FF12 Gilgamesh

Ahh yes, how long I've waited. The FF12 process that i'm working with is incredibly labor intensive and takes a long amount of time.  But it was the most feasible way I could get these models.  I've put in maybe a total of 10 hours just to get the model to look like it does now, and I haven't even cleaned the model of intersecting polygons.  In other news, in the next few days I hope to release the Lynx Papercraft, he's been sitting on my desk with just 2 pieces to glue left on his scythe.

But I think for poses I'll go with this pose from the bestiary.

Where did all my time go?!?! A hyperlink filled update...

So there is about 3 weeks left of summer for me, and I have yet to finish as much as I sought out to...
Kefka is completed and hanging from my ceiling (I'll post pictures and instructions this week).  Dark Kain is half way built.  I've added some models to my queue...

So Kaizo covered the Dissidia models of Cecil, Ace is covering the Nintendo DS remakes of Cecil, and I would like to do the SNES versions of Cecil.

But before I can get to those models I need to help out cleaning up Golbez from the After Years for AaronVFT. Aaron has been a great help to me in the past.  The pose is great and will look awesome once he completes it, but we need to make sure there is a structural support system in place to hold up the cape.  We'll need to get help from an excellent papercrafter with engineering skills...can you guys think of anyone who matches this description?

But maybe I will be sticking to schedule.  Hopefully I'll be able to put out the Gilgamesh model in a couple of months.  The larger models are pretty hard to find a place to put, whereas the smaller models will be easy to place on my existing shelf.   I've been working on a larger project that I mentioned in the earlier post, this has taken a me a lot of time to deal with, and a long time to come, it is incredibly high poly count, and has polygons nested within the existing.  So far I've cleared 1 of the major road blocks, but there are some others that would take a long time to overcome.  So far this paragraph doesn't have a link in it.  But in the spirit of Ace's hidden sword download link, I've hidden the link to where my secret long-term project, somewhere on this page...  I'll release more information about this project as it becomes more relevant, but at this point it was just me overcoming some boundaries.  Hopefully someday I'll be able to do the FF12 Gilgamesh, if you couldn't tell by my blog thus far, I have a fascination with multi-armed entities...

Updates: Multi-armed and multi-tasking

6/1/2011 Update

I've repositioned the arms to be closer to the reference picture, it was laborious, but I think I'm getting a little closer.  The hard part is getting the two right hands aligned to hold onto the sword.

older version 

 This is not in any way an homage to Captain Morgan :o)

I started messing with the pose I have for Gilgamesh's EX mode, Right now I'm posing him with the default weapons, which in my opinion are a bit bright for the general color scheme of this model.  I am considering pulling different weapons from the other characters. (mythgraven blade, tournesol, durandal, and great axe, and the masamune)  Most of those are from the Vaan model.  But these weapons are not as bright as the default weapons.  I figured this way, once I build the multi armed sprite version of gilgamesh the two models won't be holding exactly the same weapons.  I still need to re-position the arms so that the weapons don't end up hitting each other. and figure out how to design his base. (in the mean time imagine a rock underneath his foot. But I figure that I'd see if anybody had any opinions on the matter.

I started Dark Kain, I'm pacing myself with Kefka.

For some reason when models require me building small parts (fingers, faces, etc.) I lose my motivation, this is probably why I like big models.  Either way, I've shifted gears to Dark Kain.

Updates: Kefka God of Magic, and Gilgamesh

I've run into some complications with Kefka, I went ahead and built the wings out of 65 lb paper, however that was too heavy when I was attaching parts of the demon wings and I had to remove one of his wings and am going to have to rebuild that part.  FYI when you build this model build the wings out of paper.  I'll reference it in the instructions just in case.  The wings attach to the body in such a narrow manner that it's hard for the weight of the wings not to rip the support.

Here are what I plan to do for Gilgamesh models.  At least the true form and the masters creatures one, the purplish Gilgamesh I based off of Gilgamesh from FF12, however i figured it would fit since its a fairly defensive pose and would be representative of a scared person travelling the void.  There are still some posing issues with the toes of the model to make him stand flat, but this is just to give you an idea.  And of course the Reddish Gilgamesh is going to have some sort of stand underneath him to support his left foot.  In all the EX model's of Gilgamesh I plan on having different weapons in all of his hands.  These will probably be the only models I do after Kefka for the year.  My schedule is fairly busy. (Amano's Gilgamesh is almost ready for release...) so I'm going to play it safe and just try to work on the Gilgamesh models.

Updates: Kefka God of Magic, Multi-Armed Gilgamesh, and Dark Kain

I'm working on Gilgamesh's instructions at the moment, but in the meantime I spoke with Zinarei, and he said he didn't mind if I took over Kefka God of magic.  Anyone interested, I believe Zinarei/Kaizo/Aaron have posed him in the "Did I get him?" position as mentioned in the Dissidia process video post.

I went with the iconic Kefka God of Magic pose

 

Of course I took some small liberties due to the size of the gown material that was available. I didn't tip his leg as much, but I still tried to maintain the same Kefka-esque-ness.  One thing I should point out that I have done and will continue to do with the models that I pose is that I would like them to look realistic in terms of their balance.  Center of gravity is important, as well as the plausibility of limb placement/joint rotation.  Of course when you're dealing with models that don't have restrictions on movement, and they have appendages/ parts of clothes that interfere with the model building process, it is always necessary to find some middle ground.  I was looking at doing a model of the DS version of Cecil's Dark Knight, however the pose I was looking at doing did not seem practical for a battle stance, nor was it an iconic pose so I decided to leave it alone for the time being.  I've got these models which are more immediate on my plate.

I've also handed over the FF12 version of Gilgamesh to ACE.  He's been working on cleaning up the model, so hopefully in the future the community will have another Gilgamesh model.  Speaking of Gilgamesh Models, I've started to work on the Ex-mode of gilgamesh.  A couple posts ago, I posted my progress on the Ex-mode that is based on the FFV sprite, however I have been unable to settle on the exact pose.  The model is different than the sprite, the "main arms" of the model are a lot larger than expected and the secondary arms do not bend at all, they are pretty much fixed, I will return to it eventually.  Square-Enix has a picture of that particular EX mode holding all of the weapons, however given that the model would already be 700 mms tall, and the spear would be a lot taller, and his holding of weapons would make shelf space ridiculously limited.

So for the Alternate EX-mode I'll be going for the following pose

 Which is based on the Masters Creatures pose of him, but as I mentioned before there will be some liberties taken because of the inability to move some of the joints in the alternate arms.  This can be remedied by converting to editable mesh/poly as Ace taught me, however once I can only do that once I'm positive on the pose at all other joints. (For some reason I can't figure out how to go back to bones from an editable mesh/poly model)

I could have gone with this pose that SQENIX already provided, and maybe I will.  I plan on doing the sprite based models eventually.  Of course I plan on doing all of the Gilgamesh models eventually, currently I just wanted to try my hand at Kefka, and because of people's concern with shelf space, I thought it'd be appropriate to try my hand at a hanging model (like the Highwind or Fahrenheit), and that is why I will be putting out Kefka.

In addition to Gilgamesh I've been working on cleaning up Dark Kain, I based his pose on another Amano pose, which incidentally is the pose that they have Kain in anyway, however I widened his stance, and corrected some of joints so that there weren't any "awkward" intersecting polygons with his chest.

So these are the next three models that I'm working with.  As usual I'll keep you posted along the way...

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

After Kain...

 

Still working on Kain.  Getting him to stand is creating a problem right now.  Due to builder problems the balance is off.  Most likely those that build him will experience some slight amount of variation in the pose.  The pose was never tested to be balanced in the first place, I'm not sure how I would do that using the software that I have available...

But I'll come up with something either super glue, or using a dowel through the base of the foot.

As you can see from the picture above, I've unfolded the next project.  I changed his stance the tiniest amount.  I'm thinking of doing the sprite version also, and to be more true to the sprite version I would have him holding his naginata, however in this version I've stuck with a similar "battle-ready pose"

And sometime after that my big project will be to finish the FF8 Gilgamesh...  This will probably be a huge learning experience for me, most notably the cape is going to be a problem as will merging the separate components together.  But here is what I've got so far...

Here is the appropriate reference picture.  I'll have to make up a couple of things in sketchup(Cape, fake right arm posts) but it shouldn't be a problem.  In the end I'm sure it'll all have been well worth it.  I'm going to label this as an extended project...

In addition to the models above, I'll be working on the following...