Gorilla Centaur #3

Here is my final concept sketch of the gorilla centaur, and I am ahead of schedule! I have spent the last month figuring out the logistics of such a character and what kind of character he is. My story has also been updated. On this island where these creatures live, prisoners are sent there as well. The Pantheon, the rich people behind the whole thing, send these prisoners into the wild to watch them survive, or try to at least. So these gorilla centaurs will usually have trophies from when they hunt these men, such as the skull on our centaur friend. I may want to add in some more accessories or armor, especially on the gorillas left side to add some more balance to the piece when I work on that in 3D.

His weapon took some time for me to figure out, but the idea was that a piece of a drone wing was used to create the butt of the spear. It has metal shards tied down for some extra gruesome shredding capabilities. The main spear head is also metal that the centaurs filed down for more of a precision slicing and jabbing. They used a long leather strip for the handle and a strong wood carved core to keep it all together. They also fastened bolts to sandwich it all in place. My thought is that these creatures are constantly exposed to technology in some way or another, and they are extremely intelligent beings. So they can reverse engineer how things are built, learning what a bolt is and its function for example.

I wanted them to appear tribal, so he has several wraps all around him containing different symbols made of metal and bone that all sort of tell a story of his life. Like having a bunch of charm bracelets I suppose is a way to look at it. The fabric around his human waist is there to show a sort of unity these creatures feel between their two halves. This would be common among the warrior centaurs, as they believe through unity they can achieve power.

I have also began working out the overall idea in Zbrush, just to help adjust my brain from 2D to 3D, and figuring out how to pose the model for rigging. One thing I have to keep in mind is how I expect this character to be able to move. I want this gorilla portion to have the ability to switch between normal gorilla walking (on all fours) and be able to stand on two feet in order to have a greater reach and really be able to exaggerate the pose when the centaur shows force or dominance. One example is that maybe he can stand shortly on his hind legs and pound his gorilla chest. The human portion will have a typical A pose to avoid as much distortion as possible with deforming the lats and deltoids. That is my thought anyway. So far my idea with this pose is that I can more easily access the inside of the shoulder and underarm when working on the retopo and also when I create the normal map details in Zbrush on the higher poly model.

Design wise, I believe that in 3D, I want to experiment with the more human half a bit more, and Find a way to mesh the bodies together better to help make it feel like one system. So, my game plan for that will be to throw more gorilla influences in the human half, especially the torso and arms and maybe even the hands. A couple of examples would be to tighten the pectorals such as that of a gorilla, play with the proportions of the upper and lower sections of the arm to also be more like that of a gorilla. The hands can be pushed alittle, maybe by increasing the space between his thumb and the beginning of his index finger.

I have begun working on some ideas for the face to build off of my drawing and start pushing more gorilla influences. Right now he looks more caveman, and that is the sort of look I am working toward. Right now he is a bit nubby, but I like to make the hands and feet separately when sculpting.

So far I am liking the way our centaur is coming together, From here I plan to receive as much feedback as possible while I build him up more and work toward my final sculpt. I am still focusing more on foundations to make sure he is off to a good start. There will be alot more updates to come as I work my way through this design.

Until next time!

Ean