Action Hero - Hikari

[Mysfyt]

Submitted by Carrie Perez

Heroine name: Hikari

In Japanese mythology, the Koi fish symbolizes perseverance, strength, longevity, and wealth.

Back story: Our heroine was born in a rural mountain village, nearly unknown outside of its own walls due to its remote location among inhospitable terrain. Unfortunately, it was well-known to the local bandits and raiders, who frequently plundered the village of its goods, or worse. The villagers fought back the best they could using makeshift weapons and farming implements, but it was never enough, and they began looking upon the raids as their personal curse to endure.

Even as a child, Hikari was always blessed with an indefinable strength of will and physical prowess. No matter the difficulty of the trial she faced, she always found a way to push through to success. Believing that her gifts must have been given to her for a reason, she chose use them to protect her village against the raiders.

She adopted the strong yet beautiful koi as her personal symbol.

Superpower: strength, both physical and spiritual

Weapons: barbs, fans



I realize my sketching skills leave a lot to be desired, but I hope this gets the general point across. The face is mostly blank right now because I have not yet decided on her mask.

I hope to use this contest to force myself to learn the software better.

[N8]

That is a beautiful sketch, such clean lines.

[wethand]

yeah, really beatiful sketch!

[cghuang]

nice use of lines and the tonepaper.

[sazar26]

yes endead it is a beautiful sketch

[SolidSnakexxx]

I think your sketch is very simple but elegant...And interesting subject as well...the "Koi" fish. I will keep an eye on this.

[Mysfyt]

I appreciate the replies. I still have great difficulty transferring what I see in my mind onto "paper". I chose the koi motif because I think it will make an interesting (and fun) costume design and final pose.

I have to give credit for the lines, though, to liberal (over)use of the deco brush.

[Trurl]

Nice, dynamic sketch!
I'm curious how are you going to achive this dynamic feel on the final sculpting.

[Drakelot]

Xcellent concept ... good luck

[Mysfyt]

I've made a bit of progress. I've spent the past few days working on the armature for the base mesh. It's been slow progress, but progress nonetheless!



The armature on the left was my original attempt. Goofy looking thing, but I thought having the extra edge loops around the facial features might help. Ran into a couple problems, though. The large number of faces concentrated on the head and hands was causing my mesh to become overly dense in those areas, and not dense enough in others (like the torso and limbs). So, I removed the extra features and simplified the armature into the one seen at right. (Besides, I like the idea better of sculpting first and retopologizing later, if necessary.)

Also spent quite a bit of time diagnosing a symmetry problem with the hands. Finally discovered that two of the fingers had intersecting (but not visibly!) edges, and tried a number of configurations before the adaptive skin would behave. TVeyes, if you are listening, your XYZ Adjust script saved my sanity.



Just a few pose tests using the armature. Thought it might be a good way to spot potential problems with proportions and joints, and get some ideas on how the final pose might look. I will probably do this again at the end to choose a final pose before transposing the actual model.



And finally, my base mesh so far. Time to start sculpting.

[Moni-Poroni]

Great start from Zspheres
I forgot the inverted spheres in my model´s face
i love theway it goes..and I like your concept sketch....
Asian women are so beautiful
Best wishes.

[AVTPro]

I like the way you evaluated the poses with Zsphere.

[SolidSnakexxx]

Cool pose tests.. the 3rd image is the one you are going for? (Wiht one arm up, one arm, down)

[Mysfyt]

Thanks. Yes, the third pose is what I had originally pictured in my mind. It's a bit off-balance, but I'll work on that.

I want the final image to be reminiscent of those graceful Chinese and Japanese ink paintings.

[Mysfyt]

Small update with basic anatomy forms sculpted in and a lot of tweaks to proportion. Now that I've got a better idea about where I need more geometry, my next task is to retopologize. (Is that a word?)



It's been a slow process, learning a lot as I go. I am finally getting more comfortable with the transpose tool, which has always kinda intimidated me.