[Mixamo Contest] - KristaW - Carny Worker (WIP)
polycounter lvl 9
I am probably way out of my league with this contest but I want to have fun and try anyways 
My idea is to make a character who works in a traveling circus and comes across a page from the Voynich Manuscript hidden among the circus' collection of uncanny things.
I see her being strong and sexy. And I imagine her having the look of a modern day street kid, or gutter punk. She is very accustomed to travel and I see her adventuring with her best friend or lover that she met at the circus. I'll post the mood sheets after I register.
Yay! Excited!
My idea is to make a character who works in a traveling circus and comes across a page from the Voynich Manuscript hidden among the circus' collection of uncanny things.
I see her being strong and sexy. And I imagine her having the look of a modern day street kid, or gutter punk. She is very accustomed to travel and I see her adventuring with her best friend or lover that she met at the circus. I'll post the mood sheets after I register.
Yay! Excited!
Replies
I think it would be really fun to give her harem/drop crotch pants to play with the silhouette. And supposedly they make these as workout clothing so it might fit nicely with the fact that she will always be on the move.
So this is a feel for the rest of the outfit. I definitely want to emulate the patched up look of gutter punks and I would like to make a slim fitting patched vest with some metal. Still trying to figure if I want a pack or not to emphasize the adventuring side of her. And the shoes should be colorful sexy work boots.
And lastly I want her to have jewelry in her dreads, on her hands, around her neck, and one her arms and wrist.
Here are some quick concepts. The first one I made is pretty bad. Sometimes you just have get out your bad concepts first, haha.
I'm not sure what you could incorporate visually to communicate the story of the character, but here are a couple links that may spark some inspiration.
http://danielstainer.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/a-small-town-traveling-circus-one-photographers-story-of-americana/
http://www.johndeckerphotography.com/#/Carnival%20workers/Ohio/1
Good luck with the contest!
@minorthreat, I agree. When I think modern day adventurers I think of someone very wealthy doing it the boring way or I think of street kids and crust punk doing it the fun way so I went with crust punk
@jStins, Thanks for your input on the thumbnails. I feel like I am also leaning towards the bottom middle and the bottom right.
I have definitely been brainstorming ways incorporate her story as a carny worker and not just a hipster/crust punk. I tried to get in contact with some hipsterish carny workers from Bellingham but that hasn't materialized yet. I did take some inspiration from the links, thank you, particularly in the second link. I think having her wear something with an obvious circus logo would definitely help push it. Then I have two ideas. I originally envisioned her as a booth worker so I could give her a an apron/coin holder but it might be interesting to have her be a clown. I wouldn't want to have her in a full clown suit so if I did make her a clown I thought that I could depict her after she has gotten off her shift for the night. I could try make her face look as if she tried to wipe of all of the clown makeup but there would still be a faint outline around the mouth and maybe a bunch of missed spot near her hairline. This second idea would be more challenging to pull off but it might make her more interesting too. If anyone has thoughts on this let me know.
So, hopefully I can post my progress soon. School keeps me pretty busy but I am hoping to have my base mesh done by today or tomorrow.
I like the top middle
Edited this after the picture disappeared. Does anyone know if ImageShack takes down pictures that they deem offensive?
Good start on the body, but I think it's a bit too tall compared to the thumbnail drawings and doesn't communicate the youth that you laid out in the ref/thumbnails.
@jStins: I agree that her height is off. I adjusted it last night after posting but I will evaluate it again against the thumbnails
I like the concept/sketch in the middle of the top row.
a good way to get a nice face is pick an actor you like and try to recreate their face on your sculpt (ofc it dosnt have to be exactly the same, use is more as a guideline).
I agree with lotet, the body is coming along nicely especially the hands, shoulders, & neck, but the face looks a little bit... creature-ish or something. It could be that the eye socket doesn't seem to recess into the face at all at the outer corner (and some people do have that) but those bowed-out cheekbones drop down into narrow, tiny mandible pretty dramatically and somehow the cheeks just seem like there isn't room for teeth or something...
The but & lower back are really nicely shaped too. I think maybe the crease where the legs transition to the pelvis might need to be more pronounced.
Can we get a closeup of the hands?! I am really loving those and I want to see them up close!
~Shelley
@ShelleyR, aww you're so sweet. I see what you mean with there being no room for teeth. Maybe she only has two, like a rat, haha. I took some snips of the hands for you but you might not like them as much when you see them up close, BUT there not the worst hands I ever made so I don't mind showing them off.
Thanks for showing them up close XD
1) Paint up.
2) Add eyes textures and a gel shader.
3) Sleep on it.
4) Make fixes when you have a fresh look at it.
Liking the form of the hands.
Next things that I am going to add is accessories like bracelets, piercings, socks, and a bandanna. Then I am going to possibly make a punk jacket for her
I also put some stitching on her shoes and I'm probably calling those done, sculpting wise.
the copy paste method is in my opinion the best one, but however you do it, boots are just plain horrible to do. Everythime I do a pear I swear my next character isnt going to wear any :P
I did a paintover to solidify the direction I want to head. I realized a jacket would dull up the silhouette I crafted for her so I decided to go with makeshift sweater sleeves. The tights will just be made with polypaint. I had so much fun with making the leather of the boots that I am going to throw in a leather fanny pack. I will also put leather straps in her hair and maybe on her sleeves and neck. That will make the boots seem more unified in the overall design. The patch on her stomach will have the circus' name and possibly the logo.
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Almost theeeeeere!
Good luck!