The Legend (CLOSED) (CLOSED)

A short introduction for you to understand what is the sense of my work and what should it represent:

"A legend... What be a legend? Created long and long ago, carried through times with countless tongues. No one can say when it first came alive, nor who its creator might be, nor if it be truth or the fanciful dream. Yet, one certainty remains: to the people of old, it was real as the very earth beneath their feet. But as the ages passed by, it faded from memory, distorted with the years. The heart of man became harder to stir, and the legend sank deeper into the slumber of oblivion.

My work is a collective image of the legends. The relict, caught between the hands of time, decaying, crumbling into the void, yet clinging to life as long as a single soul remembers. A mere shadow of its once glorious self, yet in its decay there remains a beauty and majesty that cannot be entirely undone."

The idea is heavily inspired by the legend of King Arthur, the Tolkien universe, and the art of From Software. I am not a 2D artist at all, but I tried to show you a rough version of the finished work. There should also be a concept of a dragon and heraldry with ornaments, but I haven't finished them yet. Once they are needed in the work, I will draw their concepts and post them here. Also, please note that due to my poor drawing skills, the concept is simplified compared to what should be in the end. So stay tuned and thank you for your attention.
Final concept

Creating procces

Just finished the base mesh for my model. Got some inspiration for the armor and overall look, so it will be a little different from what I drew. Also, I forgot to mention that today is my 3rd day of participating in this contest (I mean I started working on the concept of this character on September 2nd). Anyway, here's the result:

Day 10.  There was a slight delay due to posting issues.. By the way, forget to wish it before, so I'll do it now: good luck to everyone!

So, the garment. Later will add some more details to it, but now I'm willing to do the armor.

Some WIP collage for you

Day 20. I'm struggling with armor and something is starting to look good, but for now I'm not ready to show it. So there's a little WIP of head.
Thanks for watching and have a nice day! More updates coming soon.

Hello! I haven't done anything for a long time due to a complicated illness, so here's a small update. I hope I'll have time to finish it.

Some WIPs. Almost done the highpoly, only ring, crown and sword left. Then I'll make texturing and if I'll have time going to set the scene as it is supposed to be.

High poly at the moment

The crown and his new face. It's hard to reach a look of face what I want, but now I'm satisfied with that result. Let me share some older experiments

1st pic - the original one, 2nd - slightly old, 3rd - very old. But I thought it was too similar to the Dark Souls hollows and didn't fit the story because you can't age inside a legend in a classic way.


The hand.


Some quick low poly optimizations inside Zbrush via ZModeler.


Unwrapping and straightening the UVs.

Decided to make a hooded cloak for him as I drawn in concept. Retopped in blender with ClothRetopo addon.


Final low poly model. UVs packed in Rizom UV into 3 UDIM Tiles.
Triangulated model that is ready for baking.
Bake setup. Texture maps were baked in Marmoset, the model was splitted into 7 bake groups to avoid overlaps. Now it's time for texturing.


Thanks a lot for your attention.

Some rigging and posing process

Redone and rebaked the chainmail.


Some texturing process. Textures are about to be done, but I'll show them on my final render which is coming soon. Thanks for your attention and good luck!

So, that's it. Made the rose and the sword, have no time for hair, unfortunately. Tomorrow I'll upload the final renders. Thanks for watching.

Materials sheet for main mesh from Substance Painter

Introduction:
This is a work that represents a living legend. He stands at the grave of his queen, who was forgotten much earlier. No one knows how many years he has been coming here since her death. He also becomes more and more forgotten, distorted, dead. Unlike the real world, he cannot age like a normal being. And such will be the fate of the world he lives.

Execution:
All the sculpts were made in ZBrush. Modeling was done in both Blender and ZBrush via ZModeler. I didn't have enough time for retopology because of my illness, so there is a little too much of polygons. But I tried to keep the correct polygon flow for each piece.
Clothes were done in Marvelous Designer, its retopo was done in Blender with the help of ClothRetopo addon.
Baked and rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 5. Materials are done in Substance painter following the PBR Metal Roughness workflow.
Rigged and posed in Blender. Armor pieces are connected to the model by constraints. Rig is FK only due to uselessness IK just for posing.

Renders: 
Turntable:


Afterwords:
I was proud to take part in this competition. It made me give it my all. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to implement everything I had planned in my work. But overall, I am happy with it. Thanks to everyone who watched my work. Once again, good luck to everyone!

Entry thumbnail

It was a pleasure to watch your work process. I understand you well when you don't manage to do everything you planned. Great job!

"Legen- wait for it, Dary"!
Legendary work mate! !)

Thumbnail for contest gallery

Hey there  mate the past few days I've been checking all  the contest entries ... I love your design and your execution is perfect ,I realized just yesterday that this piece of art is yours , thank you for leaving a so warm and positive comment on my entry during competition days , best luck to you noble one!!!
  I have made a presentation piece for my entry and upload it in my gallery, check it out mate and let me know your feedback

Another solid entry, unique style and character

Congratulations on being selected as an Honorable Mention in the contest. Great work!
Someone will be in contact with you soon regarding your prize.

Thanks for participating.

Honorable Mention? I'm sure it wasn't worth the time.Anyway you did a great job, congratulations.

Congratulations with your legend character!

Congratulations!!

Congrats! Beautiful work with the armor especially. I love the ornamental detailing and how aged it all looks. Really feels like he has a story