Character- Chandra Nalaar
So i've always been impressed with the characters that Aleksi Briclot created for Magic The Gathering called planeswalkers. I used to play magic and so i don't know if that had something to do with it, but now is my 3d tribute to the first of those characters. Chandra Nalaar here is the description of her from the website.
"
Chandra Nalaar is a red-magic-wielding planeswalker. Her specialty is pyromancy: spells of fire, fire, and more fire.
There's no virtue in subtlety—at least not as far as the fire-mage Chandra Nalaar is concerned. Impulsive, passionate, and short-tempered, she's as ready to explode as the pyromantic spells of her ever-growing repertoire. Chandra's spark ignited when she was still quite young, and as she has grown, so have her abilities as a wielder of fire magic and as a planeswalker.
As a source of immense and unpredictable power, authority figures have sought to restrict and control Chandra, which comes into direct conflict with her need for independence and freedom. As Chandra's wild inner fire comes in contact with world after world of rules and strictures, the results are sure to be explosive."
Originally i was going to just do a bust but i got caught up in the enjoyment so here's a couple weeks off and on so far. most of it is still in low poly awaiting some hard surface lovin....oh yeah my challenge to myself was to try and make her armor hard surface modelled. so far only zbrushing is the body which is still slightly in WIP until i finish fleshing out her outfit. OKay now on to pictures
concepts and cards by Aleksi Briclot and Steve Argyle
i'm not trying to follow on particular concept as much as become inspired by her character and make my own version in much the same as these 2 are diff outfits but the character still feels the same. Thanks for taking the time to read and if ya didn't thanks for looking at my Work in Progress! now on to working on her attire below the waist!
Most recent:
"
Chandra Nalaar is a red-magic-wielding planeswalker. Her specialty is pyromancy: spells of fire, fire, and more fire.
There's no virtue in subtlety—at least not as far as the fire-mage Chandra Nalaar is concerned. Impulsive, passionate, and short-tempered, she's as ready to explode as the pyromantic spells of her ever-growing repertoire. Chandra's spark ignited when she was still quite young, and as she has grown, so have her abilities as a wielder of fire magic and as a planeswalker.
As a source of immense and unpredictable power, authority figures have sought to restrict and control Chandra, which comes into direct conflict with her need for independence and freedom. As Chandra's wild inner fire comes in contact with world after world of rules and strictures, the results are sure to be explosive."
Originally i was going to just do a bust but i got caught up in the enjoyment so here's a couple weeks off and on so far. most of it is still in low poly awaiting some hard surface lovin....oh yeah my challenge to myself was to try and make her armor hard surface modelled. so far only zbrushing is the body which is still slightly in WIP until i finish fleshing out her outfit. OKay now on to pictures
concepts and cards by Aleksi Briclot and Steve Argyle
i'm not trying to follow on particular concept as much as become inspired by her character and make my own version in much the same as these 2 are diff outfits but the character still feels the same. Thanks for taking the time to read and if ya didn't thanks for looking at my Work in Progress! now on to working on her attire below the waist!
Most recent:
Replies
I hope you ll find a way to capture the dynamic/torn/infernal feel of the first illustration on the model. Itll be a great challenge but I think itll look great!
The face is a bit generic (big-lips action heroine); it fits with the second illustration but I think the first one has some sort of edge to it that would be great to see in 3D. Id say, give her an expression as early as possible!
I'd love to know what shader/render settings you used for the skin too! Its very readable and believable. The metal is cool too!
as for the shader render settings i admit i cheated a little bit and the textures are zbrush materials the metal is bronze antique and the skin is oil clay red. i like how, as you said, they read well. having these base materials always gets me pumped to keep working hard on my project because i can see a glimmer of it's end potential. sorry if i'm coming across philosophical, but motivation is the biggest problem most people have and i try to keep my motivation demon fed as much as possible.
all in all i feel like i'm not even halfway done but i can't wait to see how she comes out in the end!
Looks great so far, cant wait to see your final render
what are you planning to do with the end product? full on game spec character? or are you just doing s sculpt to have printed?
keep it up dude, i can't wait to see the end result
little more progress on her, been busy at work but i'm gonna work on her alot this weekend i hope. anyways added blockouts for boots and more leg details. adding repeating patterns tho let me know if i'm overdoing it with the bolts. haven't touched the head yet, i want to finish blocking out and designing her outfit before i go back to the head. look for that update in the future.
Josh_Singh: I plan on doing some more mtg stuff after this but i'm def gonna try it more stylized similar to yours ... your style always makes me happy looking at your work. i think it'd be awesome to do an mtg challenge on polycount! even a low poly challenge hopefully tho they don't start that until after i finish Chandra
Skylebones: Thats awesome that you have a really talented cousin! my cousin's best talent is making chicken....while yummy only helps to encourage slackin and lickin fingers. I chatted with Steve a while back saying i was gonna start a chandra 3d when i bought his print online, doubt he remembers but he definitely came across as a great guy
Thanks for the interest i'm finalizing her shoulderpad today so hopefully i have some shots of the hard surface stuff soon.
i like the asymmetry on the right and maybe having some kind of neat glowing tattoo but i like the sleeve (like darth vader quilted armor type material) on the left. gonna rework the back design a bit cuz i'm not entirely happy with it yet. anyways feel free to post your opinion!
I really want to see how this develops. You've got me real interested in looking up some references from mtg for some environments
Loving B
I wish I could see all of your reference that I know you have been looking at all day.
Gasp DUSTY!! where have you been!? not playing LoL apparently! you know i don't share ALL my reference
I like B because the double pauldrons make it look like she has no neck, like a football player. Keep the sleeve from A though, that could turn out really cool.
Can't wait to see where you take it.
And yeah, as everyone else has mentioned B is better. You get a better sense of her neckline.
export out pieces from max to zbrush using .obj exporter from max 2010
import into zbrush and the scale is entirely off. export piece from zbrush into max and it is the right size then i export that same piece from max to zbrush adn scale is off. so to sum up.. my zbrush to max size works fine yet my max to zbrush scale is about 700x to small. only thing that has changed was i installed a new fbx plugin and the 3point shader thing on the main forum page, but i don't think either of those has anything to do with obj. anyone experienced this problem and have a fix? thanks in advance, i'm hoping to post my update once i get this issue resolved
her face still needs some work but i'll try to get everything to a similar point then refine it. been a bit busy lately so sorry for updates taking a long time and not being very major updates but this will get kicked into gear shortly.
few things, the tube is going to have that interwoven look that steve argyle's version has that i love, gonna work on the tube connection on her gauntlet (it's mysteriously missing), and then on to zbrushing cloth and leather and armsleeve thingers. stay tuned for my Chandra action!
Spark
Snake: ah i'll take that as a compliment heh
Zipfinator: i like big shoulder pauldrons myself but i was kinda wanting to avoid them looking like sisters of battle from warhammer 40k (which is awesome too, but a diff genre). thanks for the feedback tho
thanks for the comments guys, i'll post updates as i solve this zbrush problem after work.
Update: after searching all over zbrush forums alot of people and companies are having this problem. apprently at some point zbrush scaled my ztl up like 600% so every obj was coming in miniscule, oddly tho exporting any of the parts from the ztl came into max the right size.. i assume there is a bug in the code on importing obj's. they can't track down what causes this bug and currently no real fix that i'm aware of. luckily i save alot of iterations so i have a body base saved that didn't get upscaled (yet) and the obj's come in fine. i really would prefer them to fix the bugs in zbrush rather then adding "animation" and other somewhat, in my opinion, worthless features. anyways i love zbrush and it is my preference, but ya gotta learn it is in control and when it decides to put on it's dominitrix leathers be prepared for some punishment.
case in point:
what happened? I liked the booty
Overall i like where it's going but i think i am going to rework the gauntlet form scratch and make it more badass. gonna design some filigree or design to try and tie it together a bit more. Hopefully i get to the head soon because it's kinda nagging on me to fix it and give her some personality.
and the sleeve to glove connection will be fixed shortly too btw
nice alphas on the glove too, your designs?