Realistic Skrall

[The Pyro (From TF2)]

Oh boy, haven't posted in this forum for a while. Anyway, I've been working on the next issue of Mackron: The Vulture Warrior (which you should totally read because it's like awesome... and stuff), and I really wanted to show you this guy because every time I finish a character I feel like the guy in that movie Castaway when he finally makes a fire. So yeah, this guy was made in Blender 3D but the base human and the skin textures were made in Makehuman. I hope you like it, please C&C, you know... the works.

 

FRONT: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-uCLh4UdCy0A/UbqaUc1OclI/AAAAAAAAAj8/v7w2fe3RNZA/w1388-h781-no/Skrall1.jpg

 

SIDE: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ujTmRDDkQv4/UbqaUd8cmHI/AAAAAAAAAkA/oAxbb6VjsEc/w1388-h781-no/Skrall2.jpg

 

BACK: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-o5YRaHPAw-E/UbqaUv18IcI/AAAAAAAAAkE/etcKuD0X970/w1388-h781-no/Skrall3.jpg

 

SIDE: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eZR7Nqb4vyo/UbqaTWOkPnI/AAAAAAAAAjg/eJmvpdGgHhc/w1388-h781-no/Skrall4.jpg

 

FACE: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-MA_mKR02zPI/UbqaTh-FFjI/AAAAAAAAAjs/k14mifp_K3Q/w1388-h781-no/Skrall5.jpg

 

FACE WITHOUT MOUTH GUARD: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-v0W1x0FifoY/UbqaTstTFcI/AAAAAAAAAjk/f6qr_fsH0Ws/w1388-h781-no/Skrall6.jpg

 

FACE WITHOUT HELMET: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6WTafeMA3FJG1_YA-IvXk2N6TCpKULSodFu8gMD1Fyc=w1388-h781-no

[LordofBionicles]

Really interesting! I think of it as how would someone look it he wanted to make a Skrall costume

[The Pyro (From TF2)]

Ha! Thanks. Well the reason he looks human is because from what I've gathered, Bara Magna inhabitants are all basically organic humanoids, just clad almost entirely in armor.

[Maphrox: Toa of Polygons]

The textures could use a bit more work, other than the face I'm not sure if anything is non-procedural. The stuff you've got is an OK starting point, but you'll need to bake them onto a properly UV-ed image texture and then work on the details, like tiny specks of rust and such. As it is the textures are very obviously computer-generated, which tends to break realism quite easily.

 

As for the actual mesh, I'd say it needs a bit more work as well. Generally speaking parts of it look more like a skin-tight suit than armor, I'll go ahead and say that it's a result of this being a human mesh with some clunky bits and a black, metal-ish material slapped on to it. A better approach would probably be to model the whole suit of armor as several separate meshes, while keeping the underlying human mesh untouched. By then covering everything in armor, you'll accomplish the "Covered in armor" look much better.

 

Aesthetically, I'd also recommend taking more visual cues from the actual set, this looks more like something out of Hero Factory than a Skrall. (Not criticizing the interpretation, it's just that other than the shield, helmet and shoulder spikes, it really doesn't look very skrall-like.)

 

Also, if I were doing this I'd try to give face modelling a shot, aiming for something more similar to the actual Agori/Glatorian head part, since the human face on this just looks weird.

 

As a closing remark, I'd also recommend trying to render with Cycles. The glossy shader is a very easy shortcut to making metallic objects instantly look better.

[The Pyro (From TF2)]

Thanks for the advice. Very refreshing to talk to somebody who uses blender. The only two things I have to say about it are 1: If you'll look at the comic you'll see I've already made characters who don't look set-like at all, and along with being stylized heavily, some shots reveal characters actually changing their armor which shows clothes and a completely normal human figure underneath. 2: I have a lot of issues with cycles. My computer won't seem to run it well. I realize Blender is PC oriented, while I have a Mac, and even months of searching for a way to speed up render have turned up dry. In Blender Render it took about fifteen minutes just to render a single panel. In Cycles (which I tried) it took almost an hour. That and I'm not very good at using cycles in the first place, you can see that I'm already not too good at texturing in blender internal, and while I see how cycles is better, I've grown attached to blender internal and I believe that I can make good use of it.