Rept-Avian WIP

[meanboythecat]

Hey all,
This is a WIP of a creature I've called a Rept-Avian. The base mesh was made in Lightwave. Although I still have some work to do vis-a-vis giving him things like wrinkles, scales, and some dino-like plating on his shins and toes, I thought I'd post the old boy, and see what people think. Any critiques and comments would be much appreciated.

reptavian-3-quarter.jpg
reptavian-close-up.jpg

[Twitch3d]

Amazing model... cant wait to see it finished... great job

[meanboythecat]

Thanx Twitch!
I'm hoping to start serious detailing, along with painting him, over the weekend. God please don't let my wife have any chores for me !!! :D

[Angelstein]

There's something about this I really like. Very original compared to the usual horned goblin type creatures, minotaurs and bust of old men.
I can just imagine a flock of these flitting about attacking folk! Very creepy.

[meanboythecat]

Thanks for the kind words, Angelstein!
I was definitely trying to make something original, hence the feather wings rather than pterodactyl style ones. But I don't think a flock of them would exactly "flit". I envision them about 8 feet tall!!

[Angelstein]

Yeah, I imagined you'd done this is a large scale creature, and it would be great on a large scale, but I just had Hitch****s 'The Birds' in mind, only creepier with loads of these fella's attacking people! Either way, your work is nice man ;)

[meanboythecat]

Well thanks for the encouragement, man. It's really appreciated :D
Keep an eye on the thread, as I've started to texture him, and will be posting the renders, hopefully tomorrow. Thank god the old lady is working late tonight. She sees ZBrush as the other woman :lol:

[meanboythecat]

Hey there everybody,
I've finally started texturing the creature. Just wanted to keep the thread updated. I like what I've done so far.Tonight, god willing, I will be able to work on the legs and the tail.

reptavian-textured-3-quarte.jpg

[Angelstein]

Starting to remind me of Ray Harryhausen's work.

Coming along nicely ;)

[Freakish]

It looks like something from Egyptian mythology.

[meanboythecat]

Angelstein: Harryhausen? Now THAT'S a compliment. The Sinbad movies are among my top ten FX movies. Thank you so very much.
Freakish: Now that you mention it, yeah! The funny thing is, the character originally was not going to look like this at all! He was going to be an ogre or troll of some kind,with hooves. But then I realised that that has been done to DEATH on this site,(no offense to anybody) so I went for something a bit more original. I remember seeing a great image of Quetzalcoatl somewhere, and the blending of reptilian and avian characteristics inspired the look of the character.

Anyhow, I got a bit more done last night (had to wait until the old lady went to bed), so enjoy... I should be able to get the legs done tonight, so painting and texturing, here we come! I'm going to have to comb the site for tutes and whatnot for that part, because my attempts at painting have been...less than satisfying :cry:

3-quarters-wingless.jpg
from-behind.jpg
TORSO.JPG
front-render.jpg

[Angelstein]

Glad to see some updates! Nice detailing on the wings mate, did you use a real feather pic as an alpha brush?

Your comments were spot on by the way, I noticed that some real talented folk are doing the same old things over and over. I think your work stands out more because of this.

I'm curious to see your choice of colours? I too have yet to really get to grips with colouring my models in Zbrush. I find it a little confusing, but I'm a still getting enjoyment just concentrating on the sculpting/modeling side of things, so I'm not that fussed yet!

Keep up the good work man ;)

[meanboythecat]

Glad you like it, Angelstein!
As for colors, I'm really not sure yet. I don't want to go too colorful, because i want him to look like a bad-ass predator,rather than a parrot. But at the same time, I don't want to go a boring grey. I see him as a jungle or forest dweller, so I'm thinking shades of green and brown for the skin, with a yellow, creamy white, or an orangey yellow for the chest and the underside of the tail. Most of the head will be a dirty bone color, with either shiny black or yellow for the beak.

For the wings, (which no, by the way, I didn't use a real image of a feather. I used one I made in photoshop), I'm thinking of saving them for bright colors. Maybe blue, yellow and red.

But who knows? I suppose after I've finished all the detailing and whatnot, I'll take a render into photoshop and do some color scheme tests. I'll be sure to post those.

[kevphil]

Wonderful detailing!

[meanboythecat]

Thanks kevphill!
But you ain't seen nothin' yet! I recently learned that I can further subdivide just parts ot the model, so I plan to put in a LOT more detail on the arms, legs, tail, chest and feathers.

[madmac]

I like it, very cool idea...

It would be nice to see some subcutaneous bony structures. For example the legs would sell a little better if you could see some of the bones of the knees and ankles just under the surface. This would give the impression of a skeleton underneath that is supporting his weight. . and give the character some added believability of a real animal.

Just an opinion of course...

I'ts a cool design and I can't wait to see it finished :)

[meanboythecat]

Hey all,
I had a chance to work on the character over the weekend, and I've almost finished the detailing stage. I think that I'm going to re-do the texture on the legs though. Looking at it now, the scales seem a bit too big, compared to the arms.

I've attached some renders, with the wings hidden, so enjoy, and as usual, any comments or crits are welcome.

Madmac: Thank you for taking a look, and your comments are very much apprecated. I will definitely show some underlying bone structure.

detailed-3-quarters.jpg
detailed-front-view.jpg
detailed-arm.jpg

[Angelstein]

Still got my eye on this :rolleyes:

Updates please! :D

[meanboythecat]

Hey Angelstein, mate!!
Coming soon, coming soon..I've been busy working on a bit of re-modelling, and now I'm working on the texturing and color scheme. Should have summat to post by thursday or friday.

[Angelstein]

No prob' mate :D

Looking forward to it ;)

[meanboythecat]

Hi folks,
What with moving and all, I haven't had much time for zbrushing, but now that everything is back to normal, voila the updates.
I've changed a few things about the character: I hated the way that I made his skin originally, so I've changed it to more of a komodo dragon type of pebbliness. I also added a lot more ridges and the like to his body. Except for his feet and underbelly, the raw sculpting is done. I'm planning on working him over in projection master tonight, for some fine detailing.
Comments and crits, are of course, encouraged and appreciated.

3-4-winged.jpg
3-4-behind.jpg
front-close-up.jpg

[meanboythecat]

Hi there.
What with having a lot of free time during the holidays, I've had the time to do some serious Zbrushing. I've been working on this character off and on for ......well, too long, frankly. I'm really happy with the way he is turning out.
I will be finishing the legs and eye area tomorrow. Then comes mapping and exporting. This will be a first.
Any crits or comments are more than welcome.
PS: I used the pinch tool quite a bit. Will that affect my chances at gatting good results in a normal or displacement map?

Thanks, and enjoy.

3-quarters-full-body.jpg
body-close-up.jpg
rear.jpg
arm-close-up.jpg