[WIP] Thyra - Realtime Viking War Chief

DylanLobbregt

Hello everyone! I came up with this character inspired by some stuff I was reading about a grave discovered that demonstrated evidence that some women in the viking era not only owned ships, but were leaders in battle. This is Thyra. She's War Chief of an imaginary northern-Icelandic viking village. She has trained all her life to fight in harsh climates, ready to raid "southern" villages for supplies that cannot be found in her homeland. 

This is the concept I quickly mocked up to have as a loose reference of what I'd like to create. Photo bash + paint over. 

General reference board to go along with my research into what the Norsemen of the viking age used. I'm using historical records as a jumping off point and then reinterpreting to add a bit more interest. I'm playing around with the idea of using Obsidian as an extremely sharp addition to standard Norse weaponry of the time period. 

Quick BPR renders from Zbrush to see how she's coming along w/ her accessories. Sculpted her from a sphere and then made the clothes in Marvelous Designer. It was my first time using MD, so I may go back and redo her pants at least. I would like them to match my reference more.
*Hair and eyebrows are temporary until I can get them done with hair cards.  *

                                   

Here are some hair tests I did towards the beginning of the project. I will try to recreate this look using hair cards in the future. Will also texture the scalp so that it doesn't look like you can see through the hair to the head. 

I've started texturing her weapons in Substance Painter. First time using it and am having a blast! I've been using Photoshop for way too long and finally have the time to switch workflows. These are my first test renders so far. Definitely needs more work, but I'm enjoying the direction things are headed. I plan to reduce the amount of textured wood damage, because it's getting a little too cluttered for my liking. 



I used the roughness map + darker base color to make the bottom half of the wood look wet from the water that might splash up while raiding beaches. 

The obsidian edge of the blade definitely needs more attention.


That's mostly where I'm at for now! 

If anyone has any comments or critique I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks for reading!

ChiNguyen

I like your viking idea. I've never heard of an obsidian edge sword. Why obsidian instead of all steel?

DylanLobbregt

ChiNguyen said:

I like your viking idea. I've never heard of an obsidian edge sword. Why obsidian instead of all steel?

Thanks It's not really a thing, but I did some research into materials and found that Obsidian is incredibly sharp; far sharper than even steel. People have made knives out of Obsidian, but it being glass means that if one was to pry with it at all it would likely break. So I figured a steel sword with Obsidian inserts for the edges could theoretically be an effective, unique weapon. 

ChiNguyen

That's pretty nifty! Another thing that stood out to me was your hair test. I think it's looking pretty good but the back kind of reminds me of a rope texture. Maybe because of how the high the hair noise is and a lot of short stray strands.