Sandwich Elf

#1

Greetings!

  It's been a while since I made a personal piece so I thought I'd make a thread here while I'm at it :)
  
  My idea is to make a fantasy character doing something completely mundane. As a starting point, I've decided to go with this sketch I made of an elf sorceress eating a sandwich!
  
  She specializes in sandwich magic. In video game RPG terms, I guess her class would be a sandwich mage? Or perhaps some kind of Sandwichmancer? At any rate, here she is taking a break from the dungeons with a sandwich she conjured:
 
 [[img]http://i1338.photobucket.com/albums/o695/Jodeman_81/Sandwich_Elf_Concept_zps9aaebp8i.jpg[/img]](http://s1338.photobucket.com/user/Jodeman_81/media/Sandwich_Elf_Concept_zps9aaebp8i.jpg.html)


This will be a 3D illustration. I'll keep things fairly stylized, my goal isn't realism. I'll probably hand paint the textures too. I'm working mainly in 3ds max but I'm also learning to use ZBrush and will try to use it here and there.

So far, I've made a rough block out of the scene with a placeholder box elf. I tried to translate my badly drawn perspective into 3D:

[[img]http://i1338.photobucket.com/albums/o695/Jodeman_81/Scene_06A_zpsass0xzwi.jpg[/img]](http://s1338.photobucket.com/user/Jodeman_81/media/Scene_06A_zpsass0xzwi.jpg.html)

I also made a quick draw over to show where I plan to go with the environment:

IĀ’ll keep refining the environment before making the elf and most importantly, the 3D sandwich.

Feedback is welcomed, thanks for looking!

#2

Funny concept. I subscribe

#3

I too hereby subscribe. I love sandwichesā€¦

At this stage I might prefer the composition in the 2D sketch, it focuses on the character more :shrug: The 3D sketch splits my attention between the character/sandwich and the cylindrical structure in the distance

#4

I agree, i like the drawing version more too, which is also less panoramic.

#5

I prefer the new composition in the 3D version, especially since the character is now more off-center and the image has more depth. Itā€™s too early to tell if the focus is unbalanced between character and background, since lighting, framing by vegetation, atmospheric effects, DOF etc. can all be used to direct our view towards the desired areas of the image. And the environment promises to be interesing!

#6

Cool concept! Look forward to seeing how this shapes up :smiley:

#7

Wow! I like the idea behind your concept.

Your blockouts look really well made. Subscribed as well. I hope you bring it to completion.

#8

Thanks for the feedback guys! Iā€™ll try to post new updates once or twice a week as time permits.

@ Scote - Thanks for subscribing, Thereā€™s more to come!

@ Miked08, @ TheGoatPaints - Good point guys, Iā€™ll keep this in mind as I advance on the piece. I tried going with a more widescreen view in the 3D version because I thought the character was a little too centered in the composition of my sketch. I felt the piece could use a little ā€œbreathing roomā€ to the right of the character, I probably went too far though. Thanks for pointing that out.

I agree that the character doesnā€™t have as much presence right now in the 3D version. However, I also agree with what archaeotect mentioned in his post, that it may be a little too early to make the call until I have more elements in the scene. Later on, I can always crop the image or remove elements (like the Colosseum thing in the background) if they are too distracting.

@ archaeotect - Thanks for the feedback. I think thatā€™s a good plan, Once Iā€™m further along with the background elements I can re-frame things a bit and maybe crop the image to make sure the character and sandwich remain the focus. As you say, there will be a lot of elements I can use to guide the eye.

@ AJ - Thanks for the support!

@ pongstah - Thanks for subscribing! Iā€™m starting with the background first because thatā€™s usually the more tedious part for me. If I make it past that, I should finish it with no problem! :cool:

#9

Hereā€™s a small update! I added some more elements to the block out and tweaked a few things in the background. The elf is now holding a placeholder sandwich while a box dragon looks on. I think it will be her pet or maybe some kind of familiar.

I also started refining the ruins arches and made a few pieces of debris. These elements are mostly going to be in the middle ground so I probably shouldnā€™t add any more detail at this point. Iā€™m still fairly new to sculpting in ZBrush so I figured these elements would be easy to practice on. Since theyā€™re far away, I can mess them up and it wonā€™t matter too much! :cool:

Iā€™ll keep making more of those ruins parts and get those out of the way.

#10

The drawing is very cute, and the title of the thread was funny, I was curious what was the meaning behind.
Itā€™ just the way the arm is bend that bother me a little :wink:

#11

@ Pheno - Thanks for dropping by! Although I drew the character with cartoony ā€œnoodle armsā€ in my sketch, the 3D version will probably have proper elbow joints. :thumbsup:

Iā€™m not sure the cartoon bendy arms will really fit this character.

#12

I finally had some time to get back to this Sandwich Elf scene!

So much for my weekly updates, lol. Summer stuff got in the way :cool: ā€¦ Anyway, hereā€™s some progress on the background elements for my scene.

I made a modelling pass for the ruins, mountains and the tree. ThereĀ’s also a test patch of grass. Nothing is textured yet and these colours are not final. Later on, I will probably crop the image a little as some people suggested.

Hereā€™s another view of the tree (I only modelled the parts we see in the shot). I havenā€™t quite achieved the control Iā€™d like in ZBrush but this tree didnā€™t turn out too bad. The surface is a bit lumpy though.

Onwards ā€¦

#13

AHhh welcome back. I miss this thread!

#14

@Scote - Thanks for the support!

Iā€™ve been experimenting with the textures using one of the props as a test. I originally wanted to hand paint the textures to achieve an illustrative look but I also made a test using photo sources to see what it would look like.

While I like both results so far, the hand painted stuff took me a lot longer to make and Iā€™m questioning if itā€™s worth it, especially for the background stuff. We can barely see this arch in the composition for example. I approached it as if I was painting a low poly game prop but I kept having to stop myself from painting highlights since those would be handled by the lights in the scene.

As for the photo texture test, I think this one will blend in better in the background which would be nice since there are a lot of ruins in the scene. The shape of the models in the scene are fairly stylized but it doesnā€™t look too bad with a realistic texture slapped on top.

Iā€™m leaning towards the photo stuff at the moment because it looks ok and didnā€™t take too long to make. Thoughts are welcome.

#15

Perhaps you could do a mix of photo texturing and hand-painted? The rocks sheā€™s sitting on and the broken wall on the right could be hand painted while the rest of the ruins could be photo sourced with a procedural voronoi texture mixed in to match the stone pattern on your test. I personally like the hand-painted one more so it would be a shame to completely forgo it.

#16

Itā€™s a hard decision. You might want to take a look at the video game Dishonoured by Arkane Studios. They did some interesting work stylizing the whole game and the textures are half way between hand painted and photo textures.

Hand painting textures is something Iā€™ve wanted to do, but I dread how long it would take.

#17

@ julSan @Miked08 - Thanks for the feedback guys! I agree that it would be a shame to leave the painted style behind, I do like how that test turned out. If I keep that look, I can probably do a quicker pass on the props in the background and put more effort on the foreground elements that way it wonĀ’t take as long. Maybe do a mix of the two as julSan suggested.

Miked08, Thanks for the game reference. I had a quick look at Dishonored and it does look like an interesting mix they have going. Reminds me of the Team Fortress 2 textures, IĀ’m guessing they started with photos and painted on top? IĀ’ll keep this approach in mind.

I am a bit concerned that the painted ruins might look rather noisy in the scene due to the stone pattern I went with. Below is an example of what IĀ’m referring to, I threw the two test ruins into the middle of the scene to see how they fit. IĀ’m trying to imagine that painted stone pattern on all the ruins and wondering if it will be too noisy.

Iā€™ll have to think about it some more, I may do another test prop before deciding.

In the mean time, I started working on the character so I think Iā€™ll wait on texturing everything until I see how the elf and sandwich models turn out.

#18

Weā€™re all waiting on that sandwich model :drool:

#19

Hello, itā€™s been a while since I updated! Iā€™m still plugging away at this project when I have time :slight_smile: Here is an update on the sandwich and elf.

First up is the sandwich model. Nothing too fancy going on here, I went with the lettuce on the bottom, some lunch meat, tomatoes and cheese. I never made 3D food before, itā€™s actually kinda hard to squeeze all the ingredients in there without all the pieces clipping into each other.

Iā€™m thinking it might need more lettuce. Iā€™m not sure I should have gone with swiss cheese but I figured nothing says ā€œcheeseā€ more than those distinctive holes in swiss.

Lastly, hereā€™s the elf model so far. I made an outfit similar to my concept drawing but I might need to change some stuff around. For one thing, Iā€™m not sure she can sit with those things on her hips. Seeing how she will be in a seated pose, that might be a problem. Anyhow, Iā€™ll deal with that later.

#20

The elf is adorable. Those elements around her waist make her hips look wider than they are though.