The Sideshow - Character - Dargon

[Dargon]

OK,

I've been playing around with my sketch pad (I'll post when I get access to a scanner), and I think his story will go something like this:

Real name:
Norman Normalson

Stage name:
The Fantabulous Feathered Freak

Real background:
Norman Normalson always wanted to be special. But he wasn't. He was normal. He had a regular job doing regular things. He spent much of his time, like so many people, hunched over a desk, entering numbers into columns.

One day, he was walking along, daydreaming about being something more than the regular guy that he was, he wandered right into a traveling freak show. Intrigued, he began to look around.

He was amazed by what he saw. Here were a bunch of people, who's very existance was defined by how different they were from other people. It was perfect for him, but he wasn't a freak, how would he have a life such as this?

He spent the next several months working on this very problem...

Stage Background
The Fantabulous Feathered Freak's parents were abandoned on a desert island. His father was bitten by a rare and dangerous spider, his mother ate a mysterious fruit said to have the properties of many tropical birds.

These two things happening just before his conception, were dire enough, but, as his luck would have it, this island was also cursed with a dark magic. He was born by the light of the full moon, and his this affected him as well. He was born with six arms, and two legs, like a spider, and a colourful beak like a parrot. Later, by his early teens, his feet grew a thick hair, and his toenails grew more like that of a bears.

Growing up on a desert island, he knew nothing of the customs of man, until a slave trade ship happened on his little home, and enslaved him. The felt a man with 6 limbs should be able to do the work of 3 men, and he should fetch a good price at market. His parents were getting quite old, and the traders saw no point in taking them, and the Feathered Freak has not seen them since.

Uncle John's Amazing 3 Ring Circus happened upon the Fantabulous Feathered Freak, and rescued him from the slave traders (by buying him), and gave him a cage, and a pettycoat, and schooled him to be a gentleman.


Of course, Norman did not have any of these deformities, so he had to make them from wood, papier mache, and old furry bear slippers.

I'm looking forward to this one!!:)

(I may have to write the novel too) ;)

[BigSky]

Hee.. Hee.. LOL... I love the idea. Li'll bit'o gaffa L fix anythin' mate!

:p

[Dargon]

Started working on the colours for my sketch, and a proportion guide in maya, but went out drinkin instead of workin on it. Here's a low-res (at work, can't access my webspace from here) of my sketch.

I'll try to post the colour, higher-res one tonight, and, if I'm lucky, some modeling too!!;)

[JamesMK]

A wonderful sketch indeed, and lots of character to that eh... ..er... character! Let's see some polys... :wip:

[worknotplay]

So that's what happened to mister dress-up! Love the sketch.

[Dargon]

Here's a quick colour on my sketch - going to try to post some model shots tonight as well...

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Freak3.jpg

[JamesMK]

Marvellous! Just submit it to the 2D challenge, and you're done, sort of!

[Dargon]

JamesMK - Yeah, I might just do that! cheeky b*sta*rd.....
;)

Here's some modelin'!!

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FreakStep01.jpg

[pigwater]

really sweet 2dd and model so far:beer: ... lookin forward to mo' of this

[JamesMK]

Eeeek! Those bell-bottom pants are easily the most scary thing in this challenge so far! ;)

Looking good!

[Clanger]

Great start on the modelling, I've a premonition that this is going to be excellent.

[Dargon]

Clanger: Aw, Sh*t! now I have to actually work hard on this! And I was hoping to slack!!;)

JamesMK: They won't be bellbottoms when his huge feet are put in...;)

Thanks for the input guys! Keep it up!

Another installment - going to have to start doing actual freak stuff soon...

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FreakStep2.jpg

Well, maybe after a couple more steps...

[Bluemilk]

WOW, thats cool, love your sketching/painting. Too many good people here.
Good concept too and thanks again for the paint over, it really helped me
:)

[mrmark]

hey
just saw ur concept on cgchallenge site and had to let you know how cool it is. but now i see your modelling is just as good, perhaps better. keep up the good work

[Dargon]

Cheers Everybody!

Well, not much over the last few days, festival drinking sure cuts into modeling time!!!

Stylized a few things - the chest is a bit smaller, the stomach bigger, legs thinner, and the arms - I completely reworked, and I am going to continue doing so, much more detail, much more thicks and thins. I ws inspired by some art I found on the web,here (http://www.ledheavy.com/cgi-bin/imagefolio/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Skottie_Young/Sketches&image=hell_nathan_crawley.jpg&img=10&tt=). Thought this type of line quality might translate well to 3D. We'll have to see...

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FreakStep3.jpg

[JamesMK]

What can I say? Grooovy. :thumbsup:

Somehow I could picture John Travolta inside that outfit in some sort of prequel to Saturday Night Fever :D

[Kenter]

Octopus man??? Pretty nice work. Travolta is back.;) :beer:

[Jezait]

Good work. Awaiting the next stages. :thumbsup:

-Jez

[Dargon]

A little more work...

If ya go back to my sketch - I don't think it'll end up very Travolta - but I'll have to keep it mind to avoid it:shrug:

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FreakStep4.jpg

Ooooh! Hands!

[JamesMK]

The hands are looking good. They could use a more rounded appearance at the top... eh... what's that part called, that is on the opposite side of the palm? Nevermind, I hope you know what I'm getting at.

And I'm sorry if you felt that the Travolta comment was offensive somehow. Was not my intention, just kidding you know!

It's just that the clothes look a bit retro-late-seventies-dancefloor kind of style... Just kidding! :D

[Dargon]

Starting to come together now...

Not much left but the head now, should get on that soon, after a few more bits.

:) I'm saving it...:)

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FreakStep5.jpg

[JamesMK]

Very good. I like those puppet-style hands. And he's got the most distinguished potbelly I've seen in a long time!

[pigwater]

wonderful stuff ya got going here ...so much character with that carny-feel ... waiting for your next update as it's fun to watch this entry evolve:thumbsup:

[eYadNesS]

wonderful, he remind me about the character in Monsters Inc. :)

[Dargon]

Little bit o' modellin', a little bit o' shader trials...

Cheers guys, for the compliments...

eYadNesS: Which Character?

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FreakStep6.jpg

[eYadNesS]

I don't know what his name... but he is a spider and I think he is the big boss in monsters inc. :) exactly his cloth lol

OK, never mind just keep on working... :thumbsup:

[mattregnier]

I think he's referring to J.P. Waternoose...
http://going24-7.com/pins/images2/lmwaternoose.gif

[Edouard]

verry cool shader, can you give us some tutorial of how you fixed that:drool:

[Giant]

Love the concept, nice background you wrote there.

I also like that render that you posted? Did you run that through PS? hmm...let us know!

keep going...

Giant

[Dargon]

Hey guys!

eYadNesS: Yeah, I could see how you could think that - seeing that he's um, wearing a vest.

mattregnier: Thanks for clearing that up, and for providing the image, so I don't have to worry about possible copywrite issues;)

Edouard: Well, I could launch into how to make the shader, down to the sampler infos and ramps and all that, but I was lazy on this one, and downloaded it from Highend3D.:shrug:

I am, on the other hand, no slack with shaders, and since this one does not quite fit with the look I want to create, I am going to have to do some heavy editing to it. Once I've done that, I'll feel a bit better about posting any tutorials on it.

Giant: I created the crosshatching in Maya, with that shader I was talking about, but then did the BKG in PS.

I think my final plan will be to render my character, in pose, as a promo poster for his show at the freak show. Possibly in "normal" shaders as well - we'll have to see how much time allows...

I'll post some images later, IF I have time to make any, there's a lot on my plate today... ...haircuts, shopping , fireworks, drinking...



:beer:

[Virtuoso]

Very nice,I think you have a real sure fire contender here,promise galore with this.Look forward to seeing you reach the finish line.:thumbsup: :beer:

[Dargon]

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FreakStep7.jpg

Did some work on the feet, about a gazillion polys.

Cheers Virtuoso! Yeah, I hope to see me reach the finish line too!

:beer:

[JamesMK]

Oh, gotta love those feet! Are you planning to make this kind of NPR image for the finished piece as well?

[Dargon]

Originally posted by JamesMK
Oh, gotta love those feet! Are you planning to make this kind of NPR image for the finished piece as well?

Yup!

I'm thinking that my composition will be centered on the promotional poster for my freak - basically the NPR render, with text, but just to the right of it, all blurry, you'll be able to see him in his cage.

[OZ]

VERY very good job!:scream:

[eYadNesS]

Very good charcter design, I like it very much :)

[swag]

this looks crazy - nice rendering:beer:

[sasquatch]

YESSSSSSSS! Now that is awesome. Like the string connecting the arms together. And of course, those beautiful feet.

Keep it up! :thumbsup:

[Dargon]

Thought I'd take this chance to show off a close up of my popular feet...

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FootShade.jpg

And the wire:

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FootWire.jpg

Working on the head - I have a new technique I'm trying out, I'll post once it gets somewhere...

[eYadNesS]

Cool Dargon, really I like your work very much, but one thing, why you post your pictures with effects, I think it's not the original render...
Sorry for this Dargon, just keep on working, you are very good :)

[Dargon]

Started working on the head:

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FaceStep01.jpg

Lots to go yet - but trying out a new way of modeling I've never done before, it's going quite fast...

[Pikmin]

Wow Dargon. Youre model is really great! You are a very good competitor. You have great skill and its very justifying.

[Dargon]

Thanks Pikmin!

'Nother update...http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FaceStep02.jpg

[phoenix]

very cool.....

[mxhaunted]

Looking good, dude! :thumbsup:

[Phlid70]

Hey Dargon,
I think you are full of hot air, no really!!!

I can only imagine that you must work from 2 bit games company and that you aren't challenged by your job. I would hate to sit next to a talentless Mong like you.

Hang on a minute, I think I actually do sit next you.

On a more serious note this is looking very nice indeed. I can't wait to see the finished head and your final render.

You are a very talented lad indeed Dargon, so here have a few of these things....

:buttrock: :beer:

[Dargon]

Originally posted by Phlid70
I can only imagine that you must work from 2 bit games company and that you aren't challenged by your job.


Aw, comon, it's at least a 3 bit games company...

And I was really hoping for a:

:drool:
:applause:

[Dargon]

I haven't posted for awhile, 'cause I've been up to other stuff, like going outside...

But I have been working, and here's the head on the body (unsmooth)!!!

Got some work done on his environment - I'll reveal that when there's something to reveal.

Did some on his alternate texturing as well...

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/Shaded.jpg

[Dargon]

Another update - my backdrop WIP...

Gonna put a snow covered cage on the right, with my character in it, and a promo poster on a pole to the left. (In 3D)

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/Backdrop.jpg

[JamesMK]

Neato backdrop. Looking forward to the final composite, aye!

[Phlid70]

I wouldn't use the word neato exactly!!!!

Fantastico would be more apt I think.

This is in my opinion the most exciting piece being done for the Freak show challenge, and the only one that is sticking to the theme. The matte style background is a neato touch and I am interested to see how it is initegrated with the render style that dragon is using.

Keep up the very good work.

The Phlid has spoken.:drool:

[Phlid70]

Dargon even:blush:

[harrysheep]

having actually met dargon before, i must say that the character's head kinda looks like his. even the hat.

the background rawx!
:buttrock:

[richd]

sweet background and modelling, very nice

[Dargon]

Thought I'd post an update, I hope I can get this done in time!

I have the rig all done, and I had most of the wieghting, but lost it. Damn habit of deleting all by type history. So I'm a little behind where I thought I would be. Oh well.

I think I also have to spend a bit more time on the BKG, it's a little too real, I need it to look a little more painted, like the tent.

So here's the latest, most texturing done, some just slapped in as a placeholder...

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FreakStep8.jpg

[Dargon]

Final Post, finally.

Towards the end, I just wanted to get it finished. But, I think it turned out OK, after all.

http://www.daveclement.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/FinalFreakLayout.jpg

[WSzP]

Gr8 work. I love it. My second favorite entery. Good job.

[Dargon]

So, what does one have to do in order to get critiques?

[Giant]

Dargon-

Great job by the way. The character looks great. But I will give some critiques.

1. The skin is a bit pale. Perhaps just the color. But then again since he is a costume, perhaps he powders himself up for the show. Perhaps add a bit of stage makeup. However, the fingernails are the same color as the skin. I would change that.
2. The bolt that holds the leather strap and the beak together is a bit too shiny or prominent. Perhaps take the emphasis of that bolt down a bit.

Just some thoughts! good job!

Giant

[Dargon]

Cheers Giant!

It's nice to get something besides cool render, or nice feet! Something I can really get some use out of!

I like the idea of the stage makeup - if I take this any furthur, I'll definately work on that!

The fingernails are the same colour 'cause I simply could not be bothered doing the UV's for the hands (also why the wooden hands look like they do...)

I'm thinking of continuing the model, polishing it, as it were, and proper texturing is high on the list.

As for the bolt, I was trying to exagerate it to make the joke a bit more obvious... ...the original idea was for it to be much more subtle, but I ditched at the last moment, going for the humour...

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