Medieval Fantasy Cuirass Feedback...

Write Idea

I'm in the process of finishing one of my first meshes - a medieval fantasy cuirass (front and back chest armor plating).  It was assembled in Marvelous Designer, edited/painted in Blender, and rendered in DAZ Studio.  I took inspiration from Ancient Greek/Roman armor, but added baroque/rococo ornamentation.  I'm not done with the side straps (not sure what I want to do with them).

Any suggestions or feedback would be appreciated.

bytescapes

Looking at pictures of metal cuirasses, almost all have some kind of raised or flared trim around the arm holes and waist. There's probably a technical term for this, but I don't know what it is. Do a Google image search for "cuirass" and you'll see what I mean. If you could add that kind of detailing, it might make it more realistic (and more interesting visually).

Leather cuirasses don't seem to have the same feature, but the decoration on the front suggests that this is an embossed metal cuirass, not leather.

For the straps, I suggest you think about how straps might attach to a metal cuirass formed as two separate parts. As they stand, in their current unfinished state, they look as if they're glued on, which seems unlikely. I would presume that such straps would likely be attached to the body of the cuirass with rivets or something similar, so modeling the rivets would, again, both make the cuirass more realistic-seeming and more visually interesting.

Hylas

The ornaments look great!

But I don't really understand what the underlying material is supposed to be. Of course I realise it's not textured yet. But there's some subtle details that suggest that it's a soft material like leather or a thick fabric. But a leather armour with metal ornaments attached to it seems a little odd?

In any case, I personally like a cuirass with pecs and abs... but obviously that's very subjective.

csaa

 Write Idea,

Great project!

I can certainly see that as a basis for an ornate cuirass. The historical ones I've seen tend to be plain, but ... "historical accuracy" is something best left unsead here in this forum.

One item of note is that the gaps for the arms tend to be much larger than what you have. They're usually wide ovals from the photos I've seen. Maybe you can morph the shirt a bit more

along those lines so it doesn't look so much like a w-i-f-e-b-e-a-t-e-r as it does now.

Cheers!

Write Idea said:

I'm in the process of finishing one of my first meshes - a medieval fantasy cuirass (front and back chest armor plating).  It was assembled in Marvelous Designer, edited/painted in Blender, and rendered in DAZ Studio.  I took inspiration from Ancient Greek/Roman armor, but added baroque/rococo ornamentation.  I'm not done with the side straps (not sure what I want to do with them).

Any suggestions or feedback would be appreciated.

Write Idea

Thank you for the objective feedback.  It has really helped me push to better the mesh overall.  @bytescapes, @Hylas, & @csaa - all of you are wonderful artists!  So thank you again!

I've added trims around the neck, arms, and waist; lowered the under arm for more movement; and rendered one version as a metal cuirass.  One side of the two pictures below is a leather and the other is the metal version.

And I completely forgot to add a seam running down the side of the cuirass in this version, so I'm gonna have to redo that.  Still have no idea what I'm going to do with the side pieces.  I don't like belts on armor (I prefer a clean, ornate look, and belts just make it look clunky to me).

Hylas said:

In any case, I personally like a cuirass with pecs and abs... but obviously that's very subjective.

And I completely agree with you on this!  Pecs and abs are akin to the Roman/Greek armor I'm drawing inspiration from.  The base figures I'm going to attach them to are muscular, so it will distort the overall mesh and give the chiseled look in the end.

Again, thank you for the wonderful feedback!

LynnInDenver

Write Idea said:

And I completely forgot to add a seam running down the side of the cuirass in this version, so I'm gonna have to redo that.  Still have no idea what I'm going to do with the side pieces.  I don't like belts on armor (I prefer a clean, ornate look, and belts just make it look clunky to me).

Put the belts UNDER the front and back plates, instead of over, that will help clean up the look. Real armor does this so that the points the belts/straps are attached are protected.