Castlevania: Symphony of Night is the best game in the franchise. It wasn't the first time we saw Alucard--the half-vampire son of Dracula in the series--but it's the first time we got to see the white haired, sword-wielding version of him. Mondo is celebrating the character's awesomeness with a 16-inch statue, going on sale on February 1.
There will be two versions of the statue: the regular version for $300 and the Mondo exclusive for $305. The Mondo exclusive comes with a third interchangeable arm which is holding a shield that has Alucard's crest on it. But how does one of these statues come together and what's the final product look like?
We talked to Mondo's Creative Director Brock Otterbacher about the creation of this piece from conceptual art to final, realized statue, including some in-depth pictures of the final Alucard piece. If you're just interest in the final product, click here to check it out.
Based On Ayami Kojima's Art
When Mondo started working with Konami a few years ago, Brock Otterbacher wanted to do something from Symphony of Night and quickly realized that Alucard was the way to go. Mondo started its work by looking at Ayami Kojima's art--she was the artist behind Symphony of Night, as well as other Castlevania and Dynasty Warriors games.
"Her art has always been very inspirational to me," Otterbacher told GameSpot. "I had always come across and looked at her art, especially from the game. And this one image in particular that always kind of stuck out to me, which was an image of Alucard. His cape is part-bat, part-wolf, and that direct image is the inspiration for this. This was made years ago, I was like, 'Wow, I would love to someday get the opportunity to do the statue of this.'"
Early Mondo Concept Art
From there, Mondo enlisted the talents of artist Sara Diesel. "She had a lot of really beautiful fantasy art, that I could see applying to what we wanted to do, so she was game for it," said Otterbacher.
Concept Art
Some elements of the statue were tougher to nail than others, according to Otterbacher. "The tricky part, though, was nailing the aesthetic and the look of the wolf in the mist, and the cape."
Concept Art With Color
3D Model
After the concept art, the team went ahead onto the 3D model, which was done digitally. "Sometimes we do it traditional as well, depending on what it is or who we're working with," explained Otterbacher. "In this case, I wanna say, this product has had an unusually long life-cycle, just because we've kind of taken our time with it."
3D Model
"Starting the 2D concept, to getting the sculpture done, can be anywhere usually from about two to three months," Otterbacher continued. "That's pretty fair, and that doesn't include revisions."
Close-up On 3D Model Of Alucard's Face
3D Model Of Separate Parts
Putting together the digital sculpt took quite a bit of time, according to Otterbacher. "In this case, being a digital sculpt, you have to have it digitally printed, and then you have to have those things cleaned up, and then you have to have those pieces molded and cast. You have multiple pieces, and you have to have all that painted up. So it's generally--getting a full prototype--that can take four or five months. We've been able to push it quicker before, but with something like this, it took us a pretty decent amount of time."
3D Model Of Mondo Exclusive Statue
Otterbacher discussed how the Mondo exclusive came to be. "I was talking to the sculptor, Matthew Black, and he and I were just talking, and I'm like, 'Oh, I'd love to figure out, like doing an alternate arm or hand.' And I was like, 'Well, let's do the shield,' and then he was like, 'Well I don't know, the way this sword is positioned, it might collide with the shield.'"
Final Alucard Statue (Mondo Exclusive)
Here is a final look at the Mondo exclusive version of Alucard, which includes an interchangeable hand featuring Alucard's shield.
Close-Up On Mondo Exclusive Alucard
"When we started working on the prototype--because we had the shield--we figured out how to make the shield and the sword not intersect with each other," stated Otterbacher. "We want the shield exclusive. It's awesome, so why not just throw in the dagger hand as just a fun extra inch of the regular version? So even if you get the regular version, you have at least two different display options."
Interchangeable Right Hand
For both the Mondo exclusive and regular version of Alucard, it comes with an interchangeable right hand, with Alucard throwing a dagger. "In one of the pieces of art, Alucard's throwing a dagger," said Otterbacher. "So [Matthew Black] just pitched it, like, 'How about this?' And he just did it. And it was like, that's f*****g awesome. That's great. When you see it in person, it looks like it's just taking off from his hand."
Alucard's Cape
The most challenging part with this statue came from Alucard's cape, which transitions into a wolf head and a bat, as the cape continues to the base of the sculpture. "Mireya Romo-Bowen was our painter on it, and she, being a huge, huge fan of vampires, just was like, 'I want to do this,'" explained Otterbacher. "The difficult part was [that] it's a solid paint job, There's nothing. No light coming through, and then once you get to the mist part of it, that's where it starts to kind of fade and kind of transition out."
Challenges With The Cape Transition
"The challenge [Romo-Bowen] had was really kind of blending it, covering it, and getting enough opaqueness to it so you're not noticing when you're photographing it, like a whole bunch of bubbles," detailed Otterbacher. "If you look closely, in person, you'll see it, at least in the prototype. But also to have it so it allows it to be translucent, even when it's kind of a grayish-purple mist or misting a spray over it. So it's crazy and it takes a lot of problem-solving and patience, is really what it is."
Creating A Translucent Cape
There were plenty of challenges with this cape during the prototype phase. "We have this cape that goes around, and we needed the majority of it solid," detailed Otterbacher. "[We needed to] find a place where we can break the seam and do it so the last part of it is translucent. Because we didn't want to put the whole thing translucent and then paint over only part of it, just because it's hard to do translucent stuff and it just wouldn't work out that way. So the problem we had is you get a bunch of bubbles in this stuff, like when you're doing it. Again, we're just prototyping. It's not the main factory process. It's just prototyping. So we had an issue of bubbles, and we had all this kind of goofy stuff that you never think about when you get into this business."
Final Alucard Statue
What excited Otterbacher the most about Alucard is the 360 degree look at the character, which reveals quite a bit about who Alucard is. "He's this very regal, kind of beautiful person from the front, and the idea that you get to see his other form just by turning the piece around just a little bit, and it's kind of like a reveal. Because there's an angle you can look at it where you don't see that stuff at all, and that's kind of fun. It's kind of a pretty ... He's a very anime-looking character, but then once you turn it around you see that kind of like, monstrous side to him. I just like that conceptually."
Final Alucard Statue
Final Alucard Statue
Final Alucard Statue
Final Alucard Statue
Final Alucard Statue
Final Alucard Statue
Final Alucard Statue
Final Alucard Statue
This Alucard statue will be released on 2/1 from Mondo. The regular version will cost $300 and the Mondo exclusive--which includes an interchangeable shield for Alucard's left hand--will cost $305.
from GameSpot http://ift.tt/2rXJjwe
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