Full Series The Official Maul in TCW Thread (Spoilers!)

I've loved pretty much the entire Return of Maul arc so far, but one tiny thing really bugs me. My friend mentioned that Maul's character model has this odd bit of geometry on his face, specifically his brow. I never noticed it before but now I can't unsee it.

Depending on the lighting it can go from barely visible to downright odd looking. I understand it's supposed to be his brow but the strange thing is that it rarely changes, even when he's emoting. It's almost always a straight line. It's a stupid thing to get caught up on but, like I said, thanks to my friend I can't stop looking at it. It's often the brightest or darkest feature on Maul's face which doesn't help either.

Anyone else notice this? On a scale of 1-10, how crazy am I? And finally, I apologize in advance if I've ruined anyone else's viewing experience like my friend did for me. haha.

Here are some examples:

Not noticeable at all - http://www.ugo.com/image/219054/darth-maul

A bit strange - http://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/maul-s avage.jpg

Really noticeable - http://media.moddb.com/images/groups/1/5/4477/Maul_vs_Obi_-_TCW-.JPG

 

Removed

 

hmm never noticed it till now, interesting

 

Haha, really sorry. I probably shouldn't have brought it up, but it just bugged me so much I had to know if anyone else noticed it. It's not terrible, and it by no means affects the awesomeness of the Maul arc (especially today's episode. WOW.), but the rest of Maul's character model is so strong that it definitely sticks out to me.

Again, my apologies!

 

Mace has it too. Neanderthal brow.





It's a feature like Dooku's ridiculously narrow head. I don't know what inspired it, when the reference doesn't have it at all.

 

Lol, have you ever heard of a frown line? How does this ruin your viewing experience? In the first pic Maul has his eyes open wider, so his frown line can't be seen, and in the other two pics he's frowning. Because Maul is always mad his frown line will always show, and it actually makes his character seem more evil. I bet quite a few villains have a frown line in TCW.

 

Maul has always had it in TCW. It is even in the first image, it's just not as noticeable, but there is a distinct horizontal band on his forehead, and with Mace he ALWAYS has it too, though his is more pronounced. It has nothing to do with facial expressions.

 

Well I mean it shows more or less with the facial expressions he has, when he's angry it shows a lot and when he's not so angry it doesn't show much.

 

I'm not saying it ruined my viewing experience, but it is an odd design choice. Most of the other character's brows have a much wider range of movement, while Maul's is pretty much always in the exact same position. Even when he gets angry, that "line" doesn't move much. I mean look at that last picture I posted - he's scowling like nobody's business and his brow barely moves. On other characters in the show I feel like that straight line would turn into a V-shape.

Also, unlike Mace's, it's not very pronounced - it's a very shallow indentation. It doesn't add much to the character design and looks more like a flaw in the rendering than a choice by the artist. And Maul does have other frown lines that only show up when he's emoting. The thing I'm talking about is always there and I just think the designers could have done a better job to make it look more organic, rather than a very shallow, straight line across his forehead. It's also a lot more pronounced when he's under harsh lighting, which is pretty much all the time since he's a villain. haha.

Anyway, I guess I should have prefaced all this by saying I'm an illustrator (and slightly OCD) so little imperfections in animation, art in general (or anything really) bug me quite easily.

Still an awesome show, series of episodes and character model, despite my minor quibble.

 

Yeah fair enough, I'm a perfectionist too when it comes to my designing, but I'm no pro in 3D animation, lol, but I have to say Maul's overall design is one of the best in TCW for me.

 

"Shades of Reason" further demonstrates how ridiculousness cunning Maul is. That's what makes him seem much stronger to me than in TPM. That's where most of his power is coming from. He isn't really demonstrating his skills much with the force or with a saber. Savage does most of the work there and with all the finesse of a bulldozer. He was holding back in the duel with Vizsla to sort of show his regular man skills and ended that with a brutal take down. I'm expecting a good demonstration of power before its over.

 

i lol'd

 

You will change your idea in the next episode.

 

I feel the same way about Fives' helmet markings. There's a really odd tangency where the tips of the blue decal (and the little red diamond) touch the top of the front visor area. To most people, it probably looks fine. I even bet a lot of fans love the way he looks. But for me, it's a strange design choice (tangencies are a big no no) from an otherwise stellar crew of artists. If the whole thing just didn't work that would be one thing, but like Maul, it kills me that everything else about the model is so damn perfect.

Here's what I'm talking about:

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111031142658/theclonewiki/images/0/0f/Fives.png

I'm sure a lot of you think I'm absolutely bonkers (I probably am), but I can't help it. This is my curse. haha.

 

Count me with fans who think the Rishi Eel on Five's helmet looks fine. It seems the things Clones paint on their helmet and armor are often supposed to look a bit crude. Thus some of it looks a bit kiddish. The Eel's mouth forms a stylized arch over the front with creepy red eyes and the red diamond is a snake like tongue. Ofcourse the face of the helmet itself like all the phase II helmet save Rex's looks much more intimidating than the decal.

 

One that I find a little bit strange is Ahsoka's neck line, which makes her look quite skinny. (By the way, I had to scroll through a lot of horrible pictures on Google to get this one, there are some messed up people out there I tell you)

 

This thread reminds me of this.



I can never go to walmart again without thinking i'm entering an empire stronghold.

 

The protrusion of Ahsoka's clavicle and shoulder bones make her look starved to the point that she's barely alive. Like when I see photos of poor starving children...

Her updated model doesn't look so bad. I think they rounded out a lot of the features to mute those horribly pointed joints and not make the characters look like they are carved from a block of wood (or at least, toned it back).

 

Lets see. Grievous who lost to some gungans... Or Maul who took down Vizlsa by himself...? I'm sorry, but the clone wars REALLY took everything I loved about Grievous and flushed it down the drain. The only way I could ever get even A little respect for him is if he takes down multiple jedi on his own. (As long as they are jedi I either don't know or care about because then I will be disappointed because it will make me feel like those jedi could lose to some gungans to.)

... I wish they never made that episode...

 

Definitely Maul. Grevious was too much of a cowardly sort for my tastes in ROTS.

 

This.

And Kenobi even noted that Maul had become stronger since Naboo.

 

Sorry! Didn't mean to post here!

bump

 

After watching the preview for season 5 again it really made me start to wonder. Is anyone else disappointed that (From what we've seen anyways) we won't ever be seeing A Maul vs Dooku fight? In all honesty I think i'd rather see that instead of Sidious vs Maul and Savage. Especially considering Savage and Dooku have A history together, and how Maul says he doesn't consider Dooku to even be sith worthy.

I swear they had so much going for them this season. They could have made this season ALL about death watch, Maul and Savage but instead we really only got A few episodes while all the other episodes were really just filler. ​