[Substrata] White Knight
quad damage
Hey guys!
I'm sure you have heard of the Substrata project Paul Richards is putting together (http://www.autodestruct.com/substrata.htm):
"The Pitch : When Vigil Games dissolved shortly after the release of The Art of Darksiders II, I thought "What a shame that the contributing developers [now scattered to the four winds] will never appear in the same volume again." Then I thought, "Eff that! We have The Internet. We don't need to be working at the same company to make an awesome, game-styled art book."
The Theme : DARK FANTASY VIDEO GAME as YOU wish it. This is more an homage to titles like Diablo, Darksiders, Dark Souls, etc. and NOT something that takes place within any established franchise. The title, "Substrata", is open to personal interpretation. It can be tongue-in-cheek parody, dark, gritty realism, or simply more of the same tropes we already know work -- skulls, spikes, chains and the like. Imagine this project is in pre-production and we're all submitting ideas (sketches, 3D renders and tight illustrations/mood paintings) to narrow down the direction for our as-yet-nebulous game. Alternately, just think of the stuff you like to see in making-of books and DO THAT. "
I've been a fan of Vigil for a long time and, obviously, will miss the sort of work they did in the past. I'd love to contribute to the project and , at the same time, learn a few things and break out of my normal routine. I wouldn't consider this fanart, I don't want to mimic their style or tread on copyrighted material - but definitely want to take a lot of notes from the Darksiders series at least in spirit. Consider it a love letter to the genre, I suppose.
Project Goals
- Learn something new!
Through community feedback and exploring new software options (I've never used Topogun, for example) I'm hoping to walk away from this project having gained new skills.
-Contribute to the Community!
I want this character to be well documented. Lately, I've been hiding in the shadows and just posting work in WAYWO. With this project, I'm hoping to share some of my process and contribute more information to the forum rather than being a non-contributing zero.
-Finish before the Deadline!
Ultimately, I'd love to have the piece finished and accepted amongst the ranks of the other artists for the project. Though, really, I'm just going to go at my own pace - do what I want - and hope for the best in the end (ref. the Civil War project that took over a year...) In the end, I'd like to take him down to dx11 game resolution, but for the Substrata project a sculpt will suffice.
Initial Direction
I follow an organic process for personal projects. Generally, I don't start with a solid concept and instead gather a bunch of reference / influences and just dive in. Sometimes, this means reworking things as I go along, scraping ideas altogether for something better, but it's more fun for me. I don't want to be limited for personal projects, and a concept basically defines those restrictions. So, bear with me, the first few posts (other than this humble brag one) will probably be exploration work.
I'm starting with the idea that I am creating the ultimate champion for the war on Hell. Super good guy, angelic, blessed by God(s), etc. - but still gruff, and a brute. The main influence is from Darksiders1 (War, Abaddon, Angel Soldiers) and, for the most part, I would want to create the 'good guy' version of that - a more extreme contrast for good vs. evil.
I want him to read as obviously "good" (typical cleric/paladins, angel warriors from DS), hulking with chunky armor, giant sword, maybe holding some sort of defeated enemy - like a severed Medusa head? I'm trying to figure out if he should actually be angellic, with armored wings, or if it will be too much. The smaller details, though, will reveal themselves in the process:
I also want to start learning more "things." I've never used Topogun, Marvelous Designer looks cool, dx11 process is new to me, I've never built a good set of eyes...etc. I think this could be a good "demo" character to accomplish those sort of things.
Stay tuned, hope to update with actual work soon!
Gav
I'm sure you have heard of the Substrata project Paul Richards is putting together (http://www.autodestruct.com/substrata.htm):
"The Pitch : When Vigil Games dissolved shortly after the release of The Art of Darksiders II, I thought "What a shame that the contributing developers [now scattered to the four winds] will never appear in the same volume again." Then I thought, "Eff that! We have The Internet. We don't need to be working at the same company to make an awesome, game-styled art book."
The Theme : DARK FANTASY VIDEO GAME as YOU wish it. This is more an homage to titles like Diablo, Darksiders, Dark Souls, etc. and NOT something that takes place within any established franchise. The title, "Substrata", is open to personal interpretation. It can be tongue-in-cheek parody, dark, gritty realism, or simply more of the same tropes we already know work -- skulls, spikes, chains and the like. Imagine this project is in pre-production and we're all submitting ideas (sketches, 3D renders and tight illustrations/mood paintings) to narrow down the direction for our as-yet-nebulous game. Alternately, just think of the stuff you like to see in making-of books and DO THAT. "
I've been a fan of Vigil for a long time and, obviously, will miss the sort of work they did in the past. I'd love to contribute to the project and , at the same time, learn a few things and break out of my normal routine. I wouldn't consider this fanart, I don't want to mimic their style or tread on copyrighted material - but definitely want to take a lot of notes from the Darksiders series at least in spirit. Consider it a love letter to the genre, I suppose.
Project Goals
- Learn something new!
Through community feedback and exploring new software options (I've never used Topogun, for example) I'm hoping to walk away from this project having gained new skills.
-Contribute to the Community!
I want this character to be well documented. Lately, I've been hiding in the shadows and just posting work in WAYWO. With this project, I'm hoping to share some of my process and contribute more information to the forum rather than being a non-contributing zero.
-Finish before the Deadline!
Ultimately, I'd love to have the piece finished and accepted amongst the ranks of the other artists for the project. Though, really, I'm just going to go at my own pace - do what I want - and hope for the best in the end (ref. the Civil War project that took over a year...) In the end, I'd like to take him down to dx11 game resolution, but for the Substrata project a sculpt will suffice.
Initial Direction
I follow an organic process for personal projects. Generally, I don't start with a solid concept and instead gather a bunch of reference / influences and just dive in. Sometimes, this means reworking things as I go along, scraping ideas altogether for something better, but it's more fun for me. I don't want to be limited for personal projects, and a concept basically defines those restrictions. So, bear with me, the first few posts (other than this humble brag one) will probably be exploration work.
I'm starting with the idea that I am creating the ultimate champion for the war on Hell. Super good guy, angelic, blessed by God(s), etc. - but still gruff, and a brute. The main influence is from Darksiders1 (War, Abaddon, Angel Soldiers) and, for the most part, I would want to create the 'good guy' version of that - a more extreme contrast for good vs. evil.
I want him to read as obviously "good" (typical cleric/paladins, angel warriors from DS), hulking with chunky armor, giant sword, maybe holding some sort of defeated enemy - like a severed Medusa head? I'm trying to figure out if he should actually be angellic, with armored wings, or if it will be too much. The smaller details, though, will reveal themselves in the process:
I also want to start learning more "things." I've never used Topogun, Marvelous Designer looks cool, dx11 process is new to me, I've never built a good set of eyes...etc. I think this could be a good "demo" character to accomplish those sort of things.
Stay tuned, hope to update with actual work soon!
Gav
Replies
- BoBo
subbing and waiting
So, bit of a slow day. I'm doing this project in Maya - which isn't my primary tool, so there was some fumbling around for a bit. I puttered with the bust for this character this evening, and even streamed some of my process, which I think may become a more frequent thing..
This is a few steps showing how I built him up. He's probably about another evening before being considered close to complete - and I'll most likely tweak him here and there as the rest of the character develops:
Thinking he could have a salt and pepper hair colour - not exactly old, but has aged and seen a lot of shit...Considering giving him a goatee, and maybe some time of carving on his head? might do something a little less Mansony though...
Where I'm at so far:
Up next will be getting this guy closer to done and probably working out what sort of armor he'll have and block out some proportions.
Cheers!
Gav
YESSS
for reals man, put your intuos on ebay and just give up.
all my love,
Gir.
I also couldn't help but think of this..
Guud luck mate
He's got a lot of character, and a nice lived in look to him, like he's seen and done a lot of shit in his time, and agreeing on the cauliflower ears- would give him even more of a history.
Cracking start though, can't wait to see more
The mesh and gradient BG screams Zbrush.
Daven: Yusss...
gir: If I play my cards right, I'm looking to get an entry level job sometime within the next year or two
katana: Thanks man, glad you're liking the X
Nash:
sukotto: Thanks man, yeah I migh tplay with some other ideas. The Xis a little cliche, though, which can be good and bad. Like it already has connections to religious type nut jobs...but it may be a bit too Mansony. It's easy to play with, it can be one of those details I mess with as the character progresses.
Baj: Thanks dude - good suggestion!
Plyomet: Yep, katana's right - it's Maya for base mesh modeling and ZBrush for sculpting - sorry for the confusion.
Chunkey: Thanks man, I'm actually using him as a main reference!
Slooowww, sloowww ass progress. Just wanted to toss this up here - plugged away a little more on the head. Hoping to start roughing in the body over the nice long weekend coming up!
Cheers,
Gav
I have a question tho, how large are the eyeballs? It feels like rhey are too large in diameter, making the whole eyesocket/lid area feel very flat.
??
Gav, this is shaping up nicely. I'm in agreement with those cauliflower ears!
Careless Monday: Cheers!
whw: Thanks
Scudz: Yep, totally agree. Probably going to ditch the X for a rune of some sort. I'm hesitant to put scripture or crosses on him as I generally don't want to involve real world religions (which I probably shouldn't get into here...but yeah...no christian stuff.) The X is just so Manson, I think scripture might not read so well...but some sort of rune...maybe a vague "third eye", or just something that 'looks cool'...we shall see!
So, a bit of an update. I feel sort of embarrassed even showing this sort of stuff as it's pretty awful and is more of a 'process' sort of thing. I guess you get to see how the sausage is made. I think I'm going in a direction that I like. It nods toward classic 'hero' but also has elements that I think are unique, are cool details, and more in line with my own personal tastes. Let me walk you through the steps I've taken so far. Again, nothing glamorous:
A-Using Dynamesh, I started blocking in armor elements. All of these steps are really rough and sloppy, but I'm just getting ideas down - the end goal is to have something I can model over top of - but even then things might change. For armored characters, i seem to focus more on the chest and shoulders since it seems, to me, to be the most prime real estate.
B - Wanting to incorporate more sculptural elements into the piece - I started roughing in giant heads for the shoulder pads with, what would eventually be, 'crowns' making up the neck guard. I lost motivation pretty quick going in this direction, for a few reasons. It's not "me" - it's not what I originally had intended to do and, thinking ahead, the final asset would be more similar to the toonish direction of DS/LoL etc...and i don't really want that. Again, not looking to mimic the DS style in anyway and not particularly wanting to have a painterly / pushed to the extremes look in the end - I wasn't feeling it at all. For most, if not all, personal projects I feel like I hit a phase where I'm just consuming inspiration too much - like overdosing on what other people have done rather than just trusting myself. I also have this revelation where I take a hard turn and come back closer to what I originally intended. This was sort of that moment...just not happy with it, reminding myself what imagine in my mind made me want to do this...etc.
C - Tone it down. Going back to a more realistic proportion. I don't want to make something that's unrelateable, in the end I want to make a hero type character for a dark fantasy game if I were to be in control of direction. I believe that direction is less fantastical - so, I dropped the idea of giant hands and shoulder pads and started building over more natural proportions.
D- Quickly Dynameshing a chest piece in and push the shoulders up and out
E- Decided to horribly sketch over the model in PS to think about what I want. I think there's a few things I want to do here: layered materials (Leather, Cloth, Scalemail, then plate armor, then accessories over top of it all.) that are clearly visible, repeated themes of Medusa/Snakes/Scales, Feathers/Wings, and female faces. Keeping asymmetrical details to a minimum, based on previous projects, and keeping them isolated to the shoulder pads and belts to break up the center line.
Again, this is so early that I normally wouldn't show it, but this is part of the process. I think some things are solid and definitely a direction i want to go, some ideas are just so general that they will most like change (like the bracers.)
Cheers,
Gav
From where i'm looking, contextually it might fit Darksiders but visually, it looks more like Gears of War with a fantasy twist (which in no way is a bad thing as I think it would yield very interesting results
whw: Cheers, I don't think that's a bad thing necessarily
silkroad: Thanks!
Little progress on the armor, still pretty early so there's a lot I need to do but felt like posting an update. I'm thinking the parts of the cuirass behind the cage can be a type of armor - either feathers or snake scales to keep with the theme, going to cap off where the cage meets the rim with some 'talon' type details as indicated in my horrible drawing. Will most likely have some kind of embossed detail on the neck guard, the padding inside will be a quilted type material....all sorts of stuff coming up.
Debating what to do for the back/shoulder area. I'd like to add some kind of cape, but it would have to be super short and/or awkward to fit with the wings. Was thinking about adding chains or ropes around his shoulders instead like you would see on military clothing.
Edit> And, obviously, need snake heads...
Cheers!
Gav
Not crazy about the X on the forehead, but I might look more natural later on
Can't wait to see this finished
few other things:
*the forehead looks really off in terms of basic anatomy planes.
*corner of the mouth/lips is too soft/round.
this would be handy for the forehead specially:
http://philippefaraut.com/store/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/a/male-planes-head_1.jpg
Stromberg: Cheers
MM: Thanks man, will address those things in a bit when I get
Alright, small update. Going so slow - but mostly because I've been getting some Bioshock renders ready >:]
Sort of layering him up here, looking to move on with a few more details then on to the armored bits (elaborate shoulder pads, wings, forearm, shins, etc.) then accessories. Hoping to speed things up this week -
Gav
Crosshair on his forehead looks suitable in my opinion, while the logo takes off attention from his face.
Anyways, I hope you`ll show us the final version soon)
I think you've done a good job working at creating believable cloth draping from his sleeves and torso. And a decent contrast between the padding on the inside of the thighs and the leather on the outside. Nice work Gav