This is my first time participating in one of these challenges, but its an honor to be a part of it.
I made a concept for a character back in may inspired by my love for the souls series and I’ve been thinking about translating to 3D for the longest time. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finally start working on it. Even though I’m a bit late to the party I’m ready to see how far I get. (hopefully all the way)
I’m going to force myself to work on it at least a few hours a day so expect sum WIPs
Once a greedy old dejected human who lost his way. A lost priest in the presence of others, who worshiped the great light of the world, he wanted nothing but the semblance of love. Love, that he found in the rotten but alluring Fouled Queen. Tales spoke of her dominion over the world and how she was imprisoned by the Order of the High Sun. Ignoring the ideals of his faith, he held, in secret, a sacrificial ritual in her honor. A summoning. He gave his own soul to bring forth the Fouled Queen. As she rose from the fouled world she resurrected Odyr as one of her fouled servants. The keeper of the souls of all those who trespass her domain. Sustenance for the Queen.
So I started with the anatomy, which I wasn’t quite sure how to approach on a guy whose bottom half is entirely made of “souls”. So I took the easy way and just left it out until I had to tackle that problem. Instead I focused on his upper body and because I’m trying to manage time efficiently I thought I could design his whole torso being the actual souls on the bottom as well. Seen as he is fully covered I’m thinking I can get away with it. Fingers crossed!
I gave some much needed detail to the hands, I’m thinking they would be one of the main focuses since he is a necromancer type character. I also started the sculpt on his mask, trying to give him that ominous but neutral and also judging look. I think I’m also going to struggle with his helmet, but I’ll try going at it slow.
Took me a while but finally got the whole helmet done, I might still add some damage and other ornamental detail later plus Substance detail pass. I tried making a quick marvD blockout of the clothes
Had a little hiccup but it gave me some time to work on completing the details on the whole head piece. I really needed this one to work and I think I got it to where I wanted it, in the end. This is where I start to feel blender’s limitation though, especially because my computer isn’t super powerful either.
Alas, we make do with what we have. I can’t wait to texture this thing
I spent some time trying to get my body retopology as clean as possible, thinking maybe trying to rig it later (if I have time). This first set of images corresponds to the main body of the character, more dense topology.
This second set of images is even more optimized because the body will serve as the souls trying to escape from under his rags. I’m thinking of having multiple souls so I tried making them as cheap as possible while also leaving some room for animation in case I ever get to do it.
I then rigged my low-poly smaller body and started layering them to make my stack of souls on the bottom of the character. I had quite a lot of fun during this step xD
Made a set of bracelets and rings to adorn his arms. The bracelets for the left arm and the wraps for his right arm.
I’m trying to stick as closely to my reference as possible, but sometimes I go off script and just add and change stuff as I go, hopefully for the best.
Tried to do a lot today, mostly finished everything hard-surface. The necklace and the belt and all the bracelets and rings plus the helmet are all done, all the high-polies and the low-polies. Only got the clothing left and time is of the essence :0
Retopology done on everything clothing, I think.
Next I’m going to spend some time on the hair and beard because hair cards are not something I am so comfortable on.
Tris are about 130k right now, I’m trying to fit my self given budget of 150k.
I got the shaders for my clothes done as well, and here are some current state pics. I can’t forget that I’ve got my weapon to do still… and the rigging… and my renders… so much still, so little time TwT
This is looking incredible! Reminder that there’s only 5 days left of the challenge now Remember to post your final result in the final submissions thread before the deadline has passed!
Rendered it… pretty sure there are some very obvious squiggly hairs and it either looks too full or not enough color variation.
I’m going to mess with the settings for a little while still
