Real Men Don't Read Maps.

Halo 3 is Super Cool.

MAYA BEFORE ZBRUSH

I used maya before getting anything into zbrush as a way to keep metal like things solid and not so smooth many of my fellow students thought it was bad idea but to be honest. Screw 'em.

Using this technique is going to good so i get the best detail out of it.

many people didn't take anything away from the tutorial simon gave about head creation but i've taken what he's said and adapted it to my own style of work and used it in a way that can benefit my model.

Here you can see me using maya to mask a simple mask trying to keep as many quads as possible. around the teeth area.

Exploring the Seck-Tours of Zee-Brush

Digital

To begin i made a head in Zbrush as a way to get used the software it wasn't very good the chin was pointed but the head shape from a glance was believable from an artists perspective. the idea was to make renders from zbrush exports in maya in different perspectives and draw over them to visualize what it would look like where everything would go from different angles not only for peace of mind but for a 3D artists eye a detailed picture from different sides i can use to make a pretty great model

       ANGLED RENDER WITH NO ARMOUR.






   A Quick sketch up in photoshop in different colours to differentiate overlapping parts from each other. the helmet is listed here as RED, the horns, tri-plate and mask are GREEN.





        ANGLED RENDER WITH ARMOUR

Here is the side render you can see now more clearly that the thing isn't that pretty and that it should be a better head shape so thats something i'm going to revisit.



SIDE RENDER WITHOUT ARMOUR.






Here is the side of the helmet with it's colours on top of the render this sketch isn't as pretty as the last one but as it is a sketch i don't really mind.



SIDE RENDER WITH ARMOUR.

The Japanese Mask Decision.

A Hard decision for me in this project was to pick a route of mask.. i have a pre-existing knowledge on the bushido and i knew for a fact i was come across a similar issue, Now my issue is that japanese culture has a split in it's armour direction. Let me explain, Visually.

  

Here's a bunch'a gorgeous hollow samurai dudes..

                   Take a long hard look at his mask..

Now thats all well and good but we all know that cultures take aspects of their stories of dragons and Foo dogs..but this has only one little hint of that on the mask.. thats on the helmet and even that is a small detail.

The rest of the mask is based on just basic patterns and the face plate itself has little representation of the old japanese tales of courage and honour the only symbol of which on the face plate is nose with the big flared nostrils.

and i want more Bigger, sexier and most importantly theatrical!

So since i was looking for theatrical i researched japanese theatrical masks

and i got all this..  

    Nice nose.. wow didn't see your see your chin yeah nice chin OOOW my eye..

         I see this when i close my eyes.. HELP ME

I couldn't care i stole an image off a company but as i was saying common japanese theater..

So left with this weird world i then moved on yet again to .. 'Japanese Mythology'

Where i was met with..

WOW SEXY!!

This is certainly an aspect of art i want to merge with my mask.. amazing i want one.

 This is not really a side i would like to move towards in my art directions but hay.. every ghetto farm gotta have a golden but on fire black with gold detail and seeming like solid gold hoof Horses with clearly enough time and ability to buy and apply gold hair dye to it's hair and main and what the hell it has a beard and chest hair and leg hair and a horn what the hell this is so clearly a unicorn well whatever it is it ain't gun'be part of my work

..

Not as sexy as the first one but this dragon seems more real.. the real side of a dragon.

kind of like super models..

So beautiful.. 

..but they do smelly shits just like the rest of us.

Topic Exposure

The first time i got my hands on the project i wasn't sure what i wanted but for some reason i kept dreaming of this female great character with an isometric hair cut (as if there wasn't enough already) from a japanese background, making characters before learning about cultures is fun and great lesson and after some thought about different ways of life the bushido, samurai was an instant awakening to me it's a sensational place to work on.. The masks of the samurai and the fear of the horse back samurai with a drawn sword is like.. OAWH man gimmi!! The fear and skill of a samurai i wanted to combine with the beauty yet delicate japanese geishas.

The first time i got my hands on the project i wasn't sure what i wanted but for some reason i kept dreaming of this female great character with an isometric hair cut (as if there wasn't enough already) from a japanese background, making characters before learning about cultures is fun and great lesson and after some thought about different ways of life the bushido, samurai was an instant awakening to me it's a sensational place to work on.. The masks of the samurai and the fear of the horse back samurai with a drawn sword is like.. OAWH man gimmi!! The fear and skill of a samurai i wanted to combine with the beauty yet delicate japanese geishas..

I've watched both movies and memoirs of a geisha EWWWW i didn't know they did dirty things.. nasty but anyway as i was saying delicate and beautiful.

My art based exclusively on the female to begin with came out like this i didn't use these art pieces and decided to scrap the art directions i was taking but still kept the samurai female idea's. here they are some are scruffy as it's kind of shabby art the idea was sketch.

Isometric Hair.. So over used.

               Helmets and horns..

             Nose's and crests..

 The beautiful katana.

Another head.. another set of horns..

Pretty nice head..

 Some Arm Plates and haha i wish i knew japanese

Me stupidly jumping into a High detail art piece.

The Gray Stuff

Here's a beautifully defocused shot of my
grey stuff model, in this photograph i got screwed sideways by the A-F and it thought i was taking a picture of the eyeless pedo behind my female samurai. The piece is pretty nice and is pretty close up to my art work as far as the Zbrush model is concerned and the hand drawn art is concerned, The  Design work started on week one and through half good luck and half voodoo ability i pulled out a pretty nice model..




Oh and this wasn't my first attempt stupidly i was trying to listen, honest i was.. but i didn't hear anyone say you had to mix anything.. and i fully used up a golf ball worth of soft clay and didn't realise i had to mix it and only realised a day later when i came to get my model back that it.. was.. still.. wet. I got the total mickey taken out of me by the games dev crew, cried a little then restarted so actually this photo is of my second attempt. So... Drew if you're reading this sorry i screwed your resources and if you're not Drew haha your not Drew..

..Here's a few pictures that i didn't muck up!

                     Nice..

    Should have used manual focus....

Wish i had cut the piece of clay for the helmet longer the visor was meant to reach over the the eye level but it fell short.

I'll be next making 'Cheek protectors' to cover the cheek area also the neck will be covered from attacks (if it was real) head looks very round cheek protectors will rest on the face as a support feminine head shape will be necessary near completion

    The three ear things are 'crests' traditional samurai men have them on their helmet as a representation of their village keeping traditional trends are a vital in my art

Katana

The Blade of a samurai is very important to the individual the sword of a samurai (katana) has been the most significant part of a samurai for centuries the samurai follow a way of the samurai called 'Bushido' Which is most incredible system i've ever seen involving rituals of death poems before suicide and beheadings and honour.









  The Poorer of samurai would have to settle of a hard steel sword whilst larger icons and political leaders would get the luxury in this case (Soshu Kitae) to have a 7 Layered sword containing different material densities resulting in lighter stronger and more agile swords of samurai to work in to there ability with as one.

Bushido (Way of the Samurai)

The Picture above is of traditional japanese cherry blossom with the japanese character for Cherry blossom (Sakura) the use of this image is that my character is a female who takes the traditions japanese samurai warrior and swaps the role of samurai wife to defeat the tradition of male only samurai to conquer her enemies for the will of the emperor.

 Here is an image of a Japanese wife of a samurai, The samurai follows an incredible way of life that i've always admired, the honour, sacrifice and discipline in not only in their training but as a code of war is amazing, this image we see to the left has a strong story to it with the wife on her knees bound from the shins to prevent any involuntary movements during this act of suicide (Jigai). Japanese females would have been taught this method of suicide at even the early stages of childhood to prevent capture from enemies and in turn destroying the dishonourable fact of rape on capture..

..The sheer commitment to ones believes, to endure such an indescribable pain is something that many cultures far across into the past and future cannot say they possess.

The way of a Samurai and everything around it is truly incredible.

This image of a blade wrapped in cloth is the blade used for the japanese method of capture suicide (Jigai) the blade itself is called a (Wakisashi)


.

Here is the male samurai repairing for a suicide (Seppuku) with a ritual before the suicide, Seppuku also known as known as harakiri ("Cutting the Belly") could be used not only for dishonouring the way of the samurai (Bushido) but even for capital punishment for dishonorable crimes samurai may have committed or simply any form of dis-honour.