Reallusion Character Design - VinceDN
vertex
Hey guys, I'm Vincent, a graphic designer from Belgium who is learning 3D in his off-time. My girlfriend challenged me to do this contest, even though I have only done one model in my life and I have never done a character before, let alone rig, animate. If I win she will have to cook for me for two months.
AND ITS GONNA BE THREE COURSE MEALS BOYS YIHAAAA
AND ITS GONNA BE THREE COURSE MEALS BOYS YIHAAAA
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history. It will live in the annals of war... It will live in the legends of Arabia. - Winston Churchill
Current status: Building highpoly
Hi there Polycount! For the Reallusion Contest I am entering with my Dieselpunk badass power armor version of Lawrence of Arabia. I remember watching the movie as a kid and was enarmored with the romantic ideals and controversy around his figure. This is actually my second entry, originally I was going to enter with Athina, but I ended up cancelling the design because it didn't have that 'oompf' factor I wanted.
Lawrence, The Lion of Arabia is set in an alternate Dieselpunk WW1. The invention of the Mark V power armor, named Armorjacks, has transformed the face of the Great War. The young colonel T.E Lawrence is sent to Ottoman-controlled Arabia to lead an insurgency that would propel him to fame and infamy. Enjoy!
Hero or scoundrel? For Ottoman troops, no name instills more fear than that of Lawrence of Arabia. This British colonel and his band of Arab revolutionaries hide in the desert, striking Ottoman convoys where they are least expected and dissapearing like the desert sand. Equipped with British armature and customized Mark FIVE Armorjacks, his Arab Revolt is definitely a sight to behold. Heralded in the Home Isles as a romantic freedom fighter, though many are suspicious of his loyalties to the Arab leaders, and his opposal to colonial rule. Some would even go as far as to name him a traitor to the British Empire. How will Lawrence be remembered? Only time will tell.
I have only a single finished 3D model to my name
Luckily Bulle took me through most of the basic software operations so I have a vague idea of what my pipeline should be. Getting into Reallusion, rigging etc is going to be tough though so I hope the iClone software can speed up production there
My new entry: Lawrence, the Lion of Arabia
Having trouble embedding pictures, I made a rough concept for this
-Alex
I've noticed, I'm using Character Creator in the designing phase now, I'll show how in the next Dev Diary. I decided to combine my posts into DD's, make it easier to show stuff.
DEV DIARY 1 : Art Style & Universe
Lawrence is based off a concept I drew up earlier (called Project Aslan) for a dieselpunk World War I which included exosuits, airships and all sorts of crazy jazz. Think of a world stuck in the roaring twenties with much more advanced technology.
There are a few artists and themes already in this Dieselpunk-esque setting, I'm thinking of the awesome designs of Maschiner Kriegen, or more to the Steampunk side of things, movies like Steamboy - large inspirations for me.
I guess I have a think for large, mechanical parts, valves and screws, diesel engines, etc. Lawrence his suit has a huge two-exhaust engine strapped to the back which powers it's hydraulic system, other than that the armor plates are heavily inspired by old diving suits and the tanks and tractors, cars of WW1. All these vintage designs have this brutalist look to them, heavily plated and with crude bolting and welding - it's great material to work with. Just look at these beasts.
But anyway, back to Lawrence. I grabbed some great books on WW1 and WW2 tech from the library, which is what I'm basing these designs off. GF snapped some pics of me sketching up stuff
I was thinking of accesories for Lawrence. originally I was going to go with a Steampunk minigun, but I figured why not go overboard. So I designed something with 'MORE POWER!'
Imagine five howitzer barrels strapped to an oversized revolver magazine - which of course holds ten-pound artillery shells. Makes no sense? Of course it doesn't, but hell if it ain't cool!
Here's a better look at that. I'm also considering an oversized anti-tank super rifle.
And then, just for fun, what is more British than a 450-pound exosuit holding a cup of tea?
That's all for now, next dev diary will be about using Character Creator to concept while modeling. We tend to hold to a tight pipeline of concept->model->bake->uv->texture, but I'm experimenting with 'hack/dev' systems learned from the app developers I work with. Essentially it comes down to developing the model while modeling, so bouncing between the blockout and Photoshop for overpainting, looking at ideas, etc...
V
I want to do a dev diary on my hack-dev principle but I want to do a little more designing first, so i made a quick video to show recent developments. I discovered decimation master - Insane!
How do you guys feel about these backpack designs? Some like one pipes, some two.; I'm on the fence myself
V
Two more update shots, I managed to do a blockout of the Ten-Pounder Revolving Field Artillery Cannon (its a HOWITZER MINIGUN), some pose tests, and work on the neck and head areas. I still don't know what I want to do with the big neck area, I never defined it in the sketch. Originally I called this design the Lion-suit, so I was thinking some sort of piping like I'm using right now, with cloth parths wrapped here and there to add asymmetry
About this minigun: I'm going to try animation tests. Imagine the revolving magazine of a huge 657 magnum, only here there are HOWITZER SHELLS where there would be ammo. It's brutal and over the top, perfect for this character! I want this entire piece to be dirty dieselpunk madness, with oil seeping from cracks in the gears and a humming V8 engine to power it all
I managed to assemble a new Dev Diary showing some of the inspirations and talking about the design of Lawrence Of Arabia; watch it here
We muscle on! Put this trailer out on Facebook, here's a copy
V
Some progress on the legs: