Alien Race - Bipedal Creature

BrontoThunder

Current Progress:
Low-Poly:

Sculpt:


Hello everyone,

I've recently started working on my next big project to add to my portfolio; it's a creature from Design Studio Press's amazing book 'Alien Race' and the concept was done by Thom Tenery.

I haven't got a scanner so I had to make do with taking a photo of the page the concept is on:



I've currently just finished (I hope) the base mesh to bring into Zbrush, I was planning on waiting until I'd finished the creature before adding all the harnesses and such.

seth.

looking good man, I think that you need to drop the body a little more so that the hips are higher on the torso, and possibly shrink down the rib/shoulder/neck area a little...maybe stretch the bill a little more too?

Cool concept looking forward to seeing where this goes.

BrontoThunder

Thanks, seth.

Yeah one of the reasons I wanted to post this before taking it to Zbrush was to get an extra set of eyes on it, I'm having a hard time reading the concept given the perspective. I'm going to adjust the mesh a bit before I start sculpting.

Ikosan

your concept has some really nice balance to the pose with the creature sitting hunched on his legs, you purposly modeling this with the legs straight down?

BrontoThunder

Ikosan wrote: »

your concept has some really nice balance to the pose with the creature sitting hunched on his legs, you purposly modeling this with the legs straight down?

Yeah, I do plan on rigging and posing him once I've finished but I figured this pose would be the easiest to rig. I don't have much experience rigging/modelling creatures so I'm not certain about this and am totally open to alternate methods.

BrontoThunder

I'd adjusted the base-mesh to fit the concept more closely.

BrontoThunder

This is still at a very early stage; I'm just posting my first days progress in ZBrush.
I still need to do a lot of work, especially on the head and torso.

Feedback and criticism is very much encouraged!

Butthair

I don't see any zBrush. Is it hidden?

BrontoThunder

Butthair wrote: »

I don't see any zBrush. Is it hidden?

Is it there now?

Imageshack keeps signing me out and for some reason whenever I upload images while signed out they don't work.

BrontoThunder

Bumping this!

zreinhardt

I like the way its coming out! following this! Sorry I don't have any critiques at the moment. lets see some textures!

p.s are you going to do the legging armor?

BrontoThunder

Another not-so-big update, I've been working on his body quite a bit - the major forms are there it's just a matter of working out how everything fits together.

I also whipped up the base meshes for his leg armour.

BrontoThunder

Okay I have a question;
I've currently masked an area and inflated it to create the super-tight latex armour(?) this guy is wearing.
Is it possible for me to turn this inflated section into its own SubTool?
I found one tutorial which stated to hit the "Make3D" button under the Layers palette but the version I'm using (ZBrush4) has no such button or it's at least not in the area shown in the tutorial.

Thanks in advance!

LRoy

If you use "Extract" under subtools it will create a separate mesh based on whatever you've masked. The thickness modifier adjusts how.. thick it will be.

BrontoThunder

LRoy wrote: »

If you use "Extract" under subtools it will create a separate mesh based on whatever you've masked. The thickness modifier adjusts how.. thick it will be.

Brilliant, thank you so much!

BrontoThunder

Significant update, reaching the end of the sculpting process.

LRoy

Yep! Seems you've gotten the hang of it. Looks good dude. Reminds me a bit of the road runner.

It looks like you might be missing a piece by the tail?

Fred2303

thats a cool concept youre working on! nice sculpt too!
one thing i spotted is that that arms are more heavy then the concept
good work!

Jessica Dinh

I love this, looks cool! [:

Oniram

reminds me of a kaadu from star wars. minus the arms. looks pretty neat.

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/6/6e/Kaadu-BF.jpg

Lucas Annunziata

so cool! This has really come a long way. Like Fred2303 said, the arms look a bit heavy, although I kinda like em the way they are.

BrontoThunder

Thanks so much for the feedback everyone, it's such a good motivator

I've been pretty ill over the past few days and haven't been able to work since any computer use got me all dizzy but I'm definitely taking all the advice on board.

@LRoy - yes I was! I was having a hard time figuring out exactly what kind of shape it was until I realised I had his lower back and thigh area wrong, instead of two long muscles down his back he just has one central muscle. It will totally be there in the next update.

@Fred230 & darbeenbo - I was happy with the size of the arms when I was just sculpting his body however I didn't factor in the bulge of when I extracted the budysuit-thing from him. They don't look too unnatural but I'll shrink them down a bit to match the concept regardless.

@Jessica Dinh - Thanks!

@Oniram - That tail would definitely make more sense than the one this guy has, haha.

allaze-eroler

after looking at the concept, i did noticed that your tail is too short ^^;

BrontoThunder

Okay so it's not a gigantic update but I've taken on the advice of everyone and done the following;

• Shrunk the arms to match the concept (mostly the forearm area)
• Added his back armour(?) panel.
• Changed the anatomy of his hind area to match the concept more.
• Lengthened the tail and readying it for hair.
• Various other touchups here and there.

I think the sculpt might be done!

allaze-eroler

the tail is still short, it need to be extended a bit more

also, it's turning out very well !

BrontoThunder

Thanks!
How does this look?
Keep in mind the bushy tail will be add to the length.

motenai

just lovely sculpt and concept...i want a pet like that

BrontoThunder

Okay so I have a question regarding retopology, what's the best approach in terms of what to make a separate mesh?

Obviously the eyes and ropes will be separate but what about the toe armour and seat?

allaze-eroler

BrontoThunder wrote: »

Okay so I have a question regarding retopology, what's the best approach in terms of what to make a separate mesh?

Obviously the eyes and ropes will be separate but what about the toe armour and seat?

for about the tail, very good work now you can start retopology it

for about how to retopology, it will depends of how you plan to use, if you plan to keep the "clothes" you can make a small bump on the mesh since you will use normal map. also, if you want to remove the "clothes" for a possible customisation of "clothes" then it's better to make them separated from the body.

i hope it give you some hints

yodude87

where's the "loving it" button? o.O

BrontoThunder

Low poly finished!*
It's currently at 8742 triangles, still need to add the panels for the hair but that won't be a significant increase.

*Until someone points out something incredibly obvious which I overlooked..

seth.

This is turning out great man, if you fancy being super frugal you could cut the spikes down to three sides, but I really like this piece....more updates please

BrontoThunder

Thanks Seth!

I've been super busy working on other things (and my internet was down for a week, yay!) and now currently texturing him, here are some updates on the normal mapping:

BrontoThunder

Current texture process, still early days but I'd appreciate feedback.