It is with great regret that I am shutting down this project, at least temporarily. I have too many projects that I want to finish and it is impossible for me to complete all of them by working on all of them at the same time. So, this is goodbye.
Damn, it has been a while... Anyway, I've officially finished the basic version of Nightbane's head: I've added ears, a mouth (no teeth yet), and fixed his eyes. I should be starting his body sometime soon.
UPDATE: Done with his body. Now, I need to weld on his head...
I didn't realize how much time had passed since I last had time to work on this project. I returned to gaming for a little, which didn't help (can't really play anymore due to a slow internet connection), but coupled with school work, finals, summer job applications, and various other odds and ends, time really wasn't on my side this time. I did, however, manage to work on Nightbane's head a little today. The eye brow area gave me a lot of trouble, but that has been more or less fixed. At the moment, I'm working on the ears, which I expect to cause me a lot of headache and aggravation.
Autodesk finally got something right! I only had to submit one activation request and they sent me the activation code at 4am. That means that I can begin working in 3D this week... if time allows me to. I'm currently balanced four school projects and a couple tests this week, and since I only have a few more weeks of classes, all of the due dates are coming up very quickly.
Hehe, still getting things done on time. I finished Nightbane's Front View Reference Image! Like last time, though, I took off Nightbane's Top View Reference Image from my schedule. However, that means that I get to work in 3D now. Just have to deal with Autodesk's inconsistent customer support...
Yeah, you heard that right. Nightbane's Side View Reference Image is done! What does that mean? That means that I pushed my schedule two weeks ahead. It also means that I gave up creating a Nightbane concept image. Oh well.
Two small things I've done today:
1) Created a schedule of deadlines for myself
2) Found out that dragon skulls are very similar to canine skulls, with the exception of a more prominent forehead and no molars
In other news, I tried reaching out to forum members again, but like last time, I was just burned. Never again do I plan on venturing out of the Creative Forum area; too many people outside there are just plain stupid, ignorant, or outright pessimistic. To discourage myself from making that mistake ever again, I tried downloading add-ons for FireFox, but none worked properly with Mac OSX. I also tried going back to Opera, but it too couldn't do exactly what I wanted. Damn.
Just returned to college. Not the most thrilling experience of my life, but you got to do what you go to do.
Anyway, I managed to spend some time finding some dog and dragon (dracolich) skeleton images so that I can progress in my Nightbane concept art. I'm deviating further and further from Artix Entertainment's version of him, but that seems to be the only path I could take to make him a believable character. The more I stare at my AQ reference images, the more areas I find that make no anatomical sense or could use a lot of clarification. By the end of this, I don't think any of the characters will be recognizable, though since I'm an amateur, I guess it comes with the territory.
I dusted off my sketch book, got out several reference images (human skeleton, dogs, Nightbane), worked on male humanoid proportions, and am starting (again) Nightbane concept art. So far, I've got the general outline of Nightbane's body, but like before, I'm having trouble with his unique details (aka head spikes, scales, and weird spine). It'll probably take several more days of experimenting before I start working on reference images.
It has been a while, hasn't it. I'll be starting this project over, not entirely from scratch, but pretty close to it. I'll also be taking it a tad bit slower; last time, I dove right into it and that didn't work too well. I will also be the only developer; I am not hiring helpers, but technical and moral support is always welcome. Hopefully, I'll be able to get things done this time.
To start this all off, I've written a short story. This not only allowed me to revisit my creative side, but it also served as a reminder to what I had in mind over half a year ago when this project officially begun. You can check it out in my About section.
