Introduction: Original Idea and the Concept of the Character
I usually start with lots of information that I have been collecting over time. My idea was to create a future mercenary which belongs to a group of warriors where people have assimilated the cyborg technology. His body and the elements that he wears should reflect all these things.
I firstly developed the character by drawing the concept since the proportions and the silhouette are the key factors. The clothing and relevant parts of his anatomy are explained with extra annotations that are not shown on the drawing.
Modeling
I used the traditional way of polygon modeling with the simple geometric forms: move vertex, cut edges, and so on. I did a basic model which defines the right body proportions, and then I improved each part with more details in certain areas. I usually do the head first and then the body. In this way, it allows me to have a better idea of my creation. Also, I have to keep in mind the kind of character it is. So, the polygon topology I used in creation is very important since it´s useful for giving a pose even when not animated. (Fig02 - Head Render Test, Fig03 - Arm and Body Render Test)
I spent quite a lot of time with the mechanic arm since it´s a very important part of the body. The arm was inspired in Katsuhiro Otomo´s design for Tetsuo in Akira. (Fig04- Tetsuo´s arm reference © Katsuhiro Otomo, Fig05- Arm Render Test)
I created the pose with Daniel Maritinez fast "rig" system which you can turn a biped into bones. From here I modeled the clothing and weapons in accordance with the pose.
I used the ZBrush for correcting some parts of the body anatomy in a very fast way for the final pose. It´s a very good tool for any modeling work. I did a quick simulation of cloth falling with the pants of the character leaving a fix row of vertexes which were subjected by the belt. After doing this, I modeled the belt over it. I did the same thing for the flag but adding a wind element which works over the simulation. I turn the planes of the simulation where I was interested into geometry by stopping and collapsing them in the modifiers stack.
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