Like most things in life, when rigging a character for animation the devil is in the details. For my rigging work on Licorice Merlin I'm brushing up on some more advanced techniques via this course on Digital Tutors. It is an interesting course but there isn't much to write about while I'm working through the lessons. Therefore in an effort to keep my ZBrush hand strong, whilst I rig in Maya, I decided to do a random sculpture - this may become a regular occurrence depending largely on my ability to stay focused on rigging.Submitted for your approval: an odd sort of nicotine junkie whom I'm calling Barkevious Mingo because that is a badass name for anyone, especially a demon. This guy is a sordid mix of goat, devil, and Bill the Cat:
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| Barkevious will drag you to Hell! Just as soon as he finishes his stogie... |
I didn't take the time to paint this model so he is just a basic grey material rendered with ambient occlusion and a wisp of smoke photoshopped in for good measure. To prove I somewhat planned this sculpt, below is my initial sketch of this character's noodle. The concept was intended as an alien - but that didn't pan out - so from these humble alien-esque beginnings sprang an even stranger Barkevious.
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| Bad Boy Club called, they're looking for their logo - looks like my sketch stole it! |
That grey color is pretty boring, I think I'll polypaint this guy at some point and post an update with a full 360 degree view. In case your curious of my planned color scheme, start thinking Tim Curry in Legend. Oh, and here is random side angle of the bust in ZBrush for no good reason.
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| Say it with me... Barkevious Mingo... now it's stuck in your head too! |
That's it for now, I'm off to continue my online rigging course. Soon I'll have a fully rigged and ready for animation Licorice Merlin!