The severed head idea is awesome. It’ll help the undead factor too I think. Makes me think Necromancer from diablo II, they had heads for thier shield slot haha.
And I could use the company on the cannon fodder line so keep up the work!
DWIII - 2D/3D - Nihilicon - Orphean
system
#6
Trying some more idea development:
I like the idea of a large patterened Elizabethan style dress billowing out behind her/it . . .
thejaybird
#9
This is very original. Looks like a spine coming out his face. I dont think you need more organic. I like the balance you have now. The bust looks nice. cant wait to see it with more detail.
system
#12
More wip. I like the idea of a lyre/harp as the artefact and and array of knives on the back of the dress. It’s probably time to throw a base mesh together and see what I can carve out from that point.
chihiroko
#13
I love the head and the legs. cool silhouette! juts not so sure about the part in between…but I hope you can keep the bady proportion.
system
#14
More sketches - I’m still trying to get a decent overall shape - I think the previous version looked a little too generic humanoid.
I think I’m liking the first one here for overall shape wiht some elements of the middle one (the giant snips and mace tail) and maybe the feet from the third one. I’m also thinking external ribcage.
system
#15
Re-drawing (again). I’m now at the start of two weeks holidays, perfect timing for throwing myself into finishing this entry. Character description updated. Crits gratefully recieved.
[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/2354065222_dc95dd880f_o.jpg[/img]
hakanpersson
#16
Sort of difficult to read exactly how your character is meant to look. But I really like your sketches so far, some really cool shapes and interesting choices of weapon. If you are going for the 3d version I suggest you get going:)
system
#17
Thank you hakanpersson. I know I need to get my arse in gear but I’m on this almost full time from now until the deadline with my first all-nighter coming in tonight 
. It’s difficult to read because I’m still defining the form, gradually nailing down details one at a time . . . but I’m new to this process so it’s a bit slower for me. My 3d experience is very limited so I know it’s going to take a lot more time I suppose if I finish at all it’ll be a bonus.
Latest wip:
system
#18
Working in some of the details now. I’ll start my base mesh later as I think I have enough info for ortho graphics. Any advice will be gratefully received 
Does anyione know if you can use the same concept for a 2d and a 3d entry?
system
#19
The base mesh is underway at last . . . I’d really appreciate any crits on the topology as my modelling experience is quite limited. Just under 1500 tris so far which seems a little steep to me considering how little of the completed figure I have.
system
#20
Base mesh progress. I’m taking care to build in sections before joining it together and doing UVs as I go along. Don’t know if this is advisable but it seems to be working fine so far.
zberry
#21
Hey nihilcon, you’ve got some cool sketches here, I particularly dig the silohette. I did a quick paintover of your model, because you may want to change a few things with the topolgy, in order for things to run smoothly inside of zbrush. Keep it up, looking forward to updates
system
#22
Many thanks zberry. I really appreciate you taking time to do that. I’m never sure if I should use triangles or not so that’s cleared that up and I’ll go and sort that stuff now. I’m trying to get the base mesh finished today and then to move in ZBrush for a sculpt so we’ll see how it all goes from there.
zberry
#23
I don’t have any real experience bringing meshes into a game engine yet, but I think it’s fine to use triangles, because everything will be triangulated anyway. I’m not sure of the implications of tri’s for rigging, but since the contest only requires a still, you can get away with them, and save alot of poly-budget. But they will cause a mess in z-brush, so you may want to save a copy of your mesh as is, for use as the final low-rez, but then make another mesh that is all quads, as evenly spaced as possible, to import in zbrush. Zbrush will accept tri’s, but you will run into artifacts and nastiness once you divide it up all the way.
system
#24
Base mesh has progressed a bit (but not fast enough).
I’ve been spending precious time experimenting with generating normal maps but had very little success no matter what settings I use. The maps seem to have either nothing on them or to have lots of lines from the low poly mesh, maybe someone can advise me on the best way to do this. I’ve read almost every tutorial on the subject now and my head is mince.
So far I’ve tried taking smaller sections of the model into ZBrush for sculpting e.g. the faceplate (see below), I thought this might work better than taking the entire mesh across especially at this experimental stage (does anyone think there is any merit in this method?).
I’ve been exporting a high-res mesh back to Maya from which I’ve tried to generate the normals but success eludes me at the moment. My enthusiasm is undented however and I’m banging on anyway in the hope that I’ll work it out somehow.