Commander Hun - Tang-dynasty inspired sword lady

krisCrash

Sup forum, I'm in animation school learning the CG arts, and we have Dabu teaching us this week!
Here's what I'm doing for the project. She's this aristocratic Chinese princess, pretty badass with a sword, cruel, arrogant, might be a bit of a psycho. I set her in the Tang dynasty, because that's where I could get the most armour references. It turns out women also enjoyed more freedom then, at least, if they weren't peasants. I also think the Emperor has a lot of daughters with his various concubines, so she gets away with a lot.




And I was doing a maquette earlier this week


And now, onwards to Maya! Bonus if I can stick the finished armour in Skyrim and mess around

I have more drawings and research lying around I can post, and I might do that. The feedback I got so far is: bigger boobs, and make the sword more interesting, so that's what I'll do now.

EDIT: Pimping my classmates doing the same project:
Electronugget's Queen Boudicca

St4lis

Awesome. And awesome scuplture. I know this aint a democracy, but I vote no on bigger boobs

Maximiliaan

Nice character design, would love to see the research you've done for it.
Like st4lis said I would vote no on bigger boots. Its part of what this design makes it stand out compared to 90% of the other female characters.

krisCrash

Hmm,yes, well, problem is she gets mistaken for a guy 80% of the time, or people think she's trying to hide her being a woman, or she looks like a kid (the short Chinese proportions aren't helping I guess). I was just thinking B-cups though. Hopefully I can find a balance, because I agree with you both, big boob fighter girl is generic as hell. And so is tomboy maybe? But I don't feel she's either of those, as a character.

Oh, and I was suggested to add another glove, which makes sense, but it'll be a lighter one.

Anyway, research and process shenanigans



some earlier sketches... I pretty much went with my first idea, usually that isn't good but EH! I am here to learn about other things than concept design anyway...

I did change her body type a lot though.

Flyrisha

Awesome work! The maquette is very well done and captures her movement brilliantly!
The costume is also beautiful and very well thought out.

krisCrash

somekind of 1000triangle block in thing.

Fenyce

Wow, I'll watch this. Nice character design!

whw

I reckon her proportions are fine as they are - look at Kiera Knightley in Arthur. She's flat, but you know she's a female warrior. The same with your original sword design, go for a katana as it better fits her background - the tassel really sells it!

krisCrash

Thanks guys!!

@whw yeah absolutely. I want her short and chinesey anyway. I like Kiera's body, I know she's on the skinny side but she has a pretty unique character too.

Just modelling her body today. I think we're officially holding off faces 'till monday, so I guess I'll sneak some armour modelling in over the weekend to avoid getting behind, the costume is relatively complex compared to most of the class' stuff. I'm keeping generalistic topology tips in mind, but I'm also making a lot of shit up. We had a brief Scott Eaton course 2 weeks ago so I feel inspired to anatomy and I've never gone this high detail before.

Guedin

Woot ! I love the theme, and this sculpture looks gorgeous.
Keep it up !

tonysladky

whw wrote: »

go for a katana as it better fits her background - the tassel really sells it!

I can't vote against this suggestion strongly enough. China, especially in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618—907) when —according to Wikipedia— they started exporting their smiths to Japan and Korea to teach them, has its own unique tradition of swords that would not be better served by sticking a generic katana in her hand, especially with how fiercely krisCrash is fighting against doing stereotypes like the tall, slim, big-boobed fantasy warrior chick.

That said, the sword in the most finalized concept doesn't really have much character beyond the presence of a tassel, and I don't see anything in a cursory search (i.e. Wikipedia's Chinese Swords page) that resembles that weapon. It might be worth it to check out swords in the style of a Jian or a Dao as those seem to be the ones most likely to have shown up during or before the Tang dynasty.

Jian:

Dao:


(More images of that Dao)

krisCrash

You're correct, it's a generic tai chi sword at the moment. I basically didn't even work on it at all, focusing on the armour. Wow, I LOVE that Dao, especially the scabbard. To me Chinese swords are not katanas, I mean, the Dao there has a katana look with the single edge and lack of guard, but it still feels Chinese. I'll do a couple of doodles over the weekend, I think she'll have a Kirin sort of motif. Thank you!!

I'd like her to have a longsword and a shortsword/long knife deal, it usually seems fencers have one as backup. I mean she's probably also one of those nuts who have extra knives hidden in her clothes, too. Now there's an idea.

And yeah, the smith thing is interesting. When researching (I initially went with Song dynasty) I came across plenty of things I couldn't properly distinguish whether were Japanese or Chinese, and it turns out that period (ca 1100AD) has a huge Chinese influence in Japan. I guess they exported more than smiths!

Tassels will be good in tying all the bits together stylewise. Chinese culture has so much cool stuff. I picked this because I wanted to do armour, for the rigging and modelling challenge of it, and I didn't just want to do western medieval - I haven't done that much either, but quite a few people around me are China and tai chi obsessed, and that has inspired me to try.

Geeeeee I can't decide whether concepting (with research and drawing and stuff) or modelling is more funnnn. I hope I can get a job where I don't have to choose

Bonkahe

Wheeeeeeellllpppp sub'd

krisCrash

Hey by the way, I know this is a bit unusual for this CG art forum, but if you guys wanna see a few shots from the maquette process

***BONUS POST***

First I did some strong wire work, it was pretty agonizing for me because I have piss weak hand muscles, maybe that's something I wanna work on though, to prevent wear and tear?

On the upside, her frame is really sturdy, and despite how heavy it is you can lift her by one of her arms.

Next I bulked it up with some foil and thinner wire because the plasteline clay itself it really heavy, and you wanna reduce weight in the final product - it's also faster to fill form than to use the clay. Unfortunately I didn't bulk enough here, so the final is heavier than necessary. Lesson learned, make sketches from more angles in full costume.


I had to sort of re-wire the raised hand in order for the sword to work, and then I slapped melted clay on, it sticks more easily if it's runny.


Then I got this far, and I posted it for critique to some friends to get help on the shoulder anatomy. And my friend is like, "the shoulder anatomy is a bit off", yeah, so I had to figure it out myself >:[ oh well


The day before the deadline. I stacked details on and worked with the form. It was hectic, I might've bitten a bit more off than I should but I really wanted to do something awesome so there!


And the final in a non-spinny way. I kept changing that arm but I think I finally got it!


All in all, despite the low degree of polish, I actually think it went better than expected. I got detail in I hadn't hoped to do, and I didn't really do any compromises on the design save for the skirt layers in the back. I might choose something simpler next time so I'll have time to work on level of finish, noodling with rendering is not really in my comfort zone, I'm more of a block in form oriented sort of person. I actually don't know when we'll get to do another maquette, might not be until second year, might have to do something on my own initiative - but some of my classmates are up for it so it'll be fun.

krisCrash

I reject to your boob topology standards, and substitute my own!



Just modelling away today. I'm ahead of class for now, so I might model the lower body better just for practise, but otherwise it's not really planned. Arm could use some more geo for triceps and elbow. I love taking screenshots, it always makes me spot the things that I need to iron out.
I don't think this topo would hold up for a big pair of boobs, but I'd prefer it to all-the-excessive-concentric-loops-around-the-nipple type. Maybe I should define her sternum a bit to make her look really wiry nasty. Might be a better job for mudbox though

I worked on the sword design, but I feel pretty uninspired yet.

whw

@tonysladky:

My comment regarding the sword design was merely a quick reply - I expected krisCrash to do further reaserch. Interesting to know the history behind that period's sword-smithery, so thanks for highlighting.

nyx702

Very cool so far! Will be watching. I wish there was time to do maquettes in production

krisCrash

Spent half the day helping around the class, though I must add that was awesome training in topology fixing. I kept telling my friends, you shouldn't put up with having ANY edges you don't need, just delete them and we'll solve it, hehehehe.

armour where have you been all my life

krisCrash

Decided to work on anatomies, so iliac crest and stuff. So there'll be a bit more form in the ribcage area. I hope the democracy can accept the boob size?
How's my topology? I'm in the market for good elbows, I don't mind cutting two more loops down the arm, but in this neighbourhood of resolution. I don't mind a rigging challenge (ahaha the cloth is going to be so fun). so the annoying thing right now is we have this unresolved question about whether it will have to be rendered with subdivision, so I try to work this hybrid of game res that will subdivide without losing too much character.

IgorK

Nice work! I like the character and your sculpt maquette!

krisCrash

Thank you!

Well I finished the concept



And worked on the mesh so it's ready for sculpting. I've overstrained my hand so things will be a little slow

krisCrash

Spent some time hating on Muxbox. But I think we can become friends.



I'm running out of time for the class deadline to do a lot more to this, but I feel really motivated now, gonna watch some mudbox tutorials in the weekend and see what I can do.