Some place holder snakes, I have all the CV curves in here, so I can move them around and play with placement. I'm not too happy with them as they are now.
Few things:
- This is untextured, and all the shaders are placeholders. They are there to stop me from getting eye strain, and to make it easier to distinguish between objects. This is not a representation of the final product.
- The arms. I had planned to have long baggy sleeves, with frills etc, and bows around her elbows. But she feels a lot more sinister with her arms exposed. So I need to come up with some new short sleeve design. Any ideas?
- Creasing and bagginess in the clothing is the final detail. That stuff takes time. I have to block in and work detail into the areas. Time is running out, so I need to make sure I have everything there, and that if I absolutely need to I can cut some details out to save on time.
- Phil, I loved your link to those gloves. I think I'll definately try and incorporate those.
- I'd love peoples input on the snake tail. I have no idea with it at the moment. Just remember, these are metal 'tubing' type things. So flexibility and full rotation isn't possible.
- Thoughts, opinions? Time for bed, I've been battling a crazy headache all day. I think I'll give into it now. Been a constructive one! Hope everyone voted!
5 comments:
Starting to look really cool! A few quick comments though.
I take this shot is just a render to show the whole character and not the final composition so won't comment on that.
One thing I have to mention is the valve-placement.. Might be I just have an exceptionally dirty mind but it really looks like that Medusa is very "happy to see me".. Especially since "it's" poking out from under her plating. Unless it's an intentional decision to show her excitement that is.. :)
About the sleeves; I agree that it works quite well with exposed arms. I think you could just leave it as a vest. I guess you could add some 17th century puffy shoulders or such.. but it could very well end up being too much.. and take away from the concept instead.
I preferred the snakes a bit thicker and more raised up as in your earlier sketch. Was more threatening and less Rastafarian ;)
As for the tail I guess the obvious choice would be the rattle-snake tail. And Clash of the Titans went with the spike. Neither is very original but I guess they could work. Personally I think it currently looks too earth-wormy. Maybe do some sketches and see if you come up with some more mechanical version of a snakes tail. Or if you're low on time leaving it out of frame like on your sketch might be a good idea.
Ok.. Now I must get back to work! Looks awesome so far!
In terms of your time period, it's totally out of keeping that she'd have her arms out totally bare - the Victorians used to find the exposure of a flash of ankle totally scandalous... I think you need to bear this in mind and go back to visual research material or risk unpicking what you've already accomplished...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrissypiper/421519500/
http://guiltypleasuresfashion.blogspot.com/2009/08/victorian-mourning-photos.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrissypiper/325797459/
http://www.thememagazine.com/blog/gothic-dark-glamour/
http://ossuary.best-horror-movies.com/blogs/posts/crypticpsych/tag/gothic
What I will say is that, while I think you need to refine and thin those tubular snakes - just on aesthetic terms, and in terms of balance, there's something about the ensemble that just shouts 'Victorian' - indeed, perhaps bizarrely, this pose reminds me of images of Queen Victoria, and I can't quite put my finger on why... but it's a good thing!
And, as I picked up earlier - and as Sebastian observes too - her body is saying caterpillar or earthworm, as opposed to snake - you need to streamline and extend that shape and allow the narrowing down to the tail to take a little longer - more links in the chain...
Keep going, Jonny! :-)
Look here - you see how you simply need more length to make her snake-like and put more sinuousness into her body - it would stop her looking quite so 'chubby' too - and her tail should narrow down to more of a point; you might also want to consider the profile shape of those segments, as you've got them quite flattened at the moment, and I wonder if you were to keep the belly profile flatter, and the top of the segment more of a true semi-circle - again, just keep going back to reference imagery...
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/snakes/coral-snake-info.htm
Wow, lots of comments and critique. I like that, thanks guys.
Sebastian - I'm glad someone spotted that placement of the Valve, haha! It was placed there intentionally! ;] Whilst I agree with you that puffy shoulders could work, Phil addressed the idea of skin being scandalous. So I might need to go back to the drawing board on that one. Rastafarian she is not, again, more work needed here! :D Thanks for taking time out of your work schedule to drop by and help me out, i'm most grateful.
Phil - I quite agree about the pose. It's working quite nice. I was worried about putting too many links into her lower body, it's going to take a lot of sculpting, refinement, detailing, and texturing to get it all done. But as Sebastian rightly mentions, I can crop some of it out of the final render so save on time! I'll rough out some sketches, and throw some objects in the scene to see what can work.
Again, thanks for the comments guys. I'm most grateful, this is great stuff! :D
... regarding her snake hair, if you were to position them as if they were about to strike, as opposed to looking soft and tubular, the rasta-thing would be resolved...
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