After doing some research I found that Norse giants fit into 4 types of shape langauge which I have draw above. From left to right we have:

Proud, strong, Noble Storm giants
Isolated, Solitude, Frost giants
Wild, Slobish, Fat, Hill giants
Aggressive, Demonic, Fire giants

My first ideation sketches, these thumbnails were to explore the Jotun of Norse mythology, I hadn't yet decided on designing Surtr and was experimenting with different types of giants.

After the first round of sketches I was leaning towards a fire giant for sure. I decided to explore more into the theme of fire.

Here I explored more on the idea of Surtr, a great fire giant. Keeping with themes of hellfire and dark iron I sketched out a few different versions of the body, armor, and weapons.

Combining all the experimenting above, the final design for Surtr is born. I tried to keep him visually interesting on all areas of the body. it would be easy to fall into the trap of just having a flaming guy. I added things like chains on one arm and volcanic rock spikes on the other, some viking inspired belts and light armour pieces. I wanted to make sure that there was a variety of shapes and items all over him to break up the lava/rock texture. As for the head, I wanted to make him look as menacing as possible. 'one look into those dark eyes strikes fear in all' kind of energy.

Very happy with how this turned out, I managed to get the idea that was in my head out onto paper.

Step 1: Made the face of the skull.

Step 2: Extruded the back of the skull and the constructed the jaw.

Step 3: Added the 4 horns.

Step 4: shaped the teeth into a more aggressive shape and added loop cuts to define the fangs.

Step 5: Head is finished. Very happy with how this turned out.

Step 6: Boxed out the body arms and legs making sure to keep good topology and a consistent number of sides

Step 7: Connected the arms to the body and shaped the shoulder

Step 8: Made the right hand and attached it to the arm again making sure to keep good topology where the joints are on a real hand.

Step 9: Attached the hand to the arm and the legs to the torso, I also constructed the buttocks so that it kept shape when smoothed

Step 10: Made the right foot and attached it to the leg. The foot didnt turn out as good as the hand but I revisited it later to fix the lumpy sole and squished toes.

Step 11: Tweaked a bunch of the loop cuts to shape the model better and added extra cuts around the knee and elbow so it deforms accurately.

Step 12: With the main basic body done it was time to start adding character features. I started by extruding out the spiked forearm.

Step 13: Next I created some spikes and then welded them to the shoulders and neck.

Step 14: I then added the claws to the hands and feet.

Step 15: Added more spikes to the right arm.

Step 15: Lastly I spent some time adjusting the foot to fix the issues I mentioned above.

BASE MESH COMPLETE!

(Polycount: 7,606)

My model is now ready for sculpting.

Problems 1

The first of my many problems during this project arose when I started sculpting.
Before I could even begin I needed to fix a lot of issues my model had in the form of manifold geometry. I didn't understand what that even was when the errors appeared and spent the next couple of hours learning what manifold geometry was, how it occurred, and then how to fix it. After a LOT of trial and error scouring my geometry trying to find broken areas and remove them, I managed to import my model into Muxbox with no more little red dots telling me it was broken.

I started by adding some definition to the muscle groups of the torso and then almost immediately ran into another problem. Because I had already added the spikes to the right arm when I tried to define the bicep/tricep it warped the spikes into horrible shapes since they were attached to the geometry I was moving around.

To solve this issue I went back into Maya and removed the spikes so that the muscle could be sculpted, with the intention of re-adding them afterward.  

Subdivision Level 1 (Polycount: 15,392): To start with I used the sculpting tool to draw out the rough shape of the different muscle groups mainly the pectorals and abdominals.

Subdivision Level 2 (Polycount: 61,568): I continued shaping the muscle groups adding the arms and legs.

Subdivision Level 3 (Polycount: 246,727): At this level I had enough polygons to get some precise detailed definition, separating the individual muscles in each group in the abdominal area and the arms.
I also drew out some more spikes to line the top of the torso, shoulders and back of the neck.

Subdivision Level 4 (Polycount: 985,088): At this level, I experimented with adding a sculpted texture, though not sure if I would keep it going forward. I wanted to test what it would look like having the volcanic rock texture integrated into the model and I added a skin texture to the left arm.

Though I thought it looked pretty cool, I ultimately decided not to pursue following through with it to the end as it would have required me to have the high poly mesh imposed on the low poly like they do for video games. I had done this before in a previous unit but I made the decision not to proceed as I was cutting it short on time as it was and adding more work was not a good idea.

Sculpted Mesh back in Maya

After reimporting the model back into Maya I reattached the spikes on the right arm and then took it back into Mudbox to shape them so it matched the rest of sculpted look.

Problems 2

To say I underestimated this process is an understatement. I watched the tutorials first to see how the Quad Draw tool worked, they made it look so fast and easy. What I thought would be a two-day section of the assignment ended up taking over a week of working at it for 12hrs a day. It took far longer than the actual modeling process.

I felt like everything that could go wrong with it was. It was really pushing me to my limit, I wanted to quit and use my base mesh so many times as I had put a lot of effort into keeping good topology which all seemed wasted now that I was building a new mesh on top of it. BUT I stuck with it and slowly but surely managed to complete the re-topologised mesh. 

Step 1: I first started with the back, shoulder and pectoral area before extruding a cylinder down the arm and then connecting it all together in the arm pit. I then added the abdominal area.

Step 2: I then extruded another cylinder down the leg and made the loop that goes around the buttocks and inner thigh. 

Step 3: Next I conected it together. The connection process took a very long time as I needed to match the number of polygons on both the bottom of the torso and the top of the leg as well as make sure the poly's insdie the butt circle matched up as well. lots of trial and error here going back and forth until it eventually fit together.

Step 4: Here's where the trouble really began. As it turns out, using the relax tool in quad draw on a spike causes it to collapse in on itself and in some cases completely break. And guess who covered their whole model in spikes... Needless to say, the next 5 hours was hell. I spent that time trying to force the quad draw tool to work around my mesh, hand-tweaking every vertice on the spikes so it didn't explode.

After trying to brute force it for several painful hours I gave up. The only way out I could see was to remove the spikes, so I deleted all of the ones I added in Mudbox but kept the ones I modeled in Maya as they were easier to work with.

In hindsight, I should have taken more screenshots of these problems but at the time was way too frustrated. I did however, take some later when the same problem occurred on the head.

Step 5: After removing most of the spikes I drew over the remaining ones and mirrored the mesh. From there I added the forearm-jagged rock and then the right arm spikes. Because of problems with the relax tool, I ended up just hard surface modeling the arm spikes (image 1) and then going back into quad draw to shape them and pull the tip out (image 2).

Step 6: Next was the head. This process alone took nearly 4 days. I had so much trouble with polygons not fitting to the mesh when I used the relax tool, so I basically has to place every polygon by hand one at a time. In hindsight I should have made the teeth a separate object, it would have saved me a lot of pain. As you can see in the second image this is what I mean by my mesh exploding whenever I try to relax it on a spike. Because of this repeated problem every time I had to retopologise a spike it needed to be done mostly by hand which only added to the hours taken. I asked my tutor if he knew why this happened but he couldn't help, I also tried searching online for an answer but to no avail, the only option I knew of was to do it by hand. Eventually, I completed the head.

Step 7: Next I connected the head to the rest of the body, and again ran into more issues. First I needed to condense the edge loops of the neck as I had way too many and it didn't match up to the lower half.
Once attached I tried to relax it again so it would shape properly but again it exploded. I thought that It might have been caused by having way too many polygons in a small area so I changed the neck again (image 2) and moved the collapsing of edge loops high up so that there were fewer polygons overall but the issue still remained, so it was back to hand adjusting edges and vertices until it looked right.

Step 8: Next was the hands. Much like every other step of this process there was issues whenever I tried to use the relax tool. However this time instead of trying to force it to work I just gave up on it and shaped the fingers by hand from the start. This saved me some time and engery as at this point I was running low on both. Though they arent perfect I think I have the loop cuts positioned in the right way so that they deform properly.

Step 9: The last component to be retopologised was the feet, thankfully these were easier than the hand as the relax tool actually worked on everything besides the toes.

Step 10: With the mesh done I applied a smooth and then went back around the whole thing with the relax tool making sure to avoid the areas that would explode.

With the base mesh now fully complete I could now model the accessory components of the character.

These are the shin guard armour. I was inspired by one of the reference images and used the general shapes from that. Then I added my own twist to it and ended up with these.

I decided to remake the teeth. They casued nothing by problems by having them attatched to the main mesh and I knew that UV mapping and texturing with them the way they were would have been more problems. I also needed to remodel the jaw since there was a massive whole where the teeth used to be.  I also made an eyeball while I was doing work on the head again.

The last component I needed was the chains, I used the belt buckle I made earlier as a base and modified it to look like a chain link. I then positioned two of them together so they were ready to be wrapped around the arm.

To wrap that chain I followed a tutorial online and used 'position on curve' and then an 'Animation snapshot'. It took a lot of tweaking settings to get it to wrap around in a uniform manner but I eventually got it.

This is the final smoothed mesh with all the accessories in place. I am really happy with how this is turned out. You can really see that the character has taken shape.

These are my seem cuts for the main body mesh UV map

The final base mesh UV. I made sure to give the most prominant components the largest amount of space so that they had the highest amount of detail alotted to them.

Belt - Dark leather.

Belt Buckles - Dark Forged Iron.

Chain - Dark Forged Iron.

Ring - Brass, weathered with textures.

Belt Rod - Brass, weathered with textures.

Shin Guard - Brass, weathered with textures. For some reason the UV map split in two when I imported it into Substance. I looked up a tutorial on how to fix it which involved me installing another program that combines textures. It was an easy fix thankfully but I still dont know what caused it.

Teeth - Polished black stone.

Eyes - Polished black stone with Emissive Iris.

Armoured Skirt - Dragon Scalemail, Iron trim with leather straps.

For these final renders I set up a 3 point light system in Maya and played around with the sampling settings, taking a bunch of test shots until the quality was good enough, I hope you like them.

Its been a very long journey filled with a lot of frustration but I made it.
I could have made a simpler character with less detail but I pushed myself becuase I knew I could pull it off if I put my all into it, and I really did. I easily spent over 100 hours on this project and I hope it shows in the quality of work produced. This is the bets model I have made to date and though it has a couple of issues hidden in the topology I couldnt be happier with it. 

Research:

Surtur: The Legendary Fire Giant of Norse Mythology - Ancient Times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiqKOX8qdMk&pp=ygUbd2hvIGlzIHN1cnRyIG5vc2UgbXl0aG9sb2d5

Surtr: The Tenebrous Fire Giant of Norse Mythology - Mythological Curiosities #GodOfWarRagnarok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q8PVrOJ2I0&ab_channel=SeeUinHistory%2FMythology

Norse Mythology for Smart People - Surt
https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/giants/surt/

Villians Wiki Surtr (Mythology)
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Surtr_(mythology)

Tutorials:

3d modeling The Grim Reaper (Autodesk Maya nClothe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C6x0uFP-VM&ab_channel=ArtMZ

Maya bodybuilder CHARACTER MODELING tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spi4lGxnMZg&ab_channel=JamesTaylor

Chain Tutorial - Autodesk Maya - 3 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWwc_Rb2KCE&ab_channel=Jesper

Exporting Textures From Substance 3D Painter to Maya Arnold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKtZP3bxRg&t=147s&pp=ygUdbWF5YSBleHBvcnQgc3Vic3RhbmNlIHRvIG1heWE%3D

Substance Painter Emissive maps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agrPbueG1Kw&t=135s&pp=ygUaU3Vic3RhbmNlIHBhaW50ZXIgZW1pc3NpdmU%3D