The Beast Character Challenge - The Awareness

Another challenge I participated in was called "The Beast - A Character Art Contest", presented by Allegorithmic and hosted by Polycount.

The Briefing:

'In any adaptation of this universal theme, between the Beauty and the Beast, the Beast has always been the most fascinating character. He is a freak of nature, a monster, an anomaly who doesn’t belong in the world he lives in. But as strong and scary as he may look on the outside, the Beast’s repulsing appearance hides a fatal weakness. Because the Beast loves Beauty, and his love will invariably cause his undoing.

From Cocteau to Disney, from Boris Karloff to Johnny Depp or Andy Serkis, from Half Life 2's Dog to Bioshock's Big Daddy, the Beast has been portrayed hundreds of times in hundreds of different ways. Now what’s your take on this legendary creature?'

My goal:

I decided to create something close to the original fairytale. But it is something like a prequel scene. I wanted to show the prince who had previously been cursed by an evil witch. He is looking into the mirror, becoming aware of his new monstrous appearance.

My design points:

- big deformed head
- hunchback
- elephant- or tapir- like trunk
- 18th century french clothing
- Expression: sad, angry, agony
- pulls off his clothes in pain (human attributes)

First Concepts

Clay Maquette / Pose Development

With my pose I want to show the pain he feels, while he discoveres his new visage in the mirror. He has to be literally crushed by the 'weight' of this awareness. So I sculpted an analogue prototype with clay to define a pose of this kind.

Final Character Concept

The character will throw away his cloths to survey his body modifications in my scenary. So the character has to be developed in a full dressed version too. This will be my base for the t-posed character sculpture inside ZBrush.

The Final 3D Scene on Sketchfab

The Awareness (Polycount Beast Challenge) by Dirk Wachsmuth on Sketchfab


The Model