DWIII - 3D - Steamtrooper - The SunDancer

[Steamtrooper]

Name: The SunDancer
Class: Warlord
Artifact: Sun Shield
Element: Light/Holy

In times of great peril the finest brave is staked deep in the desert to face the Great God Beast. If the brave survives this trial and is deemed worthy by the God of the people his body undergoes a magical transformation, developing insectoid characteristics, mantis strike weapons upon his arms and legs, and great speed, grace and strength.

The leg strikes while allowing great sweeps and stabs and a blow greater that the largest clubs, also allow the Sundancer to make incredible leaps and travel at great speeds.

The Arm blades also allow the brave to throw spear, arrow and stone alike with the force to drop the greatest of the carapaced creatures of the plains.

After the transformation the SunDancer must return to the desert to face his ancestor the Great God Beast, in whose head the Sun Shield has grown, the greatest of the peoples Artifacts, if his meeting with the beast is succesful he must rip the Shield free of its ancient protector and become the SunDancer proper. His life is a dedication to his people, but he must travel the path alone, walking the deserts and facing all that would cause harm to his people.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/3823/sdwip002copyjj5.png (http://imageshack.us)

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/885/sdcvhestnabsty7.png (http://imageshack.us)

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/5961/sd3viewbllchbcopyxu8.png (http://imageshack.us)

He stands ready atop the great stacks scanning the reddening horizon and liking not what his senses show to him, War is coming...

All refs and help gladly appreciated.

[Steamtrooper]

Doh! sorry admin, deleted wrong pic and cant re-post till Tues.

[kicksachi]

:halo:Okay...to say the truth...your concept is unique. Focus on the Tribal tatoos and other Red Indian details.

[Steamtrooper]

Thanks kicksachi, I figured there were enough 'monster' type champions being sent into the DW, so wanted to portray a more heroic warrior. Im sure he will have some skinwork, but for the moment Im trying to decide whether to make him totally human with carapace armour and equipment. Or should I go with a more insectoid humanoid? More like the little grasshopper guy from the micronauts?

Anyhoo Ive had a bit of time to try out some concepts sils, not much done yet as Ive spent a lot of my time getting into the reference books and sites and learning more about Native Americans.

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/4858/dw3concept001sils004qi1.png (http://imageshack.us)

[Steamtrooper]

Updated the thumb to represent my concepts at moment. Very rough n early.

Heres a nother.

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/5548/sdarcherpose01nz3.png (http://imageshack.us)

[Puckducker]

Nice. I like the great headdress and bow....will make a pretty cool looking character. The tribal design should make him standout as well.

Not too much to crit for now really. Looking forward to more updates.

[Steamtrooper]

Thanks Puckducker, glad you think so. Im working a lot on paper for the tats and decoration, mainly because I just dont draw nearly enough and the sun is out.

For now Im deciding on the leg blade layout, I envisage them as being attached to the leg springer rig, with the handles being flintlock pistol type, the handles being the 'foot' of the springer. With grassshopper type segements telescoping out to form the spring bar. I want them to be very fast to deploy as both leg and hand weapons as well as for the springer rig. Which of these blade types do people prefer? or if ou have an idea a paintover would be great.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/321/skwipcomparrison001smalpx1.png (http://imageshack.us)

Im prety set on my Artifact now, its the 'Sun Shield', carried upon the Sundancers back the solar properties of Stones set into this ancient artifact allow for extended jumping and falling with style.

When thrown the Shield can be guided and the SunDancers vision extended through the sunstones in its centre and the secondary stones set on its perimeter.

Thrown in line with the sun, the very power of the great giver can be focused, and thrown, through the stones, for multiple medium attacks or a greater single shot.

So we got mobility, recon and early/first strike capabilities. Defense wise I guess a shield made from sky metal and stones has some uses, and maybe the antigrav capabilities could be used to dissuade those pesky .50 cal HEAP shells from their intended target. Of course all this comes with one big disadvantage, DARKNESS.

If, no! when, the enemy comes in the dead of night ino the darkest caves, the Sundancers power is cut off from the Giver and drawn from the artifacts reserves, vast but finite, he better be fast to fight or fleet of foot, both of which he most assuredly is...

Class : Invoker or Warlord?
Artifact Weapon: Sun Shield - although not sure if Light/Holy or Fire/Lava is the more appropriate? any thoughts?

[Steamtrooper]

Stuck a placeholer shield in to keep me focused. The shield will be more ornate with a sun, sunbeam motif, One central, main stone with most likely 8 minor stones in the rim. The inner side I havent realy thought about yet but Ill get to it.

After some diversions Ive settled more or less on my general look, Im going to be experimenting with the armour next as shown a bit in the coloured area, the coconut crab is my main ref for this, any other crustacean, insect refs appreciated. I think Ill revise the handles again and make them a little higher. And the blades will also be insect shell, but I got distracted and put a grey fill in, doh!

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/3068/skydancerwip003copyqd6.png (http://imageshack.us)
C & C welcome.

[Steamtrooper]

Latest concept. Ive decided to retread the backstory slightly, The warrior chosen and deemed most worthy to represent the clan for the sundance is staked in the desert to confront the greatest of god beast. If the trial is completed the warrior is broken free of his piercing shackles only to become host to the God beast power via a brutal desecration of his body. With time the warrior recovers then undergoes a monstrous transformation, he must then face the beast again, on more even footing, this second rite is to gain the power of the Sun shield the ancient artifact that the God beast's of long time have guarded. The Sundancer is then proven and sent forth to fight the ultimate battle.. I'll clean up the rightup later but I hope it gives you a basic idea of what Im doing.

http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/1954/sdconcept002wip001yw7.png (http://imageshack.us)

C & C welcome

[Steamtrooper]

Hi all, been avoiding updateing too much as Im working between systems and it becomes very tiresome.

Ive prety much got my base mesh ready in Max for some tidying up in ZB. Used ZB already to fast concept and test normals but now have to realy get things moving.
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/6516/sdwip001bj0.png (http://imageshack.us)
There is a shield that is all but done, I thought Id hold off posting that for a while.

Hope you like and C & C welcome.

[Conejo Blanco]

It's refreshing to see someone else doing a tribal kind of thing... I'm really diggin it man. Gotta hurry up though, not much time left!!

[Warlock 279]

I'm liking it. The big headdress should look awesome once textured and finished. I think you should have a lot options for some nice color use as well. Time is short, like Blanco said, I hope you can get it finished.

[Steamtrooper]

Thanks guys.

Yeah Conejo the War just screamed tribal to me, plus I wanted to make this a test of normals and textures rather than modelling so Ive gone with a very lightly carapaced skin, almost just human but cracked, well see how that comes out in the next couple of days hopefully.

At the moment Im thinking of a light tan skin with vibrant red, blue,yellow and white decorations and markings, I looked into desert camo with a view to going UN type colouring but Im not set on anything at this point, thats the weekends task.

Warlock 279 - I hope I dont disappoint on the headress, Ive gone through so many redesigns that Ill be honest, Im not exactly sure where the Zbrushing is gonna go so well have to see :)

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1316/sdwipdanglesmaincopykw4.png (http://imageshack.us)

Just added in some polies here and there, and popped his loincloth and wraps on. I did do some weapon closeups to show the extension and Springwalker mechanisn but after scrabbling back my lost 6 hours I didnt get back to doing those yet.

C & C welcome

[Steamtrooper]

K Im calling the basemesh done, Ive got some polies spare but Im keeping them for later.

Now onto ZBrushing proper.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/3823/sdwip002copyjj5.png (http://imageshack.us)

C & C welcomed.

[Conejo Blanco]

Steam, this is looking really great. I think your approach is far more novel than most ppl's as you are deriving your ideas from real life history and culture, as opposed to the glut of people who are trying to make yet another fantasy warrior... nothing wrong with that, but all the great designs of fantastic warriors etc are, like yours, derived from real things in the world. Maybe if he had a real animal pelt or something, like jaguar or something? Totally just musing off the top of my head. I would make sure, however, that his face/mask has a lot of personality in it... if it's a tribal mask, which is what I think it is, make sure that, even if it's very abstract, it has a decided emotion and intensity. That'll really help to focus the the audience's attention.
I'm so sorry you lost so much work! There's nothing worse than losing tons and tons of work, although the silver lining is that I sometimes find, when you go back and do what you did before, that you have more direction, and you tend to do it better... is it worth it? Not at all... but it's a nice way of trying to look at it.
I like where you're going with this, keep it up. I haven't used that program yet, but I have checked out the site, and probably tonight I'll mess around with it and see what I can come up with. Thanks for the feedback, and I will definitely be using either that program, or Crazybump, which I hear can derive pretty good ambient occlusion maps. Most likely I'll message you when/if I need help figuring out that program. Thanks for all your help, and keep this up, I really love where it's going!

[Steamtrooper]

Hi Conejo, thanks for the praise, Im a bit anal at times which means I have to be able to justify even fantasy characters to myself before I can get enthusiastic. Its a trait that runs through my art and writing and even games I decide to purchase, I couldnt face playing Bioshock as the world is too abstract for me to engage with if you see what I mean.

Animal pelt - well it has been considered believe me, but Im thinking most of the flauna in his local habitat is land based crustaceans, descendents from some anicent dried up sea, but I think I might be able to put some ermine wraps through the two lumps of hair falling to his chest.

Face wise, Im aware the renders arent realy showing certain areas too well yet, hands, weapons and that face, but I have spent sometime on that area recently. Basically his face is the most armoured area of his body, its organic Guyver type armour with no mask to speak of, but it will hopefully have an inscrutible stern native american look while mixing in quite insect like characteristics. Im avoided going with actual mandibles as they make the face too inhuman, but Ive echoed the lower jawline with a mandible type appendage which I hope will look ok. But thanks your perfectly right about getting in emtion and instensity, those spare polies are going into the face after the normals have been applied and will be the last thing I tweek I think.

The great catastrophy was a bad bad time, but silver lining and all that I only lost about 6 hours and managed to get most of that re-done last night by pulling a late one. And yup I think maybe I did most of it better, the chest and legs perhaps need some more work but I want them bulky for Zbing at the moment.

Im sure youll get on fine with Xnormal or Crazybump but give me a shout if I can help.

All the best

[Conejo Blanco]

The only reason I bring up the face thing is because people often want their face to be drawn in to some part of the scene, and it's usually the face, so if the face isn't engaging enough, people's eyes tend to slide off the page. You might consider putting a face somewhere else, somehow, or just eyes or something (I don't mean real ones, I mean like painted or sculpted ones) that can kind of speak for the character's personality, etc, or at least the look the CHARACTER HIMSELF is going for, you know? Kind of like a samurai mask (http://www.japanese-somen.com/somen_2.jpg). Again, just an idea, I don't think you'll suffer if you don't follow that up at all :)

[Steamtrooper]

Yup I know what your saying, Ill do my best to make his face and decoration catch the eye. The face is going to be somewhat based on Thule bone carvings and Inuit/Thule Snow visors, so even though his eyes arent realy visible (beyone a glint that is) the design should give him big enough eye type motif to draw people in.. I hope.

K started to add the muscle on to him, hes a lithe ballet dancer/swimmer type build, after the basic muscle bulk is added Ill be putting his 'armour' layer on, which will be more 'cracked skin' than armour par se.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/885/sdcvhestnabsty7.png (http://imageshack.us)

C & C welcome.

[Steamtrooper]

More...

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/5961/sd3viewbllchbcopyxu8.png (http://imageshack.us)

[kicksachi]

The body work is impressive.

[Conejo Blanco]

I really like where this is going, Steam, and I really like the body... he's as sculpted and artistic as his outfit, and I really appreciate that... his immaculate, almost sculpture-like body fits his whole aesthetic beautifully. I can't wait to see his mask!

[Warlock 279]

I agree with what's been said, he's very "chiseled" in a sense almost reminds me of a wooden/carved Indian, its a look that fits quite well with the long lean nature of your character and the artistic aesthetic you have going. I think its coming along quite nicely.

[L3XICON]

great work steamtrooper :D I am with Warlock in that it has a real feel of a wood carving, / chiselled look.

the huge headress is also going to look really cool once textured! my only concern (i think has been pointed out before) is that the mask covering the face currently removes character from the face / head. would love to see either more of the face, or possibly a more dynamic design to the mask :D
other than that, I really like the gaunt, lithe anatomy and looking forward to seeing how you approach the texturing, keep it up! :D

[Steamtrooper]

Thanks a lot guys, I realy appreciate the encouragement. There were lots of words I love being said in reference to me there :).

Today is my deadline for the final normals, although Ive already rendered out low overhead versions to create my diffuse templates and other maps, just so I could get a head start on texturing him up.

The mask!, yup seems to be a problem so far, but Im fairly certain the structure I have is upto the task. Trying to look at it with a neutral eye is hard for me, as I see what I want to see if you know what I mean, but Ill admit the area is muddy from a distance, hopefully the diffuse will help here.

I hope youll be suprised at the design when you see it closer, hopefully in a good way, a side view would explain a lot, but Im a tease ;)

Ill post up some closeups and a quick texture test to see what peoples opinions are on this as it could be a big issue. But worry not as I have all my components in max exported seperately into ZB so I can always go back and do a rework. In fact everything is this way, so if I get a day or two spare at the end I can go back and do some more ZBing. Although I think any spare time is still Plinth time.

Thanks for the support guys and good luck to you all

[miclepickle]

nice sculpting, i like the design too ^.^

[Steamtrooper]

Thanks Miclepickle.

Updates few and far between as its so hard for me to work between main PC and online Laptop, need all the time for work sorry.

http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/2883/sdstutterquickev0.flv

Good luck everyone.

[Steamtrooper]

More time on textures was desperately needed (lesson learnt), but I kind of limped over the line at least.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8758/beautyshotui4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/6171/winningshotzs5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Good luck everyone and its been a lot of fun.

[Warlock 279]

I'm glad you managed to get finished up to a point you had something to submit as I've been looking forward to seeing you get some color and textures on there.

Like you said the textures could maybe use a little work yet, but I still think it turned out quite nice, and I think you managed to make the most out of your base pose as well.

You managed to carry your style across both the modeling and the textures without any problems it seems. Its not completely realistic but at the same time seems very plausible. I think I've mentioned the style of your piece every time I've commented, but its different from most of what's around, and I'm really diggin' it.

Well done, and best of luck in the judging.

[L3XICON]

I'm glad you managed to get finished up to a point you had something to submit as I've been looking forward to seeing you get some color and textures on there.

Like you said the textures could maybe use a little work yet, but I still think it turned out quite nice, and I think you managed to make the most out of your base pose as well.

You managed to carry your style across both the modeling and the textures without any problems it seems. Its not completely realistic but at the same time seems very plausible. I think I've mentioned the style of your piece every time I've commented, but its different from most of what's around, and I'm really diggin' it.

Well done, and best of luck in the judging.

ditto :D

really glad you got to completion steamtrooper :) completely agree with warlock in that this has a really different 'style' to it. tempted to spend some more time on textures now competition is over and see what results ya get?

[Conejo Blanco]

I agree, this to me is by far one of the most original and engaging characters, and I while I know you feel harried and stymied by the deadline, I think you should be proud of what you did, it's great.

You say you wanted more time to texture, and while it may be extremely difficult to do so now, I'd suggest you keep working on this until you really think it's finished... especially after a contest is over, the desire to get your thing even better fades quickly, since one always thinks "I mean really, what's the point? I'll just move on." But at the same time I think it's during times like that, when there's no point and still I won't accept an incomplete performance... I think I learn the most from those times. Plus I really want to see what this can look like completely finished! Well done man, we finally made it (I feel like I ran a marathon).

[Steamtrooper]

Thanks a lot guys, youve all been very helpfull and motivational. Canejo your comments came at a point where I was realy about to falter, and gave me the shove to keep on going, have a big manly cyber hug. Warlock you too kept me moving, thanks a lot.

I spent a lot of time with my browser open on both Lexicon and Canejo's work to keep me motivated and because they are just soo nice to look at.

For me this was a challenge to work to a deadline (Im a bugger for time frames), and mainly a chance to learn something about low poly organic modelling, especially normals and AO which Id never realy touched upon before. Ive always been a machine modellor and this is my first ever organic biped so I guess Im kind of happy it got this far. The rigging was fudged as time restrained me but Id appreciate any and all help getting this finished guys, feel free to add me onto Messenger, I promise I wont pester too much.

Lexicon and Conejo - Im definately up for taking this to completion, I spent far too long playing with Normals and not getting the results I wanted (mainly due to a compromise I had to make in workflow due to PC power), but Ive already set myself a couple of weeks 2d practice to try to get my textures sorted. Im currently trying to catch up on some of that lost sleep but in a day or two Im back on it, I promise.

Yup it was a good long hard run but it was definately worth it in the end. I learnt a bundle of stuff that should help out greatly in the future and saw some great work unfold on the DW forums.