Earth Golem W.I.P.

OGRE · Sep 2008

Alright, this here is my first pimpin' post, and I'm hoping you guys like my initial take on an earth golem. This here sonofabitch is about 250 ft tall w/out the tree...I think. He'll be sporting a rocky epidermis, as well, gaseous fissures of sorts sprout from his shoulders/forehead/notsurewhereelseyet.

The entire concept is a WIP, so any and all crits/comments are welcome - especially considering this will be my first ever portfolio piece, as well as my first completed character.

I don't THINK there is a reason to state employability as I'm still in the infantile stages of this portfolio - but I'll say at the moment I work in interactive media & advertising as a designer, and I'm aiming to get out of it soon. Luckily I broke my neck in a car wreck 3 months ago - so, I've plenty of recovery time to work on what I've always wanted to do.

Edit: base mesh is 4000 quads, over the of years reading I'm fairly certain that's an acceptable amount?

Ged · Sep 2008

looks like a really good start to me = D, the proportions are cool
hope recovery is going well

Wells · Sep 2008

he seems off balance - try either moving his feet back a bit or raising his ass and moving his shoulders forward.

getting all the hard surfaces will be the trick with this guy. he's got some nice proportions, but everything is too soft and gooey at this point. i'm looking forward to seeing where you take him.

OGRE · Sep 2008

Ged, Sectaurs - thank you for the feed back

Changes:
Lifted the ass, shoulders pulled back, removed fissure structures from forehead, moved them to shoulder, but I still haven't been able to knock out an appropriate looking rock formation for them. So I may just get rid of them, but we'll see how it goes today. Oh and also I obviously started the cliff formation on his back - I'm fairly pleased with it thus far.

Today: Finish cliff, toes, thumbs, take some painkillers, calves, and begin tree detailing.

Thanks again for any C&C guys. POLYCOUNT4LYFE, GAME ARTISANS CAN DIE IN A CAR FIRE

...sry

Joao Sapiro · Sep 2008

if you are aiming for earthlikeness id advise to make it less blobby, since earth is basically mineral etc , i would also add some random rocks on the guy , you could make this really interesting if you break the usual pattern here

OGRE · Sep 2008

I was planning on the skin having a rocky texture, just thought I'd wait till the end to do so as it will be quite asymmetrical. You definitely gave me some ideas though, and for that - THANK YOU!

Also, the usual pattern? I know someone in irc said they have seen a similar character - has this been done many times or something??

BradMyers82 · Sep 2008

Yeah, I have seen many renditions of this but I wouldn't let it deter you from working on it. I think the game shadow of the colossus made this concept really popular, although I can't say for sure as I have never played it. Just keep at it cause it looks interesting so far.

OGRE · Sep 2008

Brad, thanks for the encouragement. I just spent the last hour looking for retopo tools and tried exporting levels to max to turn it into an urban golem with a street/houses/streetlamps. It went terribly wrong of course... and yeah I haven't played the game either unfortunately. I'll keep on this though, I've a few ideas that might separate it from the crowd.

SHEPEIRO · Sep 2008

nice i agree with johny though the it would be nice to see the shapes on the back replicated across the rest of the body (rocks for muscles type thing)

stoofoo · Sep 2008

hey man, he's pretty cool! NOW FINISH! He definitely needs another pass of detailing if nothing else to sharpen up some lines. You got the playdough disorder going atm. Don't let it take over! REFINE REFINE REFINE!

OGRE · Sep 2008

Haha thanks stoofoo, working on it now

OGRE · Oct 2008

Haven't had the most time to work on this, but I think it's coming along..

stoofoo · Oct 2008

hey hey hey. that rock bit on the back is what i was talking about. follow through follow through!

goooooooo

Kawe · Oct 2008

holy shat. those rocks look sweet

SHEPEIRO · Oct 2008

he need rock butt

OGRE · Feb 2009

Feels like I tried to run before I could walk... Any and all crits are very very appreciated!

Snefer · Feb 2009

I think you should define some of the forms more before you go into crazy-detail mode, right now its looking very blobby in some places, like the midriff and the legs, etc. Otherwise its shaping up nicely

SHEPEIRO · Feb 2009

looking sweet love the pool on his back

BradMyers82 · Feb 2009

I agree with Snefer, the detail you have added is cool, but the forms could use at least one more pass before all this micro detail is added. If you just used a small brush to carve out and serpate the forms a little, I think it would give the softer areas a sharper less blobby look. Nice work, and keep at it!

OGRE · Feb 2009

Yeah I totally haven't touched the legs or midriff since early stages of the model... I'll work on tightening it up. I'm still not sold on the Komodo Dragon esque skin - especially for his belly.

Thanks for the kind words and help!

renderhjs · Feb 2009

I think it lacks general composition and design- all I see are brushes (perhaps even default ones). I think you should go some steps back and refine step by step and not go right away into details and surface structure.

Another thing I dont like atm. is that there is to much randomness - very rough and very fine details but perhaps it belongs into the same category I mentioned first.

OGRE · Feb 2009

Sadly, I agree with you.

OGRE · Feb 2009

HELP, I've not tough skin. Should I just start on a new project?

shotgun · Feb 2009

no, focus on your mistakes and how to fix them. fortunately, the digital media is very forgiving.

renderhjs is correct in pointing out the design issue. i would also focus on that first.
go back to image #6 (the golden one) and blur out the rocks. have the entire model consistently detailed. with the rocks in mind and being a design element, add them to other places. elbows? knees? etc.
if he is like a tree-ogre, add 2 birds sitting on a brunch on him. you can hang a chinese lantern hanging off it too or something to add some 'stuff'. once the design and materials are defined, you can go in and apply detail texture.

it is also not necessary to detail everything to the same extent... let some of the natural organic shapes and skin folds show, the sculpting itself is very nice.

btw, he really looks like he's taking a shit

put a block of rock under his ass...

t4paN · Feb 2009

Man, I wish you a speedy recovery and hopefully no permanent injuries! This golem dude is butt-ugly btw, which I suppose was the desired effect?

OGRE · Feb 2009

Shotgun, T4pan, thank you!

Shotgun, you brought up some great points. I was planning on putting birds in there along with leaves/branches (alpha mapped planes), I love the idea of a lantern and sitting on a rock - as if an NPC of sorts. Also, the idea of expanding the rocks to other areas struck me as well, I suppose I got in a hurry to make progress (it's been a tough recovery). All of the fine detail work there was done in less than 4 hrs or so; and yes, some of it is one of the default stamps >_> I suppose this is unacceptable?

Thanks for the help/support!!!

Edit: Yes T4pan, I want him to be ugly as fuck

OGRE · Feb 2009

Decided to do some modeling last night... too much?

I still haven't touched the hands/legs/feet/tree - just tightening up the mossles, also - I added a default tree stump for him to sit on, it looks good but for the sake of modeling it's not in the scene yet.

I realize the bicep meeting the shoulder doesn't look very good...am working on it.

Earth Golem W.I.P.

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