BHG Challenge | Marcus Dublin | Malginus [Archive]

Marcus Dublin

04-18-2007, 12:39 AM

The Making of Malginus! Anyway I had some time to start the model tonight and by tomorrow I’ll work on tweaking it and fixing some edge loops and the like. If I have the time tomorrow I’ll probably start his body so you guys can see the direction I’m heading in.:thumb:

Marcus

PS: He’s Bipedal by the way and will have some dragon like features, no big kitty cat here, hehe!:)

ChrRambow

04-18-2007, 08:36 AM

I like him so far ... just the horns on the top of the head are looking a littlebit weird at the moment ... like thick wings. :think:

Vitor

04-18-2007, 02:28 PM

Interesting design, wasn't really expeting it from that thumb lol.
well, looking forward to see what direction you'll go...

kongni

04-18-2007, 04:13 PM

Great start Marcus! I'll be watching for updates :)

Jido

04-19-2007, 12:08 AM

I wonder what kind of body will supply vitals to the brain of this head. Eager, I am to see.

Gavin

04-19-2007, 01:43 AM

Looking cool so far man, I love the tusks. The horns ontop of the head seem to throw it off a bit due to their shape...but they definitely look interesting and I'm waiting to see what the res tof him is going to look like.

Lookin' pretty.
Gav

Marcus Dublin

04-19-2007, 08:04 AM

Thanks for the suggestions guys, after a good night sleep I could see things clear again and have totally redesigned the top horns to something a bit more aesthetically pleasing and balanced. I’ll post an update in a day or two.:)

Marcus

kurocrash

04-19-2007, 11:17 AM

i'm digging it so far. the horns look a little 'bulgy' rather than kind of pointy, but you may have already fixed that so keep it up! can't wait to see this one progress

-J

Marcus Dublin

04-20-2007, 12:45 AM

Here's a bit of an update on the mesh construction, there still way more to come like his new set of ears, tail, hair, horns, wings, and other little goodies.:)

Marcus

Gavin

04-20-2007, 12:58 AM

Very nice man, the changed horns make a world of difference. Keep it up.

Gav

zann

04-20-2007, 01:23 AM

Hey u r fast! I like the structure so far, r u planning to add some hairs onto its body? Good luck :thumb:

ChrRambow

04-20-2007, 03:28 AM

Yeah! These horns are much better! Hey slow down a littlebit and let us a chance. :D

ThatDon

04-21-2007, 04:25 AM

The new horns are a huge improvement, good job!

Marcus Dublin

04-21-2007, 08:44 AM

Thanks for the comments guys, here’s a quick update. I still have to make the wings and rough out some more parts to his body as well. Right now he’s way over budget but that fine since it helps to hit my mark on the mesh structure, I’ll optimize when he’s about done.:)

Zann: Yes he’s going to have a thick mane of hair running down his back as well as some hair on his face, arms and legs.

Marcus

Josh Singh

04-21-2007, 09:34 AM

Very Cool! Can't wait to see the fur! Reminds me of Ifrit from the ff series.

FredH

04-21-2007, 10:41 PM

It's looking really good so far, but is it me, or are a lot of your images very dark? I checked it in photoshop, and your lightest areas are around 40% brightness. Are you using a LCD for your work? Something seems to be making all your artwork, including your domwar entry, too dark.

But, maybe it's just me:)

Marcus Dublin

04-22-2007, 01:08 AM

Okay I worked on him a little more today and added the wings. I also made alphas for the hair and other extras but didn’t bother screen grabbing the alpha planes because they’re a bit obtrusive. Anyway I’ll be optimizing this guy down about 1500 poly’s and making mesh adjustments along the way.

Marcus

PS: Hey Fred thanks for the comments. As for my monitor I’m using a duel 20” LCD setup, and unfortunately my calibration settings are all over the place. I had different settings saved for different projects. This is mainly due to my monitor settings at work being really high contrast as well, which is necessary due to our lighting set up. For instance when I look at my stuff at home it looks perfectly fine but once I go to work or elsewhere and see certain thing on screen the contrast is blown out on some setups, sucks:( ! Anyway I’m buying a second dell monitor to match up with my main dell monitor next week and will set my calibration back to something more even keel.:)

http://www.marcusdublin.com/MalginusBodyWIP01.jpg
http://www.marcusdublin.com/MalginusBodyWIP02.jpg

FredH

04-22-2007, 01:19 AM

You got way too many monitors going on there:confused: Using the levels layer modifier, let's look at this chart. Everything is in the dark end of the scale. This will hurt your finals should you continue like this:doh:

Anyways, once again, you are advancing extremely quickly. Your working habbits are awesome man!

Marcus Dublin

04-22-2007, 01:36 AM

Thanks for the insight Fred, I’ll be making the necessary adjustments and hopefully it’ll read better. By the way is there any optimal setting that you’re working at? I’m using an Nvidia 7800 GT Card and I was always told I’d get better results using the video card calibration settings. Anyone else have this issue?

Marcus

kurocrash

04-22-2007, 12:05 PM

i dunno... maybe every else just needs lcd monitors lol looks a little dark but not bad on my laptop. i know it's probably not the main concern right now as you try to resolve the calibration issue, but the progress on the model is looking pretty tight.
a suggestion, take it or leave it? a lot of other entries, myself included are going for bulky, massy type of characters. it's like the generic idea of big. However, I think your entry though might actually work pretty well if it was looking a little less thick, almost as if it was ravaged & gangly, almost lanky. As a winged character it would help promote the idea of him as a flyer as well. Not that he couldn't fly now, just that with his current frame, he's a bit more grounded. does that make any sense?
anyway keep plugging away at the model, & i hope you figure out the graphic issues you're having!

-J

kipiripi

04-23-2007, 09:11 AM

Cool stuff Again Marcus.Gogogo.

ChrRambow

04-23-2007, 12:41 PM

great and fast progress... The new horns are way better and the wings fit really well.

Edit: The area from the hip to the leg is looking a littlebit out of place ... like he is wearing throusers
or maybe he is already wearing some ;)

kongni

04-23-2007, 12:56 PM

I'm really excited to see how the fur comes out Marcus!

Marcus Dublin

04-23-2007, 08:51 PM

Thanks for the comments and suggestions as always guys. I started the Uv's last night when I decided to go in another direction with my entry, the more I worked on it the less he screamed imposing giant or last boss! I had some cool ideas for him with a WIP diorama with different cameras setup etc. but I felt I could do something much stronger. For the most part this model will be shelved for a rainy day and In the meantime I'm going to work on something new. I had some ideas floating around and I think I hit on something that'll fit the comp much better. Stay tuned I should have something to show in a few days. Later!:lucky:

Marcus

ThatDon

04-23-2007, 09:33 PM

Best of wishes with your new direction man.

kongni

04-24-2007, 10:05 AM

Before you shelf it....
Did you take a look at it with a wide angle camera lens with a low (bug's eye) view? I mean, you can make anything look giant that way.

Marcus Dublin

04-24-2007, 12:21 PM

kongni: "Before you shelf it....
Did you take a look at it with a wide angle camera lens with a low (bug's eye) view? I mean, you can make anything look giant that way."

Marcus: Actually I did, and it looked pretty cool, but when inspiration hits it hits hard, hehe what I have in store is a bit more ambitious and cooler I think. I can't wait to start working on it tonight; hopefully you guys will dig it.:)

FredH

04-24-2007, 12:44 PM

This guy was already shaping up to be pretty cool, but if you say you have a better idea...

Looking forward to seeing what you have up your sleeve:)

kipiripi

04-24-2007, 12:50 PM

[QUOTE= hopefully you guys will dig it.:)[/QUOTE]

What are you cooking Marcus.Killer Wondering,Update us..:brick:

kurocrash

04-24-2007, 10:30 PM

it's a shame you're not going with him this time around. hope to see this killer new direction soon!

-J

Marcus Dublin

05-02-2007, 11:24 PM

It’s been a while since my last update but I’ve been extremely busy at work wrapping up production on our title, which mean long hours:cry: . Anyway I having been tapped for ideas and I fell back on an oldie but a goodie. I decided to make a dragon, yeah not particularly exciting :paper: but I’ve only made one like a hundred years ago since doing 3d, hehe. I figured now’s as good a time as any to make another one. The screen grab of the model is couple of hour’s worth of modeling and I should have him done by Saturday with the UV’s tackled by Sunday, and then it’s off to sculpting! I’ll post some more shots by tomorrow night, later!:)

Marcus

Gavin

05-02-2007, 11:31 PM

Cool looking mesh there, man. Not much to really crit on, looking forward to see him with a body:P

Gav

FredH

05-02-2007, 11:37 PM

Finally... someone is doing a dragon. I was seriously hoping someone would tackle this beast. I am a big fan of dragons!! Nice start man.

What ref(s) are you using for this? There are many variants.

kurocrash

05-03-2007, 11:44 AM

nice start! my only thing is that fin looks a little odd in the back. to me anyway. it seems as though if it were to stretch it's neck out, it's going to pull & hurt him. might just be a work-in-progress issue, but i figured i'd point it out just in case.

-J

Marcus Dublin

05-03-2007, 12:15 PM

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys.

Fred: Yeah I looked through almost all of the threads and not a single dragon, hehe. Anyway Dragons are almost impossible to screw up and do wrong just because there so many different ways you can go with it. I have dozens of reference images of dragons and dragon like creatures and I narrowed it down to a few that I liked, so for the most part I’m just pulling little from here and there to get the final look that I want. It’ll be a bit clearer once I model more of the body.

Kurocrash: Dude your absolutely right, hehe I guess it doesn’t pay to model sometimes when your blurry eyed. Anyway I’ll work out the kinks and it should be a more believable in terms of his skeletal structure and range of motion. Thanks again for pointing that out.

More to come soon, later!:thumb:

Marcus

Socket7

05-05-2007, 01:16 AM

Umm... I liked the first idea more. Maybe with some tweaking. Actually, I wanted to make something like your first creature in the beginning but found that you are doing it so I abandoned this idea.
Not that I don't like dragons... I'm doing something dragonish now but I don't want to end up with yet another dragon. Just because I think it's so plain and boring to come up with a dragon. Hope you have some nice ideas how this creature should look to be interesting. Keep it up!

Marcus Dublin

05-06-2007, 01:29 PM

Okay I finished the model he’s clocked in at 5k poly’s and I’m going to start on the UV’s later on today. The box you see in the scene is representative of a 6ft human to convey the sense of scale. Hopefully I can start on a sculpt pass for the muscle groups in the next day or two. I’m not 100% sure on the color scheme just yet but I’m playing with some ideas. By the way he has teeth but there going to be done with alphas instead of geo, it’s just more economical that way given the polycount. All in all this is what I’m going with and hopefully I can finish in time, this week is going to be rough work:ack: wise so hopefully I can push through. Any crits and comments are much appreciated and will be used if possible. Later!

Socket7: Yeah I liked the first direction as well but I changed direction because I wanted to do a quadruped and also something a bit long, if that makes any sense. Actually the model here isn’t what I was going to go with either, I had a design besides this as well but it was a bit to over the top, hehe. Dragons don’t have to be to boring; the beauty of this mythical creature is that there are few rules to follow. You can take it in almost any direction you want, hell if we had a dragon specific comp with 100 entries you would get 100 different designs which is pretty awesome! Good luck with your dragonish creature Socket7, I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Marcus

http://www.marcusdublin.com/MalginusDragonWIP0.jpg
http://www.marcusdublin.com/MalginusDragonWIP2.jpg

ThatDon

05-06-2007, 01:47 PM

Where is his teeth? He must be cleaning his dentures...:)

Awesome work man, if I had to critic anything it would be his proportions they are very kitten like, I get the feeling that he is playful and cute like one

http://www.webdesign.org/img_articles/7072/Action-Kitten.jpg

Gavin

05-06-2007, 08:21 PM

Looking bad ass, man. I do agree that his proportions seem to work aganst his intimidation factor. Maybe if you made his legs more stout and added some mass to his chest and stomach he would read as being much bigger. Just a suggestion though, it is still looking very cool.

Something like this seems to have the same type of length as yours but with a little more meat>
http://www.thesportshallway.com/Images/Gaming/garg_blue_dragon1.jpg

Keep it up!
Gav

Marcus Dublin

05-07-2007, 03:36 AM

Thanks for the suggestions guys; this is all very doable even in the Uv’ing stage. When I get home tonight I’ll play with his proportions a bit by broadening his chest and neck some. I’ll also experiment with shortening his legs as well even though I want him to have an agile feel so we’ll see. Thanks again!:)

PS: His teeth are going to be done with alphas ThatDon, once textured he’ll flash his pearly whites for ya, hehe.:inocent:

Marcus

katzeimsack

05-07-2007, 03:45 AM

I think the main difference between you drangon and the one gavin posted, are the front legs.

Your front legs are as big as the back ones. Your dragon seems to use his legs for movement only.
gavins ones, have some arm elements. They are much bigger than the back ones and can be used to attack.

Marcus Dublin

05-07-2007, 04:28 AM

It’s funny because I have the same reference image as well, hehe. Just keep in mind though katzeimsack that the dragon toy in the image is posed with in an attacking position with his head lowered tail curled, wings raised, and arms outstretched. This position gives him a much more intimidating feel which is reminiscent of a cat but it’s also an easy way for an artist to get lost when making his own creature proportion wise. When making my dragon I was mindful of his proportions such as to keep his length at around 10 heads long with the tail being around six or so of those heads. His body is around 1.8 heads wide and his legs are around 2.5 heads tall. Thank god I invested in Polyboost though as it’ll help making these adjustment a bit easier.

Marcus

PS: FYI / Some of the reference Dvd's I watched was Dragon’s world, Rein of fire, Walking with Dinosaurs, Chased by Dinosaurs, Walking with Beasts, and Walking with monsters, hehe. All good stuff and I highly recommend these to artist.:thumb:

shadowbreeze

05-08-2007, 12:37 AM

man going on your DW2 entry i am soo looking forward to seeing this one.:)

Marcus Dublin

05-12-2007, 07:31 PM

Okay I was pretty close to throwing in the towel on my entry but I had some time this afternoon and started the highpoly sculpt for my dragon. I have a pretty light after work schedule this week so expect frequent updates. Anyway I'll be Zbrushing and normal mapping the major muscle groups first and for the high frequency details such as the scales, wings etc. I'll do those via cazybump and Photoshop. I still have more detail to add so stay tuned!:lucky:

Marcus

ThatDon

05-12-2007, 07:45 PM

Hey Marcus, that is looking great man, I did a really quick and BAD photochop of this playing with the proportions, basically beef up the back of the neck and the front belly,torso to give it a more intimidating look, not sure if you are going for intimidating or not though.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/JohnyKnoxville/marcus.jpg

Marcus Dublin

05-12-2007, 08:01 PM

Wow that’s pretty cool, I like the thickness of your re imaging, truth be told though I had some references that I liked and followed. The dragons I looked at were pretty fierce but had a slightly slender look to them almost Doberman pinscher: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/European_Dobermann.jpg like in stature. The re imaging you have is more Rottweiler: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Rottweiler212.jpg or bullmastiff: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Bullmastiff.JPG, cool non-the less and has given me some ideas. Of course I'll have to see about putting in the time to rework both the lowpoly and high poly at this point. Thanks for the paint over it's greatly appreciated!:)

Marcus

ThatDon

05-12-2007, 08:07 PM

No problem Marcus, Truth be told I was waiting for a pm to delete it, lol!

FredH

05-12-2007, 08:30 PM

The dragon looked really good to begin with, but the thicker head/neck and more defined belly really made it pop out. Photoshop screen grabs are really the way to go for things like this.

Besides this, it's looking top notch Marcus. If you have time, strengthen up those wing muscles to encompass the new direction. Especially the mid joint area.

Jill'san

05-12-2007, 10:02 PM

mod or no mod, both look insane. There is some great work showing up here:)

Marcus Dublin

05-15-2007, 12:37 PM

Here's a quick update, it's still very, very rough and won't really take shape until Thursday or Friday when I take a render with the lighting in place and the normal maps done. With time winding down I kept my original direction, if I were to change at this point I’d have to quit my job and sell my soul to the 3d gods, hehe.:thumb:

Marcus

PS: I looked at a bearded dragon lizard for color reference:http://images.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_SM/0028-0404-0315-4152_SM.jpg I'm going with a desertish theme for the final shot!

Gavin

05-15-2007, 01:12 PM

Looks very cool man, nice scales. Did you have anything in mind for the wings? Ripped up skin or something?

Gav

FredH

05-15-2007, 09:09 PM

rips are a must! if they aren't in, he would look like he came out of the car wash. Regardless, really nice work Marcus. Your developing a consistency in making something great.

Btw, the lighting on your renders are looking good on my screen. All your latest renders are no longer dark:)

Socket7

05-20-2007, 01:38 PM

I like the texture on his head. Waiting for more! Good work so far. Update! :)

Marcus Dublin

05-20-2007, 03:58 PM

Here’s a quick update since it’s been a while, not all of the maps are in place just yet and the lighting is temporary but I thought I’d show what I had so far. Thankfully I have a week to finish him up and add tons of polish to him along with the background and pedestal I have in store! I’ll update in a couple of days to show my progress.:)

Marcus

http://www.marcusdublin.com/MalginusDragonWIP001.jpg

ThatDon

05-20-2007, 04:10 PM

Looking Crazy good

FredH

05-20-2007, 04:22 PM

More tears in the wings! But if they are symmetrical, I guess unique large tears are out:flag: Otherwise, he is looking really hot man. Nice work:thumb:

Socket7

05-20-2007, 05:13 PM

Great look! I would make his "arm" bones less thick and almost flat on their tips so the wing tissue is not separated from bones. Now it looks like the wings are very thin and will tear apart if he decides to take off the ground.
It is just my feeling. :) Nicely done btw.

kipiripi

05-20-2007, 05:15 PM

Looking hot ,I hope,you are going to use emissive map for his eyes..

Wedu

05-21-2007, 04:24 PM

thats really awesome dragon, I especially like the scales :thumb:

ThatDon

05-24-2007, 09:17 AM

I think you might wanna give his soft belly some more lovings, maybe make it have more contrast compared to the rest of his scaly body.

Marcus Dublin

05-24-2007, 10:14 AM

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys, there’s a host of changes that were made and I should have some new WIP images up in the next day or two.:)

Marcus

kurocrash

05-24-2007, 12:00 PM

the texturing's looking beautiful on that! awesome work, marcus! hate to put forward cliches but any scars or things you can put on him to sort of make him a little bit more unique? also if you're using a glow map, i saw mention of the eyes, but you should also put a bit in towards the back of his throat, like the flames are forming & he's about ready to let loose!

-J

Marcus Dublin

05-28-2007, 08:42 PM

Well he’s finally done, I’m glad I got home in time to submit this stuff; I was having a good time at a couple of barbeques! Hehe, anyway I had a good time with him despite changing multiple directions throughout the comp. All in all I’m proud of the final piece and when I have some time I’ll render this in Unreal at work for more dynamic results.

Marcus

PS: Kurocrash, oh man I didn’t read your suggestion until I submitted my final images, haha, sweet idea though!

http://www.marcusdublin.com/MalginusDragonWinningPoseShot.jpg
http://www.marcusdublin.com/MalginusDragonBeautyPoseShot.jpg
http://www.marcusdublin.com/MalginusDragonConstructionShot_.jpg
http://www.marcusdublin.com/MalginusDragonTextureSheet.jpg