Years ago I watched Dune by David Lynch, and last year Denis Villeneuve’s movie. This year I finally read the book by Frank Herbert, and
I noticed that both directors showed the eyes of fremen as slightly bluish and even as if shining, while in the book it is clearly described that their eyes were deep blue, almost black.
It is clear why in the movies they did it this way: people with black eyes look scary, and such an appearance is hardly suitable for positive characters, especially a protagonist.
But I still wanted to imagine what Chani would look like with an “elfin face”, “dark blue eyes” and “tawny-red hair”.
Some people may notice the resemblance of this image to a portrait of an “Afghan Girl” Sharbat Gula taken by Steve McCurry. I really took this iconic photo as a reference for the pose, light and basic forms.
Certainly, the most dramatic – and immediately-capturing – is that you really don’t see her eyes at all. (Looking more closely you see that they are blue.) Instead, you see only the “catch-lights,” which are quite intense.
That’s what arrested my attention.
Her cowl – in a color that reminds me of the practices of, say, Buddhist monks, is then offset by the contrasting buffer of her hair and the tunic around her neck. The lighting around her face is very nice as is the slight bit of texture. I’m not familiar enough with the fictional character to understand any significance of the nose-piece.
Nose piece is used to keep the water of exhalation. I imagine that there is something like plugs inside the nose.
But probably I should have made the tube a bit bigger
I really like that you stayed true to the book. That’s very rare principle in general.
I see two issues tho. First is about skin shader. I don’t exactly know what, maybe its too low SSS value?
Second is about cloth shader. Roughness is IMO too low for that kind of albedo/diff map. Also it would be good to add/increase bump to the shader.
I wanted skin to look dry. SSS is ok I would say, not too low, but roughness is high, maybe that’s a reason.
Cloth shader looks too flat, agree. And I think what you mean is not roughness, but Fresnel I added to imitate pile.
I noticed it and I think it’s great. And this is exactly how imagine Chani, and despite it being true that people with deep black eyes can be considered scary, your work doesn’t make me feel scared so it’s amazing. I just love this
I really liked your art! I read the book recently as well and was looking for a visual of Chani as it is on the books, and i kept puting the movie actors as the caracters while reading but it just didnt fit with the descriptions. I really apreciate how you made her skin look rough and dry (as it should be for any human living in that miserable planet) and I REALLY liked the eyes. They look absolutely perfect!!
One thing that i couldnt find an art for yet was what she would look like in the clothing that is described in the books… something like a dress and with some nice blue fabric. I was left wondering what she would have looked like with the green cloth in her arm as she is mourning.
Beyond that, Im kinda frustrated that the movies didnt show the “sit” as colorful and i guess as vibrant as its described in the books. And WHERE TF did they throw ALIA at??? Like WTF
If its not much to ask, as a fan of yours, can i ask you for a version of Chani without the blue eyes? Like… as if she had regular eyes yn. And please do Alia next!!!
Thanks for all the kind words
Completely by chance, I have a version with regular eyes in my insta: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkG73hjKKKC/.
I tried to model realistically looking eyes to use them in future works and decided to try them on her. It’s funny that with normal eyes, it becomes noticeable that her proportions are too childish — the eyes are too big.
My guess is that for the 3 versions we’ve seen (Lynch, Scifi, Villeneuve), it’s technically far easier to give someone blue contacts (and perhaps bump the saturation in post), than to cover their entire eye with a material (or, retouch hundreds of eyes in thousands of frames).
I like your take on it - hitting the “blue within blue” of the book’s description.
