HMC #16 Alien Queen

#1

Hi everybody,

so I decided now to model the fabulous Alien queen from Camerons and Winstons masterpiece “Aliens”.

I always wanted to do her, but never found the time or a decent reason. Unfortunately it´s now a very sad reason to do it. Without any further words I just want to say, that the passing of Mr. Winston is a big loss for the genre and for Hollywood itself. For me personally, his work will always be a big pool of inspiration and pure joy of watching it.

So here she goes…and so short time. I really try to make it and I´m very, very happy for everybody, who encourage me and give me c & c that pushes me on.

Here now a few ref pix:





And what I have modeled so far. All done in XSI.

Cheers and good luck (better said a lot of energy) to everybody in this challenge :beer:

Markus

#2

Quick update of the nearly finished crown and the started head. Teeth are in progress.

#3

The model is comming along realy nicely, could we see a wireframe of the gead so far.

Keep the progress comming, LOOKING WICKED

#4

Excellent start! I am definitely looking forward to seeing this in full glory! I second the wireframe request!

#5

There is a big crease right in the middle of the crown.

Looking very clean and sharp, I’m glad someone is tackling the big queen. I love all of those shots of the big menacing Queen in the model shop. :smiley: Changes the perspective a bit.

#6

Thanks alot guys!! I´m happy that you await the arrival of her majesty :bowdown: LOL

RumorHazard and Thyme: Yes, no prob. Wires come here, and thank you :wink:

WyattHarris: Yes, the crease. It was meant to be there. A few pictures and modelkits have a segment there. The Sideshow bust, which shall be a cast of the 1/4 puppet has not. http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=2905 so I left it by now. Thanks again.

Here the next row of pix:

Worked on head and mouth, as well as the teeth. A few changes on the crown where made too. Enjoy!

Detail for the dentist :wink:

And some wires:

And now I go to sleep ZZZZZZZ…

Cheers :beer:

Markus

#7

Hey Locusta- This is looking amazing so far, the teeth are great and I’m looking forward to seeing the secondary mouth when you get around to it.

I’ve just one very very minor point of crit from looking at the reference you are using. At the inferior portion of the crest where there is that little jut near the jaw, in the reference to the bust it terminates right over the intersection of the jaw tendons. So maybe move that forward just a bit. Very nit picky but this looks like it’s going to be one awesome queen. The crest looks nearly perfect.

Oh and are you going to attempt the entirety of her majesty or just a bust? Either way look forward to seeing it!

#8

I like this character very much, this was my second choice for this challenge.

Your progress is going smooth and fine, this is looking perfect to me.

I don’t know you have seen this pic or not, but think that this is a 3d version of queen alien, here is the link to that image -
http://sunflow.sourceforge.net/gallery/v0071/queen.png

Can’t wait to see it finished !! :smiley:

#9

Super job, I like it! The Alien Queen is one of my favorite cinema creatures. Looks like you are doing her justice. Keep it up!

#10

Oh yeah man, you are doing her serious justice. :thumbsup:

The mouth looks amazing and I love the fleshy details in her jaw.

#11

Man, this is one of my favorites so far. Great job. I’ll wait to make some comments because seems like you know what you’re doing :wink:

Cheers,
-Kris

#12

Many, many thanks to all of you. You really encourage me.

Sorry, no pictures now. Had a bussy weekend. But I will hopefully progress until tomorrow night.

Then I will answer the asked questions too, ok?

Thanks again and stay tuned!

Cheers

Markus

#13

This is looking spectacular, you really have great control over your mesh and poly’s, keep up the great work, I’ll be following this for sure!

#14

Oh my those wires look sweet!

I have to look out that i won’t drool like the aliens do :drool:

looking forward to more and learning from what you are doing!

Cheers!

#15

Looks real great, especially since you still only got a lowpoly model and not been working in ZBrush with it yet.

Btw, anyone know how much the Alien Queen design has changed from Aliens and Alien 4?

#16

that’s looking great. really nice clean mesh. keep it up!

#17

Exellent work so far, wish I could have so much control on my polygons :argh:

Good luck in the next steps :buttrock:

#18

Great choice of subject! it would definitely also have been my first pic if i had participated in this round…

Good progress so far :slight_smile: looking forward to more.

#19

Sooooo, finally I got a bit time and tweaked and pushed my wire :wink: and I have to show a bit more. OMG!! Time is running! Somebody has to step in my bu**

OK, no time for despair.

I try no to catch up with everybody, ok?

But first: Thank you all for your very, very encouraging and cooperative comments and compliments. THANX!

@ Tasp: Yes, you are so right. I will tweak the crown part in the area of the head anyway that it is more suitable for animating. Actually all the front part of the Crown is moving, better said bending and twisting a bit with every headmove of the queen. So the appearance of that part you mentioned varys.

@ Deepam: Thank you! Yes, I saw that queen model already. It´s a while back. But the modeler was taking the McFarlane action figure Queen as reference. A great figure, but not that movie accurate. But anyway, the modeling of that 3D is great!

@ Jedi-Juice: Many thanks, and I will try not to disapoint a big “Queen” fan :wink:

@ WyattHarris: YES!! The pleasures of the flesh. LOL! Look down and you see even more fleshy mouthparts…Thanks man!

@ Antropus: Thank you very much. I flush now :wink: Very nice and cheering!!

@ nmcelmury: Yes, yes…the mesh! I guess I´m just a bit old fashioned in my workstyle. I know that I could go even more earlier into Zbrush and tweak an push to get my sculpt and than come back and retopo. But I have more control in XSI over my polys. And to be honest, I´m sometimes too lazy to retopo everything over a high poly. LOL. Yeah, great excuse! But I can sleep better (sometimes I do it…), when I know that the wire is at least controllable, clean and at a decent polycount before I push the subdivisions in Zbrush. Thank you!

@ matsman: Many thanks. I hope, I´m able to give you some inspirations.

@ McGreed: You are right. It´s all still 100% XSI. The renderings are taken at two steps of mesh smooth (aka 2 Subd´s). Regarding your question about the Queen: There was only a slight change between the Aliens and the Alien Res Queen. First of all the color (from bluish to brownish) and secondly the mouthpart was altered in reducing the transparant musclestrings on the mouth. They used anyway the same head and crown as well as the upper bodypart ot the “Aliens” fullsize Queen. The biggest change was made for AVP. New crown, new facial muscles, totally new torso, renewed arms, new hands. Only legs and tail where the old ones. But as the AVP Queen is not a Stan Winston creation, it has no place here…but wait when I have a bit free time in future :wink:

@ lightcache: Thanks to you and I hope I can keep it clean.

@ Nomad: Polys I command you!! LOL! Thanks man.

@ Trenox: Thank you. Stay tuned.

Now a update:

I actually reworked alot of the head (nearly 80 %) even if it´s not that recognizable. I figured out while closing the mouth, that the loops are not sooo well flowing for a decent lip and jawmuscle animation. Beside that I had to reorganize and a bit remodel the gum and the teeth, that they not collide and fit together when the mouth is closed. A closer look at the movie and a few ref pix, made me tweak the head proportions overall a bit.

And of course, I made the in-famous inner mouth. UUUUaaargh!!!

#20

Enjoy and stay tuned and thumbs up to everyone else!!

Cheers

Markus