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88MPH Ezreal
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[RIOT CREATIVE CONTEST 2017] Character Art - Antoine Dupuis - 88MPH Ezreal
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"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit."
Hi guys!
I have been waiting for this contest to happen again for a long time! I'm so excited!
I will be doing an original 80s themed skin for Ezreal. I think the 80s is an era that has lots of inspiring and colorful things (fashion, music, technology, ...) that would fit Ezreal really nice. And it sounds like loads of fun to work on.
So yeah, I will be aiming for a general 80s pop culture feel, but I had this idea thinking directly of a Marty McFly from Back To The Future and Ezreal mashup.
Also I just setup a Twitch.tv channel and will be streaming most of my working sessions there, so don't hesitate to come by and give criticism or ask questions!
https://go.twitch.tv/gravitybwlast
So this is where I start, let's gooo!
"Time for a true display of WIPs"
Replies
@jmiles Thank you! Glad I'm not alone loving this idea hehe.
@shayleen_hulbert Cool thanks Unicorn!
88MPH Ezreal refboard:
So, this is the board I'll start with, it has enough Ezreal proportions, face and style references, as well as anything I need to start concepting the skin. Maybe a second board with moods, movie screenshots, CD covers, etc... will come to complete the vision of the project.
So basically I'm going for an Ezreal in slim blue jeans, with high Nike-like shoes (basically the shape of the 2015 shoes in B2TF, with the red/white colors) and I can totally see a Trueshot Barrage shaped logo instead of the Nike one. For the hair, I think the classic badass main character hairstyle (like Steve's from Stranger Things on the board) would safely suit him but I want to try with a cap on and even why not a mullet, lol.
He will have a classic backpack, maybe even customized with 80s-tech parts, combined to his arm, à la Ghostbusters. His firing arm will have a custom powerglove combined with a walkman; the idea is he would put cassette tapes in the walkman and it would turn the music it contains into energy for Mystic Shots and every other shit Ezreal usually does!
Speaking of walkman, he will probably have headphones, but I need to test where to put them (on head, around the neck, clipped to his belt, ...) and aviator glasses in his hair or on his cap, if he has one.
That's all for now. Hoping to get started on concepting/overpainting tomorrow!
Can't wait to see what's next !
Can't wait to see how it turns out!
Here is some progress on concepting:
That's a first test, lots of things are subject to change: the bag may be somehow customized, the shoes are based on the 2015 Nike shoes, but will probably change. The jeans feel a bit empty. The walkman size will probably go up once I blockout some 3D.
The colors are also based on the B2TF movie, but I'll do other color tests anyway.
Still loads to think about to make the idea really pop.
Any feedback appreciated!
The hoverboard is a great idea. I had it in the back of my mind, planning to make it if I have extra time at the end, for a recall animation or whatever, but having it constantly in the bag is great.
As for the Flux Capacitor, I did some tests with the glove, as I really want a this Walkman/PowerGlove mix on him.
But I need to find a functionnal and cool way to mix the two in either something fixed with ducttape or an actual seamless device.
It is also a great idea, the Flux Capacitor can help bring the shiny LEDs and energy effects I'm looking for in the character!
Here is a board design I've done, with several color variations:
I tried to bring some Ezreal lore/spells references in the board, notably the shape of his ultimate spell Trueshot Barrage outlining the nose of the board.
I'll have to be careful when trying top views or 3D blocking and make sure the board doesn't hide the head/hair/headphones too much, and reads well.
I also had fun trying to add some life to the backpack (writing this, I just noticed I forgot the Eastpak-style black rectangle on the back)
Oh, and I tried getting cool shoes, which I kinda failed cause I have such a hard time drawing shoes lol.
But I know what I have in mind so I'll probably just block them in 3D then.
See you next post!
I used to do that back in the time... when I was a skaterboy *sigh*... any way x) not sure if that's of any help but you can now have clear view on the head/hair/headphones
@Ro-Bo Yeah I thought about it but didn't try for two reasons; I dont want it to be a problem when animating the arms when he runs or fights, and I also used to be a skaterboy ahah, and I remember while it could stay still thanks to the trucks, it was heavy and cumbersome.
I'll try in 3D anyway, the hoverboard feels way lighter than a skateboard anyway!
One minor comment, i'd add an antenna on the headset, it would recall the 80s more
Thnaks guys anyway for the nice comments, I'll soon jump into 3D as well!
So tonight I worked on color variation tests on the cloth, and on designing gauntlet concepts:
I have to say I prefer the first orange base color. The jeans might get more saturated and the denim vest darker as well.
And here for the gauntlet design tests, always keeping the cassette tape player as a base as I absolutely want it (the tapes providing music which turns into energy to shoot) - from left to right: 1 is a mix between a NES and and oscilloscope, 2 is a mix between the DeLorean design and its Flux displays, 3 is a mix between a Gameboy and a walkie-talkie, 4 is inspired by old hard-edged grey sound systems.
My favorites are 1 and 2 at the moment, but the fact I'm drawing poorly doesn't help I think. I'll start blocking in 3D really soon and compare with League's level of detail on these kind of small buttons and stuff. Probably the Arcade and Final Boss skins will help.
That's all for today
I'm also super into the Nes one, the colors scheme on it reminds me of the 80-90's I guess it's because everything that was white from that era, eventually gets that same yellowish tone .
all this aside, WOW !
Thanks for the ref, I'll keep that aside when I'll block out, can be fun
I've been continuing concepting with 2D and 3D now, to try and see the design or shape language flaws before getting to clean 3D.
Also I'm going on with the DeLorean PowerGlove.
Here is a paintover on Ezreal's base skin, to see how it feels once animated. Feels pretty good to me!
Here is a 3D quick sculpt base, very rough and all, to see how the shapes feel in 3D. Proportions are not good yet (head size/eyes size mostly).
Then I exported this base in Toolbag and displayed it with vertex color on an unlit shader, on a camera setup with the FOV and Angle provided in the rules. Top is just and unsaturated version of the colored mesh, to check the values. (damn I forgot to give him a tee shirt under his shirt!)
The skateboard might be a problem, I'll try the other positions as said earlier in this thread.
And last but not least, here is a mockup test using the images above. I also added a gradient map to the character.
I think I can go nuts on the hair shape and make it BIG. Also, sunglasses might be a nice addition to add coolness to the guy.
So yep, next session will be more 3D shape refining, proportions fixing, trying to get the hoverboard position right, and then It will probably be time to jump into clean 3D!
This is the link of my work if you have time and look at it, i will be happy.
http://polycount.com/discussion/194274/riot-creative-contest-2017-character-art-ekko/p1?new=1
I think maybe exaggerating his head, hands and feet a bit more and possibly making him shorter as well.
So tonight's session was pushing the shapes and anatomy towards what the game currently shows, and finding how to put the hoverboard in place, as well as shades and headphones.
Some explorations:
What I'm going for (the third one from above):
In Summoner's Rift:
I think I'm quite ready to jump into actual 3D clean sculpting, any modification wouldn't be too hard to deal with then, as most of the questions are answered now. I'm really excited about this Steve Harrington exaggerated hairstyle though.
Also if you guys want to see my process, I'm streaming all my work sessions on this guy, here's the link to the recordings: https://www.twitch.tv/gravitybwlast/videos/all
I'll be streaming in an hour (9:30PM CET) some sculpting. Did the hair and face cleaning yesterday, today will be clothing.
I'll post another update once there's significant progress on the sculpt!
Current progress:
Still need to refine the pants folds, do the shoes and the gauntlet, give him a nice watch and headphones and he'll be good for retopo.
All high frequency details from the jacket are on a layer, in case I don't get what I want with the bakes and just want to paint them myself.
Face closeups:
That's all folks!
I like very much your design and the 3D character.
I want to see the next step and the way you are going to create the gauntlet and the others details.
See you soon, about 88m/h ^^
Apart from that really like your design!
@Art1ficer Thanks for pointing that out, it got out of my mind. Fixed now!
Tonight's progress was mainly cleaning the backpack, shoes, as well as going for skinny jeans; a friend of mine suggested that the skinny jeans would add more rhythm to the overall design than the straight jeans. I really dig his new legs.
Shoes need some more love, and so does the backpack.
Some colors:
That's all for tonight!
Did some refining of the upper part (jacket, shoulders, hair) as well as doing the headphones, the watch, and cleaning the shoes.
There's still some details I could have but in there but I prefer stopping here and go further when in the painting process.
Here is a version with the latest color scheme (aside from the headphones which I forgot to polypaint, lol), again, big flat colors, no color details at this stage:
And here is a mockup with this latest decimated unlit sculpt:
Tomorrow I should be starting doing the retopology!
Maybe add little details on the back of the shoes (not sure if you've finished them yet
I think this would look even better for the ingame view!
@Ro-Bo thanks, and yeah the details on the back were gonna pop during the paint process lol, but I have no real idea what they would be. Also making the shoes a bit bigger is a great idea. Looking back at the in game shot, they feel sooooooo small. Thanks again man!