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Action Hero - Nerve
Artist: CHRISTOPHER TACKETT
Hero Name: NERVE
Super Powers : God-like Strength, Healing power (himself and others), Cannot feel pain (due to his illness and not really a superpower)
Background Story:
Shane Grissom was a champion UFC fighter. He is a skilled master in many different types of martial arts, but he also has had a unique condition since birth. He has Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) , a disorder of the nervous system which means he cannot feel pain. This ailment had another side effect of emotional insensitivity which made him come across as brash and mean at times. A year ago, he suffered a broken elbow which forced him into early retirement.
While this condition kept him from feeling physical pain, he sought compensation on an emotional level, so he journeyed to a remote part of Japan in search of spiritual consult. While there, he became involved with an unknown branch sect of Buddhist monks which held in their possession a powerful artifact said to be linked with the spirit of Bishamonten, the god of war and healing. Legend had it that this artifact was guarded by a corridor of fire in a secret temple, and that only the most worthy would be able to retrieve it. The one who retrieved it would be given a fraction of Bishamonten's power and wisdom to bring back to his people. Over time, the monks believed that Shane was sent there to retrieve the artifact and to share the knowledge that lied within it.
So Shane took the journey to the hidden temple and walked through the corridor of fire to retrieve the artifact, a small pagoda, which contained the spirit of Bishamonten. As he took it into his possession with his charred and burnt body, the spirit of Bishamonten sensed a great potential for good in the man and imparted to him a fraction of his power for war and healing. A power that when called upon, transforms him into a physical war machine of incredible god-like power and strength.
INITIAL CONCEPT SKETCH:
Here's the basic concept sketch. I didn't put forth as much time as I'd like on the initial sketch, cuz I couldn't wait to jump right into the modeling. :) A lot of things about this could still change. Maybe adding wrist bands, tattoos, etc....
*EDIT* - ADDED LINKS TO VIDEOS OF SCULPTING THE CHARACTER ON VEOH
LINK TO NERVE - PART 1 VIDEO ON VEOH
LINK TO NERVE - PART 2 VIDEO ON VEOH
LINK TO NERVE - PART 3 VIDEO ON VEOH
LINK TO NERVE - PART 4 VIDEO ON VEOH
LINK TO NERVE - PART 5 VIDEO ON VEOH
LINK TO NERVE - PART 6 VIDEO ON VEOH
LINK TO NERVE - PART 7 VIDEO ON VEOH
LINK TO NERVE - PART 8 VIDEO ON VEOH
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KrackenCMT,
Great concept and hero name. Though, as an ultimate fighter, I think he might look tougher without the shoes. With the healing power of the Buddhist pike, he needn't worry about athlete's foot fungus ever again.
Saw your webpage gallery and am intimidated with your Zbrush skills. This is definately a thread worth following.
Good Luck!
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This is going to be cool. I just has a trip to Singapore and saw a stucco statue of Chinese/Japanese God. I can immediately relate your Hero to this Oriental God. It's going to be great :) :tu:
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That would make a great movie!!maybe he would look like ryu- from
the street fighter games..
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Nice stuff. I just know you will make an awesome sculpt!
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Nice backstory, lovely character sketch.
Like the rules stated, don't let that preliminary sketch (or your backstory) become a straight jacket. They are only to give you a "jumping off point." It's almost a given that your character will change and evolve over the next few weeks. That's half the fun!
Great body shape, although the wrists seem a bit too big, and the feet a big too small (which the shoes emphasize).
The sculpting should be lots of fun with this guy!
~OM
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ravioli_rancher,
LOL! Yeah you have a point. I was thinking about removing the shoes anyway as the sculpting of the bare feet would be good practice and also add more sculpted organic detail to the piece. My thinking with the shoes was that it added a bit more of an ancient feel to it, but I think I'll lose them.
C-Mad,
I realize I'm not bound to it. I just often like to solidify most of my design in sketch form before I start a piece. I just didn't do it this time to the level I normally do cuz I just wanted to get it done. Yeah, I know the proportions are off. But sometimes stuff like that happens when rushing a sketch. I can usually correct any proportion problems while sculpting. That's part of the beauty of using ZBrush. :)
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Here's the base humanoid mesh created in Lightwave and imported into ZB. Now the real fun begins!
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Great sketch and start Christopher !
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Good sketch, and good story.
I'm looking at your mesh and thinking that whilst doing it you gave some thought to the way it would behave with topological masking. Am I correct?
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maxinkuk,
Not really. However I was trying to pay attention to topology for structure purposes so I wouldn't have the topology working against me while sculpting. But I guess in doing so, it would also seem to help with the topological masking. :)
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The base mesh's starting to take form and looks really great. It'd be fun to see the evolution of this mesh to ZBrush sculpt!
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Great timing there Solidsnake! I thought the same thing. I've been making vids of my whole sculpting process. Thing is, I'm on a Mac and I'm having a bit of trouble exporting vids to quicktime from ZB 3.12. I'll probably have to play them all in ZBrush while running a movie screen capture app. I have SnapZ Pro which should work OK for that.
But once I get them uploaded to YouTube or Veoh, it I'll post the links here.
Here's the sculpt after a few hours today. I'm just working on getting the proper musculature down, then I'll get more into detail after posing him.
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You know what, KrakenCMT, this looks amazing even at your initial ZBrush sculpting phase. And you are recording the whole process! This is going to be great to see your Vid as well. The thread is very exciting! :tu: :tu:
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Woha, he's a big fella. He's got a lot of character, very good.
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Wow, you really spanked that base mesh! Coming along nicely.
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Hehe, thanks!
I had a bit more time tonight and did a little bit of work on the head as well.
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OK. Here's the first video which shows part of the first sculpting session starting from the base mesh. I'll post the other half as soon as it's uploaded.
And if the embedded vid doesn't work, here's the link to the movie on Veoh's site.
LINK: Nerve Sculpt Session1
EDIT: Updated vid added. First one played too fast.
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And here's the second vid from the first session.....
LINK TO NERVE - PART 2 VIDEO ON VEOH as well.
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KrakenCMT, that's some sculpting sessions you got there! Good progress. I think you are in a very good shape....not to mention your hero's shaping up nicely! :tu: :tu:
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You are an amazing Z-Sculptor, always have been. He is looking very much like your sketch already. I love the idea of adding tattoos and wristbands. As far as the shoes go, you could try a sandal with laces on the shins... would still have that "ancient" feel. But I agree, the genie shoes did nothing for his ferocity.
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Love those vids Christopher! :tu:
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Thanks, guys!
On my Arnold Schwarzenegger model and on this guy, I've had some problems working out the Serratus Anterior muscles. Does anyone have any tips on getting those sculpted correctly? They never feel quite right after I sculpt them.
Slosh, great idea with the sandals. I might just go that direction. :)
Also here's another small vid of the face sculpting so far.
LINK TO NERVE - PART 3 VIDEO ON VEOH
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The vids are great :) I think for the model you have the Serratus Anterior seems a bit displace where it intertwine with the other muscle.
Not sure if this would help much...Check out this ref and it also seems your Serratus Anterior is a tad short.
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Appreciate it, SolidSnake. :) I just need to research that area a bit more.
I worked more on Nerve's face and added a bit more detail and character to it.
I also just noticed that I will at some point need to close the holes in the eyes and mouth to make it a completely closed form.
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He's scary! Very nice details coming here.
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Looking great :D very mean looking :D
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Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! :D
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Dude, you got some skills. The face is wild. I really like it.
Keep on trucking.
Marc
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Really amzing... it´s one of my Favourites...
The Muscles are looking soooo realistic and the Mimic is --- WOW :tu: :tu:
You have so much Time left... I´m wondering where this shall end up :)
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I wanted to fill in the holes of my model so I used some sphere primitives to fill in the holes for the eyes. I use one for the mouth and sculpted it into a basic interior mouth shape. Then I used the retopology tool and filled them all in.
I also got a bit further in sculpting the arms, neck and torso. I found several pics for reference on the Serratus Anterior muscles and studies them hard then went back and tried to sculpt them better. I think I'm much closer, but they could be overly defined now, so I might smooth them out a little more.
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Really great progress.. this character's really wonderful so far.. and the area on Serratus Anterior you have sculpted so far is really good.
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Nice job on the abs, and the face has a lot of character...this is gonna be a cool one. :tu:
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Woah. Turning out great. It looks like he has a massive back. :)
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Chris,
This is looking really cool! Loved your Conan! I'm sure this will be even better.
I think the serratus muscle are correctly placed. They very rarely appear as well defined as you have them on your model, except in bodybuilders deliberately flexing them. In most real world situations they tend to be more understated, at least on normal humans.
Doh! What was I thinking? This guy ain't normal! Where's my Duff Beer?
I'll shut up now… :eek: :tu: :confused: ;) :D
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Good start on the model however I think the anatomy could be improved. The shoulder only has 3 sections making up the whole of the deltoid, that is, front, middle and rear. Right now it is difficult to distinguish the contours of each deltoid head. I am no expert but I think it would be better to see each deltoid head more properly defined. Also, there seems to be no distinctness between the brachialis and the triceps head. I think they could do with some distinguishing so that they look like two separate muscle groups. Also the intercostals are quite lumpy and should be flatter and more streamlined. The love handles could probably be lowered a bit too. In my opinion I would also not put as much detail in the T-pose sculpt because this can be refined when you actually pose the character. Hope what I said makes sense and I look forward to see your progress.
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Thanks all!
And thanks, mantegra! That's exactly what I need. Another pair of eyes that can spot parts like that. I'll check the areas you've mentioned and address them.
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Here's a new vid with more work on the torso and triceps areas.
LINK TO NERVE - PART 4 VIDEO ON VEOH