SC2 Ultralisk. Trying to do it justice.

BARDLER

I have to call it finished. It turned out OK.




I was inspired by a few of the SC2 models that were floating around Polycount recently so I decided to try and tackle my personal favorite. The Ultralisk. The goal of this project is to learn retopo, improve UV mapping, improve organic sculpting, and improve texturing.

I am mostly following this concept by Mr.Jack.

However I am incorporating some stuff from the original SC2 model such as the front legs.


This is my original zbrush model. I blocked out the shapes in Maya then reworked them in zbursh using dynamesh. I started messing around with how I wanted the skin to look.


I took that into 3D coat and retopo it. I am pretty happy with the results considering this is the first time I have retopoed anything. Then I went into Maya to add the spikes and teeth where I needed them, and UV mapped it.
These are the results for that.



The tris count is 23,438 including teeth and spikes.

The UV map looks like this. It is mirrored over the center, and a lot of the spikes and teeth are overlapping.


Next I am going to bring all this back into zbrush and get all the detail going from the concept art. Any suggestions, feedback, and advice would be much appreciated.

BARDLER

Made the first detail pass on my model.

Overmind5000

Good start. I would make his head a bit smaller, but that's just me. Also, the jaw seems a bit strange to me. Those notes aside, it's a decent start, and is progressing nicely.

BARDLER

I reworked the head and jaw a bit, and did some detailing around the body and head piece. This is where its at right now.


Also does anybody know how to get some decent renders with BPR in zbrush?

BARDLER

Did some more sculpting today and downloaded a much better matcap.

I think the sculpt is nearly done, I just have some tweaking to do on some parts. Any feedback would be appreciated.

mikezoo

I think you could really benefit from looking at the primary/secondary shapes in the concept art. As of right now key areas of your sculpt is looking a bit flat.

Check out this vid tut. Its fantastic for trying to sculpt rocky organic plates. I think applying some of these methods to your sculpting would great!

Keep pushing and it will look fantastic!!

BARDLER

I have only been using zbursh for a few months now so I am still struggling with getting some forms right. The rocky parts are definitely where I struggled the most for sure, so I will try out some of the things in that video for sure. Thanks a lot.

BARDLER

I tried to define the rocky parts and overall forms a lot better. Let me know what you think.

JoshWilkinson

I loooove the ambition of this. Looking at the concept, it looks fairly angular whereas the sculpted shapes in this look pretty soft. I'm the furthest thing from from a pro in ZBrush but perhaps the pinch tool might help you define some of your shapes? Just something that allows a little more harsh lines.

BARDLER

I think its the lighting from zbrush softening everything. I need to find a way to get a decent render from zbursh, i have no clue, lol.

BARDLER

I adjusted the rendering settings and kept working on some areas.

garriola83

some advice: i cant discern which part are the fleshy pink parts of the creature to the harder tougher hide and claws, since the detailing you have doesnt differentiate between the two. i think you over detailed it without giving way to the form.
if i were you go back to an earlier stage and figure out the softer forms of the flesh and the harder angular forms of the shell. good luck

AlexCatMasterSupreme

I like your cat.

BARDLER

garriola83 wrote: »

some advice: i cant discern which part are the fleshy pink parts of the creature to the harder tougher hide and claws, since the detailing you have doesnt differentiate between the two. i think you over detailed it without giving way to the form.
if i were you go back to an earlier stage and figure out the softer forms of the flesh and the harder angular forms of the shell. good luck

I completely agree, I went back to try to define the armor/rocky parts, the flesh, and the bone parts. I just worked on the back leg before I go to the rest of the body to make sure it works well. I still have a lot of work to do on the flesh but I think it looks a lot more readable. Any opinions would be appreciated.

AlexCatMasterSupreme wrote: »

I like your cat.

Thanks for adding nothing important to threads ever.

Dan!

Hey - coming along nicely- I think you could stand to be a bit more deliberate with your forms and mark making in regards to your material separation- Here is an example I wipped up looking at mrjacks concept to maybe help illustrate my point.

Vertrucio

Don't make the eyes too large, they're one of the few details that can establish scale.

If you look in the original concept, the eyes are quite small compared to the size of the beast. They're that way so that the beast seems even larger since large eyes on such beasts are a bit redundant.

BARDLER

Hey Dan, thank you so much for sculpting that. It helped me out a lot with the fleshy parts as you can see. I still have to define the border between the armor and flesh, as well as how the flesh pulls around the joints. Thanks again for the help.


Vertrucio, I will take a look at the eyes, thanks for the tip.

BARDLER

I reworked everything. I still have to fix and define the flesh around the neck and face, but I am happy with where its heading. I want to finish the sculpt tomorrow so I can start texturing. Once again any comments would be appreciated.

JoshWilkinson

You def look like your differentiating your materials better, and that's great! However there are a couple things working against you.

First, none of your flesh or rocky forms look like they have any directionality to them. What that results in is something that looks more like a turtle shell and less like hard surface forms applied to an organic body. I'd really try to push that a bit more.

The other is brush intensity. I'm not too familiar with ZBrush so I could be mistaken in this assessment, but looking at Dan's mock up he has varying levels of intensity depending on his materials. I fear your flesh is beginning to look like mud.

But I don't mean to discourage you. Keep going and I anticipate more work from you, man

Broadway

Definitely looks like an ultralisk! Here are a few things that popped out at me:

1. Your material definition has certainly improved but you could probably push it a little further. I think your 'bone' areas look good, but your 'flesh' areas could have a bit more wrinkles and folds. Something along these lines:


And then when you start texturing you can ramp up the spec to make it all wet and glossy looking like the concept, sort of like a salamander or frog.

2. The material you're calling 'rocky armor' kind of reminds me of crustacean or insect exoskeletons (at least in the concept). So you might look at something like



or



for inspiration for surface details.

3. In the concept there are some interesting transitions from 'flesh' to 'armor', especially around the face. I think you could define these a little more.

4. Your spikes (on the head armor/frill and the hips/shoulders) look a little out of place compared to those on the concept. I think it's because there are a lot of smaller spikes 'sprinkled' around the area in the the concept, whereas your model just has a few spikes exactly placed. They seem too 'perfect', maybe. Also, your spikes are very cylindrical at the base, whereas the ones in the concept look a little more pyramidal, which helps them read more as 'bone shards', I think.

5. His scythe-arms are reading a little funny to me, I think because he seems to have a cutting edge on the inside AND outside of the blades. It might read better if the outside was a little thicker and blunted a bit.

6. His front legs that end in spikes are a little weird, because if he is running around on them they wouldn't stay sharp - they'd be pretty much flat at the end. It might be better to have him walk on his 'knuckles' for lack of a better description, kind of like this guy:



so that the spikes stay sharp for when he has to impale a Zealot.

Good work so far dude, keep it up!

BARDLER

So I had to rush to finish it for today. It turned out ok, but I am not completely happy with it for various reasons. I made some mistakes early on that caused me issues, but I learned a lot so that is all I can ask for. This is only the third thing I have ever textured, so that is by far my weakest area. Let me know what you think, any feedback would be great so I can apply it to my next project.

Highpoly Sculpt




Final render. Rendered in maya with mental ray, textures mostly painted in zbursh and photoshop with a couple photos sources mixed in.


Thanks for everybody who posted any helped me out. ON TO THE NEXT PROJECT!

urgaffel

It's good but there is a slight problem with material definition. The bone tusks/scythes look as dull as the armor and they both have a similar noise on the texture so it looks a bit like the only difference is colour. The depth of field makes it look quite small as well although it's hard to tell the size without any reference (but I'm guessing it's bigger than a bug). With a bit more interesting lighting and some material tweaks you could really make it pop I think

BARDLER

urgaffel wrote: »

It's good but there is a slight problem with material definition. The bone tusks/scythes look as dull as the armor and they both have a similar noise on the texture so it looks a bit like the only difference is colour. The depth of field makes it look quite small as well although it's hard to tell the size without any reference (but I'm guessing it's bigger than a bug). With a bit more interesting lighting and some material tweaks you could really make it pop I think

Thanks for the feedback. I had to rush to finish it for class on Thursday so I am not even close to happy with the textures. I don't really get how spec maps work in maya, because the scythes/bone are fairly white, and the rock is pretty dark with some white speckles and edge highlights in it.

I might revisit this over Christmas break and push the textures a lot more, and render it in UDK or Marmoset(my mom is buying it for me for Christmas ) So maybe I can get some better reading on my spec map that way, but we will see. Thanks again for the tips