W.I.P. Natsu Dragneel_FairyTail


So, I am a huge fan of Fairytail, those of you who doesn’t know, it’s an anime… and perhaps only anime I watch.
There are few miner ones, but they are not the case, anyways!!! the cartoon…? Manga…? (I think people called it manga) recently is over, marking a period to the entire franchise (which I hope not)

I already have Erza Scarlet, one the female character in FT, almost done ( just requires minor fixes and tweaking), why not make another main character?
This time, male?

so, without giving much thought, I decided to make the main protagonist, Natsu Dragneel.
Natsu Dragneel is a fire dragon slayer, only kind of mage who has capability to slay dragon. As mentioned, he’s attribute is fire.

and just like previous series, I am aiming to make it semi-
-https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?414556-Imagining-Erza-Scarlet-in-3D

This is the current progress of my new male model :slight_smile:


Obviously, I’ve added some twists of my own, making him taller, more ripped. I personally think it’s awesome…and it had been quite a while since I sculpted male body, so I am little rusty :frowning:

As you can see, I haven’t baked normal maps on his hands yet, but I am feeling quite lazy so I decided to go straight to his hair.


I think the greatest challenges of making anime characters into character like this is the way, or how to implement those anime charateristics into them appropriately. Like you see above, I am still not getting that certain, Natsu Dragneel look yet.

I have some reason to believe that Natsu Dragneel is asian, it’s just a speculation. But there’s no reason not to say he’s european either. I may opt for half-asian if the changes are possible.

I would love to get your opinions here, and direct me to the right direction!!!

The pciture of Natsu Dragneel in anime for reference:
https://www.google.co.kr/search?q=natsu+dragneel&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilvpagyr_VAhWDpJQKHQeEB-YQ_AUICigB&biw=1536&bih=774&dpr=2.5


His hair was a pain in the ass… it’s almost done now!!!




His hair is… nearly complete, just gotta do minor detail layers and that would be good to go! I mainly focused on getting the skin better.
But no matter how much I try, I still end up with that fake feeling…
well, here the current result now!

the character you created is good but nothing like the reference you’re using
anyway it does look beautiful
tell me about the skin

Hi, I believe one of the most difficult challenges on changing anime to realistic style is that there’s no way, no way you can make them exactly the same. You can only bring the character’s impression and use only that as guiding lines.
You have to understand that I can’t make his eyes larger nor use fake anime proportion to achieve the result.

Of course, I’ve added my own tastes into the character, making him more muscular and taller. That said the skin I am using is triple SSS layer system.
:slight_smile:


Rig test!!!


1 Like

I don’t know why but I like that first pose :slight_smile:

I think overall your model looks great but the upper chest muscles look a bit strange to me since that strong seperation is only visible when flexing the chest in reallife i’d say(look at pictures of bodybuilder chests). Also the size of your upper chest seems a bit too big compared to the rest of the body especially in the last picture^^


this right here would be a real world reference of an upper chest that strongly visible i hope you can see what i mean^^
but then again maybe thats just an artistic decision of yours:) anyway keep up the great work!

Thank you! the pose is actually based on from David by Michelangelo!!
I believe classical/Hellenistic poses are the best through out the history of sculpture!
http://david michelangelo

Thanks for pointing that out! I actually used these images:
https://www.google.co.kr/search?rlz=1C1CHZL_koKR737KR737&biw=1536&bih=758&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=male+body+aesthetics++models&oq=male+body+aesthetics++models&gs_l=psy-ab.3...35890.242278.0.242415.8.8.0.0.0.0.113.698.5j2.7.0…0…1.1.64.psy-ab…1.0.0.tl22EbNwv9c#imgrc=_
For the reference!
but you are right. althought I aimed for those looks, I may have gone little too far. I’ll try to reduce it a bit :slight_smile:

and I am finally back! There had been several changes with Natsu, especially his face. the original face I used while it looked awesome, it did not work as I had expected under different lighting.
So, I’d like to show all the transition on changing his face. Also, I realized that his face looked too fantasy liked, so I decided to reference from real people.



1


2


3, the current version.
I remember taking lots of time on getting his face right during the first sculpting process. but when I realized that it is not very good under different lighting, I opt for the current version. Of course, his eyebrows needs some more works, and I planned to do that very soon!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]494503[/ATTACH]
here’s the full body
and for the cloth simulation, please click on this link!:


Finally! I had time to work on his clothings even further!
As you can see, I’ve added scarf! Also, I had fixed his brows to stand out little further, and sharpened his images a bit.

Excellent work! Maybe the skin shader looks a little bit like plastic.
And what is this dark spot on his left foot, maybe it is a hole in the model?
Oh and I do not like the hair, but I heard it is very hard to create nice CGI hair.
You are a great artist!
Have a nice day!

Hi, thanks for the input. The skin shader is very very hard to get it right… But its an ongoing process so hopefully it will look better at the end.
And the dark spot isn’t a hole, I think its an error on normal map that I have to fix.
Lastly, can you tell me why you do not like the hair exactly? I’ve fix the thick strand issues, and I personally don’t see a problem?

I looks like cotton? I think it is too translucent (or maybe reflective?) at the edges!
I mean the edges looks so bright. If you look at haircuts online you won’t see such color differences.

Maybe the roughness is not right. If you look at hair online it has very sharp highlights!

Hmm, you do have a point. though I think those white outlines are produced by the powerful rim light behind him. But the roughness is something that I can fix :slight_smile:

good, you’re doing well, but the skin looks weird in some places.