ZBRUSH - BASE MESH CREATURE

My second experience of using Zbrush was using the base mesh method, this method is easier than other methods as you have a frame to use and build upon however because of this it is slightly less creative"you cant create a tank from a base mesh of a head" was what stuck in my mind. In this session we started off with the base mesh of a humanoid bust, and slowly started molding it using similar tools to Mudbox, however the detail seems to be much greater, and once a stage is done I would subdivide and work in more detail.

I started off by pulling out the jaw and forehead showing more of a skeletal structure, I pulled out and pointed the ears and added some muscularity to the neck, before I knew it I realised I had subconsciously started to mold some form of "Orc". I liked this idea so continued molding now with this in mind, slightly misshaping the ears more, pulling out the brow and pinching together the nose. 

ORC 1.

ORC 2.

I also pulled in the under chin section to define the jawline, as well as pulling the chin out, I bulked up the back of the neck as well by this stage. I now looked at the model so far and realised I wanted to make it less generic and cut more greatly into it. 

ORC STAGE 2.

ORC STAGE 2.1

After subdividing I pulled the earlobes down and out as well as cutting into the ears, I pulled out the crown of the brow and forehead and added wrinkles, I pulled the cheeks in and the brow further in to give a more daunting look. this work i had done caused the bridge of the nose to be pushed back, creating an odd profile, I decided I would fix this in the next stage before subdividing. 

ORC FINAL 1.

ORC FINAL 2.

At first glance the front view of this stage looks largely the same, however after pulling out the bridge of the nose to create the flat front that is familiar in orcs, I subdivided and started to work on fine details, I cut into the ears more but this time turning of the mirror tool to make the character less symmetrical, I also took a chunk out of the orcs left ear, I also added a scar over the lip, left eye and next to the right eye, as well as larger ones on the shoulder and torso. These small details helped give the Orc bust character and would help tell a story if this was produced for a game or film. 

I enjoyed this technique and took to it rather quickly, I think it could come in very useful for humanoid character design. 

ZBRUSH - ZSHPERES CREATURE

As an upgrade from last years software I have now started working in Zbrush, it is a very new program to me and I am still getting to grips with it, however I can already see how expansive and open to creativity it is. There are many different techniques available to be used when using Zbrush, some are more effective and creative than others. My first experience using Zbrush was using the technique Zspheres, which is basically a technique of building a shape or creature from spheres and the smoothing them over, eventually molding on top of. This technique is so highly creative that you don't even need an idea of what you want to build to start with, you can just let your imagination flow and as long as you have a basic grasp of anatomy produce a somewhat realistic creature or being. Due to my work last year on life drawing and anatomy I was able to do this.

ZSPHERE CREATURE 1.

I wanted to create something that could actually be scary, I found that spending a lot of times working on the fingers helped achieve this effect. Its all good and well creating a completely alien creature but if it isn't realistic or somewhat believable then it just isn't scary. The most effective way of creating a creature is by using basic humanoid or animal anatomy as a basis and then morphing and adjusting it, using recognisable shapes out of context to slightly confuse and hopefully scare the viewer / player. I believe I have done this to a decent extent, the spindly fingers and misshapen limbs help with that greatly.

ZSPHERE CREATURE 2.

THE RETURN : SUMMER PROJECT : BASIC CONCEPT WORK

As I return to writing after summer I must apologies for not updating regularly. I had planned to update my work produced over summer fairly regularly, but due to unforeseen issues involving a faulty graphics card, broken engine and empty wallet I have been unable to produce the amount of work I had intended let alone update it here. I have been set a summer project that due to these issues I have been unable to complete, I have however got the work I produced before the issues and since they were fixed a few days ago.

Our Project was to produce a character that had to represent a cyborg humanoid. The character had to be at least 20% human / 20% Cyborg and not fully human or robotic, the production of this character was to include a detailed back story, concept art, modelling and rigging, due to my issues I was unable to get to this later stages however the start of my workflow is present and is as follows. 

I first decided to write a backstory, I took a while to think one up making notes and drawing sketches of ideas on paper lying around, I wanted a game that i want to be built, something I feel I would want to play if it was made by a Triple A company, I soon decided on a version of a post apocalyptic game, I took inspiration for a story and theme from games already in existence, films, books and anything else I had stored in my brain in the genre. Games such as Borderlands and Rage and Films like The Book of Eli and Mad Max. These gave me a very strong idea of the look of the game and also a story. 

I decided to Produce Information sheets on the character/ characters and important features in the game, these two explain the setting of the game rather well in my opinion. The game name is "The Saved" which also happens to be the name of the type of character you are. 

THE SAVED INFO SHEET.

VICTORY INDUSTRIES INFO SHEET.

These info sheets would be present throughout the game to go back and read, much like the archives in the Assassins Creed Games. Next I decided to think about my main character and the look of the saved. I first decided to produce a quick mood board to get some ideas for shapes and forms that already exist, this was useful to show me what I could do but also to show me what had already been done and insure I didn't produce something exactly the same.

THE SAVED MOOD BOARD.

This gave me an idea for shapes and now I moved onto producing silhouettes.

THE SAVED SILHOUETTES 1.

THE SAVED SILHOUETTES 2.

I chose one to work with and produced some sketches of ideas for limbs etc (the chosen silhouette is in the bottom left corner).

THE SAVED SKETCHES.

These sketches gave me a platform to build from, I wasn't sure about the final silhouette being the final one yet but I decided to try drawing up dome head options for this silhouette. 

HEAD OPTIONS 1.

These were fun to do and gave me options but I decided that I did want to change the silhouette, I used the original one and tweaked it, coming up with these two options. 

FINAL SILHOUETTE 1.

FINAL SILHOUETTE 2.

I was much happier with these slight changes and the different head shape. I now drew some head options for this silhouette. 

HEAD OPTIONS 2.

Again I was much happier with this result and was looking forward to the rest of the project, unluckily this is when my problems occurred, now that they are fixed I was hoping to pick up where I left off however other new work has taken president over this project, hopefully when other work dies down I can come back to this.