Cyber Industrial Witch WIP

mazz423

Current progress for them fancy thread thumbnails:


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Hey polycount,

Been a while since I did any personal work or created a wip thread that I actually saw all the way through, hopefully this time that'll be different... Hopefully.

Going to be working on a cyberpunk/ industrial witch character, so kind of a combination of hopefully some flashy magic effects and bulky yet semi-functional looking machinery. So far here's a blockout of the mechanical components, and the overall concept.





That's all from me for now, shall try to keep this regularly updated. feedback always welcome! Cheers.

DGB

Sweet - I've always had a thing for sci-fi/fantasy mashups! Looks promising so far.

schmigel

Nice! Keep working on.

Asura

The clothing design looks cool. Are you using marvelous as a base?

spiderDude

I like where this is going, looking forward to seeing more!

dGreenberg

Really liking the concept and the idea, Mazz. That mechanical collar-backpack-vest already has me excited for future updates. Can't wait to see how this progresses!

mazz423

Cheers everyone!

@Asura Yeah, I'll be using marvelous designer for this, already got my base for the boots sorted out using it

Decided this weekend I wanted to try and get as much as possible done on the sub-d modelling of the mechanical components as this week I won't have that much time to work on it. Couple late nights later here's where I'm at, decided to change quite a bit around the back as I wasn't too keen on the blockout and it looked pretty out of place once in sub-d.



I'll be taking it into zbrush next for some additional detailing and alpha placement for surface features, once that's sorted out I'll be able to add all the straps and fixings. Feedback always welcome!

PyrZern

Instant Fav'ed !!  Can't wait to see more of this.

Makkon

Loving this so far, looking forward to seeing your progress!

Ouran

Super strong start ! Really like what you've got going on so far.

mspalante

Awesome, please keep us updated I'm working on sci character also, that will be great follow your steps that you use in your creation,  go hard!

mazz423

Thanks everyone, happy to hear you're all liking it, tells me I'm going in the right direction

I hate posting without art progress to show so here's a small update, got working on some of the straps and surface details on the plates this evening. I also removed the bar I had behind the neck. Will be replacing it with a simpler design as, after looking at it later, I didn't feel the last one fit all that well with the corners that jutted out awkwardly.



Tomorrow night I'm gonna try to get started on the dress in marvelous designer, should at least manage to get the basic forms done.

mazz423

Got the dress built the other night and have been working on some ideas for boots and a glove, also toying with the idea of giving her a blackout sleeve with scarification work done over the top of it, feedback always welcome! Cheers

gfelton

The clothing looks rad and I am really digging the boot concept! I think it would help a lot to break up some of the fabric and give some more material contrast and the glove + boot concepts would do that just fine. Good luck!

mazz423

@gfelton Cheers! Yeah once I had the clothing sorted out I realized I needed something to break it up, hopefully the boots will do the job well enough

Fansub

Ok this got to be one of the best characters I've seen for a long time, great work man !

mazz423

@Fansub Thanks!

So little progress this week, gonna be saving a majority of the work for the weekend, but I have managed to get the glove more or less there, at least on the marvelous designer side. Next I'll be moving onto sorting out the boots then it'll be all zbrush for a while!





Feedback welcome, cheers!

Makkon

Really digging this! Love the cloth details, hope they carry over on the material.

mazz423

@Makkon Cheers man, my goal once I'm in zbrush will be to try and preserve all of the seam lines and details that are in there now, and adding stitches to them will help them pop a bit more love your work by the way!

rage288

This is beyond beautiful. love your designs man! Keep em up!

gfelton

Great work on the glove, the fabric looks awesome!

mazz423

Cheers guys!

So little while without a post, mostly been too busy/ lazy to get much more done on this but as of tonight I've gotten my sub-d base finished off for the boots that I'll detail further in zbrush next. I've redesigned them a fair bit, there are some elements I want to bring over from the original concept while detailing.



An example of with and without the top plate, I like the idea, I just might tweak the shape a little, thoughts?



Anyways, feedback welcome! Cheers

DGB

I like the top plates - gives the feet/legs area a little more weight, visually.

A question about your workflow regarding the gloves: how did you make those larger wrinkles without messing up the pattern/seams running down the length of the gloves?

mazz423

@DGB Cheers, yeah I agree, will probably tweak some of the shape a little. So far all of the cloth has been done though marvelous designer, so they're simply internal lines that affect the simulation, it's the easiest way to do something like this. However if you don't have marvelous designer, what you can do is use noise maker with a custom alpha to apply the seams after doing your major cloth folds, keeping it on a layer would also help preserve them if you need to make any adjustments afterward. That's what I'd do if I wasn't able to use marvelous designer.

Check out seth's tutorial on marvelous designer for more in depth info on this sort of thing: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/w99GO

DGB

Much obliged for the tips, mazz423. When I get the chance, I think I definitely want to play around with marvelous designer!

mazz423

@DGB No worries

Got some more done on the high poly this weekend, been focusing more on the mechanical components. Still unhappy with the cap on the feet so I need to come up with something new, and I do plan on replacing the knee pad section with something else eventually.



Anyways, feedback always welcome, cheers!

mazz423

Couple weeks since my last update, have been working away on this and made a fair bit of progress but nothing really interesting enough in my opinion to post really :P However I started detailing the skin this evening, started with the hands and arms, going to get the rest of the exposed skin detailed next along with the face, then I'll start focusing on the hair.



Also here's some sketches I did for a couple ideas for the hair, personally I prefer the second one as a haircut, but think the first one works far better for the character, if you have any thoughts let me know!



Feedback welcome, cheers!

erroldynamic

Cool looking character so far! I dig the second hairstyle more, it could look really cool if pulled off well and i think it fits better with the style and theme you have going.

PyrZern

Definitely 2nd hairstyle  Feels way more futuristic.

theStoff

Wow well done! Did you reference anything when coming up with the design. I like the shapes and the silhouette. They're pretty interesting and I'm curious where that came from. A bit late but I do agree the feet caps are a little awkward.I'm not sure if she could walk with those. I'd almost suggest just to omit those. However, if you want them for the silhouette, maybe they could just mount to the calf and cut them off at the bottom for the foot to bend. Those hair ideas are also really cool. I actually feel that the second one suits the character better. Looking forward to the result! Be sure to post lots of pictures.

DGB

I'm a fan of haircut #2 - it seems to fit better as the shape mirrors that of the shoulder device and the first one looks like it would be a little awkward if this were ever animated. It's an interesting look, but if the foot-things aren't working out, I'd just get rid of them or do a smaller design. Also, I think those little protrusions on the back of the shoulder device create a lot of visual noise and obscure the larger forms in the design, although if they serve a practical function, then its probably okay.

Ged

This is looking great! the 2nd haircut looks more interesting to me

GeoCat

Wow man.... this is nice! Great work man, dig it!

mazz423

Thanks everyone! Sounds like hairstyle 2's the winner, have to agree with what you've all said so think I'll progress with that one  

@theStoff there's definitely some general influences in there from gears of war to the character work done on paragon. The overall idea for the neck housing was influenced by an awesome concept by Puppeteer Lee on artstation (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Val3b) But in general the overall idea spawned out of messing around in marvelous designer, coming up with the boots and then building the rest of the idea around that

@DGB I can see what you mean about them creating some visual noise but that's really my intention with them, without them there they felt really plane and lacking anything particularly interesting as a feature, although I think I've left enough visual rest areas that it doesn't feel like a mess.

So didn't get as much done on this this weekend as I would have liked but I did manage to get to detailing the face and the rest of the skin, still some refinement necessary but I'm happy with it so far.



Feedback welcome, cheers!

DGB

Looking good - I can't wait to see this with textures! What brushes do you normally use when detailing skin?

theStoff

Thanks for the response Mazz! Keep it up

mazz423

@DGB I usually just use the standard brush and alphas with colour scatter on to get some variation in intensity, predominately using it negatively with the occasional positive pass on some spots. I find alpha 58 is great for doing areas of the skin that are more susceptible to movement and so get more line like wrinkle patterns, and any of the small dot alphas work well for areas you'd expect to get more general blemishes. Other than that it's just a little noise to add some additional variation and using the DAM standard brush on a low intensity for doing more defined or deliberate wrinkles.

mazz423

So, haven't had much of a chance to work on this the past couple of weeks. Wanted at this point to be well into the hell of retopology however, as much as I tried to do with the boots I still just hated them after looking at them later. So I scrapped them this week and re-did them, still a couple of things on them I might bring back, do still like the calf guard I did, if I can come up with an elegant way of integrating it I shall do, however for now I'm calling the high poly done. Otherwise this thing will never get finished



Next goal is to get this thing retopo'd and UV'd before I break for the holidays on friday, shall see if that happens but if it does I can hopefully get some files together and wrap it up before I'm back at work.

Let me know what you think, feedback still very welcome! Cheers!

Ged

its cool! a very original design. Personally I feel like her feet are too small now almost like hooves. This is probably a personal taste thing - the hanging straps on her legs look really well done but still I cant help but feel they should be strapped up over her hips or something, its like shes almost finished getting dressed and I just want her to finish the job.

stickadtroja

looks really cool but the part of the tech that spans across her chest bothers me a bit. it feels contrived that it perfectly follows the curve of her boobs. like did the engineer only have hot girls in mind when designing that? if i where hired to design a psychic enhancing neck brace i would  want to reach the biggest market possible and make it unisex.
i like the boots, but i also think they could be bigger.

mazz423

@Ged cheers! yeah the feet were a tad small but i think that zbrush's fake perspective wasn't doing the scale any favours. Haha yeah I can see what you mean about the straps, for me they're more there for visual interest and adding something to the silhouette more than anything else

@stickadtroja that's a fair point, but to be honest with this I'm wanting it to look more bespoke, like it was made for her or even by her, rather than some mass produced thing. Also that'll ultimately in my opinion lead to a more generic look that I personally want to avoid.

So been ages since I updated this, didn't have much of a chance to work on this over the winter break, and have only really just started getting back to working on it, as of now I've gotten a majority of the low poly meshes done, I just need to do the hip elements (although I'm 50/50 on scrapping them after seeing it without them) and the glove.

Been working on the skin most recently, still not completely happy with it, will need to do some colour correction to get the tone right and some more refined detail passes done.



Feedback always welcome!

Cheers

andrelopes

Very inspiring thread! Thank you!

mazz423

@andrelopes Cheers! I've seen your anatomy work on artstation before, that skull's fantastic!

So I've been quiet on here for a while again, my bad... But that doesn't mean progress hasn't been made! I've been working on getting the clothing sorted out and am at a point where I feel happy enough to move off onto sorting out other things, like the pipes, her hair and staff.

Still a lot to do but here's where it's at at the moment.



And speaking of pipes I've done some pre-vis work on them to see how they'll look when complete, early days but feeling more confident that the idea in my head will work, obviously the colour's placeholder. (although I might keep it for the pipes)



Anyway that's all for now, as always feedback more than welcome! Cheers