Rubedo
A figure suspended between the body and its shell. The spines grow outward as if the armor were organic, something the body secretes rather than something it wears. Red burns at the edges and dies in the crevices; the wings close the silhouette in dark metal. Eyes shut, head tilted upward: the instant before rising, or the instant after it stops resisting. Character developed in Cinema 4D and Redshift. Genesis 9 base (DAZ Studio), OpenPBR material systems with curvature-driven variation, subsurface on the skin, and an HDRI environment for the metal of the wings.