Viking Village: Norse Warrior Funeral - Colton Force

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Name: Colton Force
Country: United States
I have read the terms and conditions and and am eligible for prizes

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The first thing that came to mind for me when I read this challenge brief was a Viking funeral for a Norse warrior. After spending some time researching the cultural beliefs of the Vikings I have found out that the boat out to sea that modern culture has popularized was in fact not very common during the Viking age. However, the Vikings burial practices were still in many ways still very grand and interesting in their own rights. So with this scene I will be attempting to portray a funeral scene that is more consistent with the historical record and evidence that we have today. The early Vikings were in large part fiercely pagan and thus relied upon cremation as the proper way to send off the dead believing that the smoke of the fire would help carry the deceased to the afterlife. This was commonly done upon a funeral pyre, a stack of wood and sometimes stone made for the purpose of burning the body. After being cremated the remains were commonly buried in an urn. Accompanying the urn would be "Grave Gifts", tributes and gifts buried along with the dead that represented the things the person would need in the afterlife. These gifts scaled along with the persons status and very commonly reflected who they were in their time on earth. While there was typically no grand longship set ablaze like we may picture today boats were still very important in Norse mythology and for many represented safe passage into the afterlife. Thus, it was common for funeral pyres and grave mounds to be built to resemble ships using large stones to outline the vessels shape.

For my scene I will be attempting to construct a diorama that captures the story of a Viking warrior being laid to rest in a way that reflects and shines light on these unique and interesting practices. Below is the initial reference board gathered to help me start concepting and blocking out the scene

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After taking a few days to play around with the ideas and layout I believe I have settled on doing a true diorama style scene that sits on a stone base. It will include a funeral pyre set and ready to light, with a collection of warriors grave gifts off to the side. Could include items such as Axe, shield, urn and run box, chest with coins and jewelry and more. I want to start with these items and potentially add as my time permits me. The backdrop for this will be a sparse forest outside the village with dead trees and sparse snow in the shadows of the forest floor.

Currently I am in the early stages of making some of the rocks for the pyre and the trees for the background. While it isn't much to look at yet here is a very simple block out in unreal with some notes and reference examples to visualize what we hope to achieve

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It has unfortunately been a turbulent couple of weeks in my personal life so progress on the challenge has not been quite what we were hoping for and I have certainly not been able to update this as much as I would like but here is where we stand currently.

I downsized the ground area and cut the base opting instead to go with a simple background to cut down some of the workload. This also allowed me to pull in the camera and focus on the objects in the scene more closely which I also think will be a plus. I got some materials going for the ground and used some vertex painting to blend between them. I then got a material set up for the rocks and added in some tree trunks in the background. Another benefit of pulling the camera in is I won't have to create full on trees and can instead go for these more simple tree trunks. The latest addition to the scene are the first passes of the chest and urn box.

Some fun details that these include is the Yggdrasil, the Norse tree of life, as well as Hugin & Munin, the ravens of Odin on the chest and a Norse poem on the urn box. It reads,
"Lo, there do i see my father
Lo, there do i see my mother
Lo, there do i see my people
Back to the beginning!
Lo, they do call to me
They bid me take my place
In the halls of Valhalla!"

Both will need a second pass to get some more details in and things looking sharper. I also need to find some way to make the text read easier as I think the poem could add some real flavor and feeling to the scene

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Final Submission

Colton Force

As the sun rises on the far outskirts of the village, we gather here this morning to mourn the loss of one of our fellow warriors. Our finest craftsman have prepared a chest and ceremonial urn box to be buried with the ashes containing all the riches of a noble warrior. Gather around everyone, all that is left is to light the flame of the pyre and let the smoke carry our fallen brother to the halls of Valhalla.

Beauty Render Main Shot

Beauty 02

Beauty 03

Detail Lighting

Wireframe

Unlit