HMC 24 - Weta Workshop Challenge - The Mouth of Sauron

#1

Been a while since I’ve taken a stab at one of these, I’m still waiting on confirmation from Roberto that this will be an allowable entry since a part of the character is digital, but I’ll go ahead and assume I can, and worst case scenario, just do something else!

I’m going with the Mouth of Sauron, from The Return of the King. He was only in the extended version of the movie, but I loved how creepy and unique the character was, so here goes nothing.
Here’s my reference sheet.
I’m going to see how far I can get on him, if time permits, I will also make the horse he is riding.

#2

excellent - I’ve always wanted to model him - should be interesting to follow indeed!

#3

Intervain - Hopefully! Let’s see if I can actually do this guy justice :slight_smile:

I got started modeling last night, here is my progress so far. That helmet is a bit of a pain!

#4

One of my favourite characters, he so should’ve made it into the original movie!
Great start, would be great if you can make a textured version.

#5

joecyriac - I agree! And thank you :slight_smile: I got a little texturing done while I’m modeling, and I’m actually having way more fun doing that than I am building the geometry!

Here’s an update, I think I’m going to go ahead and try to do his whole character + the horse, which means im probably going to have to take some screen grabs form the movie, I’m having a tough time finding decent reference of his body and his horse online, oh well!

I’m still not happy with the shape of his teeth, i think I need to rework his mouth a little bit, it’s looking a little tall so far.

Update:

and a render so far:

#6

Alright! Looking brilliant, you should do the whole character for sure. I think the teeth could use some more asymmetry, and the metal could be darker, but it’s certainly coming along.

#7

great character,
this will be very cool, nice clean model and the render is good too :thumbsup:
where did you found the runes on the mask?

#8

looking real sweet so far - well it looks like just regular writing at the mo [I can distinguish regular letters of the alphabet hehe - which still works]…
In reality he had 'the words lammen gorthaur (Sindarin for “Voice of the Dread Abomination” i.e. “Voice of Sauron”) in Cirth runes written on his helmet…
You can find them somewhere here among the elvish runes

#9

Thanks guys, and gal :slight_smile:
joecyriac - definitely needs some more asymmetry, both in his teeth and around his mouth. Thanks for the input, I think I can get around back to this finally tonight.

I actually grabbed the runes from one of my reference images and warped them around the UVs. Intervain I can see what you’re saying though, thanks for the link seriously, I was wondering what I was going to do about that haha.
Some good translation should clear up the texture a bit, because I had no idea what the hell was going on with that writing!
Update tonight hopefully!

#10

Hey pal,

Going great :smiley: I think it would be nice to add some mass to the lips, I don’t know if you have a plan for it though.

Cheers!

#11

Great choice. I’ve also always wanted to model him. I agree about the mass of the lips. They need to look really meaty and gross.

#12

Thanks guys!
BrettSinclair & menthol - I think you guys were both going after the same point :slight_smile: I agree definitely, I didn’t get a chance to post last night, but his lips definitely need to look a little more meaty, the detail is looking a little shallow, I think pulling out some bigger details around his cuts on his lips will help immensely, thanks for the pointers!

#13

Wow man you are working fast on this! Its off to a great start and I am sure after the small tweaks it will look even better.

#14

looking sweet.

Not sure if it’s said before, but the teeth seem to be rather flat - andn a bit uninteresting - and the upper once are like a bit too long. Or i’m looking at the wrong references.

Cheers

#15

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it.

Nothingness - Yeah that has been addressed, but a good eye none the less! I began remodeling his teeth the other day, finally buckled down and took some screen grabs from the movie so I should be able to get some more interesting shapes a little truer to the actual guy.

I’ll have to go on hiatus on this until midweek next week due to some work obligations, but I will definitely pick it up again.
Also, I’m having a hell of a time finding decent reference of his lower body and of his horse, the movie mostly focuses on his shoulders up. The only shots of his horse were fairly distant shots.

Any help would be much appreciated :smiley:

#16

Alrighty back in action. Had a long week of work! But was able to pick this thing up again on Friday night and made a bit of progress. I was fortunate enough to find some decent reference at a LOTR fan site, a guy was making the mouth of sauron in sculpey and had a hell of a lot more reference than I could find, so that turned out good!
Anyways, almost done with his body, need a little work on his cloth, obviously still need to make his hands and feet.
A little work done on the horse so far.



#17

Coming along very nicely! I don’t know if these would help you, but there’re some nice Nazgul armour refs here . Figured his would be similar.

#18

joecyriac: Ha! That David Duchovney Wraith toy at the bottom is pretty awesome.

#19

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