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SilFoe — Nightmare Moon Concept
Published: 2012-05-24 03:07:26 +0000 UTC; Views: 13375; Favourites: 532; Downloads: 513
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Description
A project for class.I'm a graduate student studying video game development, specifically Art Creation. For this particular class, the professor wants us to create a model that has both organic and inorganic elements. Since I'm the most vocal brony, bronette, pegasister (whatever its called now), a couple classmates encouraged me to continue making pony stuff. The only thing my prof wanted (other than being concerned my portfolio is going to be full of pony-related things), was for me to up the level of detail; so here is a modified Nightmare Moon.
This NNM has slightly different proportions than in show, a few changes to look a bit more anatomically correct and, of course, the details in the armor. The mane and tail will likely be particle effects.
Next step: model sheet
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Comments: 31
Nice
I don't know why, but her armor reminds me the one used by the Arbiter.
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I should have put this one in my favs a long time ago. I always thought of Nighmare Moon as a very beautiful mare. Well, you can't indifferent to a black horse.
Wonderful work.
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You're not really evil, only be out of perspective
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I love, love LOVE this. I especially like how you did the armour, the colour was unexpected after seeing so many with the standard cyan but it's a nice breath of fresh air. And her mane... looks like clouds, really, really awesome blue clouds. With stars shining in them. Actually, i think that her mane reminds me a bit of nebulae in space, clouds of star-stuff.
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Then I did what I intended, yay!
Now if only I could get the final model to behave that way...
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am i the only one that loves her and luna cause the reason she reminds me of cynder from spyro i would wonder on that's cause that why she has so meany fan's
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I wish I could do magic like you did here.Her pose, her face, she is BREATHTAKING!!!!
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The details in the armor are great! I hope you got a good grade for this! you know, it kinda looks like the same detail that is used for the Arbiter's armor in Halo.
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Wow! The detail on the armor is stunning!! Also, female bronies for the win! /)
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Dunno, that's just my opinion, but something about her anatomy seems to be off to me, especially consider the fact if wanted to make her look more realistic and anatomically correct. I think her body could be a bit shorter and her logs could be a bit a bit longer. Head and neck kind of "dictates" that or so it seems.
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I'm trying to find a balance between show accurate and recognizable as a MLP character and a bit more realism. Her show accurate proportions are shorter in body and longer in legs, quite the opposite of more realistic proportions.
Oh well, it's just an iteration. Thank you for the feedback!
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Well then, you need to make her neck shorter. MUCH shorter than it is. And head smaller. Otherwise, it will just look wonky (like it does for me atm).
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It's a good start.
Critique:
This is more of personal opinion/critique.
If this is going to be a portfolio piece, I suggest you push the design further. "Make it your own".
The armor detailing is a nice touch, but could you do more? What about the shapes of her armor pieces? What about extra armor pieces? What about altering the proportions a bit further? Could her wings look different? Her eyes?
Think of the "could". Experiment.
Don't forget, you can do a lot with textures. What kind of metal is her armor? Is it distressed? Shiny? Are there chips in it? Or is it flawless?
If you have the time, I would suggest modeling a show-accurate Nightmare Moon first (for practice/warm-up). Then jump into your new design (you could even save the show-accurate one in stages so you don't have to start the second one from scratch). Both could be included in your portfolio.
The power of fan art lies in your ability to "re-invent" an existing idea/design --to reinterpret it. This both exercises and demonstrates your creative abilities... And also creates portfolio-worthy pieces. Anyone can copy an existing design... but not everyone can re-invent it or put their own spin on it (and make it look good).
Nightmare Moon looks the way she does partly because of the limitations of Flash. But what could her design be if it didn't need to be limited for Flash animation? You are not making a flash animation... You are making a computer model; and that is an open door.
You're studying game design and art creation... so start there. What would Nightmare Moon look like if she was a character in a video game? What kind of video game would she be in? Would she be a final boss? What do badass villain characters in other video games look like? Etc...
Expand the concept of the character into something more. Ask yourself, "how can I make her awesomer?"
Also... I know there are many ways to make normalmaps, but CrazyBump is a fantastic little program for creating normalmaps. [link]
I highly recommend it. $99 for personal, $50 for student. It'd be the perfect tool for her armor detailing.
I look forward to seeing your completed model.
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Oh wow, this is quite possibly the best critique I've received.
This is an iterative concept so there is quite a bit that I'm thinking about adding. I'm also still playing with her anatomy trying to figure out what would be the best balance between the show and realism.
The other point of this particular model that I already have a few more realistic pieces going into my portfolio and I want a more stylized piece if for nothing more than to show I can. While the technical side of that is easy in comparison, getting it to feel right isn't always as simple.
The textures here are definitely going to be getting a lot more love than this concept shows. Again, just trying to get a feel for her.
As for the normal maps, we, as a class, are required to take our models into Mudbox to sculpt all the details and then cast the normals in Max or in Mudbox itself. CrazyBump does look like an amazing program, though. I could definitely use that on my other project.
Thank you again for the wonderful critique. I'll be thinking about this when I come up with my final concept today.
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I will repeat what someone else said and was my first thought: The detail you added to the armor brought more life to the character.
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I'll repeat what I said to them: Thank you!
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the detail in this add so much elegance i especially like the armor.
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