[FINISHED] Candle Dragon - ArtStation Challenge
Finished renders here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WmqxvD
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What's one more Polycount thread? 😅
I started working on my entry for the Dragon's Rise Challenge on ArtStation and figured it's always good to have more eyes to check out my progress and offer a helping hand where needed.
I picked the Candle Dragon concept from Albert Wong: https://www.artstation.com/forteen
Annnnnnd started with a blockout before giving the anatomy a pass yesterday.
I also made an effort to try and get the teeth sitting somewhat correctly so he can close his mouth.
My next step is to work on some candles and get the candle-horns placed. Once I've got them in I think I can better get to grips with the proportions.
Couple of thoughts... I have no idea what to do with the wings and if anyone knows what I should do for the fire, I would super appreciate that 😘
Replies
Didn't give myself a lot of time tonight, but made some candles and started placing them which in turn helped with the proportions
Oh yes, I'm enjoying how this is looking. Great block in btw. Are you modeling on blender?
Hey, nice start 👍️
I recommend checking the balance/weight distribution. In the concept, the wings act as a sort of hanger, carrying the creature. Another feature is that the tail blends seamlessly with the torso and the hind legs look less developed.
Keep it up! 🚀
@lucardo Thanks! I'm sculpting in ZBrush, will probably retopologise in Maya though.
@Fabi_G Thanks, yeah the wings are bothering me, I was thinking about tweaking the weight when I come to pose, but I think you're right and I should address it now. The tail is still a separate sub tool. I'll deal with it later :P
Been picking away at the high poly and think I'm just about done with it. Next step is to start on the retopo. I also want to have a mess around with a fire shader in UE4 and I remember coming across this a couple of years ago and think I might take advantage of a lot of the techniques Anton used: https://polycount.com/discussion/218966/finished-disney-hades-stylized-character-in-ue4
Got a little feedback about pushing the high poly so spent some time today adding more detail. I tried to push it a bit more so that I don't lose too much when I add SSS. No big proportion changes except for making the back legs a little thicker
Took another detail pass at the high poly after some feedback.
Also, had a mess around with trying SSS in Marmoset 3
It's a bank holiday, which means I spent it making fire in UE4. I basically copied Anton Guzeev's method here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/v1NW4d as I had seen it on a Polycount thread a while ago, I just made it default lit so I could have emissive light in the scene. There's still stuff I'd like to change in the base mesh for the fire and I'm wondering if I can add some more noise to the textures so we'll see.
Oooooh boy, it's been a hot minute since I updated. I have been struggling with the retoplogy for a couple of weeks. So, I did what any sane person would and watched a series of Community, half a series of Scrubs and listened to hours upon hours of the Glitch Mob and I think I'm about done
Currently sitting at around 41k triangles so plenty of room to add stuff in. I am now not looking forward to unwrapping this guy....
Managed to get my bakes done over the last few days. Unwrapping this sucker was a chore and I'm so very glad it's done :P Next up to throw this guy into Substance Painter and start getting some textures blocked in. I also want to get it into Unreal soon to get a rough presentation set up there too
Small update as I get everything into Unreal and throw in some lights and stuffs. I did try to get him posed but I'll need to tidy it up later
I have so much texture work to do still as it's like 90% generator fill layers and I want to get some hand painted stuff in there.
I also want to try an emissive pass on the skin to see what I can get out of it.
Also also, no idea what I'm doing in the background
Been picking away at these textures for a bit now whilst also moving things into UE5 cos I realised I hadn't downloaded it yet. I'm still a little stuck on the fire... I kinda like it but I'm worried it's too stylised compared to the rest of the dragon.
I also did a pass with emissive materials. Also... what are backgrounds... do I need one? Does this just look empty???
I've been tweaking my fire shader for a week or so now and I think it looks better but I'm wondering if I should just switch to something more static? Cos I'm struggling to add texture/noise to it without it looking super dithered and horrible :|
Woo! Got this finished in time for the challenge then went back to make a small idle animation so that the fire wasn't the only thing moving. I also got some help from our tech artist at work, Matt to make sure the fire wasn't super dither-y.
More renders and stuffs on ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WmqxvD
yo, that dragon's burning that big wick energy!
Haha, thank you! I'm stealing that line :P
offset / stretch the uvs in the fire to conceal repetitive shapes
Thanks, I didn't really think about the repetition, will try it in the future :)