In this stage, I just built a very base shape for the face, so it looks a little bit werid and what I gonna do in the next stage is to do modification and edit more details on it.
After a long time modification, I think the shape and the structure was much better than it used to be. So I started to do details.
For adding details of human face, I use a tool called Zwrap which I spent $99 to bought it. In this tool, I can do more than editing details on model but also can do topology. Once I match the texture to the corresponding points of the model in the Zwrap window, the computer does the wrapping calculations so that the details are perfectly reflected on my model.
This is the model after Zwrapping.
And then I did some little modification on the shapes of eyes, mouth and ears.
I was thinking that my first vision model cant give me a feeling of emperor, so I tried to change his pose, I opened his arms so that makes me feel the majesty of the emperor and then I fix some body issue such as too strong back and shoulder as well.
I imported the new model as OBJ into Marvelous Designer to edit costume.After finishing everthing in Marvelous Designer, I imported the costume model into Zbrush. And that looks very nice so on.But a big issue came to me, once I add polygons of the model, the mash would be separated into parts.I thought it was my polygroups issue, so I checked the polygroups and my model was in different groups, then I merge them in one group and I thought that would be working, but it didnt.I send message to my tutor Luca for help, he told me this was the issue of vertices, all elements were not welded together and he suggested me to try to edit vertices in other softwares and then export out to Zbrush. After that I noticed that there is a export setting cam merge all close points, so I tried to select that setting and you can see that all red points was merged points. As I select merge vertices settings in Marvelous Designer, I got a very nice shape in Zbrush and there was no issue after Danymash it.
During the editing process of the costume, I realised that as an emperor, the hemline of his skirt was too small, which resulted in a lack of tension and aura, so I increased the fabric of the hemline to enhance the character’s aura.
In order to master the use of Marvelous Designer, I watched this youtuber’s video and learnt a lot from it!
I finished sculpting the mannequin, then I started to make the clothes for the character, since the clothes in the concept are Chinese robes, I chose Marvelous Designer to do it, which I thought would be convenient.
In fact, the first layer of clothing was very easy for me and had no problems with the process, it went very smoothly.
However, I soon ran into problems when I added the second layer of clothing to the figure, I first tried to create it using a large piece of fabric, but the end result was very poor and not easy to control, so I chose to split the creation of the second layer of clothing into a top and bottom part.
As shown in the picture, probably because I set the fabric too small, the outer layer of this dress presents a very tight and snug picture, however this is not what I want and I still need to organise my thoughts.
I increased the size of the fabric and modified part of the shape, and finally, after a series of adjustments, I got the look I wanted.
Then I finished the skirt with the same idea.
Making collars and hems.
Finally, I used a locking tool to lock and rotate the ends of the fabric so that I could get a belt formed by wrapping the fabric around it.
In the design of the breastplate I used a lot of bronze designs, the breastplate is the largest of all the parts of a piece of armour, and when an observer is looking at a piece of armour, they will often notice the chest first. So I think it’s one of the parts that needs to be taken into consideration. In addition, the design language of a piece of chest armour can often determine the style of the whole armour, so when I designed the chest armour I referred to a lot of bronze textures to help me express the important bronze culture in the Qin Dynasty culture. It is also interesting to note that if the breastplate is engraved with a horrifying beast, it can often serve as a deterrent to the enemy, so I gave priority to Taotie for the design of the breastplate.
But in the end I chose the dragon instead of the taotie. The reason why I did this is because the layering of parts can add a good sense of visual hierarchy and volume, and the Taotie’s texture doesn’t lend itself to a layered effect. Instead, the intertwined dragons fit this idea.
Mask
The mask wasn’t really the focus of my design this time, it was just used as a small element. In my design, when the general puts on the mask he can get some kind of powerful divine power, it’s like unlocking a second soul in his body, then I associated the liberated soul doesn’t necessarily have to be a human soul, so I imagined this soul to be some kind of divine beast’s soul. Therefore, when I was designing the masks, I gave up thinking about human masks and focused on beast masks instead. Masks with beast totems can not only highlight the power but also deter the enemy, which I think is a very good idea. I referenced the tiger’s totem as well as some unicorn-like masks, and designed abcd four masks respectively. For the first one, I adopted the bronze tiger motif, which gives a sense of waiting for an opportunity to strike, but I didn’t adopt it because the design was too flat. b: For b, I chose the taotie motif, but with the difference of tucking the chin inwards to make the whole thing an inverted triangle, which makes the mask fit the face better and is very aggressive, and I adopted b. c: c was inspired by the tiger-type half-envelope mask, but it didn’t have a bronze look to it, so I didn’t go with it. d: For d, I drew on this excavated bronze mask, but the design was limited by the fact that there was a real one, and the whole thing was too similar, so I finally gave up on this option.
Design Iteration
Inspiration
Iteration
Through the collection of specific forms of armour, I have summarized several design features:
1. hang a circle of red decorations around the armour, which can be a cape or a skirt, which makes the armour very dynamic.
2. wear a layer of clothing outside the armour and it can be asymmetrical, which makes the character look not rigid and dynamic.
3. make the armour big and exaggerated, and you can design some sharp shapes. This kind of armour gives people a sense of aggressiveness and bravery.
With the above summary, I simply iterated on my existing draft and came up with abc, but in the end I still think my original draft is better, because a looks richer, but lacks the Qin Dynasty feel and instead looks more like something from the Ming Dynasty. b this design doesn’t look very serious, and obviously doesn’t fit the image of a mature and stable Imperial General. c The armour I find too aggressive and exaggerated, as well as being completely out of context with the Qin Dynasty. So I’m still going with the original version.
Design Analysis: Creation of The Gods I: Kingdom of Storms
In order to design the general’s armour, I have analysed and studied the armour design in the recently released Creation of The Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (which tells a series of stories based on the list of The Investiture of the Gods). First of all, we can see that the overall tone of the armour in this film presents white and gold, white in our impression of the kind of symbol of the sacred and gold is a symbol of nobility, the combination of these two colours together can visually give the audience to create a feeling of noble and magnificent, and because they are all bright colours of the reason, the whole gives a very refreshing and clean feeling. Look at the style of the armour, the helmet of the soldiers in the film is recorded in history, archaeologists in the excavation of the ruins of China’s Shang Dynasty found a bronze armour, the helmet in the film is based on the bronze armour as a prototype for the re-design. The conceptual designer used jade, a material different from bronze, to express the prominent bronze texture on part of the helmet, and the same design is also used in the body armour part, in addition, the conceptual designer also made the armour have both bronze and leather parts, so that a pair of armour has four different textures, leather, fabric, bronze and jade, and the appropriate combination of different textures creates an interesting visual effect on the visual level. The appropriate combination of these different textures creates a sense of hierarchy on the visual level, which looks like a very rich element, and the audience can even practically experience the touch of the armour during the viewing process.
In the texture design of the armour, the designer used a lot of bronze texture as reference, especially for the breastplate. The texture used by the designer is the Taotie pattern, which is a kind of Chinese ancient bronze. Taotie is a mythical beast in China, which has a very big appetite and can never get enough of food, so it is often tattooed on eating utensils, such as bronze tripods. At the same time, Taotie symbolises greed, desire, life, death, change and eternity, all of which contributed to the widespread use of Taotie in ancient Chinese sculpture. Based on this, the conceptual designers focused on the Taotie pattern, but interestingly, the designers didn’t take a flat relief form to carve the Taotie pattern, but rather a part of the hollowing out process, if we look closely we can actually find that there is a layered relationship between the patterns on the armour, it looks like one layer on top of the other, which is very interesting, and I think it is very conducive to the creation of visual layers.In addition, in order to enhance the texture, the concept designers added three layers of armour to the shoulder armour part to highlight the sense of thickness, three layers of armour stacked up the broad shoulders, making the character looks very powerful at the same time rich in the visual language.
Sketches and Color Test
When I got to the colour testing stage I was a
bit overwhelmed as colour has always been
a weak point in my painting and it was hard
for me to make a choice on a character’s
colour scheme, so I had to look for colour
schemes for other characters or things, I tried
solid black, black and red and black and gold.
And then I saw a picture of a bronze vessel,
it was a wine vessel, after years of baptism,
the original gilt bronze has been greenish, but
unlike other bronzes, this goblet of wine is not
completely green, there is still a layer of gold
on it that may have been freshly cast and then
gilded, the texture is just great, as if something
hit me, I decided in a flash that it was the right
colour.
Wepon Design
Character Drawing Process
Deatils Analysis
In my opinion, a thick enough chest armour is the key to surviving in battle, so I always wanted to make it look thick and sturdy when designing the chest armour, so I took a leaf out of Creation of The Gods I: Kingdom of Storms’ book and made the chest armour with layers of texture and added hollows to show the thickness. In addition, I chose the dragon pattern, which is more suited to a stacked design, as the pattern itself is intricate and fits my idea perfectly.
For the design of the shoulder armour, I have borrowed the bronze door locks, which are mostly in the form of animal faces with open mouths biting bronze rings, which is similar to the shoulder armour. In addition to this, I have made the shoulder armour into three layers to increase the sense of thickness, along the lines of the conceptual art of Creation of The Gods I: Kingdom of Storms.
For the shoulder armour I wasn’t very happy with the initial version, so I designed another version, again choosing the animal face locks as a reference, this kind of open-mouthed animal face image is really perfect for shoulder armour, this time I chose a more flat style for the design, considering the mobility of the shoulders and the aesthetic issues, the shoulders are still simple in design I think.
The design of the Qin sword is actually very interesting to me, and I’m sure it will be an interesting part of the modelling process later on, simply because I’ve always loved this kind of weighty looking sword since I was a kid, and the Qin sword’s blade is generally on the broad side, which creates the feeling that the sword is very heavy and heavy, and that it’s a heavy and secure thing to hold in your hand. I searched the official websites of some museums and found some artefacts of Qin swords. The makers of Qin swords would have engraved some bronze patterns on the hand guards, ranging from animal face patterns to dragon patterns, and there were all kinds of different patterns. I chose the animal face pattern because the hard lines of the animal face pattern could be very useful in shaping the hardness of the Qin sword. Moreover, for me, the animal face pattern is more aggressive, which fits the positioning of the sword in the weapon. Another interesting point is that the swords of the Qin Dynasty were very long, the sword of Qin Shi Huang even reached 97cm, which even caused Qin Shi Huang to hide around the pillar when he was assassinated by Jing Ke because the sword was too long to be unsheathed and he shouted “Assassin! There is an assassin! “. That’s why I think it’s interesting to make the weapons longer, and it’s also worth restoring.
Current information shows that the terracotta warriors have square face, pear-shaped face, pointed face, long face, round face and other eight types of face, most of them are square face. And the face is flat, the bone mechanism is not prominent, the bridge of the nose is generally not high. And most of them have beards that come in various shapes, which I think is a very interesting point, and I think that I can apply this to my character design, I will try different shapes of beards and try to recreate as much as I can of the Terracotta Warrior’s facial features to ensure the cultural identity of my character.
After a brief study of the Terracotta Warriors’ modelling, I hope I can do a complete recreation of the facial features of the figures. Based on the Terracotta Warriors, I also tried different beards for Qin Shi Huang, but I prefer the third one because it looks more serious!
Character Details
At first I wanted to emphasise Qin Shi Huang’s Qin element by adding a bronze pattern to his shoulder armour, but last night I found that the effect wasn’t very obvious, so I went back to the outer contours and made the edges of the bronze into the edges of the armour, and the overall texture was instantly enhanced.
This pattern is called the dragon pattern, which is a bronze pattern that historically could also be used as a decoration for fabric. The dragon motif symbolises kingship and nobility and is often used to differentiate between the noble and the lowly. Therefore I have used this design, secondly I have used a yellow colour which is similar to red and added a red border around it to make the yellow colour less obtrusive, the red border echoes the other red colours on the dress to give it a pleasant look.
I didn’t pay too much attention to the details of the lower body, the reference in the picture is to a dragon and two divine birds, early Chinese dragons, very different from the current image. The sacred birds, like the dragon motif, symbolise power, and to emphasise their nobility I chose a gold colour similar to the armour but didn’t put too much attention on it. Because they’re not in the centre of vision people should focus on them.
Logo Design
In order to make my project look more formal, I decided to design my own logo, first of all I named my project 秦 纪 which means qin’s era, history records that during the Qin Dynasty, Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified the writing system, and all the areas within the Qin Dynasty used a writing system called the Small Seal Script. So I took the element of Small Seal, and the two characters are written in Small Seal as shown in the picture, then because the background of the conceptual drawing is black, I took another red colour as the colour of 秦 , and then went to white as the colour of 纪 to enhance the contrast, and the two colours of red and white are very compatible with each other. In order to increase the readability and richness of the elements, I added English letters underneath.
Jade Design
The Warring States, Qin and Han period of the jade pendant elaborate and magnificent, and even dozens of small jade pendant, such as jade Juan, jade honing, etc., strung together with silk thread into a group of miscellaneous pendant to highlight the wearer of the noble and majestic Jade pendant can be used as a very small element to influence the overall atmosphere of the character. As the king of a country, I have made reference to some jade pendants with more complicated patterns when designing the jade pendant for him, as this can highlight the nobility and power of Qin Shi Huang. The third one is my favourite among all of them because the totem of the third one is based on the dragon, which is very suitable for the character of Qin Shi Huang, and the pattern graphic elements are more abundant.
Power Imagine
This is how I imagine Qin Shi Huang’s divine power awakening, in ancient Chinese culture, the colour gold symbolises wealth and magnificence as well as bravery and justice, so I hope Qin Shi Huang will release a golden glow when he uses his power. The first one has the Qin character in small seal script, while the third one has a simpler lotus flower design, as lotus flowers are usually used for gods. I like the second one the best, there are no extra elements in the second one, I just made his whole eyeballs emit a golden glow, but it can give a very majestic feeling.
In order to restore the characteristics of Qin Dynasty clothing, I made a rough sketch based on my previous research. a: a more basic style, the clothes cross and then fixed with a waist protector. b: on the basis of a: some other design, on the basis of the original addition of an outer clothing, forming a sense of hierarchy from the outside to the inside. c: the use of this style is mostly for the winter, on the basis of b: add a plush collar to make it warmer for autumn and winter wear. d: the use of this style is mostly for the winter, on the basis of b: add a plush collar to make it warmer for the autumn and winter wear. e: this is a more basic design. f: this is a more basic design. In addition to b, a plush collar is added to make it warmer and more suitable for autumn and winter wear.
Character Sketches
Here are some outlines that I preffer to use as my character, casuse those outlines can be more attractive and I focused on the pose.
a: I like the silhouette of a. I like the way the silhouette of a gives a strong aura, but the movement is a bit one-dimensional and lacks dynamics and storytelling. b:The silhouette is nice and the movement looks like a discussion with the ministers and the movement has storytelling. c: The movement is very dominant but the overall temperament does not feel stable enough and lacks an imperial feeling. d. This silhouette creates a very good atmosphere, that kind of emperor’s dominance but this action is a bit evil, giving people a sense of viciousness and cunning, not like an emperor. e: The movement is tense and the silhouette is varied, but it has the same problem as d. It doesn’t look righteous enough.
Color Test
After determining the pose, I coloured the character. Because the Qin Dynasty revered black, therefore in my colour scheme, black is the main colour, red is the secondary colour, with some golden bronze patterns, once to highlight the nobility and power of the emperor. In my initial vision, I wanted the emperor’s costume to be as gorgeous as possible, so I chose colours with high purity, because I think high purity colours can form a strong contrast with the boring and monotonous black, so my design will not look so monotonous.
Too much vibrant colours made my image look uncomfortable, so I show my color to my classmates at the lesson, and I get many feedbacks from them, then I tried lowering the saturation.
After analysis, I found that the colour of the shoulders was too bright and would make the viewer very uncomfortable, so I tried to reduce the purity of the shoulders and replace some of the red with the same black as the dress, which has the advantage of improving the viewing comfort and at the same time letting the black of the shoulders echo with the black of the body, which reduces the sense of fragmentation and makes the design look more holistic.
I then made a handful of changes to the decoration of the shoulder section, I lengthened and enlarged the first piece of armour and weakened the second and third pieces of armour to create a layered look. I also modified the original chest by replacing the original floating piece of armour with a stand-up collar, which makes the character look more dignified and more like an emperor. I also created a waist corset for the emperor to make his waist more pronounced, reducing the bulkiness of the character and echoing the asymmetrical design of the chest, a small amount of asymmetry in a mostly symmetrical design can add interest to the image and not make it look boring. Finally, I replaced some of the red with black, for example, the part of the dress that hangs down from the waist, because in my opinion, the large area of red is too eye-catching, and I want the viewer to focus more on the upper body, so I did this. I also added red to the edges of the dress to differentiate between the different garments.
