Lord Winter (Battle of the Seasons) (CLOSED) (CLOSED)

Hey everyone and thank you for checking out my entry!

The inspiration for this character design is the idea that the great houses of winter and summer are tied in endless battles throughout the aeons, with their eternal struggle giving us our seasons. I decided to go for the depiction of Lord Winter, and I hope I'll manage to include his arch-nemesis in the final presentation if time permits.

These are some first sculpts I did to learn more about the anatomy of the wolf/dog head and  some style explorations to decide the artistic direction. These early sculpts didn't give the feeling I wanted for Lord Winter so I continued to explore the design.

Did a few quick concept sculpts afterwards to figure out the shapes and the overall design direction (below is the one I settled on).
Having a clearer vision of Lord Winter in my mind, it was time to chip away at the design of his head.

After a lot of back and forth and several sculpts (plus the necessary self-doubting) I landed on this design. I really liked the menacing aura it was giving off and it was perfect for how I had Lord Winter in my mind.
Did some quick fur sculpting to see if he would look more like a wolf and less like Anubis, and I really liked it!
Since the design and style was decided, it was time to  figure out the rest of the pieces and the final polishing.

And this is where I am at, currently. A few more pieces to finish before moving on to texturing.
It's going to be a tight deadline, considering I only learned about this challenge in late September!

This is where I am currently.

 I'm pushing hard to try and finish it before time is up.
Eyes are burning a bit, so I had to lower the grey value to compensate.

Here are some WIP shots showing the latest progress.
Next is adding a few transitions here and there, plus the nails and eyes before finally moving on to UVs and texturing.
It's getting too close to the deadline for comfort!

Eyes are next and I'm moving on to texturing! There is still time!

Done with bakes and ready to texture! Plus a bit of dramatic lighting test.
I hope I'll make it in time!

Almost done texturing, WAIT FOR MEEEEEEEE!

Wireframe renders and a close one for clarity (since they are the decimated version of the high poly the wireframe is too dense).

Me working inside of blender (proving ownership again, I guess). On to final renders!

Required Deliveries (Front, Side and Back)

Extra presentation shots:

Final Image and a few closing words about the concept and the idea behind it.


For this contest I wanted to have a winter theme (winter is coming, after all). I came up with the idea of two great houses (house Winter and Summer) entangled in an eternal battle. 
Like clockwork the winter Lords (anthropomorphic wolves wielders of the frost rune magic), would steadily defeat the representatives of house Summer (anthropomorphic Rams/sheep expert users of the sun rune magic), giving us the autumn and winter seasons while doing so, only to be defeated afterwards by their eternal combatants.
The idea behind Lord Winter's design was that although he was the winner of the autumn wars his left side was severely burned, hence the reason he is wearing clothes and metallic claws on that side. I wanted to also have him in pose with his arch-nemesis defeated at his legs but this was too ambitious for  20 or so short days.

With that said, I tried my best to bring my idea to life and I hope everyone likes it as muc has I did. 
My appreciation goes to Renderhub for hosting this contest and to the judges for taking the time to look through our submissions.
Good luck to everyone!

Finally I can see all the works) I really like this character, especially the head. =) Very impressive!

Great work mate! Really love how it came out.  Been looking for it since you uploaded the first post. Your working speed is impressive. Congratulations and good luck, Alexander!

Please use this one as thumbnail.

Thumbnail for contest gallery

Hey there mate the past few days I've been checking all the contest entries ... I found out that two people who commented on my entry during competition days, where also among my best loved designs in the contest....I realized just yesterday that this piece of art is yours  and the same happened with polygionary,  thank you for leaving positive comments on my entry, I love your design and you presentation is one of the best here...best luck to you mate.

  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

Man, I feel so sorry for you, really. It's a shame you didn't get even a honorable mention. I'm completely disappointed with the contest results

Wish you best luck in your art and the same wishes to all the other participants with the great jobs that didn't got at least a mention. I don't want to offend anyone who took a winner's place or honorable mention, but it's really strange to see these results.

Yea, this is really well done, I hope you still go on to complete it, would really love to see this guy all posed up. Great work S_Alexander, really awesome.