Veteran Warrior - Critique requested

Abidus

Latest update (7/24/2014):

Perspective view:


Ortho:


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Been working on this for the last few days. I'm not working from a concept, but I've brought together elements from various references that I liked (vikings, gladiators, akuma, diablo 3 monk, etc.). I think I've taken it as far as I can, and I'm content with the result.

Naturally, I'm turning to you talented people now to tear it apart Let me know what you guys think!

PyrZern

I feel his thumbs are quite on the short side. And his fingers in general need to be more muscular and toned. Also, not sold on the 3 super low-rise belts. They seem like they gonna restrict you from moving. And lastly, the silhouette of the pants doesn't read well. The pants material doesn't behave like what I expect it to. (hard fabric ? I expect big crisp few creases)

Keep going though ~! This gonna be pretty cool.

Carabiner

My question would be, why is one arm completely bare? I mean, it looks cool, but functionality-wise I am having trouble figuring out how that would be helpful. But yes -- looking good so far!

ClusterOne

The armor design looks really cool, I love it. That being said, it appears that you added armor before properly getting your anatomy down--this can waste a lot of time as you'll likely have to go back and tweak the armor when you fix the anatomy. Would you mind showing the naked, unembellished model?

@Carabiner Its his right arm so the lack of armor is likely for better coordination with a weapon. Its easy to overlook how restrictive (movement wise) armor can actually be. It might not hurt to add some bracers or something light, but as far as heavy armor goes, it would make sense that there isn't any there. Heck, the armor isn't that functional to begin with, if it looks cool, it flies with me. However I do agree with the point you're making; always try to design armor with functionality in mind.

sargentcrunch

n/a

Torch

Its a cool start, some issues with the anatomy especially the forearm that could use fixing. I think before doing any of that though you should jump back down to level 1 and improve his gesture so he has more of a solid standing pose, right now he feels very rigid and stiff.

butt_sahib

The amount of improvement ive seen is phenomenal! Inspiring!
Keep at it

Abidus

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I really appreciate it!



@PyrZern: I've always had difficulties getting the proportions of the hands to feel right (not too small or too misshapen). In theory, the low rise belts are there to keep the outer leg plates from shifting around too much when he takes a low stance (i.e. legs are wide apart). Perhaps they are bigger than they should be at the moment. I do agree about the pants, trying to fix it (sculpting believable cloth is tough).

@Carabiner: The idea in my head is that he would fight with a large shield and a spear/polearm. The large shield would be held by the bare arm, leaving the armoured thrusting arm to do its work with the spear/polearm (since it will be exposed, it needs more protection from counter-attacks).

@ClusterOne + Torch: Thanks! I am still trying to nail my anatomy skills, but I see your point. I always try to keep functionality in mind when I model armour, but it's easy to get carried away and want things to look cool as well!

I did try to spend a lot of time on low subdivisions this time around just to try and get a decent silhouette going before I started going up in detail. Here's the "naked" version as requested:



@sargentcrunch: There are actually a bunch of scars and damage all over his armour but it's just not showing up as much as it should in the render. I will have to ramp it up a bit and make it more apparent.

@butt_sahib: Thanks buddy, much appreciated!

Abidus

Progress:

- Went back and revised anatomy + improved gesture
- Tweaked most of the armour into the new position (bracers still need work)
- Added a bracer on the previously bare arm (testing it out)
- Scaled down the necklace (will be redone completely to restore spherical forms)
- Scaled down and re positioned belts
- Tweaked pants + silhouette
- Added scars and damage to armour
- Other miscellaneous hi-res details added

Perspective view:


Ortho:


Keep the feedback coming!