[Mixamo Contest] - Lionel (Ljsketch) Cornelius Jr. - Keith "The Inventor" Smith IV(WI

ljsketch

Hey Polycounters,
I'm super late to the party but better late than never I suppose. Actually, I started working on concepts once the contest was announced. I was unsure or not whether I would finish in time, which is what kept me from starting a thread. Super lame excuse..I know…but now I'm starting it and sharing my progress.


First, here's a little background about the character I am developing:

Keith "The Inventor" Smith IV
Keith's family is from Virginia. The Smith Family inherited a farm in the late 19th century which contributes to the start of their wealth. Keith Jr. became interested in bio tech at an early age. That interest led him to studies at MIT. Keith Jr. returned to Virginia to use his knowledge and apply it to their business in Virginia. Each Keith had an interest in technology in some form. But the start of exploration rested in Keith III's obsession with finding the Kruger Rands, in which he did, and now remains in a hidden location. From there, the quest for new and old secrets of the world, became a hunger for the Smith family.


Ok here's more info...

Family Generations
Keith Sr 1865 - 1930
Keith Jr 1890 - 1952
Keith III 1916 - 1991
Keith IV 1944 -

INVENTIONS:
time machine – aids the user in time travel, straps across wrist for quick access.
grappling hands – assisting hands that strap across the waist and are operated by the mind of the operator.


WEAPONS:
Dragoon Pistol – picked up during American Civil war by great great Uncle from a fallen calvary man.

GARMENTS:
Union Soldier Hat – great great uncle fought in the American Civil War. Was secretly a weapons technician.
Aquarius symbol – 2 generations of Keith's born in month of January.
Boomerang – Keith has always loved Australia…don't ask why.(OPTIONAL)

Jacket
Long sleeve shirt rolled up to forearms
slacks
boots
shoulder strap bag for carrying items
robotic assisting arms – straps to back when not in use
gun strap
boomerang strap (OPTIONAL)
Hairstyle: Conk

NOTABLE:
Favorite adventure film: Legend of the Lost
Favorite Actor: John Wayne
Favorite Music Artists: Duke Ellington & Ludwig Von Beethoven

I wanted to explore a multiracial character this time around so I based a lot of my research for the facial appearance on that. Here are some of my references:



here's some of the character concepts I worked on:

ljsketch

And here's the progress I've made so far in chronological order:





added the sword here but could not figure out how to design a scabbard for it so I scrapped it completely

ljsketch

and if anyone cares, I recorded my first session in ZBrush. I was going to record the entire process, but ZBrush crashed while I was recording the second video and from then on I said forget it.

Here's the video:
http://vimeo.com/68785723

For this character, I wanted to do everything in ZBrush...all mesh creation that is. So I used primitive shapes inside Zbrush, along with Extraction and Shadowbox in combination with Dynamesh to create all the parts so far.

ljsketch

And...one more post...the colt dragoon...The Inventor's favorite weapon:

ljsketch

more progress on my model:

Added the time traveling thingmajig on his arm. I also added controls to the mech on his back which run by the power generated from each other (time traveling device and mechanical arms). Though, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.

Any crits are welcome.

Stiffler

I love the sculpt and concept! The extra arms will be hard to get rigged using Mixamo's auto rigger. It only reads 2-armed bipeds effectively. Auto-rig w/o the mech-pack, then add it to the weighted skeleton/mesh you get from the auto-rig. On the last contest I tried a character with 'angel' wings, and I had to rig them separately after the process.

ljsketch

Thanks for the comment and the heads up Stiffler! I had no idea how the auto rigger would work going in.

Here's more progress on my model. I decided to redesign the mech pack again. I did not like the way it was coming out. I also wanted to keep some of the design with a 50s feel to it. The previous mech pack was straying away from that. For the most part, the sculpt is done. I still have some minor refinements on the face that need to be done. Mostly details and surface texture. And the time traveling watch needs refinement. After that I can retopo, uv and then texture.

ljsketch

made some changes to the face. added some detail and created base texture for the head.

ljsketch

I started working on the textures and here is a shot from Marmoset. So far I've only worked on diffuse for the body and the robot. Both need a lot of work though. I'm running out of time and I'm not so sure I am going to make the deadline. But I'm going to keep working at it. Any feedback is welcome.





Here are some shots from Maya with a default shader and normals applied shown with Maya's new viewport 2.0.

chudork

Looking great, cant wait to see the finished character

ljsketch

Thanks Chudork I'm posting final now.