New to 3D. Some directions on achieving Bloodborne/DS 3d creature style?

Duermeduerme

Hi! I'm new to 3d and this will be my first post on the forum, so please bear with me if im a bit blank in regards to the basics.
It's been two months since I started learning 3d modeling on my own. Creature design has always been a big passion of mine however it was a bit of a side thing cause I wanted to pour more time into music, hence why i never got around 3d stuff and just stuck to illustration when I felt the need to create monsters. It was 2 months ago that I realized I have more chances of making a living out of one of my passions if I do 3d and not music...and so I decided to start sculpting on zbrush.

My experience so far is that the sculpting process Is way more fun than I thought It'd be, and i love it so much that it's making it difficult for me to find time for other stuff. So far i've leaned more on the artsy/visual side of 3d, I havent worried at all about retopology, following a set pipeline or creating a realistic/anatomically corrent creature. I've only used zbrush for the sculpting and polypaint. Here are 2 of the models im most proud of:




I've also learned to rig the model to a bone armature in Blender and animate it, I even made a experimental music video with one of those animations!
Here's an example of a basic walking animation I did last night (i know it's not realistic or perfect but Its something im proud of):


That's as far as I go, I know how to sculpt in zbrush and rig/animate in blender. I'm planning to get into substance designer and learn how to properly retopologize because those two seem to be pretty relevant in the videogame character creation pipeline(retopo is basically essential i know :P).
Here's where I ask the question:

Could you guys give me some directions on achieving a similar monster design to those found in bloodborne/ dark souls? The reason why i mention those two especifically is because I've seen a lot of people online differenciate between Blizzard/Riot's stylistic's designs and a more realistic one, but I feel like this would be more of a middle ground. I'm super interested in how they manage to make them look so dirty and putrid.
Also, what'd be a good practice for me to improve my process and eventually be able to create a propper portfolio to send out? Should I focus on creating the creatures from concept art to finished and rigged 3d model? or should I instead try smaller projects?

Looking forward to seeing your answers, I hope this can be a good start.
Have a nice day and thanks in advance!

Alex_J

1. Just don't quit. Computer work can be frustrating and all artist are insecure. That's just how it is!

2. Your most important tool is google. There isn't a question you will ask that google doesn't have an answer for. In fact, you very first question is something that has been discussed by many people at many times and in many places. I'd recommend spending a few days just mulling over all the advice passed on to others with the same question. That will be more useful than just a handful of responses to a single thread. Don't settle for a little bit of knowledge. Find all of the knowledge. All of it!

3.  To begin with, I'd put aside personal taste projects and focus instead on general learning. Try a litlte bit of everything, you never know what you might get into.

And cool creature by the way. Just wait until a year from now, when you have a lot of practice and knowledge. You are going to make some awesome shit.

musashidan

Duermeduerme said:

 I havent worried at all about  creating a realistic/anatomically corrent creature.



Could you guys give me some directions on achieving a similar monster design to those found in bloodborne/ dark souls? The reason why i mention those two especifically is because I've seen a lot of people online differenciate between Blizzard/Riot's stylistic's designs and a more realistic one, but I feel like this would be more of a middle ground. I'm super interested in how they manage to make them look so dirty and putrid.

Glad you're loving sculpting in Zbrush. You have a lot of fun ahead if you maintain that passion.

The reason I've picked out your 2 quotes above is that the first is the key to success in sculpting creatures, and the second is that you can bet your life that those artists who created those creatures have extensive anatomy knowledge.

Don't worry too much right now about copying a specific style you admire. This will only bog you down and may lead to frustration. My advice is to concentrate solely on sculpting, and getting comfortable with the tools by doing what I call 'sketch sculpting'. Not quite speedsculpting as you should spend several hours on each sculpt. Just grab a single reference image off Google and do your best to train your eye to pick up on things like form, silhouette, angle breaks, relative distance of features, etc. Start with just a bust sculpt.

Then when you've done a few of these and have more confidence you can look into anatomy. No matter the fantasy/sci-fi creature you're creating it will be 100% grounded in real-world creature anatomy. Realising this will push your designs to the next level.