HARDCORE MODELING!: 80's Cartoon: Usagi Yojimbo

[Geta-Ve]

Here are a few references I am using. I tried to find ref from different angles.

[Geta-Ve]

And here is the toy I used to own (not mine). And a cool drawing I found online.. :P

[Geta-Ve]

Here is the first stage of my concepts. Really quick drawings just to get a feel for the character and some poses or places I want to take him.

My idea is to have him more graffiti 3d style. Like a hip hop samurai (samurai champloo? lol). Though he is still a samurai he just has the mentality of a hip hop gangster type character. He would always be like "Yo yo yo yo, you think you can cut me boy?!" *slishity slash!*

:D

The pose I am thinking of now is at the top right of this image. He will either be on the shoulder of the dummy usagi or crouching on his sword which will be stabbed through the dummy.

[stage-gr]

good one! :thumbsup:
I can't quite remember of an appearance on TMNT but i do remember the samurai warrior game on my commodore 64. I just LOVED that game...
http://www.cbmitapages.it/c64/games/Samurai_Warrior.gif

Interesting approach too...He will teach da wayz of da samuraiz old school style or he will slice yo azzzz

good luck man...i hope you finish this

[WyattHarris]

Sweet! I only recently got into the comic series. Excellent works by Stan Sakai. But the TMNT episode is the first time I saw him.

You should do a scene with his master Katsuichi smacking him over the head with the stick. :D Ah, I'll love anything done with Usagi.

[Geta-Ve]

Hey thanks guys!

@stage-gr: Exactly! :D Hopefully I can pull off the style of which I have never attempted in either 2d or 3d... >_>

@Wyatt: Unfortunately I never read the comics :( If you happen to have any good ref or scans of them would you be able to share with me? If not don't worry about it, I don't want you going out of your way or nothing. :)

I want to keep drawing some more reference for him tonight, I am really having problems with depth and perspective, sometimes the simplest image really takes your mind for a ride. You can imagine the pose in your head but when you draw it the simplest mistake in line placement throws off all believability.

Anyhow. :)

[WyattHarris]

No problem matey.

Katsuichi was a big lion that taught Usagi his unique sword method which made Usagi so powerful. I just always laughed because Usagi looked like this cute little bunny in the picture when he was being trained and Katsuichi would pop out of nowhere and smack him in the head with a stick.

http://www.westfieldcomics.com/wow/art/feature/large/Usagi07.jpg

[Geta-Ve]

No problem matey.

Katsuichi was a big lion that taught Usagi his unique sword method which made Usagi so powerful. I just always laughed because Usagi looked like this cute little bunny in the picture when he was being trained and Katsuichi would pop out of nowhere and smack him in the head with a stick.


:scream: That's awesome! I gotta see if I can find the comics anywhere. Maybe there is an omnibus or something? :love:

[Geta-Ve]

Here is a few more concepts I drew up when I got home from work tonight. Still not sure of the exact pose or camera angle but I know I do want the skinnier style to him.

Going to be reading some wikipedia on him to get a feel for his background a bit more and then see if I can incorporate some of that more in to him but sticking with the simple samurai style.

My goal is, at this point, to have him look old school but with new school fashion sense. Imagine a 20 year old kid that has become totally obsessed with hip hop and samurai, so he dresses and acts like both of those groups.

Not sure if I want to give him anything techy though, I am leaning against that however.

[WyattHarris]

Kinda reminds me of the Scout or Jay from the clerks cartoons. That's a good idea, go with it.

[Geta-Ve]

Alright so I blocked out a pose that I am pretty happy with so far. Going to see about playing with styles though, if I want exaggerated limbs and a more in your face feel. We shall see though.

[Geta-Ve]

Hey there, so I spent about 3 hours tonight doing a paint over of my blocked pose. I am pretty happy with the results and I think I will be starting modeling next. Small details like where the medallions will go and exactly what they will look like I can sort out when I start modeling, but I think it is time I moved forward. :)

Any crits and comments are definitely welcome.

[Geta-Ve]

Started modeling tonight, got in about an hour maybe less. Basically I am using the blocked out pieces and just connecting them, seems to be working pretty well thus far. This will definitely be modeled in pose so no animation is available :D Not that I can animate so it works out.

[angel]

Hey man, I think you are doing fine. I like the pose that you came up with although I must admit I'm not crazy for the hip-hop twist...

[Geta-Ve]

Hey man, I think you are doing fine. I like the pose that you came up with although I must admit I'm not crazy for the hip-hop twist...

Aye, I realized earlier when I was drawing up my ideas that a lot of folks may not be in to the hip hop/graffiti type style I am trying to achieve but I think that simply stems from my own visual personality so to speak. Being kind of introverted/shy myself I guess that when I draw, or imagine ideas I always like to think of my characters as 'in-your-face' type personalities to sort of contrast my own or for them to be who I would want to be. More outgoing? lol

Though thinking about it a bit more now, I think I will try to take on a more humourous approach to the style, still keeping the in your face aspect but maybe add a level of . . . humility? ignorance? to him? We shall see though! :D

Thanks for the feed back.

[Lordrych]

Though the hip hop style is a very selective style, I think it has its worth. Keep going with it and feel it out. I think in 3d it might looks quite awesome! GL man and keep going.

[axiomatic]

I think the pose is awesome and stylistically I'm a big fan. Like the street vibe, think it brings the character together well. Sort of Yojimbo/Sanjiro :)

[Geta-Ve]

@Lordrych: I am hoping at least! :D If I get halfway through and I find I am having trouble pulling it off I may go for a totally different idea I have in my head.

@axiomatic: haha exactly!

I am still debating whether I want to add any kind of tech to him, like a discman and some big ol' headphones, might enhance his hip hop/graffiti vibe I am going for, but I guess those things could be added later on with not much trouble.

Or mabye I can add the headphones to the dummy! :D

[Geta-Ve]

Alright, so I spent about 2 and a half hours modeling tonight, got the feet blocked out and started on the head. Still very very early on and it is definitely not anywhere near where I want it to be, but it seems to be getting better with each vert I move ;)

It has been a challenge trying to figure out how I should arrange my edge loops but still keep the style I am gunning for. Once I get the head pretty much how I want it I am going to play around with sharpening a lot of the edges to see what kinds of effects I can impose on him.

Crits and comments most definitely welcome, just, as I said, keep in mind that this is definitely early WIP.

[Geta-Ve]

Spent another hour and a half modeling tonight. Trying to just do a few hours every night hopefully I will be done by April.. :P

He is starting to look better, but there is still a lot to add, pieces of fur here and there, attach his ears, etc. Not really liking the depth of the head either.

Lots to do. Crits and comments definitely welcome! :)

[Geta-Ve]

Another update. Spent about an hour and a half this time. Getting the face a bit better, pulled up his jaw to shorten the area in between his nose and his mouth, added the indent between there too. Reworked the laugh line loop so hopefully it should deform better, if I ever need it to? lol. Added the tufts of fur to his chin and jawline, not really happy with them, but I think they could suffice. If anyone has a good tutorial or ideas on how to do them better that would rock :)

I think with the next update you will see the ears attached, and about half way done. I still want to rework the eyebrows, maybe throw in some chiseled edges here and there.

Critiques and comments are always welcome. :thumbsup:

[Oberyn]

Great likeness!

[vshen]

I really like his attitude on his face. Me means business!

[axiomatic]

Rockin' work.

I think the head could maybe be placed more on top of the neck a little and perhaps the overall shape could be given a little more top weight to it?

I think the left version from this drawing you posted (http://forums.cgsociety.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=139215) really caught the flavour of his face well. The crazy expression isn't needed ... but those sort of proportions I think are spot on.

Looking forward to seeing him take shape and get some quirky eyebrow action happening :)

[Geta-Ve]

@Oberyn: Thanks! I am trying :P

@vshen: I am thinking you are speaking in terms of the concept, but either way the facial pose is definitely going to change to more reflect my concepts

@axiomatic: I think you are right in regards to the neck, though I am holding off on that until I really attach it to the model, which may not be for awhile as the whole pose is so asymmetrical. I also feel what you are saying about the weight of his head, but at this point I am unsure of what approach to take to fix that. Perhaps though that will sort itself out once I start adding more pieces to this.

[energise]

Wow lookin great man! =)

Really like the hard edges on the nose!

the only thing i can crit is the tufts on his chin. kinda looks like they are too far forward =)

For the texturing i think u should take him into mudbox to paint instead of simple diffuse.

Doesn´t have to be fancy but i think it´ll give him more justice =P

All the best!

[angel]

yep, looking good! I like the nose a lot as well. I agree, once you start attaching the other pieces you can better determine where to go with the model.

[Geta-Ve]

@energise: Thanks man! I think I agree with you in regards to the tufts on the chin, so I will see what I can do to rectify that, I am finding that it is definitely hard to model fur/hair that looks believable but also stylized.

@SNoWs: Thanks!!

I really appreciate the feedback guys. :beer:

[samartin]

Your model is looking great, certainly has lots of character. Loving the style of your paint-over too :)

[Geta-Ve]

@samartin: Thanks I really appreciate that! The concept is pretty much the best piece of 2d art I have ever done. . . LOL

Alright so a big-ish update, big in terms of time modelled. A bunch of things have changed and I think I have achieved a bit more of a weighty feel to him. Threw up some beveled edges around his lips, eye lashes, eye brows and a few other minor spots. Re-edged his side burns to give the tufts of a fur a more overlapping feel, which I think added a bit of dept to them. Played around with his goatee, I tried to give it the feel that while the goatee is part of his normal fur it actually extends further out. Not sure how successful I was in that aspect though.

Finally attached the ears! Going to see what I can do to them, not sure how much more I can do to the face before I have to start getting asymmetrical on its ass! BOOM! :p But really, I think I might play around with added some more tufts of fur here and there (eye brows and such) see how that goes.

I want to get started on the body so that I can feel like I have some sort of chance of entering the finished version but I also just want to take my time and do this properly.

Anyhow, I think I've written everything I updated on the model so far, any critiques and comments are always and definitely welcome! Thanks for taking an interest guys. :)

By the way, if anyone is interested in having a closer look at the model just ask (in here) and I will throw up the model for download. Though I have to warn it is in .wings format ;)

[Geta-Ve]

Nothing new, just different view port lights.

[energise]

Lookin great! =)

Just thinkin of the ears.. they seem a little too wide at the base if you are thinkin of givin him the "hairband" otherwise everythink is perfect!

Lurking in the shadows hehe.. haven´t had time to enter my self yet ;P

[Geta-Ve]

@energise: Thanks! I will be fixing up the ears soon, once I start getting asymmetrical I will overlap the ears a bit to give them a tighter, more bunched up look.

---

Alright so newest update here. Spent about an hour and a half this time. Obvious changes/additions would be the eyebrow tufts of fur which I think look pretty groovy. I also played around with the sideburns a bit more, tried to give them more depth and weight, not sure if I succeeded or not, though looking at the eyebrow fur I want to see if I can redo some of the other tufts to match its style a bit more. I also shortened the goatee slightly eliminating one full horizontal loop.

And finally I started on the body. Very very rough right now and I think I am going to have to go over some real life and stylized anatomy a bit more to get the feel I want. Not that I have to worry too much about the body as a lot of it will be covered in clothing, however I do want to complete it (if possible), for personal satisfaction. :)

Another obvious change is the pose change. This is not permanent, but I gave in and mirrored both sides so that I could more easily model him. After I am happy with the results I will readjust his pose and start adding the clothing.

Phew! Enjoy, and critiques and comments are always welcome. :)

[energise]

Go go go! ;)

[Geta-Ve]

Yes I have been slacking, but life has been catching up with me as of late. Am hoping to get a few hours in tonight. We shall see though. :love:

[energise]

hehe just messing with ya! ;) gotta psyc out my opponents ey =D

Honestly, just wanna see u finish this great sculpt! =)

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