Mudbox Research

After my characters have been modelled I'll need to create a high poly version in Mudbox, so first of all I needed to get acquainted with the program.


So after I downloaded Mudbox from the website I started looking at some tutorials to get used to the interface.


I looked at this series of tutorials on youtube at first

Which was helpful as it gave me the basic knowledge needed.


Also I looked at a the basics and all the following videos by Autodesk

After I watched these videos I decided to give Mudbox a try for myself.

I started off with the basic head that comes with Mudbox

From here I added a very basic structure of how I wanted the head to look, so I added more prominent cheekbones and worked on the nose more

I then added in more depth, increasing the polygons and added in deeper eye socks, more detailed ears and mouth, and also added a muscular neck

On this one I worked more on the lips and slightly tweaked other part of the head such as the ears

to try something new and experiment with more tools I decided to create a more exaggerated 'evil' looking face. So I used the grab tool to move part of the face around and then sculpted areas I thought necessary until I ended up with this

Then I decided to experiment with the cut tool to add in crease effects, like on his chin, around the eyes and also around the nose

The model now needed eyes and as I hadn't modelled in any I created a sphere and placed it into a socket. As Mudbox doesn't have a copy feature, for the other eye I exported and re-imported the sphere and placed it into the other eye

From there I simply used the sculpt took to mold the mesh around the sphere to create eyelids

Once I was happy with the result I thought I'd test out the paint tools and painted a clown-like face paint into the head

Character Design

So after looking at all my research I had some ideas of characters to draw. I decided that I'd make two good and two bad characters, both would have a strong and weaker character.


I choose my characters to have a retired police detective, a low ranking police officer, a strong robber and a weaker robber. The strong robber being the cash carrier and the weak handling the weapons.


So to start I went into photoshop and drew a base template for the strong characters, which the detective and strong robber will be drawn from.

Here I drew a front and side pose that I'll draw my strong character from, only the front pose will be draw first until I'm happy with the design.

I wanted to give my strong robber a Kevlar vest so he's like a tough Juggernaut character, I'm a bit worried he doesn't look '70s' enough. The strong robber needs be ruthless and mean, he doesn't care much for anyone if you're in his way, when it comes to money he'll do what's needed.

This is my Detective character, I gave him the cliché mustache and wanted him to be wearing plain clothes. The detective is an experienced character who is calm and collected, he's seen a lot so doesn't scare easily.

I then drew from the strong base, a more thinner and weaker base for the other characters.

After getting some feedback I decided to edit the thighs of the strong character to be slightly thinner, this made the overall figure look less chunky and out of proportion. I then went on to edit the characters and draw the sides also.

I also did a major overhaul to the strong robber and scrapped the vest altogether, if he was going to wear one it'd be under his clothes anyway, so I added an afro, turtleneck sweater and also large baggy jacket.

I made the detective's jacket a lot longer and removed some of the crease lines that caused the jacket to look very tight and shrunken

For the weaker base I extended the arm on the side view as it wasn't the same height as the front view

I also created the police officer character that I decided to give the large glasses, he is also rather thin to make him look weak and not intimidating, I wanted to give the feeling that this character would be slightly nervous and new at his job.

And finally for my small robber I chose to make him look slick, so he has an open collar shirt revealing a medallion, rolled up sleeves and also gloves and jeans. I decided to give him a balaclava as he is more worried about his appearance. 

Now all the sketches have been completed I decided to add colour and create an image of the character side by side to show scale comparison.

Here you can see the two strong characters are roughly the same size and have similar colour pallets.

The small criminal is the smallest character of them all but isn't the weakest, he's still much stronger than the cop.

Here I placed all the characters together from tallest to smallest to show the scale of the characters.

Research

Before I designed my characters I first had to research characters from the 70s. First of all I looked at characters from films and TV programs either from or based in the 70s.


I looked at the following and gathered lots of images for research:

The Bank Job

Life on Mars

Starsky and Hutch

The Italian Job

Dog Day Afternoon

The professionals

American Gangster

Dirty Harry

Magnum Force

Shaft

Black Dynamite

Assault on precinct 13

Chips

Here are the images of previous titles used for research:

This image was good for the hat and balaclava reference

This image was good for reference to show gloves were popular

The Bank Job was really good reference as it shown a scenario very similar to my project, a bank job during the 70s

Good reference for clothes and an open collared shirts

The American version of Life On Mars, good to see American versions of the detectives

the clothes and characters all in a neutral pose, showing the short leg length revealing the socks

This image was helpful to see the jackets and jeans' colour

Reference for an African Americans attire during the 70s

Another film based on a bank job during the 70s, note that masks not essential

Referencing the officers in this image for attire and also the bank robber is dressed scruffy due to the panic and pressure

Here the weapon was looked at, also long hair

Another look at the weapons

Another look at African Americans attire during the 70s

Good reference for the open collar and glasses

Here I looked at the suit and hair

Another look at the glasses and hair

Weapon reference

Another look at outfits and hairstyles

This was a spoof film of 70s style films, however it was useful to see clichés and was still authentic

Here I decided to look at sheriffs

Traffic patrol uniform

A closer shot of the traffic patrol

There were many more images looked at for research however the previous images are the ones I deemed important as they shown essential aspects I needed such as uniforms, clothing, hairs and weapons.

Research Continued

After all of the previous research it seemed  a bit restricted researching only into TV programs and films based or filmed during the 70s.


I decided to then look at the 70s as a whole for my research, looking at riots and ordinary pictures to see natural people and police.


Police


To begin I looked at all different kinds of police from ordinary officers to riot control, this will give me a range to choose which one I'll base one of my characters from.

Riot police

This is good as it shows the uniform and hat clearly

A good reference for the outfits and equipment used, also note glasses worn

Nightsticks seemed quite popular

London police hats

More London police

Another shot of London Police in standard uniform

While researching I came into this image from Porridge, while this is a TV show it's still useful for prison and guard outfits

More riot police with weapons

Another variation on London police

This image show American police in a different coloured shirt

The shirt colour and hat are what I'm looking for in this image for my character

This is a hat one of the characters will most likely be wearing

Police standing to attention, all wearing the same uniform and helmet

A wave of police charging

This image is good reference of the police trousers and night stick

More officers and their night sticks

This image wasn't from the 70s, but is important as it shows the uniform in some areas hasn't changed much at all

London police again, but showing different hats

This image was chosen as this is the look I'm going for, interesting that some police wore ties

Another shot of an officer wearing a tie

More officers and civilians with open shirts

This image was added again to show that I'm going to use this police officer as reference

This is a really good reference for a detective character, liking the moustache

Some more detectives

Another detective, no jacket but with a tie

Another moustache reference for detective

Another detective with large coat and no facial hair

I looked at the holster in this image in case my detective character will have one, and also the shirt and tie is good for clothing reference

Criminal

For my criminal characters I looked up bullet proof vests that they might wear, balaclavas and shifty looking guys in general. Here are some of the images I thought useful.

Shifty looking guy with shades and beard

Gang of guys, some with shades and all wearing black jackets

Thug looking guy with beady eyes and toothpick

Large open collar shirt, tucked in shirt and high pants

An image from the 60s showing that bullet proof vests have been thin before the 70s

Plain vest mostly likely used during the 70s

Another vest from the side

Vest showing that other than 'POLICE' written on the front, not much changed from small vests other than materials used

group of thugs causing chaos

Another bearded looking bad guy, large hair and coat also noted

This shows a robber wearing a balaclava and a suit, I wanted to stay away from making my robber wear a suit and balaclava like this as it's hard to tell if it's from the 70s

standard balaclava

Another thug wearing a balaclava, gloves and jacket

 Civilian

I also looked at standard civilians to get a grasp of the clothing used during the 70s period.

This is good for a large group of people and their clothes

Taking note of the guy in glasses and turtle neck, also moustache

All Male's trousers seem to be flared slightly at the bottom

Good reference for jeans and size of flare

Good hair reference and also short sleeve shirts were usually tight

Large collar and unbuttoned shirt seemed popular

I used this image to look at how a group of younger males may dress

Again another turtle neck sweater

I wanted to get reference for the guys flares and shoes

Here i wanted to reference the outfits like the guy with jeans and shirt

Another image useful for the large fair and facial hair

I found this image interesting as its just very casual and natural people 

Another reference for longer hair during the 70's