Here are some thumbnails from the beginning of the concept phase, that illustrate my intentions regarding his overall proportions, they stray from the og concept painting, but that was mostly a way of figuring out the surface.
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Thank you for explaining your creative process, in that context its Perfect the way it is!
Some threads are just awesome,that character works . On reading your character description for him I find this all the more appealing . [color=red]5 stars ,Deserves to be top row imo . Cal
I’m surprised nobody else has mentioned it, but I immediately thought “Kappa” when I saw this. It’s a creature out of Japanese myth that is most often portrayed as amphibious humanoid with a thick turtle-like shell. The only things that would really make it more Kappa-like are the water-basin on top of the head and a beak.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_(folklore)
Your final images look awesome. I really like it.
calum5ZB - hey thanks man I tried to put some thought into this one. Some killer stuff on your site!
I really like the one where the little demons are falling into the abyss, nice render.
SalmonGod - Shamalan should have checked these guys out! “Kappa in the Water” I think that would have made a better movie:lol:.Really cool info, thanks.
Here is the wire.
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Really nice work overall. Enhancements to the deep parts of the wrinkles could use work, especially underside of arms, hands, legs. Some of the renders look pretty good, perhaps the colour map could be a little less muddy, a bit of definition helps. Most animals, ven turtles have very defined patterns.
Answered your PM as well.
Awesome update! Is he rigged? I think a little animation could push you to the top. And what Moose said. 
Here is a zbrush render, snapshoting each region. now back to Maya.
Jason - I gave some extra attention to a few areas, the textures were definitely lacking unity overall.
womball - animation in the works, still figuring exactly what controls I’ll need
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Very nice improvement. Depending on the character/scene/etc. you might want to break up the uniformity of the texture. Otherwise great improvements. If he can find those pesky Mutant Ninja Turtles and crack their shells I’ll feed him! Then I’d like Spong Bob taken care of.
I’ve never posted a comment on here before, but after seeing your character, I just had to say that I think it’s pretty amazing. You have a lot of talent! 
Here are some images from a turntable I rendered out in mental ray, still a few trouble areas, but nothing major. manged to do it with 3 passes this time, will probably render the raw color again after a few minor revisions.
HHHeiner - thanks, welcome to ZBC:)
Jason - I’m gonna do a quick storyboard on Sunday to figure my shots out, but for now I’m finishing this turntable. Those ninja turtles do seem to just keep coming back, something should be done…But sponge bob I think is too powerful.
[](javascript:zb_insimg(‘51118’,‘turntableimages.jpg’,1,0)) [
](javascript:zb_insimg(‘51119’,‘turntableimages.jpg’,1,0))
heres a little higher res
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He looks like a game character in the last one. Is this just a color pass?
Progressing along.
Womball you are totally right, I’m not sure what I was thinking, sometimes I get enamoured with that luminous/specular look and forget about form, which is what really makes the image. Here is one with a shadow pass. I’m still not entirely happy with the displacement, when I set up a few regions I can get pretty much what I had in Zbrush, but with the whole model its crash city. so I have to settle for about 3/4 of the displacement that I sculpted.
-thats because I have a girly little G4 mac, no failing of ZB or MR.
that’s really amazing. I like the color. It just seems fresh.
Subnormal,
Very sweet model… love the progression. Enjoy the posing. Only thing that came to me at the onset was something about the eye color. I’m sure you probably played around with it… though did you consider more a yellow orche type of color or maybe perhaps just a more deep dark brooding color. At any rate will be watching for more!!
Still missing the spec map and reflection map to make the details pop. But a nicer progression. HDRI works good if you use either to enhance the effect, although it might blow out lighting, you have to adjust for that.
Looking very nice. I like the color and over all renders.