Final Render

Blogger makes the quality of this image really bad. The hand isn't pixilated at all in the final...

Compositing Test

Lighting Render Testers

Playing around with forest backgrounds - I wish this photo was better quality to suit the sculpt. 

Turntable

Final Creature

Texturing Cont.

I already knew about to Polypaint but I learnt some new techniques from these tutorials.

Really bad lighting but you get the idea.

Wut

Texturing Experiements

I like the brown but I'm not sure about the green... I was aiming to have the colours similar to the frog below.

Green and Golden Bell Frog

Finalized name of Character

My character is heavily based on frogs so I decided to play on that idea when deciding his name. I thought of using Google Translate to translate frog to many languages and chosing the best sounding name. I thought this was a little boring so I decided to have a small twist on it.

Because my character is a collector or horder I wanted to incorporate that into his name also.

I decided to use only the Danish and Norwegian languages. I choose these languages purely because these are my ancestry.

Frog in Norwegian is Frosk and hord (horder isn't translated) in Danish is Slid (pronounced Slil).

My final name for my character is Slidfrosk -Slil-frosk

Final Sculpt

Youtube loses a lot of the detail in the turntable but this is the general idea of my sculpt. 

Kettle

Adding details to my props (export OBJ files from Maya to Zbrush) and gave my kettle the bronze look. dayum

Lighting and Render Experiment, Pre-Poly painting

Test lighting and render completed by Zbrush. Photoshop compositing. No background.

I wanted to see my creature in the woods already ha ha

Tutorials Lighting, rendering, photoshop compostiting

Researching lighting, rendering and photo compositing

Final Creature Texturing with Alphas

More Experiments

Testing all my newly made alphas. Not final model just test on Textures.

• Need to made the details more prominent so my alphas show up more clearly

Alphas Used on Sculpt

Because my creature is a reptile I researched difference types of reptilian scales and skins. I also reference elephant skin for more wrinkled areas.


Animals Used:

• Elephant
• Crocodile/Alligator
• Snake
• Toad 
• Lizards 

Tests

Reptile aplha tests I made. 

Wardrobes

I lost my wardrobe model somewhere so I remodeled in it in Maya. Next I will export it to OBJ, import to ZBrush to add details etc. 

Feedback on Creature

• Create sag under the  armpit (look at Iggy Pop for reference)
• Make stomach more saggy
• Thicken up thighs
• Think about belly buttom
• Detail around the eyes (tearducts etc)
• Think about final pose (tilt head towards camera, lean character forward slightly)
• Look at mouth references

To Do: Sculpting

Total progress so far on creature.

To Sculpt: 

• Hand holding branch
• Feet
• Ears
• Make asymmetrical
• Add details around his armpits (where the ropes dig into him)
• Skin detailing 

Texturing Stick

Subtle texture on the stick he holds.

Decimation Master

My polycount was crazy (I don't even want to say what it was because it's embarrassing...) It was effecting my polypainting (really slow etc)

Tutorials Used: 

• http://pixologic.com/zbrush/features/decimation/ 
• http://pixologic.com/video/video-v2.php?videoname=http://www.pixologic01.com/zbrush/features/decimation/Decimation_master_demo.flv?w=860&h=577

Creating Alphas from Images

 Before clicking DragRect brush.  When FreeHand is selected is doesn't create smooth textures.

Alphas used with DragRect. Used to drag out and size the alpha onto the mesh.

Texturing Full Model Tutorial

In the ZBrush I was using there was no Surface drop down option so I went into the Zplugin menu and clicked UV Master, Unwrap to get those option back in Zbrush.

Tutorial: 

 Playing around with the settings. But when projected onto the mesh, doesn't wrap around it nicely.

 Not yet applied to the mesh so it is more bold. The texture also moves and adapts itself to the sculpt when altered.

 Applied to the mesh, a very subtle texture compared to before.

When it is applied to the sculpt the texture doesn't adapt to the model anymore.

Creating Alphas Through Sculpting

Character Sculpt Process

Creature Studies

I wasn't happy with the original design of my characters face so I started drawing new deisngs. After talking to Tanya I decided to go straight into Zbrush to sculpt different faces and develop the face from there.

Starting Creature Over

I decided to start over my sculpt as a new start. I didn't like sculpting from a loose tpose as originally suggested. I came across more problems doing it that way and since I am having my creature one pose for the final (and it won't be animated) I didn't see the point of sculpting from tpose. 

Starting Over:

The adaptive skin was bunching up in his armpit and is really bad to sculpt from. So I found a tutorial on ZRemesher. ZRemesher is meant to change the topology in the sculpt to a better form. Its good for creating edgeloops etc. I used it to fix the armpit area on my sculpt.

Tutorial Used:


Sculpt after ZRemesher. Its an improvement from before. The topology in general is terrible but for sculpts it doesn't matter. If its going to be animated, the topology is really important then.