Right, So How Should Ninmeh Look Like?
Based on the initial storyline, she is a descendant of Darth Maul. It would make sense that she would gradually transform her outer appearance to match or mimic her ancestral traits.
I am particularly drawn to the tattoos, as they give a monster-like feel and look, a sense of danger. Most likely, Darth Maul used this approach with his future victims, as let us not forget he served as an assassin.
My personal curiosity pushes me towards exploring how this would look on a gentler, female character.
Tattoos
Facial tattoos. I replicated the tattoo designs in ZBrush as a general guideline, yet with some variations to enhance the facial structure of a female character, by either injecting or subtracting shapes. Most of the work went into making the shapes thinner.
The Eyes
The path of Ninmeh is to become an ultimate villain—a Sith’ari. Following canon, one of the features this journey entails is the transformation of the eye color to a glowing red or yellow hue. Let’s see how that works on Ninmeh.
Keeping in mind that this visual exploration leads to her “final” stage, I entertained myself with the idea that even during the transformation, Ninmeh is still a young lady, and she would wear makeup or eyeliner. Because why not? Hence the dark red tint around her eyes.
One particular feature I want to retain is the visual communication of the eyes. I have no idea at this point what Ninmeh will be doing in future videos or clips, but I am pretty sure I want to focus on two things:
- Female beauty / Grace
- Danger
These two parameters make me think that the eyes should glow in the dark a bit, like a predatory animal.
Hair
I started hair exploration a while back, mostly in Maya and XGen. At this point, the hair direction is undecided, but I will leave the exploration snapshots here.
Body
Based on my initial notes, I assembled the 3D character loosely to see where the exploration might lead. Here are some examples of the directions.
Ongoing Project
Being a project of personal nature, I keep it open and work on it during my free time. This blog post will most likely be updated in the future.