Hey everyone thanks for joining me!
This was my entry into the FN realtime character competition; take a myth and reimagine it into a futuristic version; Max tri count of 150k and use only 2 x 4k textures…
Scene poly count 121k Triangles including base and BG: More Info and lore Down below
BLOG POST covering some of the things i used to make this dude:
https://www.thivolan-art.com/blog
YOUTUBE VIDEO series covering quite a bit of the process (sped up, no commentary):
Here is a quick summary of the Tokoloshe (toh-koh-loh-shee) and its inspiration/ origins
MODELING:
Tokoloshe - a malevolent, imp-like spirit from Zulu or Xhosa culture. According to belief, Tokoloshes are summoned by people wishing to do harm to others. The Tokoloshe is capable of causing illness and death to the victim and can shapeshift; i used this to really drive the malicious look of the creature which i think cam through pretty well. I also used quite a few Zulu/ animal elements like the fur and claws/ horns.
According to popular legend, people raise their beds on bricks to the tokoloshe getting to their feet - i used this as a way of the tokoloshe collecting people toes as trophies which he collects and displays all around his body…
There are many types of tokoloshe but they are usually long-eared goblin-imp-like creatures that feed off the energy of negative actions. They are also always connected to a witch who uses them to carry out nefarious deeds. I also used these elements to drive some of the designs esp the head being shopped off to show the actions aren’t carried out by something capable of reason…
Also tokoloshes dont really have any predetermined looks other than being small, malicious and imp like so i did have quite a bit of freedom (Maybe too much!!!) with the designs and choices.
Texturing:
For the texturing i made sure to add plenty of breakup and i also tried for some decent storytelling like the scratches, scrapes and of course BLOOD! Theres quite a bit but i made sure to include them in areas that seemed to make sense like the hands, mouth and chest areas… I also tried for quite a bit a breakup with the materials like he skin, metal, rubber and fur…
Lighting;
Here i tried to create a proper mood with both warm and cool lighting to showcase the icy calculation of the monster in stalk mode and the warm lights for the heat of battle…
Tokoloshe modes:
The tokoloshe has four modes: Attack, Stalk, Defend and Hybrid. All of these modes rely on the metal plates that can transform in multiple objects; a helmet, mini, spear or shield. all the parts are used and did not duplicate or weld anything, it was by design to create an abstract shape that formed something concrete… the fur on his shoulders also moves depending on the modes he is in!