DWIII - 3D - Jido - Hjarta The Sleepless

[Jido]

EDIT [summary] _____________________________

Warlord / Summoning Artifact

Short Version:
Hjarta is a female who belongs to a isolationist race (Drakesthai) of mostly Clericons and Stalkers (no warlords) that look like gargoyles. She broke a forbidden rule, was banished, stripped of her magic by nightmare creatures, and left to die. She lives long enough to find an artifact (that is part scythe and part polearm) that keeps her alive by summoning the same nightmare creatures to steal life force for her vitality. She cannot regain her magic, so she trained and now fights as a warlord.
____________________________________________

Long Version:
The Drakesthai is a secretive ancient race that when sleep appear as stone and regenerate. There are not many, however a drakesthai can live for centuries. Humans that have encountered them have called them Upright Dragons, Golems, or most commonly Gargoyles. It is forbidden for drakesthai to study or communicate with other intelligent races.

Hjarta was banished for studying the metal creatures that started to appear on her planet. As further punishment, her wings and horns were removed and nightmare wraiths were bound to her life force. If she didn't stay focused and awake the wraiths would painfully devour her life force. Without sleep, Hjarta could not regenerate and was doomed to a slow death. While sleeplessly wandering the wilderness for months, she came across a great bladed staff adorned with serpent-like creatures. Although her horns are growing back, Hjarta knew, even if she defeated the wraiths, she would not regain her regeneration ability as it was devoured weeks ago. In desperation to quickly end her life in pain, she stabbed herself with the staff. Instead of dying, she could feel great magic emanate from the staff and it felt as if the wraiths were being ripped from her life force and drawn into staff.

Somehow, the magic in the staff "speaks" to Hjarta, teaching her that as long as she controls the staff, she controls the wraiths. Hjarta has a choice: She can battle with the staff as well as summon the wraiths to devour the life force of her enemies. Hjarta can sustain her own vitality with this devoured life force, replacing her regeneration ability. Or, she can destroy the staff and free herself of the wraiths live out the rest of her shortened life as a broken drakesthai.

The drakesthai refuse to fight with the races on the planet against the metal creatures and have gone into hiding. They fear getting involved with the ongoing planetary wars. Hjarta chooses to fight in the planet wars in order to get closer to the metal creatures to study their technology that may bring peace back to the galaxy and free her race from solitude.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

your choice of teams, was a good one. congradulations.

[markus_omega]

now thats a cool storie . i love the idea :)

[omnicypher]

that might be the best beginning of a fantasy story that ive ever heard. you should write a book after the contest.

[YdoUwant2know]

TURN COAT!!!!

a pox on your house good sir, a pox on your house....

oh, well, best of luck, too bad you could not have waited a day and been on the winning side :)

[Jido]

Thanks for the compliments on the backstory, I hope my entry lives up to it. I plan on adding to the story as I post WIPs. It would be nice to be a Game Designer as well 3D Asset Artist.

YdoU - Turn Coat?... If I had sided with GA (I almost did since I've posted there so many times), then I would've been a turn coat...lol... I've lurked 3DTotal for a while. I'll make sure I eat my cake with blue frosting over at GA if it makes you feel better.

[MonteCristo]

TURN COAT!!!!

a pox on your house good sir, a pox on your house....

oh, well, best of luck, too bad you could not have waited a day and been on the winning side :)

Can't blame a man for having good taste. ;) :shout: :evil:

[YdoUwant2know]

I can't really fault you for choosing 3dt. Nostalgic value alone, I have a bit of a soft spot for this place. It was my first forum and after lasts years success, I was right here cheering with all of you.

let us just agree to disagree (and to kick the crap out of polycount and cgsociety)

That said, I will wish you luck today, but should we meet on the battlefield, I shall give you no quarter. :D

[MonteCristo]

I can't really fault you for choosing 3dt. Nostalgic value alone, I have a bit of a soft spot for this place. It was my first forum and after lasts years success, I was right here cheering with all of you.

let us just agree to disagree (and to kick the crap out of polycount and cgsociety)

That said, I will wish you luck today, but should we meet on the battlefield, I shall give you no quarter. :D

Fair do's, and I agree with the crap-kicking part whole-heartedly. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I consider GA to be friendly rivals. A special relationship. ;) Wow, this really is like a war. Let's hope that somebody ends up with something to show for it! :dance:

[BiG ToE-3DT]

you should have stayed hidden, then at least there was a chance we would have forgotten you. But now that I know your there, I'll be looking for you. I'm making a new friend that I want you to meet.

[YdoUwant2know]

you should have stayed hidden, then at least there was a chance we would have forgotten you. But now that I know your there, I'll be looking for you. I'm making a new friend that I want you to meet.


Wow ToE really? I have to say, anything you throw at me is not going to scare me nearly as much as Big Al


Jido: Sorry for hijacking your thread, i really do mean best of luck to you and all the 3dt people. I agree with Monte's sentiment, 3dt and GameArtisans are more friendly rivals than anything. I really like the back story you created for you character, and look forward to facing you on the battlefield.

[Jido]

The Ultimate Weapon was unleashed 873 years before Hjarta was born. The drakesthai have always been master magicians even before the Ultimate Weapon existed. However, its after-effects have amplified their magical powers making it easier for them to stay hidden and live in peace amongst themselves in the high mountains of [Threedysia]. At the age of 94, Hjarta and her people encountered two of the now prevalent metallic creatures. The entire community used their magics to bring down these creatures. However when their bodies were obliterated, two dark beings emerged from the debris and only the Great Elder had the strength to capture and destroy them but at the cost of losing his sight. Because of their secluded ways, the outside world never knew of this event. For nearly 30 years before being banished, Hjarta managed to secretly study outsider encounters with these creatures and the wormholes they were coming from; they began to appear more frequently. Her greatest discovery was of an outsiders' legend about a Gargoyle fighting with 2 Nightmares. The Gargoyle seemingly defeated, wailed out a loud chant in desperation and the battle ended as the 2 Nightmares disappeared into the eyes of the Gargoyle. It just so happened the Great Elder, 1241 years old, died 3 days before Hjarta was exiled...

http://media.viisymphony.com/d/37-1/Hjarta_concept_01.jpg

References:
Raziel [Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver]
Draenei [World of Warcraft]
Serena Williams [Tennis Star Athlete]

This is just her physical form, I haven't any idea yet for her clothing and armor (I'm researching materials for the armor and artifact that do not conduct electricity, like carbon, jade, and ivory type stuff). Her wings were amputated at the elbow so she still has the nubs on her back (Without accelerated healing and before finding the artifact, she burned them so not to bleed to death, so they can't grow back). She uses the nubs to carry the artifact to free her hands while still maintaining contact with the artifact.

EDIT_______
I want her torso somewhat longer than a human to emphasize agility and flexiblity, but her thighs and arms are more masculine for strength and speed. She stands about 8' 7" (2.6m) tall. I still don't know if she will have hair.... the Gargoyles animated tv show make me not want to give her hair. Maybe some kind of dreadlocks, maybe.
___________

[Jido]

Feel free to hijack my thread anytime, the bumps are welcome....lol

I was always checking the Tutorials on here from time to time, I was hooked when Joan of Arc was 1st posted. I already had forum logins for 3DT and CGS when I heard about DW2... I wanted to do a machine (I have to find and replace all my images for that thread).

[setschaos]

Bad a$$! I like the two horn ornaments rising from her forehead, but I think it would be pretty cool to draw upon the banishment aspect and have her have side horns and one be chopped off with a nub, just like the wings.

In a hint towards the armor, try hitting up a D&D book, I think you'll find something that will interest you in the player's handbook. Good luck and keep it coming!

[Jido]

I'll check out D&D.... Her horns are naturally much longer than that, like gazelles. The broken horns will be more obvious in the next iteration.

[Rych]

I really like the concept but if I were you and really wanted to win try to steer yourself quite a bit aways away from blizzard style Draenei Try to put a better spin on the body structure maybe make the tail alot more of the spine and instead of making it so long maybe shorten it up and point it out a bit. Go for some huge originality, that is really what will win you the race!

Aside from that The concept is very nice I love the style of horns that are pointed more down, it is really unique and gives the model more of a femanine style to it almost like long hair.

Baron

[bb0x]

Looks awesome so far man and the story is quite interesting :)

If it was up to me I'd choose the lower left nose and mouth and the upper right horns.

edit--
It cant see how the looks like any blizzard art?

[Rych]

I wasn't saying how it did but he listed it as one of his references I just wanted to stress it for him so he look to much like the Draenei

Baron

[Puckducker]

Loves the pose and proportions of the character. I think with her shape, the upward facing horns work out the best.

Not much else to comment on, great start though.

[pingu722]

Great start!! Look forward to seeing your next step.

[Jido]

Upon realizing that she was never meant to be so severely punished but was used to rid her people of the nightmare wraiths, Hjarta wanted to exact revenge upon her people. Without her wings, she could not return to the mountains easily. Vengeance was lost when she received new life from the summoning staff, she felt there was some greater purpose to be sought. The Legend lead her to the city of the Tengu. The tengu are a race of ruthless warlords and unbelievingly great artisan enchanters. Even though she approached without fear expecting confrontation, they welcomed her into the city. Hjarta learned to understand that all the tengu recognize the staff she carries. The staff is called The Blood Reaper. It was a renowned artisan tengu that witnessed and started the legend. He knew the Nightmares were only contained in the Elders eyes and feared they would return one day to wreak havoc when he died. He created the Blood Reaper, enchanted it with unbreakable strength, and imbued it with an artifact that would summon the life force from the owner of the blood it spilled. It was designed to kill the Great Elder and seal the Nightmares forever. However, another metal creature appeared, and a foolish tengu warlord took the staff and went after it. The warlord never returned and The Blood Reaper was lost to the tengu until now...

http://media.viisymphony.com/d/44-1/Hjarta_concept_02.jpg

Not much of an update, but a better idea of where I'm headed. I need more freetime to stay out the back of the thread; took a while to find.
Her structure/racial characteristics are finalized. Except for the major horns... both of them will be broken at different lengths. I made one them the full natural length just to show what it would look like normally. Still not quite happy with the hair. The proportions and head size are tainted compared to 1st sketch, but that will be fixed in the base model, which is what I'm doing next. I'll paintover color schemes in later renders of that base model.

[Agent-X]

Very cool concept, Its coming along nice. I can't wait to see what you do with it in 3d.

[miclepickle]

looking good.. amazing what a few well placed lines can do :D

[BiG ToE-3DT]

if your old enough and man enough, look up a cartoon called Viper GTS, it has afew female devils in it, you might be able to get some ideas from them. Plus, they are half/fully naked too.

Side note, have you thought about making the spine kinda protrude out the back, then working its way down to the tail, almost as if the tail goes all the way up the back, but just pokes out at the booty.

[Jido]

BiG ToE - Actually I was thinking about something similar to that spine idea simply because I'm not that thrilled about the hair. I'll check out that Viper GTS.

I was hoping I'd have an update this morning but a client absorbed most of my time last so hopefully tomorrow.

[Jido]

Backstory update will come when body base mesh is completed.

http://media.viisymphony.com/d/49-2/WIP00_model.jpg

First time using Silo, I like its workflow much better than Maya. But, I can't extrude along a curve or rig locators to help guide the placement of the elbow and wrist for proper proportions at 45 degree angles. I'll finish this in Maya then go to Mudbox.

[Weiryknight]

Its a good start...however i have some suggestions.
her chin is a little big, neck more supple, perky breasts
and her butt looks as if its clenching. can't wait to see your updates!

[Jido]

Weiryknight - I agree with the chin and neck. The breast and butt are more of a design choice since she is going to be a bit more muscular than sensual. The breast, I perked them up more, but then they looked like implants, especially with the spread in combination of her cup size. Unless I get a handful of recommendations, I plan on keeping her cup size the same or at least not too much bigger. As far as the butt goes, you need to come to the southeast US and see what real ethnic booty looks like...lol... anyway, I actually like it like that way since the anatomy has to compensate for the tail. I did however lower the point where the glutes connect to the outside of the hamstrings.

Update is coming in a few hours.

[Jido]

Proudly rejoicing that the Nightmares continue to be contained, the Tengu still felt sorrow for Hjarta as her life now depends on the artifact that contains them. The Tengu agreed that she must be trained to fight and defend; only her blood can maintain the seal. They must also craft her armor. Tengu no longer craft metal for fear of it awakening. They have learned to enchant all of their materials to be physically unbreakable until all layers of enchantments are nullified by magic. The last of their metal containing crafts was the Blood Reaper. During her stay, Hjarta was introduced to a tengu called Wiki. Wiki lives in a nearby forest near the entrance of ancient ruins. Wiki discovered well preserved ancient documents that described people called scientist that knew what the Ultimate Weapon would do so they performed a great ritual that summoned many words from machines onto paper. Wiki has deciphered and taught these text to his people. The tengu can predict most wormholes; the lightning in storms cause many of them to open. Wiki theorizes that the Ultimate Weapon destoyed the entire barrier between atomic energy (electricity) in our world and spiritual energy (magic) in what many thought to be the afterlife....

http://media.viisymphony.com/d/52-2/WIP01_model.jpg
http://media.viisymphony.com/d/56-1/WIP01_model_b.jpg

- - Current Stats - -
Body: 4948
Eyes: 116

- - What's Next - -
UV map then sculpt in details and underwear; I'll only retopologize if necessary, otherwise the UVs will be waiting.
Paintovers on screenshots to design the armor, clothing and accessories. Reserving 1000-1500 for artifact. So, a little less than 3000-2500 for that. I'm behind schedule, I want to dedicate as much time as possible for texturing, lighting, and rendering.

Someone please point me to a thread for rendering real-time without shaders, no luck with Maya for that and I can't find a DWIII legal shader to support all the maps I want to use. lol.... asking way ahead of time.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

what does the low poly model look like.

[Jido]

http://media.viisymphony.com/d/58-1/WIP01_model_c.jpg
http://media.viisymphony.com/d/61-1/WIP01_model_d.jpg

Sculpting is still somewhat new to me, so I'm still used to having the low-poly and UVs completed first. I decided to sculpt before UV, so if I do major retopo, I won't have to redo a lot of UVs. I don't know.... never completely retopo'ed an entire character... I don't want to waste time doing that for the first time in this comp.

[Lukavi]

Starting to come together cleanly, nice poly spacing.

[Jido]

I've done enough research on the armor materials. I'll be using Jadeite (one of two types of Jade, the other is Nephrite), Obsidian, and Leather. Jadeite's color range is commonly white to green; but fortunately, it can be found naturally in blue. The obsidian, usually black, will mostly be decorative. I also decided to use an alloy metal called Nichrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichrome). I'll introduce it's purpose (and my new name for it) in the next backstory/WIP update.

[Askguden]

Got some nice polyflow going there :)

[Thatblack1]

can't wait to see more

[redonix76]

Your mesh is beautifully done. I look forward to more updates.

[Jido]

Thanks for the comments on my mesh. Although it slows me down, I can be very meticulous with my topoplogy.


Wiki believes that lost souls on the "afterlife" side of the this celestial barrier sometimes have enough willpower to communicate with us through what he understands was once called "electromagnetic fields". We, on the "physical" side of the barrier, try to use magic rituals to connect with them on their side. But now without this barrier, magic has been amplified by energy from the afterlife and lost souls from the afterlife can freely possess inorganic materials; especially metals because of their electrically conductive properties. Wiki is convinced that these ancient electrical device still work; but once they are activated, lost souls are drawn to the electrical energy and bind themselves to the device rendering it useless to the operator. The Ancient Threedysians created fearsome machines that allowed them to dominate three of the neighboring planets, but failed against the collective efforts of these planets, the Ultimate Weapon. The weapon scared the consciousness of many lost souls; making them erratic and destructive. Worse, these now dangerous souls have turned these ancient machines against the Threedysians and the entire galaxy. Wiki knows that only a Threedysian has what it takes to bring an end to this. He sees that Hjarta has great potential to be this savior.

http://media.viisymphony.com/d/65-1/Hjarta_concept_03b.jpg
http://media.viisymphony.com/d/63-1/Hjarta_concept_03a.jpg
[References: Ronin Warriors, Final Fantasy XII]


I was hoping to be done with concepting, but I can model straight from the dome without the need of a finalized image. I apologize for not cleaning up the sketches, but I've already started the dynamically posed final concept and didn't feel any need to do. I just wanted to get an update up at this point.

I don't really bother with alternate designs being that 9 of 10 times I always go with the 1st one. I rather take one design and evolve it.

Her racial clan is the equivalent of a native African or South American, so she will have a swarthy skintone, a dark-red-tinted-gray-ish color, and dreadlock-like hair (if I can make it look right).

I was aiming for a cross between Ronin Warrior Style Armor and Fran's leather outfit from Final Fantasy 12.
She is left-hand dominate so her left arm armor is offensively focused on protecting the joints while being less cumbersome elsewhere. The left gauntlet has no claw-extensions as this hand normally attacks with the artifact. The right arm armor is defensively focused with more coverage and a larger vambrace to act as a small shield. The gauntlet has claw-extensions for any bare off-hand attacks. Her headgear is not a complete helmet (reference: Fran's headgear of FFXII). The rear of the armor is lacking in order to make it lighter; she uses her tail and amputees for rear defense (The summon creatures allow her to be "visually aware" of her immediate surroundings). There is no functional reason for the leg armor to be asymmetrical, but for aesthetic reasons I may alter a few things.

It's about time for those serious criticisms. If you like the armor bulky as shown, say so. Otherwise, keep in mind that I intend the armor to be more slim looking on the model.

EDIT: The clasp for her clothing (in green) will display her clan emblem (my logo), but the armor has the Threedy logo in numerous places

[Jido]

Some Trivial Concept Information:

The drakesthai cellular structure is 7x more efficient than that of humans. This allows their muscles to be almost 4x stronger and the nervous system to respond 1.6x faster.

The skeleto-muscular support for wings results in smaller internal organs, particularly the lungs. The lack of extended physical stamina make drakesthai poor warlords as they fatigue quickly. They are more suited as magic users and stalkers.

They are neither nocturnal nor diurnal. Drakesthai enter their regenerative sleep state whenever they suffer extreme fatigue, wounds, or simply when they have nothing to do. If they have lost a limb, they sleep almost 2 days to regenerate it.

In flight, they rely on jetstreams to soar. The seek out updrafts to return to the mountain tops.

They hunt like birds of prey. They will dive feet first towards their target and sink their heel talons into the spine. If the target does not die instantly or is not paralyzed, drakesthai will wrap their tails around one of the limbs to prevent escape.

http://media.viisymphony.com/d/68-1/WIP02_model_a.jpg
http://media.viisymphony.com/d/70-1/WIP02_model_b.jpg
http://media.viisymphony.com/d/72-1/WIP02_model_c.jpg
http://media.viisymphony.com/d/74-1/WIP02_model_d.jpg

I know, I know... enough with the backstory.... you guys want to see the armor and the artifact.... in due time.

My PC is about 5yrs old, so detailing in mudbox is pushing it. Trying to scupt her clothing was terribly slow, so the rest will be hand painted using nvidia plugin (or CrazyBump, that I read about in a nearby thread). If I have enough polys, I may mesh the clothing.

I plan to have the armor mesh sculpted and UVed by the end of the week, hopefully the artifact too. I will start texturing the base body next week, even if the artifact mesh is not done yet.

[chris_solo]

Hello, I like very much your work of modelling, good continuation

[Jido]

Thanks Chris.

Question to anyone that is a baker: Couldn't I create a mesh for the clothing, sculpt it and bake it on top of the normal map generated from just baking the base body sculpt? It would save me hand-painting time and polys.

[poopipe]

check the normal map workflow on poopinmymouth.com - you should be able to figure it out from there

[Puckducker]

Yep, sure can....you can layer normal maps in photoshop. Just make sure the layers you're putting on over top are set to Overlay, and you'll have to reduce the levels on the blue channel by 1/2, otherwise it'll mess up your normals.

[Jido]

Poop & Puck - Much appreciated, my workflow is now that much faster.

[Conejo Blanco]

Very good work! I look forward to the development!

[Jido]

I don't have an update cause I got tired of seeing Ramses and Imrod and decided to redo my sculpting. I had a good schedule going, but I rather push it with improved sculpts.

[ryvick]

very nice modelling so far Jido. Yeah Ramses and Imrod are truly inspiring works.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

I wouldn't compare your work to thiers. Your model is completely different from thiers. If you tried pushing the sculpt too far, you would loose the look of the female devil you got going.

I say, just finish up what you got and see how the normal map turns out. If your still not happy, then you can go back and pay with the mud alittle more. This way, if you run out of time, you have one normal map done and ready to o, even if you don't think it's the best. You want to finish this competition.

[Jido]

BiG ToE: I did a 1024 (considering other UVs) normal map test to get a rough idea. I wasn't going to change the design.... I couldn't get Mudbox past level 5 without it stressing my PC, but I wanted more detail in certain areas. But I did learn to strategically place more loops in those areas before import. So I figure I'd start crunching early to finish all the low poly, UVs, then resculpt... I want to start texturing by the 25th.

I axed the final 2d concept to do this faster.... I figured since it's not important for 3d comp, I'll work on it while waiting to see if I get a certificate or not