Here is a few pics of an orc character that I am working on. I'll be posting him as a free download when he is complete. The morph and textures are being made with Blacksmith3D-Suite 2.2  The head and body textures are 4096x4096 in size.

Any suggestions on how to make him better? I am torn between giving him an overly musclear build (seen here) or a skinny, sickly frame.

By the way, I haven't started working on the eye textures, so they are still white.

He looks really great!!

Question?  How come their aren't any female Orcs?  How do they repopulate?

purely personal preference: i like my orcs to be solid, stocky, muscular creatures. so yours is definitely going in the right direction. i'd probably like the head to be larger, and the figure to be a bit more compact. nice texture!

Hehehe. Good call on the female thing.  But then again, the wizard dude in LOTR made them from mud in a big hole in the ground.

Yeah, the head/body proportions could be tweaked. I'm trying to think of ways to make his body seem less human. Ragged clothes may help, and maybe some scars (via displacement maps).

Keep the comments coming!

There are actually female orcs :)

How hard would scaley be to do? That might be cool, course I like orcs but I'm not real up on the details of how they should be. lol I like him, I do think his head is a bit small for the body; but he's just awesome! :)

I'd rather see orcs as big and stocky, maybe a fatness morph, but they shouldn't be skinny sickly.  Thats what goblins are for! ; )

Actually, I think skinny can be much more of a "character" and conveys more evil to me . . .

I think it depends on what type of personality you want to give him. Is he a strong heroic orc warrior? Then go for muscular. If you want him to be evil, I personnaly think skinny then makes the better character. I also think we have seen so much of the Freak-type muscle buold that it is the equal of  the big boob heroic girl in chainmail. Why not try something really unique so he does not get lost among the crowd of other body builders?

So, I guess I vote for skinny. That is my 2 cents.

Great work! I am very impressed!

Tim

Wow. Those are some great suggestions. The one thing that did not occur to me that was mentioned was "fat". A big powerlifter belly may be a good way of making him look powerful, but less bodybuilder like.

True you see lots of Freak based types of characters, but the orc in fantasy is quintessentially a powerhouse.   They're meant to be engines of destruction, and if you think about most orc backgrounds, skinny/weak ones are the first to be murdered by their bretheren. 

Quote - Hehehe. Good call on the female thing.  But then again, the wizard dude in LOTR made them from mud in a big hole in the ground.

That would be the Uruk-Hai that Saruman created.

I like the morph, it looks great!  Be very interested to see this morph when it's finished.

Thats looking great : ) 

Sorry, he doesn't look like any orc I've ever seen in LOTR, Warhammer, you name it. What kind of a reference are you working from? He looks more like a nosferatu from the game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Somebody needs to make an orc in the Dungeon and Dragons or World of Warcraft styles. Your orc is nice, but also similar to the one Daz has for V3, M2, and M3, and the one in freestuff for V2.

Warcraft 3 style would be easy since it is so "toony". With this project, I was going for a bit more realism to show off the high resolution maps (4096x4096).

Indeed, I am a big WC3 fan, and that would make a great project as well. The only probem is that I would have to morph the hands so they are massive, and that would mess up the rigging for the fingers in Poser. I could easily export a new CR2/OBJ file combination from Blacksmith3D, but then I would run into redistribution (copyright) problems.

In the future, I would like to have a high quality 3D human that I can morph and distribute the entire geometry freely. Perhaps in a month or two.

Can you post an image of an orc in the D&D style that you speak of?

In the mean time, I am going to morph him a loin cloth from a torus and two planes.

Attached Link: Link is to the Orc army art @ Games Workshop

Info: The picture is of an Orc Warboss, which is typically in command of a unit.

Gotta agree with others on the face though... it puts me more in mind of something undead/vampiric rather than orcish.  I think the features need to be stronger, blunt and broader.  I also really love those big jutting lower teeth. 

Here's an example.

I see what you mean. I can make the jaw wider and stronger. Big teeth are possible as well. Thanks for the advise and keep it coming!

Great!  I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do!   Will post some more pics for reference if I find any good ones.

And thank you so much for doing this as a freebie.  I love 'beastly' characters and I've already got plans for this big guy! 

Neyjour: Some awesome example of what I was refering to!

-James

Some "official" dungeons and dragons orcs: The Orc god, thus scale a little overdone:

Best Orc drawing in DnD is on page 23 of the 3.5 DMG, in my opinion, but I couldn't find it online. It really captures that 'genre's' distinctive approach to orcs.

Hi. Just to chime in as a modeler...

If you want to keep that body mass, you should seriously think about increasing the size of the neck to match. You can slide on the head depending on how realistic you want to be. One thing you didn't seem to take into account when using your ref is that the orc is actually average sized to thin. The rest of his bulk comes from his armor. So, if you're going for something similar, you may want to tone his mass down a little. Just a thought.

Attached Link: http://www.project-human.com

Can check out the Project Human figures to experiment with, free to use them in any way for any purpose. The only thing you have to do is include the original open-source file to state where the base file came from, but that's not asking much for free figures to fiddle with and distribute however you feel.

I don't use Mike, but I like the "pudgy" orc look. Something a little different is always nice to see. =)

Quote - Here are some of my orc renders (heavy postwork). M2 and M3 with custom morphs. Some painted hair and some Poser hair, some painted clothing and some Poser clothing (Poserworld, Xurge3D, Daz etc).

Those are yours? I saw those on a product page over at one of the DnD websites.

don't use Mike, but I like the "pudgy" orc look. Something a little different is always nice to see. =)

Yeah, it would be much easier to use "The Freal" as the base, but by using Mike, anyone can download him for free and use the morph, making him more accessible. The big disadvantage in using Mike is that I cannot morph the hands to super large proportions, since it will mess up the rigging in Poser (hands will not pose properly).

I could output a new CR2 and OBJ combination that will auto-rig the hands for the larger shape, but I would not be able to redistribute the files (copyright laws). Maybe I'll do one just for me :)

I will DEFINATELY check out the "project human" figures. This is exactly what I would like to have. I would love to create tonnes of morphed characters and be able to redistibute the geometry freely. Thank you so much for the suggestion!

"Those are yours? I saw those on a product page over at one of the DnD websites." Yup... that would be me (the same nick and all is a dead giveaway too).

 y'know..a few more wrinkles, and a yellow texture, and he could be the creep from Sin City..;)

Just add the big pointy teeth and the guy is ready to go :)

Looking really good!  Definitely don't forget to add the teeth.    Other than that, the only two things I would suggest is making the end of his nose less pointy.  And maybe flatten and widen his skull a bit.  The side and angled views look great, but for some reason it looks very tall/domed and thin in the face-front shot.

He looks awesome! I love the asymmetric look!

heh and you know how I feel about Blacksmith already ;o)

Impressive teeth (although maybe a biit too long, but that's only me) ! And ditto on face asymmetry, that's something really unique among Poser characters. Love the ears :)

"Impressive teeth (although maybe a biit too long, but that's only me) ! And ditto on face asymmetry, that's something really unique among Poser characters. Love the ears :)"

Thanks alot, and u2 Trekkie Grrrl.

I'm going to finish up the eyes and give him loin cloth and club tomorrow. I'll morph the club from a cylinder or sphere (while adding some spikes of course) and I'll make the loin cloth from two planes and a torus. Should be fun.

Me wants the club, me wants ^.^

Eyes are good, you can leave them this way. What I'd change is his lips texture - it looks a bit like a poor goth make-up. Maybe you could try how does he look like with lips of same color as rest of head texture, or with narrow lips of dark skin surronded with band-like area of normal skin ? (hope you understand what I'm talking about - kinda hard to explain it, as English is not my native language).

Whatever you'll decide, I'm in line for downloading him when he's ready ^.^