Old English Helmet (Early WIP)

[asaxon]

Hello all,

Ok after finally getting to grips with ZB 3, I am partly through my project to create an old Anglo-Saxon Helmet.

My task is to create a realistic looking helm based on pictures and replica helmets used by old Anglo-Saxon warriors. I am not aiming to copy proportions or style exactly, but to simply create a helmet based on the
Sutton Hoo stlyle Anglo-Saxon Helmet.

For a reference image, please have a look at this

A few things I would like to mention:

I could not have even dreamt about creating a 3D model like this one if ZB 3 wasn't around. ZB 3 is simply in a league of its own. I must admit that I was frustrated with ZB3 at first, but that was purely down to my lack of knowledge and also the odd ZB bug, of which I sure will be fixed soon.

Everything you see was created using ZBrush.

The model currently consists of 13.5 Million polygons, all of which are displayed smoothly on my PC (6300 3ghz, 2Gig Ram, 8800GTX). I have not yet needed to use the HD Sculpting.

The image is far from finished, although I am so far pleased with the current form.

Comments welcome, but please be kind as this is still WIP.
Cheers!




The following image shows some of the detail on the face plate.

[vvmanoj]

Nice work! I love the design on the helmet. So did you make the alphas too? Once again the design looks pretty cool!

13.5 million thats pretty sweet. On my machine (C2D 6300, 2GB RAM, 7300GT) the highest I could hit was 5.5 million. Anything higher and it gives me an "out of memory error". This could be a limitation of the mesh as 5.5 on subdivision would give me 22 million....probabaly too high.

Cheers,
Manoj

[asaxon]

Thanks,

The Alphas were all based on original Anglo-Saxon artwork. Obviously because it's scarce I've had to trace and tidy up etc before applying them.

I'm subdividing small subtool items so that I don't get a major jump, but yeah 11.5 million can't be argued with.

[asaxon]

A small update. Added some more detail and I'm also messing about with colour combinations etc.

[andreseloy]

asaxon very cool hamlet!
Z3 has open the door for the avalanche of very good artist!
Andreseloy

[asaxon]

Thanks Andreseloy!

ZBrush is indeed amazing. Anything can be created with ZBrush!

[Drakelot]

It's looking very cool ... Fantastic

[thedg]

Nice one mate, i love the colours and the design

[asaxon]

Thanks thedg and Drakelot, I'll try and post some updates when I have some free time (The kids are off for half-term)

[asaxon]

Here's a bit of an update to the Helm.

Obviously there's still work to be done, but I think it's starting to take shape more.

It's currently 21.2 million polys without any HD Geo.

C&C welcome.

Cheers!

[Bryan Silva]

I think the embossing work on this piece is coming along very nicely. Looking at the reference image I think you could push the depth of the detail further. right now it seams too shallow. Keep up the good work man. Can you talk about your technique for creating these details?

[calum5ZB]

I love the detail in this,on the main forms the nose and eyebrows bother me a bit.Maybe the nose could come out more and the eye brows Im not sure are needed but its only my opinion.Looks super,cal

[asaxon]

Cheers Bryan.

Yeah, this image isn't suppose to copy the reference image exactly, rather a mixture between a number of Anglo-Saxon styles. I agree on the detail level, but I want to get all main details in etc to see how far I can push it in terms of poly count. I plan to add more detail via HD Geo etc. Some of the details will probably be redone before it's finished as they are all done on layers so that can easily be changed.

As for the technique? I'll try my best.

I started with planes for a lot of the work as well a zsphere based skinning which I roughly manipulated to get the basic proportions etc. After the basic shapes were set down I started with some rough alphas which I created in Photoshop, to give me a general idea of what the metal would look like.

The next step was material and colour and defining the alphas more so that I could fit them exactly where I wanted them.

I did some re-topology to cut down on the polycount as well as to remove some imperfections.

Most of the framework was done via mesh extraction.

It's all been a learning process for me as I was very new to ZBrush when 3 came out, but I'm blown away by the general tools available.

Cal> Yeah I see what you mean. The nose is one of many designs I found and this one seemed to fit the model best but I may mess about with it some more, and the same goes for the eyebrows. Cheers for the comments

[asaxon]

Here's some more reference images to other helm designs based on the Sutton Hoo one to give you an idea and how they differ.

Saxon Helm
Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo Basic

[asaxon]

Ok it's been a while and I've been busy with several projects. I'm not far off completing the helm so I thought I'd post a small update for C&C.

As you can tell I've redesigned a lot as the Topology of the older one was very poor, not to mention a higher poly count than needed.

I have decided to use ZB for the modelling and Cinema 4D for the final render, simply because it's quicker for me to set up the scene and I will also have total access to Vray soon.

I am currently exporting the helm from ZB in sections (faceplate, ear guards, rear guard and top, each of which is approx 30 million polys).

The image below was rendered using Cinema 4d's Advanced Renderer, the modelling was done totally within ZB using retopology every couple of steps. The render below took about an 1hr and 15 minutes, mainly due to the hires disp maps, GI, and AO.



Points to note.

• Some displacement values were not set up correctly, so the depth of the engraving and rivets will change by the final render.
• There is no colour as yet, I will hand paint that when the render is in the final stages.
• I've yet to add a bit more detail, but not too much as I like it as it is.
• The final scene has yet to be decided upon.

Anyway, comments appreciated. I've learnt so much from this project and I'm sure I've much more to learn.