Every time I make a new character, I tend to spend a couple of days to gather references and doing some history research to create a back story for that character. I believe this is important because it helps me and the audience to connect with the character more as we know what they have been through and what they are doing.
Shaman Sanxingdui - Artstation Challenge Ancient Civilizations: Lost & Found
polycounter lvl 6
Hey guys, I have recently joined the Artstation Challenge: Ancient Civilizations: Lost & Found. I want to create a thread here to get more feedback.
My submission: https://www.artstation.com/contests/ancient-civilizations/challenges/16/submissions/12570?sorting=latest
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My character for this challenge is a dark shaman, and her name is Shu Li. She was a princess of the Chinese state of Shu, and the last shaman of Sanxingdui, a lost ancient civilization of China.
SHU LI BACK STORY
SHU LI BACK STORY
Shu Li was a princess of Shu, half Chinese half Indian. She is pretty, strong, brave, and extremely smart. In 316 BC, the independent Shu state was conquered by the state of Qin. Shu Zhi, the king of Shu had to send his children: Shu Pan and Shu Li* to the South first to explore what are now the southern Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan and second to move their people to modern-day northern Vietnam during the invasion of the Qin dynasty. They first came upon the territory Âu Việt tribes (what is today Cao Bằng province). After assembling an army, Shu Li used her dark magic power to help Shu Pan to defeat the 18th dynasty of the Hùng king, the last line of rulers of the Hồng Bàng dynasty of Văn Lang, around 257 BC. Shu Pan proclaimed himself King An Dương, then renamed Văn Lang as Âu Lạc. After that, Shu Li left Shu Pan and had to come back to Zhongyuan (China) since she still had her duties as the princess of Shu. But no one heard anything about her, nor spoke of what happened to her.
*Please note that Shu Li is a fictional character created by me and does not exist in history.
SANXINGDUI BACKGROUND
Sanxingdui is an ancient culture dating back between 3,000 and 5000 years. Many Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient state of Shu (? - c. 316 BC). During the summer of 1986, construction workers accidentally uncovered an astounding cache of more than 200 ancient jades, weapons, totems, burned animal bones, over 60 elephant tusks, monumental bronzes, and a life-sized statue of a nobleman at Sanxingdui, about 24 miles outside of the Sichuan Province capitol of Chengdu. This chance discovery has become one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century and has forced scholars to rewrite early Chinese history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanxingdui Read more about Sanxingdui here.
And here is a block-out of the body, still very rough.
WIP 2
An update to the body. For this character, I'm making the proportions a little bit stylized. I think the base is good enough to start working on the clothing.
Blocking out the clothing. Not really happy with the lower part, I might redesign it later.
Adding Sanxingdui Mask, Talisman, and hair
Sanxingdui Ritual Knife
Added a cape, skirt, and some accessories.
Colored skin and eyes.
To-do-list: Totems, Rings, Armlet, Bracelet, Shoes, Tattoos, and Skin Detail.
Wish-list: A pet
Later I find there are too much stuff on her waist. So I decided to remove some accessories and see how it looks. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Replies
Finally I have time to get back to this character. Here is an update on her accessories. The idea is she can use these rings to summon the Taoties (monster) to fight for her, and each ring represents a different creature. The motif designs are based on the Taotie, a motif commonly found on Chinese ritual bronze vessels. The Taotie is one of the four evil fiends in Chinese Mythology. (Taowu, Taotie, Qiongqi, and Hundun). In the progress of making these motifs in Zbrush, I need to have really clean and high resolution alphas so I decided to create them by hand in Adobe Illustrator. It was time consuming but I think it's worth!
I have a lot of cool ideas for this character but it's running out of time. I'm trying to finish the high-res in the next few days. I would like to make a pet (Taotie) for her if I still have enough time.
Fun fact: The Taoteis are the primary antagonists in the 2017 historical-fantasy epic film The Great Wall.
Doing a quick skin test in Marmoset Toolbag 3 and Unreal to see which one looks better.
Also, this is how she looks without the mask
Playing around, trying to nail the face in Final Fantasy style
Here is a new update on her props.
Final Update!
Hello Polycount! So this is my final submission for the Artstation Challenge - Ancient Civilization (Game Character).
My entry: https://www.artstation.com/contests/ancient-civilizations/challenges/16/submissions/12570?sorting=popular
And here is my process of how I textured the dress, you can read more on my website
Well done and good luck!
Final Compositing for this project