Helreaper's Minotaur [WIP]

Helreaper

Hi guys and gals,

I was looking through CGHub for ideas for a new character and came across this Minotaur.

THIS IS NOT MY DESIGN - leaving it as a URL so people dont think i drew it without reading!

http://cghub.com/images/view/242952/
rupid79 - CGHub

So... Here... We... GO!

done away with "most up to date picture" as i was informed that it ruined the journey of seeing progression.

As always HELPFUL crits are always wanted!

Jack Ryan

A great start I look forward to seeing this finished with the weapons and fur

I can't tell what it is, maybe just the perspective of the screenshot, but I think the head might be a little too big.

Helreaper

Thanks Jack. Might be the length as well, i'll resize stuff in a bit and see if i cant improve that. I'll be sure to keep on posting updates. Just done the hands and they need a lot more work still but need to Qremesh first:

Jack Ryan

The wrist joints look really large, almost like he's swelling from an injury If this is part of a stylisation choice then the wrist's thickness will likely need to accommodate the size of the joint bones, but the fingers look great!

Helreaper

Thanks. Will work on that next. Forearms for some strange reason is where i fall down at the minute . If you check out the top picture it's been updated with a shortened nose. Dont know if that's fixed the problem you noticed?

Jack Ryan

Harder to say without the original, but if memory serves, that looks much better now

Helreaper

Thank you good sir

Helreaper

Hopfully the wrists dont looks so swolen now, i think i need to make the forearms just that bit bigger too (as the hands are large it looks odd) added some muscular definition for almost every muscle group so that its more obvious where to go next (what to sag/droop, take away definition etc..)

mrmagee1000

His posture just seems really strange to me. I don't think he'd be able to walk around or maneuver very well being hunched over that far. I checked out the concept art and I think the character is standing a little more upright. You may be misinterpreting the body shape due to the extreme angle in which the character is drawn.
That being said, I think you have a real good start with the muscular detail, you just might need to rework the general proportions a bit.

nufftalon

He feels like he would fall backwards if he tried to walk maybe tweak his shape at low sub div level with transpose tools. If you are having problems getting his feet to look like they are flat on the ground try turning off perspective snap to side view and adjust accordingly. I also feel before details you have to establish the basic forms and posture first. Just take your time work at low levels squint your eyes see if you can see the character starting to form. I look forward to the revisions though keep at it.

butt_sahib

It wouldve been ok if you posted the concept image with the credit,everyone reads it

That looks like a very very challenging concept to attempt. The view isnt helping either. Right now, i would NOT be worrying about details etc because you still need to work the proportions and the posture right. given the nature of the concept, i believe youll be spending most of your time on this project working on the proportions bringing out a nice dynamic character.
Looking forward to progress

Helreaper

Thanks everyone. Working on correcting the posture now, i'll post up updates as and when i've made progress

Helreaper

Hi, here's my updated posture, I've lowered his center of gravity, made his belly seep over the legs (as the concept) most importantly i've brought his head up and straightened his back. Please get back to me on this issue asap !

mccartm6

looking good, mate however he is now about to fall backwards. have a look at kangaroo posture when they stand upright and also the Georgiev's minotaur for clash of the titans. That will give you an idea of balance.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/printthread.php?t=86598&pp=40

Jack Ryan

It looks like you just need to bring his hooves backwards to center them with his body. You may need to make him a bit taller to accommodate the bending of the knees.

Helreaper

Thanks guys, had a quick looks at kangaroos but the main problem with using them as reference is that they have a large weighted tail they use to offset their weight at the front allowing them to lean forward further for their natural stance. They also have the bone above the hoof for the Minotaur (don't know the name of this) as part of their foot, touching the floor while relaxed and only life it up when on the move, which helps their balance a lot. I had a mess about with his center of gravity and some other tweaks like his chest i moved forwards and his abdominal area back too. Thinking he looks more balanced now but tell me what you think:

mccartm6

ay in hindsight kangaroos not so smart :-) Right now he looks weak, old like he would collapse at any moment the concept he comes across as a fairly powerful and proud warrior, If you can nail that idea in the pose and gesture then the deatileing will be easy

Helreaper

Aye, thinking the delts need to be higher up. the C curve in the spine doesnt show off a strong physique annoyingly

gilesruscoe

Think you need to go back down and start focusing on cleaner forms before you start doing his wrinkliness.


starting with the arm/shoulder - the forms highlighted in the paint over should be a lot cleaner and easier to read at this stage. Just because he's saggy skinned and fatty in places doesn't mean that there is no underlying muscles, his pectorals for example concave inward where muscle should be on your current sculpt. So i really recommend getting the muscles nailed down in a clean fashion before worry about skin and fattiness too much.

Helreaper

Cheers Giles


This any improvement?

Lucas Annunziata

While I do the inclusion of six titties, the pose and overall curves of this guy are incredibly unnerving. There are some large differences between the concept and what you've got going on here. The angle of the concept looks incredibly difficult to work from. Do you have any other angles of that dude? If you got in touch with the artist of the original work, you could even see if they could draft up a quick ortho sketch to help work out the proportions?

The reverse jointed legs are looking like he couldn't really balance on em or walk. Maybe check out the elite from halo? Kinda similar structure.

Helreaper

I realise now that i may have to deviate from the concept a little for proportion and form due to the lack of info provided by it. The artist took over a week to respond to my original request to use his work so i wouldn't hold any hope for him to get back to me or do further work :P

Helreaper

made some changes to the legs ( the calves aren't bulked yet so ofc needs that). I was thinking more along the lines of stance and balance etc.. please tell me if this is better or worse thanks.

Helreaper

So far i've made a few changes with the help of giles, got rid of any details i had in and worked more on muscle groups else where than the arms. I've moved the legs about and changed his posture in places. Crits welcome

Helreaper

Forgot to post this last night. Made his forearms longer and hands shorter which i think looks more natural. need to work on the belly area a bit more and ankles

Jack Ryan

Looking a lot better now, like the addition to the spine as well. His posture looks better and he looks angry rather than grumpy now.

Helreaper

thanks man, all thanks to various crits so far. Getting excited and hopefully will end up with an awesome finished result

butt_sahib

I still think you arent paying alot of attention to his form and posture and general silhouette. It seems your more interested in detail/going to the next phase.

Ill make a paintover of what i mean in a while

Helreaper

Thank you butt_sahib I've been changing muscular form and things rather than detailing since i was told off for it (in a private crit) but i can see where you're coming from. Cant wait for the paint-over

butt_sahib

Here is what i think looks closer to the concept. Im no artist but i tried my best to put my ideas in the image.
i hope you can tell what the lines mean

Helreaper

Thank you so much. I'll get to making these changes asap

Helreaper

Am i going in the right direction? (THIS IS IN NO WAY FINISHED! It's just i wanna check it's more along the right lines before continuing

Helreaper

Progress so far:

pestibug

I like the conceots, but personally I think from the side it would look more like this:

proportions are just quick and of course without the fur

Remember you are working of a concept with extreme perspective this throws off many things. Anyway my 2 cents!

Helreaper

Thanks pestibug. Some very hepful bits to take away from that

Helreaper

Any better? thoughts i'd include a pic from about the same perspective as the concept too to help a little

Havent made the same changes to the legs but have changed the spine and shoulders as well as the head.

jaydon

The front is looking much better like this. I like the look of pestibug's profile view, eapecially that head shape.
It's great to see so many people helping out with ideas and paint overs!
This is going really well.

Helreaper

Thanks jaydon, glad to hear you think it's going well. I'm very pleased with the help i've been receiving so far great thanks to everybody involved . Depressingly tired so just updated the picture above for the slightly improved profile and will continue to try to match pestibug's profile tomorrow.

butt_sahib

Looks incredibly better! pestibugs paintover is what i had in mind aswell, thats the direction you need to go. Its working out great.
And i like how the shoulders etc look without the separation into different muscle groups (like the deltoid into front middle and back). You need to know how much detail is enough. And the face looks so much better aswell.
That belly is too damn low in my opinion. Maybe that waistcloth makes it look like so, but it really doesnt hang that low.

Keep rockin

pestibug

Glad I could help Helreaper, I really like where it is going now. About the legs, well mine are just a stylistic choice I suppose. The concept really doesn't give much feedback other than 'well its cowlegs of sorts'. I have to say I like the legs you have as they are now.

I gotta say, in the perspective view, this guy is really starting to match up really well to the concept, thats awesome. Only thing that bothers me is his width.
I think overall he really is just too wide. I say this, because I think that the bulk of his big appearance is actually because of his fur. Sure he's probably still a big, buff guy if you take the fur away. But right now I have the idea you are compensating for the lack of fur and making him too wide.

So I suggest, make him slimmer from the fron view, and his belly should be more rounded, right now its to square/flat at the bottom. Look at some pics of people who are overweight and see how their belly/stomach looks and see how you can incorporate it into this model.

So far awesome progress tho' also very cool to see people help out, and more important, to see you take their advise to heart. 's gonna be a kick ass model when finished

Helreaper

Thanks for your amazingly positive comments guys i'll get to work on his width and his belly right away! given me loads of inspiration thanks Will look at some big bellies

Helreaper

Okay, i've narrowed his body slightly, might need a little more? also, here's my belly changes so far



Used

AND

Helreaper

Helreaper

AND FURRIERR!!!!



This is my basic blocking out of the fur. I'll refine it more after it's all placed etc..

Helreaper

Been a little lazy on this of late. So i've cleaned up the basic fur, also made the matcap blue for the sake of imagination as the concept is blue (though a little lighter than this it's still fun to change!)

AlexCatMasterSupreme

those fucking refs lol

gilesruscoe

looking much better man. I think he could use a going over with the pinch brush again. At the moment all the forms look like they are just extruding outward instead of folding over each other. Mainly on his cow-boobs you need to pinch under them to make it look like its sagging over more. With the fur i think playing around with the clay polish settings could give you some interesting results.

Helreaper

@gilesruscoe Thanks Giles, i'll b sure to do that. Forgot to pinch again after moving about etc... the polish i'll look into

@AlexCatMasterSupreme i assume you mean the lovely bellies, i like how the bottom one looks like a face

EXAMPLE

Helreaper

Thought i'd better carry on with this dude (getting distracted is bad!)

Helreaper

Ropey bit done and fitted better, Axes to do now, then on to finalising the main model.

Helreaper

Time to axe it up: