Secret Apprentice

[Sith Happens.]

Here is Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice I created for the game "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed".
This is one of the many costumes Galen Marek, aka "Starkiller" wore as he hunted down Jedi for Lord Vader.

For this render I remodeled the head amongst other sections of the model, then went on to up-rez my low poly in-game mesh since none of the high poly mudbox / z brush sculpts contain any UV information.
It was tricky keeping the UVs intact throughout the mesh while up-rezing the polys on hard edges, but still was much faster than re UV mapping to already created textures.
Rendered in xsi w/ mental ray, effects, vader and touch ups in photoshop.

The idea for the image was to show the Apprentice unleashing the over the top force powers seen in the game.
Hope you enjoy it! =)

(Sith eyes FTW)

http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/Secret_Apprentice1600.jpg

[frubes]

really atmospheric, great stuff.

[A.Kincade]

Did not get a chance to play the game yet. I read a big article about it awhile back and I really like the idea behind it. It is cool to see the more beefed up powers. As for this piece. It is awesome. Just unleashing the force all over them fools. :poly004: Good stuff!

[raiskul]

just a side note the actor they used to play the apprentice is actually Davis from Smallville.

[vahl]

you know it man, but I love it.
are you going to show Kazdan and Maul aswell ???

oh and yeah yellow eyed monks with red neon tubes ftw, of course!

[Josh_Singh]

Love this! very Professional.
Can you show the model and stuff?

[Xenobond]

Heck yeah, manny!
Awesomes

[MoP]

very sharp and clear, nicely done!

[Rory_M]

hey now this is awesome. well done sir.

[PixelMasher]

wicked, I really enjoyed that game man, especially the environment art, the metals all had a nice life to them. the secret apprentice was a cool character too.

[Joao Sapiro]

love the dinamic pose and the overall feel of the scene, sick work man , grats :D

[Tillman]

holy rolly polly

[notebookguy]

Great use of lighting was it a render then retouched in Photoshop or Painter X? Looks really good by the way the graphics from the game are pretty good from what I have seen on an Xbox 360.


P.S. Any advice to a recent grad?

[snake85027]

haha thats funny shit right there, when davis came onto smallville I was thinking hmm that dude looks just like the apprentice in the star wars unleashed game. Didn't know they actually used him.

[Sith Happens.]

A.kincade: thanks man, give the game a shot, the story is pretty epic =)

raiskul: Sam Witware, indeed, super cool guy too!

Vahl: Yup yup, ill post more characters soon man, lol u love the sith eyes admit it =P

Josh: Sure thing man, ill post some wip images for ya

Pixelmasher: thanks man I wil pass along the kind words to the other artists, appreciate it. Glad you liked the game.

Notebookguy: Yes it was rendered in XSI with mental ray, then created the effects and touchups in photoshop. Ill post the raw render out of xsi if you want, let me know. Any advice to a recent grad... hmmm what are you goin' for specifically? I can give ya some more advice once I know that, but all around, get your folio together, and make sure it shows your best work, quality over quantity is what I always say. And if you're goin' for a gig, make sure you do your homework on their projects/pass work, and show as much interest as possible in your interviews, it really helps filter out that kind of artists you wanna have working alongside you.

snake85027: Sam was also the voice for the emperor, he kicked ass!!! And some fun trivia: we brough in Chad Vader to voice Vader for us too!! How cool is that? ;)

wireframes:

http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_wip/apprentice_wirefront.jpg
http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_wip/apprentice_wire34b.jpg
http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_wip/apprentice_wireback1.jpg
http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_wip/apprentice_wireclose.jpg

mudbox wip shots

http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_wip/apprentice_tie_mudbox2.jpg

lighting setup

http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_wip/apprentice_wirelighting1.jpg
http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_wip/apprentice_wirelighting2.jpg

diffuse

http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_wip/apprentice_wirediffuse.jpg

raw render out of xsi b4 effects/touchups

http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_wip/apprentice_rawRENDER.jpg

[Tillman]

omg nice, you have some clean wires dude

[Renaud Galand]

trully awesome work ! Can't wait to see the other characters :)

[VikingJim]

added to inspirado folder. engage.

[Spug]

Fucking raw! Great stuff!

[whats_true]

Oh snap, thats pretty cool! Thanks for the break down shots!

[Cojax]

Holy sh*t! Nice work man. Thanks for sharing so many wires! Great stuff!

[monkeyboy_garth]

Niiiice!

That's cool of Lucas to let you go back and tinker with him. Bring on the rest of the crew!

[conte]

technically perfect.

[gavku]

Awesome stuff man...love the break downs

[adam]

Dammit! See? I go away and miss this shit. Now that I've seen this I definitely think Kazdan needs his time in the lime-light (new thread too!).

Good work holmes.

[EbolaV]

stunning work o.o crazy :thumbup:

[Sith Happens.]

Here's a wall paper I put together and a closer look at the Apprentice's sabre hilt:

(click to enlerge the walpaper) =P

http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/Secret_Apprentice_stripFULL.jpg

.

http://www.artbymanny.com/gallery/starwars/apprentice_sabre_s.jpg

[Dakkon]

Love that pose :). It's just really dynamic, lots of motion, and it looks dead on.

[boostermoose]

Hey ~AustiN you wouldn't mind telling us your workflow for the lightsaber beam would you? Put red lights in XSI to get the lighting on the character, then added the beam in photoshop?

[Mohawkd_Zombie]

This model is incredible
I love the game. was just playing it again a few days ago.

did you do any of the other characters? if so, can you post some pics??

i think is cool Sam did the voice for the emperor and chad vader was darth. lol will be laughing next time i play and hear vader talking.

[Sith Happens.]

Boostermoose: Yeah its pretty simple like that, some red/pink/white lights down and around the sabre "stick", with the addition of the extra tube u see in the lighting setup picture, I set some incandescence to it so it, with only its secondary rays visible so it would reflect some of those really strong whites from the beam on to the apprentice.

Mohawkd_Zombie: Yeah I made quite a few others, including:
- Apprentice Starting Costume
- Apprentice Felucia 1
- Apprentice Raxus 1
- Apprentice Death Star
- Apprentice Ultimate Evil
- Proxy
- Kazdan Paratus
- Darth Maul
- Evo Trooper
(dirty electricity absorbig troopers)
- Rebel Saboteur
(grenade thrower rebel)

from DLC:
- Apprentice Clone Wars Animated Style
- Apprentice Reconstructed
- Darth Sion
- Kit Fisto

Ill post renders of other characters soon ;)

[00Zero]

very nice. highpoly fuels my wet dreams.

[JasonLavoie]

And you fuel mine 00Zero... *cough

Sick work AustiN, would be cool to see the Apprentice in Clone wars style.

[ApprenticeEverything]

man this stuff is so awesome! i would love to see the other characters here too!

[AshuraDX]

dude this is just awesome :thumbup:

and thanks for the lightsaber pic
now I realise how close I was to a 100% accurate Secret apprentice lightsaber model for JKA :)
very good job !