten to smooth the eye on my low poly object, so when I baked my models together in Xnormal it put some detail onto the eyes that shouldn't be there. Other than that Im pretty happy with how the head looks at this point, but as you will see below after I smoothed out the eyes and brought my head back into quixel I decided to make some aesthetic changes to the textures.

Bellow are some screen shots of my final materials that where created from my finished iteration of the tau's head that I created in quixel. The final outcome can be seen right at the bottom of this post.

Albedo

During the process of creating my materials in quixel, I decided to add a few details to my albedo within photoshop. I layered over some pupils on top of the eyes, added some decals to the communication device and also added the red spot on the forehead of the tau, as from looking at some reference of the tau, some of there race have this marking and I thought it would add more character to my model.

AO

Colour ID

Gloss

Specular

Normal maps

Unwrapped UV's

Complete rendered head within quixel

Im really happy with the final out come of my models head. The materials I have chosen on this final model are for more accurate in my opinion. The second test that I did made the face look far too shiny so this time I found a material that had a more matt finish too it which i Thought looked really good as it brings out the battle scars on him a bit more. These materials are now ready to be put on to my low poly head when im posing my model.

Finalized low poly model high poly model comparison (Pre Zbrush touch up)

Here awesome screen shots of my final model all pieced together within maya. Since my last post I have completed the torso and went on to creating the jet pack that the broadside has on his back. This model is not my final high poly model, as this model is made up of the parts that i will be exporting all separately into zbrush in order to add some details like battle scars, dents and burns.

Fortunately, I wont have to do to much extra work in zbrush as I have made my life a little easier by adding all the bevels and grooves in this model during my modeling process in maya rather than in zbrush. As this model is quite mechanical and hard surface I figured I would have a far easier time doing something like that in maya than in zbrush, and because of this it looks a lot more realistic. 

The final poly count for this stage of the model was high but it needed to be at this in order for me to gain all the detail that I have created already before even putting my objects into zbrush. 

Somewhat jumping the gun a bit, bellow are some screenshots of my final low poly model.

I realize that I have skipped the whole process of screen shooting and evaluating my process of creating my low poly model. But at this stage of the project, I really just wanted to see my model come together. Quad drawing over the top of all my individual objects was a long and tedious process enough, without having to screen shot it along the way, but never the less here it is.

As I stated before, the process for creating this model was quite long winded and tedious. Before going into creating my low poly, I debated whether I should quad draw a lot of pieces into one object rather than separate ones like I had done before with my high poly piece. But in the end I decided that taking the long way around would be the better option again, as when baking my objects later on in xnormal, I will have an easier time picking out 'LowpolyLeftGunArm' and 'HighPolyLeftGunArm' for instance instead of 'LowPolyLeftArm' as a whole object, it also means that later on I wont have too much trouble with objects baking on to each other. 

As i've not had access to Zbrush at home, and can only access it in university, I decided to use the high poly model that I already created to quad draw over the top of, as the shapes are going to be exactly the same after exporting them from zbrush later on anyway, they will just have a few scratches and wear and tear on them. So using my high poly model I created in maya as a live surface worked well enough. 

I'm happy with the final out come of my low poly model at this stage. I have brought down the poly count a significant amount compared to the original high poly that I created. It is still quite a high poly count for a low poly model granted, but I'm taking into consideration that this model is made of a lot of pieces and because of this it is really difficult to get the poly count below anything lower that 20k