Dragon WIP
polycounter lvl 17
Hello, I am new to the boards and figured I would post what I am working on for some C&C. I purchased a book on how to draw dragons so I could work on my sketching skills. This is the first dragon you draw in the book and I would like to know what you guys think about the sketch in general. I plan to take this model from concept to 3d model to uv mapped and textured then on to rigging and animation. Anyways let me know what you think and thanks for your feedback.
Grim
Dragon Sketch
Grim
Dragon Sketch
Replies
Welcome to the boards!
Here is the first step in 3d. I have the shape blocked in (I know it is still rough) but I managed to keep it all quads so I wouldn't have problems when I import it into zbrush to make the normal maps. I still need to make the horns...as always C&C are welcome.
Grim
looks fairly solid so far though
almighty_gir: The wings are in their most outstretched position, the neck on the otherhand isn't but can be easily changed.
Tulkamir: the reason for the higher density on the wings is because I plan to use a cloth simulation on the webbing, then bake that animation to the animation sets.
All in all I do have a lot of optimization left to do. I added the horns on the head and hope to post some more updates soon.
Grim
Keep up the good work though, will be interesting to see him develop. You planning on lowpoly/normalmap this one later on?
motives: I made the wings longer (or at least as much as I could) if I would have caught this sooner it wouldn't have been hard but at this point I can only add so much since I can't change the topology as this would loose all my work in zbrush. I do intend to do low poly/normal mapped version. I sculpted more on the muscle groups and tried to tie them together a little better. I worked on the head and hind legs. I know it is hard to tell at this point but...
I agree, you need better jaw line unless you were going for a more snakelike mouth in which case you would need to shorten the snout.
Just a quick sketch of a skull in paintshop to give you an idea.
A good exercise is to take a side-show of your critter and see if you can draw the skeleton in places like the skull where you might be having problems. Sometimes it can quickly show you where some vert-pushing needs to go.
And an idea I thought may help
By adding a bit of flesh between the upper and lower jaws it makes the mouth look a bit more real.
Awesome work so far, keep it up
Sectaurs: Actually I was using my ball python as reference, I will keep working on it though and see what I can do. Thanks for the tips!
Xaltar: I can't do that on this model in zbrush as it causes really bad stretching. I will do that in maya after I complete the normal maps.
Thanks again guys for the feedback.
Thanks for the suggestions I will see what I can do.
It's looking like a nice start, though. Keep up.
A) seperate the mesh out. work only on the head then only on the torso and then the legs. You can do this by either masking out the part you wanna work on, or exporting just the part yo uwant to work on. On something as large as this I personally could not get the proper amount of detail on my mesh and have any reasonable amount of performance in zbrush.. I'd absolutely export it in chunks.
This does not mean i think you are done, yet. I just think that you just took a huge step in preventing this dragon from being sad about being out of shape.
Keep at it, you are totally on the right track.
Its looking great
You guys rock for helping the rest of us untalented fools.
I wish I could do all that, I just started learning about 2 months ago and I am teaching myself
mmm, maybe give the stomach a bit more bulge or arch the back a bit to get the lines from front to back flowing better, I will do a paint over if you need one, just let me know
heres a pic i scanned in from my D&D book. it shows how you would need to place another set of deltoids and pectorals in order for the wings to function properly.
I think we can all agree he noticed the blatant differences in anatomy the two types of dragons have.
Thanks again everyone for your input.
the only thing i can really say, is that since a dragons wings (although primarily are for flying) have to be able to do a multitude of things, from shelter, or shielding from attack, to even small attacks of their own. i would imagine they would function very much like the forearm in terms of mobility.
which means that they need their own biceps, triceps, deltoids etc. but while the deltoid pulls the wing up (i would assume the lat muscle on the back would be slightly different, to be used on two different deltoid muscles, the arm AND wing). the real power is in the downward movement of the wing.
in order to move the bulk of the dragon off the ground, you would need some SERIOUS muscle, which is why i imagined there would be either a much larger, or an extra set of pectoral muscles which are intended for the wings alone.
dunno, just kinda made sense to me like that.
http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?j0gcte1iylh4
That being said, I think his beefed up wings are fine, they're to the point where they don't break the suspended belief that the model can fly. I'd like to see MUCH larger wing-span, but thats a personal taste.
Overall, I think the body looks fine. The places that need some love are the head and feet. The front feet sort of noodle-bend over and don't look like they were made for walking on. The back feet also suffer from this, albeit from a much lesser degree. I think maybe its the lack of definition seperating the toes from the ankle? Perhaps a better shot of the feet is needed.
The head just doesn't look on par with the rest of him. It still suffers from z-brush-itis; that globby play-doh look. You did a great job fixing that on the rest of him, its a shame the head didn't get the same. If you simply haven't gotten to that yet, then ignore this
Keep up the good job
I think you should take some artist freedom and fix the anatomy a bit. Make the front more like a dogs or cats paw. Where they are mainly on their fingers and toes like your hind feet are on the model.
Let me be the first to "ROFL" at gir for posting DND manual for anatomy reference... Please do not look at that drawing for anatomical reference. Thanks.
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When did drawing from artwork lose all value? The picture almighty_gir posted is well drawn, clearly pretty thought out, makes enough sense to be believable on a fictional and traditionally fantastic creature, and is visually interesting. (As are the rest in the book, but them I'm starting to discredit myself.)