Action Hero - War Eagle

[electricCAT]

by John Rose

War Eagle was once a legendary hunter and warrior among the many tribes of the northern plains. Now rejected by the nations for his fierce and relentless style of fighting, War Eagle was banished from his tribe. Several fellow indians left with him to the Big Horn mountains of Wyoming. It was here that he met a man named Sirus37-1511.
Sirus knew of War Eagle's achievements and reputation and offered him a position on his team of super high-tech warriors. The team was called the Eternal Army and each warrior had a unique powers. Sirus told War Eagle that they were going to change the world. Unfortunately War Eagle didn't ask how it would come to be or what expense.
As a member of this elite team, War Eagle received a special suit, custom tailored that enhanced his fighting abilities. The suit's material bonded to War Eagle's epidermis layer and acts as a thermal insulator, maintaining his skin temperature at a constant 78 degrees Fahrenheit. The suit sends out a sonic beacon to summon or warn animals within miles of his location. The silver strip along his arm and back extends retractable metal wings (Sharp as a razor yet light as a feather). Heightened senses such as smell, sight, and hearing miles away.
After the team disbanded he followed his own path and found himself in unfamiliar territory defending the innocent and helpless. Recently he modified his suit to with traditional indian symbols, coverings and jewelry. He is often seen running with a pack of wolves with eagles above him.


Primary Powers:
Ability to fly with his metallic wings.
Communicate with animals.
Heightened sense of smell, hearing and sight.(up to 5 miles)
Resistant to environmental changes.

Weakness: His suit is solar powered so during cloudy days it functions at 50% capacity and at night it basically useless except for keeping his body temperature consistent.

concept

[KrakenCMT]

Oh, yeah! I really love the Native American theme here. Great suit design and interesting story.

Don't know why, but he reminds me just a little bit of Hawk from the Buck Rogers series waaaaaayy back in the day. :lol:

[aiman]

PIMP! I love the idea of a native american hero! He Looks so much more interesting than chief tomahawak from Street Fighter. I really like the gold on his costume. Good Luck!

[SolidSnakexxx]

Cool motif and character design. :cool:

[vincenzi]

great! this is my favorite one so far. Good luck !

[Slosh]

Yes, yes, yes. Love the idea and your sketch for his costume is great.

[Captain Cartesian]

I like the theme. Your concept sketches are a great start. I am looking forward to your progress.

[Captain Sensible]

I just know it's gonna look awesome. Keep us updated! :)

[Fess]

I really like the concept and the story for your character, good luck!

[Twitchmonkey]

Very nice. The concept and story both seem well thought out. Keep up the good work.

[gabo1991]

I can't wait to see how your going to do the wings.

Paul

[electricCAT]

I'm not very good with Zspheres so I produced something simple enough to edit. Got the base mesh out of Maya and into Z.

WE-_WIP1.jpg

[Moni-Poroni]

Hey :) youre Concept Sketch is rather good.. I like the Eagle head he´s wearing and I like the Indian Influence...
Can´t wait to see the next WIP Pics;)

[electricCAT]

Thanks to all who have commented on my idea. I'm fairly new to this program so it will be interesting to see well I can pull this off.
Here is my rough blocking stage.

WE-_WIP2.jpg

[Teyon]

I love the suit design. It's going to be fun seeing how this turns out. Are you going to do the wings and head dress as subtools or are you going to pull them from the base?

[jp_smith]

Bad ass, i love the theme, great concept. :lol:

[electricCAT]

I am looking toward SubTools for the wings. But that amount of SubTools would be crazy. That is definately a problem that needs to be tested prior to building. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[electricCAT]

I've made some adjustments to a more comic book style character (smaller head and longer legs). Still much to do.
Can't wait to get to the suit and headress.

WE-_WIP3.jpg

[dustbin1_uk]

Love the concept!!

Just a couple of tips if that's ok?

I think the biceps are just a tad too inflated and the upper leg muscles need a bit of work, they look a bit melted. The upper leg a bit too long compared to the lower.

Try using a material that has less shine on it. Sometimes the shine makes the detailing harder to see.

As for the wings, and subtools, you could try something like they do here:
http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Tutorial:_Bird_of_Prey

But great effort so far!! Keep going!!

[gabo1991]

Hey ElectricCAT

Have you looked at the following tutorial?

http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Tutorial:_Bird_of_Prey

This may help you and give you some ideas.

Paul

[electricCAT]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I will look at that tutorial and do some rework on the body. I'm a bit slower thatn most here but I won't give up till I get the base mesh correct. Then I'll jump into the suit, headress and wings.

[electricCAT]

After reviewing the critiques, I dropped down a few subdivision levels and deleted the high rez. I focused more on the form and set aside detail for now. I am much happier with my new mesh and I am now going to start on the Subtools.

WE_WIP4.jpg

[SolidSnakexxx]

This guy's got real powerful back muscles. I think this one is much better revision from your last. Looking cool so far. Can't wait for the feathers either. :tu:

[MINTY]

A really strong start. The character already has a sense of real power. Looking forward to seeing more updates soon! :tu:

[dustbin1_uk]

Yeah!! Much better!! :tu:

[skullbeast]

This will be freak'n cool! Awesome concept! :tu: :tu: :cool:

[electricCAT]

Started to build the eagle's head from ZSpheres. Which, I'd have to admit, I'm not very good at.

WE_WIP5.jpg

[electricCAT]

I added a necklace using ZSpheres and Primitive Spheres.

WE_WIP6.jpg

[electricCAT]

And some hair.
Everything is still low rez.

WE_WIP7SubTools.jpg

[electricCAT]

Tried to build some moccasins from ZSpheres but found it easeir and quicker to do a mesh extraction instead.

WE_WIP8SubTools.jpg
WE_WIP9SubTools.jpg
WE_WIP10SubTools.jpg

[dustbin1_uk]

Wow you got that process nailed down!

Looking forward to seeing this all go high res!!

[GregStrangis]

Sweet concept man!, How do you plan on doing his metallic wings?? I would suggest maybe doing 3 layers of feathers each as its own subtool with random heights and place them over each other and correct the clipping issue after that. Just a suggestion =)

[electricCAT]

That's what I was thinking. I don't want to work with a single mesh so, I will have to produce multiple objects in the shape of feathers. Since it's not real feathers, I thought I would get a little creative with the design.

The feathers on the eagle's head will be realistic feathers, just not the wings.

[Drakelot]

Looking good ... xcellent so far :tu:

[electricCAT]

Sickness knoocked me down for a few days. Hope to do some catching up now.

WE_WIP11.jpg

[SolidSnakexxx]

I like what you have so far.. Do you poly paint as you sculpt? Still can't wait for the feather wings :o Looking forward to that,...and hope you are well from the illness...

[wethand]

this is looking nice so far! keep going

[electricCAT]

SolidSnakexxx - yes I do paint as I go just to keep my concept fresh in my mind. Eventually I just go back to grey and do more sculpting. This painting is quick to see if I like the ideas first.

wethand - Thanks. I working hard. Hardware meltdown today. Have to rush back in to post another update.

Drakelot - Thanks. Still haven't nailed down how the wings are going to look yet. Working on the moccasins now and suit details.

Posting tomorrow...

[sazar26]

thats looking really nice with the anatomy but I have one comment and its about the forarms...I think they should be a bit longer and bigger but thats just me

[cacacho]

Very nice muscle definition, is coming out nicely. I'm waiting on the wings update. great work man.

[electricCAT]

I made some changes to the mocassins today. Made them shorter as most Male Indian wore short shoes and added a calf sock thing.
I also reconstructed the chest peice to mimic the traditional indian chest plate.
Sazar26 - I did extend the forearms a bit and thickened them up too. Thanks for spotting that.

(How do you guys post your images 'fullsize' in your post?)

new.jpg
moccasin.jpg

[SolidSnakexxx]

I like the update to his chest piece..very good detail control. :tu: Did you use alpha or any specific technique?

[electricCAT]

SolidSnakexxx - I used the Extract technique on the shell and handsculpted the iner lines.

Worked on the Moccasins a bit more today.

WE_WIP12.jpg

[electricCAT]

Okay, I've got the primary form of the wings put together. Saved these out as seperate Tools and then appended them to the existing model.

A bit of a slow down in performance today. With the addition to the wings, my poly are now at 33.9 MILLION !

WE_WIP13.jpg

[JHK3D]

beautiful anatomy!

[luis2008]

the legs look great. how did you do the wings. i cant wait to see him in action. good job

[electricCAT]

I created each feather one by one and layered them together as a complete Tool. When I impoted this tool and Appended it to my character each feather then became a seperate polgroup while the shapes themselves reamain as a single Subtool. This should prove easier to manipulate later... I hope.

[SolidSnakexxx]

Just love the wings and feathers man.... It's going to look cool when he's spanning it in action shot!

[electricCAT]

Still much to do. I'm kind of looking forward to finding my limit with polys at the same time. Right now I'm pushing close to 34,000,000 Polys. But, I still have to work on the face and the eagle headress and some bead work.

Q: How many polys are you guys running at full rez?

[electricCAT]

I made each of the feathers to appear as if they were made from metal. I designed 5 different feathers (so far) and placed them one at a time. Not sure how I'm going to move all this with Transpose maaster. Just have to wait and see.

Up to 34.8 Million Polys now.

feather1.jpg
feather2.jpg
feather3.jpg
feather4.jpg
feather5.jpg

[electricCAT]

You can see how thin the feathers are along the side. I actually modeled them as 2 seperate pieces and merged them together using SubTool.

ThinFeathers.jpg
Alphafeathers.jpg

[electricCAT]

His suit is supposed to appear as native skin and so I added the traditional butt flap into the suit's design. Much of his design is from the High-tech suit from which he cannot escape. But over the years, War Eagle has added the more traditional items that we see him wear into battle.

buttflap1.jpg
buttflap2.jpg

[entrop23]

Wow, you say you're new to Zbrush? Looks like you've already got the hang of it! Your anatomy looks very nice and I really dig your whole idea--very unique! Definitely looking forward to see more!

Just out of curiosity: you mentioned being new to the software, are you perhaps experienced in clay or even Mudbox?

[SolidSnakexxx]

Looking solid, electricCAT. I like the way you created the feather...and it's looking impressive. BTW, on my high res with all subtool, it was about 38 ,ill poly. something like that. :)

[fluxist8070]

The feathers look really nice. The overall character looks kinda wide to me though.

[electricCAT]

entrop23 - Yes I am new to this software and that's why it is taking me so long to get it done. I am learning new methods and techniques along the way. I spend much of my time searching topics and watching what other artists are doing here. I learn from their methods. That's the great thing about this community.
I have done some clay work recently, but again, I'm learning that too. I actually enjoy working with clay in my free-time (limited as it is) because it helps me to visualize objects in 3D space.

SolidSnakexxx - Thanks for the kind words. I figured your mesh was way up there. Wonder if anyone has broken 40mil yet?

fluxist8070 - Thanks. I'll take a look at that.

[Alliecat 08]

There was a tutorial that a guy did with and eagle head. It had really good feathers, unless you are going for that mechanical look. Keep it up.

[electricCAT]

I read that tutorial. That's how I put this together.
Up to 38.1 mil polys now.

EagleHead.jpg

[SolidSnakexxx]

Wow, the Eagle head's looking real cool..especially atop his head! :tu:

[Harmonic]

Hey that head piece looks awesome! Great work on this guy so far.

Is there a reason you are not placing your images in you post? Why the thumbnails?

[electricCAT]

I don't know how to place them inside the post. Each time I choose to insert an image I get the URL field. My images are on my local hard drive so I don't have them anwhere else.
If you could explain the process I'll embed them in the posts.

[aurick]

I don't know how to place them inside the post. Each time I choose to insert an image I get the URL field. My images are on my local hard drive so I don't have them anwhere else.
If you could explain the process I'll embed them in the posts.It works best if you're using Internet Explorer due to how FireFox (and some other browsers) handles javascript. For IE:

While creating your post, look under the text box. You'll see the "Upload Image or File" button. Click that.
In the pop-up window, click "Browse" and then browse to the file you wish to upload. Once located, click "Open" to return to the Attachment pop-up window. You should now see the path to the image filled in next to the Browse button.
Click the "Upload" button.
The window will update, and a "Place this image in your post" button will appear. Click that. This creates the necessary code within your text window. You will not actually see the image itself in your post at this point.

When you submit the post, the image will appear wherever the code was placed.
If you have FireFox, do steps 1-3 above. Then close the window instead of clicking the "Place this image in your post" button. Now when you look below the text entry window you'll see the image listed that you just uploaded. All you have to do is put it in the post. To do that, look to the right of the image name. You'll see some code that's like {ATT=124504}ImageName.jpg{/ATT}. (The actual code will use the [ and ] brackets instead of { and } . I had to use the other bracket type because otherwise ZBC would try to insert an image!) Type that code into your text window wherever you want the image to be.

That's it!

[Alliecat 08]

Good job.

[electricCAT]

Thanks for the tip Aurick. I'll try it next time I post.
PS: I am using Firefox.

[electricCAT]

Here are a few updates.
HairPiece.jpg

[electricCAT]

And I worked on the face a bit more. The hair I made out of ZSpheres and the face was retypoed. Did a few edits to the eagle head and added some basic color to help me visualize. Can't wait to learn about Materials. That's should be fun.

HeadOn.jpg

[Harmonic]

Hey that is looking nice! Really liking the eagle head and the progress on the wings is looks promising too.

[SolidSnakexxx]

Great paint work. I like this character style and background very much. :)

[electricCAT]

Harmonic - Thanks for the kind words. I've reworked the wings (posting here soon)

SolidSnakexxx - Thanks again for your encouragement. The difficult part of this for me is learning and working, but I figured that would be the best way to learn this software. Without all of the support here, I would never had gotten this far.

I have a question for Aurick about Mac 3.12 performance. Looking at this screen capture, can you tell me the best settings to increase my performance.

I am currently at 40.6 million polygons and my system's now running pretty slow with all the subtools ON.

My machine is a Mac:
OSX 10.5.6
Dual Quad Proc
10 GB of RAM
250 GB external HD for space
PerfTip.jpg

[electricCAT]

Here's the redesigned Wings.
Wings.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('125539','Wings.jpg',1,0))

[threetails]

looking good, the wings look cool.

[electricCAT]

Having trouble with the Transpose Master. Keep geting this error message:

ZScript Note: Interface Item could not be found...
Error.jpg

[SolidSnakexxx]

Ummm, a friend of mine had the same experience, but then he restart and the problem's gone. Hope this issue's solved for you...as I would love to see War Eagle posed!


Or what you can do is temporarily merge all the subtool (Not too high of a polycount) but before doing so do the polygrop (So you can split back) manually.

[electricCAT]

Thanks for the feedback Solidsnakexxx.
My wings alone are 18 million polys. I'm going to try hiding them and try it without the wings for now. The restart idea didn't work for me. I also tried to split mirror shapes ans eliminate any Zsphere shapes I still had. I downloaded the latest version of TM and that didn't work either. Same error message.
The contest calls for the Transpose master to be used ,but it looks like I'll have to take another route.

[electricCAT]

Tried the Transpose Master on the Demo Soldier and that generated an error too. Guess I won't be using this tool.
Have to figure out something else.

Running out of time.....

[electricCAT]

Started posing the character today. Boy, is this slow!
Wish TM was working.
WEpose1.jpg

[petekasim]

I'm loving the way his anatomy looks at that angle, very satisfyingly chunky with some great forms. Looks like his left leg needs a bit of love, but other than that a great sculpt and pose :tu:

I know, transpose is fiddly as heck, isn't it? Kinda makes me miss using fully rigged characters...

Anyway, not long to go now so go for it with all you've got!

[SolidSnakexxx]

Nice update, electricCAT. I like the pose you are going for....just a little stiff at the moment...but I'm sure it will be fixed once completed. :cool:

[electricCAT]

How about this one instead?
Landing1.jpg

[electricCAT]

A couple different angles of the same pose. He should be landing on the ground since I need to make contact with the ground for the contest rules.

Landing2.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('126893','Landing2.jpg',1,0))

Landing3.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('126894','Landing3.jpg',1,0))

[ShinRaiden]

Nice work man! :D

[SolidSnakexxx]

I like this one much better.. It looks more flowing/natural than the last. Looking better and better, mate. :cool:

[electricCAT]

Testing to see if this works.
VleCFR_zISQ

[electricCAT]

Waiting for the video to be processed. Here's a few more images.
WE_WIP10.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('127395','WE_WIP10.jpg',1,0))
WE_WIP11.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('127396','WE_WIP11.jpg',1,0))

[SolidSnakexxx]

Looking cool so far. The boots still look a bit too clean though...I'd dirty them up a little....But overall is looking great. :cool:

[electricCAT]

Yeah, thanks SolidSnakexxx. I've got to set aside more time to dirty this thing up a bit.
Added a base (sort of) as a totem pole. And colored a bit more of his costume.
LandingTP1.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('127726','LandingTP1.jpg',1,0))
LandingTP2.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('127727','LandingTP2.jpg',1,0))

[jackdaniels666]

Good job, I like the totem pole and coloring of his wings.

[SolidSnakexxx]

electricCAT, I like the color you put on his wings..so vibrant and the totem pole's looking cool too.

[electricCAT]

Thanks guys.

Watching the clock... don't get outta here until 5:30pm.

[electricCAT]

Okay SolidSnakexxx, I worked on the moccasins today... and a few other things.
land1.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('127872','land1.jpg',1,0))
land2.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('127875','land2.jpg',1,0))
land3.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('127876','land3.jpg',1,0))

[SolidSnakexxx]

Looking cool there electricCAT...you might want to attach him to the base so this can be printed? Or is it your intention to have him afloat?

[petekasim]

great mocassins, what can I say?


and you did all the individual stitches and those flowing laces! crazy!

Good luck, I hope it's all plain sailing from here on in :) :tu:

[electricCAT]

SolidSnakexxx - Thanks. Yeah... I dropped him down onto the pole because of the contest rules. Otherwise I would have left him afloat.
I'll adjust it later for my new book, since I'm going to be using this new character in my story.

petekasim - Yes. Every stitch was done one at a time. But, well worth the time.
I'd like to think that it's going to be smotth sailing from here on out but I'm on the Mac and we don't have ZAppLink yet.

[tokio]

i like your base pose

[electricCAT]

Another transpose example.

Px7zdUamqVM

[electricCAT]

My turnarounds
#1
HB4kpRSvXvo

[electricCAT]

Turnaround #2
rk7qpxl-el8

[electricCAT]

Now here are my high rez images...

FaceCU.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('128276','FaceCU.jpg',1,0))

[electricCAT]

And some others. This contest was fun. I definitely learned a lot about this program. I also enjoyed all the other work being done here. it's been very inspirational and motivational.

Eagle.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('128285','Eagle.jpg',1,0))
Back.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('128281','Back.jpg',1,0))
Colorful.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('128283','Colorful.jpg',1,0))
BirdsEyeView.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('128282','BirdsEyeView.jpg',1,0))

[SolidSnakexxx]

Hey there electricCAT, just want to say it's been a pleasure seeing the evolution of your hero.

Excellent job well done! one minor comment is that you should gather all the images, turn table, and transpose all in one post and label that as final entry. Best of luck to you.

[AVTPro]

Amazing Character

[electricCAT]

No. One more image coming!

[electricCAT]

This finishes my entry.

WE_final1.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('128325','WE_final1.jpg',1,0))

WE_final2.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('128327','WE_final2.jpg',1,0))