40K Space Marine

Denzil_forde

Howdy Folks,

I've started working of a Space Marine Character Project as I'm a huge fan of the 40k Universe. I wanted to keep this project simple, but use it as a means of practicing hard surface modelling and texturing skin using PBR.

This Project is still in work in progress, but It's been a delight to work on this project, especially as I'm a huge fan of the 40k universe.

Please Feel to comment, any advice on improvement will be much appreciated

Progress so far:

Denzil_forde

Here is the Chainsword I worked on for him:

adrxzero

I am digging the direction you are taking and your reference  looks good. Are you aiming for a specific loyalist chapter?

Also now that I look at it again, that imperial fist  reference seems off from the proportions of the other two. 

Erasmus crafted a very well executed imperial fist for his lord inquisitor short.

Here is the 3d sample:
https://sketchfab.com/models/41b630383d5c421ba2cfb89c0e7c85a6

Denzil_forde

Thanks a lot dude! It was either imperial fist or Flesh Tearers (I haven't decided yet) but yes definitely a loyalist chapter.

Thanks for pointing that out dude, much appreciated the link is really good reference, the proportions are great.

Please feel free to leave more feedback when I post up more progress shots

Denzil_forde

Hey Folks,

I've gone back a step with the Space Marine's body. I got some great advice from my Mentor Del Walker. He advised that I spend time understanding the body type I was trying to create and not just copying reference. Thus, I'm spending more to establishing reference material and understanding how to interpret it in 3D.

There are still areas I need to work on (especially the proportions), but I'm learning a lot more about this body type.

Reference: 

Please Feel free to comment. Any feedback is much appreciated .

gfelton

The anatomy is actually pretty good, just keep working on him dude!

Denzil_forde

Thank you very much Gfelton, much appreciated! Will continue to post updates. Feel free to comment anytime!

Denzil_forde

Hey Folks, 

I've made some alterations to his body yesterday, getting some great feedback from Del about the best areas to have flexed and relaxed muscles.

Now that I have the proportions and forms down, I can start refining. Of course the body will be hidden, but I want to learn and practice muscle definition.

lasoob

Hi Denzil, don't know if you've already fixed this but from the last post of the side pic he's leaning back. The centre of the skull should be aligned with the front of the shin bone and the front of the base of the neck should sit just behind the red line. Also the shoulder joint needs to be further forward also to sit just behind the line.

Did a quick liquify to illustrate

Denzil_forde

Hi Laura,

Thanks for pointing this out, I'm glad you have. I haven't fixed this issue yet, but thanks to you I have a means of correcting it, much appreciated.

I'll post up the progress shots when I've completed it, please feel free to comment again.

Much appreciated

Linfo

Hey Denzil, I hope you don´t mind but I did a quick photoshop tweak to the profile pic.

I think you could try making the neck way thicker, which should help avoid the big gap you have between the shoulder blades and the head.

See attached, and keep it up!
:

Denzil_forde

Hey Linfo,

Thanks very much for the help, I see what you mean, yeah I think widening the neck is a good idea.

I'll give it a go and post updates. Please feel free to comment again.

Denzil_forde

Hey Folks,

It's been pretty slow progress this week, but I've been working on the hands of the space marine. I still need to work on the proportions and the head feedback that Linfo and Laurasuebeach made last week. Please Tell me your thoughts.

Next week I'll be working on the feet and getting the proportions for the body right, the arms need more refinement too. All feedback welcome.

Chronicle

liking it so far.  He looks positively beeft, as an astartes should.  To me, it looks like his legs are just a little short, maybe speficically his thigh area.  The underside to his wrist leading into his hand also feels just a little too thick.  Good start overall, I think my favorite area in terms of shape so far is his pecks and shoulders.  Good stuff.

Denzil_forde

Hey Chronicle,

Thanks very much for the advice, much appreciated. I'll be working on this today and next week and will post update shots.

Please feel free to comment again!

Denzil_forde

Hey Guys,

I extended the thigh and reduced the thickness of the wrists as Chronicle mentioned (thank you very much).
 
Taking on the feedback by Linfo and Laurasuebeach last week, I'm going to make the changes to the body this week so that the body will seem balanced instead of leaning backwards.

I used Liquify in photoshop to highlight where I need to make changes:

Will post Progress soon.

Denzil_forde

Some more notes:

adrxzero

@Denzil_forde

Your anatomy is really coming along and I am going to very much agree on the higher clavicle, the neck is starting to look very thin and long from my perspective. 

Another thing that you may need to look into is that space marines have a plastic carapace underneath their chest with wiring that extends across the body (reference below),  the plastic is inserted underneath the skin of the space marine's torso. 


http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/The_Black_Carapace

This may affect the overall look of the model, but if you choose this to be just an anatomy study then no worries. It all depends on how closely you want the character to follow 40k lore.

In addition I recommend to look at Erasmus's Grey Knights short for reference on how he approached the space marines anatomy and black carapace. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjaYW5Cnr5k

Denzil_forde

@adrxzero

Hi Adrxzero,

Thank you very much for getting back to me, apologies for not getting back to you sooner.

Thank you very much, I'm in the process of making the alterations to the clavicle and neck area so that it will seem more in proportion to the rest of the body.

Here are some of my references for achieving this:


As for the Black Carapace, I'm glad you've pointed this out, as now I'm eager to learn the full anatomy of a space marine (More feedback from you would be greatly appreciated however). The carapace is something that I will incorporate later down the production line, but first I just want to nail the anatomy and proportions of the marine, before I begin adding implantation.

And yes, Erasamus' grey knight looks stunning! I feel that he has captured the intimidating form of an Astartes. I will aim to capture this with my dude, however I will relax some of the muscles, the abs, the calves etc, as I don't want to over do it.

Thanks very much Man, Please comment more when I post up more updates this week.

Denzil_forde

Hey Folks

I've took a short break from this project over the past few weeks as the work hours have been getting more intense, additionally I've been giving more attention to my 'Brink' inspired bust to get it complete : http://polycount.com/discussion/177154/brink-style-character-bust#latest

I revisited my reference for the body type of the Space Marine and realized Strongman 'Derek Poundstone' is perhaps one of the best references for a living Space Marine.  (Referencing bodybuilder Gene for face)


I noticed there were a number of anatomical errors with body of the space marine since revisiting, he is very blobby! 

I've decided to go back to a lower sub division and work back into the anatomical forms- to avoid blobbiness and disproportions later on. This means it might be a while before I start modelling the armour- but hey 'slow and steady gets you there faster'

As you can there are still tweaks I need to make for this chap, but I feel that the body structure is much more defined than what it used to be.


Tell me your thoughts Folks, all constructive feedback is welcome

Denzil_forde

Here are some updates on the sculpt Folks,

I've made a number of improvements to the proportions, hopefully now he looks big and intimated as a Space Marine, as well as being accurate to Derek Poundstones' phisique.

With the body Proportions corrected, I can now start modelling the armour in 3ds max- Will post up progress shots of the armour as I go along. This is what I'll be going for:

Denzil_forde

The Armour modelling begins:

Denzil_forde

More Progress:

Denzil_forde

Body sculpting almost complete (hands & feet left):

klown

Nice progress mate, a tip from someone whos had a few attempts at a 3d space marine, keep your panels simple like you have in the previous wip picture and do some simple rig movement tests to see what works and what dosen't. The most painful areas are going to be the groin and under arms where the chest plate meets the upper arms, trying to match the way GW made their marine armour with real anatomy without it all intersecting with each other is always tricky

Denzil_forde

@klown

Hey Man. thanks for getting back to me dude, sorry for the late reply. I really appreciate this feedback- espicially as this is my first attempt at modelling a Space Marine so I wasn't quite sure how to make the armour optimized for a rig. 

I'm glad you've pointed it out- I'm using a space marine model as reference but I'm still having a little trouble with the arm hole in the chest piece. I'm not sure whether to keep it a large hole or a small one (as seen in the 40k Space Marine game):

1.

or 2.


I'm Still not quite sure at the moment, but I'm leaning more towards 1. as I think it will be better for rigging and will give him more room to move his arms when posed.

I'll try to find out what the arm hole looks like on the Space Marine shown in the previous post- but 
Please tell me your thoughts and what you think will look better

Denzil_forde

Hey Folks, Apologies for not posting in a while, I've been putting my time towards my next project which I will be working on from now till March.

I will still be working on this project in my spare time so please stay tuned

Denzil_forde

Hey Guys, I've finally settled down after starting my new job and I can start grinding again. Here are some updates on the Space Marine. Almost finished modelling the armour in 3ds max. feedback welcome.

Denzil_forde

Blocked out Vambraces

 

adrxzero

Yeah! welcome back!

Denzil_forde

More Progress:

Denzil_forde

It Begins:

universe

Great job bro! But I think that You should change his face a bit. In my opinion his face should look stronger and have more male facial features like for eg. B.J Blazkowicz.

Denzil_forde

@universe Hey Man you've hit the hammer on the nail, awesome ref. I intended to make a basic space marine just to start with (kurt angle etc). once I mapped this all out I was planning on creating 3 Space Marine characters: A Blood Angel, A Space Wolf and an Imperial Fist-probably Captain Sigismund (using B.J,blaskowicz as you suggested),

(Origin 'Sigismund of the 7th' by Diego Llorens)

universe

@Denzil_forde I'm glad I could help and I'm waiting for your further results!

Denzil_forde

Hey Folks, been a bit slow on progress these 2 weeks, just working on the face at the moment:


Here is the goal:

Denzil_forde

Update: Last day of Blocking out, just getting the width correct. I wanted him to have more of a Heroic proportion so I widened the Shoulders.

Denzil_forde

Hey Folks,

I've been taking my time with this one, getting the proportions correct. here are some updates on the project:

Denzil_forde

Round two!!

Hey folks. 

So I'm re-awakening this project again after a while of putting it to rest. Now, I'll be working alongside to my friend Max to make a small diorama based on the burning of Prospero story arch.

So this will include creating two characters from the HH tale, a thousand son and space wolf. Something along these lines:
 

So I kicked off the project by putting together a mood board in PureRef for both:

Thousand Son


Space Wolf


So from here on I'll be blocking out the 3d model of the space marine and then doing a paint over on top of the character to get an idea of the design before getting busy with unique/introcate details.

Denzil_forde

Space Marine Block out.

Hey Guys, so here's the basic blockout of the space marine, still needs a lot of clean up the topology is all over the place at the moment. Will be cleaning up this week and next week and then will move onto the paint overs.





This time round I tried to get the proportions right. I'm liking the sizing and weighting so far but always open to feedback as always :thumbs:+1:

Crazy_pixel

It's nice to see that your project is still alive.
Looks great so far, Keep it up!

Denzil_forde

@Crazy_pixel

Cheers dude! 

Denzil_forde

Base Mesh Retopology

Yo folks, I'm still working on the base mesh just plodding through trying to get the topology a lot better than the version prior to this:



Any feedback welcome

Denzil_forde

More Updates:

Hey Folks, So I did a little bit more of a clean up on the space marine mesh than I had before. This will be the stage before I begin adding high poly details. Feel free to feedback where appropriate.

Denzil_forde

Change in Direction

Hey Folks , it's been a while since I posted up. There's been a change in the direction since the last post. Instead of going down the Horus Heresy route, I decided it would be simple and more enjoyable to make.

Brain_Slave

Big fan of Warhammer 40K universe myself. I really like your marine proportions and armor topology.

Looking forward to see this project made it through the final stage!

Denzil_forde

Hello my fellow inmates,

I've decided to F5 Reboot this project after seeing the epic Astartes videos on Youtube. I'm opting to go for an Imperial Fist instead of a blood angel.

FakeFrenchGuy

Did you ever get any further with this? I really enjoy your work and its been a huge help to my college work. Thanks.

Denzil_forde

@FakeFrenchGuy hey dude I take frequent breaks from this when motivation wanes, sometimes it is a lot just to focus on this, and I;ve just become a Dad! so i return back to this as an when I am able to

FakeFrenchGuy

That is all very fair, congrats to you, hope everything is well

Denzil_forde

@FakeFrenchGuy thanks man yeah, love being a dad (minus the dirty nappies)