CGS Modeling Challenge: Conan the Barbarian

[hyper1]

Kraken,
The skin shader looks pretty good as well as the SSS. Have you already applied the UV maps yet? On the hair especially on the "Barbarian" you might try using Sasquatch lite, by using hair "zones" with distribution weight maps. I too have seen outstanding Poly hair that moves naturally and looks natural. I've never personally tried it but I remember a tutorial going over both Poly hair creation and movement. If I remember rightly they used a weight map on it to stiffen it at the roots and then used "cloth" to Motion design. I know that many on this board sneer at Poser, but there has been a lot of work done with poly hair on the various forums and I know there are many tutorials on the subject, although most have to do with Anime hair. I'll look around and see if I can locate the LW poly hair tutorial that I remember.

[KrakenCMT]

Hyper,

I haven't applied any UV's yet. I'm thinking that since I do most of my texturing with ZBrush and ZAppLink that I'll just use the AUV tiles. I did that for my frog and it seemed to work pretty well.

Also, I found a tut here for the hair guides. This is what I got so far. I need to go back and do some adjusting, but I think Saslite will do just fine.

Almost forgot to mention that these are Conan's wrapped leather bracers. Sculpted and textured in ZB. Test rendered in ZB.

[JesseGraffam]

Looking great man . I can't wait to see it all as one. Are you still modelling The Governator or are you starting to texture him now?

[KrakenCMT]

Things are going a bit slow this week, Jesse. I had to finish a couple other design projects (my recent bunny being one of them) before getting back to this.

I still have to do the pants, boots, belt buckle, and a couple other props. Then I'll texture him up. Once I get him rigged and posed properly, I'll sculpt some finer details in him to solidify the pose. Flex muscles that need flexing... that sort of thing.

[hyper1]

Kraken,

Yeah, I haven't used Sas Lite for some time, and I hadn't seen that little tutorial. Your hair looks pretty good so far. Sas Lite's hair is already a little course, so it just right for Conan! I can tell that lighting is going to be the money maker on this project. I found the Anime hair tutorial, I saved it to my computer. I'd recomend an HDR with a little back lighting as a possible first approach to bring the hair to life. Your Leather looks Great! Won't it be fun to be able to grab material with ZB3!
Keep up the good work.

[KrakenCMT]

Finished the boots and belt. Now on to the pants, necklace and headband.

The belt buckle thingy was done in ZBrush then exported as a normal map. If I do a closeup of it or render it from a certain angle, I may need to do a displacement for it instead.

[calum5ZB]

Great stuff man,looking forward to seeing this completed!

[hyper1]

Kraken,
Great work on the fur! The glossiness makes it look like otter, or perhaps beaver. I like the slight clumping as well. I can't imagine why you would need more than a normal map, you'd have to be reallllly close to see any clear bumps of a displacement. Keep on doing what your doing and this should end up a seriously outrageous peice of work!

[willbrown1]

Kraken, You got my vote on this challenge. Excellent work on the props. Go man go. I'm sure the final will be GREAT!

[Plakkie]

Perfect style for the clothing, it will be great!! Are you making the head-band-thingy too?

[KrakenCMT]

Well, the last 3 days of work (well last 3 nights) went down the tube.... I was working on texture maps (color, spec, bump, sss) on the unposed model thinking that the UVs would be fine. I then took him into Lightwave, rigged and posed him. Then exported the new pose into ZBrush for some additional detailing. Then I tested the color map on it and nothing was lining up at all. Is there a way to fix that? I've tried flipping the maps, etc... but it still looks jumbled. I'll probably just have to go back in and do it again on the posed model.

Anyway here he is posed. You'll recognize the inspiration of the pose from Michelangelo's David. I wanted something simple, but powerful. I altered the pose somewhat to allow for him holding the sword in his left hand and holding the necklace he gave to Valeria (his woman in the movie) in his right.

I thought the pose was kinda somewhat fitting (just a bit) since David went on to become King of Israel and Conan went on to conquer and become king by his own hand. But the pose also tells the story of him lamenting over Valeria's death while seeking his revenge. That's interesting because in the beginning of the movie he states that the best thing in life is "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women." Yet, here he is on the receiving end....

Well after I posed him with LW bones, there was some pretty bad distortions going on in the arms. You can see it in his left arm. I started detailing his right arm and fixed the distortion there. But that's as far as I've got.

[Vexona]

nice nice work man, and in Lightwave too! nice. I am forced to use LIghtwave at school, but I hate it, I like Maya.
Keep up your great work., awsome bracer texture

[sumpm1]

WOW! that model looks killer. I am a huge Arnold fan too. It almost seems taht Arnold isn't "big" enough in your model.

[Plakkie]

Great pose Kraken! And great use of LW too! Did you do the fur of the pants and boots with Saslite too?

[doco]

This is really nice work, the only thing that has bugged me since early on, was the positioning of the ear in profile, it apears to be set too far back?