ZBrushCentral

Merman Elite

merman-1.jpg

This was made as part of the merman modeling challenge on cgtantra. I couldnt quite finish it for the challenge so decided to make an illustration of it.
This guy is designed to be the lead of an elite task force of similar mermen of an otherwise all mermaid race. They are entrusted with the protection of the queen mermaid and are called in to fight only as a last line of defense. They were results of long experimentation with various sea life and humans to build a perfect weapon. they’re bodies are grafted with that of a shark with electrocuting tentacles that emerge out of the rib cage area. The jewels on the chest signify rank. They are a killing force efficient enuf to fight without armour or weapons.
This is also my first full character in zbrush.
Hope u guys like the design and final piece.
U can also catch this on the cover of this month’s Animation Today magazine.
Base model in maya, sculpted posed and textured in Z Brush. Comped with screen shots in photoshop.
Cheers!:slight_smile:

Very nice!!! :+1: :+1:

Really fun work

Hot damn I wish that was one of my models…

Couple of thoughts…
the pose is not nearly dynamic enough… If you follow the compostion of your piece it pulls you in from the top left corner then pulls you down right off the page at the bottom… I’d bend him in more of an S pattern and play with the positions of his arms to keep the viewer inside the piece. Adding some sort of unique trident of your own design, might help, and play into the whole merman convention.

the hand expressions especially are too generic… he should feel more relaxed and floaty as you would in the ocean.

Biceps are too large and the overall scale of the arm make his hands look flimsy. If you want this guy to look elite… You need bigger hands to make him look like he can grab something and choke the life out of it without breaking a wrist.

Skelton, Dedder: thanks a lot guys:)

Brutikong: thanks for the tip on the composition…i dont much about the science of it so i usually try to fit in things to look ‘pretty’:)…will keep an eye out for that in my next piece though:)
about the fingers and arms…well…i went for what i did for exactly the reasons u mentioned that they look like:)…i visualised more streamlined and martial artist and hence the finger pose being stiff and all…also i went with overall shapes being broad on one side and narrow on the other …so as the arm moves towards the fingers it gets more feminine…arrow like…instead of grabbing and choking…he’d probably be more like “i just saw him pass by that guy!!..now he’s dead!!”…
thanks for the crits though…really helped:)

a couple of cloesups of the model that kinda got lost in the illustration:)

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wireframes a profile

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concept sketch(for those who missed it)

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i love th pic its amazing