Hi Everyone,
The last time I got to do a model for fun was for dom war 2, but I've managed to put some time aside to do a bit of relaxation work.
The title "Januvian Soldier" is in regards to some fiction I am writing. I've had this character and some others bouncing around my head since I was 12. More than a decade and a half later, I've committed it to mesh form.
I did the original attempt back in 2002 or 2003, I don't exactly recall, but I've included the current WIP side by side with the old model.
I'm very open to your ideas and thoughts on the model, as it's still WIP/rough, I have time to incorporate criticism. Thanks again in advance.
on a side note, the face plate uses ancient Persian sculptures as reference, so I may add more stuff like that to the overall model.
Replies
[15:27] ElysiumGX: the armor sections...which are suppose to appear organic, are a little too organic..and muddy
[15:27] ElysiumGX: mainly the legs
[15:29] ElysiumGX: i see the head section has plenty of smooth detail. just carry that level over to the legs, and it looks fine
[15:29] ElysiumGX: stomach too. something needs to happen there.
[15:30] Peterk: would you mind copy/pasting your crit into the thread? I plan to use it as a running reference so I can actually implement people's advice.
Great work so far, I'm a big fan of the chest anatomy and how it connects into his shoulders.
A few things that immediately stand out to me when looking at it:
1. His feet\ankles might be too small. I can completely understand you wanting to stay away from the big clunky feet that you see on a lot of characters today, but a little bigger might not hurt.
2. Is what we're looking at for his main body a suit of armor or his actual skin. Some parts clearly look like armor (his leggings) While other parts its not so clear (for example if he were wearing chest armor you would expect some clear breaks in the armor to allow movement) Then again if its some sort of organic armor, my crit is completely moot.
3. His face and the top of his head: seems like there could be something more interesting going on there. The expression on his mask seems like it could be tweaked a little bit, maybe less flat and more expression in the brow?
4. On the subject of the fans, I think it would be pretty interesting if the 'fans' on the side of his head were allowed to rotate towards the back of his head. As if, when he was charging forward they would rotate backwards into his head to make him more aerodynamic, and they could even be a way for him to display some type of emotion by some subtle type of movement (I realize you can't show this in a picture of a sculpt, but modeling in the geometry to show that they could rotate backwards would be interesting).
5. There seems to be something going on with the hand but I can't tell from the picture, could we get a closer shot of it?
Once again I think this is headed in an awesome direction can't wait to see it done.
On the feet: They need to be bigger, but if you're not married to the design you could try a prosthetic (image, possibly NSFW), or repeating some of the fans at the ankle (bringing another ancient god element in -- if you're willing to mix your Persian and Greek).
You're hitting some interesting detail already (the fans and along the spine is very dense), if you bring that type of detail somewhere into the lower front (and contrast it with smooth armour panels) it should wind up very nice.
thanks for the feedback, I'm taking it all in. I am still mostly blocking the shapes in, but here is an idea I had:
I think I'm going to use this technique to get a layered "plate" kinda feel. It's really a rough rush though, but I think I can use this technique to get the look I want in the end.
I agree about the muddiness and the feet, I'm going to sort those as I move forward with the model.
I also gotta sort that nonsense on the sides of the neck, it's not conveying the shapes I have in my head yet.