Carpe Diem: HUcast Character Color Art

[AzureBlaze]

Here is a picture of the HUcast Carpe Diem.

This is not one of my chars, it was done on a request and posted here so you can see it, as well as letting the char's owner pick it up.

This was a fun one to do, had to crack out the anatomy books on this one to get him right. He's even larger than Jet (penciled HUcast from my last actual art post) with all sliders at max.

All the black was a bit rough (black on black=difficult sometimes), but the crimson/black combo works pretty well. I'm kind of sad the pose didn't show these little 'indented' tabs on the chest-plate because that texture was quite interesting.

This guy is described as quite aggressive with a quick temper, so I went with a "Come On!" pose. It was also specified to be 'readying the demo-comet', which was a tall order for fitting the whole thing into the frame! If you take the tallest guy holding a long wep sideways it's difficult to zoom in far enough to catch his detail. There was also an issue with his width hiding the tips of the wep and making it look like a club or just a boring stick if you cut off the other end...
Also I did not realize that the center is photonic somehow, and wider in the middle (after it is extended) For some reason the 'glow' does not quite come through quite as much...but it was never a very bright glow in the game either.

http://www.phantasystardynasty.com/Color%20Gallery/ArtPages/CarpeDiemSm.jpg

Doing this made me appriciate this head more. As you may know, it changes along with the 'wide slider' of your guy. So being quite wide, his head is wider and blunted as well. But, I must give this head more credit because it really is cool once you get inspecting it and doing the turn-arounds.

This head has more detail when not all-black...as it stands, all you can really see are the slots in the top. I have always favored eyeless heads, as they add a great inhuman quality, and I think in this case it may even enhance the 'aggressiveness' because it is foreign and blank.

This was a fun one to do, and I hope they like it.

[biggabertha]

That's an amazing picture, I've always thought the HUcasts in PSO were too slim, short and nimble to uphold the fact that these guys are just plain muscle and power. I mean, why else would a RAcast be physically bigger? Is that because he has loads of HP? What about RAcaseal?

On topic: HUcasts are harder for me to draw than humanoids because of the joints. It's so hard to get them anatomically correct and even harder to get them to look right without them clipping each other. An excellent job on representing all the muscles on the thighs, it does resemble the muscle structure of a human in this pose.

Your colouring is amazing as well. It seems i need to really work on how to colour things in otherwise I'm going to have to resort to traditional methods (Pencils, acyrlics, asatate sheets) of colouring and presenting my work.

Lastly, having seen a pencil drawing and a digitally coloured in drawing, I would have to say that your pencil drawing is more impressive but colour drawings are more widely accepted nowadays. Do you prefer either styles?

[Ancient]

I too, like the idea that Hucast should be big bruisers, or at least a few of them should be. I think what bothers me a bit is that his thighs are SO big, and his calves are SO big, and yet his knee area is normal, which makes it look kinda odd by comparison, like it could snap under pressure. To give the legs a bit more natural look, yet still be hugely beefy, try widening the knee area just a bit so lit looks better able to manage the load (poor guys ACLs must be DYING), and inlage the ankle and foot a bit as well. Just remember, if a guy is going to be totally stacked all around, he's got to have legs like pillars to support it, weak ankles or knee's would cripple him.
Other than that, he looks like a certifiable Hu-baddast!

[DizzyDi]

Woo! Look at those thighs! I bet he could snap a chain in two with those things.
Love the picture, I'd really like to see the pencil version if you still have it lying around.

[navci]

Behold! Beefy Hucast!
When I first glance at the picture, I had trouble finding his head. >.>
Smooth stuff tho. And with some awesome thighs there. <3

[Sgt_Shligger]

Not sure if I'm the right person to point this out but knees, ankles and other joint hardly ever increase in size. Their small stature is to emphasize the overall muscularty of the figure although the ankles and feet should be slightly bigger. The coloring job is great although the Demo Comet loses a bit of it's '3D' effect being put by the Hucast.

[Dre_o]

Hmm....well....Beefy.....but yea [insert writing that points out the whole legs and head thing].




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Dre_o on 2006-06-27 13:57 ]</font>

[Ma_Navu]

Wow... I'm surprised his tiny feet haven't succumbed to the weight of his body! And I think his right hand's kinda small for him. Other than that, I see no problem with the artwork! Keep it up the good work; don't get lazy like me. I haven't drawn anything in ages. >__>



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ma_Navu on 2006-06-27 14:24 ]</font>

[Ancient]

Yeah, I understand that knees and ankles have little actual musclle mass, and are mainly tendons that dont grow. But since the thighs themselves are so exagerated, it only makes sense to continue it down the entire leg. Think of comic characters that are super duper beefy, like Juggernaut or the Hulk. The frame and joints are enlarged to visually accomodate the muscle mass. Other wise they would look like balloon animals.

[AzureBlaze]

BiggaBertha:
My best hint for drawing HUc, is to draw a guy, and then do the armor plating on top of that. If you inspect the official art for Kireek and Hyze, you can see that they have the EXACT muscle structure of a human under black artifical skin stuff. With a few diffs, sometimes:

- Arms are anatomically too long if you make a really wide guy. This guy can touch just above his knees without bending over, and humans can only reach mid-thigh. This is to solve being able to reach across yourself.
-Hands are proportionally bigger than they should be if you do a really wide HUc.

Most of the HUc mistakes I see come from trying to draw the armor as if it IS the guy, when it's really just on top of a rather normal frame. This also serves for denting the plating on the legs which doesn't happen in the game, but is logical if you don't need polygons to do it.

Also I say resort to traditional methods!
Why not? They may actually be considered rare and interesting, and if you're best with those, go for it.
Currently I prefer pencil because I've got more experience with it and it doesn't take a billion years. My prob with CGs are that they tend to get boring by taking forever and don't always come out the way you want. There are little pesty things I'm unsatisfied with on this, but there's also not much I can do about it. (I dont know quite how)

This is in color because they wanted a color pic. I like color, and think it adds a lot to a piece, but it requires CG, a zillion years w/colored pencils or buying a canvas.

Ancient:
Yea...I noticed this a bit too, but the books (and sgt. schligger) say the joints don't switch sizes...(I followed the books on this one) but that's for humans who aren't built but grown. I'd tweak with it a bit and the feet too just to make it look more as you say. Androids can break the rules, because they're engineered.

Dre & Navci
The head was SO hard! This head is a monster to draw and have it work out, especially in that pose. If you draw it front-on it looks like a cone, sideways and he comes across as if he's distracted, he can't really look down with that long face or it hits his neck/chest. Being black/black also didn't help its cause.

Does anyone have anything on 'gloss'?
I think it would help if the armor was shiny-er as compared to the texture of the skin. Or make the armor matte and the skin a smooth rubber. Because it is rubber...But any gloss effect I did looked bogus/cheesy. It would help the head issue to differentiate it from the neck.

*There is not an original pencil of this. It is just a penned line-art with the pencil sketch erased. When something is made for CGing, it only is finished there...generally.

I am glad everyone likes it so well TY for comments! I hope the asker person does as well.

[Ancient]

I've noticed a pattern for how you handle joints in your work, so if that's the way you handle it, its cool. Everyone is allowed to exaggerate things how they like, I'll leave whatever else up to you.

As far as the gloss, not sure if you do this already, but try doing a flat shade of your character on one layer, with little to no highlight. Then do the "gloss" effects on a new layer, so you can edit them however you want with out effecting the shading of the character. You can edit the amount of transparency, or filtering type (screen or dodge might work well) to your taste then too.

[AzureBlaze]

Wah the incredible hulk!
I knew someone was gonna mention this guy and he is my pet peeve. Because you can't "call him on it" for doing a wacky error because he is a gamma ray mutant and no one's ever seen a real one before to go "oh it doesn't go like that!" But with the Hulk, he always has like these mega-huge feet and hands and even his head is really big. Which is great when you are doing a guy that is like a giant or something...but that wasn't exactly the Hulks' game...
To make a size-call on something/someone people look at the ratio of the head (first) and then hands/feet next because they won't switch sizes. So the Hulk is self-defeating (Self de-feeting! uh-ohs) due to his whopper hands and feet. Does this annoy anyone else?

I am, however always going for realism, and so will mess with the joint issue in the future because it's about realism more then stylization. I want something that looks good but is also believable and that makes sense. That's why these comments are great! It needs something to say "hey...."
*I tried the new layer thing, but ended up throwing it out always. I use dodge/burn a lot, (esp cause it works so great with black, no color distortion) I've never tried screen though, that's it the dropdown, right? I will try it on whatevers' next, thanks!

[EphekZ]

I really enjoy your work

P.S- I'll go into detail tomorrow, too tired ;o

[TheyCallMeJoe]

Woot! I had to look at it a bit before the its appeal caught on, but now I love it. Except for one thing of course http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif I actually don't think there is anything wrong with the knees. Androids AREN'T human, and for that reason they don't necessarily have to follow the same rules as fleshies. The only thing is the feet...it looks like he's been in China too long (*ahem*footbinding*cough* http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif). I'd say the only thing is to make the feet larger, if only slightly. They just don't fit for such an imposing figure.

Oh and one more piece of criticism....The demo-comet's handle doen't really have the right perspective to fit into the hand. But not to worry, the focal point is the figure itself and i only noticed because I decided to be a bitch about it http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

GREAT illustration overall, I especially like the lighting and shading; gives the figure depth and makes him look more menacing. Oh and I love HUcasts and that outfit color scheme is my favorite http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif congrats keep up the good work!

[DonRoyale]

Holy...

Man, you are a god. Thanks so much for taking this request for me.

And the pic is godly. I'm speechless http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif