Commander Hun - Tang-dynasty inspired sword lady
polycounter lvl 9
Sup forum, I'm in animation school learning the CG arts, and we have Dabu teaching us this week!
Here's what I'm doing for the project. She's this aristocratic Chinese princess, pretty badass with a sword, cruel, arrogant, might be a bit of a psycho. I set her in the Tang dynasty, because that's where I could get the most armour references. It turns out women also enjoyed more freedom then, at least, if they weren't peasants. I also think the Emperor has a lot of daughters with his various concubines, so she gets away with a lot.
And I was doing a maquette earlier this week
And now, onwards to Maya! Bonus if I can stick the finished armour in Skyrim and mess around
I have more drawings and research lying around I can post, and I might do that. The feedback I got so far is: bigger boobs, and make the sword more interesting, so that's what I'll do now.
EDIT: Pimping my classmates doing the same project:
Electronugget's Queen Boudicca
Here's what I'm doing for the project. She's this aristocratic Chinese princess, pretty badass with a sword, cruel, arrogant, might be a bit of a psycho. I set her in the Tang dynasty, because that's where I could get the most armour references. It turns out women also enjoyed more freedom then, at least, if they weren't peasants. I also think the Emperor has a lot of daughters with his various concubines, so she gets away with a lot.
And I was doing a maquette earlier this week
And now, onwards to Maya! Bonus if I can stick the finished armour in Skyrim and mess around
I have more drawings and research lying around I can post, and I might do that. The feedback I got so far is: bigger boobs, and make the sword more interesting, so that's what I'll do now.
EDIT: Pimping my classmates doing the same project:
Electronugget's Queen Boudicca
Replies
Like st4lis said I would vote no on bigger boots. Its part of what this design makes it stand out compared to 90% of the other female characters.
Oh, and I was suggested to add another glove, which makes sense, but it'll be a lighter one.
Anyway, research and process shenanigans
some earlier sketches... I pretty much went with my first idea, usually that isn't good but EH! I am here to learn about other things than concept design anyway...
I did change her body type a lot though.
The costume is also beautiful and very well thought out.
@whw yeah absolutely. I want her short and chinesey anyway. I like Kiera's body, I know she's on the skinny side but she has a pretty unique character too.
Just modelling her body today. I think we're officially holding off faces 'till monday, so I guess I'll sneak some armour modelling in over the weekend to avoid getting behind, the costume is relatively complex compared to most of the class' stuff. I'm keeping generalistic topology tips in mind, but I'm also making a lot of shit up. We had a brief Scott Eaton course 2 weeks ago so I feel inspired to anatomy and I've never gone this high detail before.
Keep it up !
I can't vote against this suggestion strongly enough. China, especially in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618907) when according to Wikipedia they started exporting their smiths to Japan and Korea to teach them, has its own unique tradition of swords that would not be better served by sticking a generic katana in her hand, especially with how fiercely krisCrash is fighting against doing stereotypes like the tall, slim, big-boobed fantasy warrior chick.
That said, the sword in the most finalized concept doesn't really have much character beyond the presence of a tassel, and I don't see anything in a cursory search (i.e. Wikipedia's Chinese Swords page) that resembles that weapon. It might be worth it to check out swords in the style of a Jian or a Dao as those seem to be the ones most likely to have shown up during or before the Tang dynasty.
Jian:
Dao:
(More images of that Dao)
I'd like her to have a longsword and a shortsword/long knife deal, it usually seems fencers have one as backup. I mean she's probably also one of those nuts who have extra knives hidden in her clothes, too. Now there's an idea.
And yeah, the smith thing is interesting. When researching (I initially went with Song dynasty) I came across plenty of things I couldn't properly distinguish whether were Japanese or Chinese, and it turns out that period (ca 1100AD) has a huge Chinese influence in Japan. I guess they exported more than smiths!
Tassels will be good in tying all the bits together stylewise. Chinese culture has so much cool stuff. I picked this because I wanted to do armour, for the rigging and modelling challenge of it, and I didn't just want to do western medieval - I haven't done that much either, but quite a few people around me are China and tai chi obsessed, and that has inspired me to try.
Geeeeee I can't decide whether concepting (with research and drawing and stuff) or modelling is more funnnn. I hope I can get a job where I don't have to choose
***BONUS POST***
First I did some strong wire work, it was pretty agonizing for me because I have piss weak hand muscles, maybe that's something I wanna work on though, to prevent wear and tear?
On the upside, her frame is really sturdy, and despite how heavy it is you can lift her by one of her arms.
Next I bulked it up with some foil and thinner wire because the plasteline clay itself it really heavy, and you wanna reduce weight in the final product - it's also faster to fill form than to use the clay. Unfortunately I didn't bulk enough here, so the final is heavier than necessary. Lesson learned, make sketches from more angles in full costume.
I had to sort of re-wire the raised hand in order for the sword to work, and then I slapped melted clay on, it sticks more easily if it's runny.
Then I got this far, and I posted it for critique to some friends to get help on the shoulder anatomy. And my friend is like, "the shoulder anatomy is a bit off", yeah, so I had to figure it out myself >:[ oh well
The day before the deadline. I stacked details on and worked with the form. It was hectic, I might've bitten a bit more off than I should but I really wanted to do something awesome so there!
And the final in a non-spinny way. I kept changing that arm but I think I finally got it!
All in all, despite the low degree of polish, I actually think it went better than expected. I got detail in I hadn't hoped to do, and I didn't really do any compromises on the design save for the skirt layers in the back. I might choose something simpler next time so I'll have time to work on level of finish, noodling with rendering is not really in my comfort zone, I'm more of a block in form oriented sort of person. I actually don't know when we'll get to do another maquette, might not be until second year, might have to do something on my own initiative - but some of my classmates are up for it so it'll be fun.
Just modelling away today. I'm ahead of class for now, so I might model the lower body better just for practise, but otherwise it's not really planned. Arm could use some more geo for triceps and elbow. I love taking screenshots, it always makes me spot the things that I need to iron out.
I don't think this topo would hold up for a big pair of boobs, but I'd prefer it to all-the-excessive-concentric-loops-around-the-nipple type. Maybe I should define her sternum a bit to make her look really wiry nasty. Might be a better job for mudbox though
I worked on the sword design, but I feel pretty uninspired yet.
My comment regarding the sword design was merely a quick reply - I expected krisCrash to do further reaserch. Interesting to know the history behind that period's sword-smithery, so thanks for highlighting.
armour where have you been all my life
How's my topology? I'm in the market for good elbows, I don't mind cutting two more loops down the arm, but in this neighbourhood of resolution. I don't mind a rigging challenge (ahaha the cloth is going to be so fun). so the annoying thing right now is we have this unresolved question about whether it will have to be rendered with subdivision, so I try to work this hybrid of game res that will subdivide without losing too much character.
Well I finished the concept
And worked on the mesh so it's ready for sculpting. I've overstrained my hand so things will be a little slow
I'm running out of time for the class deadline to do a lot more to this, but I feel really motivated now, gonna watch some mudbox tutorials in the weekend and see what I can do.