Unsatisfying Gauntlet - Recommendations?

madmuffin

I'm trying to make a gauntlet that is looks extremely large/beefy to the point of being cartoony, blocky frame like the way TF2 does it's hand, specifically sorta like the Heavy's hand, and very like, brutal like War's gloves in Darksiders.

Anyways I am having a ton of trouble making a good gauntlet look the way I want it to feel. I made a basic hand shape but its still too real and most of the ones I can find via google image search are all just too real and puny looking. Any critiques or recommendations are appreciated.

Will Faucher

Well, first off, the hand is too flat. Yes, you bent the fingers down, but you need to make the thumb go down WAAAY lower. Look at your own hand and look where your thumb is. Spread out your fingers a little as well. The top also seems very flat, round that up.

You're on the right track, just bend the hand a little to make the thumb go more underneath the hand as opposed to right beside it.

madmuffin

Okay Ill do that, but how do I make it look more gauntlety? Its never meant to be a hand, more like a huge metal can that would probably not be movable in real life, you know, cartoony yet realistic.

Less like real hand, more like a metal gauntlet that moves if only a little.

Gav

Try looking up Joe Mad's artwork. Like War, his other characters tend to have extreme proportions and gear that you could draw inspiration from. I would say your problem is that you're playing it too safe - by making a human hand that is lightly armoured. Even if you pushed out the armor plating, it's just going to be a beefy hand over human anatomy. I think to get what you want, you're going to have to explore / risk playing with the hand proportions - separating the fingers a bit more, maybe even making the fingers stubby sprouting from a bulked up palm could help.

You're asking a fairly odd question though and I guess my answer is just tossing your question back at you. 'How do I make a big gauntlet like War?' 'Look at War and make his gauntlet.' We can't really be expected to get in your head and solve what you want, only judge images that you show - Like Prophecies did. You will need to work on your anatomy and the dynamic shape of what you're creating - leaving the hand flat wether you go way stylized or slightly realistic will be boring.

Cheers,
Gav

iWeReZ

If your going cartoony, you want to accentuate the smallest details, so less spikes. Make them larger at the ends, and thicken the fingers at the end.

madmuffin

I don't want to make his gauntlet no, I want to make my own, the sort of imagery that is conjured up when you make up fancy names like Powerfist, Inifinity Gauntlet, Titan Strike, that thing Hellboy has, etc.

Every time I try to change the hand shape I usually just end up scaling the whole thing up gradually because I'll widen it or thicken it in places but then others look wrong so I change those until the end result is just the same as if I had scaled the whole thing from the start. I'll definitely look up the rest of this guy's artwork though for inspiration, that is mainly what I am looking for right now, a look or a feeling to work from because even if I have big names, that doesnt give me a concrete image to work from in my head.

bbob

Draw some concept then.

Doesnt have to be pretty, but it might help ya get some ideas flowing.

madmuffin

That's probably the best idea. I'm not the greatest traditional artist but I can't find any reference art that gives me the right feeling anyways.

Will Faucher

Look at Lionhead's Fable concept art. Large feet and hands are part of their artistic style.

Sandro

Well, hands are one of the hardest body parts to get right. There are no shortcuts actually.

You need to get comfortable sketching or blocking them out with rough geometry first. I suggest googling some hand studies and analyzing them. Sketches and drawings are best, as they contain processed information and somewhat exaggerated curves.

http://www.freire-design.de/rs025.jpg

Just invest a day or two and get comfortable with how forms flow. After that, you can do any kinds of stylisation you want in no time. Be it short and chubby, long and slender e.t.c.

madmuffin

I'm really appreciating all the nice hand tutorials and crits but its sorta the wrong direction I wanted to take this. I've been trying to describe something more akin to an articulate lump of steel then a nice finely tuned human hand.

I guess the initial image didn't help the idea that I wanted something not traditionally hand-like at all yet still able to hold things.



This is new blockout but ist still completely wrong and feels the utter opposite of what I want. This isn't about edgeloops or flow or where the fingers connect, this is about how it looks aesthetically, which right now in that image looks like a hand in a thick gauntlet, when its supposed to look like a thick gauntlet that happens to have fingers. Not even a thick gauntlet look, more like a blunt object attached to the forearm for caving in faces but happens to be able to hold things.

The further away from hand we can get the better, only still able to hold things.

NoChance

madmuffin wrote: »

I guess the initial image didn't help the idea that I wanted something not traditionally hand-like at all yet still able to hold things.



that image looks like a hand in a thick gauntlet, when its supposed to look like a thick gauntlet that happens to have fingers. Not even a thick gauntlet look, more like a blunt object attached to the forearm for caving in faces but happens to be able to hold things.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking for here and it almost seems like you want someone to design this for you since even you can't explain what you want except for in vague terms, such as I want a hand that's not a hand.

Will Faucher

I hate to say it, but gauntlets are designed to fit the human hand. Therefore, you need to make the gauntlet the shape of the hand. You need your finger and thumb placements correct. Once it is modelled properly in terms of "anatomy", then you can go ahead and make it as bulky as you want. Just make the plate real thick. But it's like I said, you need the fingers placed right for someone to recognise what the hell it is :P.

Hope this helped!

edit: that blockout you did actually looks pretty good! You can make it bulkier if you please, but the anattomy looks MUCH better than your first picture.

madmuffin

The last thing I want is someone to design it for me I'm just really frustrated that I can't get what is in my head to appear anywhere else. Tips, suggestions, critiques how to accomplish this, any of that is just fine. I know exactly how it should look yet every time I try to make it comes out completely wrong.

In non-vague concrete terms I'm trying to model:

A square-fisted stony metal looking gauntlet with no spike-like protrusions, only sharp square edges akin to The Hulk's or The Heavy's hand shape, with square fingers that fit together into a flat surface. across the front yet still fingers that can hold things. Like a golem's hand that is the hand, not something that would have human fingers inside of it.

Only every time I try to make it it blows up in my face and looks incredibly silly since I have no idea how to make it work. It keeps coming out too hand-like and not fist-like enough.

Will Faucher

It will come with practice. Draw some quick sketches! You have no idea how much a rough sketch done on a napkin during dinner time can help! Because then you dont need to rely only upon your mind that is constantly in motion. Dont forget, despite it being a very rough blocky gauntlet, make sure even the hulk could wear. Make it humanoid. Not just flat. Also, with that blockout version of your gauntlet, play around with FFD Modifiers in Max (Not sure if Maya has that). What FFD modifiers do is allow you to deform the entire model the way you want instead of selecting vertice by vertice.

madmuffin

I'm working in Max so I've got FFD, I'll try attaching them all together and doing that. And when I said flat, I meant sorta like Hellboy's hand, but then I went back to look at it and his hand is actually pretty really round.