HMC #17 - StarWars Steampunk - Luke Skywalker

#1

I didn’t think I could take another of these so soon after the Stan Winston challenge but really this is the one I’ve wanted to do for so long. I’m creating the concept myself which may be a mistake we’ll see. I’ll save the description for when I post the concept.

Edit:
Alright, Roberto just said “Aye” so here we go.

Edit 10/04/2008:
Concept art

Luke as a Steampunk Samurai. Not the normal Victorian era steampunk I know but I’ve been watching alot of Kurosawa films lately and “The Hidden Fortress” DVD had this long interview with George Lucas on its influences on him. After that it was a natural crossover for me.

Concept is loosely based on Katsushiro, the young ronin from “Seven Samurai”. I was considering the anime version in “Samurai 7” but I prefer the more traditional look from the original Kurosawa film. On the left is my original sketch from my memory of the film. The sleeves are different as I wasn’t sure how they were. On the right is Toshiro Mifune’s costum from Yojimbo. I liked the look so I may pull from that film too. The main idea that has perseverred is the Rebel Alliance emblem on his back.

Katsushiro, Seven Samurai. I couldn’t decide how I wanted his hair, black like a samurai or dirty blonde like Luke. My wife decided for me so its a dirty blonde top knot. :smiley: It will also have Luke’s face and not Katsu’s.

This will be my BIG departure from the other steampunk concepts. I noticed that most of them show a big cable attached to the pommel of the blade providing the power source. Seemed to me it would make it very hard to fight having to deal with that on the end. So the hilt will house power couplers that connect to the gauntlet on his left hand. The gauntlet will have the power cables that run to the power cells either on his belt or back I haven’t really decided yet. The blade itself will operate off of electro magnetism. The coils attached to the hilt will energize creating an electro magnet. The force from the magnetism will force the blade to extend out from the hilt. The anode core is made of a material that once energized becomes powerful enough to burn through most metals, rock etc. The effect is like one of those old dangerous electric heaters where those heat wires on the inside glow red. Then add lots of sparks and whatnot. I’m probably not going to keep the pipe on the bottom, was just toying with the idea to get the wiring to the hilt and function like a guard IDK.

Can’t say I’m too good at drawing steampunk, I’ll need to work on the tech bits. If anyone has any suggestions I’d greatly appreciate it. I may have over thought this too much but I’ve been anticipating this challenge for a while. :smiley:

#2

Dude, with your history in these challenges I don’t think anything you made could be a mistake. I look forward to seeing it!

#3

Yeah! I´m very, very curious too, about what you will show us. Anyway, I´m allready convinced it will be stunning.

Thumbs up Wyatt and bring it on :wink:

#4

i hope you find some time to do the concept! We’ll wait :scream:

#5

Concept posted

#6

Poor concept for the power distribution point worn on the belt. :smiley: Taken from the concept just posted by Dan Broughton. I added the voltage meter and battery gauge.

Original

#7

Ah bummer, I really wanted to participate but I had a feeling I wouldn’t have time. Plus I’m about to go on vacation for a week so it’s just not going to happen. Oh well, good luck everyone. This topic is such an awesome one.

#8

thats a real bummer.

Was just going to ask ya where the modeling got stuck in traffic.
But hey, a holiday is always a good recharger for next challenge :wink:

cee ya then maybe

#9

Wow. Research!

#10

I guess the only thing crazier than competing in one of these is starting with only a couple weeks left. After watching everyone’s progress I couldn’t not get in. See how for I can get.

After discussing the 2 concepts with my wife I decided to go with the long sleeves on Sanjuro’s outfit. It would fit the laid back appearance I’m going for better.

Beginning head model.

Body

Polygroups

Extracted piece for the outershirt and retopologized.

First attempt with the extracted mesh back in LW. Scrapped this one.

This was the third attempt after scrapping the other 2. Created the wider sleeves in ZBrush first and then cleaned it all up in LW. This is the finished model back in ZB.

Figure this might be a good time to show what reference I’m talking about. Toshiro Mifune as Sanjuro in the movie Yojimbo. I’m shooting for a laid back desert Jedi.

The close-to-final pose. The left arm will be tucked into the shirt so I’m not putting much detail into that. I may just delete it actually. And he’ll have the light katana out in some fashion. I may roll up the sleeve on that side, not sure yet. Again a laid back cocky look.

A quick smirk for the camera.

This was actually a few days worth of work. Still wasn’t sure if I was just fooling myself, I may still be. :smiley:

#11

Nice Clean Model. I Like your topology. As much as I Love organic Modeling I haven’t done many full bodys. Mostly only heads for the fun of it. Could you show a close up shaded wireframe of the pelvis and butt area? That seems to be where I generally get caught up with topology and can never seem to get it to look right.

I find the whole mouth/nose area to be a little out of proportion, and unfortunately not in a superhero kind of way. Nothing a few minutes in Zbrush can’t fix I’m sure.

Good job. Keep us updated!

-Cheers

#12

Thanks Rage. Yeah, the mouth area is a bit wonky but on purpose. :smiley: I first used Mark Hamill as a reference. Same pictures I used during the Star Wars tribute. Then while detailing I decided to fatten up his jaw line and widen the nose quite a bit to match Toshiro Mifune. The idea is he’s still young but has enough age and dirt on him to show some wear and tear. IDK, something like that lol.

Anyway here is the area you were asking for I believe. By this point in the model I’m usually laying points quickly just so I can get it done and move on to the fun stuff. I’m not a big fan of poly modeling, but it helps me to start with a poly modeled base.

#13

Updates!

Tunic posed. Needs a few detail passes now.

Extracted some hair and pushed and pulled it into the basic shape.

More detail and scruffed him up a bit. Needs more detail but I may leave it like this. Depends on the time.

Progress so far. Extracted pants and right glove for external tweaking.

The pants scare me. I can barely make out how Hakama pants are in real life, let alone in 3D. :smiley:

#14

hey man I’m really digging your workflow. It makes the execution really clear and clean. And the reminder…Just a few days left :wip:

#15

Thanks Bro. And a special thanks to you DDS for all of your great information in the past. My current workflow is based largely on your videos you’ve posted here.

Had to double-check the deadline, make sure it was still the 17th. If I work on it every night this week I should be able to get it to a finished state by Monday. And since I already finished Fallout 3 that shouldn’t be a problem now. I’m taking the second play through much slower. :smiley:

Well I was rightly scared by the pants last night. I’ve got some good big retoplogized pantaloons but nothing near Hakama pants yet. Tonight will tell I suppose.

Later

#16

Started the katana. Didn’t get much done as I’m still designing it as I go. Haven’t decided if I’m going to attempt to weave a traditional wrap into the piping or go with a grip as part of the handle itself.

I was originally going to make a typical blade mount for the exit port. As I was tweaking it I had this idea for a dragon’s head as the exit port. That way the dragon looks like he’s breathing fire with the blade extended. So I added some more geometry at the end to make the mouth and head. The gear-like tsuba was a new addition tonight. Now I’m considering making a lion’s head instead, that way the tsuba would look like a mane.

#17

Hey Wyatt Harris!!

Nice modeling so far! I specially loved the head!
Keep going man!

#18

Quick question for everyone. Those of you that are adding filigree details to your models, are you laying the filigree on top of your existing mesh or are you actually modeling it into the mesh? The first method seems possible, but the second… Trying to keep the whole thing as quads for ZBrush sounds impossible.

#19

hey Wyatt Harris!

Well when I do filigrees I obviously model then in separated meshs, as you said it’s insane keep only quads doing everything together. When I finish the modeling I attach everything in one mesh. There are many elements, but it’s only one mesh!

See yaa!

#20

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