The Gallantry

The Gallantry
Design Journal Entry #3

When I did the Rane Lance portrait, it went fairly fast. I had an existing model already made out, all I had to do was change up the face a bit, give him a corky grin, and animate him a bit for the portraits. No big deal really. I knew Lord Ronan would be a different kind of animal to design. From the time I first envisioned the Gallantry with Joel, I knew who the Nolarans would be, I knew their skin color, how they would look, and all that. What I didn't know is, what a chore it would be if I actually had to design these guys myself. I'm going to go step by step with how I designed Ronan.

1. I knew Rane Lance and Lord Ronan were going to look nothing alike. However, I thought it would give me a good and familiar startpoint if I started off designing Ronan from the existing Lance model. I retextured his skin obviously to the Nolaran skin tone with the trademark soul piercing blue eyes. He still looked like Lance, obviously now he looks like a retarded Nolaran.

2. I began to reshape the head. After a bit of debating with the deplorable Team II (my Team I was so much more efficient, but don't tell them I said that), we decided that the Nolaran males should have a forehead bone. One of the concepts for a Nolaran I made earlier made an impression on Xavier, so he gave the go-ahead for the forehead bone. Molding and shaping, like some glorified claymaster surgeon, I turned the blue headed Lance into something that looked more like a Nolaran. I thinned the cheeks, gave him a small forehead 'bone', chiseled his chin, removed his grin slightly, and badabing, he actually looked like a Nolaran. But something was missing.

3.Oh man was I pissed. He still didn't look right, and I knew if I kept shaping this proverbial clay head, it'd get bent out of shape. I needed to bring Lord Ronans facial features to a sharp close and quick, before he turned into nothing more then a Nolaran version of Mr. Potato Head. I decided to give his forehead more definition by making his forehead bones above the initial bone more apparant. I closed in his skull in that area. I again added a bit more definition to the actual forehead bone. I puffed out his cheeks to lose the anorexic look, and I chiseled his chin for the final time. I knew he still needed something. Hair! Initially, I planned to keep the Nolarans bald, but Lord Ronan was regal, in charge. He needed to be different. Hair definitely is the bane of 3d modelers everywhere, and for a near amatuer, hair is almost impossible, but I managed to give him some black hair which was passable.

4. The hair still wasn't that great. It looked like crap up close, and I had no idea how to make a hair texture. So I searched my favorite 3d help site, and learned how. Oh did I ever learn how. Suddenly I had a hair texture which was worthy. I changed it to gray, cause Ronan needed to be a bit more older and wizened then he was. Black streaks of course, to define that he still had many good years to go. Finally, this guy looked like Lord Ronan! Or so I thought.

5. Xavier suggested one last thing for Ronan. A battle scar. The Nolarans were sword fighters, so I had to give him a sword cut which looked painful and real. Since the Nolaran skin complexion was blue, I decided they must have dark blue blood running through their veins (hell we do - but these guys blood doesn't turn red when it hits oxygen). So I gave him a dark jagged scar across his face. Truly a battle worn warrior who has seen his share of fighting. A man who is a true leader, asking only of his troops which he himself is willing to do as well. Lord Ronan was finally completed. Well, his head anyways.

Soon thereafter, I designed a suit for our good Lord Ronan. I won't bore you with those details though. I will give ya something nifty though. Lord Ronan wallpaper. Yessir, cause you can never get enough for your desktop. It features Ronan in his illustrious battle uniform. Download them if you want em.

Many of you are probably wondering why I decided to become a graphic artist. Well, I'll tell you the truth. It was because of Rane Lance. He's the one character that I've ever created that needs all the attention I can muster. You may think you have him figured out after Episode I, but I can honestly say that you have no clue. And when I saw that Xavier was going to use the civilian portrait... the CIVILIAN PORTRAIT to represent Lance.... I put my foot down and said, "Hell no." Well, it was more of an offering then a mean gesture. ;) I knew I couldn't ask Joel for anything, even though I'm still in contact with that great guy, I knew he did not want to be a part of the SC community any longer. So instead, I opened my 3d Studio Max, and did the thing myself. You never know what you can truly do until you have to do it. I knew I -had- to replace that awful civilian portrait. I couldn't let Lance be seen as that old bearded civilian guy, that wasn't who he was. So I did it myself. It's very liberating, and I'm learning new things every day. Joel is still the best artist in the community without a doubt - so my only goal when designing graphic art, is to try to live up to the standards he set.

- Desler  

[an error occurred while processing this directive]