Unit 2: Villain Sculpting
While learning about the basic facial structure to sculpt our villains in Mudbox we had to learn about the basic human muscle structure and how it affects the facial features.
In our first activity we had to find a clean head shot of a human head and highlight the basic muscles that sculpt it. I have used different colours to highlight different muscles, I used the vivid light tool in Photoshop for this.
Orbicularis Oculi-Pink
Orbicularis Oris-Black
Clavicle- Yellow
Masseter-Red
Sternomastoid-Purple
Corrugator-Blue
Zygomatic Arch-Green
Supraclavicular Fossa-White
Muscle Structure
Head and Neck
Correlation and Facial Structure
In a later exercise we got into pair and drew our partners for 30 minutes and later a skull from two different perspectives (each for which we had 15 minutes to draw for) for equal amount of time. This helped us to get a better understanding of the heads proportions and the correlation between the eyes, ears, nose and mouth. The perspectives of the skull were useful to see how each of those elements change under a slight change and how a different angle can cause the entire image to change however everything still keeps it's natural balance and correlations.
Basic Villain Concept
Story Concept
Ethen, a 38 year old male, working as a scientist for the United Kingdom's Government, in the distant year of 5098 has been noted as the genius of his generation since he was a young child. Always coming out with great grades and outstanding results there was nearly nothing that was going to stop him...Nearly.
At the young age of only fourteen the future scientist has already contemplated the possibility of inevitable death, Those thoughts did not come on their own of course, the early death of his parents in the third world war that took place during the time he was only eleven years old has left an everlasting impact on the young genius.
After leaving university the scientist has worked for the government for ten years of his life, in the genetic engineering branch of his biology studies. After taking a leave from his work, Ethen began private studies on the human body and anatomy. He would begin to abduct firstly animals with similar genetical make up to that of a human before starting his kidnapping sprees of young children.
With his influential words it was possible for him to take kids from their homes and gain their trust enough for them to willingly become his test subjects. After years of studying and many subject dying from poor keeping conditions or the 'medicine' he poured into them, promising it was nothing more than an antidote or vitamins, Ethen has finally started moving onto older subjects, most of which were the kids that have grown up and survived. He wished to gain immense power and immortality through the power of medicine. After years of trying he became tired of his old tests and finding comfort in nothing other than the contradictory thoughts of death and immortality, the mad scientist took his own life by injecting into his veins what he presumed would be the perfect cure to mortality.
Villain Sculpting
My original two ideas varied greatly from each other and from the final product. My first idea was to do a female villain, around the age of 15 and 18. She was supposed to have a slim and malnourished build. Her skin was supposed to be pale and unhealthy. I did not go through with this idea because the story concept I had made for her at the time seemed very cliche and unoriginal. Her story depicted her as more of a lonely soul and a troubled child than a villain which simple didn't sit well with my initial thoughts of the project.
My second idea was to sculpt a villain who looked ordinary yet had a dark past. He was going to be a male in his late 30s and work as a doctor. After years of work he went on a retirement however missed the feeling of holding a scalpel in his hands and having a say in whether or not someone was to stay alive or die. He felt like a god.
In the end I decided to try and mix the two ideas together but also add new futuristic elements like the fact that my villain's story took place far into the future unlike how the other two happened during our times or before them.
Original concepts and ideas
Working in Mudbox to create the villain
As I working in Mudbox I started off with the simple structure of the basic human head. Right away I started sculpting the forehead and used the grab tool to grab the lower half of the forehead to create more of a dent for where the eyes will me and to see where in correlation I will have to sculpt the eyebrows.
I then used the flatten tool to make my project's cheeks go inside instead of out, this made the cheek bones much more visible and gave my villain a skinny and almost weak feeling however also one of a person who might not be physically strong but definitely is strong mentally. This trait is often using in children's cartoons to depict a villain, very defined cheek bones, especially in shows where the villain is or was at some point an educational figure or a very intelligent scientist.
To create a feeling of a longer jaw and a more sharp one I have used the flatten tool on the chin and jaw lines. It made the head smaller yet more refined.
Final result
Inspirations
Name: Ethen Loud
Allias: The Mortal Doctor
Age: 38
Current Location: Earth
Year Born: 5060
Number Of Victims: 500+
Basic Information
Many of my ideas and inspirations for my final villain came from comics and manga. In many of these books the villains were often very witty and smart, intelligent men and women who turned to the life of crime when a realisations hit them. These realisations could either be that they are mortal being, that they are wasting their time following the government and living peaceful lives like puppets or they simply needed a thrill.
Many of the villains I have looked at, such as the Joker, Mr Freeze of Orochimaru have had very refined features, most of which was the cheek bones, jaw line and noses. Although the features were very exaggerated at times they made the villain have much more character to him/her.
The colours used on the villains are often blues and reds, while the villains themselves have a very pale skin tone, almost as a reference to the dead. Because of this I have given my character a pale complexion and blue and red veins that run down his forehead.
His look is inspired by how I imagine an advanced human race would look like and how much we would change across the years, such as having our ears not stick out in case they were to be grabbed by someone.
Similarly to Mr Freeze my character is bald, I wanted to keep him this way or attempt to give him long hair similar to Orochimaru's however I was not able to do that without downloading special tools for Mudbox. I think that even though I kept him bold in the final image it still suits hi character seeing as long hair would be easy to pull which could lead into dangerous situations when dealing with his victims.
During my research I have realised that most of the villains I took inspiration from were scientists or respected member of the society before turning evil. This game me the idea to do that same thing with my character. I thought it would add to his story and reason why he was able to experiment on people and develop many chemicals that were close to making him immortal.
To create the lips I have used the grab, smooth, relax, fill and wax tools to firstly create the upper lip. It proved to be a problem to get the correct shape without the lip sticking out at first however after approaching the sculpture from a different angle and side view it became much more simple and effective. For both sides to look identical I have used the X axis mirror. I then used the flatten tool to create the dent between the lips and the nose and down the chin, before using the same tools I used for the upper lip to create the lower which is much flatter since that's how my rearch has shown it.
In many of the pictures that I have inspired from I have seen the villains have exaggerated noses. I wanted to make it look similar to that of a strict teachers or scientists, in other words, very angular. Unlike the lips I didn't sculpt it from the very basis. The simple bridge of the nose was already created on the model of a head that I have used. First I used the grab tool to create the basic outline of the nose then used it again to push the 'skin' inside, creating the nostrils. I often used the smooth tool at the very base and top of the nose.
Considering that my character comes from the future I went a step further and researched what the doctors think people will look like in future years (of course this takes under consideration hundreds maybe thousands of years of evolution). The results were quite shocking but not completely unexpected! Although many speculate that the human race will no longer evolve other say otherwise and say that we still are in fact evolving. Our mouths are becoming much more bullet shaped instead of wide because we do not need them to open wide as far. This is why my character's lips are quite thin and not very wide.
I also made his eyes bulge out, knowing it will give the villainous vibe. To create his eyes I used the grab tool to move the 'clay skin' over itself, this created a black outline where the eyes would close and were the eyelashes would be.
To make the eyes bulge out and create the outline of where eyebrows should be, I used the 'bulge' and 'grab' tools. They were much more effective than tools like 'sculpt' since they were much weaker and didn't require smoothing afterwards.
Markings
In ancient times markings such as tattoos were used by tribal clans. They often symbolized status but also as precautions, most tattoos being used as cries for gods for things such as health or wealth or for simple spiritual purposes (Especially in countries like Japan and Egypt. With years the meanings of tattoos have changed multiple times across the countries and continents, some even thinking lowly of them nowadays however they gain in popularity nonetheless.
I wanted my character to bear markings on the back of his shaved head however didn't want him to have a typical tattoo design or marking from our times. Since in two thousand years we developed many new languages and words I presume the same thing will keep on happening over time, because of this the back of his head bears an unknown symbol that would presumably symbolize health of out cry for immortality for Gods in my villains futuristic world.
I have considered giving him markings from our or ancient times since then I would be able to research them better. However considering my character is from the future and his eyes are only set on the things he will through and not the past I decided against taking such measures as it would interfere with his personality and character development.
Character Style
The style in which I created my character and his initial sketch was heavily influenced by the artist Bernald Buffet. The elongated face and exaggerated facial features perfectly fit the villainous features that I wished to implement onto my character and the bright colours combined with pale skins are also a factor I implemented from the artist and onto my character. The pale skin with red veins popping out made a fantastic yet mortifying contrast and gave the veins a much more sinister look.
It was at this stage that I decided to add the veins to my characters head. If I made his eyes open I would have definitely given his eyes a red or deep brown shade however since they were already created closed I decided to add to his head red and blue veins which are often seen on characters with great intelligence.
I have also tried to create my original concept of a villain in his style. She was quite different from my final character however had many similar features such as her pale skin, strong cheek bones and having the contrast of white and red, however on her I made her cheeks and lips the colour instead of veins.
My character in Bernald Buffet's style:
Bernald Buffet
Original concept in his style
Overall I am very pleased with my final sculpture of the villain. The final outcome looks very close to how I imagined him and to how I first drew a portrait of him in the artist's style. I can easily say that I am most proud of how I sculpted his nose and collar bones. In my opinions they look very much like how I wanted them to and the nose looks quite cartoon-y however still keeps a natural look.
If I could change something about this final outcome I would definitely work more on this lips and cheeks. The upper lip stands out too much from the bottom especially when looked at from side view, I would use the smooth tool to make them much smaller. I would also try to make his cheeks look more natural bu not making hem go in as much as they do and smooth them out to give them a more natural look.
To give him the markings I have used the 'bulge' tool and the mirror option to make them symmetrical on both sides of his head.
Instead of giving an image onto the back of his head like a usual tattoo would look, I created an almost bunt like look (after burns the skin usually stands out more almost as if someone filled it with air.). I did this because tattoos near the brain region are considered dangerous to health and I couldn't see my character taking such measures only to have an image on himself.
Final look of the markings
The thing I enjoyed most about this project was definitely sculpting itself in mudbox. Learning a new program was a great and very enjoyable experience as hard as it was at the time. What I also enjoyed a lot was coming up with a believable story for the villain that wouldn't be too cliche. And although it might be hard to believe, it is very hard to come up with something new.
There were a couple problems that I have encountered during this project. The biggest one was that the program, mud box, at times kept freezing and required me to restart the computer, which made me loose any unsaved work. Thankfully this has only happened twice to me and I only lost small amounts of progress because I saved every couple of minutes. By the second time the freeze happened unfortunately most of my screen grabs were deleted off of the computer where I left them on the desktop.
This has taught me to save all of the images onto the website right away instead of on the desktop.
The final problem that I have encountered was the strength of the tools in mudbox. There were many times when I wanted to use the smooth tool to make something less spiky but the tool, even on maximum strength, couldn't smooth out the area. Because of this problem I had to use other tools like 'flatten' on very weak strength to get the desired effect.
If I had the chance to do this project all over again I would have definitely spent more time on trying to make the character more realistic in appearance and make the top bone of the nose not on the same low level as the eyelids, which from side view seem to be sticking out more than the nose.