Visual style
I would like the visual style to be more realistic but still contain elements of the unknown such as alien. This means i get to explore things that don’t exist while making them look as real as possible. I think the Halo franchise is a great example of making alien things look pretty real and reasonable to think they could exist.
First Idea
BucketHead
The first idea was to make a fighting character that was able to use spells, it was based of “IWillSoloHer” from Elden Ring, where he used a pot on the head to fight all the bosses in the game Elden Ring. I think the idea was good except it became too generic for it to be classed as a good hero character.
This is the character i tried to replicate. I love the way of how simplistic it is, yet you automatically know what it is even by the shadow.
This is the main body of the character. At this point it was pretty good except that the silhouette was nothing special and it was just a buff woman with a bucket on the head. The clothing was done pretty well and the texturing on the skin wasn’t awful.
This was the finished product. The details were not amazing and due to the average retopology i did the abs looked out of place, as if they were just stuck onto the model. This model was optimised, but in the end having an optimised mesh that isn’t interesting isn’t worth having unless i use it as a background character.
However, the female version wasn’t the only one i made, i also made a male version with a pumpkin on his head while also wearing a top hat. While being interesting, i didn’t feel like it was enough to warrant it being my character design.
Second Idea
Brute Chieftain
The second idea i had was inspired by the Halo franchise with their brute species. I was inspired by the game Halo Wars 2 with the awakening the nightmare DLC with the 2 main brutes being Pavium and Voridus. I personally think their designs were memorable and distinct leading that style to be a prime target for me. Mixing both their designs and adding a lot of my own style i made something that i am proud of.
This is the head shape of my character Rtas ‘Vadum was heavily inspired by the Halo brutes with the sucken in eyes and big mouth and nose. I made sure that it wasn’t too similar and also to make sure i kept to a good topology level.
Using these as a jumping off point i started to model the head, I’m clearly not as talented when it comes to the modelling or the texturing, but i think it is a good start to my characters i hope to make in the future using this as a reference to help me get better and better.
References
KleinTsuboiOW(2021) Let me solo her. [Screenshot]. Available online: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/u2g6gd/let_me_solo_her/ [Accessed 21/12/2023].
343 Industry’s / Creative Assembly (2017) Halo wars 2 [Video game]. Available online: https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/halo-wars-2/9NBLGGH5WMKM [Accessed 20/12/2023].