Vita Nova: John Riggs (Character Modeling)

This is the main character for a game I was developing called Vita Nova. The general overview of the game is a colony is developing on a planet which would replace our Earth as it is dying. While on the planet a terrorist attack happen which gives off a toxic gas causing those on the planet to mutate and change.

My main character is called John Riggs, he is an ex army and special ops guy going up to the planet to lead an elite group of scientists and army people to investigate what is happening, and also rescue his wife who is a scientist on the planet.

I did't want the character to come across as the general strong gruff tough guy you seeing in many games, I wanted him to be strong yet care about his actions, not just shoot and kill. So alot of the gameplay would be choice based and those actions effect how the story changes and how characters interact with you.

Inspiration for this characters look comes from a combination of Metal Gear Solid, Crysis and Mass Effect, something practical with a futuristic edge. It has being around a year since I last attempted to model a person and it has being a real struggle too get into the zone again and make progress with this model.

After getting too this point on the helmet it became clear the if I carried on the model trying too add as much detail as this it would end up with a very large poly count, and even harder too texture with it having lots of layers.

I then begun trying to scale the model back, while keeping the shape but not adding too much detail that it would end up being too heavy. Once I got over the head and onto the body it became alot easier too model and progress was made pretty quickly.

The hardest part on trying too model this character was the fact that the turn around I was given never really matched up in places, from the front and side parts would be very differently matched too how they were from the back and side view. This has meant I have done alot of playing around with areas too try and keep them as close too the character sheet while keeping the shape of the person correct.
Times I have had the model looking correct in a certain view only to then take a whole look at it too see areas were sunken in or point out, when fixed they would then be out of line again too the model sheet.
I also never got a top view so that has being a task of hit or miss and alot of playing around.