Crystal Monster

Chris Kuhner

Hey friends,

Been working on this guy on and off in my free-time for a little while now. Thought I'd finally make a thread so I could get some feedback as I twerk. The concept is by my friend Carlo Spagnola. I'll put a link to his work below.

Carlo's Artstation

Any comments or critique are more than welcome! Thanks everybody.



Concept:

Chris Kuhner

Made some progress on him last week. Added more detail and really started to get into the anatomy of the lower body and tail. I've been researching some dinosaurs and monsters like Godzilla for reference as this area has proven to be a bit of a challenge. I also started blocking in some more rock structures for the crystals to grow from. I'm thinking of continuing the crystals and rocks down his back and into the tail a bit as well as maybe enlarging his hands slightly.

Let me know what you think!

Kel-Shaded

He looks really cool dude, I love that you gave him a face with so much character

beefaroni

Lookin coooo so far.

lotet

this is really cool, keep it up!

OrganizedChaos

Looking great so far!

Suba

Looks awesoome ! Love that Godzilla feel. What are you gonna do with the tail though?

Chris Kuhner

Thanks everybody!

Suba: I was thinking I'd continue the rocks and crystals down for a bit while adding some bony protrusions.

Sukotto

Nice details! Though your proportions are vastly different from the concept. Is that a conscious decision? I quite like the stubby legs and tail in the concept

slosh

Yea this looks nice but I have to agree that I like the proportions in the concept a bit better with the exaggerated upper torso/arms and smaller legs.

Chris Kuhner

Yeah, there were quite a few changes we both considered and subsequently made as the project evolved. I'll give the legs a second go though because I kind of agree.

Leto

oozes with character, love it

CougarJo

Very nice sculpt He kind of remind me of the monster that eat your gun in Heart of Darkness!

Gannon

Super cool design, if the crystals weren't crystals - I would have thought this was Murczilla.

Only thing that sticks out to me as being weird is the calve area but I'm not a character artist so it might just be me. It looks like either you added an extra joint that wasn't in your original concept.
-or-
If you intended the extra joint to be there, then it feels like maybe the muscles are out of whack?

Like I said, Not a character guy.

Chris Kuhner

Hey everyone,

Went through and made a slew of changes per your critiques. Transpose Master is the best thing since sliced bread. There's still a lot of touch-up and re-sculpting to do after all that shifting around. I think I'm happier with the proportions overall though. What do you think? Is this headed in the right direction?

Thanks friends!

pixelpatron

Diggin the new proportions, assuming the short squaty tail is the updated. I liked the tadpole inspired tail in the concept, your tail seems unfinished or lazy compared to the rest of it.

Chris Kuhner

I just sort of blocked out the rough shape for now. I didn't want to get too crazy with resculpting or adding new detail before getting feedback over such a big change. Next up for me is to reshape the forms and then continue detailing the skin and adding a path of crystal & rock to the tail.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Are we going for a mole rat skin or a different surface skin?

Chris Kuhner

I'll be adding a more reptilian vibe to the rest of the skin later. I'd like to combine attributes of a few different animals, having softer skin in some spots while a tougher more callous skin in others. Particularly near where the crystals are growing. Started tinkering with some skin plating in the lat area. Sort of like a gator?

JRancourt

Nice, the changes really had a lot of personality to the character!

Brian "Panda" Choi

I smell a skin contrast similar to a hedgehog

Stirls

Saw this on WAYWO. Good changes to the proportions, it really helps to provide that sense of weight and scale.

Chris Kuhner

Made a quick ref sheet showing some of the skin textures and crystal formations I'll be looking at moving forward. I've been doing some research into particular crystal/mineral formations and learned just how many forms the same mineral or crystal can take when growing. In particular the mineral, Chalcanthite. It really inspires me to implement this into my character instead of having such uniformity in the crystal formations. It's so cool!

Anywho, all feedback and crit are more than welcome!




Any suggestions and feedback are more than welcome!

Brian "Panda" Choi

Assuming the cystals act as armor and the creature lives somewhat subterraneously, maybe the skin color could edge towards a paler green, almost albino.

And are those tubors or blisters at the base of the crystals?

blinKX10

Dear god please tell me you know someone good at rigging, this would be a killer character!

Chris Kuhner

I was thinking they could be secretions from the skin that sort of built up and hardened on the surface over time leading to the crystal growths. Certainly something I need to think on more.

Once I reach the texturing stage, I'd like to tinker with a multitude of color palettes. Earth tones with amethyst colored crystals is one that comes to mind.

Jean-Pascal

Here's the drawing I was talking about in the hangout:
I think that adding straights again curves would help breaking the silouhette from the front.

Iciban

man this is look awesome! totally love the anatomy form

Chris Kuhner

Been a while since my last post. Going back and forth between projects tends to delay things and stuff. Made a bunch of changes and refinements based on your crits.

I reshaped the tail/legs, added webbing to the armpit region and have been working on sculpting skin that didn't just have arbitrary dam-standard lines and actually feels thick/overlapping.

Very close to being finished with the high poly. Any critiques or comments are more than welcome!

Jean-Pascal

Looking ace Chris! Can we see a front/side/back view as well?

theStoff

This looks awesome. The only thing I'd say is that you should make the crystals on the legs look more integrated into the skin (as you have on the shoulder area).

Chris Kuhner

Thanks guys! Here's a quick mug shot of a front, side and back view as requested.

Kosh: Yeah man, a lot of the rocks and crystals became hidden from all the leg tinkering I was doing. Definitely on it this time around!

Kaine123

I know it's not in the concept, but I think the tail could use the addition of more crystals.

fabiomsilva

this is looking beautiful. i second the suggestion about crystals in the tail.

Chris Kuhner

Thanks! Crystals on the tail are definitely happening, no worries.

Chris Kuhner

Hi friends,

Long time no update. Got through the retopo/bakes and wanted to put up a progress shot before I fully dive into texturing. Tossed him into Marmoset and applied only the base bakes and tinkered with some sliders to get him where he is now.

Going to use this project as an opportunity to learn Substance Designer & Painter. Right now he's sitting at approx. 35k tris. I still have more crystals to add in which hopefully won't exceed 2-3k tris. Anywho- any comments or crits you might have are more than welcome!

Chris Kuhner

Spent the last couple weeks learning Substance Designer. Here are the fruits of my labor so far... Been tinkering with making a decent detail normal for creature skin. Really excited to keep on tinkering... Rock textures next!

nbac

i really like where you are heading!
very nice skine details with substance designer!
you apply it as detail normal?

almighty_gir

looking awesome Khuner, i'd say the tail could do with being a bit longer though... whole point of the tail is to balance out that hunking upper body/forward lean.

pmiller001

This looks really cool !
I have a question, his belly, in the concept is covered by rocks. Why did you choose to take the rocks out?

zberry

That bump on the skin looks great.

EarthQuake

This is a sowsage fellow if I've ever seen one.

Chris Kuhner

Thanks everyone! Made some texturing progress over the last day or so. Though it was a good place to post a progress shot. Still have a bunch to do with the skin and rest of the body. Comments and crits welcome!

nbac: Yessir I did.

almighty_gir: Thanks man! It's a little late in the process to go back, but I'll give it a go on the high and see how it looks.

pmiller001: It was a joint decision between the concept artist and I. We thought it made more sense to have the rocks on top and softer skin in the areas less exposed.

EarthQuake: So sowsage. I can't even.

Makkon

Looking awesome man! Love the shapes and proportions, and the sculpting is top notch. I definitely liked the pale skin and red crystals more. Maybe get some purple into the palette?

vickgaza

I too liked the red/purple ish crystsals quite a lot. Mixing them with the green skin will look cool. Youmight as well add a gradient color to that tongue so it doesn't stick out that sharp. would be nice the tip to be of a different hue while as it goes in it recedes in saturation/hue to match them cristials

Ace work, really good job

Chris Kuhner

Thanks guys, solid points too. I've been tinkering with the color and tend to agree; though I'd still like to see some color in there. As for the crystals, I'm planning to make a glow & translucency map for them. So for now, they're black. Hoping this will only emphasize the overall effect down the road.

jpnuclear

wow, which software are you using to modeling? I like the rocks "cristal" forms. Very well. This character in some game would be great.

spectre1130

Definitely love the detail in the sculpt, and the silhouette as well. I do think I like the original color scheme though with the pale/pinkish skin. Good work!

Chris Kuhner

Made some more progress today. Did a lot more work on the rocks and transitions to the skin. Going to tinker with some different color palettes next!

Loutrattitude

Not a fan of the green skin, but damn these rocks !

Wasp

This looks sick to rig, hit me up if you're interested!