HMC#28: Comic Book Master Tribute - Captain Future by Masamune Shirow

#1

Hi all!

                    Geez, another challenge that is next to impossible to resist! Having always been a huge comic book nerd, this one is a really an absolute must-enter for me. :)
                  
                    There is so much to choose from, its really tough to make a pic. Nearly every iconic comic-book hero has received a remake by  a number of master artists by now, hence my choice fell on one that hasn't been given a new treatment yet.
                    
                    I chose one of my childhood heroes Captain Future (Tintin being a close second), as possibly reinvented in the style of Sci-Fi-Manga master Masamune Shirow, while still holding on to the key elements of the classic 70's Anime design. 
           
           [img]http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/29/capfu3.jpg[/img]
        
                   I'm sure most of the younger generation have no idea what Captain Future is all about, so I'll provide some more background info on this classic Sci-Fi literature hero if needed. In a nutshell, he was one of those typical super scientist heroes            of the pulp era who could whip up a hyperspace drive from scratch out            of baling wire and old stereo speakers.
         
         [img]http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/captain-future/3-1.jpg[/img]
                 
                 I'm sure everybody  in our trade knows Masamune Shirow's work,  but for those who dont, here's some info: He's the creator of hugely successful Mangas such as Black Magic, Orion, Appleseed, Dominion, Ghost In The Shell, etc, some of which have been adapted to the small and big screen with great success and acclaim. He's an absolute master of intensely detailed story, character and technology conception, so it'll be a real challenge to do both character and artist justice. 


 [img]http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n5/n28582.jpg[/img]
 
 I'll post some more refs soon.
                    
                    Cheers!:arteest:
#2

Cool. Cant wait for updates.
I so wanna do orion. Or a Guges landmate.

#3

Looks awesome, Felix.

Tintin was a near choice for me. Busy finishing up a project right now, but I started a thread and I’ll jump in in a few days. I went with Larson, but Tintin à la Ross seems more and more appealing. Maybe Roberto will change my thread title if I ask all nice.

Anyway, looking forward to the first WIPs. Good luck.

-rage

#4

those are very different in styles - interested to see which one you’re going for :slight_smile:

#5

Oh my god. My god Masamune. I need to see this.

#6

Thanks a lot for your interest, guys! :slight_smile:

 I really hope I'll be able to finish and not disappoint this time. 
 
 Anyways, I think I'm about done collecting refs. I still have to check with the Anime for some detail/turnaround shots of his space suit/ armor, since I want to stay relatively true to the 70's design, but give it a more modern Shirow-style kick! I'll definitely get rid of the Elvis-AlohaFromHawaii-Sideburns though. lol He'll probably get the hairstyle from the old story covers.
 
 Here's my sized down reference/inspiration collage:
 
 [img]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/Captain%20Future%20Re-envisioned/CaptainFutureShirowRefCollage.jpg[/img]
 
As you can see, I gathered up some images from the 70's Anime, character head-shots from  Dominion: Conflict No More Noise (Superintendent Sakura and Officer Namba), classic story covers from the pulp era, and plenty of sci-fi  refs from Masamune Shirow (I'm also keeping the "Appleseed" and "Ghost In  the Shell" Mangas handy at my work-desk.)

 I'm hoping to be able to get started soon and get a solid body base mesh done over the weekend. 
 
 Cheers!
#7

Now THAT is a reference sheet lol! Great research and look forward to your modeling. GOOD LUCK!

#8

+1 Awsome.
Love Masamune Shiro.
I still cant decide what to do but definitely a Japanese anime, manga artist.

#9

Thanks a lot for your comments, guys! :slight_smile:

 I was able to get the base started in ZB over the weekend and roughed in the major forms, albeit didnt get very far, but its a start. Here we go:
 [img]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/Captain%20Future%20Re-envisioned/maleBaseZsphereRig.jpg[/img]
 
For those interested in some workflow details, I sculpted the rough 1st pass so far with Move/Smooth and  Transpose only. That's it.

 I'll send that over to Maya next to iron out the typical ZSphere topo quirks, as well as add and redirect some edges. Hopefully I can skip over the retopo step this time by doing that now. I just hate retopo work.
 
 Cheers!
#10

Yeah I agree completely. I like retopo when conceptualizing and sketching, as you have no real clear idea what the result will be.

But when you know what you want from the beginning I always find a little extra effort into a solid base mesh with good topology saves a lot of time in the long run.

-rage

#11

RageOfAges: Retopo is a real monotonous drag, if you ask me, but it is the faster and more intuitive workflow, unfortunately. lol I really like polymodeling, since it has something rather meditative about it. But for concept sculpting nothing else works better than starting with a basic mesh and later drawing a good topo on top, I agree.

Anyways, here’s my final base mesh:

I ended up sculpting a little more on higher levels to provide me with some more landmarks for edgeflow and then editing the ZSphere mesh on top of it in Topogun. In other words, I did retopo after all. lol There’s still lots of work to be done. The proportions are off and he currently looks more like one of those kids piloting a Gundam or Yoshitsune Miyamoto from Appleseed, than like a seasoned, genius-scientist adult.

Let me know what you think so far.

Cheers!

#12

It does look like a boy right now the head looks to big and the shoulder need to be broader.

#13

Agreed.
The sholders need to be wider, legs a bit longer and head smaller, Shirow san always does small heads on his dudes, cept the cartoony ones.

#14

Many thanks for your input, guys! It’s much valued and appreciated. :slight_smile:

   I had a few minutes yesterday and went at him briskly with mostly Transpose and Move, so here's where I'm at right now:
   
   [img]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/Captain%20Future%20Re-envisioned/baseWiresProportionEdit.jpg[/img]
   
   He's not quite there yet, especially the relation of head to shoulder girdle. This is proving to be a bit tricky, since I don't want to make him the regular, pea-skulled-muscled hero type. He's mostly a somewhat athletic scientist after all and not that huge in the Anime design either, especially considering that he is wearing his armor. I think both Namba and Sakura are probably too buff for this type. The head is still quite a bit too big though, but I think I at least managed to get rid of the dead-on-boyish look of the face and fix the legs (Edit: Jeez, the lower legs still could be longer, or am I wrong?!).  I'm going to have to keep working those proportions. lol 
  
  Cheers!
#15

haha yea, he does look less boyish from your last update…like you said, the big heads giving it away. A great reference for proportions is Andrew Loomis, maybe that might help out…

#16

The reason it looks boyish is cause his head is too big. widening the jaw might help give it a better manly feel. the legs look fine but if you want to check, from the bottom of the crotch to the bottom of the knee should be two head lengths, and from the bottom of the knee to the bottom of the feet should be another two head lengths. awesome mesh!

#17

bludragon88: Thanks a lot for commenting and the Andrew Loomis reference suggestion. Jeez, his drawings are so sweet, its annoying. lol I just love his style. His women are particularly spectacular.
I ended up using actor/bodybuilder Steve Reeves as a very loose real life facial ref, keeping the face slimmer and always trying to capture the Shirow-style. It aint easy, I’m telling ya! :wink:

      dAnconia: Many thanks for the compliment on the mesh and the proportion advice. I'll send him over to Maya later, where I'll perform my regular proportion check with a distanceTool and head-approximation spheres. Up 'till now I have just been eyeballing everything in ZB.
      
      Thanks a lot to both of you again for your very valuable input! :)
      
      I had 2 hours to put aside for this yesterday and was able to make some fairly decent headway, I think. 

Here's where I'm at right now: ZBrush SubD Level 4

      [img]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/Captain%20Future%20Re-envisioned/animeMaleSculpt_01.jpg[/img]
      
      He's currently at level 4 for a less faceted look, but I sculpted only up to level 3. I'll add some more contour detail, fix some flaws in both contour and silhouette here and there and check/adjust proportions in Maya if needed, but will move on to the hair, armor etc after that. 
      
      Whatever issue/flaw you can find in the above image and can point me to is much appreciated.
      
      Cheers!:arteest:
#18

I was getting real tired of the bald and eye-less look, so I popped in some spheres for the eyes and got going with the hair before fixing proportions and adding more detail.

Here’s my progress and work-flow for a rough hairstyle concept sculpt:

   [img]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/TheRazorsEdgeStudio/Captain%20Future%20Re-envisioned/hairRoughConceptSculptProgress.jpg[/img]
   
   For those interested in some details, here's a workflow breakdown:

   1. Starting with a sphere primitive, I  roughly positioned and scaled it using Transpose  and then rotated one pole back to where the hair usually creates a vortex (not sure if that is the right way to call it!?).

   2-3. Here I started roughing in a basic shape with Move, Smooth, xSymmetry enabled and one step of subdivision.

   4. Laying out the hairstyle was achieved with Move and xSymmetry disabled.

   Final Sketch: To arrive here, I subdivided up until I had some decent resolution and then used a modified ClayTubes Brush with LazyMouse enabled to roughly sketch in the hair patterns. I'll probably keep modifying the result and use the mesh later to draw splines or poly strips onto for the final hair.
   
   Its even more apparent now that I still need to age and "season" him quite a bit. I'll try to get that fixed with the next update. But with him looking like that, I am getting some ideas for a Shirow-style side-project. Stay tuned. ;)
   
   Cheers!
#19

looking good…i especially like the hair…i know how off putting it can be having no eys and no hair there…

#20

Nice choice and good progress! Keep it up!:thumbsup: