First Character Finished!

 Goldtooth McGee, the first character in the outlaws and lawmen group is finished and is ready for rigging. This character was a little bit of experimentation with full body, as I've never attempted one before. This has allowed me to learn the basic forms of a stylised human, and test the waters for how well I can produce a full character. Overcoming the fear of a full character was the hardest part of this as I always felt as thought it was something near impossible to learn, especially after coming from just making heads so far. 

Generally, I am happy with the outcome of the first character, and am excited to start the next one with extensive coverage of each step I take for each section of character creation.

Something I feel I need to work on for the next character is proportions, as I feel that this character's are slightly off (even by stylistic standards), with the head looking a little small and the hands looking a little too large. 

With rigging being the next step for this character, I will attempt to have the second character on the go at the same time to hold an increased and efficient work flow that will allow me to produce finished work quicker, and potentially allow me to create the scene if I finish in time.

Hands Are Easy

 After spending a lot of time looking through characters on Art Station, characters in games, and even my own hands, I felt confident enough to start to structure the underlying form of the hand, so that I can begin adding the details enough to make it fit with the style I have chosen.

The first pass of the hands felt to be way too 'soft', yet maintained a decent enough structure to slowly build upon and find something that could work for the character should he be holding something. The fingers were difficult to begin, as simply starting the forms of them with the amount of tris dedicated to the hand were not enough, and so I found that Dynameshing helped a lot to ensure the mesh stayed solid and not distorted due to lack of polys.

After building upon the structure of the hands, I made each section of the fingers as thin and decrepit as I could without making them look to distorted. to add to the uncomfortably gross appeal of this character, I made his palms somewhat unnervingly pale with large veins on show, suggesting his hands have seen a lot of manual work and have been damaged greatly over time.  

I have also chosen to cover his hands in small scars and damage to indicate further his disregard for his own well being in the pursuit of his deeds. The sunburn on the back of his arm fits with the sunburn on the rest of his exposed skin, again illustrating the fact the character lives a rough, outdoor life.

A Desperate Need To Finish Hands

 As the character gets closer and closer to being finished, it's becoming more and more evident that I need to stop delaying making the hands. Working on the painting, it's becoming glaringly obvious that the arms are still unfinished, as I've come to a halt with the arms. Leaving the hands shaped as they are would still be a valid option as they do hold the form of a hand, yet I wish to present even further character development using the looks of the characters hands, as I wish to portray them gnarly and boney with thick veins are scars throughout. 

The main issue I would have with leaving the hands in the shape they are, is placing objects in the characters hands would look odd, and I wouldn't be able to get accurate looking grips on anything with the 'mitten' like hands he has now. This leads me onto an idea I wish to carry out where the characters are sat in a lawmen versus outlaws scenario after some sort of robbery. This idea is just something I am playing around with, as I'm uncertain I will have the time to complete a fully rendered scene along with all the characters, yet I am optimistic that I can get some poses for each character at least. For this, I will also need to plan and make some props that fit the style of the characters, such as some stolen money bags, gold bars, a bank backdrop and maybe some weapons. This idea is heavily reliant on the fact that I can finish these characters and successfully rig them so that I can pose them in this way.

I have also remade the teeth to give them more of a uncomfortable veneer type look, implying that they sit rather oddly in his mouth. I did this so that it could emphasize the feeling of this character being so ignorant of the way he looks, implying that the character only got the gold teeth as some sort of status symbol and didn't bother thinking of the practicality of their size of shape, leaving him with a constant pushed open mouth. 

Some Colour

 Bringing the character to life required a splash of colour in his cheeks in the form of ZBrush's polypaint. I went for simplisitc shading with subtle colours to give the character a natural look, and used harsher blockier colours for the scars and moles to make them stand out a lot, giving the wear and tear look a more meaningful impact.

I chose to try and make him look aged and weary, highlighting the bags under his eyes with a light purple to match his sleepless red and off coloured eyes. The stubble adds to the unkempt appearance, as well as the graying brown hair that has mainly fallen out with age. I chose to make his hair greying brown instead of just grey to keep his age a litter more of a guess, so that he could be younger but just hasn't taken care of himself in the slightest, or could still be an old man. I also chose to give him different coloured eyes to give him something unique and interesting about him that I feel other characters in the same universe would probably notice first, and combined with the redness and off colouring, I feel the different colours sit well and invoke more mystery behind the character.

I've also dotted some harsh looking sun burn around his face to emphasize his lack of care for looks or wellbeing. I feel it also sets his story out a little, suggesting that the character lives a rough, outdoor life away from comfort and shelter.


Next to paint is the torso and legs as they are the next piece that has been finished, then once the arms and hands are finally done I can move on to rigging.

Something Handy

 As stated in my last blog, I need to learn the anatomy of hands so that I can progress with my character in a way that would look accurate, yet hold the same stylistic approach as the rest of him. While the hand is currently in early stages and is no where near being finished, I feel it still has a lot of room to be improved on in order to achieve accuracy.

The hand was made using a lot of subtools combined into one and Dynameshed together, to create a single objects that I can sculpt on. Once again I am constantly referring to the 'Anatomy For Sculptors' book to further my knowledge and to guide me through the process of making the hand. I will be continuing this study and possibly making multiple iterations of the hand in order to gain the knowledge I need to create full bodied characters.

Some more progress

 A few more smaller updates on the first character, adding some smaller details here and there to give more life to him.

Here I have added a bunch of small scars that the character has accumulated over his days as an outlaw, and even removed a portion of his ear to emphasize the rough life he has. I have also brought his hair into the next subdivision level and added some more detail there to finalize the shape and look of it.

I have also added some more details to the body and the boots, yet have still been unable to create a hand I am comfortable with. Because of this, I will be doing studies on hand anatomy next to improve my ability in this area, and hopefully gain the relevant knowledge needed to finish this character.

Progress

 The first character is coming along at a nice pace, with the basic forms of the torso now in place and ready to be taken further. The smaller details is my next step for the character, such as refining the hair, wrinkling the clothes and adding details to the boots and skin of the character.

The overall shape of the body came out quite close to how I wanted it too, with thin, skeletal proportions compared to the larger head, hands and feet. More detail is definitely needed to bring this character to life, such as wear and tear on the clothing, veins in the arms and hands, actual fingers on the hands, and finer details on the boots. 

With the idea of the character being old and gnarly, I decided to add a few moles around the head ( including the back of the head) to give him a more aged appearance. I have also added a rough block-out of teeth into the mouth which will eventually be gold to give the character his signature look. I will also be implementing large noticeable scars to this character's face to emphasize the fact that he lives a rough and dangerous life.

Overall the progress on this character is coming along nicely, and I'm excited to finish him and start to texture.