After posing and rendering out some images of my creature in Zbrush I moved on to the paint over.
Here I used my digital painting and photo bashing experience to add extra detail to my creature. At this step I could really flesh out how I envisioned the look of my creature to be – adding details to its scars, rusting to the equipment, etc.
These images are my final outcome, I believe I was able to achieve a good standard for a piece of 2D concept art assisted using 3D tools.
I decided to model my creature in an A-pose so as to be able to get a more proportional figure to itself. However, because of this I now have to manually pose it. I wasn’t satisfied with my initial attempt, feeling its silhouette was quite weak. On my second attempt I focused on making sure the head of my creature was well defined from the rest of its body.
Additionally, I used the move brush to make small adjustments to proportion and add movement to parts of the creature, such as its sagging fat deposits and tail.
Now that I have a complete model I added materials and colour to it. For my leech model, before placing copies of it on my creature I coloured it – this was so I wouldn’t have to paint over each duplicate of it which would be placed on my model.
After colouring everything I built up layers of tweaked leech models over my creature to fulfill my original concept.
When coming to model the armor I used blender, I find this program to be more suited to do hard surface centered designs. I took these blockouts into Zbrush to add texture and detail, such as battle damage and nicks in the metal from heavy use.
For the leech I tried to use a variety of brushes to make interesting impressions on its surface, trying to make it look infectious.
Now that the shape for my creature was locked in I could design the infected armour around it. For the designs of the leech-like insects I looked back at the bug specimens I observed during the museum trip at the Huntarian.
I also created a simple design for a possible weapon the creature could use.
After creating my blockout I started on carving out the details of my creature. I added wear and tear to its nails, horns and teeth. Particular care was taken with the skin, making sure I got the creatures fatty forms looking quite weighty.
When coming to block out my creature in zbrush I decided to use a base to get me started quickly.
I found a cave troll zsphere base in the zbrush pre-made assets, from which I could tweak to more closely resemble my own design.
I then remeshed this base which gave me a good blockout to start with. Something new I was introduced to was IMM brushes, these were pre-made forms I could draw onto my model. These were helpful in creating quick hands and feet for my model which I could work from.
For inspiration and reference gathering we took a trip to the Huntarian, a museum focusing on anatomical specimens. While there I looked at a number of specimens which could help inform the design of my own creature. I particularly looked at the anatomical forms as my own design is very much a mash up of existing creatures.
While at the museum I did some drawn studies as practice for when I come to sculpt the detailed anatomy of my own creature.
Some feedback I received from my lecturer was to do more variations of my favourite design. From my previous set of sketches I decided to focus in on the pig/ boar design. I returned to the basic silhouette, trying to push the forms and experiment with different shapes to see if I could come up with a more interesting outcome.
Now that I had a solid design I was happy with, I created my turnaround illustration. I’ll be able to take this into zbrush later to serve as a useful reference.
To inform the future style of my creature I looked into some artists who I believe were relevant to the direction I was taking. From these professional examples I set a benchmark for my own design. Dinno’s Orc Warrior is an amazing reference for shape language in design. Forms are really pushed to emphasise the weight and strength of the character – anatomy is also highly exaggerated to show this.
Nick Kellers designs from Weta Studio will serve as a good benchmark for me to try and reach. His designs are gritty and battle scarred, telling a story of many life and death encounters. Heavy texture is used to make his figures feel weathered and dirty. Though somewhat exaggerated, his anatomy is grounded in realism, with accurate placement of muscle groups informed by the human figure. Fine detail is implied in select places – Keller spends time drawing out complexity only in the most focal areas.
After posing and rendering out some images of my creature in Zbrush I moved on to the paint over. Here I used my digital painting and photo bashing experience to add extra detail to my creature. At this step I could really flesh out how I envisioned the look of my creature to be –…
I decided to model my creature in an A-pose so as to be able to get a more proportional figure to itself. However, because of this I now have to manually pose it. I wasn’t satisfied with my initial attempt, feeling its silhouette was quite weak. On my second attempt I focused on making sure…
Now that I have a complete model I added materials and colour to it. For my leech model, before placing copies of it on my creature I coloured it – this was so I wouldn’t have to paint over each duplicate of it which would be placed on my model. After colouring everything I built…
When coming to model the armor I used blender, I find this program to be more suited to do hard surface centered designs. I took these blockouts into Zbrush to add texture and detail, such as battle damage and nicks in the metal from heavy use. For the leech I tried to use a variety…
Now that the shape for my creature was locked in I could design the infected armour around it. For the designs of the leech-like insects I looked back at the bug specimens I observed during the museum trip at the Huntarian. I also created a simple design for a possible weapon the creature could use.
After creating my blockout I started on carving out the details of my creature. I added wear and tear to its nails, horns and teeth. Particular care was taken with the skin, making sure I got the creatures fatty forms looking quite weighty.
When coming to block out my creature in zbrush I decided to use a base to get me started quickly. I found a cave troll zsphere base in the zbrush pre-made assets, from which I could tweak to more closely resemble my own design. I then remeshed this base which gave me a good blockout…
For inspiration and reference gathering we took a trip to the Huntarian, a museum focusing on anatomical specimens. While there I looked at a number of specimens which could help inform the design of my own creature. I particularly looked at the anatomical forms as my own design is very much a mash up of…
Some feedback I received from my lecturer was to do more variations of my favourite design. From my previous set of sketches I decided to focus in on the pig/ boar design. I returned to the basic silhouette, trying to push the forms and experiment with different shapes to see if I could come up…
To inform the future style of my creature I looked into some artists who I believe were relevant to the direction I was taking. From these professional examples I set a benchmark for my own design. Dinno’s Orc Warrior is an amazing reference for shape language in design. Forms are really pushed to emphasise the…