12" ROTS Anakin Skywalker WIP

[unsung hero]

hmmm... the new part of the hair doesn't look right to me... it seems kinda weird, clumping together in equal amounts almost like dreadlocks in front of his face... I always thought it should be more together and swept over to the side like this:

sorry unsung, just looks kinda unnatural to me...

I was going for the end of the film look, where it's kinda sweaty and unkempt. (more than usual!)

 

[unsung hero]

I'm at work, so I don't have access to all of my images, but I did a quick image search and found two that resemble what I was going for. They are a little dark, but I think you can see what I was after. Though, with the separate hair, I could probably do another that is more normal for those that want a choice.

 

[the dude person]

ah, I can see that now...

you know, the second pic was originally a behind the scenes pic of him taking a break after filming part of a fight scene...

If you want it unkempt like that, I don't think it should be so bunched up into dreadlocks... whenever I have seen professional compaines do stray bits of hair, it's usually thin raised lines on the surfaces of the forehead itself... so you should make finer clumps, perhaps clinging a little to the surface of the sculpt itself.... that way, you can get it really thinned out without worrying about it breaking...

this is sort of what I mean:

of course that's hot toys, so they can get super fine sculpted hair that's actually separated from the forehead, but imagine if the hair on MJ here was pretty much attatched to his forehead.

for now I think it's just too clumpy though...

of course, you could always try adding a bit of real hair instead....

but otherwise, I would sculpt it against the forehead surface...

 

[the dude person]

oh and by the way, welcome to SSF !!Snake-Eyes!!!

 

[unsung hero]

Yeah, the way that hangs away from the forehead is what I was going for. And to be honest, I even had a DX Joker sitting in front of me to try and get it like that, but for some reason my brain can not wrap around how to sculpt hair like that. More practice, I'm sure will help! But, anyway the whole reason I sculpted the bangs separate was to have it hang like that, otherwise I would have made it all one piece. But, I'll probably do a second "not as messy" version too. After all, it's only a hair piece, shouldn't take long.

In the meantime, here are some better shots of the head.

And one (poorly) colorized!

Now, it's time to focus on Maul so that the others can progress.

 

[the dude person]

Yeah, the way that hangs away from the forehead is what I was going for. And to be honest, I even had a DX Joker sitting in front of me to try and get it like that, but for some reason my brain can not wrap around how to sculpt hair like that. More practice, I'm sure will help! But, anyway the whole reason I sculpted the bangs separate was to have it hang like that, otherwise I would have made it all one piece. But, I'll probably do a second "not as messy" version too. After all, it's only a hair piece, shouldn't take long.

In the meantime, here are some better shots of the head.

And one (poorly) colorized!

Now, it's time to focus on Maul so that the others can progress.

Oof!

"knock knock!"

"Who's there?"

"Goliath."

"Goliath who?"

"Goliath down, you looketh sick."

oh unsung, don't you know, people aren't supposed to be green? Find a picture of someone with skin on the internet (not terribly hard, I should think!), and use the eyedropper tool to get a color sample and use that if you need to! I reworked the earlier color map to fit this pic, this is what I came up with:

Here's what I did: first, I selected only the head, copied it, and put it in a new layer on top of everything else. Then (this step is optional), I lightened the layer a little bit. Here's a PNG of it, you should be able to copy and paste it over your original image with the transparency still preserved

Then, I selected the head again (you can ctrl + click on the thumbnail of the headsculpt's layer), then, in a new layer colored it in using tan, some pink, and for the eyes, red on the outside, with orange in the middle, then a dot of black, with a dark brown for the hair. This layer will be the layer for color, while the other layer will be the layer for detail and shape. Here's a PNG of the color layer:

now what you want to do is put the detail layer on top of the color layer, and set the detail layer to multiply. Go ahead, copy the above PNG's into photoshop, put the original image on the bottom, color in the middle, and detail on top and set it to multiply!

Hope this helps some...


PS just realized that when you paste the PNG files into photoshop, the supposedly transparent background is black. You can use the magic eraser tool (right click on the eraser and it should be there) to click on the black with the tolerance set to 10, and it should get rid of it nicely!

hope I don't come across as a jackass...

 

[unsung hero]

No worries, no offense taken! I didn't think it look very green until you said something, and now that's all I can see!

I did another front piece of hair, both will be molded when I do the head.

 

[the dude person]

Ok unsung, now I tried real hard on this one, think it came out pretty well...

It was actually pretty simple...

just kidding, I actually deformed a real pic of Anakin's face so that it would match your sculpt, I had to do lots of bendy things to his eyes, nose, lips, and ears... which left holes that needed to be filled in... I'm not terribly pleased with the result, probably never do it this way again! It took more than half an hour... (the regular way only takes 5-10 minutes)

here's the original image, with the deformed face next to the real one:

Oh crap! Forgot to straighten the nose... oh well... I've become a digital plastic surgeon! Oh...



anyway, here's the real one:

I think that hairpiece is much better looking than the other one... I think you should try to redo the other one thinner... perhaps sculpt it on the forehead (or similar surface), then recast it and cut away all the skin parts until you're left only with the thin pieces of hair? Or sculpt it on a wax version of the head, then simultaneously bake the clay while melting the wax? That way you could have a super thin hair addition and keep it away from the forehead a little...

 

[the dude person]

any chance of an old anakin, like what he would look like when he died if he hadn't gotten his ass whooped on Mustafar?

He would look like this I think:

sorry I got bored and couldn't restrain myself from posting that!

 

[unsung hero]

I think that hairpiece is much better looking than the other one... I think you should try to redo the other one thinner... perhaps sculpt it on the forehead (or similar surface), then recast it and cut away all the skin parts until you're left only with the thin pieces of hair? Or sculpt it on a wax version of the head, then simultaneously bake the clay while melting the wax? That way you could have a super thin hair addition and keep it away from the forehead a little...

What I did for the first one (and third, but we will get to that later )was made a crappy qucik cast from an alginate mold, added a layer of wax an sculpted it there. So, it does fit the hairline, and once the wax removed, sits away from the forehead. So, you and I think alike!

Now, I think hair is my Achilles Heel, so to speak...I have trouble with it, but am getting better. So, after looking at the MJ pics you posted, I thought I'd give the messy hair another run. My girlfriend likes this one better. I went about it with a different tool set, I may try that set again.

 

[the dude person]

What I did for the first one (and third, but we will get to that later )was made a crappy qucik cast from an alginate mold, added a layer of wax an sculpted it there. So, it does fit the hairline, and once the wax removed, sits away from the forehead. So, you and I think alike!

Now, I think hair is my Achilles Heel, so to speak...I have trouble with it, but am getting better. So, after looking at the MJ pics you posted, I thought I'd give the messy hair another run. My girlfriend likes this one better. I went about it with a different tool set, I may try that set again.

Ah, no wonder we arrived at the same conclusion, how many solutions are there to this particular problem?

"Why is a soap bubble round? Because it is the most efficient form." (if anyone knows where that quote came from, I'll be surprised! Although, I'm sure some people are spacey enough...)

I think you just need to roll little cylinders of hair that thin out so much at the end, if you baked the cylinder by itself you could shank someone with it ... I mean, really get it thin at the end... I've tried this with sculpey firm, just get 4 or 5 strands arranged the way you want, then add some hair detail to the thicker parts of them... the tips of the strands should be so thin, you can't draw a line in them with a knife/other carving tool without crushing it completely, but the top end should be just thick enough to carve a line or two... Trust me, if you do this, your hairpiece will be so much better... his hair doesn't clump together the way you sculpted it there, it's very fine and stringy!

I think it's getting better, keep working at it, I think you'll get there soon...

and hold on a sec, your girlfriend likes the sculpt?!? You lucky dog...

I find it quite difficult to locate potential life mates, as they appear to be repulsed by my strange and extravagent hobbies of entertaining myself with small, petroleum-based representatives of humanoid form. Many solar cycles ago, my parental units did on multiple occasions warn me of the impending urgency to adapt to the culture developed by the species ____ sapiens sapiens in order to gain the privelege of mating with any of its finer specimens...

erm... I mean, uh, I have trouble finding a girlfriend...

"WAY TO GO, CHUCK!"

*ahem*, oh boy, well that just sort of slipped out...