*note: all words highlighted in bold are secondary research resources*
3D Character Design
For my mentor project, I have set myself with the task of creating character head bust using a pre-existing ZBrush asset. I will use the books that I have researched and online sources such as images from google. From this I will have a 3D character done resembling a demonic creature.
Okay so first I found some reference images online that I found great inspiration from, they had great elements in them in both the creativity side and the design aspect. The books taught me to have a brief and useful selection of references, you can filter through the ones that slightly have a benefit to your project but keep the ones which highly resemble what you want your final piece to look like.
These first two are immense for what I’m planning to model but they are great references in terms of posture, even though I’m planning on doing a head bust the correct posture can still affect the overall outcome of my character so these images are great to look at. Plus, all the design books which I researched state that posture is the starting point for all great designs and models.
Okay so these pictures are more centred on the heads design and features of the character, I have taken great inspiration from both images especially the top one. The entire concept is unique with a classic spin on it. They remind me of what some movies have done in the past and according to some game developers, movies are the best source of inspiration.
Okay so these images are again focusing on the overall posture of the character but something about this inspired me. Mainly it was the cracks on the skin of the design, they look unique on the model and I will be taking inspiration from this and use it on my character.
These aren’t going to be used for reference or anything, I saw these as amazing alternative designs to an already unique concept. The one at the top is my favourite because it shows the blend of two classic design which form one unique and modern design that blows my mind evetime I look at it. If my schedule allows me to, I will attempt an alternative design of my mine.
Okay now usually people design a character with a drawing first but the workflows which I’ve seen online usually free hand make them from their reference images and inspiration, so that’s what I’ve decided to do as well for mine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf7s-4MDlJk I also used this video for tips and techniques, for instance I found out about brushes that I didn’t previously think to use.
Firstly, I drew out the base head mesh that ZBrush supplies you with and then I used the clay build-up and smooth tool to flatten the face on the character. I used this starting method because I’ve read in the ZBrush Character Sculpting book that if ZBrush has supplied you with the necessary tools to make your character then use them, not everything has to be made from scratch. I used the brushes that I knew about from prior knowledge.
Okay fast forward a week and I have made quite some progression this character. So far I’ve smoothened out some areas on the top of his chest, I do plan on roughening them later but for now I’ll be keeping them smooth. The main improvement as you can see is the horns at the top and where the ears should be. The ZBrush Character Creation book mentioned that using the snake hook tool in order drag out geometry in a pointed manner. This tool happened to work well for getting a devilish horn affect as you can see, but it didn’t draw out the perfect horn so I had to use the move took alongside it to determine the path of the horn. This was very difficult to do and was time consuming but in the end, I appreciated the results. There was also the problem on the horns looking too rounded so I used the TrimDynamic, ClayBuildup and smooth tool to make to make the horns look more flat and rough whilst keeping the effect of them being horns. I’m also paving the way for a face that has a translucent effect on it, like that of a xenomorph from the movie aliens. So far I have been using the ClayBuildup tool but I might switch to the TrimDynamic tool because I believe that can give me better results. Also, I’m paving a jawline of sorts which will have two pointed ends at the chin, I’ll be making it appear smooth and rough at the same time so that will be a challenge, I want to do something different with the mouth of character because if I give it lips then it will be too generic, I’m constantly referring to my reference images to find new ways to develop my character so I think I’ll find something unique for the lips using my reference images. By next week I want the face have most of its features complete so I can move onto the neck and chest area.
Okay so this week I have managed to make some progression on the actual facial features such as the eyes have started on the jawline and chin, as well as adding to the horns. So firstly, I looked at some of the reference images and gathered a lot of inspiration for the lips of my character. I decided to go with a demonic spiked/hooked lip effect, this I felt made the entire model appear creepier and adding a very different look and feel to him. In regards to the story of the character, the lips can double as a background a horrible mutilation endured by this demon. The Creative Character Design book told me to tell a story with the looks of the character so I attempted to add that element into this character. Next I worked on the chin of the character which you can see has more defining features to it such as a very visible cheek bone and the start of the point which I’m going to add next week. Another big facial which I added was the eyes to the character, now I took a lot inspiration from one of reference images for this face and it works so well with character. This what I meant by a translucent effect on the face. I’ve also given the horns a rough look by adding lots of tiny bumps onto them, I used the SoftConcrete tool to do it. I am very happy with this week’s results because my progression, next week I plan to finish the face.
This week I managed to finally finish off the chin of my demon on amazing detail. It did take some time to mould the perfect shape but I got there in the end. I used a various brushes and tools for it, I had to add and remove so many bumps and details it’s unbelievable. As you can I also added spikes along its jawline to give it more detail, I also used the SoftConcrete tool to make it appear rough. Overall it did look good in the end and now that it is finished I can focus on the chest area of the demon, but after that it done next week I want to focus on the back on the character because I’ve not touched that area yet. You can see that the teeth still appear very human like but I wanted to keep them like that so from the character’s story it can appear as a lost soul; the Character Design from the Ground Up book heavily pushed to tell the story from the look of the character instead of what’s written on paper.
So, here I’ve given my character some defining features that I hadn’t originally planned to but they came into my mind as I was sculpting it so I had to. I had just planned on giving him a rough chest and next but I didn’t want to be the only feature you see in that area so I got to work. First I used a brush to add defining line along his collarbone and up his neck in order the character to have some human like depth to, like me research sources said it’s all about telling a story with your character. Next the obvious one is the horns around the neck, I don’t know where the inspiration came from this but it just popped into my head and I rolled with the idea of it. I used a lot of brushes to do them because getting the right diameter, height and overall look to them were tricky so it did take me a while to get them looking right. Overall the chest area was hard to do in the sense that I had to draw multiple references from my images and find a nice feature for that area, but I had fun doing it. next I need to work on the back area of the character and I should be finished with it.
This is the last part of the character which I had to complete and by far it was one of the trickiest. I had to constantly refer to my research images to this and use every tool of my knowledge to complete the look of it. So, as you can see I had a sort of a diamond shape at the spine of the character, this was merely just for aesthetics and because it looked very mysterious to the character’s backstory. Next was roughening up the skin with different levels of bumps in certain places, the hardest part was knowing where to place the high heights. In the end, I decided that it would be best to keep the cracks very light at the bottom and make them a lot more detailed and deeper towards the top. It worked well with the characters overall look and I was pleased with it. I still wanted to do more with character so I spent a few moments going around the entire character and roughening up certain areas, some lightly and some heavily. I felt like it gives the character more depth and life so it was good decision for me to do it. I thought about placing small ears behind the horns to give it a more abnormal look but then I realised that it wouldn’t work well with the rest of the character and decided to scrap that idea, it was a good consideration but not right for this character.
So, this is a front and back view of the finished model. Overall I am pleased with how the outcome was, I managed to create and industry standard piece of work using only my own primary and secondary research plus reference images online. I did have difficulties doing this in terms getting the right inspiration but I managed to find the images to help me make an amazing model. I’ll be going through the character in more depth when I do my final presentation for this unit. I will also be posting a interactive link for people to see a 360 view of the character.
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