Humanoid chess set - The Rook
polycounter lvl 11
Ahoy Polycount!
I am a 3D Animation and VFX major at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. This semester I am taking Organic Modeling 2 which is essentially a portfolio class where I'm free to do anything. My teacher recommended me to pick up a concept by a professional artist, but I think I will be a lot more inspired and motivated if I work on something I have cooked up on my own.
My concept is as follows:
A small kingdom ruled over by a powerful wizard, he is known as the Wizard King. It's a peaceful kingdom, but it is surrounded by nations and countries that are always at war with each other. The kingdom has avoided conflict because they have taken a neutral stance and because the other countries fear the Wizard King's powerful magic.
However lately tensions have been rising, and the war has moved closer to the kingdom's borders. The Wizard King has slowly grown more paranoid and is spiraling into madness.
Using his powerful magic he merges men and beasts and weapons into powerful guardians. Being an avid chess player he shapes them after chess pieces. He merges his guard and their horses into agile and deadly Knights, his advisors are joined with predatory birds for fast flying Bishops, elephants seized from a traveling circus got spliced with his strongest masons and stoneworkers into the monstrous Rooks. Even his beloved wife was sacrificed in his madness and transformed into the tormented yet lethal Queen piece.
I have chosen to do The Rook, but if time allows it I might do another piece before the semester ends. I might be interested in completing the set some time, but at the moment I have some other more interesting personal projects.
I can't find my sketchbook so I can't post my thumbs and initial sketches, but I will upload what I have at hand.
And here is my final color concept and ortho. I will start working on the model now.
Of course, when I say final concept I don't mean I am 100% done with the concept. I'm still trying to resolve the tusks, as well as the face plate. I would love additional suggestions and feedback.
Speaking of tusks, here are a few alternatives.
I am a 3D Animation and VFX major at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. This semester I am taking Organic Modeling 2 which is essentially a portfolio class where I'm free to do anything. My teacher recommended me to pick up a concept by a professional artist, but I think I will be a lot more inspired and motivated if I work on something I have cooked up on my own.
My concept is as follows:
A small kingdom ruled over by a powerful wizard, he is known as the Wizard King. It's a peaceful kingdom, but it is surrounded by nations and countries that are always at war with each other. The kingdom has avoided conflict because they have taken a neutral stance and because the other countries fear the Wizard King's powerful magic.
However lately tensions have been rising, and the war has moved closer to the kingdom's borders. The Wizard King has slowly grown more paranoid and is spiraling into madness.
Using his powerful magic he merges men and beasts and weapons into powerful guardians. Being an avid chess player he shapes them after chess pieces. He merges his guard and their horses into agile and deadly Knights, his advisors are joined with predatory birds for fast flying Bishops, elephants seized from a traveling circus got spliced with his strongest masons and stoneworkers into the monstrous Rooks. Even his beloved wife was sacrificed in his madness and transformed into the tormented yet lethal Queen piece.
I have chosen to do The Rook, but if time allows it I might do another piece before the semester ends. I might be interested in completing the set some time, but at the moment I have some other more interesting personal projects.
I can't find my sketchbook so I can't post my thumbs and initial sketches, but I will upload what I have at hand.
And here is my final color concept and ortho. I will start working on the model now.
Of course, when I say final concept I don't mean I am 100% done with the concept. I'm still trying to resolve the tusks, as well as the face plate. I would love additional suggestions and feedback.
Speaking of tusks, here are a few alternatives.
Replies
To see what I mean, imagine sketch two sitting down. The belly would bulge and reach the knees. Now, imagine the profile sketches sitting down. The belly would nearly surpass the feet.
Don't be afraid to make many more sketches, you can never over-design these things. The clearer the proportions are before you start modeling, the easier time you will have translating this awesome character into 3D.
2 looks best.
@Hboybowen
Thanks. AAU has a reputation for being a rip off, and while it's expensive if you take responsibility and do your research into teachers and classes you can really get your money's worth. My teacher for this class joined the biz while Pixar was working on Toy Story and he's been a character supervisor at ILM for many years. He's kicking our butts.
@trancerobot
Yeah I agree, you can never do too much concepting. But I'm already one week behind schedule because I decided to do my own concept so I really should start modeling as soon as possible. But what's nice about 3D is that you can easily do changes while you're working on it.
Your concern about him being too fat is very legitimate. I wanted to make him look extremely bulky and massive, but I might have gone a bit too over the top. He is supposed to charge straight ahead though, so I figured that making him look top heavy and off balance would lend to that. Thanks for pointing it out. I will keep it in mind when I start modeling.
@Klumpmeister
Haha, thanks. I always strive to make my concepts as eccentric and far out as possible. After all there's no fun in designing the ordinary.
Looking to see more!
Of course, I have a folder full of sumo wrestlers and chubby chaser porn to lead the way.
@SadamHu
People really seem to favor that. Which is funny because that it's my least favourite one. Haha.
@UNCCheezy
Excellent point! I did some quick tweaks with the Liquefy filter and changed the top of the head to match the classic rook piece more. I also removed a few pounds and made his legs a little bigger to even out the proportions.
Wondering if I should add another ring there was well...
@moose
Yeah, that's the one I favor as well even though everyone seems to prefer #2. What about the second image is better than the final one though? Proportions, amount of flab, face plate? That one was just a stream of consciousness when I drew it so I feel it's the least resolved of my designs, so it's interesting that you prefer that one.
- The man-tits aren't boobs, they're muscular pecs, more islander and less "american fatty"
- weight of the posture & proportions feels meaner. the rendered one looks cute
- the side-fat rolls, while adding weight, make him look cute and cuddly instead of hulking and aggressive.
- stature of the legs has a more meanacing feel than closer legs (elephant like, as opposed to ogre/demon)
- less bulbous and flabby arms, again remove the "cute" feel.
mostly boils down to: the rendered version makes him look too cute, with the changes to proportions, extra flab, and to a certain extent the rounded face mask makes me like the line drawing bettah!
I Fullly agree with this. as for the tusks, heres another option :
IMO, if you make the tusks a bit smaller and similair to walrus tusks, it might give the overall look good too.
Currently chipping away at the hands. WIP:
Oh, and a wireframe
Say, have you taken any of Dabu's classes? Your nick seems familiar...
I just noticed forgot to mirror the rings on his tusks, oops.
Been tweaking and fiddling with the proportions a lot. I'd say too much in fact, so there hasn't been much to show off. I finally got around to sculpting the dude and adding all the nasty flabs and folds. I just discovered the gravity modifier in the brush settings and made my first custom brush based on ClayBuildup that I've decided to name Flab. Its results should be obvious. :P
So here ya go. This is the "final" version. Final in that it's what I'm handing in to my teacher. There is still work to be done on the rings and belt ornaments especially. I will try to find the time to finish and pose him, and maybe do some texturing as well, so any feedback is still extremely welcome.
Some things I know will be adressed: I intend to scale up the tusks, I just forgot. The legs are really short, and that is intentional. The idea is that he just runs straight ahead and rams into people and buildings with his fat heavy body so I figured giving him short stubby legs would make him look unbalanced and clumsy.
http://vimeo.com/17869214
By the way, how do you embed Vimeo here?