Hey everyone,
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Renders in Attached Thumbnails. 
I’ve worked on Arya for over three months, but I decided I needed to start posting this around, because I really like how it turned out. I’m not finished with her, but I’m a bit busy with other work at the moment, so this is the final render…for now. 
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I realise I’ve been gone an insanely long time from BlenderArtists (not that I was missed in any way, haha!), about two years, and I’d been doing some learning and some soul-searching and this is a side-result of that.
I created Arya with a specific idea in mind. I wanted to break a few stereotypes that TV, movies and the gaming industry have brought upon us, which are, in my opinion:
- Women with ‘sexy’ armour that tries to protect their bodies. An image comes to mind, of a scantily dressed elf with arrows in her chest and abdomen, and a speech bubble that says ‘I’m starting to question my choice of attire.’
Brutal, but necessary. I don’t want to quote any specific video games here, because I don’t want to criticise the ideation, only the imagery.
- Men having straight/aquiline noses, square jaws, and either very high, or very low cheekbones, and women having slightly curved and upturned noses, and high cheekbones with slanted eyes, and a pointed chin.
This is mostly seen in TV shows and less in video games. We’re used to the movies, because it is (mostly) the same actors playing different roles. Of course, it is a completely different idea as soon as you get out of Hollywood and move into World Cinema (excluding Indian cinema, which I’m totally familiar with ;)) and Indie movies, but I digress.
I really wanted to break that stereotype, and what better way than to portray the complete opposite? A woman with more masculine features, but one who is decidedly and obviously female? In the end, I did that.
Having said that, let me go into a bit of detail regarding the making. I don’t have making-of videos or anything, because I never intended to be satisfied with this, haha! It’s just by chance that I’m satisfied with this.
As for modeling, it was straightforward. I went with the head, then the eyes, then the body and then the underclothes and the armour. I finished off with the sword and the base, and posed her. I faced a bit of difficulty with the hands and fingers.
I did UV Unwrapping and texturing as soon as I was done with a model. Shading came after all the modeling, and I went on a total spree. I love shading.
Lighting was straightforward, too, with two point lighting and a HDRi from SIBL to provide additional colour. I experimented with Daylight, but I wasn’t very successful. It was the soft overcast light I was aiming for, but I wasn’t satisfied with the output.
It was a pretty basic compositing setup, too, with Glare and some colour correction, and contrast adjustment. The background is made via compositing, too. I can post the node setup if anyone wants to see it.
Your thoughts are most welcome! I would love to hear what you think about it, ideation or technically, and since this is a temporarily finished model, suggestions are revered!
