Knight model - Zbrush

MasterBeard

Hello guys.
Here is my new try to make a knight.
I would love if you could give me some advice to how to improve this model. Im new in Zbrush and concept modeling so i know little.
So if you be so kind
thanks

felicitousArtisan

I think more than the sculpt, which seems pretty competent for an early attempt (though I'm not sure this would be an easy one to retop for games), the character design is the issue here.
The armour doesn't really have a cohesive look in terms of culture and technology, and also doesn't really make sense in how it stays on and moves. While some divergence from realistic armour design is fine in Fantasy work, there are some things where you have to make a little effort to make the armour look functional. Example, those shoes. The shape suggests metal but they're formed from a single piece, so there's no way for his foot to bend. Many parts of the armour are mysteriously floating in place, attached to nothing. I strongly recommend looking at real armour (plenty of reference online) so you have some idea of its construction. You can only get away with a lack of obvious construction if it's clear that you're working with a high-magic setting and the whole armour is styled consistently (say like the armour of Kain and Cecil in Final Fantasy IV, which features flowing shapes and few obvious seams or fastenings more like a sci-fi tokusatsu character's armour)

There's also the lack of visual cohesion here to the design. We have thin plates with squared off shapes like the knees, which look almost sci-fi, we have pieces that look inspired by the shape of late medieval armour, like the shoulders, we have very thick warcrafty chunky gauntlets, we have a highly decorated single-piece breastplate in the style of something from Roman or Ancient Greek times, and a helmet that's also of an ancient sort of style. The individual pieces look nice, but they don't look like they go together.

You need to stop before sculpting and think about what the "look" you're going for is; what is the tech/magic level, what shapes are you trying to get across, how does this armour fasten, bend etc. Try to make a suit of armour where all the pieces definitely look like they belong in the same "set".

MasterBeard

Thanks felicitousArtisan. To be exact this is my 3rd try to make a character in zbrush and every atempt was the same. I couldnt understand what was wrong. now i see it. I just wanted to do my own concept clearly i cant. So what pieces can u sugest me to leave and what to replace so it could work? i mean i think helm and shoulders looking from the same set and breastplate with chainmail maybe too or? and thanks for the review btw

felicitousArtisan

Okay well to me, the Breastplate has the mpst work in it already and the helm. If we make a design that follows the style of those, it might be something like this:

(Please forgive the rough and rushed nature of the paintover).

So you might decide to do something like that. OR you might feel like that doesn't get across "Knight" strongly enough and go for a mode medieval influenced look like the shoulders on the original. If that's the case, google medieval armour and you'll find a slew of reference!

Whatever you decide, assuming you want to continue on making your own design (and there's really no shame in deciding to master modelling and concept art separately or focusing on one or the other; they're pretty different skills! ) try to think in terms of repeating similar kinds of shapes through the design. In the case of my paintover, I tried to repeat similar curves, angles and flourishes, and armour shapes from similar time periods and cultures, with a few bits of artistic license afforded by the Fantasy genre.

MasterBeard

It looks amazing felicitousArtisan. Thank you immensely. I am going to redo it right now. I mean yeah i wanted more heavy knight with huge shield and sword but i like your idea more It reminds me of skyrim. So thank you again and i will let you know when its done (if you want of course ).

MasterBeard

felicitousArtisan. I made some changes.
How about now?