AVATAR - 3D - Jibberwocky - Ghrom Forerunner

[Jibberwocky]

Just now joined to enter the comp. Coming in a bit late, I suppose.
Anyway, I got the idea for my creature while messing with my dad's false teeth while he was asleep and it's been slowly forming in my head since then. After hearing of this competition I started working up a story to fit it. The actual model I started on just yesterday, so it's a bit rough yet.

The Ghrom are a nomadic race of industrial profiteers, traveling from planet to planet in an unending search for energy. They need this energy to power their machines, which in turn will be used to build bigger machines that will need more energy. Anything that can be burned to fuel their industrial empire will be burned, and anything blocking their cyclic goal will be removed. It helps that they are on average a mere two feet tall, but their hulking mechanical do-nothings often cover hundreds of miles. Newly invaded planets are forever despoiled by endless machine cities within a few years and are promptly abandoned the moment all resources have been sucked dry.
The Ghrom's greedy, uncaring nature is plainly reflected in their physical appearance. With large teeth and emotionless grins, they have an air of relentless hunger about them.

Here's the latest.

[Jibberwocky]

Started roughing out the body and added some detail to the head. I wanted to go for a more gruesome look, so I decided to make his skin look like layered strips of flesh stretched tight over his skull. Sort of like the old skin on the surface stretches and frays rather than dying and flaking off. Like rawhide, or something. Did a little texturing as well, but it's still a very early first draft.
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/1231/ghromtest6fv3.jpg
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/4858/ghromtest9jl2.jpg

[Jibberwocky]

Cleaned and detailed the texture and added a bumpmap.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/2155/ghromtest12nz6.jpg
Lighting test.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/9610/ghromtest13vp4.jpg

[washka]

Never said "Bite me!" to this guy. :D

Nice teeth.

[Jibberwocky]

Lol yeah, he would definitely bite. I was thinking about making the teeth look a little rotten, but I figure if teeth is all he's got he's going to take care of them. Thanks for the comment.

[mr_carl]

Thats some really big teeth dude, the glowing thing is a nice part as well and you are probably right if teeth is the only thing he got he will probably take care of them.
Nice modelling and textures keep up the great work.

[Jibberwocky]

Thanks a lot, man. I ought to have a decent update pretty soon. I'm gonna have to re-skin him though. He's got some seam problems at the moment, and I think I can make better use of space in my texture..

[Mr.fE]

Looks cool and cute! It reminds me somenthing like EarthWorm Jim but meaner!!
...why not having teeth a little bit more "random" in position and with some missing shards...it might add realism and personality I guess...

[Jibberwocky]

I've been planning on it, actually. If you look close, the edges of the teeth are still pretty angular. I've mostly been focusing on the head itself until now, but that's next. Thanks for the comment.

[DaddyDoom]

he should be called Jawbberwocky instead :D

[Jibberwocky]

he should be called Jawbberwocky instead :D

Lol. I'm not actually sure yet if I'll give him a name as such. Ghrom is the name of the race. I'm thinking individuals just get a title and number for identification.

I did some work on the suit and started thinking about what powers it. While the Ghrom are big on using energy for their machines, their pretty stingy with it when it comes to ground forces. No love for the grunts. So I came up with I nice load of BS called the Clockwork Fission Drive. Don't ask me how it works, this is logic on par with saying I made the kessel run in .5 parsecs. They just turn the key and it works for a while. The Drive is enclosed in the backpack. I'm in the middle of getting it in there at the moment.
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/5826/ghrom20bs3.jpg
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4243/ghrom21xv1.jpg
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/179/ghrom22xw7.jpg

[mr_carl]

the backpack is looking really great, and I like how you come up with stories about this and that really sweet.

[Jibberwocky]

Thanks, glad you like it.

[Jibberwocky]

Finally got around to texturing the body. I was putting it off...
The upper body, forearms and boots are all meant to be a hardshell while the rest is a sort of flexible mesh. Hopefully it looks like that to everyone else. I know the contrast looks a little high, but I think it'll contribute to the look of the final scene if I don't screw it up.

http://i42.tinypic.com/o6bub8.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/288teo9.jpg

[Mr.fE]

looks cool brother!

It's a fearsome sweety!!!

Keep Rocking!!

AVATAR (http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?t=64917)

[Jibberwocky]

Thanks, man.

Updated the first post with the latest render.
I threw a bumpmap on the body and temporarily lit the scene to highlight it.
Here's a few more.
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/5730/ghrom31.jpg
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/343/ghrom32.jpg

[decosouza]

Hey.. it looks very nice brother! Good concept too! Almost in the end..hurry up!!

[Jibberwocky]

Thanks. And yeah, I gotta finish up on the scene pronto. I've laid the groundwork, but there's still a lot I want to do. Hopefully Murphy's Law doesn't throw a stick in my spokes.

[mr_carl]

heye man, liking the textures and I´m really looking foreword to see the environment, so common and hurry up with updates :)

[Jibberwocky]

Thanks, man. I worked through most of the night on the environment, and I'm pretty happy with it so far. Crashed my machine when I tried importing the character, though. Hopefully I'll figure out what went wrong, I'd really rather do the lighting all at once instead of reproducing it for the separate elements. It just never looks as good, somehow. Probably because the light can't bounce between the objects? Anyway, the large mushroom looking structures are basically energy extractors that suck the planet dry and broadcast the power into orbit. I'm still not sure if I want that energy to be visible, like massive beams going up through the atmosphere. I'll at least do a mockup to see how it looks.
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/178/reactorfield2.jpg

[mr_carl]

the foreground my need a little more work. I really like the glow of the sky and the plant is excellent. I absolutely think you should at least try with the beams because now it feels like something is missing.

[Jibberwocky]

Got the character imported alright and did a bunch more lighting work. I'm getting very close to the final render, now. Mostly just texture cleanup to do, and maybe a little more geometry detail. Perhaps a few weather effects if I've got time. I decided against the beams. They kind of broke the eye flow for the image, which I think is rather nice, as-is. Note that this is just Maya and Photoshop, I don't intend to use anything like aftereffects. (Mostly because I don't have anything like that.)
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6279/ghromscene5testres.jpg

[mr_carl]

Love it, that's all I can say.

[Jibberwocky]

Thanks, man. That means a lot, knowing your own skill in this department.

[elenadintroia]

I really like your story, the concept is great, really good SF scenary, incredible atmosphere... I was amused by your inspiration (your dad's false teeth), I think it's great idea and the result looks so good, it's strange and funny in the same time.

[cobaltblue]

I like d silhouetty figures in d background.
is this finish already? what else is missing here?
good luck man

[Jibberwocky]

Thanks a lot for the kind words, guys.
@cobaltblue: I guess the biggest thing is the sky. At the moment it's just a plane with a glow effect on it, and I want to get a little more variance in it. Besides that, it's mostly just a pile of texture details and geometry tweaks that need doing. Not all of it is really visible at this size, but at print resolution it stands out.

[decosouza]

Wonderful!!

[trashmito]

It's so nice :).

[Jibberwocky]

Thanks a lot, guys. I'll upload the full res image here as soon as I can. (Takes too long at home, no DSL service here.)

[spartan118]

Nice Jibberwocky, love the lighting. What software are you using

[Jibberwocky]

Maya 2008 and Photoshop CS4.

[mr_carl]

Good luck man, as I said before great image, I really like you're character he is awesome.

[washka]

You got an original character concept, I also really like the dominating impression of the "towers" of your environement, they got some aura amplified by the backlights.
Good luck!

[Jibberwocky]

Thanks, guys! Good luck to you too.