Blue Nose - Zbrush WIP #1

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Here's a zbrush screenshot of a little fella I'm working on named 'BLUE NOSE'.
As you can see he's a creepy little dude!

Fr Bonkers - Zbrush Complete

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Fr. Bonkers - Zbrush

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Fr Bonkers, a typical mid-to-late 20th century Irish priest: angry, embittered, miserable little man who enjoys dominating others every opportunity he gets (when he's not abusing kids and drinking of course). 

I had a lot of fun making this chap. As you can see compared to the previous update I decided to get rid of his hair - it just didn't work for the character.

A Zbrush turnaround of the model.
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In Ireland the priest was the top dog in the community. They were the most powerful of the 4 dominant social classes (publicans, police and politicians being the other three). 

The Catholic church would talk about priests being 'chosen' by God........but the simple truth was that you became one  because  you had zero prospects of being successful in any other area. It was often remarked that in an agriculture-based society the eldest son would take charge of the family farm, while the other son would become a priest (what happened to other family members is a mystery to me!).

I'm thankful that I grew up in the time when Ireland was not controlled by the Catholic church. My parents generation felt the full brunt of people like Fr Bonkers. 

Schools, hospitals, sporting events, births, deaths, marriages, you name it......... they were all under the stewardship of the church. Mass was compulsory. The priests word was god's word...even if corrupt, hateful or just plain stupid.

Modeled and rendered with Zbrush, composited with Gimp.

Art by Shapula

Fr Bonkers - WIP #3

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Another update on "Fr Bonkers".

As you'll notice compared to the previous update I've added more details and elongated his face a bit. I've also added fiber-mesh hair, added a hat and improved his teeth and posed his hands.

He's a sleazy Irish Catholic priest....so hes just a typical Irish priest then!

The next step is figuring out a lighting plan. 

I have an idea in mind but I'll need to work out how to put it together so it doesn't end up looking like a pile of crap!

Fr Bonkers - WIP #2

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An update on this creepy catholic priest clown character, Fr. Bonkers.

Next step is detailing and refinement.

Diet of Worms - Zbrush sculpt

Diet of Worms - sculpted in zbrush

Here is the complete 'Diet of Worms' sculpt I did.
Remember years ago when you were a kid and your mother had to give you a worm-dose? Tasted like puke,but if you didn't take it you'd have intestinal worms wriggling about inside you...and for a kid growing up playing in muck and hearing that scenario you'd gulp down that vile liquid as quick as you could!

The intestinal worms thing inspired this pic... as well as stories (true or not?) of weird diet supplements that contained 'worm eggs' that would hatch and grow in your stomach, consuming excess food and keeping dieters nice and trim. The trouble, as I see it, would be what happened when the worms kept growing and getting larger and larger? Pretty soon you'd end up like the odd woman above!

Sculpting with Zbrush, rendere with Zbrush BPR, renders composited in Gimp.

Fr Bonkers - WIP #1

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Zbrush work-in-progress image of a character provisionally called 'Fr Bonkers'.

Diet of Worms - WIP #3

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I left this one for a few days and came back to it refreshed. The 'worms' in the early versions were a little underwhelming and unimpressive. I decided to go full retard with them and make them much, much larger and almost snake-like(as you can see)!

This model may better suit a more subtle render in subdued  colouring rather than the style used for some of my other latest pieces.
As usual I'll add updates covering progress as I go along.

Diet of Worms - WIP #2

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Following on from the previous post here is another update on this work-in-progress Zbrush sculpt.

I decided a fat head was'nt enough so I said "what the hell!" and went along and gave her a body to match as well.

This is turning out to be one of the most enjoyable  sculpts  in Zbrush I've yet done.

Btw, the title 'Diet of Worms' will become obviously apparent in the completed piece :)

A few Zbrush Turnarounds of recent Character Sculpts

The title says it all!

"STFU"
At one stage I considered rendering him from behind  because  I liked the pose so much...sensibly I decided to go with a frontal view instead.
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"Frankie Say Relax"
The feet were basically ignored  because  I was  definitely  not going to show them in the  finished  piece.
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"The Old Man of the Sea"
The mound of skulls was made from a single skull that was duplicated in Blender. I re-entered Zbrush and used the Dynamesh Master plugin to reduce their total geometry to aprox 100k polygons.
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I decided to post these turnaround shots because I think its nice to be able to see the characters in the round.

When I'm working on them I generally have an idea of what angle will be shown from in the  finished coloured illustration, but I like to work on every part of them so as to give me some options...plus also it's actually a whole lotta fun doing it!

These are direct Zbrush screenshots (not rendered) and the shader used is the basic blinn matcap using standard lighting.

Diet of Worms - WIP#1

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Work in progress image of 'Crazy bitch', which I'm making in Zbrush.

Inspiration came from a well-known great mugshot image of a mad-looking woman with really bulgy eyes I saw on the internet.

The main face is practically done and now it's a matter of detailing and adding the other elements like tentacles sprouting from her mouth, etc.

The Old Man of the Sea - Zbrush

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Here's the completed 'Old Man of the Sea' character I made.
Sculpted in Zbrush, rendered using Zbrush's BPR, composited renders in Gimp; final piece made up of effects made in After Effects and hand painted work.

I really enjoyed making this fella. I loved the idea of a tough-as-nails, elderly squid-man who lures victims into allowing him to ride on their back until they die! The tattoos were a lot of fun. I read a bit about maritime tattoos and included a couple of references in the image such as swallows and dragons and things like that. I mostly used swirly polynesian tribal tats because  they just looked cool. I especially like the swirly tentacle design on his chest and the 'Redrum' writing on his belly :)


Previous postings can be found on this blog on the evolution of this old coot - just look for the tag 'old man of the sea'.

Old Octo Dude - WIP #2

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Just a very quick update image.
Sculpting and posing is pretty much complete apart from fixing issues of anatomical distortion (that collarbone is weird and MUST BE FIXED!) and adding more skin folds and little touches.

The next step is painting him up. I think he'd look pretty nifty with some scummy old school sailor tattoos on his chest and arms.
Need to find some decent reference images. So I suppose it's Google search time for me...

Frankie Say Relax - Zbrush Alien-Monkey dude

Problem? Don't worry, Frankie's here to save the day!

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You can view a bigger (and more accurate) version of this pic over on my DeviantArt page here.

I  remember  when Frankie Goes to Hollywood released Relax and these t-shirts where doing the rounds. Makes me feel old!

I don't suppose they ever imagined a 3-eyed alien-monkey with a green plasma gun would ever be sporting one of these Tees? Or maybe they did? We may never know...........

Zbrush for modeling, a bit of Blender for the gun and chain, Gimp for compositing and repaint work, After Effects for particle creation, and finally IrfanView for chromatic aberration, noise, resizing and jpeg export.

PS: What the hell is the story with Blogger and it's weird automatic colour adjustment crap? The above image has been given a weird hue that doesn't bare any relationship to the actual uploaded image. Piece of crap Google products!

Octo-Dude and Simian-Alien WIP updates

A quick w.i.p update on these two lads.

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Previous post on Octo-Dude here.
Previous post on Simian-Alien guy here.

I'm happy enough at the moment with their poses.
Still undecided whether I'll keep the final renders simple and monochromatic or add a bit more colour detail. I'm thinking a simpler approach would better suit the sculpts - especially the octo/squid dude.

Old Octo Dude - WIP

I'm still working on my alien/monkey hybrid character but I also have this fella on the go too. He's an octopus/squid type mix with an elderly, mischievous man.

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I had been working on an exaggerated cartoon-ish old guy face when it suddenly dawned on me: what if he had tentacles? The idea progressed and I decided he could be sort of like the mythological tale of the 'old man of the sea'. This paragraph from the Wiki page particularly caught my interest:

"The Old Man of the Sea in the Sinbad tales was said to trick a traveller into letting him ride on his shoulders while the traveller transported him across a stream. However, the Old Man would then not release his grip, forcing his victim to transport him wherever he pleased and allowing his victim little rest. The Old Man's victims all eventually died of this miserable treatment, but Sinbad, after having got the Old Man drunk with wine, was able to shake him off and kill him."

The old man is described as being capable of changing shape from one form to another at will. The only way to stop him is by capturing him ( sounds like a leprechaun!).
I figured that if he changes shape and he lives in the sea then he's likely to turn into an octopus/squid at some stage.
That's my logic anyways!

Simian Alien - Zbrush WIP #3

This character is coming together nicely.

Zbrush screenshot.
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Simian Alien - Zbrush WIP #2

A quick update on this fella I'm making in Zbrush. His face is a bit more baboon-like but if you look closely you'll notice he has a third eye.

I thought it'd be nice to give my lad 3 eyes after reading NewScientist magazine where I saw a photo of two iguanas fighting. The caption explained that they have what is called a  'parietal eye' above their forehead which is used for watching the sky for aerial predators. Pretty nifty thing to have!

Screenshot from Zbrush of this little dude (note the unused baseball cap from my previous alien)
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I've got a nice idea for a slogan on his t-shirt which should go nicely with the personality I have in mind for him. Still a fair bit of work to do on his arms, shirt and overall composition. I'm thinking I might keep a face-on viewpoint rather than any dramatic pose. Might lose the cap too and give a more ornate colouring to his forehead area.

Simian Alien - Zbrush WIP

This is a simian/alien hybrid character I'm working on in Zbrush.

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I'm just mainly focusing on getting the facial features correct at the moment - a sort of mix of a baboon, orangutan and George W Bush/Giovanni Trappatoni!

Zbrush - Alien Dude - FINISHED!

He's completed and here he is!

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A nice simple background that doesn't detract from the main figure. In my previous posts I've mentioned some of the things I picked up while maikng this guy: learning Marvellous Designer was a big one; getting familiar with some of Zbrush's extensive tools such as Noisemaker being another fun one.

I've never modeled a handgun before and, while this one is good enough as far as this  image  goes, I would like to revisit some hardbody sculpting techniques I only touched upon during this pictures creation. Mixing Zbrush's dynamesh/shadowbox with traditional poly sculpting in Blender is something I'll get more used to as I continue on making stuff.

Tools used while making this pic: Zbrush, Gimp, Irfan View, Marvellous Designer, Blender.

Zbrush - W.I.P Gun alien Dude - Update

Another quick update on this fella. I'm very happy with his face and expression and I'm finally starting to composite my renders in Gimp.

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Above is an early stages rough out of some composited render layers.

Getting back to the sculpting for a moment, I'm very happy with the scarf and how it came out. I've been teaching myself Marvellous Designer and also getting to grips with some of Zbrush's features for texturing such as Noisemaker. I love this plugin! I use it for getting some gret procedural bump map textures as well as colour patterns (as seen on the scarf and the vest the guy above is wearing). 

I also used Blender to make the cable wrapped around the fella's arm (I just felt he needed something to add more interest to that area). I used bezier curves - which is kinda tedious and time consuming but it works. I then converted the curve to editable polygons and imported it into Zbrush where I could continue to colour and texture it using Noisemaker. 

I think this image should come out pretty nice.

Zbrush - W.I.P Gun alien Dude

Some progress with this guy.

A Zbrush screenshot of the unrendered polypainted character.
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Full body Zbrush screenshot.
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Mainly now it's all about choosing a good camera angle, getting a nice lighting setup and then rendering passes. 

The fun stuff will happen when compositing in Gimp.

Zbrush - W.I.P Gun alien Dude

Following on from the last posting I added some more bits and bobs to my guy and reposed him. I pulled his hood down because you he just looks better that way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know the bullet ejector slot shouldn't be on that side but I only intend to render the image from the opposite angle and it was much easier to sculpt a gun with symmetry on!
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Tough Alien Guy W.I.P

I got so bored with my 'zombie hunter' character that I ignored him for as long as I could! I went back this morning and had a look and decided I was still bored with him...and then got the idea to take the base shape of him and start making a different (slightly more interesting) character instead.

Why the long face?
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Another Zbrush screenshot showing this tough alien-ish guy in a more combat fatigues look.
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Maybe he looks better with the hood down?
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I like working on two characters at once so that if I get bored of one then I have another to move onto until I can come back to the other one later and see it with fresh eyes.
I decided to give this fella a military style clothing  because  he has the kind of face that suits that look. But I'm still not sure and think he could look equally good in a shirt and tie or casual gear.

Clothes tests with Marvelous Designer

I've been messing around with 3d clothing simulator Marvelous Designer (that's actually how it's spelled btw). 

One of the main reasons why many of my  characters  are naked or shown from the neck up is  that  I am  absolutely  terrible at  sculpting  clothing! What I like about Marvelous Designer is that you import your mesh, and actually create clothes based on real-world patterns. What I don't like is the finicky way it works - that and that fact that I have zero  knowledge  of understanding patterns.

Below is a test I did making cargo pants and a a top which I exported as an OBJ and imported to Zbrush for posing. Now, I cheated a bit (a lot!) with the top  because  I just slightly altered a pattern that is freely available from the Marvelous Designer downloads section. That's why the top looks pretty good and the pants look...hmmmm........

Top and pants made with Marvelous Designer. Hat and shoes courtesy of my bad sculpting in Zbrush!
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If I can just get my head around pattern design and adjust to the Marvelous Designer interface then it could really help me make some more decent-ish looking clothing for my characters.

Zbrush Zombie Hunter Guy WIP

In my previous post I spoke about making a zombie hunter type dude but I couldn't really get into the 'character' of him.

I left the idea to one side for a good many days until I came across an image of some racist twat called Richard Schmidt I read about in some news headlines about a nutter who'd amassed a large collection of firearms and ammo and who had lists of people he didn't like. Now Richard sounds like a complete knobhead but what drew my attention  was the great picture of him wearing a superman tshirt. I'm not sure if that was his police mugshot, but it was a great photo - well lit and the guy's face would totally suit a zombie hunter type!

Head is too small and modeling is rough and sketchy but ideas are starting to come together at last!
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So I finally got a bit of direction on where to take my zbrush guy. He wouldn't be a bland 'hero' type as I first envisage (and was bored with) but a crazed loony with a habitual hatred for the undead. He would be a racist towards zombies!

I needed to see how he might look in colour so I added a quick and dirty  camouflage pattern on top of my sketch. This zbrush mesh is slightly more refined than the previous image and I'm starting to see the placement of pouches and accessories a bit better. This guy needs to be well  equipped but lithe enough to be able to move about relatively freely and evade zombies!  
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My zbrush annotated doodle may be as rough as a badgers behind at the moment - it's too clean, pristine and lacking a whole lot of detail - but the seed of what I need to make a cool model work is kinda there. I'm thinking 'suvivalist military-meets-racist suburban fantasist' as the tone for my zombie hunter. Based on the sketch above, he'll need to be made more down-and-dirty. I'll also work on the face to make him resemble 'ol chubby Richard whackjob a bit more too.

Zbrush work in progress - possible Zombie Hunter?

Again working on improving my anatomy work in Zbrush, I've stared this guy. 

I made a base mesh a few weeks back that I'm fairly happy with to start from, so I can dive straight into working on the facial features of the figure. 

As you can see this guy is a fairly standard 'hero' type. 

But if you know me and the stuff I do you'll kinda know that I don't usually do hero's.....freaks and weirdo's are my stock and trade!

So, although he seems a typical genre archetype at the moment, I'm sure I'll mess around enough to make him a certifiable oddball :D

Could you beat him at a staring contest?
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I love this stage of working on a character. The part where you can just toss around ideas and invent a personality or  back-story to the model.  Because of just finishing my previous zombie guy I'm thinking this fella could be a zombie hunter or something like that. Whether he's a part of an elite military unit or just a lone wolf has yet to be decided. Who knows, he could turn into a clown midget for all I know!

If you've got any suggestions/ideas then don't be afraid to share your thoughts.

No Guts No Glory - Zbrush Zombie image

This zombie I made has been sitting around for a few days like a decaying, rotted corpse - so it's about time I upload him for all to see!

In a previous posting I mentioned I wanted the zombie to wear a t-shirt with something written on it. 'No guts no glory' just seemed the perfect fit!

Paint job was mainly done in Zbrush using various BPR renders which I then exported to Gimp. Hair, blood splatter, eyes and smoke was hand painted in Gimp using basic brushes and some custom ones I made.

After I was satisfied with the pic I opened it in IrfanView for final touches such as chromatic abberation, zoom blur, sharpening and noise.

Getting a rabid zombie to sit still for a posed shot like this is not easy!
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A basic clay render screenshot from Zbrush of this charming fella.
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Zbrush Practice - Head Studies

Some head sculpts I did to try and get better at general  anatomy when working in 3D space. Minimal detailing so that I could try and focus purely on form and shape.

 

I made a simple base mesh (you can see it in a previous posting) and then adjusted the head to suit a variety of facial types.

The eyes look a bit crappy (a ball with an indent in it, basically) and are  mainly  just there so  that  I could get the curvature of the eye correct.

These are base sculpts with no asymmetry...hence the extra freaky startled look on these guys faces!
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Tutorial - Adding torn holes to clothes in Zbrush

My zombie needs clothes badly.

He's wandering around chewing peoples faces off...and all the while naked! he's liable to get arrested for indecent exposure (and cannibalism).

The trouble with zombies (isn't there always such a problem with those crazy guys?)is that they usually don't go around in their Sunday best. Zombies are messy and their clothes get ripped and shredded all the time. 

Recreating this in Zbrush is a slight problem  sometimes because Zbrush doesn't like open meshes - and torn clothing = open mesh.

So it's better to model stuff in it's pristine perfection first and then mess it up with holes and whatnot at the end. 

This is probably one of the simplest tutorials you will ever see for Zbrush.

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The final image in the tut is not the greatest you'll ever see(I spent literally a grand total of 2 minutes on it) but with a tiny bit of extra effort you can get some great looking ripped clothes effects.

For a more complex way to achieve realistic torn cloth/fabric effect in Zbrush you should check out this thread on ZbrushCentral by artist GMP1993. Also read this thread by LVXIFER which develops the idea further. I don't know much about using Micromesh in Zbrush and haven't tried the above tips yet but the results are amazing. (I think this trick only works for internal Zbrush renders using BPR so probably not suited if you want actual geometry that you can take into a different software program.) 

More Zbrush zombie stuff

You can never have too much zbrush zombie action!

Some screen grabs from Zbrush which I then combine and annotate so that I can figure out exactly what I need to correct/destroy!
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The Matcap used in the above image is available from this download link on my Deviantart page.

Zbrush Zombie - new face WIP

I took a break away from my zombie model because I was unhappy with the way he looked (check out my previous blog posts and gaze at horror at the ineptness of my work). 

He had the kind of face only a zombie mother could love..........I wanted to give him the kind of face any mother would love a zombie to have!

So I started a new zbrush project file and began sculpting a 'better' zombie face while looking at lots of excellent zombie  references - particularly the sculptures of pilcrowdesigns (a brilliantly talented artist who you need to check out) 

A screenshot from Zbrush of the newer zombie head with zero detailing.
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Even at this early stage he looks better.
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Sometimes tinkering with a dodgy piece of art can manage to turn it around to looking half decent. But in general it's better to save the tedious time and effort and just start again from scratch with something you actually like.

Free Zbrush Materials download

Download these zbrush materials from my DeviantArt page.

SHAPULA_Light Reactive Sculpting MatCaps

You can download my materials here

These materials are perfect for sculpting in Zbrush because not only do they look good and give a good overall view of your model, but they also react to Zbrush lights - which means more control on the look you want and enjoyable sculpting experience!

There are 3 materials included in the zip file:

• 'A': a neutral grey material with subtle noise texture and a nice rim light.
• 'B': a darker grey material with subtle noise and rim light.
• 'C': simple skin tone-like material with rim light.

To alter your lighting setup all you have to do is move/add or remove any zbrush lights and any change will instantly show up on screen.

Installation:


First download the zip file (approx 4.3mb) and unzip the files to your computer.

To use  these MatCaps, copy/paste each of them to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Pixologic\ZBrush 4R6\ZMaterials

........or to have them appear whenever you start Zbrush:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Pixologic\ZBrush 4R6\ZStartup\Materials
(*these work in Zbrush4 and all versions upwards).


Happy sculpting!

~Shapula

shapula.deviantart.com
shapula.blogspot.com

Anatomy Practice

Been practicing anatomy with Zbrush. 

Took my zombie model - which had some dreadful anatomical problems - and went to work on it while looking at anatomical reference images. 

It's clear to see that I still put absolutely no effort into those feet!

Reference is the way to go and I'm hoping to put more effort than I have been into my work as I go along.

See how he skillfully balances an opaque football in mid-air!
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Zbrush Zombie WIP - Another Update!

I decided to chop the right arm off the zombie to make him a bit more zombi-ish. 

below is a pic of the model painted up. I haven't fully decided whether I'll go colour or B&W but it's nice to have the option of both.

Zbrush screengrab of polypainted model.
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 Having a bit of a problem UV unwrapping the torn shirt in Zbrush: must be something to do with it being a very thin mesh or something.

Closer shot of facial detail.
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I'm still not exactly happy with his face......it looks good in the image above from an upshot angle though so might stick with it. Who knows? 

Zbrush Zombie WIP update

Here's another update on my zbrush zombie. 

I couldn't work on him for a couple of days 'cos I got stung by a wasp on the finger I hold my wacom pen with :(

I'm happy with the pose I got using transpose master in Zbrush. I like the idea of this nose-less zombie leaning around as if he's just sniffed some fresh human blood in the air!

Back view of the torn clothing in Zbrush.
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Another Zbrush screengrab.
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This will be the first time I've used Blender (or any outside renderer) to render a Zbrush model. I intend to use some Zbrush matcaps in Blender - which can look pretty good. I'll also get the benefit of Blenders fast renderer (the basic one, not Cycles which I've never really taken to)and use the GLSL shader in the viewport to get the exact lighting setup I want.

The base mesh in Blender for lighting test set-up.
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I actually have the character poly-painted/textured but I kinda prefer the untextured look at the moment. I want to work on form and silhouette as well as some good high-contrast lighting, and a lot of the time a painted model can hide some serious design flaws....which I hope to avoid!

Zombie - Work in Progress

A couple of work-in-progress screenshot images of a zombie dude I'm making in Zbrush. Just trying to get the overall shape of the character right at the moment and not waste time on detailing or the 'fun' stuff until I'm satisfied he doesn't look like a complete load of crap!

The character is around 500k polys, his teeth are two separate meshes of approx 30k polys.

fig 1: trying to get correct 'zombie' proportions and a good face.
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fig 2: simple pose test to check what looks stupid/cool.
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