Nomadic Scavenger Character
polycounter lvl 9
This is my first character model (well, besides a few aborted attempts a few years ago), and I figure I should post it sooner rather than later. The idea behind the character is as follows: He is part of a group of scavengers who range across a large, post-apocalyptic landscape taking apart and collecting useful technology and bringing it back to their settlement. There would be quite a few of them, perhaps 5-15 or so, and they have a large vehicle used to haul stuff. This particular character serves a special role: he has a pneumatic "wand" which can have various tool attachments (impact hammer, angle grinder, etc.) for use in heavy jobs. I'm thinking of giving him a motorcycle to ride around on at some point. Anyways, here's the guy:
I wanted for his dust mask to make him seem kind of rat-like, and I figure that if animated, the length of the mask would exaggerate head motions, making them look kind of darting, maybe nervous, to reinforce the scavenger aspect of his character. It is most obvious from the top:
The following are images that show off various aspects of the outfit.
The holes in the side of the helmet are "auricles" so that he can hear.
This last one shows the compressed CO2 tank that he wears. I haven't modeled the pneumowand yet, but you can think of the whole setup working kind of like a flamethrower, but with a longer tool, and grips like on an anglegrinder.
There's a lot that needs finishing; I plan on adding seams in photoshop, and many pouches are incomplete. I also seriously need to work on the drapery for the skullcap/neckcloth, and I'm going to redo the sleeves. The pants are on their second zbrush iteration, so please tell me what you think.
The gloves don't really stand out here, but they are leather, and will have appropriate leather banding keeping them on and sealed. Also, the collar/shoulder protection is a large piece of hardened leather. The rest is rugged cloth or metal (in the case of the kneepads, helmet, fasteners etc)
The base pose doesn't really lend much to his character, so imagine him semi-hunched all the time, holding a 3-4ft long tool.
oh and here's the concept
C&C are very welcome, as I have never done this type of thing before!
I wanted for his dust mask to make him seem kind of rat-like, and I figure that if animated, the length of the mask would exaggerate head motions, making them look kind of darting, maybe nervous, to reinforce the scavenger aspect of his character. It is most obvious from the top:
The following are images that show off various aspects of the outfit.
The holes in the side of the helmet are "auricles" so that he can hear.
This last one shows the compressed CO2 tank that he wears. I haven't modeled the pneumowand yet, but you can think of the whole setup working kind of like a flamethrower, but with a longer tool, and grips like on an anglegrinder.
There's a lot that needs finishing; I plan on adding seams in photoshop, and many pouches are incomplete. I also seriously need to work on the drapery for the skullcap/neckcloth, and I'm going to redo the sleeves. The pants are on their second zbrush iteration, so please tell me what you think.
The gloves don't really stand out here, but they are leather, and will have appropriate leather banding keeping them on and sealed. Also, the collar/shoulder protection is a large piece of hardened leather. The rest is rugged cloth or metal (in the case of the kneepads, helmet, fasteners etc)
The base pose doesn't really lend much to his character, so imagine him semi-hunched all the time, holding a 3-4ft long tool.
oh and here's the concept
C&C are very welcome, as I have never done this type of thing before!
Replies
Sounds like you've already got some plans for what to improve/change/fix on this guy, so keep it up!
The pant folds could be improved. It feels unnatural, like silk as apposed to a sturdy denim. The character feels too clean and uniform as a whole. When I think post-apocalypse, I think Mad Max, ragged and filthy with a lot of mis-matched accessories.
That said, I should probably mix it up with the fasteners and pouches and whatnot, make his gear clearly from different sources.
The ragged and filthy will come; he's got a dust mask for a reason!
I'll post my concept art tomorrow when I have access to a scanner.
Got any full-body views straight on from the front?
His hands should land around the upper middle of his thighs when rotated down to a casual angle, right now it looks like they might not reach far enough.
The waist also seems very high, makes his legs look really long proportionally to his torso.
However i would really work on the design of the helmet. The goggles for some reason aren't convincing enough that they belong to that helmet. I think it might be the oval eye holes, i can't put my finger on it. It just doesnt feel like the gogles actually fit into the helmet well.
It looks great and i can't wiat to see a finished product. I think a badass motorcycle would be great too.
Nice model though, quite a unqiue take on a common character, reminds me of stalker.
raiskul: the pads are actually a single piece of leather, and are meant to cap off the sleeveless overcoat and provide padding to the shoulders and neck region. I was hoping that material differences would be highlighted by the texturing, but I will work to make it look less like football pads, now that you mention it.
iWeReZ: The neck is a bit long, you're right. On my concept, the shoulder/collar is higher in the center, and describes the trapezius region better, making the neck look shorter.
oh yeah and the arms might be too short, but they were modeled slightly bent, so I'm not sure
ortho view:
I think if I were that soldier, my neck would start getting craps in 10 minutes.
Thats all I got to say. Other than the cow skull wouldnt be my first gas mask model attempt/
I redid basically all of the cloth, and the front of the LBV. I also fixed the LBV length so that it didn't make his torso look really short.
I just need to finish the compressed gas tank and make the pneumo-wand, and add some details to the gloves, and I'll be ready to move on to the low-poly. I'm planning on doing the seams in photoshop; I can't seem to get a sub-d level high enough for seams to look good in ZBrush without the same mesh crashing XSI or destroying my frame rate.
and just for grins here's a zbrush shot (because matcaps are purty)
Side note, I love the mask and they way this currently going.
As far as I can tell, the arms reach down to around half way down the thigh; they are bent a little, which probably wasn't the best idea. I originally modeled them straight to get the scale right, so I think they should be fine.