DWIII - 3D - fx4d - Gramps

[FX4D]

Some more concepts, to try to eliminate some of the "Lord of the Rings"-ness from the initial concept. I'm trying to focus more on the old man aspect, but with roots and gnarled branches coming out of him to root him to the ground and make him not as frail as an old man when standing in place. What do you think?
http://fx4d.com/images/Gramps.jpg

And here's a modified close-up of the leg in 3/4 view:

http://fx4d.com/images/Treant_legs.jpg

[FX4D]

Ok, changing it up a bit again. Trying the old man angle again even though I like the profile with the long tree-trunk style legs. I'll probably do a couple more variants focusing on different aspects of his personality before I switch to 3d. I'll just add them to this post for ease of navigation.

[FX4D]

Bumping this so my first post can always be my most up-to-date WIP.

This may actually be my first post at CGSociety, because I'm a lurker, and a bad person. :shrug:

But regardless, I'm representing in the DWIII competition for CGS, so be nice. :)

The idea behind my entry thus far is:

Treant
Invoker
Air/Lightning

And here's a quick concept sketch I did at 1 am:

http://www.fx4d.com/images/Treantconcept.jpg

I'm thinking he discovered his staff long long ago in a wooded vale, and when he grabbed it, became linked to it. As he learned to control the staff's power and bend it to his will, so, too, did the staff transform the creature (human, maybe?) into the treant he is now. (I'm not sure if that makes the staff a vegetation artifact) Like a tree, he never dies, he simply gets older and more withered. He is slow to move, like an old man, but is solid when standing still. He can attack at range by calling wind and lightning upon his foes and still bears the scar from a battle long ago or perhaps a stray lightning bolt.

I like the idea of trees creating wind instead of wind moving the trees, so to keep the artifact from being vegetation-based, I may have to change the backstory to make it so Gramps had been a treant all along. It's not a big deal, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the matter.

Anyway, thanks for the input, and good luck to all the other entrants!

[RaresH]

Welcome to the match and congratulations on your first post FX4D! :bounce:(always wanted to post that smiley)

I'm glad you're moving away from the tree ent concept. A design that doesn't look too much like someones elses work is always a plus, and this is 'heavely stressed' throughout the industry. With that said I still think you're a little too close to a couple of the other entries. For one, there already is an old man concept, a tree like creature, and a dude with branches coming out of him, all the entries mentioned are found in cgtalk for the most part. So give us a ton of sketches as fast as you can, seeing as you have 15 days left, yikes :eek:. Then when you think you have something that 'looks' like it can kick anyones patooty, look at as many entries as you can from all the teams and see if your's doesn't look too much like any of theirs. Stock up on coffee, and crank! Good luck!

[FX4D]

Hey thanks for the comment, Rares. While I understand what you're saying, I have to disagree with you. First of all, telling me I should redo my entire concept 15 days before deadline isn't really constructive. Secondly, if you look at the dates of my posts, you'll see I actually had my concept of an "old tree dude" up pretty early in the competition. While my first concept was too "entish," I feel like I've modified it enough to get away from that. I don't want to completely change my concept to something I'm not interested in just because other "old" and "tree" entries have sprung up since then. Sure, there will be some similarities to other entries, but I've tried to differentiate Gramps as much as I can while still maintaining my original vision of the character. Frankly, a lot of these entries tend to look the same after a while.

I do see your point, though. Maybe "Old-man treant" is a little cliche, but it's probably cliche because it works so well as a concept. Regardless, I'm going to stick with what I've got and focus on a realistic goal, like actually finishing this by the deadline.

Thanks for the feedback.

[FX4D]

=Bump of previous WIP=

OK!! New idea behind my entry!

Gramps is still a:

Invoker
Air/Lightning

But now he should probably be classified as a human.

New backstory (long):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gramps was a lumberjack who was working in a remote old forest felling trees. He was part of a group of men who would often split up to cover more ground when chopping down trees. Gramps came across a small, strange looking tree at dusk, noted it, and then chopped it down. Looking at the sky he realized it was getting dark and decided to cut one more big tree down before calling it a day. This tree was huge and a freak gust of wind took it as he was cutting and shifted it in his direction. There was nothing Gramps could do. The tree crashed down, pinning his legs beneath it. He reached out for anything to grab hold of to free himself. His hands closed upon a branch of the strange tree he had chopped down earlier. He got a sudden surge of energy and pulled himself out from under the tree. Unfortunately the massive tree falling on him had severed his legs from the knees down. Still holding onto the strange branch and seeing his bloody stumps of legs, (and probably losing a lot of blood) he passed out. Just as he lost consciousness, he heard a sudden clap of thunder.

His comrades went back to camp and waited for several hours for Gramps to return, thinking he had gotten stuck in the freaky, violent thunderstorm that appeared out of nowhere. When he didn't show up after a few hours, they went looking for him. It was darker than pitch out, but the occasional lightning flashes showed them the way. It was one of these flashes of lighting that showed them the unconscious body of Gramps. When they tried to lift him back to camp, they found that he was holding a branch of a fallen tree, and that the branch had started to grow around his hand. They started to try and free his hand, but then realized the tree was marvelously light and decided just to carry them both back to camp instead of attempting tricky chopping in the rainy dark.

Back at the camp, and amazed that Gramps seemed fine except for the fact that he had lost both his legs, the lumberjacks dressed his wounds and proceeded to cut the branch free from his hand. Gramps stirred, but did not wake.

The next day, the lumberjacks told Gramps of how they had found him. Gramps didn't tell them, but as he had slept with the piece of that tree in his hand, the wood had somehow formed a bond with him. He could still vividly remember his dreams from the night before, and how he knew every crack of lightning and gust of wind from the storm. He remembered the freak gust of wind that had shifted the giant tree on top of him and wondered at the powers of this strange wood.

He had them fashion it into two rough prosthetics for replacement legs. Remembering how that piece of branch had shaped itself to his hand, he hoped these new leg pieces would do the same. He also fashioned a walking staff from some remaining wood to help him keep his balance on his new legs.

Over time, he learned to use his new legs, and his other new abilities as well.

It seems the strange tree had powers of wind and lightning, and was the source of all the weather in the old forest. Its final act had been calling the wind to push that tree on Gramps in revenge. When Gramps reached out to it, it reached out to him. They both drew power from the other to survive in the woods. Mingled with its sap, the tree now flows with Gramps' blood. And, too, Gramps' flesh now contains some sap and branching growths. This mingling gives Gramps the same powers over the wind and lightning that the tree possessed before. The tree's lifeblood also gives Gramps the tree's lifetime. His incident in the woods was now over 300 years ago. He wears thin, but like a tree, continues to live strong, yet gnarled.

For the past 200 years he has been wandering the world, strengthening his powers, learning of them, and becoming as strong as nature itself. Now, he is called upon to fight the machine menace. He must use all his power and his wisdom to stop them!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe more than was necessary for this contest, but there it is: everything you wanted to know, and more, about my entry.

WIP included below:

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.