Zombies

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doofus-01
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Zombies

Post by doofus-01 »

Walking corpses have so many variations, this is probably a big can of worms (hah!) but the help menu would look better if there were at least a default portrait. What would straddle the line between goofy and gruesome? Would this be OK? (I mean as a concept. I know it has errors, like the tiny right hand. No need to talk about them yet.)
EDIT: changed the title, Christmas has come and gone.
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Zombie-male.png
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Last edited by doofus-01 on April 25th, 2015, 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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beetlenaut
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by beetlenaut »

Oh good!

The pose is fine and the clothes are a good choice. I think the yellow and green are too saturated though. I'm not sure that green is the best choice for the skin in the first place. Pale and waxy wouldn't be too gruesome would it?
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LordBob
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by LordBob »

It's nice to see a new portrait taking flesh, so to speak. ;)

Concept-wise, the decay and body damage should be more obvious, lest he'll be a stoned green-skinned dancer as much as a zombie. The clothes could be dirty and in rags, the skin/flesh more damaged, maybe bloated in places, maybe, a missing eye.
Decaying skin can take many hues, but its dominant will definitely be greyish. There will be color variations of course, all leaning towards unhealthy greens or cold greyish pinks. For what it's worth, here's an undead illustration I did earlier this year for a client (by the way, this one's copyrighted and so cannot be used in UMC or whatever). Note how it plats with different hues for the skin, and also the visible damage (in my case it might be a little extreme, but I hope it still carries the point)

Attitude wise, it might help if some of his muscles where clearly not doing their job, such as a limp limb (his left arm could be that), and maybe a finger bent into an unexpected position from snapped sinews.
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doofus-01
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by doofus-01 »

Thanks. I didn't realize the skin was so green.

I don't consider this close to done, but I'm traveling for a while and won't get to work on it, so I'll just post what I have to see if it's at least in the right direction. I like the idea of a missing eye, that should be a simple and effective way to get the point across, without making this too ... rotten, since a lot of walking corpses were a "living" unit a few turns ago. The yellow square is what I think the cropping should be.EDIT: slight update to image.
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Last edited by doofus-01 on December 23rd, 2013, 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by beetlenaut »

The skin looks good as far as I'm concerned. His hair is still an unnatural bright yellow though.
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LordBob
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by LordBob »

The skin is much better. I'll try and make a quick paintover with suggested changes/fixes within the next few days.
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by LordBob »

Here's the promised paintover, and a list of suggested changes (not all of them are on the paintover, though):
- alter the pose so that the arm on our left looks more limp
- slightly rotate the head to make it look like it's slanting on the side in an even less natural pose
- higher values on the arms and upper chest so that the top lighting can be better felt and the overal light more consistent.
- shift the highlights and speculars on the belt buckles/plating so that they follow the overal light
- we shouldn't be able to look into the opening of the scabbard, given its angle
- it's not clear what is actually holding the scabbard. If it's tucked under the belt, then it might be better to place it on our side so that we see the connection. If it's attached to the chest baldric, then the scabbard should be hanging from the lower side of the baldric. Alternately, you can hint at a waist bauldric worn in addition to the cloth belt thing.
- if the arrow is supposed to be what killed him, then there'd be blood on the tunic. If he was already (un)dead when it struck, then less so.
- the hand on our right has room for improvement . It wouldn't hurt to work from photo reference for this one.
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by beetlenaut »

Whatever you end up doing with the arrow and scabbard, can I have a version without them? Don't worry about it if they're not on a separate layer. His hair looks fine now, but his beard should have the saturation brought down to match.
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doofus-01
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by doofus-01 »

I'm back! This isn't done, a lot of details aren't drawn, but the general idea of where I am with this is there. (EDIT:updated image EDIT_AGAIN: Removed some verbiage - sometimes I talk too much.)
Zombie-b.jpg
Zombie-b.jpg (37.15 KiB) Viewed 21974 times

@LordBob: Thanks for the paintover and suggestions, I think I understand a lot of it. Some of it is either over my head, or I don't quite agree with (and yes, I'm not really qualified to disagree, but it's probably just that my intentions weren't drawn well enough in the last image).
beetlenaut wrote:Whatever you end up doing with the arrow and scabbard, can I have a version without them? Don't worry about it if they're not on a separate layer. His hair looks fine now, but his beard should have the saturation brought down to match.
They are not on a separate layer. But slight modifications, especially if they are for UMC, are not out of the question. What are you looking for?
Last edited by doofus-01 on December 30th, 2013, 9:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by beetlenaut »

doofus-01 wrote:What are you looking for?
A dead villager pulled out of a graveyard instead of a plague victim or dead soldier. But like I said before, it's a small part, so it's not terribly important.
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by SFault »

The arrow is quite striking. It's bright red and almost at the center of the image. It draws eyes away from the "background" where the actual character is. Also, I would imagine that the zombie would swing it's hands enough for the arrow to break when it's right in front of him. Maybe if the arrow was in his back and not so bright the image would be more balanced.
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by vultraz »

I much prefer LordBob's arm position. It looks more twisted and zombie-like. The current one looks like he's holding it out in front of him steadily, as opposed to an unsteady undead creature with minimal control over muscles.
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by doofus-01 »

My window of opportunity to work on this is closing, so I may just have to leave it at this for a while. If anyone does want to use it, the image probably needs to be cropped.
Zombie-arrow.png
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SFault wrote:The arrow is quite striking. It's bright red and almost at the center of the image. It draws eyes away from the "background" where the actual character is. Also, I would imagine that the zombie would swing it's hands enough for the arrow to break when it's right in front of him. Maybe if the arrow was in his back and not so bright the image would be more balanced.
I think it makes sense as is, the arrow is "newer" than anything else - it was stuck into him more recently. Also, sticking in his back would imply he was running away, which doesn't seem appropriate. But we'll see.
beetlenaut wrote:
doofus-01 wrote:What are you looking for?
A dead villager pulled out of a graveyard instead of a plague victim or dead soldier. But like I said before, it's a small part, so it's not terribly important.
It's not much of a modification, but I did at least remove the arrow::
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by beetlenaut »

doofus-01 wrote:It's not much of a modification, but I did at least remove the arrow::
Thanks. I'll use it!
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Re: Zombies (Merry Christmas!)

Post by doofus-01 »

I found one of the XCF files for this zombie dude (without the arrow - that is lost it seems) and since I needed a zombie for one of my UMC campaigns, I touched it up a little. I'm not sure if we even have an Art Department anymore, but in case we do, I'll post this to revive the thread:
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