Advanced Chimeran Hybrid (WIP)

[Naughty Lemur]

So I know that you guys mostly make Halo armor and other (rather cool) things using pepakura but as of right now I am not but would still like some advice on what I am making.

I'am making an advanced Chimeran hybrid from the PS3 excusive Resistance

So this is what it will all hopefully look like.

And so far I am going to be making (and have started) on the head which I will be making a latex mask for (outfitted with glowing eyes).

After about 2 or 3 hours of work I have this so far.

 

[Naughty Lemur]

So, I have re-done a little bit of the mouth and run into a concern.

In the picture I have placed three eyes that I had laying around to show where the eyes for the mask will end up being. (note the eyes wont look like that, but just solid yellow balls with no pupil or anything)

Now the upper "lip" isnt done yet as I know that looks weird with it being significantly shorter than the lower and the eyes goof it up a bit, but before continuing I'd like to know if it will look natural or if it looks like the mask will be looking up to much.

 

[Darkrider9]

Looking good so far. However, I have a few suggestions. Make the jaw thinner left-to-right wise. According to pictures the jaw is skinny and the face is palid with sunken skin, making the bones show up very defined on a chimera. Therefore the jaw and areas of the upper skull should be more defined.

I think looking at pictures of a human skull can help you in many areas here, because the bone anatomy of the chimera seems quite similar to that of a human, minus portions of the maxilla and the added eyes, but the rest works out pretty well. As you can see from the picture below the side view of the jaw resembles more of an L, not a graduated curve like you have.

For a start it's looking really good, and I'm excited to see how this turns out as a Resistance fan myself. A talented member here, Hyokenseisou, actually made a Chimera costume herself, with an impressive head sculpt, so I'd look that up for more reference. Great work so far!

 

[Naughty Lemur]

That actually does help a lot!
The skull is actually almost exactly what I needed to better the jaw.

Ive seen her Chimera build on youtube and thoroughly impressed by all the work she has done. Shes quite the talented person.

I think I am going to be basing the head (atleast the front) off of that picture instead of the ones I took from the game. Thank you for that btw! But would I make the mouth open? or would how its naturally set like that in the picture be fine to see through?

But as soon as my clay is warmed I will be back to sculpting and will hopefully post more pics by the end of the night! Thanks for the feedback as well

 

[Darkrider9]

The eyes do seem difficult, truth be told, I think you could just use the chimera's front two eyes to see out of. I'm not a visor expert, but I know it's possible to have them be orange and glow and you can still see out of them.

As for the mouth, if that is where you decide to be looking out of you'd probably have to do it in the "roar" expression, but in my opinion I think the expression in the picture I linked would work out much better, as it seems to be a more common expression for a chimera, while still maintaining that bada$$ look.

 

[Naughty Lemur]

So I completely re-worked the entire sculpt and it must say it looks much better. I just have to wait for the clay to cool and then set because its much to flimsy right now.
but otherwise here is what it looks like now. (The big mound of clay is just to hold the lower jaw up while the clay sets and hardens)

Right now, its just basically the outline of where the jaw will be. But i intend to have as much detail as possible when I can.

 

[Hyokenseisou]

Does this help for a reference for a head sculpt?

back view, front view, top-ish view, eye close up


Also.... I would have suggested using an oil based clay... If you're using air dry... you've gonna run into problems of it crack hard core, no matter how moist you try to keep it.... Just saying... I know, because mine fell apart after a couple days of finishing. And alginate doesn't work on the air dry clay... so if you were planning on using alginate to make the mold... Might want to reconsider...

 

[Naughty Lemur]

no, its oil based. I bought this http://www.monstermakers.com/product/deluxe-latex-halloween-mask-making-kit.html and so thats what I am using

I do have to say, everything I've seen you make is absolutely amazing. You've got an amazing talent with stuff like this.

And the sculpt you did is amazing! I will definitely be using this as a reference.

 

[Hyokenseisou]

no, its oil based. I bought this http://www.monstermakers.com/product/deluxe-latex-halloween-mask-making-kit.html and so thats what I am using

I do have to say, everything I've seen you make is absolutely amazing. You've got an amazing talent with stuff like this.

And the sculpt you did is amazing! I will definitely be using this as a reference.

Ok good, I wasn't sure if you were using oil or water based, it looked the same kind I used, which was water. And there was my downfall and I didn't want you making the same mistake.

Thanks! I just really wish the cast actually happened and turned out.... But it didn't... Overall it was a failed project... But if I were to ever make another Chimera, it'd be the Long Legs. >:3

 

[Naughty Lemur]

Ok good, I wasn't sure if you were using oil or water based, it looked the same kind I used, which was water. And there was my downfall and I didn't want you making the same mistake.

Thanks! I just really wish the cast actually happened and turned out.... But it didn't... Overall it was a failed project... But if I were to ever make another Chimera, it'd be the Long Legs. >:3

That would look really cool! I havent played Resistance 3 (I foolishly pre-ordered MW3 instead) but from what I've seen of the Long Legs it would be way sick if you could pull it off!!

 

[Naughty Lemur]

Alright, so after a little playing around I think im finally off to a good start.

My mom decided it would be a good idea to start working on it without consulting me about it so thats why it already has eyes. But I think ive got the basic head shape for the back of the head. Ive already used about 10 pounds of clay, so hopefully my 20 pounds wont run out.

If anybody has any suggestions for the back of the head, Im open to any criticism!

Alright, well I'm scrapping all of my previous ideas. Im gonna go a completely different route with the head and hope that I can still find a way to light up the eyes. But please disregard all the previous pictures. But please use them as a reference of how not to do this. lol. But i'll be completely re doing this tomorrow and re-thinking it tonight.

 

[Naughty Lemur]

aah, triple post :O

But anyway, after rethinking the entire suit over again, Im going a different route with where I'm going to be looking out of my mask. So After more than a day of planning and more than a day of sculpting I have a little progress done and would like to share.

Side view of what I have gotten done of the back of the head. (I really need to smooth it out)

Back view of the back of the head (still needs smoothed out)

And as far as where I am going to look out of the mask, I decided the best way would be to put a piece of see-through cloth on the nose portion of the chimera and look through there.

 

[Naughty Lemur]

eww, a double post.

But anyway, I feel as if I have had some headway on this ( no pun intended =])
So here is my newest progress.

And here is the same progress with eye placement, just in case you missed where the eye would go.

Honestly, I think it looks wonderful (except for the back of the head which could do with some reshaping). But again, I enjoy all types of criticism (except saying it sucks) so please, comment away

 

[ODST479]

Lookin pretty sweet, man. just keep at it. cant wait to see your final product

 

[Naughty Lemur]

So I have worked on the sculpt some more and have a made a fair amount more of progress.

In this first photo I have lowered the jaw and made it a little bigger to compensate for the lips which had to be big because my armature has a nose (I wish it would've been one with just an egg shaped face instead of having body parts, but oh well =]) I have also added a few other details.

And this next one is just it with the eyes. Why? Cuz I think it looks cool, especially in this photo!

I do have one question, and that is how do I make the clay smoother? Its oil-based clay, so water doesn't do anything. And the only time its flexible enough to work with is when it is heated to 100+ degrees. So would I just use a hair dryer to make it hot and then smooth it out with my thumbs?

 

[Naughty Lemur]

I changed more of it around and added, I dont know if you would call it detail per say, but its more. lol

Sorry for the double post as well.

Here I have dropped the jaw down a bit, put the mouth and nose onto the sculpt.

Here is the front nose/mouth area. Please note I am not doing any to very little detail of the nose because thats going to be cut out and cloth put over it cuz thats where I am going to see out of

And I have one question about this next picture. Do I need ot add more clay to the lower and more sunken in areas or does it look fine with everything else being more pronounced? (Not talking about inside the mouth, detail has yet to be added there)

 

[Naughty Lemur]

Eww, another double post.

But I've done some major work to the sculpt today.

In this first picture I lowered the middle eye, made a front eye, and defined it a little more.

This next one is basically the same thing, but the other side.

Here is the front of the sculpt. Ive done almost everything you see to it in the past 3 hours or so.

And here is a somewhat sky view of it.

I have to do the little details, smoothing, and the eye balls that will go into the sockets tomorrow, and hopefully I will have it done tomorrow!

Just after looking at these pictures, I now see that I have to bring the front eyes and nose up and out a little bit so its more flat faced. Hopefully Ill finish THAT tomorrow and the other stuff the day after!

 

[Naughty Lemur]

The front of the mask sculpt is starting to get me down :/
I tried fixing it and this happened

Which does not look good at all. I don't know how to fix this so that it looks good. I know I'm not going to be able to make the mask exactly like the game, so I went on the route of making it similar, not the same but still resembled a chimera. The face is just not what I'd like it to be and its bumming me out. Any suggestions on how to mold it to look better?

 

[Hyokenseisou]

My biggest suggestion is to make the mouth area smaller. You have everything too enlarged so that's throwing off the right of the proportions out of wack.

A chimera's face isn't THAT too far off from a human. Remember, a vasts majority of chimeras were once human, captured, then turned into chimeras. So if you were to take a basic human skull/face; tack on a set of eyes where the temples would be, and another set just a few inches towards the back and about once inch up from that last set of eyes, that's where the eye placements should be. The eye size itself isn't that much bigger than a human's either, they just have four MORE than a human.

And as far as the jaw line goes, still the same as a human, just no skin from where the side of the lips are to around the back of the jaw. Same idea as the Joker, how he cut his lips, but a bit further, and just imagine if the cuts didn't scar up. That kind of idea.
(The jaw line in the drawing is a bit exaggerated though, to really get that ROOOAARR look)

Then the back of the head is a bit outwards, but not as much as you'd think. It's just moved back enough to be in proportion to if the middle set of eyes were the 'norm' for where the placement of eyes are.

Then the skin that covers the nose area, isn't crazy complicated either. Just thing like Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, how it's all squished down like that, but with more wrinkly horizontal skin on there instead.

They also have like mini cheek bones under each eye, with the middle cheek bone probably being he biggest because of it's placement.

Then to add teeth to your liking. If you were to cut the face in half, and look at just the right side of the top teeth, the size order starting from the middle of the face outwards would go: medium small, small, HUGE, medium. Then any extras if you'd like. For the bottom half would be pretty much be the same order and size as well.

Here's a doodle I did a few years back then quickly coloured it for the shiggles.
Hopefully it'll give you a better understand of the proportions I'm talking about.

(uncoloured version: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs50/i/2009/262/8/3/The_Chimera_by_Hyokenseisou.jpg)


And just fyi, I know just about as much as the chimera as they guys that work at Insomniac, so I know a lot about them. And even if I DON'T know, I can easily ask them as I'm pretty tight with a lot of the guys at Insom, so there's pretty much no info I can't get from them (with the obvious exception of NDA stuff, ie new games coming out.) Proof that I'm tight with Insom? Their new game coming out, Overstrike 9? The red hair character, guess who her first name was named after...
So yeah, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Arioch]

I have very limited experience with clay, but I THINK you can use rubbing alcohol to smooth it out. Ill look for a tutorial and add the link here in a bit.

Here are some tips....

http://fxconsole.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-smooth-sculptures-achieving-that.html