a cyclops alien space fisherman

[Storm]

Okay I think I've been doodeling enough for now, so its time to get on with a bigger project.
I designed this fella after reading way to much Hellboy (if that is possible), I don't know if it shows, but it was definately inspired by Mignolas style.
He is a cyclops alien spacefisherman, hunting for electic space eels, I hope to give him a complete retopo and once I got the shapes ready.

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Let me know what you guys think, if anybody is interested I can upload my sketch I'm working from tomorrow ;)

[PascalR]

hehe cool character, yeah I'd love to see the original artwork :thumbsup:

[migusan76]

Awesome Character as usual Storm. I always love the style you got going on. I would also be interested in seeing your sketch! So how are you building this, you using zbrush I presume.? You doing your hardsurface in there or else where? Is he going to have a glass helmet, maybe filled with water, like he is a aquatic type creature?

[Storm]

@PascalR
Great thanks Pascal, super glad you like it ;)

@migusan76
Thanks a bunch mate, yeah so far its all zbrush, the head, body and legs are made from zspheres (as always my main brush is claybuildup :D), the rest are made from primitives, just to get the shapes and see what works, I'm gonna work it over complete in a nother 3D app hopefully.
He is gonna get a glass helmet, but I think I'm gonna leave out the water, although I love the idea, I don't feel like he should be an aquatic being himself ;)
Hope it answers your question.

And here is the sketch:
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[PascalR]

hehe this sketch is awesome, looking forward to more on the 3d versionclap

[Storm]

Thanks buddy, I hope my 3D model is gonna nail what works on the sketch :D

[migusan76]

:thumbsup: Great sketch storm! Thx's for the insight into your workflow. I have noticed that doing hardsurface stuff in zb has become fairly straight forward and enjoyable now :D

Looking forward to seeing this one complete!

[Storm]

Thank mate, and you are welcome ;)
Actually now that I uploaded the sketch I see that they head needs to be quite a lot bigger on the 3D model, hehe.

And yeah, the hardsurface stuff in zbrush is really cool for concepting ;)

[Silva Spoon]

Always enjoy your threads. This one is no exception. This one reminds me of Earthworm Jim. Like he could live in that world.

[Storm]

Thank you, glad you like it ;)
There is properly no denying that Earthworm Jim is one of my all time favorite characters, so I guess its no wonder he might have a EJ feel to him, hehe.

Anyway I got an update ready:
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I think the next step is gonna be retopo, maybe a bit more tweaking the design, but properly most of this is gonna be with a clean topo.
Let me hear what you guys think, CC is very welcome ;)

[Kel Solaar]

He is very cool. Hope you'll have time to do some alien eels in a small net or something like that, that would help understanding he is a fisherman.

One thing : Not sure it's done on purpose, but the calfs / shinbones seem to be out of axis of the overall legs axis / line making me the strange feeling that they would break as soon as the character will start walking :)

KS

[Vimmy]

Very funny character again. well done:)

[Ken]

good style as usual clap
it would be cool if your character can animate or talk, hehe.
keep it up!

[Storm]

@Kel Solaar
Thanks Thomas, I'm super glad you like him! ;)
I'm definately gonna add some eels around him, thats a totally awesome idea!
I think I see what you mean, and I think I might have fixed it by turning his feet more inwards, I'll get some renders up later, let me know if it still don't work ;)

@Vimmy
Thank a bunch mate, really appreciate it :)

@Ken
Thanks buddy! Super glad you like him too :D
Haha, yeah I'd love to see them animated as well!

I've started working on the retopo, hope to have some progress up later.

[Eidish]

storm , you have a very unique style , I can recognize its your work without even seeing your name relate to the work .
keep posting , love your stuff

[Storm]

Thanks Iden, I'm super glad you like it mate ;)

[delavega]

Cool character :)
Been following your sketchbook on zbrushcentral for a while now, great stuff! really refreshing style man. Keep it up

[BrettSinclair]

This put an instant smile on my face:D Seriously, if you aren't at insomniac or some toony place you should be.:bouncy:

[MJG]

well im not even gonna bother telling you how awesome this is...i demand a textured and rendered model this time!! haha

[Storm]

@delavega
Thanks a bunch mate, glad you dig it ;)

@BrettSinclair
Haha, thats fantastic to hear man :D
I'm working on it, I'm currently attending a danish school called animwork, to get a baschelor so I might actually be able to some day get a Visa, so I would be able to get work in the US ;)

@MJG
Hehe, thank you buddy! I'll see what I can do about it ;) unfortunately I'm gonna run into a 6 week school project now, (properly gonna post some progress on this site with it as well), but hopefully I'll have time to continue work on this guys as well ;)

Okay this week I've barely had any time to work on him either, but I've had time to do the head retopo:
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Click for highress.

I'd love to hear some comments on it, as I really don't have that much knowlagde about how to make the optimal mesh for animation and displacement maps, so any comments would be much appreciated ;)

[Kel Solaar]

Hi Storm,

Usually you will want evenly spaced squared faces the more possible, something that could help you to do that is to smooth / relax your low resolution cage in zbrush and then do a "Reproject Higher Subdiv".

It's also a good idea to have matching topo lines on lips and eyelids, it makes the blendshape work easier because you won't run in trouble trying to stitch them when compressing the lips or blinking the eyes.

KS

[Storm]

Thanks for the info and paintover Thomas, I'll fix that right away ;)
I forgot to update the little update on his legs, which I hope works better now:
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[Kel Solaar]

Depending if you intend rigging him a bit to do the posing, you would be certainly better adjust a bit his legs, or you may have problems with the Iks to correctly solve the rotations planes, it will be less sexy immediatly but you'll have finer and better control later.

- Maybe reapproch the legs toward central axis.
- Rotate the Foot / Tibia so that they are properly aligned front / rear.

If you don't plan do the posing using a skeleton then you can forget what I said :)

Cheers :)

KS

[Storm]

I'm with you man, I see the problem ;)
I'm not planning on doing any rigging, and he is properly gonna have a pretty static pose for the final image, so I don't think I'm gonna change that now. But definitely good to know for when I'm actually doing a model that will be rigged, so thanks a bunch man, much appreciate the help ;)
I wish I'd have an update ready, but apart from fixed the topo on the head, I haven't had time to work on him :\

[Time2Time]

This character looks really cool! I can not wait for a render =)

[Storm]

Thanks Andrey!
The retopology is going great, so hopefully I'll have it done this weekend ;)
I can't wait to get back in zbrush, and add some scratches, final details and textures :)

[Storm]

Just so you guys know I'm not slacking it off :D
I got a little update, still some way to go, but its getting there. The problem just is that I'm not really having any time to work on him, as we have a 6 week project at school right now. I actually think I might post some of the work from that project in a new thread:
(sorry for the poor renders, and please click for highress)
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Let me know if you guys have any crits ;)

Edit:
I know the wires looks a bit messed up on the chest, its just a render thing, they don't really look like that.