Dominance War V - 3D - pixel-chick - Cardinal Echelon, the narrator

#1

Hrm, not sure yet what this will be a god of, possibly pestilence or contagion… I’m also not sure if it’ll be 2d or 3d, but I’m leaning more towards 3d since I’m working on some 2d ideas.

Originally this god was going to be composed of two symbiotic gods in one, Carillon and Tocsin, that form the one god called Tintinnabulum (I liked the idea of the sound of bells or alarms to signal its coming, seemed creepy, and the word seemed cool to me though maybe it's too forced, lol...). Now I'm thinking it may just be one god but I suppose it doesn't really matter  <shrug> :P
  
  I like the idea of its long hair becoming like clouds and covering the sky with pestilence or something like that. Though I'm not quite sure how I'll do that with a character (my experience is more in environment art), so maybe the hair idea won't work too well. Maybe this god can have a black veil, hood, or some sort of crown to replace the hair idea.
  
  I figured that since manikins look kinda creepy and emotionless, I will probably skip any strong facial and body features and will leave the head and body more like that of a manikin.
  
  Each of the upper arms of the god are composed of two forearms lined with teeth so they can slash and grab things and put them in the cage formed by the forearms. I may throw some rats in the 'cage', depending on how far I get with the size restrictions. The feet are living skeletons, with arms clutching at things and dragging along the ground. 
  
  I scribbled a few ideas that came to mind. I'd be happy to hear what people think, pros or cons, my brain's a tad fried now so off to bed, lol. Thanks and good luck everyone :)!

#2

I’ve been fiddling around with the 3d sculpt, here’s my latest WIP of the female form that will be sitting inside the creature body. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll do any exposed muscle look to her on her legs and arms, just her legs, or may remove the muscles in favor of a more porcelain, smooth form.

#3

I think one of the problems with the manikin face idea is that it would be lifeless. At least give her some eye(s) or a mouth(s) or something on the face to show that she’s alive.

Maybe you could use the hair cloud idea, but put it on the ground so she leaves a trail of pestilence.

The symbiotic god is an interesting idea. It would be good if you showed some kind of relationship between the two. Maybe they love each other or one of them is more like a leech. Maybe one of them always leaves the toilet seat up. Maybe they were forced together and hate each other so much their only joy comes from spreading misery to others.

#4

hi Crimson King,

Thanks for the feedback, I like the hair on the ground idea that you suggested. I am trying to go for a more lifeless/emotionless looking god, so that’s why the manikin look appeals to me for her. I am thinking that perhaps I’ll give her a frosted glass type of material and inside she will have brain matter everywhere, perhaps that will make her look a tad more alive like she’s providing some sort of energy to the creature aspect of her, or I may go completely in the opposite direction and will make her body look fleshy and alive but her head lifeless…hmmm :slight_smile:

#5

Ok, I’ve decided to switch gears completely and to swap my 3D and 2D characters to suit the categories better more dynamically. This guy seemed better suited for 3D than 2D.

This is Cardinal Echelon, the narrator. This god’s special ability is to write the universe and all of its beings into existence. When he feels that the book is complete, or gets tired of the story, he burns it in his fire and begins anew.

The book he is tossing in the images can be entitled ‘Dominance War V’, as the god has just completed this volume and will begin the next one. He either tosses the book directly into the fire himself from atop, or hands it to his alternate self below (I’m not sure yet and could use some help deciding on which looks cooler :slight_smile: What do you guys think? She he have an alternate image below to hand the book to?)

This is one god with two personas, creation atop, and destruction below. I’m not sure what to have for the below entity, the lion head can symbolize his superiority, or I can just mirror the top guy’s head to symbolize that it’s the same dude. <shrug> lol

Which variation do people like the most? Thanks so much for your input :slight_smile:

#6

nice ! your concept quite cool ! combining books and stuff. instead a book, why not a very long script ? or may be scripts flying around ?

I like “I” better somehow you don’t have to show the wing that glorious enough to show it is a god, and that wing, is it robotic wing ?

for my input instead it standing on fire, why not make a cool flaming lantern hanging somewhere besides him, when your god need it, it summon the lantern.

I like the head ! except the your “head spin” it something new for me and it also make it look like ethereal-being.

but what is your god ? is it a good side or evil side or neutral ? based on your description it is neutral ? for my opinion, “hands” below it somehow look like it enslave a living being, and that can change people perception.

btw all those “why not” of mine ? you can ignore it if you don’t like it =D

#7

some intresting concepts.

#8

Still plugging along whenever I can. Here’s a Zbrush update from various angles:

#9

oh, and thank you Harlequin02 and PedrOadan :slight_smile: I like your suggestions, Harlequin, the scroll is a great idea. I just felt so short on time :confused: I think I’ll probably just work on this guy for my website since he may or may not be finished in time, it’s good practice for me nonetheless :slight_smile: If I finish, that’ll be the icing on the cake for me, hehe.

#10

Hey pixel-chick I’m looking forward to seeing some sculpting on this. Your concept is pretty strong, a divine narrator is a wonderful idea.

Small suggestion: I love that the arms on the base are assisting in holding the book. Perhaps free up your gods right arm by making the hand on the base carry all the weight of the book.

#11

Hadn’t had much time to sculpt this week, so not too many updates to show, but out of several variations, I think I’ve decided on the basic proportions of the wings and with having them point in opposing directions. I think I’ll go with the first variation, with the left wing being much larger. This week looks pretty good time-wise, so I should be able to catch up quickly hopefully :slight_smile:

#12

ok, slowly chipping away at this guy. I’ve decided to go with the big wing with a contrasting smaller wing. The wings will spin like a propeller behind him, though I doubt I’ll be animating them.

I’m not sure whether this guy should have planets forming along the wing feathers (kinda like tomatoes forming on a vine) from the gravitational pull his wings create or whether to leave them out. Figure adding some spheres would be a nice contrast to the organic forms that he’ll mostly be composed of.

The designs on his body are just placeholder. I decided that I don’t want to go in that direction but haven’t changed it yet.

Thanks for looking :slight_smile:

Planets along both wings:

Planets along one wing:

No planets growing off him:

#13

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he is going to have a fire in front of him, probably made of 2 planes, but I haven’t added that yet.

#14

Wow, this is one of the few entrys that actually look like a “god” to me (and not just some huge creature) .

I really like the design so far, except for the body which looks quite flat right now. But I know you are well aware of that problem.

Well then, good look to you :slight_smile: .

#15

Thanks, Mokhron, you made my day :slight_smile: I’ll post some more updates on the body shortly. I’m going through some zbrush tutorials, so trying to learn tips and tricks in a hurry, hehe.

I think the top part will connect to the lower lion part via roots or something plant-related like that. I’m picturing the lion portion that he’s standing on being somewhat like a vase, with the top part growing out of it somehow. :slight_smile:

#16

So i’ve been fiddling with the shape of his lower body, i’m thinking i like this better than the previous version.

I talked to a friend of mine and he suggested that i pull out the shoulders more so he doesn’t look so columnar, been staring at him so long I didn’t even realize that his silhouette was so blah, so that will be my next update. I might even bump up the size of the lion heads.

This guy has smaller handles at the bottom compared to the second version:

#17

Burning the midnight oil! A few more updates to his body, trying to get it to look more interesting, though now perhaps too busy, ah well :). I’m just happy to finally be pushing myself to try to finish a character, hehe.

There will be a fire atop the lion’s head for the book to be thrown into, but I still haven’t added it yet. I also redid the lion heads so they’re more symmetrical, I felt like I was fighting with the other ones too much so it was faster to build it from scratch from zspheres.

#18

ok, progressing onward bit by bit. Still working on detail, but also practicing some polypainting since I’d never really delved into it before (pretty fun!) Here are some doodles. I also included some pics of where I think I’m heading with this guy now.

I may extract a shell from his body in zbrush and will overlay it on top to make something like this for his tendons/connecty organic energy bits :). I found this image on the internet and thought it was cool:

This reminds me of his head, so I think his eyeball maybe be bright like this:

And I envision his wings looking something like this, though with a different color, forming galaxies out of the feathers, I’ll stick a few random planets in there:

And this will likely be his overall color scheme, with the lion being bronze, though I will also introduce more teal. The contrast that will be formed by the fire atop the lions head should make for a nice composition hopefully (I still didn’t put the fire in there yet though):

#19

This is a great idea! What about making him really float in outer space, surrounded by stars and cosmic fog? That would make him look so overwhelmingly massive.

#20

Hi Mokhron!

Yeah, that would be awesome! I was thinking of using a space background for my final render (I’ll have to double check what the rules are for that again, but I think I recall seeing that you’re allowed to have a background in at least one of the renders) so he can float around on his little bronze lion pedestal in the middle of space :slight_smile: