Keiths Polybook

I thought this time I will try and make a Murloc character. It's still pretty rough right now  so just some progress shots. 

I've tried to model one of these guys a couple of times previously, but without much luck! Hopefully this time something better will come out! 

Great one, Keith! Specially love that lighting.
Got a letter from you thread and now I am back on track with my book too)

Hi Michael thanks for the comment! It's good to see you back 👍

I have a homemade drawing of almost this exact image. I called him the Gob Frogger.

I can't wait to see where this is headed

The Gob Frogger!  haha that's great 😂

Here's where I got to this evening - I blocked in the arms and hands using the good old skin modifier and sculpted some rough shapes afterwards. I also used the pose brush within sculpt mode to position the fingers a bit - I found this to be pretty quick and easier than making some armature to pose - really a nice brush!

Also I joined the separate body parts to the main body ready for another pass of sculpting later. 

I might add the gums and teeth next, and also have a look at the tentacle/spine things on his back.

I know its something of a frog on a shroom.
But as a Russian I just can't resist that ballet resemblance. To me it is such a ballet enthusiast)

A little bit more progress - I've gone around and sculpted some more detail to the model. I also added the hair/spines using curves and a bezier circle to control the shape of the bevel. 

I also sculpted the mushroom some more and then duplicated the top piece to add more mushrooms.

I think that might be it for the sculpting stage - so next I will brighten him up and add some colour! 

Awesome amount of detail in this, looking great! 

Thanks Matthew! It was hard not to get carried away and keep adding more and more worts! 😅

I've started adding some colour to this guy using vertex painting - I feel like it's coming along now! 

Still more work to do though for sure!!!  And the lighting will need some attention too!

I wanted to add some particles to this project to take me closer to the refrence art, but I needed to have them follow a certain path. Unfortunately, I didn't have a clue where to start with that!😂

As usual the CGCookie guys had my back with this video by @jlampel on Youtube which helped massively - thank you sir!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYHOV3bVIG0&list=WL&index=1

I think I'm nearly done on this project - I do feel like my lighting could be improved so maybe I'll focus on learning some more in this area before my next project.. 

Depth of field is a nice touch, Keith.
Seems like that toad is turning into a prince (or vice versa))

That is a great piece!

Thanks for the comments guys, I'm glad you like it! 

Here is my final render - I tweaked the lighting a little bit and moved the background mushrooms around too. I felt they were a bit too shiny as well so I adjusted the material roughness. I then did some colour adjustment in Photoshop and added some extra background dust.

That is quite a move from the initial engine models to a natural world) 

Cheers guys! 👍👍👍

Time to blow the dust off my poly book!  

Nothing too creative or exciting tbh, but I just wanted to prepare a bit for the upcoming collab so decided to follow a couple of Kents tutorials. I always learn new tricks and tips from his courses, he is the legend!

I gotta add some colour to that chest next.