Thor

Thor
When I started this project I knew I wanted a variety of content which would push me to move outside of my comfort zone; this is when the idea of Thor being a boy came in. It may not seem like anything special to design and create an adolescent, yet when all you ever draw are machismo males I thought it best to respect that it was not as easy as it seemed (as things often are, and conversely, aren't).

After a few days studying up on proportions a from such sources as Loomis or google (never felt more tension than when I googled child anatomy) I felt I had a good amount of confidence with regards to making a boy actually look like a boy, as it's not as simple as just scaling down an adult. For example the head looks larger in proportion to the rest of the body the younger a person is.

Moving forward with that knowledge and messing around with a few designs here and there I finally settled and began modelling. A brief run-down of the process as follows:
-3DSMax for base mesh
-Zbrush for sculpting detail and pulling out forms
-Back to 3DSMax to retop using the freeform modelling tools
-Unwrap in Max
-Texture using Photoshop checking textures in UDK
-Rig and animate in 3DSMax
-Final renders done in Marmoset

This is the general process I used for all other projects.

Some Hindsight
I dawdled far too long on this character; taking a week just to decide on the one liked as I was going back and forth between iterations. After doing this project it was really driven home that I need to decide and just move on, as in the industry you don't get five weeks to make a character.

The reason this took me so long to decide is the obvious one that I imagine most people share; that you're not happy with it. So this got me thinking whether or not artists in the industry see there stuff go out the door that they're really not happy with. It's a common trait amongst artists, or people in general really, to see the worst parts in your creations, yet other people don't see it in the same way, or simply don't notice. So yeah I was just pondering about that, if people would really care about the right type of nose, or the paler skin or if they'd just take that as the design choice or just not care either way. I'm not talking about anatomically incorrect, obviously if that's wrong its wrong, I'm talking about variations. Big nose, small nose etc.

It's a bit cheesey to say it, and I don't think I am but perhaps its perfectionism. I consider it more along the lines of self-doubt, not believing its good enough, rather than it not being perfect.

But how is it really?
I honestly really liked this guy in the end. In the final week I hastily gave him a facial expression and a pose and boom, miles better than before. It's amazing how little changes like that can just make something so much more. It reminds me of a level I made that looked isolated, that how after placing in a flat plane of a mountain brought it all together.
Oh and I really like the folds on the arms which you can't really see with this pose. I know, why pose him like that then? Ah dunno, hammers n stuff.

Where to go from here?
Post coming soon