Sumea Challenge #9 - Shika

No skimping on the concept stage this time around, hells no!

I'm inspired by the concept of Ares, the Greek god of savage war, and the practical implications thereof.

Sooo I scribbled many thumbnails and picked a few shapes that I like:

I plan on taking a couple closer to a finished level in terms of fitting the brief(these things dont look Greek enough!) and solving design elements, no rendering

Guaccamole

As a guy said in an technically great looking game, with boring ass gameplay.

Nice!!

are you planning on giving him a spear, as he is traditionally depicted, or something a bit more savage as per your thumbs?

Cmon shika.... we wanna see awesome Zbrushing stuff
stop hiding your real talent

cool quick sketches btw

thanks doods
The concept of a god of savage war is what inspired me, not the image of Ares himself(not sure ive even seen him come to think of it)

I decided to start a concept sculpt based on a couple of silhouettes in the above thumbnails to see how I like the weight(I want him to be a big dude!)

on his chest is a bronze embolon, his back holds a lion

radical start shika, your thumbs are very cool and your concept model shows some unique creative. Keep up the great work.Killa Dee2007-07-09 02:18:26

Finalizing the concept before I get to work on the final base mesh

giggity goo

need to work on the scale a bit, I'm not getting the "huge mofo!" look down just yet even with the embolon and Greek shields.
I have a few ideas....
shika2007-07-10 07:47:26

Great concept, i was worried before that it was looking far to monster and not human at all. Now you can tell theres a person there :D

crazy, good work! love the details on the helm awesome.

Nice Shika as stated the helm looks awesome . I Also like the body piece it looks badass

Awesome entry dude, as always your work is above par.
My favourite entry so far. You've inspired me to come up with an entry for this comp.

-caseyjones

Thanks for the encouraging words, guys :)

Jess: I was originally hoping to push the brief a bit(or appear to) by designing some wacky armor just to trick the eye and make the viewer wonder WTF is really underneath it all.

I'll do some more sketching to see if I can bring some of that feeling back...



caseyjones: awesome! glad to hear that CJ. You're off to a good start



not much of an update, just didnt want to post without an image ;)



Here's the base mesh, but it'll change as I add to the design

Very unique design! I love the hints of "Silent Hill" and "Final Fantasy" - though they may not have been intentional inspirations for this design.



My only 'critique' would be that this character - at least imo - appears to be more of an antagonist, rather than protagonist. My eyes tell me he's more a villain than a hero. But there's something to be said about 'beauty and the beast' archetypes. Unexpected sentimentality and compassion in something that otherwise appears brutal and murderous is a nice juxtaposition.

looking good shika, I really like the idea of masked characters, makes them more mysterious. I also like the armour style, he really does look like a dude who doesnt want anyone standing in his way, thumbs up 4 me.



Waiting 4 the awesome texture and normal map 4 this guy, which is not surprising as ur work is always awesome

[QUOTE=faultymoose] Very unique design! I love the hints of "Silent Hill" and "Final Fantasy" - though they may not have been intentional inspirations for this design.



My only 'critique' would be that this character - at least imo - appears to be more of an antagonist, rather than protagonist. My eyes tell me he's more a villain than a hero. But there's something to be said about 'beauty and the beast' archetypes. Unexpected sentimentality and compassion in something that otherwise appears brutal and murderous is a nice juxtaposition.[/QUOTE]





thats a good thing that u see that



quoted from wikipedia

Ares is the son of Zeus (ruler of the gods) and Hera. Though often incorrectly referred to as the Olympian god of war, he is more accurately the god of savage war, or bloodlust, or slaughter personified.



Among the Hellenes, Ares was always distrusted





so pretty much hes a badass angry son of a bi*ch and i think Shika has portrayed that pretty well :PMassius2007-07-23 20:54:46

[QUOTE=Massius]

so pretty much hes a badass angry son of a bi*ch and i think Shika has portrayed that pretty well :P[/QUOTE]



Most definitely! There's a strong sense of brutality in this design.

No internet at my new place, so just a quick update before I get to work. I'll comment later.

insane! dang thats good shika.

god damn, thats insane



I'm going to have to pick up my game.....jesus

First impressions of your concept was a bit mixed, with all the armour complicating the form, but now that we have a better idea of what your idea is, I am blown away Excellent eye for detail as usual.

OMG That's sooooo good.

Outstanding, looking forward to the final piece.

Nice. I love the muscalature of the legs, makes him look like he's been carrying around all that baroque armour for a looong time. :)

Needs more cats dude. Lots and lots of cats.

holy crap thats awesome, just a quick question though how much of the detail will come out on the normal map, if it was a 2048 map i would not be asking, ummm i don't ask to be rude or anything

That looks damn awesome, the mesh flow is so well defined and the normal map completely pwns. *After looking at this V!rus looks at his own character in comparison and hits the delete button multiple times . Nice work cant wait 4 pose and texture.

The amour is nuts

woot internets!



faultymoose: I'm glad you got that impression. After reading the wiki description for Ares I had imagined he would be a huge scary barbarian you'd hope only to meet in a nightmare - "slaughter personified" has all sorts of scary connotations :)



drewus: he only needs one steed



shadowbreeze: good question, I'm usually surprised at how much a 1024 can carry, but in any case I'll be instancing and mirroring UV's like crazy. Guess we'll find out how much detail will come through soon





Thanks for the kind words, everyone!



I took a break from this guy, so I don't have anything new to show except this self critique, which isn't too interesting heh.



http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/shika01/bodyrender05crits.jpg



One thing that I didn't put in there was his narrow shoulders.