Dwarven Berserker

[Philly13]

Good evening! This is my current entry for the 'Rook' 3D mini challenge on Game Artisans. Being a fantasy nut, the theme I chose was 'Dwarves of the old world', inspired by Warhammer. Spent most of the day working on the beard, its taking me ages! Got a few bits here and there to clean up, and a lot of work to do on the anatomy. Anyways, here's the progress so far. Mass C&C always appreciated.

[OriginalAdric]

Looks live you've got a good start on it. Definitely feels like a Warhammer-type dwarf. The mohawk and the beard really sell it.

As for C&C, I think you should back away from the detail and spend more time getting the basic shapes flowing together better. You've got a lot of bare skin with shapes that suggest the shape of muscles, but don't have the form and function of muscles. You're putting a lot of contrast-y highlighting around the muscle shapes, but leaving out or glossing over important surface landmarks like bone protrusions. I've done a quick paintover to clarify what I mean.

beserker_paintover.jpg

On the upper front torso, the pec should flow more smoothly into the deltoid, and the plane where they meet should flow into the upper arm and bicep. On the leg, the knee should be less rounded, and instead be more shaped like an upside down trapezoid the way the patella is shaped. On the front of the shin, the shape of the tibia should be easily visible as a kind of s-curve. Where the leg and foot attach, the bony parts of the leg bones should be visible on other side (otherwise you end up with cankles).

On the back, the trapezius up top should be more clearly defined, and should flow into the deltoid, similar to the pec on the front. The latissumus dorsi of the lower back wrap forwards and upwards, overlapping the interwoven obliques on the sides. On the back of the arm, the tricep should be better defined, as should the transition between the muscle of the tricep and the tendon with which it attaches to the elbow. On the back of the leg, there should be similar definition with the calf muscle and where it attaches to the heel.

You seem to have a basic grasp of what the muscles are supposed to look like, but you might want to look at some anatomy books and learn what the muscles do and how. When you understand their function, the way they fit together makes more sense and your work will have a better feel of realism. I'd suggest any of the books by George Bridgman, as well as the Atlas of Human Anatomy by Stephen Peck.

[Philly13]

Adric - Thank you so much man, that really helps a lot! I'll definitely be keeping this on the side while working on it. I agree getting the basic form first is important, will keep that in mind.

[gammaslam]

Off the bat the things that stick out for me are, looks like you used a human with dwarfism to model him, he should be equally beefy in all areas. his chest looks huge while his appendages look like they wouldn't be able to carry decently sized weapon. his hand size compaired to his face is very small, unless you were going for that look.

i think you should do some more muscle studies, you have a lot of shapes in the arm that i think are unnecessary.

[Philly13]

Just a quick update, made some changes to the anatomy but plan to work on the form more, still don't think I'm quite nailing it. Also just wanted to add a little color to the little guy.



EDIT: Changed the arm musculature. Thanks Gammaslam, I thought the hands looked a little weird, will be changing those and the other features too.

[Philly13]

Tweaked a few proportions and made the hands bigger, think they look a lot more solid now. Also started working on one of his weapons. I can't mirror over the wrist or ankle bands since it'll make my pc explode, need more ram

[OriginalAdric]

Cool. He's looking a lot better. The muscles definitely feel more refined and have a nicer flow to them.

I think you could have pushed the chunkiness of the axe more before heading into details. The head has a good Norse/Viking side to it, but the haft looks like it would break as soon as you hit anything solid. You might want to try varying the diameters of the various haft parts, too, to make a more interesting silhouette.

[gammaslam]

awesome, arms look 10x better already. Like the axe. you have a wireframe you can post?