Call of the moon

The journey ends here.

Hi all, my name is Mattia De Cinti, I'm a young italian 3D artist and with these last renderings I officially conclude my entry for the #meetmat3 contest here.

It all started more than a month ago with this concept that I created based on the initial references collected, a concept that was then readapted and calibrated during the entire creative process.

I was passionate about creating this tribal themed Meet Mat, dedicated ti paying homage to the Ashanti population, an African tribe located in Ghana, it was a lot of fun and I'm happy and satisfied with my participation in this contest.

The Ashanti tribe is famous for his history full of charm, art and traditions permeated whith symbolism, I decided to focus on the concept of the "Call of the Moon", a central element in the beliefs of this tribe.

In the Ashanti vision, the moon symbolizes spiritual connections, natural cycles and the interconnection between the earthly and celestial world.

All custom alphas used made in Adobe Photoshop:

All texture maps:

I thank everyone who followed me and supported me during this journey, I hope you like it!

Hi everyone, today I want to show you my penultimate step before reaching the final submission to close the contest.

Over the past few days I went to refine the details of the engravings in the face mask, creating special alphas on Photoshop that could recall the details in the original mask as much as possible, these are some of the main view:

During this work in progress, I would like to share with you my personal reinterpretation of the base. 

Unlike the initial concept conceived at the beginning of the competition, I chose to make changes to the appearance of the base, opting to create a version that resembled a museum base. 

The base is made of lacquered wood, enriched by a plate that simulates the display of the meetmat like an ancient museum artefact.

New update on my entry for the meet mat contest. during the last few hours I began to refine the design of my meet mat by acting on the metal details engraved in the area of the hands and face.

I did several tests to understand which was the best way to go, for the hands I created a seamless pattern on Photoshop by drawing the individual elements of the engraving that can be glimpsed in the original reference and inserted as a texture in the height channel of my material basis

Hi everyone

This is a new update about the creation of my entry for the meet mat contest.

In the last few days I have created a first blocking of the design, placing the first lines that separate the different materials, the moon in the belly and a first test for the creation of the mask using the displacement map.

To be finished:

For the displacement map I started from a very basic modeling that allowed me to carry out tests on the correct implementation of the map on the model. 

I started to sculpt in Zbrush and insert some basic primitives on a half sphere, so that it could replicate the frontal curvature as in the original mask. once the blocking was done I exported the displacement map from Zbrush in 32bit .exr format to keep more data in the file and therefore have a more accurate depth.

I am excited to present to you my concept for the "Ashanti Tribe" themed meet mat contest, my proposal focuses on the creation of a detailed mask, symbol of the "Call of the Moon" of this fascinating African culture.

The Ashanti people are an ethnic group primarily residing in the Ashanti region, located in the central part of Ghana, West Africa.

The Ashanti Tribe is known for its rich history, art and traditions steeped in symbolism. I chose to focus on the concept of the "Call of the Moon", a central element in the beliefs of the tribe.

The moon, for the Ashanti, represents spiritual connections, natural cycles and the link between the earthly and celestial worlds.

This representation is a stylization of what a statuette could be, similar to an ancient artefact, made with the same materials as the masks: wood, shiny terracotta and details on metal/gold plates.

Subsequently, to maintain the tradition of the reference to the moon, I will create, in the belly area, an extruded moon that emanates light, as if to symbolize something spiritual.

Thank you and stay tuned!