Fred Pred Custom - Update 19/04/13 - Longest Journey Ever!

[Usurper]

As the other guys have said, keep at it , take a few photos ( sometimes looking at a photos enables you to see things you miss looking at the sculpt )

im sure you will see thigns over time, and continue to evolve said beasty

 

[Giles]

Bit more of an update. I've tried to take on board what everyone has been saying and have had a major redesign, mainly on the upper mandibles, inner mouth, added in the lower mandibles and also the tusks (correct word?). I'm trying to make this a custom Pred, though I am hitting a very large wall and would love a bit of a group brain storming session to get me through.

First things first, I am really not happy with the position/size of the lower mandibles, they look far to low and a bit "weedy" to me, though I think that if I lift them and have them with a slight upwards curve to them, then I will loose a lot of the open mouth roar that I'm "attempting" to create.

I'm going to extend the dread holes further down (maybe another two rows) on the sides of the head, but I'm not sure whether to take out the large dread hole by the eyebrow and replace it with a couple of medium holes, then have smaller holes dropping straight down and then get larger as they move back, or just have large dread holes all over? Any suggestions are welcome.

The eyes are in merely to help me gauge the overall dimensions of the eyebrows, sockets etc.

Once I have the main shapes in place, I'm going to move onto the fine detailing and hopefully completely miss my deadline of the end of March, striving to make him perfect!

Anyway, thanks for looking and as always, all criticism is welcome.

Cheers

Giles

 

[Blade3327]

Awesome work! Much more precise in this update, it's like you know exactly what you're trying to make. Great stuff. All that's left is smoothing those sharp edges out and rounding the corners. Still can't believe you've made it to this point from your first post. Noticing what changes you'd like to make as you go is a very quick way to improve, and that's exactly what's going on! Eager to see more pics.

Congrats on starting the dread holes by the way. It'll take a while, but they'll look fantastic.

 

[Eaglewood]

loving the progress- keep up the good work.

 

[Giles]

So I missed my end of March deadline, and I am more than happy with that, 7 weeks till Fred's 1st birthday so I'm hoping I'll be able to treat him to a nice coat of possibly silicon, I'm not sure, depends on funds and a first stab at casting....

Anyway, here comes a few photo updates, I started after my last update by taking his lower mandibles and cheeks off completely and rebuilt them entirely to give a slightly more upward curve to them. So far I'm only working on one half of the sculpt as if I change my mind and start again then i'll only have to do half the work

Things I'm loving, the initial detailing, especially the acid burn above the right eye and the beginnings of texturing around the right eye.

Things I'm not entirely sure on is the pattern on the skull, I was going for a sort of ritual tribal scaring type look. Not sure what everyone's thoughts are on it, I kinda like it, but not sure if it looks too manufactured and not organic enough.

As ever if you have anything to say, positive or negative then let me have it with both barrels

Cheers for looking

Giles

 

[Sorrow]

Hi there mate nice work, not meaning to interfere with your work but just a suggestion, I think the eyes are too far apart and the lower mandibles appear too thick. Keep up the good work and good luck.

 

[Giles]

Hi Sorrow, The eyes will just about fit mine, although they are only in as a guide so that I could get the socket size right. I think I might knock them in by maybe an inch or so just to get a better overall look and ensure that I'm, not going to have an unwearable mask at the end of all this effort lol. As for the manibles I'm going to leave them as overall i think they fit the head. Cheers for the comments though, every observation is useful!

 

[Giles]

So It's about time for an update, will I be ready for Halloween.....no chance. But I'm not rushing after this long! I'm finally going to order my last 10-12lbs of clay which will hopefully see me through to the end. I've decided after looking at lots of angles and different sculpts on the lair that I need to elongate the back of the head and build the crown up much more at the back. Anyway, here's some pics, please be ruthless as ever!

Thanks for looking.

 

[made007]

this get better everytime i check the updates, great job, one exercise that im doing is to look at photos of predators heads (closed mouth an open mouths) and draw them in my sketch book, so i can see and get a better feeling of the head forms, muscles , patterns,etc.

 

[nightshadow]

i love the detailes in this mask! nice work!!!

 

[carpe noctem]

wow, nice very nice sculpt!!! cant wait to finish and post some more pics!!!! keep it up bud

 

[Giles]

Hi Guys,

I've uploaded a few pictures, including one with red lines showing what I'm thinking about doing. Just wanted to get a bit of feedback on what I'm planning. Any thoughts/suggestions on overall shapes etc?

The new shape I think will make the overall size bigger rather than it being a bit too small at the moment, so my current amendments are looking at

• add another 3-4 inches to the circumference of the neck and sculpt a neck ring directly into head.
• Put a more pronounced curve onto skull and have it coming back into a much higher point. This will be a massive undertaking and i may loose the acid burn scar and do that again. Hopefully i can excise the area and re-affix it once the re-shaping has been done.
• Build up the back of the head to elongate it out.
• Thin the eyebrows a lot.
• Shorten the lower mandible to bring it more inline with the upper mandible.
• Make him look more aggressive as at the moment he looks like a bored, yawning pred!

Thanks for looking!


Giles

 

[Double H]

The new mapping idea is looking great. Liking the new ideas. Looking forward to your next update and seeing mapping idea calved into that sculp lol

 

[troggs]

I definitely agree with elongating the head and thinning the eyebrows out - these would be a great improvement. As for sculpting the neck ring direct to the neck, I'm not sure, the mask I've got at the moment has this feature and I think it may cause a few problems when wearing it, it may crinkle up badly or come out from under the armour for instance. I'm also pretty sure I read somewhere a post on this from another member, but that was a while ago. Just my thoughts, keep up the good work.

 

[MEANGENE83]

I definitly think the red outline you propose is a big improvement. If you look at bio helmets from the side, specifically a P1 Helmet they have that Same Curve!

Defintly go for it!

The only thing I wouldn't do is you mentioned bringing the lower mandibles in, I would leave them be and just move the upper ones outward. That is just my opinion.

Either way your skills have progressed alot in a short period of time! Keep at it!

 

[Giles]

Thanks for the advice guys. I know at the end of the day it's my choice, but when people can see where you are heading and can give you pointers it really gives you the confidence you need. I'm hoping that the reshape will make hiim aggressive. Watch this space.

 

[Giles]

As I said a while back, I was going to undertake some massive changes, I now have a fresh 20lb batch of Klean Clay (Regular Grey) and have started. My first reshape went horribly wrong and looked more like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

A second reshape resulted in a much more pleasing result.

I'm going to give it over the weekend just looking at him to get used to the new size and reset the picture in my mind to this size/shape. I think I'm then going to work much more on the basic shape and adjust a few items as marked in red. I'm thinking over making the upper mandible slightly bigger to fill the space. Put a two tier P2-inspired crest extending from the eyebrows (which have been massively thinned). Change the line that the lower mandible follows and maybe even extend the rear of the head out further.

Current measurements are as follows:

• 14" from the top of the head to the bridge of the nose.
• 19" from the top of the head to the chin, should be about 20-21" including the mandibles
• 11.5" at widest part of the crown
• 8" across the eyes
• 8.5" across the bottom from the outer edge of both lower mandibles.
• 19" neck circumference.

As usual any thoughts comments etc then let me know and thanks for looking.

Giles.

 

[Giles]

Ok so after a lot of debate and some research I've updated the main shape of my Pred. I'm getting to a position where I am more than comfortable with big changes and I can really do with some solid feedback if possible.

I've only worked one side so far and have mirrored the image (badly) in paint to give an overall idea of where I am headed. Just don't want to do both sides and have to start again!

A few more angles.

Thanks for looking

Giles

 

[Giles]

After yet another re-jig, I wanted to get a bit of feedback. Anything however small is useful, I'm only working on one side at the moment but have links to a full 360 degree shot. I'm really struggling where to go and what level of detail to put down. I'm going through phases once I learn a new technique. I tried to make myself a stamp, which worked, however the impression the stamp leaves is only noticeable up close and only lightly marks the clay.

http://i1176.photobu...do/DSCN1893.jpg

http://i1176.photobu...do/DSCN1895.jpg

http://i1176.photobu...do/DSCN1900.jpg

http://i1176.photobu...do/DSCN1901.jpg

http://i1176.photobu...do/DSCN1908.jpg

http://i1176.photobu...do/DSCN1907.jpg

http://i1176.photobu...do/DSCN1907.jpg

As usual thanks for looking.

 

[Giles]

Before I know it, it is going to be June 2012 and I will have been working on this on and off for nearly two years. Haha, I remember reading threads suggesting 18 months to two years for a full suit build when I first joined thinking that's a tadd excessive, surely it can't take that long. As it turns out I've spent that long on the head alone (plus a few side projects which still aren't completed!)

Anyway, I feel like I've actually made some serious progress for once and have refined some areas and redeveloped others to allow me to approach the hallowed ground of final detailing and smoothing. So without further ado here are a few recent pictures, taken on a camera phone however I'm going to save the new shiny christmas camera for the finished sculpt.

The eyes are new. Cheap £5.76 from a taxidermy company in the UK however they are fish eyes so I had to colour in the pupils and have pretty much just shoved them in place which has kind of given Fred a startled look. I think once I've got the rest of the head roughed in then I will spend time on the eyes as I think this is where you can make or break the pissed off look! I've also fleshed out the upper mandibles to give them a bit more definition.

This side hasn't been finished yet and still contains the residual bumps that I was toying putting around the eye area to be blended out over the crown and dread holes. There is also a little bit of eyework but is nowhere near what i want it to be like!

I think the crown is looking better than the nice smooth dome I had last time, however I felt it looks too similar to Uratz's War bio so, after a message to him, I'm looking at developing the crown into something a bit more special and something to really blow everyone's socks off. Of course it may not, but I like to set my sights high.

Again as ever I love any sort of feedback or suggestions.

Thanks for looking

Giles