Home Contests & Challenges Archives Reallusion's 3D Character Design Contest 2016

Reallusion Character Design - VinceDN

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Hey guys, I'm Vincent, a graphic designer from Belgium who is learning 3D in his off-time. My girlfriend challenged me to do this contest, even though I have only done one model in my life and I have never done a character before, let alone rig, animate. If I win she will have to cook for me for two months.

AND ITS GONNA BE THREE COURSE MEALS BOYS YIHAAAA


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  • VinceDN
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    I deem him one of the greatest beings alive in our time... We shall never see his like again. His name will live in
    history. It will live in the annals of war... It will live in the legends of Arabia. - Winston Churchill




    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKSDUAOBF-c&feature=youtu.be

    Current status: Building highpoly


    Hi there Polycount! For the Reallusion Contest I am entering with my Dieselpunk badass power armor version of Lawrence of Arabia. I remember watching the movie as a kid and was enarmored with the romantic ideals and controversy around his figure. This is actually my second entry, originally I was going to enter with Athina, but I ended up cancelling the design because it didn't have that 'oompf' factor I wanted.



    Lawrence, The Lion of Arabia is set in an alternate Dieselpunk WW1. The invention of the Mark V power armor, named Armorjacks, has transformed the face of the Great War. The young colonel T.E Lawrence is sent to Ottoman-controlled Arabia to lead an insurgency that would propel him to fame and infamy. Enjoy!


  • VinceDN
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    VinceDN vertex
    Concept


    Hero or scoundrel? For Ottoman troops, no name instills more fear than that of Lawrence of Arabia. This British colonel and his band of Arab revolutionaries hide in the desert, striking Ottoman convoys where they are least expected and dissapearing like the desert sand. Equipped with British armature and customized Mark FIVE Armorjacks, his Arab Revolt is definitely a sight to behold. Heralded in the Home Isles as a romantic freedom fighter, though many are suspicious of his loyalties to the Arab leaders, and his opposal to colonial rule. Some would even go as far as to name him a traitor to the British Empire. How will Lawrence be remembered? Only time will tell.



    I have only a single finished 3D model to my name

    Luckily Bulle took me through most of the basic software operations so I have a vague idea of what my pipeline should be. Getting into Reallusion, rigging etc is going to be tough though so I hope the iClone software can speed up production there :)
  • VinceDN
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    Big update! I am cancelling Athina. This wasn't an easy decision but my new design is so rad I just can't help myself. I started from scratch a week ago and now I have five weeks to the deadline, fml.

    My new entry: Lawrence, the Lion of Arabia
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKSDUAOBF-c&feature=youtu.be
  • 3levan
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    3levan polycounter lvl 5
    Cool idea, you know if you built the armor around a character built in reallusions character creator youd already have a rig to work with. Its definatley helped me with rigging and skinning and stuff as Im new to 3d too. might be worth checking into.
  • VinceDN
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    3levan said:
    Qx
    Cool idea, you know if you built the armor around a character built in reallusions character creator youd already have a rig to work with. Its definatley helped me with rigging and skinning and stuff as Im new to 3d too. might be worth checking into.
    Hey 3levan, yes that's a great idea! I was playing with the idea of trying to inflate a human basemesh to become the 'subsuit', it's good to hear that this is possible. Lawrence his suit can be broken down into Sub and Supersuit. Imagine a big burly man wrapped in two layers of blankets, then with armor plating on top. I'm going to try to animate from this subsuit into the full design.

    Having trouble embedding pictures, I made a rough concept for this
  • VinceDN
  • Alexionna
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    Alexionna vertex
    Hey this looks awesome! How long did it take you to build? Keep up the great work! 

    -Alex
  • 3levan
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    3levan polycounter lvl 5
    VinceDN said:
    3levan said:
    Qx
    Cool idea, you know if you built the armor around a character built in reallusions character creator youd already have a rig to work with. Its definatley helped me with rigging and skinning and stuff as Im new to 3d too. might be worth checking into.
    Hey 3levan, yes that's a great idea! I was playing with the idea of trying to inflate a human basemesh to become the 'subsuit', it's good to hear that this is possible. Lawrence his suit can be broken down into Sub and Supersuit. Imagine a big burly man wrapped in two layers of blankets, then with armor plating on top. I'm going to try to animate from this subsuit into the full design.

    Having trouble embedding pictures, I made a rough concept for this
    You can seemingly build a morph for most character body types. just looking around the other entries you will find some really interesting uses for it. Its really worth a try when starting out, I'd have given up by now if not for the character creator giving me so much to work with. 
  • VinceDN
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    VinceDN vertex
    3levan said:
    You can seemingly build a morph for most character body types. just looking around the other entries you will find some really interesting uses for it. Its really worth a try when starting out, I'd have given up by now if not for the character creator giving me so much to work with. 

    I've noticed, I'm using Character Creator in the designing phase now, I'll show how in the next Dev Diary. I decided to combine my posts into DD's, make it easier to show stuff.

    DEV DIARY 1 : Art Style & Universe



    Lawrence is based off a concept I drew up earlier (called Project Aslan) for a dieselpunk World War I which included exosuits, airships and all sorts of crazy jazz. Think of a world stuck in the roaring twenties with much more advanced technology. 



    There are a few artists and themes already in this Dieselpunk-esque setting, I'm thinking of the awesome designs of Maschiner Kriegen, or more to the Steampunk side of things, movies like Steamboy - large inspirations for me.



    I guess I have a think for large, mechanical parts, valves and screws, diesel engines, etc. Lawrence his suit has a huge two-exhaust engine strapped to the back which powers it's hydraulic system, other than that the armor plates are heavily inspired by old diving suits and the tanks and tractors, cars of WW1. All these vintage designs have this brutalist look to them, heavily plated and with crude bolting and welding - it's great material to work with. Just look at these beasts.



    But anyway, back to Lawrence. I grabbed some great books on WW1 and WW2 tech from the library, which is what I'm basing these designs off. GF snapped some pics of me sketching up stuff


    I was thinking of accesories for Lawrence. originally I was going to go with a Steampunk minigun, but I figured why not go overboard. So I designed something with 'MORE POWER!'



    Imagine five howitzer barrels strapped to an oversized revolver magazine - which of course holds ten-pound artillery shells. Makes no sense? Of course it doesn't, but hell if it ain't cool!

    Here's a better look at that. I'm also considering an oversized anti-tank super rifle.



    And then, just for fun, what is more British than a 450-pound exosuit holding a cup of tea?



    That's all for now, next dev diary will be about using Character Creator to concept while modeling. We tend to hold to a tight pipeline of concept->model->bake->uv->texture, but I'm experimenting with 'hack/dev' systems learned from the app developers I work with. Essentially it comes down to developing the model while modeling, so bouncing between the blockout and Photoshop for overpainting, looking at ideas, etc...

    V
  • VinceDN
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    VinceDN vertex
    Managed to push a lot of polies the past few days. Here's some shots, I will have a dev diary up this weekend.
  • Chronicle
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    Chronicle polycounter lvl 5
    I see what you were talking about with the thick guys in metal entrants.  This guy you've got is looking awesome.  Really like the details in the shoulders.
  • InfinityComplex
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    InfinityComplex polycounter lvl 5
    I love the concept of this character. Reminds me of the armor guys in a Space Pirate movie I saw a while ago. Awesome progress so far. I really like whats coming out of this. Cant wait to see it finished :)
  • VinceDN
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    VinceDN vertex
    Thanks for the comments guys!

    I want to do a dev diary on my hack-dev principle but I want to do a little more designing first, so i made a quick video to show recent developments. I discovered decimation master - Insane!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNGrpneJ_pg

    How do you guys feel about these backpack designs? Some like one pipes, some two.; I'm on the fence myself





    V
  • AdventDestiny
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    AdventDestiny polycounter lvl 2
    I think that the single pipe design on the right looks more original, I hear that using uneven numbers of features proves more interesting then repeated symmetry. But it's up to you, maybe more people will prefer the dual pipes design.
  • Chronicle
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    Chronicle polycounter lvl 5
    I like the shape of the two pipe design personally. I do think something to break up the uniformity would be cool.  Maybe making the top silver metal portion of the pipes different sizes would do it.  that way, you could keep the cool dual back tank look while offsetting the weight to one side.
  • VinceDN
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    For now I'm keeping the two designs next to eachother, making decisions like this tears me up tbh, I can never choose :open_mouth:

    Two more update shots, I managed to do a blockout of the Ten-Pounder Revolving Field Artillery Cannon (its a HOWITZER MINIGUN), some pose tests, and work on the neck and head areas. I still don't know what I want to do with the big neck area, I never defined it in the sketch. Originally I called this design the Lion-suit, so I was thinking some sort of piping like I'm using right now, with cloth parths wrapped here and there to add asymmetry





    About this minigun: I'm going to try animation tests. Imagine the revolving magazine of a huge 657 magnum, only here there are HOWITZER SHELLS where there would be ammo. It's brutal and over the top, perfect for this character! I want this entire piece to be dirty dieselpunk madness, with oil seeping from cracks in the gears and a humming V8 engine to power it all


  • VinceDN
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    VinceDN vertex
    Hey all,

    I managed to assemble a new Dev Diary showing some of the inspirations and talking about the design of Lawrence Of Arabia; watch it here

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VckVH5Oq9Vw&feature=youtu.be
  • SpaceRogue
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    SpaceRogue polycounter lvl 3
    Awesome character, love the dieslepunky design and I seriously can't wait to see some textures on this : D

  • VinceDN
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    Thanks SpaceRogue! Here is some progress on the arms, I'm trying to have a lot of repeating patterns on the suit so I can save UV space with instancing.
  • VinceDN
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    VinceDN vertex
    Update: Not gonna lie guys, I'm starting to freak out, we're twenty days out from the deadline and I'm working my job back to back with this to try and make it. The highpoly isn't even done yet, I have no retopo and no finished portrait - oh lord have mercy

    We muscle on! Put this trailer out on Facebook, here's a copy
    https://youtu.be/g7SrBj0Y3Vk

    V
  • VinceDN
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    VinceDN vertex
    A quick GIF to show progress on the sculpting, I hope to have a new dev diary by sunday
  • VinceDN
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    VinceDN vertex
    Hey guys, I'm afraid I have to come with some bad news. I checked the schedule and inbetween my job and other responsibilities there is no way I'll be able to finish the character in time for the 16th deadline - so I'm dropping out of the contest :(. This doesn't mean the end for Lawrence though; as I'm continuing work on my own as a portfolio and practice piece. Can my thread be moved to the general Polycount WIP thread when the contest is over?


    Some progress on the legs: 
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