Final Year Project, Barbarian Shaman - Week 1/2

My final module for my university degree is a self managed project for which we will produce a high quality piece that demonstrates our skills to the best of our ability. We are allowed to choose the piece to work from and the media in which to create it, with regular feedback from our tutors to monitor our progress.

Barbarian Shaman by Russell Dongjun Lu

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/L2RBVl

Project Analysis

I decided that I wanted to expand my skillset with this project and work using human anatomy instead of a creature which is my usual. This was a big commitment for me because I have not yet created a human and have little experience for clothing. I decided to work from the above concept because I believe it to be within my ability to create and will help me learn some new skills in organic modelling.

The concept is a fantasy barbarian shaman and would require some research into the design of certain elements such as the large skull on top of the staff which most closely resembles a warthog anatomy. These aspects will take more time to design but should be largely straightforward. However I have not yet worked with creating feathers which can be created in several ways such as XGen or Fibermesh and will hopefully be a difficult but rewarding task.

Basemesh blockout

Muscle Refinement

Sculpting and Refinement

I then began to shape the muscles on the body because correct anatomy at this stage would make it easier to create the tight fitting clothing. I looked at several sources to ensure that my anatomy was accurate and found the resources on Anatomy for Sculptors on https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Dx3WqO to be a particularly useful for muscle and bone structure. The shaman concept depicts a fairly toned man however the head and neck shows signs of age with sagging skin and wrinkled hands which I will sculpt with the next stage of modelling for the body.

Next Stage:

The next aspect for this model is to create a blockout of the clothes and staff to start layering up the items in the correct position, this will also give me an indicator of which areas of the body will be seen. The basemesh is currently a little too toned and will need smoothing over to mimic the layering on top of the muscles now that they are in the correct place.