Action Hero - Iron Tiger

[Finners]

hero name:Iron Tiger

artist: Finlay Sutton

Beck Hain was a hunter, trapper and gamekeeper who worked all over the world. His reputation as the best led him to be hired by a scientific research company, Formco to capture one of the most ferocious and powerful Tigers in India. When he brought in the prize to Formco in South Africa, they turned on him and chloroformed him. Formco were working for the military developing super soldiers enhanced with animal DNA. They wanted the best animal specimens to use for their experiments. He was used as a trial for the serum they had developed before they started on the elite soldiers who had been selected to be made into weapons.

Injected with too much of the serum he quickly became fierce and strong, and with enhanced animal reflexes overpowered those who were meant to be guarding him.

After his escape, Beck returned to his hq where he was surrounded by the tools he used to hunt and trap. Aware of the beast growing inside of him, he could not carry on hunting the very things he was becoming. Beck chose to fashion these tools into a new skin for himself. Blades formed part of his mask. He made gauntlets which fired bear traps on chains, his claws, only able to wield them because of his immense strength. Now losing his identity to the creature he had become, he could no longer be Beck Hain, he was now IRON TIGER.

He swore revenge on Formco and made his way to the research faculty. However now that Formco knew their serum was a success they had begun creating their super soldier bio-weapons, and they needed to get rid of the one person who could reveal their operation...

iron tiger.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27121091%27,%27iron%20tiger.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[Moni-Poroni]

:eek: Oh amazing idea with the traps on his hand...
And I´m sure painting him will be fun :)
Best wishes

[wethand]

yeah, i agree. the idea with the hands is really innovative!
looking forward to see this in 3d!

good luck and... have fun! :)

[Ariel_90]

I like the concept! it's a little wolverine-ish

[SolidSnakexxx]

Like that tiger trap also. Reminds me of one of the old Japanese comic, the tiger mask wrestler. But yours look even more mean with the weapon and all. :lol:

[dustbin1_uk]

Aw aint he cute!! Let me pet him on the hea....... OUCH!! THAT BUGGER BIT ME!!!! :D;)

Seriously I love this concept!! with so many great entries in this contest it's nice to come across one or two that make me go "Oh now that's cool!!" :tu::tu:

[snoopalu]

cool. Is going to be wearing tights?

[sazar26]

sweet concept and I like the story. He looks like a scrapper

[Finners]

Hi everyone! here is an update of the model with the topology of the basemesh. This was made from zspheres. Think I maybe put a bit too much topo in the hands, wud be nice if there was a way to select and get rid of edge-loops in zbrush rather than point by point.
basemesh render2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27122094%27,%27basemesh%20render2.jpg%27,1,0%29)

Moni-Poroni-Thanks!

Wethand-Cheers!

Ariel_90- Yer I think im gonna have to change the concept a bit on the fly, the gauntlets are gonna need some detailing and I will have to tie in the rest of the design to them.

SolidSnakexxx -Thanks, I'm a big Tekken fan so king was a bit of an influence

dustbin1_uk- Thanks man!

snoopalu- Not sure about tights, tight leather trousers or something maybe? not really thought about the material

sazar26- Thanks!

[SolidSnakexxx]

The update looks awesome, Finners, the overall shape is looking tight. One minor crit would be on the hand it seems a bit too thin at the moment I think.. Other than that this iron tiger's rocking :tu:

[Crotalis]

Hey! This is cool. It sort of reminds me of a more modern version of the He-Man toys I played with as a kid. The hand traps are an original idea as well.

[wethand]

hey.
this update looks nice!
just one little crit. i don't know how this area is called... not even in german.
so i just attached an image.

the rest looks fine, i think

zbrush.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('122111','zbrush.jpg',1,0))

[Finners]

Hello! I have reviewed the ab muscles a bit and tightened up some other areas. Worked on the face a little. I haven't addressed the hands yet, and a friend suggested the arms were too long? What do you think?
basemesh render3.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27122850%27,%27basemesh%20render3.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[SolidSnakexxx]

I like the updated model you have so far. :tu: Looking much better in the torso area.. the head I think is looking a bit too square...but if that's how your character design is, then it shouldn't be any problem. Look forward to your next update.

[pitchepuck]

cool!! the concept looks like one of the action heros from the 80th...HE-MAN.. well, he not look like he-man..but he has this style... love it :D

[maxinkuk]

Hi, very good work so far!
Yes, those arms are a bit long, but not incredibly long, there are people with arms like that.
By the way, very good concept.:tu:

[jempix]

Great base mesh. I like his default pose.
And I like the name. I actually had a character idea called iron wolf. So, love the whole iron thing and cool ideas with the trap claw hands.

[Finners]

Maxinkuk: cheers!
jempix: thanks! loved your dark knight
pitchthepuck: hedgehog is badass
maxinkuk: ta! damage's hand gadget looks sweet

Didnt realise the he-man style until I had finished my concept, glad its so well received! This is my first try with transpose, not great but it was done at the end of a long day:p Any comments are welcome! Found the shoulder and the hips realllly tricky. His right hand should be semi-clenched and his left fully clenched btw.

transpose test.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27123067%27,%27transpose%20test.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[fluxist8070]

This pose is really great. I am not sure about the twist in the midsection. Is it mimicking tiger style Kung Fu?

[SolidSnakexxx]

Finners, I think you do get distortion inevitably..but most of the time..what I do would be doing the transpose... and fixing simultaneously.(but not completely refined just fix major distortion). so the end result after transpose process it wouldn't look too obvious that the mesh's twisted. But I think Transposing is getting under my skin...and I'm getting used to it little by little. :)

[Finners]

fluxist8070:cheers, ive got a long way to go yet! the hands kindof suggest some sort of kung fu, but really it was because it didnt want to pose the hands yet.
Solid snakexxx: watched your transpose vid and a couple of others, think i need to paint my mask a bit more

I did a paintover on my model to figure the kit out in 3d:
mask paintover.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27123241%27,%27mask%20paintover.jpg%27,1,0%29)

I fixes the proportions a little, need to sort the thickness of the hands methinks. Also i think im gonna need to break up the torso armor a bit so it is affected by the pose more. Here is the kit blocked in with some hasty retopo. I added the claw over the shoudler knives as they were originally part of the design and i wanted to affect the silhouette a bit more:
kit render1.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27123243%27,%27kit%20render1.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[SolidSnakexxx]

The transpose really rely on the mask and its intensity.. I was fumbling with it for awhile....before I realize the importance of mask.

BTW, the new iron mask and the outfit you put on him are looking superb. I like the silhouette of the mask.... :tu: :tu:

[Finners]

SolidSnakexxx (http://member.php?u=12969)- cheers!

Hi everyone! reworked his legs as i felt they looked a bit weird. Maybe stayed on them a bit too long but it was a good learning experience. I know the knees look a bit too detailed but I figure I can always smooth them out. Added the bear trap gauntlet thingmy, havent started the chains yet. detailed the mask and started on detailing the chestplate. Not sure how the chest pieces are gonna deform yet. Comments welcome! ps ignore the badly placed cylinder:P not part of the final design
progress1.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27124904%27,%27progress1.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[Captain Sensible]

Nice stuff! The outfit is looking really good. I especially like the helmet :tu:

[SolidSnakexxx]

Looking sweet! :) Finners and the material applied to the model really display your great model... Just notice the odd thing about the cylinder object protruding out of his crotch...Is that a part of weapon/armor design?

[Shapeworldwide]

Hands are a little weak, Spike in the groin area may not be needed unless to support armour.

Otherwise you're making good progress

[Finners]

Captain Sensible (http://member.php?u=129682): thanks!
SolidSnakexxx (http://member.php?u=12969): cheers! er no, as I said not part of the design, just a cylinder primitive i use to make objects for the model, I keep it in for scale, it's just a happy coincidence it is on his crotch!:P
Shapeworldwide (http://member.php?u=146113): Thanks man, how do you think the hands could be improved?

[Seavannah]

Great model. Love the armor and his face most of all. The cylinder thing, did you mean to put it there or did it go there it's self. The only reason I ask is cause one day while I was modeling a different model than what I am some how she was cloned and placed coming out of her self’s pelvis just like your cylinder. I can't remember what I was doing and have tried to do it again to show my fiancée. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Anyhoo take care and keep up the good work. Happy Zbrushing.

[gordon-v]

Nice stuff! but it looksl ike you have posed him on the highest subd. try to go down to the lowest subd and pos him. Then swich back to the higest. this way you will get less dissortion!

nice pose by the way!

[Finners]

Seavannah (http://member.php?u=79493): thanks! I just made a cylinder primitve as a subtool so I could see the scale, it just so happened to be at the origin which is coincidentally the character's crotch. I laughed pretty hard when I noticed it! You get lots of funny moments making characters which I think is part of the fun! I'm not sure wat happened on your model but it sounds like a laugh!

gordon-v (http://member.php?u=106651): thanks man! Yeah I need a bit of practice with transpose, will give it a try cheers!

[Finners]

Right made another quick pose, but i videoed it this time! Does 18 meg for a medium quality vid sound okay? I'm not so sure gonna check if this works:

7C3EpVQ8TSs

feel free to fire in with anatomical inaccuracies!

[SolidSnakexxx]

I like the transpose vid you have here. Looking good so far. Can't wait to see him in color. :)

[Finners]

Thanks Snake! here's the latest render, need to get a move on methinks. Got to finish boots, add bolts, get some sort of trousers on the go, retopo the body and then I'm ready to pose I think. Need to investigate some shaders also. Anyway I added welding marks on the chestplate for interest, will detail them more later

kit render2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27125732%27,%27kit%20render2.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[KayDee]

Hes lookin' gooooooooooood. Like the design, the helmet especially.

After the retopo might be worth smoothing out some of the anatomy. Also might be cool if his shoulderpads/shoulderblade armour angled down at the outsides a bit? And you could keep the body leatherish looking if you wanted more manouverability in the torso and just keep the plate on the chest metal?

[SolidSnakexxx]

Really cool update. I like how this character turns out...very strong look.. Go go...Iron Tiger ;)

[maxinkuk]

I love his mask and the general presence, the costume is very good too, the only thing that I'm not sure about are those two columns on his belly. They look like they may impair many of his movements.

[Finners]

Hello!

chuckles: cheeurs! I thought about the leather, but after what you said about him being all pro-animals it seemed wrong:P I did what you said with teh shoulderpads i think it fits the design better altho perhaps not as imposing? maybe if i fix the blades which are attached.

Snake: You're my rock! cheers pal!

maxinkuk (http://member.php?u=85530): thanks man! Yeah I had a horrible moment when I realised that about the cylinders! I have split the armor into 3 different parts to allow for more movement, this involved a lot of retopo which was pretty frustrating!

Added teeth, trousers and cleaned up the armor and creased it:

kit render3.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27126171%27,%27kit%20render3.jpg%27,1,0%29)

If anyone has any opinions on the pose I should go for I welcome them!!!!

[fluxist8070]

I think the mask is working really nice and the choice of weapon is interesting!

[spimmy]

The model is looking good, like his suit a lot, very cool indeed!! :tu:

Poses.....hmmmm...I was thinking maybe a pose like a leaping Tiger attacking it's prey (maybe I am thinking to literal, but it's an idea :p ).

[KayDee]

Looking good just need to push and finish it. Googogogo...how long left?

[Moni-Poroni]

Good progress Finners. :)
The trap on his hand is really cool and the helmet too.
The eye of the tiger. ;)
Can´t wait to see everything coloured. Best wishes!

[Finners]

chuckles(Kaydee):cheers matey boy skip!

Moni-Poroni (http://member.php?u=136490): thanks man! good luck to you too!

Here's latest- Added some details and cleared things up, gonna need to groupa all this stuff and make sure I can reconstruct subds. Then pose, texture, detail, piece of cake:P

tigerrender.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27126654%27,%27tigerrender.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[SolidSnakexxx]

Nice update, The sculpt's top work. Now give him some proper cool colors ;)

[AVTPro]

Very cool character, and very inspirations to me. My character has a vest. Hope I get to it.

[- FoOD -]

Tigerman was one of my fav cartoons as a kid ...and this guys looking like a good future evolution of him ....good job:D:tu:

[Finners]

Snake: cheers man!
AVTPro: thanks!
- FoOD -: thanks! I had a look for tigerman on google, got loads of weird stuff including several tiger mans, i can't find the link to the best one I saw earlier, it was like twin brothers fighting and stuff? old school
Anyway, had a proper go with transpose master after much faffing about with fixing cylinder primitive objects which i did NOT enjoy:( When u make a polymesh 3d of a cylinder, it doesnt weld the verts in the centre on the caps which really @#$%s you when you try and mirror with subtool master and then reconstruct subds. So beware!

made a vid but it is like 300 meg, thats way too much right? I dont reckon im gonna be able to get that on youtube but we'll see. So here is the pose, I went for a sort of heroic/tiger leap/flying punch thing. Pleeease tell me wat you think! I know theres a lot of tweaking needed
transpose test2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27126942%27,%27transpose%20test2.jpg%27,1,0%29)

did another angle mayb from the point of view of the guy being attacked? if i go more with this think im gonna need to tilt his head

transpose test2render2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27126943%27,%27transpose%20test2render2.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[AVTPro]

Poser are totally rocking. Great to see this with a character like this.

[maxinkuk]

Massive action, great posing indeed!

[Harmonic]

Very nice work, I like the pose a lot, it could use some tightening up. once you give it some love I think it will look great. I think the limit for video size on YouTube is 1GB so you should be fine.

[SolidSnakexxx]

Love the action you put him into! About to punch someone to oblivion :)

[Finners]

AVTPro:thanks!
maxinkuk:cheers man!
Harmonic: thanks man, I'm on it!!! You were right about youtube, it took aboiut an hour to upload tho:S
SolidSnakexxx: thanks! think i might rotate his body angle a bit more to get more momentum but im gonna fix some of the glaringly obvious problems 1st! Here is the vid. I think I will ending up using this as my transpose vid. I like how I suddenly discover my workflow utilising the automatic polygroups of transpose master organically about halfway through this vid and I think thats one of the great things that zbrush allows:

BKtYxoIOZ-I

[SolidSnakexxx]

Nice transpose vid, Finners.a good 10 minutes of! .I think with an extra twist the Iron Tiger will looks even more awesome! :cool:

[jempix]

nice video. I really like how you used the polygroups to isolate each object. :tu:

[Finners]

jempix: thanks man!

SolidSnakexxx: cheers! yer think im gonna do that!:tu:

[Finners]

Hello! daily update time! I rotated the body for a more dynamic pose, cleaned up teh subtools to better match the pose, refined the anatomy and resculpted the legs. Added facial expression after much gurning in the mirror:P I also added the chains which took a while:P Shading and detailing to come:

final pose render1.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27127143%27,%27final%20pose%20render1.jpg%27,1,0%29)

final pose render2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27127144%27,%27final%20pose%20render2.jpg%27,1,0%29)

final pose render3.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27127145%27,%27final%20pose%20render3.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[KayDee]

Huge improvement all the little bits make the pose really uber! Especially like the chains.

Quick tread on the shoes? Some tidying up and itll be done. Lookin gooooooood.

[AVTPro]

The jaw traps are great.

[SolidSnakexxx]

Nice nice update... and I'm glad you make the torso twist....very dynamic now. :)

[Captain Sensible]

Nice work man! Those bear traps are very nasty!! :tu:

[Finners]

KayDee: thanks!
AVTPro:thanks man!
SolidSnakexxx:cheers!
Captain Sensible: thanks!

Heres quick render of him shaded, still to add a bit more detail. Anyone got ideas for a stand? im a bit stuck on that just now:(

final pose colored render.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27127372%27,%27final%20pose%20colored%20render.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[Finners]

heres another view, seems the contrast adjustments dont carry over to ps.

final pose colored render2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27127373%27,%27final%20pose%20colored%20render2.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[Finners]

Ok i've had an idea for the stand, so he's in this position cos he is jumping through a skylight to kick the scientific research people's butts! aw yeeeh! i did a mock up of how it would work, I was thinking I could use loosely connected shards of glass to prop up his right leg and the edge of the skylight to prop up his left foot with his body held up by the middle beam. Tell me wat u think! Hardly any time left! AAArgh!

stand idea_comp.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27127394%27,%27stand%20idea_comp.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[SolidSnakexxx]

Cool base idea....looks like the glass atop the dome gets shattered too. The reflective quality makes it look really cool. :)

[Finners]

thanks snake! I think its gonna be too faffy and as jp_smith pointed out(thanks man!!) it will probably take away from my model. I think too much of it was obscured by this skylight idea. So here is jungle cliff rock, im gonna add vines and make better leaves, but this is the general idea-let me know wat u think!

stand idea_rock.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27127485%27,%27stand%20idea_rock.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[jp_smith]

That looks awesome man, much better base...this is one of the best poses in the contest. :D :tu:

[Finners]

Thanks a lot jp! Praise indeed! Thanks again for the input. Just a little more to do...Might have to pull an all nighter!:P

[Finners]

Here is probably the last progress report before my final post. I've pretty much finished the stand apart from polypaint and I have almost finished detailign the metal parts. Next stop is clean up and detail the body.

progress2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27127728%27,%27progress2.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[Finners]

my website (http://www.finlaysutton.com) just testing hyperlinks

[Finners]

This will be my last post before my final submission. I want to thank everyone that commented on and critiqued my work, and also the zbc community as a whole for providing such a wide range of resources and tutorials which enabled me to get this entry finished. Thanks to my friends for spurring me on and encouraging me, you know who you are ;) Zbrush was used for the entirety of this entry, apart from fixing the topology on the hands, and welding the cap verts on cylinders so I could use the reconstruct subd function along with subtool master.This was a great learning experience and forced me to look at features of zbrush I had never used before, my favorite one being zapplink, don't know how I managed without it!

I am very excited by the fact that the judges are artists who I have studied at length and used as a source of inspiration, they will be viewing my work! Awesome!

Good luck to everyone!

[Finners]

Final Entry:


Still Images:

closeup2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27128097%27,%27closeup2.jpg%27,1,0%29)

sideview.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27128098%27,%27sideview.jpg%27,1,0%29)

backview_high.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27128099%27,%27backview_high.jpg%27,1,0%29)

backview2_high.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27128112%27,%27backview2_high.jpg%27,1,0%29)

bronze2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27128101%27,%27bronze2.jpg%27,1,0%29)

bronze3.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%27128102%27,%27bronze3.jpg%27,1,0%29)


Turntable Movie:

download high res(right click, save as...) (http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/610732/turntable_colored_near_comp.mov)

1x1YrEPsU-U


Transpose Movie:

BKtYxoIOZ-I