Character Showcase: Gorgon (Patreon)

It's been about a year since I've done a proper character breakdown before.  I think what I used to do was focus on the notable challenges with the particular character and break them down into sections.

I've been working on the Gorgon piece by piece for a while now so I'm happy that she's finally coming together.  She might need a few tweaks here and there during production but for the most part she's complete.

The Gorgon posed quite a few unique challenges compared to my other OC characters.  Particularly: the anatomy, the snakes, and the outfit.

Anatomy

The most prominent trait about the Gorgon (aside from the snakes) is her two dicks.  Usually I'm not very experimental when it comes to fetishes.  I've got the futa thing and that's pretty much it.  I like different types of bodies, different positions, different dynamics, etc.  However I wanted this project to be a little more unique then my usual work and you can only make so many futa characters before you need to try something different.  Thus, the decision was made and it became foundational for the character.

But what are the challenges of having two dicks on a character?  Well aside from the modeling and texturing work, there aren't many.  You just sort of have to do everything twice.  However I do have some other genital-related tech to show off.

Coming up with a simple and flexible solution to foreskin for dicks can be complicated.  Since it's too complex to just use bones, I originally used a series of shapekeys that I would just keyframe and 'eyeball'.  This was sort of a time-consuming process and it had major limitations, so I came up with something better.

I ended up going with a hybrid solution.  Essentially I use an empty bone to drive a series of shapekeys.  The bone is limited to a certain axis, meaning it essentially functions as a slider built into the armature.  Not only is it more convenient then using a driver shapekey or property, it can also be parented to other bones in the scene for automation.  By manipulating the driver curves, I can engineer it so it all operates smoothly, but it still maintains its flexibility.

Additionally, having a singular bone to point to for the drivers means it's easy to drive other properties as well, such as material nodes.  On this particular mesh I have nodes set up to adjust the material according to where the foreskin is at.  As the foreskin goes forward, it gets smoother.  Years of human innovations and technical advancements have led us to this point.

As far as other tech goes, I've done a little bit more work on the materials and the rig.  One improvement of note is the spline IK rig.  It's not a silver bullet solution, but for some tricky poses it's a life-saver.  Basically it works by manipulating a 'curve' which the bones follow like their on a track, instead of manipulating the bones directly.  It's great for making the dicks (or whatever else) stay in a hole without much extra work.  I can ease it on and off whenever I want too.

Speaking of 'or whatever else', I gave the gorgon a big snake-like tongue.  You won't see it that often, but it will be utilized at times in the animation.  However for now you'll just have to wait and see..

Snakes

Surprisingly, rigging and styling the snakes was a fairly easy and fun task.  Making them work in motion required some research and planning.  Unlike hair, snakes are... alive.  As we all know, living snakes tend to move.

While doing some research I found that animators of the past have almost treated the snakes like an extension of Medusa's head or eyes.  To use acting terms, she 'leads' with them.  Since I wanted this character to be more relaxed, I wanted her hair style and hair... behavior to reflect that.  Instead of aggressively twitching around, hissing and snapping, they just sort of mellow out and writhe around.  They needed a wriggle rig.

I wanted to automate as much of it as possible, but keep it flexible enough for manual animation.  The hair needs to give the impression of motion, but not so much that it disrupts the shape.

The best solution I found was another Spline IK rig.  The bones of the snakes would follow a curve, and the points of that curve would follow more bones or empties.  By selecting the right location and rotational values of those bones and empties, I was able to get a solid 'wriggling' look with just noise modifiers.  I also threw in a few shapekey and material tricks to make their tongues flick and their eyes dart.  Fun fact: snakes don't have eyelids.

Aside from automation, the snakes need to react to the movement of her head and in some cases her emotions as well.  This is all possible with the controls I built in, but I also implemented some broader control bones and modifiers that could be used to manipulate the snakes as a whole.  It's hard to say how this will work in practice, but my hope is that I've built in enough solutions to arrive at something decent.

Outfit

While the other sections still related to character design, this one was perhaps the most interesting way of doing it.  I've never done any kind of costume design before and it's a fun way to explore a character before the clothes come off and the sex part starts.

When starting the project I knew this was something I wanted to dip my toe into, so I shopped around for 2D artist for some concept art.  Funny enough, this was my first time commissioning art.  Eventually I found the right match and sent them pretty detailed instructions, character reference, and style reference for both characters.

Since I had the script before the outfit designs, there were a few requirements and a few preferences.  I needed to keep her barefoot, with her head unveiled and easy access to her nether regions.  However I also wanted to emphasize her shoulders and breasts.

I liked the results I got back and sent them around to a few other artists for feedback.  Most people seemed to gravitate towards option 4, others liked the 'god-like' style of 1 and 3.  At the time I was worried, because I was most partial to 2.  Thinking back, my choice made a lot more sense since I was the only one who had read the script (and known what was in my head).  I think others had a much more ethereal, ominous, dominant style in mind; where I wanted something a bit more grounded.

The shapes of 2 stood out to me the most.  The stripes and colors reminded me of the kingsnake, a particularly striking striped snake native to the Americas.  They gave the Gorgon a more earthly style; something more befitting of a monster than a god.  Her outfit was something she could put together, and put on, by herself.  Since she used to be a human and she lives alone, I thought this would best communicate her character.

Instead of giving her generic jewelry, I thought it would be interesting if she wore the medallions of some of the past invaders she had encountered in her lair.  Like trophies.  Since they match the Warrior's own medallion, it communicates a bit of backstory that we don't have to cover with dialogue.  Plus they have Athena's own owl symbol on them; the goddess that turned the Gorgon into a monster.  It's a small choice, but it adds some nice flavor to the story.

Practicality was on my mind as well.  The garments that make up the outfit are simple and relatively easy to parent and simulate.  Perfect for my first foray into clothing.

After I decided on 2, I had a turn-around done so that I could move on to modeling and texturing.

I did most of the clothing design in Marvelous Designer, and most of the texturing in Substance Painter.  At this point I was on the fence between two different 'bra' styles, so I decided to model both.  I ended up going with the single band across her breasts because I liked the shape better and had a fun idea for how to simulate it.  Having the cloth shift and glide over her chest seemed like a unique way to tease the audience.

You can see the result in the header picture for this post, so I wont post it again here.  All-in-all I'm pretty proud of it.  I ended up with a simple outfit, but I really like the look of it and I didn't run into any major road-blocks.  Since I'm always just modifying pre-made characters or pre-made accessories, it feels nice to make something from the ground up.

Conclusion

I hope this provided some decent insight into the more unique aspects of the Gorgon, with some pictures to boot.  It's the model that I've spent the most time on and there's much much more that went into it than what I wrote about above.

I'll be putting out a showcase for the Warrior in the near future as well.

If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations!