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Puckducker — Samus Aran - Take Control
Published: 2006-10-01 20:02:10 +0000 UTC; Views: 6593; Favourites: 116; Downloads: 37
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Description
Old model, new work.Upon hearing about a fan based art contest over at IGN's message boards, I decided to try and put something together to enter. The contest deals with the impending release of the Nintendo Wii. The rules were to create an illustration of a videogame character (nintendo or otherwise) holding/using the controller for the new nintedo system. Being extremely busy at the moment, I didn't really have the time to do much. However, I remembered the old Samus Aran model I had (one of my first maya works) and thought I could do something with that.
I really liked the idea of Samus "giving" the new controller to the viewer. So I came up with a pose I liked, and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with. The model needed a lot of work, as it's pretty poorly done (the hand wasn't even modelled to have the fingers bend), but I was able to get it working well enough.
The model was rendered with HDRI and Mental Ray. This was also one of my first times I relied heavily on render layers. Rather than just render the image out in one pass, I did several, one for shadows, one for specular highlights, one for the glowing lights and so on. Then I composted them back together in photoshop. The main advantage of this is it allows me to tweak any layer individually in photoshop.
I may tweak this a bit before the final submission date, but for 2 days work, I'm pleased with what I got.
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Comments: 26
Haha, That looks great! Good luck on the contest!
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ahhhh. YOU were the genius behind this!
just wondering, is that a grappling beam from her blaster? it usually comes from her non-blaster hand in the games, but it comes from her blaster in the Smash Bros games.
then again, artistic license. she can't exactly hold the Wiimote in her blaster, now can she?
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Actually, the grappeling beam always came from Samus's blaster, it was only in the Prime games where there was an "attachment" to her left hand for the grappling attachment (because it wasn't possible to have an animation switch between "blaster" mode and "grapple" mode on the cannon fast enough for it to be useful in game)
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aahhhh. that's what i thought myself! i was watching my friend play Metroid Prime one day and he was like, "nope, it's always been like that." he confuzzled me!
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Awesome image! Makes me want to buy a Wii even more now!
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OK nobody's played the wii, it's not out yet, they're just bashing it.
wait until it comes out plzzzzz....
in regards to the actual art:
although the pose is extremely unnatural, it works well for the poster. Although Nintendo does not often do extremely exaggerated poses, SEGA sure does with it's Sonic characters, and i appriciate the motion in this.
Something that seems funny to me is that her mask and right arm look like they were painted, i'm not sure why. It may be the motion blur?
But the energy graple is great, although maybe a little more crispness would fit the style more?
The thing that bother's me tho is the wiimote.
I think if you spent a bit longer making it a little more accurate and shiny, it would really bring out the poster.
Making it the main focus in the composition i think would do wonders for it.
overall great job, and i hope i can get as good as you some day!
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beautiful image! a shame i cant say the same for the wii
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Thanks for the comment. Glad you think the model works in the render, cause she's a real clunker. It was actually the first model I rigged, and for some reason the verts shift around whenever I move a bone.
I'm suprised she's even recognizable.
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wow. Great job. This better win something.
Its only coincidene that i just finished Star Wars: A New Hope for the first time in years right as this was done loading. I dunno why i said that.
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I get your star wars comment. It's symetry of design, the way the whole unverise just sorta fits together the right way.
Oddly enough though, this entry doesn't seem to be getting much attention in the contest so far. The ones that get the most seem to be the ones that people mearly grab pictures off the net, throw them in photoshop and play around with the contrast/colour for 5 minutes....
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pfft...terrible what people do... Link me and ill get some hype for you. I know an elite team that does this kinda stuff.
You can also whore that picture all over the net on forums and tell people to vote for you on that site. It worked for many, many people.
oh, and the star wars comment was just kinda random, but the piece does fit together nice. When i posted it, I actually was watching the original 3 Star Wars for the first time in years, it wasnt a metaphor. It just happened to fall on the exact moment that the page loaded on my computer (i have dial-up) i finished Return of the Jedi. lol sorry
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You've played the wii? I didn't think it was out yet....
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