A long long time ago, in an age of sculpty prims and flexi skirts, a designer of beautiful ball gowns and formalwear came to me and a few other creators with a lovely dress design and basically said "let's make this a whole look". I accepted her invitation, and was able to collaborate with some other creators I admired. The outfit was Le Fleur, and of course my contribution was a mask. This mask was quite a feat at the time for my burgeoning abilities and sculpty techniques, and I was quite proud of the flowers. However, of course, time has marched on and it has now been relegated to the antiques section of my store.
Imagine my surprise when I saw someone blogging it! Eighteen years later! My sculpty mask on a modern mesh head and outfit, with PBR lighting and it looked... okay? It sparked an urge inside me to drag the design into modernity.
This is more of a re-imagining than a remake, but the spirit is there. I liked the original shape and concept, and every time I tried to add embellishment to the mask itself or some flare to it, it felt wrong. For this design it felt right to let the flowers take focus.
Once again, I'm most proud of the flowers. I modeled them mostly after magnolias, and started with a simple array of an ovate mesh and contorted it with radial symmetry tools in Zbrush. I actually used some cloth manipulation brushes, along with liberal use of polygroup masking to make those basic ovals into these delicate, curling, soft petals.
The flowers weren't enough, though, and I simply wasn't happy with the shapes I was getting from the branch like forms I was playing with. I scrapped them and went for feathers. These feathers are a sort of mix of the ones from the Feather Mantle and the Volto Altiero/Altezza. I blended aspects of them together and added a whole new collection of colors to play with.
Il Fiore, like "Le Fleur", means "the flower". It can be found at the new round of Midnight Order starting today. You can also find my Ravenna Hennin and the Barocco Necklace and Earrings there for 25% off until August 20th.
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