April News - the Battle of Marathon is Coming to Life!

Hello there dear followers of the Heroes of Bronze project. Another month of quarantine flew by so fast I haven’t even realized it was May already! Good thing is, I managed to do A LOT of stuff for Heroes, mostly focused around the most important part of the short film - the Battle of Marathon.

If you've been following my Twitter or Instagram, you probably already know about this scene I’ve recently published. It’s in the thick of the fight, directly in the center of the line, where the battle was the most difficult for the Greek army. This is also where Nikephoros and his group are stationed to fight…

You can see Aegeus on the far left, using his spear with the overhand grip, striking over his shield. To the right is Hermogenes, his spear probably broken already, so he is wielding his short xiphos sword. Then there's Nikephoros, holding the onslaught of several Persian soldiers, holding the spear with the more common underhand grip. Most of the enemy infantry is Sparabara, lightly armed infantry, but the one who managed to hack through the shield wall is actually a Persian Immortal. Below him, overwhelmed, is Boter, trying to get back to his feet, while Chalcon on the right is calling to the rest of the line to form up.

It was so much fun to work on this scene, I just love putting together these battle scenes, depicting my favorite moments of Greek history!

In connection with this artwork, I also published a collection of some of the Persian models I used. You can see an Anatolian rider, heavy Persian Immortal and Sparbara infantry with huge wicker shield, and then some lightly armed Saka warriors. The last one is an Egyptian marine archer.

I also worked on other Marathon related environments and scenes, though I don’t want to reveal too much, so just thumbnails now :-)

hob_marathonbriefing_beach_s.jpg

It’s all coming together! Still a long way to go, but I’m getting there, one step at a time!

Oh, and also, to reward my dear Patrons over at Patreon, I decided to make the livestreams I make (which have become somewhat regular now) available in recorded form only to them (Hypaspist and Hoplite tier). However, you can still watch my livestreams live, next one is for example coming on Monday the 4th of May at 8 PM CET :-) Set a reminder here.

Chairé!

Martin

Martin Klekner

Freelance Director, CG Artist www.martinklekner.com / Blender and Ancient Greece geek www.heroesofbronze.com / Former Cinematic Director for Kingdom Come Deliverance