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A Minotuar!

WipEout
polycounter lvl 15
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WipEout polycounter lvl 15
Hey there! So after winning Best Game Character at the 2008 Academy of Art Spring Show with Walter Sobchak , graduating, getting married, and interviewing until my eyes popped right out of my head, I've been told numerous times that developers want to see some more realistic characters, or fantasy characters (or sci-fi, or this or that, blah blah blah). As such, I decided that my next portfolio piece will be a realistic Minotaur!

So here he is, in all his WIP'd glory:

2919605439_7dcdfa8a53_o.jpg

2919605151_347c03509d_o.jpg

So the idea is a minotaur in a more realistic sense, ie, King Minos fathered a deformed child that resembled a bull, and out of shame, he chained and locked the poor bastard within the Labyrinth. The model will also have a ton of scars on his face and body, a broken column strapped to his back, and chains connected to broken cement blocks attached to the rings in his hands-- all modeled, but I've yet to edit them in ZB...

C&C welcomed as always. I was hoping for some feedback on the bindings around his hands especially-- any ideas as to good ways to sculpt the straps that are wound numerous times around his forearms and hands?

Thanks for looking!

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  • SHEPEIRO
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    SHEPEIRO polycounter lvl 17
  • rhoymand
    lol I remember seeing walter at that show, I didn't know you got best game character for it, grats! yeah at the academy job fair and every interview I've been on since the prospective employer wanted to see more "current-gen" stuff. and since my last semester at the academy only taught me PS2-gen modeling I'm shit outta luck. which brings me to this forum...
  • WipEout
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    WipEout polycounter lvl 15
    SHEPEIRO-- thanks!

    rhoymand-- thanks as well! And this forum is an excellent spot for feedback and resources. I've yet to complete a current-gen (360/PS3 spec) character, but hopefully this'll be it! Once I'm done with him, I can go back to game-ifying my witch...

    Please, folks, keep the crits coming!!
  • Jeremy Lindstrom
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    Jeremy Lindstrom polycounter lvl 18
    I'd think his ear would be bent all the way over with a 10 pound earring. Either fold the ear over or lighten up on the weight of the earring. :D
  • Mechadus
    I know it isn't anatomically correct, but I really like the huge feet on this character. Without the skull mask it really doesn't look right, but the large feet balance it out nicely. My only suggestion so far would be to maybe make the knees a little larger... They just seem to small to me personally.
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    since you say he's a mutant, I'd like to see more of this evidenced in his biology. perhaps some tiny vestigial toes next to his 'hooves'... things that hint at the twisting of something human.

    i'm voting for a tiny tail, and larger cow skull.

    looks good! love the proportions of his feet
  • bluekangaroo
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    bluekangaroo polycounter lvl 13
    nice musculature and proportions!
  • WipEout
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    WipEout polycounter lvl 15
    Today's work was mostly jumping back and forth between ZB and Maya, getting everything adjusted proportionally as well as modeling the chest straps.

    WIP so far:

    2922958057_2c69d1426a_b.jpg

    Dekard-- Good call. I was thinking of embossing something on the earring and thought there would be no point if it was so small, but I can figure out something with that later! Shrank the earring so the ear would look pulled down appropriately.

    Mechadus-- I kind of see what you mean, and a friend pointed out a similar issue with the proportion of the knees to the feet, so I reduced the size of the feet a bit. I'm going to leave the knees alone for now, and if it still looks odd without the mask after he's rigged and posed, as I plan on rendering him with the mask & bindings and without, I'll go back and adjust them a bit. Thanks for the crit, I'll keep it in mind :D

    Sectaurs-- I did exactly what you suggested with the hands, although it's hard to see in the original post, so here's a close-up:

    2922992695_a0b1047e27_o.jpg

    I did blow up the skull a bit more, too. I'm going to take it further as you suggested, though, and throw in some gimpy toes and maybe a tail as well. I thought about it before when building the basemesh, but for whatever reason I decided against it at the time. Aside from that, I had flattened and broadened the nose quite a bit in the original sculpt, thinking his face would somewhat resemble a bovine's, but I'm thinking of taking that further as well, with extra hair and a cleft in the nose as well. I was hesitant to go too far with it, though, because I don't want him to end up looking like this and every iteration thereof...

    EricV-- thanks, man! I was really trying to maintain something ripped but believably so. I may still broaden the shoulders a bit and make him more barrel-chested, but I'm going to sit on that for a bit longer as well...


    Please keep the crits coming, fellas!
  • Illusions
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    Illusions polycounter lvl 18
    Fun Fact: A condition known as ectrodactyly results in a person having fused digits, and sometimes only two toes on each foot...
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    ha. love the hands.

    looking at it again, i think the horns could have a more interesting shape. perhaps something a bit more aggressive? hrmm...
  • WipEout
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    WipEout polycounter lvl 15
    Thanks, Sectaurs. I was thinking about changing up the horns as well. I thought of the skull of a Texas Longhorn steer, but then I thought, "Well, I don't think they had Texas Longhorns in Ancient Greece." I'm thinking forgo that reality for the sake of a better silhouette, though... My original design had a more Ram-like skull/mask with Tim's horns, but then I thought it would be cooler to have an actual steer skull instead. Any ideas on cool cow horns? I'm thinking these:

    kg_longhorn_01_lg.jpg
  • Illusions
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    Illusions polycounter lvl 18
    Knossos Bull Google Images

    If you want to go Ancient Greek
  • killingpeople
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    killingpeople polycounter lvl 18
    i dunno, strapping a pillar on his back seems rather ridiculous.
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    that's a salt shaker
  • killingpeople
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    killingpeople polycounter lvl 18
    oh. then i'd like some pepper, thx.
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    how 'bout some sugar :poly106:
  • WipEout
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    WipEout polycounter lvl 15
    It's a pillar of salt, actually... :rolleyes:

    Honestly though, the idea behind the pillar is that he was bound to a column in the middle of the Labyrinth, with hands bound and chained to a wall. He broke the column but it remains strapped to his back, pulled the chains from the wall but they remain strapped to his arms, and he now roams the Labyrinth, thus keeping with the original myth. I started damaging the column today, I'll post pics when I get home from work tonight. Plus, I'm thinking of putting him in UT3, and so I would like all the bindings, mask & column to be removable so I can show him with and without those pieces.
  • WipEout
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    WipEout polycounter lvl 15
    K, it's been a couple weeks and an interview or two later, and so I'm trying to hurry and finish this bastard. I dropped the column, I wasn't liking the overall look although it did make for a unique silhouette. I'm almost done texturing, using polypainting in ZBrush. I'm going to touch it up in PS as soon as I retopologize and lay out the UVs.

    My issue now is with the "mitts"-- they're supposed to be leather straps wrapped excessively around his forearms and hands, but when I color in the leather it looked too much like his skin color. So I tried red leather, but that just throws the color palette off. Now I'm wondering if the mitts even read as leather straps-- do you guys think it'd look cooler to have fewer straps wrapped around his hands making a lower profile, or do the mitts read already?

    Comments and critiques are encouraged & welcomed as always.

    3000464786_2643a20e13_b.jpg
  • Ghostscape
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    Ghostscape polycounter lvl 13
    The wrapping on hi hands do not read well at all. You should try coloring them the same color as his underoos. While you're at it, brighten up his hooves so that his skull, wraps, underwear and hooves are all similar colors, to unify the design a bit more and ake those details pop. They don't have to be exactly the same color, but keeping them much brighter than his dark skin will help.

    You may want to change his eye to either a more realistic color (I do not believe many dark skinned people have bright blue eyes) or make it gold to match the earring a bit and make it pop.
  • DrillerKiller
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    DrillerKiller polycounter lvl 11
    not feeling those feet..
  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    I love the design of this. I think he could use some more mass to him, right now he looks a little like spandex stretched over muscle. I think if you added some body fat to him he would be much more intimidating.

    about the mits, it doesnt really make sense, I would expect shackles around the wrist to read better and be instantly more readable and recognizeable, plus then you could have a few links of the busted chain hanging which could look dope.
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