[Artstation Challenge] Ancient Civilizations: Real-Time Character - Dreamer Ayaman
polycounter
I've come across quite a few dedicated threads to the Artstation Challenge, so I thought I might as well put one up with my progress 
I've only posted in my sketchbook before, but I think this might be a better idea.
I found this gem under the unfinished submissions, and I was drawn to the shapes and the untold story of the old man and who he was.
His is the Dreamer Ayaman... who and what that means, will hopefully unfold.
This is what the artist Hans Krill says about them:
"....tribal humans representing a people living in harmony with nature. They respect physical strength. But as growing old is only natural, the elderly gain respect by developing less physical skills and learning.
Among their people there are those who can synchronise their minds with the dreaming tree and while 'Dreaming' they can encourage living things to act and develop in certain ways. The most common Dreamers will urge trees and plants to behave in particular ways so that their branches turn into stairs, or even weapons.
They are a pure, mystical and fertile people..."
And this is my progress of this dreamy concept:
Not the first basic blockout, but the first blockout progress after I received the concept for the back of the character:
Playing around with some colours while doing the highpoly:
Finished the HP:
I think I will go back in and give some more definition on the eyebrows and beard:
Created the LowPoly:
Still only using about 30K tris for this. I hope I won't get penalised for using less than 100K. I will have a good budget for adding some finer detail where it is needed for the silhouette!
Baking done:
Starting to think about how to texture him. I am thinking that handpainted would be the way to go with his style? But I'm not quite sure how to go about it. I've only done it in Photoshop before, however I've heard you can do some really nice painting, handpainted style, in Substance Painter. I've not done that before, so I will need to go and research I think.
I don't have 3dCoat not Bodypaint......
Always open to feedback! Anything to make this better
I've only posted in my sketchbook before, but I think this might be a better idea. I found this gem under the unfinished submissions, and I was drawn to the shapes and the untold story of the old man and who he was.
His is the Dreamer Ayaman... who and what that means, will hopefully unfold.
This is what the artist Hans Krill says about them:
"....tribal humans representing a people living in harmony with nature. They respect physical strength. But as growing old is only natural, the elderly gain respect by developing less physical skills and learning.
Among their people there are those who can synchronise their minds with the dreaming tree and while 'Dreaming' they can encourage living things to act and develop in certain ways. The most common Dreamers will urge trees and plants to behave in particular ways so that their branches turn into stairs, or even weapons.
They are a pure, mystical and fertile people..."
And this is my progress of this dreamy concept:
Not the first basic blockout, but the first blockout progress after I received the concept for the back of the character:
Playing around with some colours while doing the highpoly:
Finished the HP:
I think I will go back in and give some more definition on the eyebrows and beard:
Created the LowPoly:
Still only using about 30K tris for this. I hope I won't get penalised for using less than 100K. I will have a good budget for adding some finer detail where it is needed for the silhouette!
Baking done:
Starting to think about how to texture him. I am thinking that handpainted would be the way to go with his style? But I'm not quite sure how to go about it. I've only done it in Photoshop before, however I've heard you can do some really nice painting, handpainted style, in Substance Painter. I've not done that before, so I will need to go and research I think.
I don't have 3dCoat not Bodypaint......
Always open to feedback! Anything to make this better
Replies
That was an attempt at some colour, playing around with the colours I thought might be involved, as the concept itself doesn't have any. Any thoughts on what would be better?
Started gathering references of what kind of colour scheme that I would like to have for him. Thinking about Dreaming - Night - Magic - Ancient - Trees as reference points for brainstorming. Everything goes at this point. I need to sit down and properly narrow things down now.
However, managed to get the baking done. Some artifacts had gotten into the last map yesterday that I didn't notice until today, so had to take care of that before I could start thinking of what to texture with and how to do it.
Since I've decided to do handpainted textures (might not have been the most brilliant idea, although I think it would suit the best for this guy) I now have to think of the best course of action....
Seeing as I don't have the 2 programs that most people seem to recommend for handpainting, I have two choices; Photoshop or Substance Painter. Photoshop is good, I've worked with it before, however I don't get to see it on the model as I paint, which is nice in Substance. However in Substance I don't feel I have as much control over the colours and brushes as I have in photoshop. dilemma!
This is my short update for today. Just a start on the horns. Please feel free to give me feedback, as I still have lots to learn about handpainting!
Started looking at some colour schemes and what I associated with ancient, dreamer, night, magic etc.
If he turns out alright I might look into getting him printed at work... However.. I'm terrible at painting figurines, so you'd be more than welcome to
@AgreeingMachine Thank you! I would love to see him in Orange too, however, the horns disappear with the orange unfortunately.
I'm still working on the colour of the pants, as it feels a bit flat at the moment.
Learned how to set up a scene properly in Marmoset and how to get the material to be the way it would look nice.
Sorry haven't been following along very closely; are you going for a handpainted look or more realistic materials? Either way I'd add more color variation in the cloth, and also AO-wise, like you have on the horns right now! They look really cool btw.
I mean if you were going to do like alternate colour schemes... that said, I really like the one you have now
OH thank you! I'll have a look at that. However for the time that is left on this I don't think I will have time to finish an alternative colour scheme. But I'm going to save those pictures in my reference folder
Got a basic base in, and started to fix with the lighting and details on the textures.