Type of Model:
Stealth Adventure Model for something like Splinter Cell
My entry into the Second Annual Dominance War, the crossover competition among various Game Art Forums. The Idea was to make a first strike sort of character they called a 'Shadow'. I teamed with CG Society which ended up having to do 'ancient' themed characters.
Basically, upon hearing 'Shadow', I started thinking about those Tibetan Demons you see in Thangka Art with like pitch black skin. The idea meandered, mixed with a bit of Penance (from Marvel's Generation X). It ended up getting a bit high concept but basically this is a stealth unit from a very harsh climate that the ancients have subjugated. Seeing this race as expendable, they arm them up & send them out at their enemies. Having adapted to their brutal home planet, they have skin made of super dense carbon, but pliable as flesh. It makes their skin impenetrable, & their retractable claws razor sharp. Also, their blood is essentially lava, heating the blades. And in the rare occassion they do bleed, they'll cause a pretty decent amount of collateral damage.
A weapon was optional so I came up with this thing I call the Sunyata Chakram. Basically it's a big disc that the creature controls telekinetically. It can basically propel itself at things & knock out targets, or act as a mode of transport (if the creature hops on... that was the idea anyway). But it's main feature is the fact that it can be planted at a location like a bomb & once activated, it can create a black hole, causing massive amounts of destruction.
Ultimately I think it got a little too high concept, & when it came time to work on the model, a few computer issues kind of made it difficult, as I still tried to learn the ins & outs of normal mapping on my own. Like the orange detail in the armor? Originally, I wanted that to be sort of a Tibetan design motif, but I ended up just stippling with my tablet. But I was still able to finish it within the deadline (albeit just barely) so I'm content with it, for now.
Also Thanks to my sister who provided facial reference for this one.