My Entry: Undying and Lifestealer scene

Txeroki75

Hello all!

If I got it right, this is the place to post the WIP for my entry, so here it goes

What I'd like to do is make a scene in which the Undying and the Lifestealer relate and pose together in a surrounding that will be based on /inspired by the following image:



To a certain degree, more or less I am not sure yet. 

So far I have only done the setup for the ZBrush files of the characters:




Excited to participate in the contest here on Polycount, can't wait to see what the other contestants do. I look forward to the critiques there may be on my WIP as well ofcourse

I'll be back soon with more updates!!

Jeronimo Martinez

https://txeroki.artstation.com/

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/jeronimomartinez3d

athomitron

Nice! I'm excited to see how it goes

Txeroki75

Hey! Thanks!

So, as for todays WIP, I've just blocked in the rough shapes and proportions of the Lifestealer model.

 Nothing pretty at all yet!! Just a rough block in of volumes and structures off of which I'll refine the model progressively.

Mason_Colderson

Why not just use the in-game files instead?

Txeroki75

Mason_Colderson said:

Why not just use the in-game files instead?

I thought it was a sculpting contest, and that one of the judging criteria is supposed to be the sculptural quality of the model, as well as creativity/originality, so I figured one would have to sculpt the model oneself instead of using pre-existing files. So yeah, I'll bother and do my own model and sculpt.  Plus the whole idea of us having to do a WIP post is to prove we are not using premade models but are making our own (since it would be a requirement to make your own model).

Regardless, I always sculpt and paint my own models from scratch for 3D printing Dota2 stuff on Shapeways.

Txeroki75

Further WIP:







Still at fairly low res (more or less 500k points), I've started to give the model more draft and roughly flesh it out a bit with a sort of very basic ecorche approach, except for where he'll have pants on since there the muscle and bone detail won't poke through. It figures since he is almost a walking (crawling rather) ecorche himself

I'll refine it further at higher res, (it's still very crunchy in places) and will smooth things out at higher res in order to not obliterate the detail completely. Then I'll add the assymetrical detail (he is very assymetrical) and I'll probably do the teeth as Insert meshes.

Txeroki75

Some more WIP screens:





Added the clothes and worked mostly on the head and face. I finally eneded up pulling the teeth out of the same mesh instead of inserting them. I will further detail the union of these with the face as well as add more details further on to the face.

Next I reckon I'll work on the rest of the body so it starts reflecting his assimetrical rib/bone and flesh exposure through his flailed and shredded skin

Txeroki75

Here's some more WIP:





I've mainly worked on the torso, as well as arms and lower legs to define the "holes" in his skin revealing the underlying bone and muscle. I'll refine this a bit more further on. So far I've pretty much ignored the hands and feet, which will get the needed attention soon.

3dari

What do you intend to print this in?
Plastic? Sandstone?

looking forward to seeing the final result!

Txeroki75

@ 3dari:

Hey there! That's great to hear!

As for the intended material I'll go for what I usually do, which is fullcolor sandstone, since I'll also give the model a paint job in ZBrush and convert that to a texture file. But in the end if I see I get too many issues with thickness in some areas, I might opt for another material which has a lower minimum wall thickness to make sure I can submit it for the contest. But I'll do all I can to get it done for colored sandstone. Yes, it will lose detail compared to plastic but then there's the color

Here's some further WIP:





Next I'll basically go up one more subdivision level and give it all a good one over and add some details here and there.

It's currently lacking a bit of resolution in areas of the face so I will give the face a good refinement and detail  pass on the next subdiv level.

Txeroki75

So for now I'm gonna call the sculpting of the Lifestealer done:









I'll add a tongue further on, as well as chains, when I pose him for the final scene. Next, I'll either start giving him a paintjob or I'll start sculpting the other character, "The Undying", we'll see

Txeroki75

So I just started to block in the Undying character, still very low resolution and in need of refinement, but I think his proportions and main body structures are there:

Txeroki75

Today I just started blocking out roughly the different pieces of clothes/armor (combining masks, extract and Zmodeler brush). Still some pieces left to do tomorrow

Txeroki75

Finished creating the rest of the separate armor/cothes pieces (rough block-ins). They will be detailed and refined at a later stage.

Txeroki75

Today I just went over the body at the second subdiv level adding some detail here and there, defining some of the lines further and blocking out a face. Next I'll go up one more subdiv level and refine the face, as well as create some of the details like the navel and those stitches on his abdomen, etc.

Plus, I also revamped my UI colors!

slocik

Wait, arent you doing undying in his ultimate form, maybe risings  tomb between them?
Then again whole thing might get too complicated with adidtional multiple objects.

Anyway, undy wins early game, ls easily does what he wants when he gets few items.

Txeroki75

Went up a level on the body and added details, fleshed out some areas like the hands, feet and face too. I think one more pass on the body is in order before I move on to the armor refinement and detailing.

Txeroki75

slocik said:

Wait, arent you doing undying in his ultimate form, maybe risings  tomb between them?
Then again whole thing might get too complicated with adidtional multiple objects.

Anyway, undy wins early game, ls easily does what he wants when he gets few items.

Hey there!

I had to make a decision between Undying in his normal form or doing the Flesh Golem, but for what I have in mind I think just regular Undying will be better. Gotta try not to overcomplicate as well since I have to put the 2 together along with some (dire) scenery and get it done before the deadline so I'll just stick with  my current idea, which will be revealed further on when I pose the characters together

Anyway, I'm liking the regular undying so far, he's not dissapointing me.

As for the game, I play now and then, and especially try out a character that I plan to sculpt before I sculpt it, but I'm no expert player so I couldn't tell which is better when..I just try not to do too bad each match So I've played both Lifestealer and Undying recently, but since I'm pretty much a noob I didn't do so well. I think I liked Lifestealer better tho..

Txeroki75

Finalizing the sculpting phase of the Undying character (will make some adjustments for better printability once I make a test upload to Shapeways, and besides that I'll work the teeth a bit better, possibly also do some work on the inside of the mouth which is pretty plain atm

Txeroki75

Just started to work on the scenery, namely the Dire Tower, just very roughly blocked in the major elements which I will further refine as I go:







It's currently missing the bottom assymetrical part, which I haven't started yet. The tower along with some rocks and a base for the whole thing will make up the scenery for the entire sculpt. Once I have it together I will then pose and place the characters.

Txeroki75

Further work on the Dire Tower:



Still a bit more to do on it, like move some things around and accentuatte certain planes/structures, which I will do next.

slocik

Dunno about the tower it feels soft and wonky, i would just split it into parts. I dont get this working from 1 piece workflow, its ok for blocking out, but awful and time wasting for final polish.
Just start with a square made into polymesh, pick the insert primitive or insert cube brush if you are on older zbrush version and keep adding and resizing cubes into it to match the shapes of the 1 piece sketch as a separate subtool
The idea is to get those harsh changes in form that make it feel like its made out of multiple rocks or as sculpted rocks that really hard to get by hand using zbrush tools. 
Just do it as fast as possible, quick fast big move tool and transpose changes, confident strokes with no messing around, you can this way do work in 10 minutes that will take you 2 hours sculpting and going over every part with polish brushesh.
Ironically i dont use this process myself but i always wanted it how Cedric Seat works artstation.com/ced66 

Basically simillar to what you did on armor but you dont do any real work on it, the point for it to look blocky and only the dynamesh and go in with hipolish or trim dynamic or better yet trim trim smooth border with a square alpha to block in the detail.

Txeroki75

Hey!

Yeah, I agree that at the stage it is at the moment it doesn't look good yet. I still haven't finished the refinement process, by which I intend for it to look much more blocky and stonelike. Thanks tho for the technique suggestion. I just guess the way I've blocked it out is more starightforward for me.

At this point I have just used clay, clay buildup and trim dynamic, in order to get my basic planes/ faceting. Once I have these I will accentuate them to make the edges pop and emphasize the change in planes, mainly by going over them with a special standard brush I use (from the sk brushes) and then using the hPolish brush on the facets and along each side of the edges. I will also do a lot of moving, especially on the "ribs" that are on the sides, so they get a more rocky/blocky and less round feel.

I do have the base as a separate piece though and have put it through the aforementioned process. Let's see how the tower ends up once it has caught up to the base and then I'll evaluate what more could or should be done to it to make it look better. I will definitely be open to any suggestions as to what to do to it from that point on in order to improve it.

Thanks!

Txeroki75

Did some more polishing:





Next I'll do some more tweaks here and there as well as add a few details in the form of cracks, etc.

Txeroki75

Did my last bit of refinement and detailing on the Dire Tower, which to me is looking good now:



Added a floor-base:



And put the characters into the scene to get a sense of relative scale and initial placement prior to posing them, which will be the next step:



Here they are in different materials too:







And probably my favorite, gold:





Still to do is adding chains and a tongue to the Lifestealer, besides posing them and ultimately painting them so there can be a fullcolor version. But if that gives too much trouble I will always fall back on just strong and flexible plastic. I have already exported each model to shapeways to test their printablility and so far plastic is fully green lighted. Sandstone has some very little spots here and there on both characters that are just a little bit suspect and always come up no matter how much I iterate the models (tips of the fingers and teeth, etc, some of the edges of the armor) but they don't look like they should reasonably be a deal breaker in terms of printability, it's just the automatic checks determine these areas to be suspect. 

I am also keeping the tower at 20cm tall since that is the max bounding box for premium plastic, as well as keeping the base 15cm in diameter for the same reason, so that that material may be available once I publish the product. The two characters are at the sizes they need to be in order to make all their elements fully printable atleast in plastic for sure and likely in sandstone as well. So, yes, they seem a little bit big in regards to the tower but I'm sizing them like this for the abovementioned reasons, plus I think it looks good like this without the tower "towering" too much over the characters.

Txeroki75

So this is my posing of the characters for now, still missing the Lifestealer chains and tongue. My idea is to have this uploaded as a multipart product (Tower, Undying, Lifestealer and Base would be the 4 parts).

I have a question if anyone out there would be able to answer: would it be good enough to just recommend the parts be glued on to the base or would I definitely have to add pegs to unite the parts to the base? Thinking of it from a post-production point of view when a buyer gets the parts and has to assemble them...

Txeroki75

So I've added the chains/collar/spikes/shackles to the Lifestealer and given him a tongue. I know it's quite creative but I think it suits him well and after all you get points for creativity here. Needless to say I was listening to the Rolling Stones while I modelled it Next I'll do a detail pass on the newly added pieces.

Txeroki75

So I've been starting the texturing part and so far have polypainted the Lifestealer (about 95% done, still need to add certain details) and so far I'm quite happy (maybe because I just upgraded to ZBrush 2018!):

Txeroki75

Calling the Lifestealer painting done:

Txeroki75

Finished painting the Tower and Base:



By the way Happy 20th Polycount!

Txeroki75

My progress so far on the Undying paint job:





They armor and clothes are done, as well as the face. The rest of the body just has several colors blocked in.

Txeroki75

Finished (atleast as far as I'm concerned) the paint job on the Undying. And here is what the painted scene looks like:



Might still make some last minute changes tho. Besides that, now I'll process the textures and the parts for printing (hollowing out as much as I can and adding pegs for atleast the tower) I'm hoping the characters might get away with being glued. Anybody got any thoughts about that? I'd appreciate any pointers about that

Txeroki75

Ok, I've created UVs and projected the polypaint into texture files for the different parts. I've also hollowed out each part to drastically reduce the costs.

But since it now seems that we have to keep the printing costs below 250$ (tho I am sure that when I started this two months ago in the prizes all it said was Wacom tablet, ZBrush core, 100$ printing credit and trophy, not that the entry itself was to be printed within a certain budget....), despite hollowing everything, the sum of the two characters plus the tower is just a few bucks under 250, which leaves no room for the floor (base).

What I have done instead is create dowel-like pegs that are united by struts in order to ensure the 3 sculptures play together and stay upright. They are also hollowed, but the cost unfortunately is about 20$, raising the whole thing about 15$ over the max. What I would like to know is if, as it stands now, this would disqualify my entry (which I have been working on for 2 months), or if there may be some lee-way with the 250$ limit...hell if it's 15$ over, I'll pay the difference in case my entry won (not thinking it should or will win, but just speaking for eligibility purposes here) if that's necessary, just don't disqualify my entry from being eligible because of that, especially when nothing in the rules as they were at the beginning of the contest implied any sort of restraints in order to print the winning entry (as far as I remember). Meaning that I would have planned for it if it weren't changed once we were over halfway through the contest and had already almost finished...



I would love some clarification to that regard, although so far I have not received any answer to this or any of my queries posted neither in my submission nor in the general contest section ....... feeling really cold and lonely here.......

What I will also do in order to ensure my work doesn't completely get scrapped is post more entries for each character by itself and with the intended floor as a base, since those will fit in the dough constraints, and the Dire tower I will try to complement with a Radiant tower and match them up in another entry, I just hope that I still have enough time for making the Radiant tower at this point....

Txeroki75

I have now hollowed out all the parts and they are almost at the 250$ limit without the floor, so I am taking it out and replacing it with a simple stand that connects the dowels I have made to be inserted into the characters feet and the tower base in order to keep them together and standing up.

 I was previously confused about the sum of the costs due to the fact that I am in Europe and on the "my models" page on Shapeways the costs show up including the 21% VAT tax;  I hadn't realized it included the VAT, which obviously doesn't count for the cost limit, so I am relieved because I thought that my entry, even with the stand replacing the original floor, was over budget and therefore not eligible for a hipothetical win. But deducting the VAT it's around 220$ so it's all good.



So this is what the final scene will be, pending a final quality render

Txeroki75

Ok, I have tried by all means to upload all the parts as one product but since each piece is decimated to the minimum necessary for each of them to be uploaded separately with the 64Mb limit Shapeways has, and I don't want to decimate the pieces any further and destroy them so they all fit in a 64Mb .zip, I have been advised by service@shapeways to make a product of each one separately and link the the rest of them in the description, which is what I have done and I hope is ok with the judges and they understand that it is meant to be 1 scene altogether.

So the name of the scene and entry is:

Dire Tower Guard Duty.

"As the radiant forces march up the lane towards the tower, it's ferocious guardians prepare to meet them in battle."

Here are the product pages:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/DXMGQVY6L/diretowerguardduty-diretower?optionId=65254678

https://www.shapeways.com/product/RXLBK4T68/dire-tower-guard-duty-lifestealer?optionId=65254690

https://www.shapeways.com/product/YBHN4J5SK/dire-tower-guard-duty-undying?optionId=65254711

https://www.shapeways.com/product/CAP342WSQ/diretowerguardduty-stand?optionId=65254810

I will soon be uploading the Final render.

Txeroki75

Here is the main Final Render (Keyshot and Affinity Designer):