Races of Middle Earth - Character - DivideByZero

[RockinAkin]

Alright, heres just something that kinda immediatly poped into my head once the challenge was announced.

It's a kind of Armadillo / Dragon hybrid like creature.
The body will be about 5-6 feet high, 15 feet long
I'm Debating over weather or not to make it a Biped or a Quadriped.
He'll also have a nice tail to finish it off.

Body concepts/structure coming up soon.

Tell me what you think,
-DivideByZero-

[KingMob]

nice concept, cant wait to see you play with the wacom to get a full color concept! (hint hint)

I'll follow this one closely... :bounce:

[RockinAkin]

Heres the first Body structure I've worked out.
I've decided to go with the Quadriped structure for two reasons:

1. Original - I'm betting a bunch of entries will be biped creatures, so here's to being different. :D
2. Animation - I've never tried animating a quadriped, and this will probably be a great chance to do so.

As far as the story behind him, I'm thinking that this species is a prehistoric Middle-Earth animal, which was tamed and used commonly for transportation and hauling materials for building purposes by many races, (hey those huge buildings have to come from somewhere, right?).

Tell me what you think,
Crits most welcome.
-DivideByZero-

[RockinAkin]

With a little push from SheepFactory, and a nice long extended deadline 7 weeks away, I've decided to go ahead with the idea of working out a rough clay sculpture of my concept sketches.

Heres what I've got so far, nothing to big, just the basic form of the head.
Check back sometime tomorrow for more details to be added.

I'd love to know what you all think,
-DivideByZero-

[BlueCougar]

I like the concept with the aspects of the armor plates. I commend you on going the clay sculpture route, you have more discipline to process than me!:applause: I have a hard time getting myself to put everything on paper before I start modeling. Looks good can't wait to see how your gonna texture it in the end.

[Koma]

clay skecth really cool :thumbsup: :thumbsup: ,nice concept ,keep it up:wip:

[Per-Anders]

hey good start! you're quick with the clay there, i like the idea, what sort of landscape does it inhabit?

[Remi]

Going out to buy myself some clay now......inspired me to reach back to my original roots....gotta luv sculpture...good job by the way...:thumbsup:

[Dirk_P_Ho]

Damn, ima have to jump on this clay bandwagon, cool idea! :thumbsup:

[RockinAkin]

Heh, thanks for the replies everyone.
I'm glad I've at least inspired some people out there! :wavey:

Heres the latest work I've done on my Clay Concept Model.
More to come soon, Maybe even some paint!

Enjoy!
-DivideByZero-

[KingMob]

lookin good, almost friendly and cute.

gonna model the whole body?

wish i had a camera and wasnt so lazy, i would clay mine first to.

:thumbsup:

[p4b10]

Good idea to model the character with clay :thumbsup:

Sure it will help you with the mesh in 3d... good work!!!

[KurtBoutilier]

Great start, I model in clay too, but I dont have a digital camera at the moment. Looking forward to updates...

[MikeRhone]

I saw the thumb on Cgchallenge. I was about to throw my monitor out the window because of the amazing GI render. Arent I happy to find out its REALLY clay.

Impressive that there are those out there that use traditional mediums still, especially in concept work.

No crits per se just yet. I cant wait to see al of your finals

[leigh]

That's looking cool, DivideByZero :)
It's really great to see someone sculpting in clay! :thumbsup:

Is your character good, evil, or just indifferent? At the moment, it is looking really sweet and friendly :D

[dark_lotus]

COOL!!!

As leigh said its very impressive to see sculpture here. Can't wait to see the model!

[Gandalf]

I agree with Dark_lotus and Leign, this is an interesting way to work!

[Erik]

Happy to see you on the challenge dividebyzero.

cool concept, i will be back ;)

[RockinAkin]

Thanks for the comments everyone!


KingMob: I'm not going to sculpt the body right now, I might get around to it later, but MAX has been calling my name everytime I sit down to sculpt some more. :D

Leigh: I'm glad you said so. This species is going to be mostly indifferent and even borderline friendly. I figure tons of entries will be of evil monsters and whatnot, so heres one for the good guys.


Here my latest clay concept, with a little bit of paint thrown on him to help differentiate the details. It's by no means how he'll be colored for the final.

This is the last update i'm going to make on the Clay sculpture for now. I'm going to begin poly modeling tommorrow, while the inspiration for the head is still fresh.


As always, would love to know what you all think.
-DivideByZero-

[fabman]

What software are you using to model??.. :) eh!, eh!, sorry just kidding!, anyway, as everybody said up here, it looks cool so far, and it's great so see someone mixing traditional skills and cg.

Cool!. :thumbsup:

[RockinAkin]

Well... about time for my first update eh? :surprised :shrug: :hmm: :D

Here's what I've been working on for the Challenge.
It's still in the early Beta stages, no real details have been added yet, just want to make sure I've got the proportions right first.

More to come really soon... I promise! :wip:

Comments ands Crits Welcome!
-DivideByZero-

http://users.starpower.net/kamaelec/Picture-Beta02Comp.jpg

[Rye]

Hey good start! I like the plates you have running along his back, definitely gives him that rugged look which is good for a beast of burden. I'm not an expert on quadropeds, so I can't give too much of a critique, but I think the head makes it a little unbalanced. It just seems like its way too big for that neck and body to support, maybe if you thicken up the neck and mkes the tail longer?

[KingMob]

really great form you got there, very interesting thus far.

I am excited to see some detailing.

[RockinAkin]

Thanks for the comments!

Rye: Thanks for the tip, I will definatly try to fix the head's proprotions to make it seem more ballanced.

KingMob: Yeah, I will make the rear leg a bit lowered into the "rest" position, but I want to do that later on - for obvious rigging troubles that may arise if I did it now.

Keep the crits on the structure coming.
I want to fix as many possible problems as I can before I start the detail work.

Thanks again,
-DivideByZero-

[Edge]

Great start in working out the proportions of this beast!

The only crit I can come up with is to thicken the back leg a bit, to give it a more stronger look. It seems a little flat right now.
And I wouldn't enlarge the neck, because then you're going for a more dinosaur look.

To my opinion the proportions are excellent.
On to the details...

Keep rockin'.

Cheers.

[RockinAkin]

Alright, about time to update again.

The back half of the character is just about done modeling wise,
I'm going to move on to detailing the front legs next.

Comments ands Crits Welcome!
-DivideByZero-

http://users.starpower.net/kamaelec/Picture-Beta03Comp.jpg

[AJ]

Awww - he's like the coolest dino-toy in the shop!

I almost want to see that 'ribbing' all over him now... (feel free to kick me in the shins)

[KingMob]

looking good man..but where are his eyes!!! that poor dragon...always bumpin into walls.

more more more!

[RockinAkin]

As requested, heres the base wireframe render of the feet/legs.
Still looking for any crits you all can give me.

-DivideByZero-

http://users.starpower.net/kamaelec/Picture-Beta03Wire.jpg

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