Staff concepts

 

After looking around at reference images and inspiration I began drawing some concepts for the staff and drew up possible design variation ideas.

Here I drew out many ideas for different parts of the staff. I looked at different shapes for the gem stone at the top of the staff and Im preferring either a spherical marbled orb or an egg shaped glowing stone. I also looked at possible materials and their looks for the staffs main body. I believe an wooden body would look very nice with deep grains running through it. As for the main dragon I want the tail to wrap around the staff and for the dragon to either have the gem in its mouth or rest its head upon it.

 

Those are 4 complete concept designs I drew, all of them having the same design features of having the tail wrap around the staff and the dragon’s head resting on the gem. For two of them I looked at having the wings spread outward and I found this more appealing then having them wrapped around the gem. In the bottom two I looked at either having the dragon be made from wood and the staff from shiny metal, or vice versa. After reflecting over my deigns I decided on having the dragon be made from metal and the staff made from wood and having the wings spread outward.

 

Beginning modelling

After setteling on a design I began modelling my staff in Maya.

First of all I placed a sphere onto of a stretched cylinder to make the gem and the main body of the staff. I also made the staff thinner at the bottom.

Then I added a helix and placed it so it wrapped around the staff.

Modelling the helix to look like a dragons tail was very challenging. I had to link the helix to a curved line that I twisted around the staff and then it to move and model the helix. In order to make the tail get thinner at the end and thicker at the top I had to vary its thickness in sections and work my way down the tail. This was very time consuming. Finally I had to create the point at the end of the tail. To do this I extruded the end then shaped it into an arrow head. Overall I am very pleased with the tail and how it looks although it did take a long time to make. Next week I will start creating the dragons head, body and wings which I imagine will be quite difficult.