[Fallenswordsman]

Lets see how far I can go with this one (level bets on no further than concept sketches!). Been thinking this one over and I'm trying to figure out which creatures would work best. The Succubus springs to mind as fairly straightforward - nude chick with horns and wings, then there was the idea of a nymph - nude chick with just wings, or even just a dryad - nude chick with green hair. Are you seeing a pattern to my thinking here?
I think once I've got some sketches down then I can probably commit to a character. The idea of a minatour is nice as it means no head modelling and spending weeks just getting the ears done properly! Then again, I like the idea of a Satyr as well - nude dude with horsey legs. Could work well with a bit of sasquatch on his legs and a nice big Brian Blessed Style beard! Argh - too many options.
Anyway, concept sketches to follow!

[Fallenswordsman]

Well this is turning into a bit of a non-starter! I still don't know what creature I'm doing, so I decided to make a head just to get things started, then I'd decide from there. Oh dear! I knew I shouldn't have rushed it. Errors all over the place!
One for the spike and start again!

[bullet_evader]

well it isn't that bad!! im sure you can do something cool with this!!

[R4s1n]

i think that hole could be patched up...Just weld a couple of points and then add two polys..that is unless you were going for some effect

[Fallenswordsman]

lol - it ain't the hole I'm worried about! Those are easy to fix but it just reflects my "modular" modelling style. Anyway, started from scratch and I'm a lot lot happier with this one! Still dunno what I'm going to turn her into yet, ideas are either succubus, mermaid or female satyr.

[kumar]

How about medusa... i'll be tempted to do that,,, You might want to ask the expert Mike on that,,, think he did something like that some time back.

[mtmckinley]

Yeah, I did a Medusa a while back. You can see it at my site if you'd like. Didn't 100% finish it, but it turned out ok.

Your modeling definitely looks good so far. Looking forward to what you put together.

[Fallenswordsman]

Cheers guys, update later today!
One thing that I am really wanting to go for is a reclined pose - I might try and nail the pose straight off without rigging since this is only going to be a one shot character. I really want to try a view from behind as well which sort of lends itself to mermaid, but medusa will work well! I'll probably resort to medusa if I end up spending too long trying to get long hair to behave.
But I think a reclined back view could really look great IF I manage to pull it off!

[Fallenswordsman]

Okay update time - the head mesh is now looking a lot better without all those unsightly bulges on the previous attempt. The only problem now is that this is the manliest looking girl I've ever modelled. Anyway, I'm going to complete the head then figure out where I'm going with this - do I girlify the head up a bit or do I swear blind that I've always wanted to make a fella and turn him/her into a satyr?

[puppet]

maybe if you bring up her chin and mouth she might look less man like lol

nice work so far

[Mark]

And I'd be tempted to narrow the jawline slightly - give it a more pointed, triangular look to the face - might make it look a little more female ???

[kumar]

Marks Right, and i'll would reduce the nose a bit.... By the way,,, the eyes are having a tad too much poly, and the tear duct is a tad large,, squeeze it a bit more closer. But i like the flow of the face.

[Fallenswordsman]

Thanks for the crits - I'll see what I can do - the eyes are just a placeholder and I'm not too worried about the polycount with them as they really are just simple spheres at the moment. I don't want to get too bogged down with head modelling to the extent that at the end of the contest, all I have is a head! So I'll probably just try and reduce the manliness and then move on to the full frontal nudity part!

[Fallenswordsman]

Okay - another quick update - isn't going too bad considering how much I really hate doing ears! I've yet to find a tutorial that I'm completely satisfied with that allows you to build great ears - so I've sort of winged it a bit - hasn't come out too badly considering it usually takes me a day to get anything that remotely resembles an ear.

I'm sort of on schedule at the moment. The next seven days will be spent doing the torso and tweaking the head around a bit. I keep thinking on how mammoth a task I've set myself right now.

Things I have to learn:
1. Texturing - no model of mine has actually got to the stage where I'm happy enough to texture it - therefore texturing isn't something I've ever really done
2. Rigging - nope never done any of that either
3. Sasquatch - Time to get that long hair tutorial! I wonder if sasquatch can simulate wet hair?
4. Hypervoxels - If this does turn out to be a mermaid, it would make a kick-ass scene if I managed to put beads of water on her body or have water splashing up against the rock where she'll be reclining.

So - all good fun still to come!

[Fallenswordsman]

And to be perfectly honest, I'm amazed I've managed to make a passable head complete with ears in just two days! Usually it takes me weeks and then I throw it away in disgust! I think I need to move the mouth closer to the nose still but hows it looking? Less manly? I've done a few bits to the nose and jawline but I still think they need tweaks.