Action Hero - Silo

[Firebert]

Artist Name: Joshua Lennen

Fall Semester: September 4th Princeton University



Maire Gobhain was an exchange student from Scotland. Well on her way to an early graduation with a 3.9 GPA and advanced credits, she had earned the right to void certain classes. Her high grades and admiration by her instructors did not keep her from living a party lifestyle. With the reputation of the UK on her shoulders, she couldn't let these star American quarterbacks think they could drink a Scot under the table. As a result, she tended to mix in with the wrong crowds after studies. Instigating fights, defacing property with graffiti, Maire wanted to live on the edge while her visa would allow.



Professor Damien Coolidge taught advanced biomechanics. He had been an instructor there for over a decade. Much of his career was spent trying to find the next big break for mankind. A cure for cancer, a cure for AIDS; something that would make him world famous. Twelve years before he began his tenure at Princeton University he finally discovered it. He had stumbled upon the next big thing. Super soldiers. While his initial tests were only proven in lab rats, they were still conclusive and earned him top secret status by the U.S. Government. Using his lab on campus as a cover for development of his findings, he taught a couple classes during the day and then attempted to advance his findings afterwards. Time and time again, he would build a new serum that would yield no results on human tissue. With the government placing increasing pressure on Damien, his nerves were at their end.



Final Exams: December 17th



Maire had finished her final exam ahead of everyone else. Although she had partied the night before, she knew her luck had yet to run out. Later that week she received her results with a failing grade. Something sparked in Maire that had never been ignited before. In all her years as a student, she had never received a grade less than A-. In a wave of furry, she picked up the phone.



December 22nd: 2:00a.m.



Gathered outside the science facility on campus, Maire led almost half of the defensive line as they broke in. Filing down the halls, no one was in any of the lecture halls. A light was shining out of the small window to Professor Coolidge's classroom door. After opening it, they saw no one inside. Maire ordered them all to destroy the classroom and graffiti the walls. Hearing the commotion from his lab, Damien cracked open the door to see his lecture hall being dismantled by the university’s strongest athletes, and then Maire appeared out of nowhere. Widening the door open in a flash, she called to her brutes to grab the professor. In fear of his life, he retreated to the furthest recesses of his lab. Hiding in a dark corner he watched as they ran past, destroying anything in their path. Coolidge made a break for it, and one of the football players saw him out of the corner of his eye.



"There he is!"



Doing an about face, they chased Professor Coolidge out of the lab with Maire at the back of the pack. Amongst all the commotion, the player in front of Maire knocked over a cabinet of flasks and test tubes that crashed on top of her.



A lit Bunsen burner had fallen over.


Damien escaped into the hall with the brutes in tow.



Pools of liquid inch closer and closer as Maire lie unconscious under the pile of metal, glass, and serum.



Professor Coolidge is tackled just outside the entrance to the building, hit hard and held at bay on the cold snow, the team realizes Maire is not with them.



The flame ignites the mixed serums.




The back half of the building explodes, knocking everyone backward.



The professor scrambles to his feet and escapes while the remaining accomplices flee the scene.





One hour later:



Government agents apprehend Professor Damien Coolidge at the local train station in an attempt to disappear forever. Agents cover the entire site of the explosion. Looking for any survivors and gathering all data that remained.



A locket is found bearing Maire's family crest.



Later that morning:



The football team members that had helped Maire gathered quietly at their frat house. They decided to never tell anyone that they had helped her, and to break any and all ties if possible that would link them to her death.



A knock at the door.



One of the brutes opens the door and instantly bursts into flames. Shouts are heard from the common room and the remaining members run out the back as another football player is incinerated instantly. A girl peaks over the second floor railing to see what looks like a naked woman shrouded in flames. Screaming at the top of her lungs, the curious teenager is lifted into the air and dropped in front of the woman of fire.





9:00a.m.

Paramedics swarm the young girl now lying on the hardwood floor covered in sweat. A man approaches her asking the medics to remove her oxygen mask and leave.



"What did you see?"



"Woman… fire."



"Did she say anything?"



"She said… two down… three to go."





One year later: Norfolk International Airport



Maire is sitting at the gate waiting for the 5:00am flight to Heathrow. She has missed her family and friends for so long, and any hope of a future here in America is all but gone. She needs to return home and disappear forever. Checking her MP3 player for the latest weather forecast, Maire sees a pendant suddenly appear in front of her face. Removing her earphones she hears a man say,

"I believe this belongs to you."


The faint sound of a thump. A sharp pain in the small of her back. Everything goes black.



Maire can see nothing, everything has gone white. She is in a dark room aside from the floodlight blinding her eyes. Her hands are tied behind her back and she is bleeding at the wrists. An oxygen mask is firmly secured over her mouth. A voice comes over the intercom.



"We believe that you are responsible for the explosion that occurred at Princeton University on December 22nd last year."



"Who are you?!?"



"We would like to cooperate with you as much as possible Ms. Gobhain."



"Cooperate THIS!"



Maire surges her body forward and falls flat on her face, chair and all.



"Oxygen is the key to igniting a flame Ms. Gobhain. There is none present in this room aside from the tiny amount provided to you through that mask."



"I didn't make it happen! This was all an accident! I just want to go home!"



"That may be possible one day. For now, we would like to offer you peace. We would like to offer you a chance to start over."



"What do you want?!?! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?!?!”



"We want you to kill this man."



A face appears on a television in the corner. Statistics and map overlay readouts pop in and out.



"Your old professor has stolen from us, and we think you are the perfect candidate for the job. If you agree, we will only ask that you consider working for us once this mission is complete. Do you accept?"



.......



.......



"Yes."



"Good. You will find your belongings in your room along with details of your assignment. Your identity will be permanently deleted from the international system. If you choose to leave, you will be assigned a new one. For now, your codename will be Silo."

*********************************************************************************************************
Below are my initial concepts. I have spent the past couple of days cooking up this ridiculous story and working on these designs. Time's a waistin' so I better get to Brushin'!

Maire2.jpg Maire1.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27120141%27,%27Maire1.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[aiman]

Awesome concept man, I think the flames are a great idea for the base, I like the second costume more, but then I like the sleeves and the collar from the first. Keep the hair as is though, that looks great! I'll be watching this thread.

[jeffmeckley]

Sweet concept. I like.

[goldo_O]

Nice concept Firerbert! Like Aiman said, it would be nice to mix some elements of both costumes. Are you going to sculpt the flames as well?

[gang]

nice concept

[Hamilcar]

Love your concept sketches! Good luck with the sculpt.

[Moni-Poroni]

Great concept sketch, I like the second costum more..because of it´s orange colour....
looks more like fire...
maybe you could combine the costums like aiman and goldo_O said.

I´m looking forward to the zbrush version :)

[JUPITER]

Cool sketch and concept....good luck

[Firebert]

TO EVERYONE: I greatly appreciate the support and response. Below are some individual responses. These concepts are to only get a feel for the design of the character, and by no means are a direct resemblance to the final pose. I will post up the pose gesture I like the best here in a little bit. More than anything, I wanted to see what you guys thought about the costumes, and you have provided much more feedback than I expected, so thank you very much!

aiman: Thanks! I was hoping to get this kind of feedback on the different elements of each costume. I will mix them together this morning and post up the results in an hour or so.

jeffmeckley: Thanks!


goldo_O: I appreciate your support and feedback! HELL YES I am going to sculpt those flames! I figured that they would provide a very strong challenge, and I love a challenge!:mad:

gang: Thanks!

Hamilcar: I am glad you like them. I really needed to add a woman to my portfolio and now seemed like the perfect excuse.

Moni-Poroni: You hit it right on the head. The coloring is exactly what I was going for, so that makes me feel good that you got that out of it. I'm going to do my best to make this a top notch sculpt, so stay tuned!

JUPITER: Thanks man. I'm gonna need it!:o

[Firebert]

Here's what I came with on the mixture of the two costumes. Let me know if there are other tweaks you guys would like to see. Below that is some real quick gesture line work to help you guys get a sense for the final pose from a couple views. The end result would be the fire filling the base and flooding up to a stream of flames coming from her outstretched hand. The other hand is warming up a fireball for the next attack and she is in the classic mid-air type pose.
Maire3.jpg
Poses.jpg

[3dzeiro]

nice style, nice lines, nice colors,
I like that! Be accompanied! nice work!

[SolidSnakexxx]

The concept sketch's just marvelous. She certainly is "Hot" :) I kind of like the first costume. Can't wait to see her come alive :tu:

[Hamilcar]

I like this costume, but I also like the one with the covered legs. Nice work.

[Harmonic]

Really nice clean sketches Firerbert. I like the uploaded costume allot. Seems like it could maybe use a little ornament or point of interest like the second sketch.

[Firebert]

Thanks a lot for the responses and feedback. Harmonic, I think you are right. This one is my favorite as well, and it does need a centerpiece. I will design her family crest/pendant and put that around her neck. That should balance it out a lot better than over strenuous cleavage action, although there is nothing wrong with that either. :D

[gordon-v]

wow you got some drawing skills there!
Good decision on your last outfit. Im really looking forward to see
how you will achieve the hair and fire in zb!
she really got spunk!
keep it up!

[allRone]

I love the story and concept. Looking forward to updates.

[canndis]

love the sketch

[Drakelot]

Awesome concept art

[dustbin1_uk]

Woah missed this one!! Nice concept!!!

[VitorFerreira]

Hey mate. Nice story and good concept art.

I actually liked more the first on the outfits. The lastest one shows too much skin, and in my opinion it pass the like between a sexy outfit and just showing skin (not that I have anything agaist showing skin :p ) but if you get a perfect balance between both it works even better.

[Firebert]

gordon-v: yes, the hair and fire will be a challenge... why compete if you don't push yourself right!?!

allRone: thanks! yes, updates have been slow, but will come quicker now. past the re-topo hump.

canndis, Drakelot, dustbin1_uk: thanks guys!

VitorFerreira: i hear what you are saying. the more i show this around, the more people really enjoy the first one. imo i really like the third one because of the torso part of the suit. i want it to be a sexy outfit, but not over the top. at the same time i love the first one because it has that true comic hero student of charles xavier classic style, but is still damn sexy. then again, if you were on fire, would you want to be covered in a full body suit and gloves? so in the second one, i made it more skimpy, and i really love the chest plate on the second design, but it just drives me bonkers because all you mother effers, whether you'll admit to it or not, want to see boob action. :rolleyes: that is not however the basis for good character design..... i also don't want to make it too inorganic with metal plates on a woman of fire doesn't make much sense, and neither do articles of clothing as a counterpoint, but at this stage ..............

I would like to hear more feedback on which design is best.


Here are my updates on getting the body started. I haven't done anything with the suit yet, but will start on that tomorrow. The biggest hump was just working on the topology and deciding which way to go on the proportions. Also, if you wanna crit any of the anatomy or proportions at all, fell absolutely free. There is always room for improvement and time to change stuff. Anyway......

Here is the ZSphere setup, and basic blocking.
1.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27121218%27,%271.jpg%27,1,0%29)

Here is a roughing in of proportions at different levels.
2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27121219%27,%272.jpg%27,1,0%29)

Here is the rough concept sculpt of just the body.
3.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27121220%27,%273.jpg%27,1,0%29)

Wires, Retopo with ZSpheres, Final Topo with Polygroups
4.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27121221%27,%274.jpg%27,1,0%29)
5.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27121222%27,%275.jpg%27,1,0%29)
6.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27121223%27,%276.jpg%27,1,0%29)

I'm using Liv Tyler as a guide for the face.
7.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27121225%27,%277.jpg%27,1,0%29)

Will have updates tomorrow and all throughout the weekend on the suit and roughing in the hair and fire, so stay tuned!

[dustbin1_uk]

Wicked work so far!!!

Is the top of the head meant to be that tall?

But yeah!!! You've done great so far!!

[petekasim]

I can see a little Liv Tyler in there, good choice!

Nice work on the body and topology, the head looks a little "long" though with a lot of forehead and cranium up top. Is that an intentional design choice?

[Firebert]

*Ahem*..... yes?
Yeah, I wanted it to be a little elongated, plus it will help when I block in the hair. I like having more space to work with when doing hair so I can get the scalp in a position I am comfortable with. I view the cranium as a big artboard. If you have a lot of space to work with, you can always crop to fit, but if you start small and add on, you'll be adding on for decades. Just like anything, it is better to have too much and take away than not have enough and get stuck in an endless cycle. i think it is really just a mental thing for me because I work in a construction type environment sometimes, I am used to thinking more is better for adjusting stuff. I dunno. Plus, Liv does have a kind of long face.

[Moni-Poroni]

Hi Firebert, great update...:)
Silo is coming along very nicely :tu:

[mikala]

The head shape reminds me of the characters in Earth Final Conflict.

[Firebert]

mikala::lol: oh come on man! that is just brutal. sheesh:D

[mikala]

Not meaning to be brutal at all. It is just what the shape reminded me of.

[Firebert]

i know. i'm just kidding around. it just made me laugh pretty hard is all. it is very melonish at this point. trust me, you won't notice later on.

[Moni-Poroni]

:lol: lol...nice entertainment :lol:

[SolidSnakexxx]

Good progress so far... :) The head is a bit long like most stated...but....I didn't think of "Earth Final Conflict."...at first until I read the comment.

[Lucky_1]

Love the sketches and great start on the sculpting part...
Keep it up

[sazar26]

cool scetches bro she is looking HOT ....no pun intended

[Firebert]

So here's the weekly. Was going to post up the pose movie and a turntable as well, but it is gonna take a while to upload on YouTube. SOOOOO, in the interim, here are some doc exports of different views of the pose.

Still need to fix a lot, but I have split up the model into a few pieces for the skin parts and costume parts, just so I could get upwards of the max my little laptop could handle. The pose is by far not final and needs major tweaking as well as some deformations and poly explosions that happened when using TPoseMaster. Hair is just stand in for now and the base is just for display at the moment. Word.
Pose1.jpg
Pose2.jpg
Pose3.jpg
Pose4.jpg
Pose5.jpg
Pose6.jpg

[Gohanf22]

wow dude. this is coming along sweet. this is amazing work. i love the detail and the proportions. wish i could figure out my model better for propotions. :cry: . i keep screwing up. and i wish my tablet was here now. anyway, your doing a good job. keep it up. :tu:

[goldo_O]

She is looking Gorgeous!!! Don't forget to pose the fingers, that could add a lot of personnality to your character. Very very very nice work, keep it up :)

[SolidSnakexxx]

Wicked pose...I really like the mid air floating..She's looking terrific! :tu: :tu:

[petekasim]

Well done on the progress, she's come along beautifully.

What you said abou the length of her head makes sense, and now that the hair has been applied it's not really an issue :tu:

The pose is very graceful, well done on that. It pains me slightly to see that the stylization of your initial drawings have been lost in translation. there was something I found very appealing about the cartoony edge...

I understand the contest seems to be mainly about anatomical accuracy, so the more realistic look may yet work in your favour :)

If I had one crit, it's that the hands look comparitively flaccid compared to the rest of her. I don't know if it's just cos you haven't gotten around to posing them yet, but they could certainly do with some gesture work to bring them to life and get them to flow with the rest of her pose.

Excellent sculpting! Best of luck, I'm looking forward to the progress :tu:

[Firebert]

Gohanf22: Thanks! Yes, tablets are the best way to experience ZB... anything that will allow you get your hand and pen closer to the model makes a world of difference in how you feel about working on your models.

goldo_O: Thanks buddy. Will do on the fingers, just haven't gotten there yet.

SolidSnakexxx: I'm glad you like the pose! I really am kind of 50/50 on it at this point. Part of me just says go with it, and another part says it is total crap and not dynamic enough, still too rigid. I am glad that people are enjoying it though.

petekasim: Thanks for the good observations and crit! There's no good reason why I strayed away from the stylization of the initial concepts. It kinda just happened. I should add another woman to my portfolio later that stays fully e with the concept. I can see how that would benefit me greatly. Any model of thehuman figure should maintain some form of anatomical accuracy. What the community as a whole has evolved into is a more realistic approach. With software as powerful as ZB, it is very hard to keep yourself from trying to go as real as possible when you can easily make a toon style character in a different 3D app like Max or Maya. If I was using just maya, I probably would just stick to the style and some very simple sub-d surfaces. I also agree with you whole heartedly on the hands. I just haven't done these yet either because it was like 1am and I gotta go to work now, so I put something up to keep in that 1 week deadline for updates.

Thanks again to everyone for their comments and crits! I know I said I would have this slew of updates last weekend, but there was just too much going on for me to commit to three-two days of solid work. This weekend seems different at the moment, so we'll have some more posing, refining, and moving onto hair and fire! w00t! Oh, and I will post up those videos probably today or tonite.

[wethand]

the pose is very nice! like it alot.
this is progressing real nicely! keep it up

[Firebert]

Here is a variable pose that is a little more dynamic that i did during lunch.

Pose8.jpg
Pose9.jpg
Pose10.jpg

[Gohanf22]

im not totally firerbert. i think it maybe some sort of subtool master transitioning to transpose. i think i over heard someone talking about that on the forums before about that. not sure where i read it but they said they were having a problem with keeping detail from transpose master to subtool master. i wish i had more than that. :confused:

[Captain Sensible]

She lookin really good. I like the floating pose. It would be good to see the hair really flowing at the back. Keep it up! :tu:

[DiegoMaia]

Hey Man!!

Thanks for visit my thread!!
Nice drawing and model!! The pose is really cool!
Keep going!!

[Hamilcar]

Looking Great! Nice work :tu: :tu: Her back arch is a little over exaggerated for my taste, but still very nice.

[Firebert]

Gohanf22: YEESH! What a rough weekend! I had to retopo her upper torso all over again. Turns out the problem I was having was with the normals being reversed somehow. I tried every internal method I could think of to rebuild the model with the existing detail and have the normals face the right way. In the end, total retopology was the answer. What I think happened was that when I retopoed the model from the concept, I turned the projection to a negative interger so I could maintain most of the initial forms I already sculpted. When I did this, it must have flipped the normals and I didn't notice because the Double button was on in the Display Properties of the Tool. It wasn't too bad of a problem, but it deffinetley slowed me down. I had a good momentum going and it was more time of trial and error (the most painful and time consuming) before getting on with total retopology. In the end, I changed some stuff I wasn't happy with and it worked out for the best.

Captain Sensible: Thanks man! This was all just a test pose and feeling out the direction I wanted to take it. The hair will most deffinetley be floating up with some mass as well as some flames coming off the end!

DiegoMaia: Holy hell! I thought you had cashed out on this one! I hope your move went well. Don't back out on it like you did with DWIII. Finish strong my man. Thanks for stopping by! I'll have some updates on Friday I think.

Hamilcar: Thanks man.

I have been struggling with getting back into the groove with the current retopo catastrophie. I've been mixxing it between detailing areas and texturing since then. Last night I thought a lot about what would really get me back in the swing, and I think it is gonna have to be what petekasim said... I'm going to mix this thing back to a little more stylized look. I think this will not only aid me in getting lost in what I'm doing, but also help with the final product. We shall see.... duhn duhn duhn!

[Moni-Poroni]

Cool pose :tu: and great work.. I can´t wait to see her coloured :)
best wishes

[Firebert]

Not much of an update. Very unproductive week as personal time has been extremely limited. Time to turn off the phone and lock myself in the bedroom for two weeks. :rolleyes:
MaireProg1.jpg
MaireProg2.jpg
MaireProg3.jpg
MaireProg4.jpg

[jempix]

Nice work on the hair, looks very nice and clean. Also the costume is well executed and designed. Keep up the good work. :tu:

[SolidSnakexxx]

Wow.....this is nothing of small update...at all, really nice coloring... This sic coming along so great. Also I really like the hair your sculpted :tu: :tu:

[KiVanDi]

Nice character. Good work.

[Red Republik]

hey josh, looking good. i would shrink the head down a bit and make her legs longer, so she would be a bit sexier. i love the hair. nice background story as well. not sure how i missed this entry until now

[nacho_grande]

Nice job so far. I like the hair, it reminds me the Jetsons cartoon :) The arms look a bit longer then it should be or is it only me ? Looking forward for more progress.

[Alliecat 08]

Coming along very nicely. :tu:

[sasquatchpoacher]

Looking good!
I got to bookmark this project.

[Firebert]

jempix: Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad so many people enjoy the hair. This is a similar style as how I will approach the fire and I hope it will be as effective!

SolidSnakexxx: LOL! Thanks a lot for the encouragement! It is very much appreciated. I can't help but feel like I'm not getting anywhere right now. Time to buckle down!


Red Republik: Glad you finally made it over here bud! Always good to hear your crits as I know they are honest and justified. I totally agree with you on your points and will make adjustments before I go to pose.

nacho_grande: some people like their cucumbers pickeled....... to each his own right?!? i agree on the arms. I think once I make the adjustmens Red suggested, it will balance it out better.

Alliecat 08: thanks!

sasquatchpoacher: It is an honor to have you and Jeff on this thread! Thanks for stopping by!

[gang]

nice sculpt man
Looking forward for more progress.

[jeffmeckley]

Looking great. I like the gesture. Stick with the stylization. Can't wait to see her finished.

[jp_smith]

This is looking really nice, but I prefer the stylized look of the concept sketches...the sculpt seems to have lost that except for the hair. :)

[Firebert]

This is the first bit of the pose video. More to fill up the minimum 5min requirement will be up later (posing the hands, refining certain areas, blah blah blah). I'm glad everyone likes the other poses, but they feel very static to me. Not enough action, so I've been tinkering around with something else, and it is similar, but just a little more rhythm to it. Once I add in the flames, it will really bring it to life.

gang: Thanks a lot man. More will be up on a daily basis now with the contest nearing its end.

jeffmeckley: I'm glad you like the stylization. butttttttttt.........

jp_smith: I'm trying to go back to the style of the drawings right now which I will demonstrate in my next video upload. I hear ya man. I've been fighting for time to finish this gal. Everytime I say I'm buckling down, a life threatening explosion happens that keeps me at bay. Time to put on the regoshdamn HEV suit and break out the crowbar!

QOyXGPpQzqo

[Gohanf22]

nice work firerbert. love the pose video. im not even close to there yet and im running low on time. im going to have to pick up the pace here. great work. :tu:

[fluxist8070]

Nice Costume. very crisp. she looks like she could be evil kanevel's daughter! :D

[Firebert]

Gohanf22: Thanks!
fluxist8070: HAHAHA! EK's daughter! Good one. Never thought of that. :lol:

Here's the final gesture. I'll upload some videos later of this whole process. The last image has a stand in for the fire.

Pose11.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('124418','Pose11.jpg',1,0))
Pose12.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('124419','Pose12.jpg',1,0))
Pose13.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('124420','Pose13.jpg',1,0))
Pose14.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('124421','Pose14.jpg',1,0))
Pose15.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('124422','Pose15.jpg',1,0))
Pose16.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('124423','Pose16.jpg',1,0))

[Gohanf22]

i love it! i love it i love it i love it! good work firerbert. hope your going to do something with the flame cause its looking flat right now. most likely you are. great work mate. :D :tu:

[Firebert]

Gohanf22: Yes, Flames are just stand in for now

[jam-i-am]

hey dude, this is shaping up to be really nice, my only Crits would be to watch the proportions on her forearm and the hands, the wrist area seems a bit small in comparison to her arm, although I know the look your going for, I think the execution was a bit off. The pose is very dynamic and shows a lot of movement and rhythms, her arms are the only thing bothering me as i think they are a bit too calm for the dynamic-ness shes got going on..(if that made sense)

other than that she's one hot motha!!! im watching this thread in anticipation of the outcome.

[luis2008]

i really like your style. the sculpt is looking great. she could use a little more emotion. maybe you just havent gotten there yet ;)

[Firebert]

jam-i-am: you are so right about the forearms... i didn't really notice it as much until you said something... now that you did, i really need to fix that! as for the arms in the pose, they are slightly relaxed. i think i know what i need to do to add the extra umph.... if ANYONE wants to do paintovers, go right ahead, i love getting useful visual crits at this stage.

luis2008: i have thought about expression, but not sure what i want to do there yet. it is most likely going to be one of those last minute test drives. she sure is at the blank stare stage right now!

i made some good progress on the fire that i'll post up tonight!

[spimmy]

The model is looking really nice, love the details and the hair is looking great :tu: :) .

From the side image it looks to me like her butt/thigh seems a bit small though, it seems more noticeable on the image of her left side.

Great work though! :tu:

[Captain Sensible]

Looking really nice! :cool:

[SolidSnakexxx]

Sweet update...The model and pose's right on...And an't wait for teh added fire effect! :tu: :tu:

[threetails]

she's looking great. nice progress. the hair has some great forms. with her right hand the way it is will she be hold ing a weapon?

[gordon-v]

I love her suit! what do you will do with the fire?

[Firebert]

Thanks everyone for your support. As for the fire, I have been messing around with it for a couple of days when I have time, and I am close to where I want with it, but still not happy. I'll post up what I got tonight no matter what so I can hear your thoughts.

A BIG downside to this is I most likely will not finish. I am not throwing in the towel though. My current job involves last minute travel for weeks at a time, and I have been called to be on the road for almost two weeks. Each day on the road is constant physical labor for 12-14hrs a day 7 days a week leaving very little time or energy to work on personal 3D projects. Most likely, where ever I am at by this weekend will be my entry. I will still enter, but I most likely will not be happy with the result as each day in these comps goes a long way since we are all doing this on our personal time. :cry:

[gordon-v]

Thats really sad! I really like Silo and want to see her with her full potential!
But I totally understand you position. I had the same Issue a week ago.
Now its time for me to catch up!
i hope you will finish her in time anyway!

[Harmonic]

Hey Firerbert, I am sorry to hear that, I hope you find some time and energy to work on her, I was looking forward to seeing her all surrounded in fire.

[Firebert]

Like I said before, don't know if I'll be able to finish or not since I have to leave town until the end of the comp. I'll post up more progress this weekend. I feel like I'm pretty close and just need to spend some time making basic tweaks.

Really not totally happy with the fire. Still needs some sculpting tweakage, but I had tried several methods. First was zspheres, then masking and extracting, then a solid cube, then zspheres again, and then back to the cube. So that is what I have used on both of these pieces. Really don't know what to do about her other hand. I had something in mind, but I don't think it is going to work now and would block too much of the costume. Anyways... we'll see where I end up.

12 copy.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125445','12%20copy.jpg',1,0))
13 copy.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125447','13%20copy.jpg',1,0))
14 copy.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125448','14%20copy.jpg',1,0))
15 copy.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125449','15%20copy.jpg',1,0))

[snoopalu]

Cool model ^^. I lik ehow she has alot of curves from the hair to her body and the flames. Its curvy like fire :lol:. I like her pose. Her hair looks really good, like girls in comics with long hair.

[Gohanf22]

beautiful work on the flames firerbert. very good work indeed. awesome job.

[gordon-v]

Yeahh thats looking HOT!
good work man!

[Harmonic]

Hey nice work on the fire so far. Sculpting flames is quite an interesting challenge! I like the movement and the addition to the sillohutee that they are bringing to your model. :tu: :tu:

[KiVanDi]

Beuteful character, nice work.

[Captain Sensible]

Very nice work! I hope you find some more time to work on her :tu:

[SolidSnakexxx]

I like the lay of the fire. :tu: Man it would be sad to not see this model gets textured... Look forward to your next update, mate.

[Firebert]

Thanks to everyone for their support! The flames are coming along. I've decided that I will be the walking dead if I have to, I am going to finish this comp as strong as I can while I am out of town. Here's the block in of the third flame set. There will be a few more but they will just be little strands. Below are some screengrabs and below those is a turntable.

Pose17.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125641','Pose17.jpg',1,0))
Pose18.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125642','Pose18.jpg',1,0))
Pose19.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125643','Pose19.jpg',1,0))
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[SolidSnakexxx]

Nice turn table, I think the flame's looking cool as is... :tu:

[kishar]

looks good, but could use alot more additions to the hair, fire, and armor.
just add more subtools of strands of hair, fire peices and additions to the armor, to give a more volumed look. gj~

[- FoOD -]

Shes looking really cool Firerbert ...very clean Sculpt and cool style:D:tu:

[Harmonic]

Hey Firebert, nice work on the flames. I am still working hard on the flames in my piece and it is really interesting to see how you are tackling yours! :tu:

[Firebert]

SolidSnakexxx: Thanks!:D

kishar: will do for the fire and the hair. not so sure if i'll add onto the costume. i mean if you had this power, would you really feel like you needed to carry supplies around with you? gun, granola chewy bars, ammunition? i dunno, just my thought process on that.

- FoOD -:thanks a lot man!

Harmonic: the flames are tricky man... it is all about just feeling out the 2d graphic feel of them. if you haven't tried yet, get some ref on some graphic flames like they would do on cars and such, then just trace over them and feel out how they flow. it may just be a stylistic thing for me, but i found that practicing my flame work on paper really helped. here is a process on how i made the most recent flame body. maybe this will help you some too. i found that making holes in the mesh really added a lot more dimension, but this does take some time with zb's retopo tools. i think to retopo this one flame was about an hour and a half to two hours because it was so hard to see where to match up the verts to make the holes. i could have used mesh extraction to use as a template. May go that route on the next one.

Original Concept Mesh:
Fire1 copy.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125690','Fire1%20copy.jpg',1,0))

Re-Topo:
Fire2 copy.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125691','Fire2%20copy.jpg',1,0))

Adaptive Skin:
Fire3 copy.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125692','Fire3%20copy.jpg',1,0))

New Topology:
Fire4 copy.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('125693','Fire4%20copy.jpg',1,0))

[Gohanf22]

nice work on the retopping of the fire mate. very nicely done. keep it up firerbert.

[JUPITER]

Can't wait to see them in action!!!

[SolidSnakexxx]

You are definitely keeping the fire under control ;)

[goldo_O]

The new flames are impressive and really dynamic! :tu::tu::tu:

[AVTPro]

You hit your sketch spot on.

the beauty line are very dynamic.

[Moni-Poroni]

Great work:)
The fire looks awesome! :tu: :tu: :tu:
I really can´t wait to see the coloured version :)

[Firebert]

I really appreciate the support of everyone on here! Thank you so much for your crits and comments. I made it out to California for work and the place I am staying has internet. The company I work for rents out houses and internet is not always available. Also looks like the days will not be as long as originally expected and I should have some time to work on this thing and finish. Anyway, just thought I would send out a wave. I'll put up some updates in a couple days.

- Josh

[Firebert]

Progress has been ultra slow since I have been out of town. Kinda worked on a matcap for the fire, but I think it is a bit brash. In the end I may just poly paint this whole thing in a resin material to give it that maquette feel. If I take this approach I think it will also allow me to accent details that can get hidden easily. Not as familiar as I should be with materials and lighting in ZB as I typically use this for sculpting and base texturing. I would like to do a base if I have time with small flames coming out and her name on the front. We'll see. As with us all it is just a matter of time. Either way, I made fair progress with the hair. I also tweaked a lot of the stuff that was out of whack from using transpose master.
Pose20.jpg
Pose21.jpg
Pose22.jpg
Pose23.jpg

FINAL ENTRY:
------------------------------

CR1.jpg
CR2.jpg
CR3.jpg
Silo_FCR1_LR.jpg
Silo_FCR2_LR.jpg

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[luis2008]

your final sculpt came out really nice. i really like your fire material. cant wait to see more from you :tu: :tu: