Zameen [Overwatch Fan-made Character] - Mario Manzanares and Tim Moreels
polycounter lvl 5
Hello Polycount! My good friend Tim Moreels ( @MadGunslinger ) and I are extremely hyped by Overwatch (like all of you, don't try to hide it) so we decided to design a fan-made character for Overwatch, from sketches to the final 3D model. I will be doing the Concept Art and he will be in charge of the 3D, and yes, Polycount is the perfect place to keep a log of the creation of Zameen, master of the poisons.
Last WIP:
Zameen's Lore (WIP and subject to change):
Real Name: Unknown, Age: 52
Occupation: Techno-Biologist
Base of Operations: Nomad/Unknown.
Affiliation: Echis Karinatea
Role: Defense
Acting in the limits of the law, Zameen is a nomad inventor, worldwide famous for his peculiar ideas on the relation between technology and humanity. Before the Omni war, he published a polemic book proposing that technology should always serve humanity. He doesn't see robots as equals, but as servants or pets, even if they could develop their own feelings or desires. This way, he proposes, it's impossible to judge technology as good or bad, but something that completely depends on the creators.
Many protested against this idea, but meanwhile he was able to connect with a numerous group of scientist all over the world that, following Zameen's beliefs and using this new network, created many inventions. Once the Omni Wars started, the group now named Echis Karinatea, started operating outlaw and experimented with the junk and technological waste of the conflict. Both the weapon and the mechanical-snake that Zameen uses in combat are product of this research.
Nowadays, the whereabouts of Zameen are unkown, but the Overwatch heroes know he will never waste the opportunity to hoard the remains of a good fight in order to build something new, so it's easy to find him every time things get out of control
Initial sketches and exploration
In the begging, I fantasized with the idea of an indian buff character to share a story with Symmetra. I just love indian shapes and motifs and I thought it could be cool to mix some organic shapes like the head-wrap with the iconic Overwatch hard surface. When Tim entered in the project, though, we started to get bored of the buff hunky type, and he suggested me to keep the theme but experiment with the snake-charmer idea. I loved it so much and both of us thought: What if he has a robotic snake pet that he can use in combat?
We felt in love with the last drawing you can see in the exploration, so I started making some color variations and ended-up here:
The it was time for his weapon, cause a man can't fight just with a pet snake. As a character concept artist, designing hard surface stuff or weapons was very challenging (yet exciting!). Continuing with the snake theme, I thought that he could be a poison-based heroe. And what could be a better idea than a canon inspired by a Shisha that can shoot poison?
I had so much fun doing these, even if weapon design is totally out of my confort zone and it was terrifying at times. Now we only needed to make all the parts work together, so I did a few poses to explore the silhouette. My favorite one if the following (Disclaimer: it's totally WIP and in the future I would like to re-draw and render it):
At this point, I was confident enough to commit to the final design of the weapon, choosing the parts we Liked the most of the previous designs:
And that's it so far in the 2D realm! Let's see what Tim has to show us.... *grabs a bowl of popcorn*
Last WIP:
Zameen's Lore (WIP and subject to change):
Real Name: Unknown, Age: 52
Occupation: Techno-Biologist
Base of Operations: Nomad/Unknown.
Affiliation: Echis Karinatea
Role: Defense
Acting in the limits of the law, Zameen is a nomad inventor, worldwide famous for his peculiar ideas on the relation between technology and humanity. Before the Omni war, he published a polemic book proposing that technology should always serve humanity. He doesn't see robots as equals, but as servants or pets, even if they could develop their own feelings or desires. This way, he proposes, it's impossible to judge technology as good or bad, but something that completely depends on the creators.
Many protested against this idea, but meanwhile he was able to connect with a numerous group of scientist all over the world that, following Zameen's beliefs and using this new network, created many inventions. Once the Omni Wars started, the group now named Echis Karinatea, started operating outlaw and experimented with the junk and technological waste of the conflict. Both the weapon and the mechanical-snake that Zameen uses in combat are product of this research.
Nowadays, the whereabouts of Zameen are unkown, but the Overwatch heroes know he will never waste the opportunity to hoard the remains of a good fight in order to build something new, so it's easy to find him every time things get out of control
Initial sketches and exploration
In the begging, I fantasized with the idea of an indian buff character to share a story with Symmetra. I just love indian shapes and motifs and I thought it could be cool to mix some organic shapes like the head-wrap with the iconic Overwatch hard surface. When Tim entered in the project, though, we started to get bored of the buff hunky type, and he suggested me to keep the theme but experiment with the snake-charmer idea. I loved it so much and both of us thought: What if he has a robotic snake pet that he can use in combat?
We felt in love with the last drawing you can see in the exploration, so I started making some color variations and ended-up here:
The it was time for his weapon, cause a man can't fight just with a pet snake. As a character concept artist, designing hard surface stuff or weapons was very challenging (yet exciting!). Continuing with the snake theme, I thought that he could be a poison-based heroe. And what could be a better idea than a canon inspired by a Shisha that can shoot poison?
I had so much fun doing these, even if weapon design is totally out of my confort zone and it was terrifying at times. Now we only needed to make all the parts work together, so I did a few poses to explore the silhouette. My favorite one if the following (Disclaimer: it's totally WIP and in the future I would like to re-draw and render it):
At this point, I was confident enough to commit to the final design of the weapon, choosing the parts we Liked the most of the previous designs:
And that's it so far in the 2D realm! Let's see what Tim has to show us.... *grabs a bowl of popcorn*
Replies
Here's a blockout of the character, that I made for Mario to paint over, aswell as a close up of the face (All very WIP)
Overpainting the 3D Blockout
After he sent me the 3D art he did, I tried to nail down the design, using his blockout as a ref. Working like this allow me to check if the character will make sense once it is translated to 3D, so it's super helpful to work in 2D and 3D simultaneously.
Next step: Render the final design, yay!
I'm pretty happy with the colors, design and details, but there's always room for improvement, so go ahead and give us your comments!!
Thanks for the comment! Yeah, I think you are right with the Sihk turbant. I just wanted it to look a little bit more "techy" and not just made out of fabric. I think we will keep it for now and see how it works in the 3D model, and if it looks weird in the end, we can always have a full wrap
Regarding the beard, you are right again. So far is the most problematic part we have and your solution could work!Thanks again!!
@Magihat
Thanks a lot!! I tried very hard to nail the Overwatchy style, haha.
So I'll be trying to get the sharp edges a little bit smoother to make the finish fit the OW style a bit more today.
Apart from that, here's the progress of the day!
@Pshyco No idea what that means, but thanks Edgar! ^^
@TomGT Thanks Tom!
I finally finished the "beauty shot" illustration!
And after that I was like... what if I draw a skill-sheet with cute Zameen silhouettes? :-P
PS: I uploaded all the final concepts on my ArtStation, so if you liked it please follow the link and give me some love there
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0dZn8
Here are the legs. Still got some cleaning up to do, but here is the base. Now for the shoes and then I can start doing some overall cleanups. I can only work on it after my work hours, but I'm hoping to have this sculpt finished by Friday!
@Dennispls Thank you! ^^
@Jakub Thanks!!
@Crazy_pixel Yes, absolute pleasure to work with Mario ^^
@DsculptStudio Thanks!
@Sebeuroc Thank you!!
@_Kratos_ Thanks!!
@Ootrick Here is a WIP of the 3D part
@Handwiches Thanks!
Thanks to everyone for the support really. It's been an awesome project to work on!
Here is the high poly of the character itself. Might still change some parts after feedback or clean up some stuff. But here goes!
@Firith Thank you!
Started on the highpoly of the weapon and fixed a lot of stuff on the character itself. Got some really good feedback from Leslie Van Den Broeck and Steffen Unger, so thank you guys!!
If I had one comment, it'd be that currently my eyes are drawn to his knee area due the detail and flow of the model, which might not be entirely what you're looking for. It's quite likely that this will change once you get the props and/or colours on him, but it's perhaps something keep in mind.
@Steve Schulze Thanks! Ill definitely keep that in mind while texturing him!
@Muzz Thank you!
And for those wondering, I'm using a combination of pro-boolean and max modeling with ZBrush for the weapon.