Above is screen shots my progress so far on my Hard Surface Model, which is a skull and bone necromancy staff that I designed a few weeks ago.
I went through a lot of different looks for this staff before I managed to get it to a place where I was happy. The first screenshot, where I felt in any way satisfied, is as follows:
The staff was, at this stage, starting to take shape, however I knew there was more to do in terms of attaching the back bones onto the main body of the staff. I also knew that I wanted the staff to look a little more a-symmetric at the point of the antlers, as they were looking terribly bumpy to me.
I added the base crystal to the bottom of the staff:
I also attached the back bones to the main body of the staff by manipulating the verts:
I remodelled the wooden antlers of the staff:
I was really happy with how snug I had managed to get the base of the skull sitting within the wood, so I simply duplicated the staff I had made already and I cut the existing antlers from the main body. From there, I extruded the edges of the staff into the antler shape, being sure to make them feel more random than my previous version:
I attempted to add a ‘string look’ to my original staff antlers, and had its trinkets dangling down, however I really did not like this look as it limited my ability to work knots into the body, and also it looked strange. I am going to try another approach to this:
Within my revised model, I worked knots into the main staff, just so that when it is textured it will have some actual wood grain worked into it as well as the shaders and textures:
They’re not perfect but I really wanted that knobbly look just to add to the feel of the staff’s warped wood.
Finally, I altered the trinkets of the starting model and the revised:
I made the bone a little more cartoonish, and I made an attempt at adding a feather to the trinkets just to add a difference rather than reusing all of the same. I also added some nose and eyebrow rings, made the skull look a little angrier! Finally, I fixed the skull’s teeth in these later models in comparison with previous, which were very flimsy and paper-like:
The current up to date staff is on the right, and the previous version on the left!
I’m pretty happy with my progress overall, and when I think back to the start of this module I’m pretty astounded that I’ve managed to model these! Even if they’re not right or need re-done, I think I’ve worked up a good and solid foundation for going forward. Next I would like to model some string, properly – not by extruding from the horns – and provided the model is looking good on advice of my teachers I will tackle UV mapping.
Edit:
I attempted another approach for the bandages at the bottom of the staff using the youtube guide below:
I’m not convinced of this method on my model to be honest, I don’t think I did a particularly good job but I can always try again after I get some advice from my teachers – if they think this is the preferable way to add wraps to the base then I’ll keep trying until I get it right!