Vir Norin Sketchbook

[Vir_Norin]

Here is a bit more stuff. The Magic Book is still not ready - it is probably the most detailed piece (close to 20 millions of polygons - though most of details wouldn’t be visible since it is relatively small book hanging on her belt).

• So there is a Health and Mana bottles. I did about ten different bottles but ended up with those. Also I might add a small vial with green inside (poison or so). And OMG, someone said that mana bottle looks like a sex-toy. Oops, that was unintentional. I also need to finish a cork.
• And a Stick. Obviously that to beat a fire-breathing dragon you need a weapon with opposite element. Those crystals look odd without a glow but I’m sure that in final version it would be OK. The orb will be replaced with vortex of tiny crystals. In the final pic the Stick would be also an important source of the light.
  Not showing amulets cause they are very simple.
  
  
  
  

[MJGHP]

awesome stuff man.love that stick.great details.would love to see a breakdown about how you made it.and those potion bottles look nice too.I bet it’s gonna be an amazing piece at the end.can’t wait to see the final result.keep it up buddy.;);)

[Vir_Norin]

Hi! It is really nice to hear that you like it. Thanks!
I wish I can show more stuff soon but for several reasons (you know them) I cannot work again in nearest future. But since I promised here is not finished version of a book. And speaking about the stick - it is very simple: basemesh with Zspheres, then Zremesh, divide and carve details with dam_standard, giving more volume with Clay_buildup - nothing else.
Good luck and see you soon!

[roanels]

Cool sketch, can’t wait to see it when it’s done

[Vir_Norin]

Thank you! But what exactly do you mean by sketch? Book, Stick, Bottles? But regardless I’m glad you like it!

PS Jeez, they removed my avatar and icon from forum… again. When she is not even naked. What makes my image 18+ and worth to be censored? Erotic clothing? Or breast size? Or the bumps for nipples? There are images of girls in super tight latex suits and with fully naked breasts but they are still considered legit. While my previous icon with just an abdomen was erased in minutes. WTF?

[rasmusW]

great character. you got some nice clean modeling here.

-r

[Vir_Norin]

Thanks a lot! You have very nice gallery too

[Vir_Norin]

Hello guys! I need your help. I started remaking my old and unused sculpt for a new story. And I have problems when achieving teenager look. So I have two main questions right now. First is how old does she look now? And second one is do you have any particular tips for making very young persons and teens?
I will list things that I’ve already did to her. She is based on my previous heroine named Freckles (can be found in my WIP)

• I compressed the face vertically to show that her bones didn’t finish their growth yet. As a result the half-head length mark is above the eyes.
• Also i made the head a bit larger in relation to body.
• I closed her mouth and made different lip configuration. I intentionally made her a little bit pouting. I might define the pout even more just a tad.
• I added quite a lot of cheek fat. Now it even affects the profile, making cheeks a bit chubby. Kinda like it but might refine the silhouette.
• Previous nose was a bit bulbous and I made it more structural. But maybe that wasn’t necessary a good thing so I might smooth it a bit
• Overall I smoothed all sharp creases like mentolabial sulcus, nasolabial and infraorbital folds. It definitely makes a face younger but also takes away some visual interest
• I could make her ears a bit more sticking.

By a story she is a 16-17 years old girl who spent most of time with robots. Since she is not socially adapted this girl has a lot of complexes and quirks. She hates her sticking ears and freckles), has some defects of speech etc. You can read more about the story on my DA page.

[FourtyNights]

What a coincidence, my recent work is based on a 13-14-year-old female character, but the big difference to yours is, that she’s stylized and skinny-ish.

But yeah, my way was just to try to follow lots of face references from that age range simply by observing and copying. I’m still a noob with facial anatomy compared to my current body anatomy knowledge… so yeah.

Anyway, you’re getting there. A bit rounder cheeks and a lot softer transitions bewteen bony landmarks and muscle/fat tissue, and smaller facial features in a proportion-wise is roughly a way to go with, like you’re already headed with it. (;

[Erik_Heyninck]

The face of young people is smaller than the face of the elderly. Normally the eyebrows should be about half-way.
The eyes and the shape of the jaw are already ok. I’d only make her face a bit smaller.
I find Andrew Loomis a good reference.
This said: there is a huge difference between a ten year old and a nineteen year old…

[Vir_Norin]

Thank you guys for taking your time and answering.
FourtyNights
Yeah, I got some cool images of pretty teens to be inspired from, but for this story I wanna make completely unique characters not based on real prototypes. If I copy something I then feel guilty. That’s probably a reason why I redo the face of this girl since previously it was based on real prototype.
I wish I can use heavy stylization - this will definitely help me to achieve youth and innocent look. But since I already defined the style (almost realistic with some idealizations) and already made first character, then I’m forced to maintain it through the story.
Yet another thing worth to mention is makeup. It can really make a teen appear like an adult.
Erik Heyninck
Just to ensure: do you mean that I need to compress her face vertically even more or rather uniformly scale it in relation to cranium?
Yes, Loomis is awesome. In fact before starting this character I’ve read those chapters where he talks about children and teens. Really nice diagrams and drawings -so much life in them.
I will try to play with her face as you said and hopefully I’ll get a better result. If no, I will explain it by acceleration. Even now many teenagers look older than they really are. And considering she is from 2369 - that would be not so bad excuse.

[Erik_Heyninck]

In an idealised canon of eight heads for an adult, which is fairly unrealistic, a newly born’s length proportions are about four heads; at two, this has become five heads, at six six heads and at twelve some seven heads.
In an idealised head of a grown up, the eyes are half way the length of the head. When younger, the eyes are lower. When around twelve, the eyebrows are about half-way.

On the image you show us, the top of her cranium is not visible, and the rendered image is under an angle, so I have to guess a bit. And you are right that many young humans do look older than their age. My new neighbour’s daughter was in fact twelve when I guessed her fifteen.
You are the artist here, and you are doing a splendid job. What I write is absolutely not meant to critisize your work. I only give my point of view, reacting to the fact that I have difficulty guessing her age. No more than that.

[Vir_Norin]

Thanks again for commenting. I’m totally fine about receiving critiques :). I got the process of growth from a baby to adult. It is actually very well explained by Loomis and other authors. It is just sometimes when artist spent so much time looking at character that he loses ability to see obvious mistakes. I also have problems with identifying age by face. Hence I did this post - to hear opinions of other artists.

PS The human height canon is quite interesting topic. After many researches I came up with conclusion that it is not so rare and could be freely applied to regular, even non heroic characters if they are tall enough. For example, my height is 188 cm and is composed from almost 9 heads. My brother is 195 and he has similar amount of heads in his height. So when making a character the height should be the primary thing driving proportions and not the muscle development as many people think. But in relation to girls that are often shorter, 7.5 heads is more realistic choice unless she is very high top-model or goddess.

[Erik_Heyninck]

I fully agree with you there. I see more and more people leaving the 19thC 7 1/2 canon. But I still like it a lot. What I also notice often is that women often have shorter legs. They are often more ‘down to earth’ and I assume that is why the long legs are considered by many to be sexy.

[Vir_Norin]

Quick hair test. Gonna make another three or four before creating real ones with particles.
Love her tiny and fragile shoulders.

[Vir_Norin]

Did a rough sketch of a third main character of my T.E.O.G.O.D. story. Human-like robot with advanced artificial intelligence. I already wrote a detailed biography for him but I still should translate it into English. I also did a body for him earlier but I made a mistake that many beginners do when designing sci-fi characters: due to the big time interval between sculpting the head and body they look a bit in different styles and don’t really fit each other. And since I like the head more, I will redo the body.
So let me introduce it… or rather him to you. His serial name is AN-70.IV. This basically means Anthropomorphic robot based on framework #70, iteration number IV (iteration was added by robot itself after he started modifying himself to resemble more the human being). But my main heroines Nastya and Flora simply call him Antaeus. Overall he is a good and very smart guy. His brain was reprogrammed to ignore basic laws of robotics. This allowed him to freely travel with girls and protect them from psycho-zombies.
There are much more to say but I should keep this post brief. Hopefully more story will be revealed soon at my Deviantart page.

[MJGHP]

nicely done so far.I really like the forms on his nose & jaw.yeah,totally agree with you.still having that problem when making robots or things like that (simply hard-surface stuff).so he’s an android? like in the blade runner.he thinks & he has feelings.can’t wait to read his backstory as well.I read Nastya’s story.quite shocking but it has some issues.I will explain them to you later (if you don’t mind.;) ) anyway as always it’s nice to see your work.keep it up.

[Vir_Norin]

Thank you!
Well, technically his body has no organic parts. He knows that in many aspects he is far superior than regular human being. But for now he cannot feel emotions and this arises in his electronic brain some analogies to human curiosity. So Antaeus joined girls to learn more about their feelings (and for some other reasons). And before even meeting them he started an experiment which consists in modifying his body to look more like a living person. This fleshy parts resembling muscles and skin are synthetic. As he admits later - most of this stuff is purely aesthetic and not functional.
I’m still not sure but later I might settle two absolutely contrary opinions in his mind: one part of his brain will be aware that he is artificial hence defective form of life and that’s why he started mimicking people, but with time another part of his brain is getting shocked by the weird nature of humanity. Such a big dissonance will sometimes make his temper mad, arrogant and unpredictable.
PS Sure, will be glad to hear your suggestions - this will make a story even better. I know there are still many vague spots in the plot so right now I’m clarifying them via dialogues.

[Vir_Norin]

Deleted my post since obviously something wrong with forum and ZBSee.

[Vir_Norin]

Attempt #2. I hope that forum is not buggy today.