Carnifex Tyranid [WIP]
Salutations:
Greetings my good Sirs and Mesdames!
Welcome to my first Polycount thread and post. Thank you for having me.
Synopsis:
This thread will showcase my ongoing 3D work on one of Games Workshops Tyranid creatures from their Warhammer 40,000 tabletop franchise. More specifically, the Carnifex variant.
Goal:
The purpose of this thread is to receive constructive critique, tips, tricks, morale boosting pats on the back, and/or good-natured abuse.
The goal of the Carnifex is to model it to completion and polypaint it. Then lighting and rendering.
Tools:
Maya, ZBrush and Photoshop.
Reference:
Below is a picture of the model in question and also the Carnifex configuration I will be using. The plastic model has several variations of "equipment" you can use when building it for tabletop warfare.
Setup:
I have purchased the actual plastic model and am/will be using them as reference material via photos, measuring tape, and staring at them in my hand with a perplexed expression.
Workflow:
I will take one of the plastic pieces, use the reference material to create an accurate low polygon scaffold in Maya, then transfer it to ZBrush for the first sculpting pass.
Then I move on to the next piece and continue in this manner until all the pieces are complete.
After all the pieces are assembled in ZBrush (and mesh connected) the second sculpting pass, aka Detailing, will commence when I have the whole picture so to speak.
Comic Sans! The font of the gods.
Experience:
I have zero experience in ZBrush and sculpting. I have more or less been a Maya polygon guy. But I must say, sculpting has proven to be much more fun then manipulating vertices in Maya. So much result, so fast. Its great.
Any critique on my workflow or sculpting would be very appreciated.
Some like to start with simpler things, but I have found that, for me personally, starting with something complicated works the best because it forces me to constantly look up how to do certain things and this usually gets lodged in my brain better then other methods I tried.
Screaming at the screen in rage may release some chemical that makes it easier to remember is my guess.
Warhammer 40,000 items have been a bit of a tradition for me to model when I learn new 3D software.
Years and years back, I started with 3D Studio Max, and created a Tau Gunship.
For Maya it was a Basilisk.
And now with ZBrush I have a Carnifex.
Although, to be honest, I have large parts of the Carnifex scaffold already completed in Maya. This is the result of an old modeling try I did purely in Maya around 8 years ago.
But I burned out on it because polygon modeling something as uuuh... 'shapely' as the Carnifex made my head spin and my soul drain into the floor.
But in ZBrush with a wacom, the process becomes much more artistic and more importantly, fun.
In conclusion:
Thank you for reading thus far and I hope I will be able create something faithful to the Tyranid source material and interesting for you fellow forumites to see, all the while broadening my knowledge of sculpting.
Greetings my good Sirs and Mesdames!
Welcome to my first Polycount thread and post. Thank you for having me.
Synopsis:
This thread will showcase my ongoing 3D work on one of Games Workshops Tyranid creatures from their Warhammer 40,000 tabletop franchise. More specifically, the Carnifex variant.
Goal:
The purpose of this thread is to receive constructive critique, tips, tricks, morale boosting pats on the back, and/or good-natured abuse.
The goal of the Carnifex is to model it to completion and polypaint it. Then lighting and rendering.
Tools:
Maya, ZBrush and Photoshop.
Reference:
Below is a picture of the model in question and also the Carnifex configuration I will be using. The plastic model has several variations of "equipment" you can use when building it for tabletop warfare.
Setup:
I have purchased the actual plastic model and am/will be using them as reference material via photos, measuring tape, and staring at them in my hand with a perplexed expression.
Workflow:
I will take one of the plastic pieces, use the reference material to create an accurate low polygon scaffold in Maya, then transfer it to ZBrush for the first sculpting pass.
Then I move on to the next piece and continue in this manner until all the pieces are complete.
After all the pieces are assembled in ZBrush (and mesh connected) the second sculpting pass, aka Detailing, will commence when I have the whole picture so to speak.
Comic Sans! The font of the gods.
Experience:
I have zero experience in ZBrush and sculpting. I have more or less been a Maya polygon guy. But I must say, sculpting has proven to be much more fun then manipulating vertices in Maya. So much result, so fast. Its great.
Any critique on my workflow or sculpting would be very appreciated.
Some like to start with simpler things, but I have found that, for me personally, starting with something complicated works the best because it forces me to constantly look up how to do certain things and this usually gets lodged in my brain better then other methods I tried.
Screaming at the screen in rage may release some chemical that makes it easier to remember is my guess.
Warhammer 40,000 items have been a bit of a tradition for me to model when I learn new 3D software.
Years and years back, I started with 3D Studio Max, and created a Tau Gunship.
For Maya it was a Basilisk.
And now with ZBrush I have a Carnifex.
Although, to be honest, I have large parts of the Carnifex scaffold already completed in Maya. This is the result of an old modeling try I did purely in Maya around 8 years ago.
But I burned out on it because polygon modeling something as uuuh... 'shapely' as the Carnifex made my head spin and my soul drain into the floor.
But in ZBrush with a wacom, the process becomes much more artistic and more importantly, fun.
In conclusion:
Thank you for reading thus far and I hope I will be able create something faithful to the Tyranid source material and interesting for you fellow forumites to see, all the while broadening my knowledge of sculpting.
Replies
Below is the first piece that has been completed. It is the Carnifex's Tail, hip and what I guess is its abdomen all rolled into one.
It still lacks a good detailing and a few adjustments have to be made to the backplates area.
Not fully satisfied with what I started calling the waste disposal ports the Carnifex has on its sides (the 5 holes).
Will refine the shapes of that area further down the line before I do the second sculpt pass. But for now I will go on to the next piece and revisit with fresh eyes later on.
The pictures below are setup with the plastic reference photo first, then the low poly Maya scaffold, then the result of my first sculpting pass.
Next up will be the legs.
EDIT: Edited the size of the pictures to something larger.
Now this was made entirely in Maya without any sculpting tools. Just ordinary polygon tools available back in 2007.
It will make a good scaffold for ZBrush.
Please keep us up dated
Thank you! Here is a quick render of the two body pieces together while I work on the leg.
On a related note, I have discovered as I learn ZBrush how I can cheat more and more with the poly scaffold in Maya.
No continuous merged mesh needed, Dynamesh will fix it. No good topology needed, ZRemesher will fix it, hehehe. This is resulting in faster progress. Neat.
The other thing I was going to say is that the sculpting on the pelvic ribs is sort of mushing out the nice cylindrical forms. To avoid this on my tyranid I tried to keep most of the longer stretchy lines on each rib towards the "joints" of the ribs and smoothing out near the center.
Looking forward to more! The attention to detail on the original model makes me happy.
PS your username sounds very familiar...Were you a regular on TTH? Maybe I'm thinking of Westrider...
Thank you for your kind praise! [Morale +2]
Yea, I agree about the teeth. I will improve the teeth when I get to the head, most definitely.
When you say the 'pelvic ribs' do you mean the skeleton like structure on the bottom of the tail or referencing the cartilage latticework that protects the abdomen area?
The Tyranids are such a hodgepodge of parts, hehe.
Thank you! Yes, I am just doing a loose first sculpt to more or less learn the program and give the whole model a rough first sculpt before I do any fine work or corrections. That way I can get a good overview and maybe be able to balance and refine it from a better perspective then finishing each part separately. Is my theory anyway.
On the topic of the Carnifex I have come across a ZBrush issue maybe you guys here in the forum could help with.
I wish to integrate the various armor plates of the Tyranid has into the mesh. However, I tried tuning dynamesh and no matter how many polys, it fuses the space between the overlapping plates solid, making that little space between the plates disappear. Which is a shame because I kind of like the effect of having it.
I am probably obsessing to much over this problem as I could probably sculpt in the space manually later. But if an easier way exists, please advise!
Thanks! I will most likely end up doing just that.
Oh? What have they done to the Fantasy branch?
I had some oral surgery done on an impacted wisdom tooth and had it removed. I have been out of commission for almost a week and just taking it easy. Just have to do it one more time in a month or so, hurray...
A small update with some rough leg sculpting.
A bit lumpy, still getting a feel for the shapes. The problem is that the plastic piece is just more or less vague "alien" shapes in that area that do not really mean anything, so I tried re-imagining it just teeny bit into muscle/tendon (or whatever the heck a biomechanical alien terror now uses).
I will refine their shapes more/better when I actually attach the leg to the hip.
As you can see below, the plastic piece uses the shapes to highten the "alien'ness" of the skin I think, instead of anything that might be influencing below it.
Im not sure if I should try to replicate it more faithfully or if my small liberty with the source is more in accordance of what it might be.
I will work on it some more and see how it shapes up.