Barbarian

[DBriggs]

Hello,

First off I would like to say what a great community this is at ZBC. I have learned so much from so many great artists; this site is pure inspiration for me to step up my work.

I am 20 years old and a student at the Art Institute of Orange County. I am studying visual and game programming so I plan on becoming a technical artist. I love every aspect of making games from coding, rigging, level design, visual effects, to 3d art. My goal is to one day work at Blizzard Entertainment, or Project Offset.

I have been using Zbrush for about 6 months and I love everything about it.

This first piece was based of a concept for Diablo III. Legend says that somewhere in the Northen Steppes, somewhere within the great mountain of Arreat, lies a great source of power. A Barbarian was bestowed the duty to guard this great artifact; His duty was to guard this artifact for an eternity atop the mountain.

My scene is portraying the barbarian deep within the mountain. He has been there a long time, alone, and you can see that he is starting to age. I tried to go for the Diablo 3 art style and make it dark, but colorful.

The second set of images is my ZSphere concept for my next project. I am working on a Hydralisk and I will post any major updates. This will be a cinematic model and I will eventually turn it into a game model which I will put in Unreal. The SSS screen grab is just the torso, and it is a blockout for my final model; it has slightly more details than the Zsphere concept.

I am also working on modular in game models for my level I have made recently(Gothic Architecture), I will post any major updates on those as well.

3ds Max
Zbrush
Photoshop

First render is perfect for a 22" monitor

Attachments

[Der_Crow]

That Hydralysk looks awesome!

Can’t wait to see more progress on it.

btw, what renderer did you use for the test render? Mental Ray? Vray? Maxwell?

[DBriggs]

I used 3ds Max Mental Ray. =) Yes, I learned a lot making the barbarian. The Hydralisk should be much better! I am excited to work on it more!

[DBriggs]

Thank you for comments.

-Daniel

[goast666]

Your barbarian is a great start.
My crits are that he doesn’t match the bulk and overall form and mass of the concept. The original design that the artist created has a very massive presense even in the quick sketch that he drew up.

Your rendition of him seems more like a typical guy that is inside of some armor.
The armor isn’t what makes the character, it’s his silhouette that holds what the concept artist was trying to convey. Look at how high his shoulder pads are placed up and how small his head is in relation to his body. That combined with the broad shoulders makes him seem very dominant in the image and is what truly drives the concept. If you take your character and play with the proportions some to try to better match that you will come out with a much better piece that feels much more “barbarian” rather than a Dark knight.

eh, my 2cents. What you have is good though, don’t get me wrong, but it can be much better.

[midost]

Very nice! I especially like the Hydralisk. The wrought iron work on the helmet is really cool, too.

[DBriggs]

Goast,

Thank you for your critique I definitely agree with you. This was my first Zbrush project so I kind of took everything in strides. You will be impressed by my next work! I should have it finished in about a week.

I made this piece about 3 months ago and it taught me a lot. You are right that form and proportion are the most important factor.

Midost,

Thanks for your comment I appreciate it. Look out for my next works you will like it! I have improved greatly since this one.

-DBriggs

[hosch]

I like this piece - my main critique would be to work on the textures so they don’t all have the same feel for each surface - it seems like the surfaces are painted wax where skin would have (if your stylization allows for this) at least some SSS and maybe even the horns/teeth sticking up from the armor as well - the metal would have a different feel to it - and even though you sculpted in all that great detail in the metal you painted it a solid color - same with the skin - skin has all sorts of color even if no SSS is used - there are greens, blues, pinks, yellows, etc. - entire spectrum is used to get what appears to be a solid-like color to the eye until one gets close - your model is good enough to go the extra mile - just my encouragement for an already cool character - take it all the way!

[rouncer]

I love watching those new zspheres in action, For tyranid/alien/starcraft they are perfect hey!

Hydralisk is awesome. Its my desktop wallpaper now :lol:

The knight is totally cool, but maybe you need to work on your compositions/balances cause its a little too dark and its not coming across as well as it possibly could.

[Ardox]

Gorgeous work
amazing details it should be on Top Row!

[DBriggs]

rouncer: Yeah the new Zspheres are amazing! They have so much power and you can get extremely quick results with them. Haha I am glad you mad the hydralisk your wallpaper… I am almost done with a fully textured and zbrushed version of it. You will love it! As for the composition I brightened it up a little tell me what you think.

Ardox: Thank you for your comment! Top Row is one of my main goals. I originally hoped to get it for this piece. If not, I really think my finished hydralisk will!

Here is the new image slightly modified:

[system]

good ~!`

[DBriggs]

Thanks linfeng!

[Aberrant]

SWEEET!

[DBriggs]

Thanks for the comment Aberrant! Always good to get some feedback. Even if it’s only 1 word and a thumbs up.