viking character

oobersli

Ok, so I'm not much of a painter, but I just play around when I get bored and have practice time . Here's a head shot of a sci-fi viking character I'm doing for one of my demo projects in school. I've got full body sketches, but I still have to scan them. If anyone has any other ideas for what may look more appealing in the face , plz feel free to say so. I hope to have the full body up for critique asap.

I only have to do one level, and its based around him being armed with a sci-fi pistol and a pair of board shorts for clothing. So he's half naked and has to attain his armor throughout the level. I've got 9 months to do the whole project, so I have plenty of time.

Tulkamir

Nice painting, althought truthfully there is nothing in there that says viking to me. He's bald (viking's are more known for lots of hair, head and facial), he has a very smooth face, never looks like he's known a hard day of work/battle in his life, and he has big horns. (Yes I know this is something people generally relate with vikings, but there was never a viking who tacked horns onto his helmet).

Despite all that, still a neat looking character.

(Oh, and I really have to ask, why a viking? I mean, there seems to be no reason for it. He's using a pistol (a very unviking like weapon), in a sci-fi environment, wearing board shorts? In my opinion it might be best to lose the viking part and just design the character as you see fit unless the viking thing has a specific reason).

oobersli

Thanks for the comment, I guess I should explain a bit, but the whole story line is based around a futuristic society where norse gods are the main belief still instead of christian followings present in most of our culture. The main character is a humanoid robot thats a last defense type soldier. Gave him the clean pretty boy look considering he's been in storage for a while. Story line cheezy enought yet, theres more, but it unimportant to the look of him atm?

I created the storyline because I thought it would have an interesting look, since I'm going for a modeling/texture or design job in general. As for the horns, ya its a basic myth they had horns, but I thought in an industry where all the sci-fi heros always have the same look and feel, something as awkward as that might seperate him.

But after you mentioned adding hair, I think thats a great idea, I'll make sure to add some here and there.

Tulkamir

Haha, good stuff. I was in a group that was doing a futuristic/norse setting as well (we changed ours since though, doing something fully different now). Be nice to see how this turns out.

As for the horns, yea, it's an incorrect stereotype started by one of Wagner's opera's I think. One thing to make sure that you do in making a mythology based game though is research it. I know that there are a lot of people out there who know mythology in and our, or even enough of it to know when things are wrong, and it tends to niggle. Which is the main reason I bring and brought up the horns.

Either way though, sounds like a very interesting idea. Really appeals to me, so keep updating.

oobersli

Ok, I wanted to get the full body done quick, so I cheated a bit I guess and posed a skeleton of primitive cylnders and boxes according to my sketch and placed a simple light in 3d to help finish this one. Since he has the horns I was thinking of adding more machinery type implants around his body so he doesn't look like a surfer with horns

Steve Schulze

I think I said this the last time someone started moping about viking helms, but everyone -knows- vikings had horns on their helmets, whether in reality they did or not. Half of character design is working with archetypes so that your character can be instantly recognised - a guy with horns on his helmet is a viking.

To make your character look a bit more viking-ish perhaps you could work some traditional knotwork into the yellow markings he has on his body.

kat

[ QUOTE ]
...As for the horns, yea, it's an incorrect stereotype started by one of Wagner's opera's I think...

[/ QUOTE ]A buddy of mine used to be into re-enactments and told me that the exact origins of the myth are unknown but one theory (which seems more than likely) is that the cheek plates on certain type of helmet could be tied up away from the face (don't ask me why as I have no idea) which looked like a pair of wings (or horns depending on your religous bent) sticking out from the side of the helm.

Tulkamir

That is actually a very interesting theory. One I've never heard before.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhornedhelmet.html is a good read on this subject if anyone is interested.

Jackablade, some of us take pride in having art that is accurate to what they are portraying. It is not neccessary at all, as few would realize it, however I figured that putting the idea forth about it was a fair idea.

At the same time, vikings were a lot more than horned helms, so an artist should be striving to get the viking picture across through the character as a whole, not through one cliche. Even if a character design of a viking has horns on his helm, you should be able to remove them and still see a viking.

The knotwork is a great idea for just that. Also, vikings are typically seen as very rough and tough guys, so giving him some more muscle deffinition and an overall harder look could be good I think.

The changes you made to the face helped as well oobersli. He's deffinatly looking like a cool character so far.

Steve Schulze

[ QUOTE ]
Jackablade, some of us take pride in having art that is accurate to what they are portraying. It is not neccessary at all, as few would realize it, however I figured that putting the idea forth about it was a fair idea.

[/ QUOTE ]Well yes, but thats not what he's doing here. This is a modernised, fantasised adaption of a viking and as such working with well worn archetypes is well worth considering even if they're not, strictly speaking, realistic. As you say though, there are plenty of other visual shorthand elements you could use that represent the viking, they're just not as instantly recognisable. The horned helm design is pretty much the simplest, most obvious way to represent the viking, even when you're modifying and fantasising the traditional design, so that anyone can see what he represents.

I'm not suggesting that he has to have horns, just that the possibility shouldn't be discounted.