Sculpting the final model

After finalising my design i made a rough drawing of the character at the scale i would be sculpting in and using this as a reference i built my armature using steel rod as the main support and aluminum for the rest, this would mean i had stability but also flexibility when posing the armature.
By using aluminum it gave me freedom to pose the figure how i liked and later on when covered with clay i was still able to fine tune the posture by moving arms and legs.



The posture i have chosen is one that i spent a long time deciding on, the pose is very important for the character and after reading several books on sculpting and composition the main complaint from the authors was the over use of very dramatic and extravagant poses such as one in mid motion or balancing on tiptoes, that the use of such compositions are instantly appealing but the viewer will start to become uncomfortable with it on longer viewing as a pose that projects a feeling of movement but is frozen in time will create some agitation in the viewer. the goal of a sculpture is to have something that someone will be willing to come back to again and again and be able to find something new and feeling of satisfaction and wonder but if the viewer is unable to look at it for long than how will this happen. the composition of the sculpture has to be comfortable to the view.

Contrapposto: The appearance of weight shift in sculpture by the depiction of counter-positioning, in which the body relaxes on one side as the other side takes on the weight of the body and tenses up.

i have used this idea but more subtly with slight weight shift on to the left leg with right shoulder coming forward and up, and the head turning slightly to the right.

I used several books on human and animal anatomy as reference, the hardest part on the design was deciding on the legs, trying to create the right thickness to length ratio because of the extra joint in the legs and choosing how the muscle would look, human and animal leg muscles look different because of the different way the skeleton is set up for movement, i chose to stick with human muscles in the thigh and shin but use animal in the second shin.




The skin texture was created using a very fine sculpting tool made from an acupunture needle bent to shape then spuerglued into a piece of wooden dowl. each line on the body has been individually skulpted, i did try using a texture map but i found the results were not as good when done by hand. There were several layers of skin texture I then used a small piece of a pet grooming brush which i had cut down, which i dragged across the surface to create a finer skin like texture on top, i also used a hard plastic brush and a tooth brush depending on what outcome i wanted to achieve.


I have looked to create a heroic composition showing strength and power


The design of the head is was combining of the two head maquettes that i like the most, the neck folds are a nice touch that came out of one of my maquettes i think it gives an armoured thick skin look but only on the back and shoulders, this would be the area most at prone from attack.

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Character in the design process

After my research into the behavior and characteristics of the Black rhino and African culture i wrote a background story, creating the world that the Diceros race would inhabit, a broad stereotypical idea about the behavior and character traits of the Diceros race, as well as the specific personality of the main character that is still to be named. from this i have written a short cinematic scene which i have also story boarded.
From this base i have been designing the race called the Diceros, below are some of the designs.


the design process for film characters and creatures will often involve a whole team of people and each character/creature could pass through several different people each adding their own take on the design, one example is the character of Wink in Hellboy 2 (Hellboy 2 the art of the movie. p.36-45. 2008)



The idea behind the final design is taken from the last image on the story board, this is the first time you get to see the character in the film and thus it needs to communicate effectively where the character is psychologically, what his projected demeanor is in that moment. This is communicated through posture, facial expression, the clothes to create a presence and personality.


research into other creature designs:

Yoda

Designing Yoda

"Designing Yoda was a painstaking and risky venture for all those involved. The world of fantasy filmmaking was quite different in the late 70s, and the notion of having a supporting character with significant screen time played by a puppet was unheard of. Unlike the successful Muppets, Yoda was to be seen as a living, breathing alien creature, and not a whimsical creation. Furthermore, the character was meant to deliver ancient philosophies and timeless wisdom. Would it work?

In the early story development of Yoda, the initial descriptions varied from a large alien being to a tiny one. The diminutive direction ultimately won out, and Empire's concept artists developed illustrations of gnome-like and elfin creatures. In the story treatment, Yoda's full name was Minch Yoda, and in the first draft, he was known only as Minch. Once the design was settled, Yoda was realized by make up and creatures supervisor Stuart Freeborn, who designed the alien as an intricately detailed puppet. Yoda was brought to life by the vocal and puppeteering performance of Frank Oz, a veteran collaborator of Jim Henson.

Yoda was meant to continue the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom George Lucas had killed off due to dramatic necessity in A New Hope. Given the freedom to create a new character, Lucas devised Yoda as an odd, ancient and incredibly wise mystic. He tied the two characters together, though, by having Yoda be one of Obi-Wan's instructors in his youth.

For Yoda's return in Episode I, a new "younger" puppet was crafted by Nick Dudman's animatronics crew. For two shots in The Phantom Menace, Yoda was realized as a computer generated character

For Episode II, Lucas again took a gamble by taking a beloved character and recreating him not as his original puppet form, but instead as entirely computer-generated. Early in production, it became clear that the show-stopping duel between Yoda and Dooku could only be carried out with a CG Yoda, but Animation Director Rob Coleman determinedly pursued realizing the Jedi Master as an animated character throughout the entire film.

Coleman's crew secretly developed animation tests using key scenes from The Empire Strikes Back. They animated Yoda delivering memorable lines of dialogue, but also shots of the Jedi Master without dialogue, to demonstrate the ability to convey a performance even when silent. Based on the strength of these animated tests, Coleman's crew got the greenlight to create a digital Yoda.

The ILM animators took great efforts to not outdo Frank Oz's puppeteering skills, so they actually toned down the biological realism in their animation. Rather than have true, realistic lip sync and eye blinks, Yoda would instead have more of a "jaw sync" and slower blinks. Other imperfections, like the constant wiggling of Yoda's rubber ears -- which Oz always viewed as a mistake on his part -- were painstakingly recreated in the computer-generated form" http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=2163382284