This is my friend’s character for a campaign that we are in. He used AI to create the general look of his character, then designed a mini based on the outcome. I printed it out for him and used the AI image as a color reference.
Here are a few other angles:
And here is the AI generated image that the mini is based off of:
(The small girl is the character’s sister.)
What a fun project. I like the greens mixed into the blue skin.
He was pretty fun! I’m hoping my friend enjoys using him.
Thanks for noticing the greens. I was showing someone a dragonborn I’d painted, complaining that it looked plain and boring. His suggestion was to highlight his red skin with shades of orange and yellow to make the huge patches of red more interesting. The dragonborn already had his top coat applied, so it was too late for him, but I carried the suggestion over here, and I think it turned out pretty good.
I’ve got a couple dozen orcs that need paint, I want to try doing a few different themes for each army and play around with the skin tones/ highlights. The campaign I’m running is set primarily in the snow, and traditional forest-green orcs with leather armor feels out of place; the first set I want to do will have blue to gray skin, with a dark colored armor. I also want some red to yellow skinned orcs, maybe some have purple in their armor…
Sounds great! I love painting skin because it can be so varied in hue. Even human skin has greens and blues in it even though it’s usually looks more brown, red or yellow.
I have been… not great with human skin. Haha. I hear it’s something a lot of people struggle with. My aim is to practice the techniques on something a little more forgiving like the orcs where unnatural skin tones won’t be so obvious, then bring those over to the elves and humans.
Busts might be your answer for practicing flesh tones, but I originally clicked to compliment your skill as it is - painting, and designing, too. What did you use for the latter?
Thank you for the kind words. If by designing you mean the making of the actual mini, I can’t claim any credit here; this mini was made by a friend of mine, I assume through some mini-building website. I have zero talent in regards to artistic 3d modeling (but I can whip you up a bracket in SOLIDWORKS in no time!)
Busts are a great idea for flesh tones. It might actually be really cool to chop on of the orc minis I have and just print a bust of the head so I can play around with the tones on a larger canvas.
No worries, you’ve earned it! I’m happy to chat painting techniques & printing, if that’s of interest. I teach local free workshops on both for all skill levels & ages, and I’d be happy to cool links, wax philosophical on OG tricks, etc. Oh, and the model seems to’ve been printed from a much smaller original sculpt, if the highlighted facets in the pic are any clue. I’m curious where it came from, academically. 🤘🏽
I honestly don’t know where the mini came from. Like I said, I assume my friend used a website like TitanCraft or hero forge or similar to make him. As far as scaling, he may have bumped him up in size a little given his giant heritage, but the model is of “mini” scale (maybe 1.5 inches tall), so I can’t imagine it was increased by much. Could be printing artifacts?
Im curious about the name. I know half X is used with a lot of things but I would think with giants, and especially as you get bigger like ice, that it would be like there was an ice giant back in the ancestry backstory wise like grandfather or great grandfather. To get them to player character sizing like 9 feet or something.
Yeah, I’m honestly not 100% sure what his character’s actual lineage, nor do I know if he put that much thought in to it. That was just the most accurate, succint title I could come up with. Haha.
Really cool result. Great use of AI IMO. Also a really nice base. What is that material?
Thank you! The base is just… dirt. Like from my backyard. Lol. I blobbed some modge-podge on the base, rolled it around in some finer dirt, then picked some little rocks and coated them in super glue and tossed em on.
Highly recommend doing a little base flair to any minis you make. It’s a world of difference, and takes an extra 5-10 minutes.