Right, input needed please people. The snakes on her head suck, I've been trying and trying, but i've not achieved something I like yet, it's harder than I thought. I want them to be more 'trianglular shaped' and poised, as opposed to the circle overall shape they have now, which feels very unthreatening. I have a couple more additions I want to put on the main outfit, hence it's not skinned yet, but that's the last thing that needs skinning. I've also layed out a lot of the UV's now, perhaps one more day to finish the UV's. I can't really progress much more untill I get some input and opinions on the outfit. The gloves things have lace to go on there too.
12 comments:
just a quickie over the first coffee of the day - it appears as if all your snakes are the same length - in order to 'naturalise' them, why not differ their lengths somewhat to create interest and also encourage them to articulate in different places?
Yeah I agree, I think they should be different lengths, I thought of this when I was thinking about your idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2McbQrH0qI0 its how I imagined your snakes would be but a more steampunk esque version
Big YES for the face texture. Also the eyes are great, and the facial expression somewhat works like this. However here are my thoughts on the lip biting: it's a rather submissive clue that indicates her sexual interest in what SHE is seeing. In the case of this Medusa character I think a more dominant clue would be more appropriate, she has to stay in control.
The snakes should be in a "ready to strike" pose I think. Some types of snakes pull their heads backwards before biting, you could look into that.
One problem with the snakes I believe is they all start bending at the same point; about halfway at their body resulting in the circular pattern. If you start the bend at the root of the snakes you have more control over their final pose. Also different lengths might help...
Another thing I've noticed on all your renders is a weird outline around the face. Like the face and the rest of the head has different specularity.. just caught my eye and thought I'd mention it.
The details on her body are quite lovely. The sleeve might need a bit more detail to be on par with the rest of the character though.
Also, this is extremely relative to your project :D http://oglaf.com/media/comic/snakeskin.jpg
Thanks guys.
Phil - Yep, these snakes just aren't working, I hope today to resolve it.
Dan - Cheers for that :D
Silver - I know what you mean about the lip biting being submissive. But I'm not sure I agree. For me certainly, I find lip biting an attractive quality. I've tried to incorporate the lip biting along with some sinister looking eyes, which I think I've achieved. Luckily though, I have put the expression on a blendshape ;) So I can try something new.
Seb - Hey matey. The weird line I know about. I got lazy when laying out her UV's so the upper head just doesn't work properly. I started by quickly laying them out just to setup the skin shader, and whilst I've been adding and changing things, the Uv's are still the same. I did try changing them, but the blend shape for the expression was messing around, and so when I put the blendshape on, the texture wouldn't update with it. If that makes sense. So I'll need to fix that once the pose is final now.
Bwahahha Seb. I just checked out that Comic strip. Pure genius!
Np, about your lip bitting thing from your back story you explained to me I always got the sense that she would portrayed as a character that takes an almost f****d up sexual delight in causing men pain and killing them reflecting the pain that was inflicted on her, one image that sprang to mind was in hostel 2 (I know crap movie) where a woman slices some girls throat and then bathes in the blood in a sexual kind of way you might want to check that out as some reference for posing and facial expressions etc.
Lip biting okay here we go. Lip biting, lip touching with fingers, lip hiding with hands all show the attempt to detain, hold back something you'd say or do with your mouth. It shows shyness and ingenuousness thus youth and submissiveness. Now we're on quite obvious terrain here, men are programmed to pick up on these things and find them attractive. The problem I see is that they contradict the dominant character of your Medusa. There's a difference between the clues a younger girl will give you and the clues a more mature woman will give you and what separates them is dominance vs. submissiveness. The expression you made works on its own, but for the sake of the concept I'd definitely reconsider. Btw I love this subject ;), I'm at home here.
wow this is looking so good jonny!! ....i think this is going to annoy you becuase i can see you've sort of set our mind on it, but i think i have to agree quite a bit with Pol here on the lip biting thing. She has quite an innocent looking face and with her biting her lip it looks almost as if she may be being seduced, not the other way round. It's looking amazing!
Okay, okay. I'll revisit the expression then! Cheers for the input guys, most grateful!
no lip-biting, Jonny! Pol has nailed it; I think you're confusing what you find attractive with the needs/wants of your character; I think you need to give her a more imperious/dominate expression - which (some) men indeed find as alluring as the 'Lolita' Flake commercial fantasy you've got going on... :-) You need to lend her some sophistication and some 'froidure' - she is 'above' her prey, after all - she pities them too; a cruel beauty, not a warm one. Also, your typical audience for this isn't going to give a stuff about all the back-story nuancing in your head; in short, she just needs to work as an image - and, cutting to the chase, your work is in an established genre; the 'black widow' or female destroyer; in terms of her expression and her pose, she needs to radiate superiority and malice - the fact that she's 'easy on the eye' is a given, because she's not monstrous in terms of her upper anatomy; I suggest you try an upward tilt of the chin and her head a little to one side - a kind of 'f**k me if you dare' attitude - a slight smile at the corners of her mouth etc...
... and with her hair - you could try a much more 'coiled' quality - check out some 'victorian hairstyles' for reference - some of the snakes could have theirs bodies coiled more closely against her scalp, and perhaps curling down and under her ear and outwards, like ringlets - perhaps you need to think of them as 'hair' as well as snakes? Do an image search of Harryhausen's medusa and you'll see her 'hair' is asymetrical - which gives it more realism; you need to avoid the look that it's a lifeless headdress or art-deco headpiece.
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