Dragon bust
polycounter lvl 6
First time I try doing a dragon bust. It's based on a L.D. Austin sketch.
Wanted to do this for so long I would be curious to know what you think about it
Wanted to do this for so long I would be curious to know what you think about it
Replies
@HarlequinWerewolf Yes of course ! It's quite simple actually. And very organic.
I started with simple spheres and sketched things using dynamesh. Once I was happy with what I got I did a first very rough retopo with zremesher.
After that I used some vdm brushes to create breakups and bigger details like horns or the back, using lots of layers and morphTraget so I can erase things I don't want. Once that's done I did a cleaner retopo which is my final topology.
I then used a mix of vdm and alphas to create midd and smaller details. Using formSoft, damstandard and inflate brush to enhance what I got from the alphas. That's quite important because alphas only will look flat.
Also try not using too much alphas to keep things consistant. The head for example is 2 alphas and 1 vdm brush used with different size. Back is 1 alpha and 1 vdm brush (for the spikes in the middle).
Last step for the sculpting part was to break symmetry here and the, using the same process than for smaller details.
Just need to mention that it took me a lot of experimenting to find how I wanted the details to look like, which is why using layers was super important. I restarted the back 3-4 times at least
All the main steps look like this. Main shapes => Bigger Details/form breakups => Mid and smaller details
For the texturing, it's basically layering colors on top of each others. I had a concept to work from so I already had the colors and a rough idea of what it should look like. But the principle is the same than sculpting, going from big to small.
I started getting the main colors in Zbrush with polypaint. Exported what I got to substance as a base and worked from there to get the variations using a all lot of layers. Mostly using the curvature and occlusion maps to mask areas.
And voila
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions. And good luck with Artwar, it's a really fun contest
Yeah layers are super usefull but I have to force myself to use them otherwise I forger as well ahah