Orchid Queen - Creature Character

Reowwww

Hey peeps. I have been working on a personal project on and off for a while now in my spare time after work. I started it ages ago then left it to gather dust, then decided to pick it up again. I've been recording WIPs as I go, but never got round to making a thread!

The purpose of this project was to tackle the generic centaur like 'bug queen' idea and try to blend the elegance of the orchid mantis with the flow of the female form to create a graceful queen.

(check last for latest update)

WIP 1:

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WIP 2:

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WIP 3:

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WIP 4:

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WIP 6:

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WIP 7:

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WIP 8:

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WIP 9:

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WIP 10:

I received some invaluable feedback from my colleagues and addressed a lot of issues that were going on with the torso.

BagelHero

Oh, man. Kinda opened this thread thinking it was just going to be a generic gal-shoved-in-a-plant and I have been pleasantly surprised! This looks fantastic and the design is awesome!! Just stunning. Are you planning on taking her to game resolution?

PyrZern

Great job tackling this complex character in 8 minutes ! Big Kudo.

Joking aside, looking nice there. Seems she's arching her back way too much though. What is she based, on, btw ? Butterfly + Killer Mantis ?

Reowwww

hehe thanks a lot BagelHero c: Hmm maybe I should change the name of the thread if its misleading

Yeah sure am, minor tweaks on the highpoly/polypaint then onto retopologising.. *sigh*

@PyrZern haha, I wish I was that fast T_T Yes her back is intentionally arched back a lot to try and get that continuous S curve and emphasis on her mantis limbs, I figured it as part of her anatomy, you think its too much though? hmm maybe, ill have a tweak. Shes inspired by the Orchid Mantis, an amazing insect.

EdGaray

Queen keeps getting better. I was going to suggest to do transparent dragonfly wings but I guess it may ruin the camouflage. Maybe a few flower veins that reflects a more vivid metallic finish?

Reowwww

EdGaray thanks for your input! Yes I was going to give her iridescent wings like this with elements of brown along the veins and joint

Crazy_pixel

Nice concept I like those creatures Are you give her a cool flying pose too?

Reowwww

Couple test bakes and test shader setup, getting exciting. c:

Suba

Mindblowing design. In love with the texturing. It's plain awesome, can't wait to see more !

AngryMindtricks

Beautiful, love the design, detail and palette. I'll keep a close eye on this one for sure

Nuclear Angel

A wonderful design and execution. I want to see its wings!

Steve Schulze

Gorgeous work, mate. One of the more impressive things I've seen on here in quite a while.

jestersheepy

It's alright innit.

Reowwww

You guysssss, too kind c: Thanks so much!

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Init shaun, yeah mate

_Kratos_

Man...Im lovin it! Nice idea and nice traslation into a 3D model... love how you did the anatomy with insect parts!
Put some detail work on the textures and shaders and you gonna have some nice stuff!

Ferg

really nice work dude

Reowwww

I'm sorry but I just have to share my Uv's with you guys :L
Lets play spot the massive...


Bonus points for the more subtle ones..

Reowwww

More test renders, experimenting with the wing's iridescence, got my final bakes too. Having way too much fun with the shaders

BARDLER

I like the color pallet, but it is so evenly distributed across the character that it becomes kind of muted. I think gradating the hues/saturation from the limbs to the core and face would help a lot. So the face and chest get the most saturated color and will create a natural focal point.

Looks awesome though man, really like the look you have.

spectre1130

Beautiful. I agree with bardler on getting some more saturation/slight color shifts near the front and head for some focal interest.

Great job though for sure.

Tits

Beautifull, I love the color and design. Very pretty and feminine

kmactastic

This is awesome!I hope you pose her. Also I spot the massive thing in your UVs.

Reowwww

Thanks guys!
Bardler thanks for the crit I think you're right, I'll bake a gradient map and then use that to tweak hue saturation from top to bottom C:

oxblood

this is beautiful

Puffs

Oh my, she's so beautiful and delicate!
Great job!

vickgaza

UUUU looks sweet man !

Makkon

This is really otherworldly, man. Great character design and awesome materials and colors! If I had one crit it would be the wings look like thick plastic, from a toy. I think you'd really sell the character with some more work on those wings, adding more cells/veins, and trying to make them look thinner and less plasticky.

Neox

such a beauty!

i think the background is a hell lot distracting, i would tone it down or blur more or just make it a gradient to push her a bit more. Overall i guess you want to sell her as a magical being and thats why the bloom is so strong but i'd tone it down and add some partial bloom in post, right now it blurs her more than anything.

Kel-Shaded

The hands get lost at some angles, but that's nit picking, its fantastic!!!
Really love the wings shader

Kend

She is so pretty! Great work.

Reowwww

Thanks for the crit guys very useful High fives all round.

Reowwww

Added some subtle details, created a subdermal map (which I think I can get more use out of) added variation to the gloss map, tweaked translucency map and added stuff to albedo too. Textured eyes. Wings need some more love then think I'm nearly ready to pose for final beauty shot.

Edit: posed, 24k tris

Bao92

love the progress! really really nice

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Final renders

BagelHero

This ended up lovely! Great job.

jhoythottle

Awesome work! Forgive for scrolling through without reading everything, what is the concept of scale of this character? Is she a human sized insect? fairy size? or tiny? Just curious. Love everything about this.

Reowwww

Tried a different background.

Reowwww

Hey jhoythottle, tbh I never properly decided (I really should have). The veins on her wings suggests she is a small fairy, but I pictured her as a fairy queen spirit of a forest or something, so she should be human size.. but since she is a magical being.. Maybe she is both

BagelHero

That second background is a bit less in your face, it's nice!

Oh, and as soon as you said you weren't actually sure what size she'd be, I drew her small, not fairy small. More like... dwarf, small. Maybe knee height. lol.

Less graceful and intimidating, that's for sure, haha. :poly124:

Reowwww

BagelHero I love your sketch haha! Yes! She totally works that size! Now I see this I think if she was human size she might be too intimidating with all those limbs

Thanks a lot for helping me figure this out :] Appreciate it.

pinkbubblegum

Oh gooosh. I saw this on Lunchcrunch and have been absolutely in love with her. She's just so so so pretty!

How'd you do the iridescent wings btw? Is it just in spec color? o u o
I really like the effect it has. Super pretty.

Reowwww

Hey pinkbubblegum, the wings have 2 meshes, the same mesh duplicated ontop of itself. On the 1st mesh is just the wings textured normally with albedo and alpha, without any spec colour. On the 2nd mesh consists of metallic specular colour and alpha, so the iridescence has its own mesh, this is because the colour spec was being hidden by the alpha of mesh 1 that made the albedo transparent hmm, I wonder if that all makes sense.