Tough Dude

Mongrelman

My next character for my showreel. Again from the Warhammer 40k universe (there's just so much great concept art ). He'll be wearing some terminator armour (heavy duty stuff) that I intend to detail up alot. I'll also be adding scars and burns to his face.

This time I'll be adding most of the detail with poly modelling, to show I can actually do it and not have to rely on sculpting, and it's fun too .

Anyway, a couple of screengrabs from XSI of what has been done of the head so far.

kiril0t

its nice dont get me wrong, but hes not tough. i mean copnsiering hes going to be in armor and this is only the start im sure hes going to evolve, but right now its just a generic head, maby hes a little mad, but nothing about his bone/face structure defines him as that. and please dont give him the "tough guy scar" cuz thats a cheap way about it, and even tough the armor and rest will define him more i think you aoughta spend jsut a little more time on his head so not to be generic.... dont mean to offend, please dont take this the wrong way.

i hope hes real gritty, and i wish you luck, but having seen your work im sure itll be awesome

SyaPed

Please use the latest terminator armour concepts! I always see people basing their 40k stuff on the gumby older stuff.

http://us.games-workshop.com/games/40k/spacemarines/extras/art/default.htm

Rick Stirling

that looks like a human head, and Space Marines are not mere humans.

As a terminator, a genetically modified space marine, he needs to be much more square.

SyaPed

I agree with Rick. In one of the latest 40k novels it describes marines as having gigantism like features. Large protuding jaws, high foreheads and widely spaced eyes. I tried to go for this look in this head I did.

Mongrelman

Ah, cheers. I've not actually read much on games workshop stuff, mainly just looked at pictures. Most of the ones I've seen of guys without helmets the heads weren't as extreme as the gigantism. I'd been focusing more on actual details as the proportions are piss easy to adjust (partucularly with Zbrush ).

Anyway, did some beefing up. I don't want to go as far as the gigantism in Syaped's pic, but I do want him to look tough.

What do you think of these proportions? I think I'll try toning down the 'brutish bits' as I want to make him look like a real human, and see how that goes.

Rick Stirling

The double labial fold you've got going on suggests that he has saggy skin, so I'd consider making that more solid. That LF is one of the most noticible signs of hitting middle age when your skin losing the elasticity.

Ihad a wee think about real people who could play a Space Marine, and came up with Dominic Pucell:

Mongrelman

I tighted up the fold, it was making him look a bit older than I wanted. I still want this guy to look like he's been around for quite awhile, so I might loosen the fold a bit later, but not as much as it was before.

I want to make this guy look like a leader, so though going for a narrower head than Dominic Purcell (though a good suggestion) was probably a better way to go as it gives a better impression of intelligence.

Anyway, I think this is close to the final shape and since adjusting the proportions is easy enough to to at any point, I want to focus more on the damage now.


Basically I want to have a scar across his eye, one across his lips, maybe a few more here and there, and some burns. As though he was close to an explosion that burned him and scarred him with shrapnel, and maybe had something slash him at some point. A piece I really like is the character Ian Joyner did for the Gnomon DVDs http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/ijo02.html
but I don't want to do the exact same thing, I'd prefer something a bit different.

Suggestions/paintovers would be great as I've been doing test scars in Zbrush but not decided on the final set yet.

Mark Dygert

Oh thats looking great! The labial folds are looking great now.

[rant]
Please don't do the trite eye scar, everyone has done they eye scar thing, when you look through enough portfolios you'll see hundreds of eye scars. Its like the first thing people go for when they want a "tough guy". Stick cybernetic pieces in his skull, give him a chin scar, a forehead scar a cheek scar or the slightly more realistic broken nose/split open scar, anything but a vertical eye scar that goes from the middle of forehead to the middle of the cheek. Sure they are all cliche also but not as bad as the eye scar.

I mean really how many badasses can get hit in the eye with something, not go blind or retarded and still hold the title of badass?
[/rant]

verybad

Looks great, please don't give it the old standby "scar across the eye" though. Something a little rarer like a totaly f-ed up side of the face would be niftyer, eye gone, ear ripped, possibly a metal plate...

Mongrelman

I'm not planning on one of those middle forhead to cheek scars. I'm planning on having many scars over him, with one side of his head really messed up, with a dead eye. Basically there will be so much damage (as I said, like he was near an explosion) that it would look odd if there wasn't a scar or three across that area. He'll have a mangled ear, burns covering most of one of the sides of his head/face, missing hair, scars across mouth and eye on that side of the head and messed up nose. And the eye will be very much dead. If you've seen someone who has had their eye messed up by a firework or something, you'll have an idea what I mean. And a few smaller marks on the other side of his head. I'm aware of the cliche single scar across the eye that somehow leaves the eyeball untouched and no other marks on the face That is definitely not what I'm after.

Jeremy Lindstrom

If he has a dead eye, he'll have no depth perception and only see half as good as he used too, so be careful it takes him down on his badass scale with half the vision he used to have.. as others have stated.

Steve Schulze

You could always replace the eye with one of those bionic lens deallies. Having it look like a really rough field dressing "lets just pop this in for the time being and we'll get you a proper one if you survive the battle" kinda thing might be neat.

Mongrelman

I spent most of the day mulling over my warhammer 40k art book and pics I found on the net, but I just couldn't really find a set of armour that called to me. I think a couple of the things turning me off are how the suits just don't actually fit human proportions (in the majority of images), so going for a realistic face would look strange if his shoulders seem to be 5 feet across and his spine bent like a fish hook. Also the armour is generally just 'there', it doesn't really show how it actually fits together and is put on.

An image I found on my hard drive which I saw quite awhile ago (a concept art bit for the new command and conquer I think) was this


Obviously not warhammer, but still very cool. Gah, I'm torn, maybe some sleep will help.
Anyway, I blocked in the body to go with the head so I have a base to model around. Also put a bit more character into the face.

SyaPed

If your not liking the marine armour you could try an Imperial Guardsmen instead, if you still want to keep it warhammer.

Pic 1
Pic 2 Pic 4
Pic 4
Pic 5

http://uk.games-workshop.com/imperialguard/artwork/

Mark Dygert

PERFECT find SyaPed! Those are the kinds of scars I would go for.