So this is a weird one. It all started with an idea I had; To make Charon or Kharon, the ferryman of Hades who carries souls back and forth over the Styx river. Simple enough. I started to sculpt him and then I realized that no one would actually need it. I do this ’cause I love it, but even I have my limits, I had to -somehow- turn back at least some of the profit, considering this is also how I pay bills after all. So I took a day or two off and re-arranged my thoughts.
I had already made an emaciated man blank, but what can it be used for that is both, satisfying for me to work on and useful for my audience? And it clicked; Mummies. And not the stereotypical Egyptian ones, just regular ones found in modern urban ruins or graves. A random desiccated corpse, if you will. I’m sure it would’ve been fun to make the Egyptian variant, but sadly that sorta thing deserves a project of its own, similar to what I did with the Japanese Model Pack.
As the work began on these, the same Charon blank was used for both, male and female and modified to fit the gender of each, which is why they sort of look like siblings and also explains the weird nose job they both got; Most mummies have some semblance of a deflated nose, it’s actually rare to see the vomer bone exposed like this, but that’s a trait both inherited from Charon, therefore I decided to call these two: Charles and Sharon.
The research on Charles and Sharon was pretty straightforward; Mostly Google images, which is how I realized about the nose morphology, but I still decided to carry on with that design trait as part of its overall aesthetic ’cause it looks original. One thing, however, that became sort of a concern during the course of the project was nudity.
You see, my concern here was that it would be more tightly regulated and subject to age checks and that would limit its exposure. Since most people were going to use clothed variants of the mummies, it made no sense to sculpt genitalia that could potentially hinder sales and therefore, the mummified duo became non-anatomically correct.
In the end I had a few regrets with this project, as I do with every single one of them but I am happy with how it all turned out, and I might re-visit this in the near or far future, just like I did with the Japanese model packs and other such projects. In the mean time, you can view more pictures Here or purchase and download this model pack here:
https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/character/anatomy/pbr-rigged-mummies-with-2-sets-of-clothing
https://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/1786779
https://blendermarket.com/products/pbr-rigged-mummies-with-2-sets-of-clothing