Thank you all for the comments! Glad people seem to like the idea

I've been thinking a little more about the relationship between Atlas and Palinor as I was sketching. Here's a quick update with a new sketch of Atlas. I figured that Atlas probably wouldn't be able to hold his staffs, so maybe they would have bound his feet(hands) to each of them. I also thought about the idea of feeding, and liked the image of Palinor fishing for tuna or crab as Atlas moved slowly through the ocean. In this image, we can just see Palinor offering a small morsel of food towards Atlas with his rod.

I do like that idea but also like the possibility of sculpting some mean claws!

"The amphibious turtles normally have limbs similar to those of tortoises except that the feet are webbed and often have long claws."

That might be a nice detail. I'll see how it goes. Perhaps one could be bound due to injury and the other free to hold the staff. I suppose these are minor details but it's always fun to have a good think about whatifs when looking at creatures & critters!

Anyways, here's the latest sketch:




Comments/crits always appreciated Oh I should mention the jetty, boy is just to give a sense of scale, and may come into play for my final base. I like the idea of atlas finally stepping onto land with water dripping off his back leg. Finally perhaps he can have a rest and strip himself of Palinor's house?

very kewl idea. like it alot. love the guy holding the carrot

Man I like your concept a lot! However, I'd go for the bare "hands"+claws instead of hidding them with bands. It's just so cool to sculpt, and hands are sometimes as expressive as a face. They can tell a lot about your Atlas with bare hands in my opinion.

Whatever you chose, it is looking very promissing, keep it up!

Whew! I love it!

Thanks for the comments!

Anime- cheers, it's a fish!...but it does look like a carrot I want him to be feeding him rather than taunting him, though I had thought originally about a carrot/bait mechanism to make atlas walk. I settled on the idea that they'd work together freely though.

Goldo- Thanks for popping back, I think your absolutely right...losing the hands would take too much away from his character- they'll probably be one of the most interesting parts to sculpt too. Cheers

Moni- Thanks!

Will update soon, desperately trying to finish a male character I started a few weeks ago!

A fairly small update. I was drawing an awful lot in my sketchbook to just try and get his proportions and weight looking right, and it dawned on me that these sort of adjustments would be a lot quicker in zbrush. I usually make my basemesh in maya, but didn't really want to spend very long on it(as it will be an initial scuplt that I'll rebuild once I've got the basic gesture.) so I tried giving zspheres a go. After one attempt that turned inside out on itself here is my first zsphere model. It gives me a reasonable base to start playing about with limb sizes etc.....and I don't actually think I'll ever build a base mesh in maya again! Very impressed with the speed of it.

Won't have any updates this weekend as I am making the trek back home for fathers day..I'll hopefully get some actual sculpting done after that though as I'm almost finished with my other character. I can't wait to get stuck in

Managed to spend an hour or so blocking some very rough details on Atlas. I think I'm going to get the heavy weight detail in on this and then retop quite early...as I feel quite a way behind. I also think I'm going to have to split it into a fair few subtools to avoid my computer crawling to a halt!

Anyway, here's the update. Crits on the gesture/form would be much appreciated

looking good so far, looking forward to the next post!

Love the concept. Taking shape nicely. Following progress with interest.

Wow man, love the concept sketch, it's gotta be my favourite! The 3d is really looking wicked! Crit would be:

1) he looks more upright in the concept, if you look at the line between his body and shell it's almost vertical in the concept and at about 45 degress in the zbrush render.
2) the shells edge looks more interesting in the concept, it has a couple extra curves in it
3) the shell is bigger, extends further back from his back in the concept

Can't wait to see some detail, subscribed
Andrew

Coming along nicely. Have to agree A.vector on all points, especially the size of the shell, He defiantly has a bigger more 'home' like shell in the concept, but the in the model it looks like plated armor.

For some reason reminds me "The neverending story", great.