Week 23 - Ice Druid Sculpt

 FEEDBACK

Feedback from Kenneth Morrison:

I am unsure if the facial anatomy was passed over/no 'done yet' but it feels very basic. You have the larger features a placed well like. But the underlying anatomy is not all that there. Hence the 'Anatomy of an Illustrator' It makes Purah look more like a doll than an actual person.

Much of these anatomical facial anatomies are outlined in red. Things like the nasal labial fold, some of the cheek bones, and brows. and sides of the skull. In yellow are parts that I feel are misplaced or miss applied. Like I think your Zygomatic/Cheekbones are off and the plan change to the sides of the face are off. 

That and your brow and nasal bone. The 'Illustrator Anatomy' part come in. Where you have that 'the line of the brow runs into nose' stylistic tech. But the place where the eyebrows and the browline meet are often on the same plane, not above it. That and her nose is this broad tube. IF this is what you want to do, fine. Push that. But it looks like it's something you are doing unconsciously out of habit.

Purple is because it feels like the horns are PLACED and not GROWING out of the skull.

1) I don't like how the 'Dress(?)' out later just sits like that. It feels like there's not a lot of consideration as to where it goes/interacts with the belt.

2) I don't like the hand anatomy. It feels overly smooth and the pinky is dinky. This feels like the 'Illustrators Anatomy' is happening.

3) The dark blue on a less dark blue doesn't look great. There's layering but it's not hightlighted. On the top, Purah has some 'embroidery(?)' that highlights it. I'd try something like that. Both of your concepts listed have something similar going on.

4) I like the 'Inverted Ribcage Dress' but the skeleton anatomy isn't there. (See Image)

5) Arm anatomy is missing some elements. Like Wrist bones, and elbows. "Illustrators Anatomy" 

The 'Antlers' look good from the front and back, but not that interesting from the side. 

From the side angle, try pushing the bend 

And 'Twist' the antler shape to show the inner scoop from the side a little more. Say... 15-30 degrees?

These look a little plain

Clarification on Illustrator Anatomy:

Your anatomy is very simplified and it makes me think you learned anatomy through illustration, where you learned it through various techniques to simplify forms in order to get work done rather than the 'correct anatomical structure' that is needed for higher level artistry. It's becoming more apparent where you are compensating for a weaker base now that you are going into 3D character art. This is normal for artists.

From Caden Peterson

A lot of this critique focused on fine-tuning the planes of the face so they are less sculpy and based in Illustrator anatomy. This included:

1. (Pink) Polishing the plane of the glabella (between the eyebrows)
2. (Green) making the eyebrows larger and sit lower on the face
3. (Red) Adding fat deposits underneath the eyes to better blend out the nose
4. (Purple) Adding fat deposits underneath the lips for better definition
5. (Pink - Left) Rounding out the chin

HAIR PROCESSING

This was a second attempt at hair modeling, utilizing a base primitive sphere to move tool and place into position, as the curve tools were not working out in a 3D space for the hair. I will be working on another pass of this hair.

First version of the hair is down in the bottom left corner.

Feedback:

Feedback from Caden Peterson:

Immediately, I think this is secondary. I see very little primary. I think you're starting too small too fast. Here is a video:

 

Later in a seperate call, Caden and I were looking at the art of Mark Lambert as we discussed miniature figure painting and 3D printing. Mark Lambert is specifically a favorite creator of ours, as he focuses primarily on primary and secondary detail and only utilizes movement brushes and zmodeler to get his sculpts how he wants them

My favorite sculpt of his: Lucy

This side conversation ended up being incredibly beneficial, as Lambert had a specific resource for how he designs the hair, including a modified hair strand IMM brush and a step-by-step walkthrough for the specific process. LINK

The biggest takeaway from this guide was not the guide itself but the existence of the Bend Curve tool which allows me to make modified curves and move the mesh with multiple editable points for 

Cloth Folding

Part of the sculpt that I have struggled with the most is the design of the bottom skirt; originally I was referencing the design of The Winter Queen, as shared in my last post. However, I found that the symmetrical design didn't fit her, especially with the large number of props that started to adorn the skeleton.

One of my friends mentioned making their own Ren Faire skirt with a metal hook to hoist the side of the skirt upwards, saying that the asymmetry would work well with the layers

I heavily referenced Kirill Senzu's Clothing and Accessories tutorial to create large folds and drapery in a complex area without overwhelming the viewer with noise. Utilizing the large shapes on the front

Final sculpt of the two layers. This idea blends the idea of the layered skirt with some softer undertones to break up the design. It also serves as heavy shape language without controlling the design in terms of detailing, juxtaposing heavy shape language with resting eyes and thin/sharp shape language with a lot of extra adornments.

I utilized Alexandra Jackson's Ruffle IMM brush to achieve the wave on the base skirt and a simple process of dynameshing & ZRemeshing to blend the two together. For the spine I used Dystopia Interactive's Spine Curve Brush to isolate a flat section and the Bend Curve deformer to put it into place

I forgot to mention it in my last update but; G_Pouraskar's 202 Leather Brush Straps IMM and Fred Taylor's Stylized Rope IMM brushes has been extremely helpful in making many of the cords, bags, and latches for this project -- Adding the right amount of utility for any D&D character

also one more note for this section: 
I was reminded of the GIO soft brush for ZBrush; it feels like a mix of Dam Standard, Pinch, and Polish features all together. For large swaths of cloth I found this incredibly helpful

POST-CRITIQUE

Another pass will be done for the hair

PureRef

Get the PureRef Here: LINK

Week 22 - Vampire Gnoll "Kakx" Sculpt & Resin Print

 

Sculpting

Over the break I got a chance to speak with Zuccarello about printing some sculpts in the 3D print lab, as a result I wanted to make a momento to test this out. In light of my Icewind Dale Dungeons & Dragons campaign going on a 3 week hiatus over break, it became the object of my obsession.

I decided to sculpt my favorite villian, and enemy we were currently in the middle of fighting; Kakx. A Vampiric Gnoll (Humanistic hyena) who had been terrorizing the party since the start of the campaign. He became a form of mirror for my character Purah and a beloved character of mine.

Character Summary:

Tekeli-li was a gnoll vampire, and a former Fang of Yeenoghu that lurked in Icewind Dale during the 14th and 15th centuries DR. Tekeli-li was once a mortal gnoll, who led his pack across the frozen lands of Icewind Dale. In the Year of the Striking Falcon, the local Reghedmen barbarians routed the pack, forcing them to flee across the Reghed Glacier. To ensure their survival, the pack sacrificed themselves one by one to their Fang Tekeli-li, granting him sustenance to live through the winter.
To the goddess Auril, Tekeli-li's ravenous hunger represented the unending "consumption" of winter. Auril interred the vampiric gnoll within the Caves of Hunger, imprisoning him in the ice of the Reghed Glacier as the passageway out froze over. He remained trapped there for over a century until a group of adventurers re-opened the passageway.

WIP sculpt before critique.

He suffers in this example from being too wolf-like as I was still figuring out the correct mix of fur and flesh to give the illusion that fur was not just dotted over patches of skin.

I looked a lot at the work of Chloe Worthy who is known for turning video game characters into different animals, her most popular series being Red Dead Redemption

This was also a very interesting project as one of my mentees was going through a similar struggle of finalizing their Modeling 2 project at the same time, which also happened to be a wolf/human bust and utilized a lot of the same resources as me when it came to fur texturing

A big resource I relied on a lot in this process was the combination of dynameshing and zremeshing the fur into the main body to achieve a seamless look. This tip by Mark Lambert was a literal game changer.

I really dont think this project would have gotten done without some fantastic critique from my buddy Caden, who helped me block out many of the problem areas of the face I was struggling with and narrowed it down to a misunderstanding of how the planes of the face opperated.

One of the other challenges of this project was based around how little art/official reference there was for this character. Due to the nature of D&D, my version of Kakx is entirely different from someone else playing the same campaign. In the official books - his name isnt even Kakx, but Tekeli-li, where he shows up at the end of the adventure for his one appearance rather than the villian-of-the-week style battles we get with him. Big shoutout to April Prime for his key and concept art

These are all the official art appearances he has

Reference/inspo board

I would also like to shout out David Blanco and Ali Sadeghi for their awesome teeth IMM brushes, because the teeth are on full display I really wanted to make sure they were somewhat accurate, but due to the reference images it was hard to wrap my head around the size and shape of his teeth

Printing

Finally the time has come to print Kakx, I used Lychee slicer to prep. This step actually took a couple revisions as I learned more of the complexity that goes into setting up supports. Big shoutout to Zuccarello and this video by VogMan

The final print time ended up being 10hours and 59 minutes for both models.

I actually ended up printing two copies, one for myself and one to give as a gift, however the second copy had a notably large slice taken out of his left side right below his ear. Origionally I thought it might have been some sort of support error, but there is no support that connects right there.

Additionally, there seemed to be some form of orange particlesthat stuck in the creases of his head. Majority of it could be removed with a simple toothbrush, so it was not from the resin vat, but I couldnt find a cause for it.

Final product for now, it just needs paint

Week 22 - Ice Druid Sculpt

One of the biggest problems I found with this project is the increasing proximity and affection I have for this character fighting with my lack of skill & practice when it comes to character design. In my head I want her to look exactly right, but I struggle explaining and adapting my ideas into words and examples. In my head, Purah just exists. I cannot imagine how she looks in exact detail, she just is.

Thankfully, my friends do not have this problem. I contracted two of my friends, one who is a concept artist and another who works a lot with digital fabrics to help concept out a outfit more suited for her.

 Summary of all the work done - click here to see what changed

I ended up taking insperation from one of my biggest creative motivators right now: World of Warcraft! Specifically from their 2020 expansion, Shadowlands and their npc "The Winterqueen"

Check out the full post about her here!

Im a much bigger fan of this design compared to the last one. Although I am still playing with better ideas for the skirt as its the weakest part of the design

Since Purah is a D&D character, I thought it would be fitting to include some of her equipment that she uses within the main campaign. Primarily her graystaff, her scimitar, an ice knife, and her three primary animal totems. This was not a detail I was origionally going to include, but upon watching resources on how curve tools work () and finding this leather tool set by G_Pouraskar, I thought it would be a fun challenge and make her feel more grounded in reality.

Since these are animal carvings from wood, I intentionally kept a low poly and blocky shape

Get the reference board here


'Savagery' concept by Jasmine