Minotaur-BG Competition

Well guys I figured I would take a shot at the BG competition as well this round. I’ve been wanting to do a character top to bottom and what better time then now right? :slight_smile:

These are just BI renders so be nice I’m not really at the point of shaders yet anyways and I plan on using cycles but for texture painting and GLSL previews it seems BI is the way to go until all your textures are finalized. So far I have baked AO and Displacement and Normal from my high resolution model to a low poly model. Right now my guy here is 1200 polys with a subdivision modifier set to level 2 with a displacement modifier using the baked displacement map.

Still a lot to do like more skin texture painting and need to work on the horns texture. Then on to the iron face mask which of course lightens the load on how good the face needs to look since it will be mostly hidden. This was intentional due to the lack of time left. Right now the iron mask is rough and will need sculpting and lots of baking:)

Of course spec maps need to be made and place him in some kinda scene. I was thinking of rigging him and having him breaking his chains like a frozen moment in time with the chains swinging around him and debris flying through the air.

Anyways here is where I’m at currently.
latest render:



where I started at:)


I almost forgot:) I got lots of hair to do! I plan on doing some wicked coarse hair on his legs, outer arms, back and shoulders, back of neck up to scalp…something like that:)

Here is a viewport render showing the polys. Definitely not great topology but it will work. I box modeled the guy first and then sculpted on the box model then baked back to the box model to avoid having to retopo. It actually worked really good:)


cool beans! looks really nice!

Wow, looks really nice indeed! The model itself is nice and especially the displacement/bump on the horns looks really good. Maybe i would add a little more intensity to the effect that the horns are more shiny where they grow “fresh” out the head and a little more “worn off” in front where the light parts are.

I would maybe give the Trapezius a bit more volume … that aside an excellent work again ( very good texture at the “mask” and horns ). Keep it up Derek :slight_smile:

Thanks guys I hope to have more progress posted monday. The horns will definetly get a lot more love dont worry. I’ll make more adjustments to the traps thanks sumolondo:)

More progress…son of a bitch texture painting a character takes forever to do even a decent job:) Still working on the skin textures and I haven’t even touched the spec map yet. I worked on the horns quite a bit. The face is rough…I’ll just say that;) Still need to work on the mask and more clothing and shackles ect. Oh and dont forget I have all kinds of hair to do. It’s going to be tight but I’ll get something submitted to the competition:)


Nice coloring on those horns! If you carry on like that it’s going to look great!

Fantastic looking character so far DerekG1080! That’s an interesting workflow you’ve used as well - baking a sculpture back onto a box model - at least you can keep your poly faces to quads that way …

I do agree with sumoLondo on the trapezius though.

Good luck dude!

Thanks guys I’m trying my best:) Creating a solid character is a lot of work for sure. I adjusted the traps a bit and worked on the skin texture and the mask texture. I’ll probably add some large finger like scratches across the entire metal mask as if he was trying to rip it off. There is still more work to do on the skin though. Need some more darkening and redness near where the finder nails, hoves and horns come out of the skin but I’m getting there:) I also improved the lighting just a bit but I’m going to take this guy into cycles once my textures are done:)


Looking good so far! I can’t help but imagine him with flaming eyes burning through the slits in his mask.

I’m with Jonathan L, here. You should consider a Balrog/Fire-demon. Only downside is that it would have to be rendered in BI for the flame and smoke.


Hehe thanks guys…Glowing eyes were definitely on the list. What type of glow I had not considered yet…whether flaming or just glowing. Love that last image…it gives me loads of inspiration. Sadly I dont think I will have time to do the flames since I have never even attempted rendering fire although I have watched many tut’s on it:)

Here is a tough question…right now he has no ears or even any indication of ears under the mask. I just cant seem to live with that:) Where in the hell should a put them? I was thinking like cow bull ears which are usually below the horns. The horns on this guy are just so large that right now the only place I can think to put them is almost below the jaw line under the horns which just doesnt seem right. Do you guys have any thoughts or ideas that do not require major changes to the head and horns?

I guess this guy could just be a demon and more reptilian and maybe not have traditional ears but something more like holes in the sides of his head???

Personally I’d remove the helmet period. The major - historical / legendary - thing about the Minotaur was that it was a humanoid with a bull’s head. I don’t think in any of the legends there was mention of a helmet / mask… unless of course you were copying the ancient greek rite where a priest wore a bull’s head mask to represent the Minotaur.

Even if you followed the concept of a balrog you’d have to remove the helmet.

Similarly - whatever you do - the helmet gives the impression that you started with a not bad model and then couldn’t be bothered to do a face… might be the angle / lighting after all the face looks remarkably flat.

Well Kuro you got me on the face;) Its definitely not the show piece of this guy. I did sculpt a pretty decent looking face but the normal map and displacement map baking just didn’t have enough resolution since the whole character uses a 4096x4096 texture image. Also the poly count on the face is really low. I have decided to revisit the face and take advantage of the hair I plan do to which will hide the seam line between the high resolution face and the lower poly neck. I’ll use the jaw line and such as hiding points. It should look pretty seamless and get the result I want in the time frame I have:) I can probably also incorporate an open mouth with like a battle scream expression. I have a very dynamic pose planned…so I’m hoping kinda like Jonathan that my composition and pose will carry the piece further:)

I added ears…kinda cow bull-ish. I think they work here:)

Still to do:

-High res face sculpt and texture
-Final grunge dirt texture on skin with maybe some smears of blood or paint for fun:)
-Shackles on wrists with broken chains and a chunk of broken stone wall still connected to one chain end.
-Other misc. leather harnesses and straps on body.
-Possible metal shielding on shoulder or forearm
-HAIR:)
-Fire eyes (red or blue flame maybe)
-Some scene modeling and pose




Wow , the work in progress takes shape :wink: ! I really like your character , I remembered to God Of War 3 ,when I fought Hades ! Anyway i really like to see the entire character in high res . Just one thing , I’ve not read everything yet in the post , but Will you put some scratches in the skin or create some burn skin ? If no , it was just an idea ,but anyway good work , It will be absolutly insane at the end !

It’s nice work. But I’d just critique it by saying that physiologically those undersized legs give him an unbalanced look, making it more of a caricature. If that was your intent, then good.

I personally like the model.

If you allow me to share…Everything is great except those ears that just popped out, and in general they absorbed my attention straight away. Perhaps if the ear color is darker or the shape of the ear is more sharp and the tip of the ear points upwards?..

My personal opinion is that the horns are a very important asset in your model. Placing those ears takes away from that…I believe.

Ok a little more progress:) I scaled his lower half up a bit to make the legs and waist a little larger. I also got a new face roughed out but no detailed texturing on it yet. The black eye is also a stand in for now. I’ll do more work on the face and eyes tomorrow and hopefully get it texture painted as well. I am going to keep the iron mask since this beast had been captured and restrained in a prison of sorts. The benefit of that idea is obvious since it hides much of the face:) I’m not lazy I just don’t have the time left to be honest:( I also shrunk the ears and darkened them up a bit. I agree they were way too over powering but I think they are necessary. Anyways is it looking better or worse…let me know.


Stand in or not, the black eyes suit him well.

Just an idea perhaps you could explore. Since he was captured in a prison, maybe add chains around his wrists.