Another WIP shot here.

Unrecoverable art, I salute you.

So a harsh lesson on the realities of processing power. I'd just finished working on the upper arm muscles of the above critter, and Zbrush crapped itself on save - a few hours work down the drain. This is all the evidence I have rendered shortly before implosion. That'll teach me to watch my poly counts - at least the previous saved version isn't borked and I can try again at lower subdivisions. The reality is that I won't be able to sculpt what I want unless I upgrade to 64bit.

Devil Bust Turnaround Vid

And here be a turnaround for it.

Zbrush Devil Bust - the final.

This is as far as I'll push this - I tried upping the subdivisions in Zbrush and it veritably cacked itself. Time to go 64bit I think.

Devil Bust, Zbrushing

I've been ultra busy working on a new book cover and some concept drawings, so there's been little to update recently. I'm also coding up a new website from scratch in notepad, having decided to teach myself some sweet CSS - not sure what came over me, but sometimes the other side of my brain likes to take over.

I had time today to enjoy some Zbrush sculpting, with the above results. My devil model was being neglected, so I swiped it's head and got stuck in. He's missing his tusks in this render, btw. Peace.

Zbrush: Mignola Sculpt Part Duo

Progress: Blocked in the arms and feet, detailed wings and touched up the rest. Hands and feet need some attention. Threw on some colour for fun.

I need to kick it up another subdiv but I'm scared ... oh how I'm scared.

Zbrush: Mignola Sculpt Part Uno

Happy New Year everyone ... first post of 2011! This is a year that's really bad for my signature ... that eleven is a tricky one ... no full round numbers you see.
I'm currently back on the Zbrush bandwagon and honing my sculpting skills... you can see here a devil I bashed out today ... started as Zspheres, skinned and taken into Maya for a clean-up (proud to say the entire thing's 100% quads ... not a tri to be found! I spent the time on retopology to get the best results out of Zbrush), then back into Zbrush to be subdivided and scultped. Lots of fun ... it's only mid-range poly count for these larger details. I might try to push my PC for hi-def sculpting, but my money's on the rust-bucket imploding under the strain. The plan is to get the details transferred onto normal maps to apply to my original 4.5k poly model - just because normal maps are cool.

Oh, I was inspired by Mignola-style devils for this one ... thus the cartoony proportions.

Dryad v7

Now with Vines.

Dryad v6

Today's lesson: a six million poly mesh = bad on my PC. I really want those poly's tho to get some complex, deep bark on that skin - I may have to be content with a final product that's for mid-range viewing only. Next: wrapping vines around the limbs, and work out how to do the leaves, plus some refining sculpture.

Below, an initial test for bark-skin surface. Combo of some heavy application of negative gouging, cavity occulsion, and a nice bone material shader (not that I think this is working well...).

Dryad v5

Tonight's update, this time in bronze.

Mud Box Bust

Thought I'd try the Mud Box 2009 trial version. Immediate impression was that it was far easier to get to grips with then the Z. I think this is for me ... no reference here, just tooling around getting used to the controls.

Updated: Added some more shaping.