The Radiantly Mad King and his Retinue

The Radiantly Mad King is a character I designed in my third year at RIT. And his Retinue is the expansion which I am pursuing this quarter as my senior thesis. Here is a recap of the work I did last year and a brief introduction to the design of the project.

*Critiques or suggestions are welcome.

The Concept

This mad king is not a cruel ruler. He is distant, perhaps unaware that he is the king. Like most kings, he brings with him his loyal retinue of advisers and counselors as well as his queen, each putting up with the king in their own way. I originally planned for three characters: the king, his minstrel, and the servant but have since expanded this to include his queen and the captain of the guard.

The King stands at the fore of the scene, holding aloft his treasure- a gilded antique bird cage inside which a lonesome turtle hangs from a ribbon. Rays of light bathe the dome of the cage in a golden light which illuminates the figures where they stand along the aisle of the throne room. A wide smile spreads across his face as he displays the hapless reptilian friend.

The Minstrel plays his lute merrily, encouraging the king in his madness. His love for his music trumps his concern for the antics of the king and his melodies echo hollowly among the assembled figures.

The King's Steward was originally to be a disgruntled servant or a representative of the church but neither quite fit the position. Being the king's right hand man, he must take his cues from a man with no knack for paying attention, let alone the running of a kingdom. He is essentially the intern hired to carry coffee and clearly wishes he were doing better things than the menial tasks the king requests of him. He holds the king's long cape off the ground, a task usually assigned to a servant.

The Fat Queen is a deviously charming woman. She married for power and smiles to herself at the helpless situation the king's steward finds himself in knowing that it leaves her to run the kingdom. Despite her insatiable desire for power (and food), the queen is a cheerful woman who may be the only one patient enough for her king.

The Queen's Captain of the Guard is a tall imposing man who's eyes are lost in the shadow of his helm. He wears his decorative armor here in the throne room and does what he is told. In this case he pulls the queen on her mobile throne, a cart on wheels, further enforcing the impression that the king's court is in shambles.

Progress Recap

In my first go at the project, I completely designed, modeled, UVed, and textured the king. I spent a considerable amount of time designing clean reference sketches of him in Photoshop because both character design and digital sketching are fairly new to me. After layering the outfit in Photoshop, I moved into Maya and began to model the king. I started with a base mesh which I completed fairly quickly before making base meshes for each layer of clothing. I took these base meshes into Mudbox where I sculpted and painted each piece before exporting a final mesh to render with. At the end of the quarter I had taken a simple 5 minute sketch all the way through to completion in 3D.