ART WAR 4 | 3D | War of the Elements | Terminus, The last storm | mrjar0

[mrjar0]

Name: Yaroslav Krutov
Email: MrJar0@yandex.ru
Website: https://www.artstation.com/mrjar0

Final Image

Detail Sheet

[mrjar0]

Here we go again
I'm not 100% sure that i will stick to the element/name. Not sure if i can get it to work the way i want it to.
Let's see how it goes

I want to create a storm elemental. More or less a tornado in a humanoid shape.
However i think just a giant cloud would be boring. The character needs some armor. Pauldrons, vambraces and a decent helmet will do the trick. The weapon will be a javelin made out of lightning

Moodboard / Reference board

Elemental

Armor

Tornado

Lightning

[mrjar0]

Not much progress has been done today. Mostly testing.
From what i've gathered so far, i can shape clouds into specific forms and force them to interact with objects.
It turned out to be not really that hard. The limiting factor is my pc. Bigger simulations take longer to calculate. Means i have to prepare everything before and hope that i did not make a mistake somewhere.
Overall it was a good day.
Here are some pics. Tried to make the cloud fit a very basic skull form. It's not very good, but it's a start.

[mrjar0]

Merry Christmas everyone, or happy holidays (if Christmas is not your cup of tea).

Not much progress has been made, for now. Still mostly testing. I found out how to force the smoke simulation into the proper shape. Now i need to find the right settings. The simulation doesn't look "cloudy" enough for my taste. On top of that i need to see how the whole thing interacts with lightning. Lots and lots of testing needs to be done.
Once i figure out how to set up everything, the actual body will be easy to make. I still need to think how i want the armor to look like, but that is for later.

Here is the newest progress pic. It's still not very good, but it is progress nonetheless.

[3dc]

If you do it right this will look really nice in a render all together, so when i played with this stuff for very little trying to do something similar to a design i did long time ago (helspont) i did flames.

So i can appreciate what you are doing here, hope it works out i really like the look of the hand progress, i feel like you'll get it eventually, but yea testing is what takes the longest in the rendering game. Also maybe if you aren't already try lowest setting possible, (its what i started to do so that the renderings don't take all day) (my machine and back then it was a while for my little bit) In the end i just rendered the smoke/fire and composited it over the final model, it worked out well enough for me.

Good luck with it.
And i'll toss a bone and idea towards the armor, hurricane debris .

[mrjar0]

Thanks for the advice.
Weirdly enough simulation time itself is not such a big issue. It's more about how to set up the whole thing so it looks properly. Some of the simulation settings are just confusing for now.
Oh well, practice makes perfect i suppose

[mrjar0]

Another day, another test phase. For now it's the last test phase.
Finally got the simulation to look a bit more like clouds. There is still lots of room for improvement, but that will have to wait until i got the body ready.
Next step will be to sculpt a semi decent body. From what i can tell, i don't need it to be too detailed. Just enough so one can tell what's supposed to be what. I don't even need a full body. Only the upper body is important. the lower body will be a tornado.
Let's see how it goes.

Here are the newest progress pics. The lightning was made by an ivy generator so it doesn't look all too good, but it wasn't supposed to. I just wanted to see how the clouds interact with lightning. It's good enough for the moment. Lightning will be the last part i add.

[mrjar0]

So it's time for a new update. I've been mostly working on the upper body of the character.
I went for a bulkier body type for now. Most of the finer details get too distorted in the end, so i didn't see the need make more than a simple base body. I still need to retopo and rig it.
I already did some smaller tests. The simulation works quite good.
Once the base body is ready, i can start working on the armor. The plan still remains the same. Helmet, pauldrons, vambraces and a lightning javelin.
I'm not sure what style of armor i will make. I feel like the most fitting stuff has been done to death. A winged helmet fits very well, but a crown could be interesting too. I'm considering going for a neck guard to support the pauldrons.
I think the armor needs to be made by a smith. The tornado debris sounds quite nice on paper, but i feel like it wont fit with the whole lightning theme.
Once again, let's see how it goes.

Here are some pics of the body. For now without the sim. No reason to do the sim without the tornado for the lower body.

[roulamine]

Aamazing!!

[mrjar0]

@roulamine Thanks

It has been quite some time since my last update. It appears i'm no spring chicken anymore. Celebrating new years eve the same way i did when i was 18 might not have been a good idea.

So far I've managed to retopologize and rig my character.
Since it is required that the character is clearly attacking or defending i went for an "about to throw the javelin" pose. I also added the armor. For now it is quite clean. I will add the engravings and minor details later on. The element symbol will be on the pauldrons. The vambraces turned out to be more like shackles. I kinda like it that way. Feels like the armor is what binds him to that form. Otherwise he would be just a storm.
Next step will be to add the lower body. It will be a tornado. Afterwards i can work on the armor some more and then it's finally time to add the lightning. I think he needs some lightning inside of his body. It would help to break it up a bit. Right now it's this massive dark cloud.

Here is the newest progress pic. The hands will be fixed a bit later. They are not dense enough at the moment. I gave him some eyes. I think they help a lot with the overall feeling. I really like that camera angle. Feels like he is this big and powerful being and we are so beneath him that he doesn't even notice us. I think i'll stick with that angle for now.

[3dc]

well look at this came out after all nice.

[Sergei_Pakhomov]

Looks nice! I like combination of storm cloud and gold plates!

[mrjar0]

@3dc , @Sergei_Pakhomov Thank you. I too think that the gold fits. Although pure gold feels a bit heavy. might add some smaller details out of different metal. Just to break it up a bit. Not sure yet. The armor does miss all of the engraving though. So maybe that will help break up the monotony.

Today i started making the lower part of the body. So far it's all over the place, or rather the opposite. It's a bit too bunched up. Lots and lots of work needs to be done. The tornado doesn't spin, the shape is sort of wrong and overall doesn't feel like it's a tornado. On top of it, the bottom dust cloud is too big and feels more like teddy bear stuffing than a dust cloud.
For now i will be working mostly on the lower body part. The armor can wait.
Gave him a light rod. Wanted to see how the hands interact with light. It appears they are not dense enough. He is supposed to be holding the rod.
I'm not sure i like the color of the cloud. Doesn't feel like a proper storm cloud.
Overall there is still lots and lots to tweak. Luckily there is still time left.

[3dc]

We men don't hear this often but nice rod.

[mrjar0]

It is once again time for another update.
I feel like a pastry chef. All I've been doing for the past few days was baking, tweaking some settings and baking again.
The waiting time is killing me. It's like i'm sculpting, except each brush stroke takes 1 minute to load. I do like the outcome though. I think I've got the shape to where i'm happy with it.
Now it is finally time to work on the armor. I don't really like the helmet right now. I think i will go for a horned helmet instead of a winged one. Also i think i will decorate the armor with runes and symbols from the Norse mythology. I'm not sure how accurate the "translation" sites are, but i do like the way the runes look. I was thinking of writing "Storm bound to metal" as a rune word on his shackles and "Lightning bound to storm" on the pauldrons. I think that would explain why the storm wears armor and looks humanoid.
So for now the next step will be remaking the helmet. Afterwards i can add the details to the armor. The lightning part of the character will have to wait for now. It will probably be the last step.

I fixed the hands. They actually look like hands holding a lightning. Changed some colors here and there. Fixed his left eye. It was smaller than his right one, for some reason. Overall quite happy with the result.

[mrjar0]

Today's update is not exactly big.
I've made the shackles smaller. I think it fits better. Made the whole body a bit more swirly and changed some shapes. Some more minor changes are needed but i don't plan to change the cloud design for the foreseeable future.
Changed the helmet design. Not entirely sure if i'm going to stick with the shape of the horns. I do like how they look though.
Overall the whole thing starts to finally look like sth I've imagined.
Now it's time to add some much needed details to the armor.

[mrjar0]

It has been quite some time since my last update.
Do you ever make sth you think is good, but then you take a break and suddenly it turns into the most horrendous thing you've ever created? Well, that is basically what happened. I took a break, then came back to work on my elemental and felt like ripping my own arms off.
I tried to fix it, but nothing felt right. So I've decided to scrap the whole idea. Well not the whole idea. I do like the whole clouds and lightning bolts thing. That part i will keep. Everything else has to go.
I've decided to go for a ronin. So far i have a very rough base shape to show.
The next few days will be spent on fixing everything. Then i can run all the simulations. I think i'll do the whole thing in 3 layers. The first will be just his body. Quite smooth and dense so you can see the muscles. The second will be a lot more "cloudy" and way less dense. Just to add some variety to the silhouette. The third will be a bigger cloud going out of his back side and flowing away from him. Should add a feeling of movement to the whole thing.
On top of it some lightning bolts across his arms, his sword and in the eyes should add some much needed details to the body.
That is the plan. Let's see if i can finish on time.

Here is how far I've progressed so far.
The head is technically a skull, but it's hard to see without the lightning in the eyes. All of the ropes are missing. The angle of the katana is wrong. Overall there is much to do.

[mrjar0]

Another day another update.
Cleaned up most of the shapes. Added the ropes. Added the weapon. Tomorrow i'll work on finishing the base. Then i can finally do the cloud sims.

Changed the camera position. He is technically holding the katana the right way, but for some reason it feels wrong. Will adjust it later. The materials are just placeholders. Got rid of the cloud sim for now. Makes it easier to work. Luckily the body does not need to be too detailed.

[mrjar0]

Time for today's update.
I changed the size of the ropes. Now they dont look like shoe strings. I've adjusted the katana. It feels a lot better now.
The big part for today was the cloud sim. I started with 1 dense smooth layer for the body. It helps to see the muscles. On top of it i've put a less dense more noisier layer. It gives the char that sort of "cloudy" feeling. Now i need to add the "cloud" layer behind him and maybe some small dirt/dust under his feet. I want it to look like he just finished slashing someone.
I've been thinking about the background. I think putting him into a bamboo forest would fit quite well. I would make a road from left to right and have a bunch of bamboo as the background. I'm not sure what time of day it should be though. I plan to have a quite a few lightning bolts and they do give off a lot of light so maybe late evening / early night could look good. But i'm getting ahead of myself here. One step at a time. For now I need to finish the char first.

I've decided to keep the actual skull and just surround it with clouds instead of making the skull out of clouds. Ironically he looks a lot more alive with the skull. Added the light inside his head. It's not a lightning, but it looks right so i'm going to keep it like that for now. The cloud sims are low res for now. The shape wont change much, the quality will.

[mrjar0]

A small update for now.
Added the big cloud. Changed some minor shapes here and there.
Now it's time to work on the armor.

It feels weird working on this character. My computer is struggling to keep up with my demands. Which means i have to guess how things will look like in the end and only once i'm absolutely sure that i like the form can i increase the subdivision levels.
So for now everything will look a bit rough around the edges.