(Graduation Project) Making Boulivet Alexis' Tibet Dragon [WIP]

KaSonnTang

For my graduation project I wanted to work from a concept and I chose Tibet Dragon by Boulivet Alexis. I will try and update this as much as possible, but at least once every end of the week. Would love to get whatever feedback small or big.

This is the reference - 

As this character is quite exaggerated and stylized and is covered in clothes, I had to start with a super quick paintover to get a general feel for where things lie.

I started from sphere instead of a base mesh to practice more on anatomy and proportions, keeping everything nice and low poly so I can easily to any major changes. Using photos and Anatomy for Sculptors as my main references outside of this concept.

As I started to get kind of happy with the proportions, I continued on more details around the body and face. I also did some quick and dirty placeholder blockouts of the key elements of the silhouette and character to see if everything fits.

Alex_J

Before you go hog wild with sculpting you might find it worthwhile to really double check the proportions thoroughly. To do that you can export model from zbrush and do a quick rig (or just pose manually using soft-select) and put her into various poses. Check those out from many angles wherever you'll do the final render.

It will suck if you spend like 20 hours sculpting and then realize that when you put her in a key pose and view her in unreal or where ever it looks a bit off.

I think you might end up needing to elongate her legs and shorten torso a little bit, as well and reduce the width of her torso.

KaSonnTang

Oh didn't think of that! For sure, i'll quickly do a zsphere rig and see if it looks right posed.

KaSonnTang

With the feedback I got from my mentor, and I totally forgot this step, was to do a silhouette paint over where I broke off each major piece to help me better visualize the concept into 3d.

I also changed the proportions around making the ribcage and the overall torso smaller and the legs longer. To compensate I had to make the arms a bit longer as well. My plan moving forward will be as people have told me, to start blocking out all the key elements, using them as measurements for each other so everything will look right, instead of staying on the high poly sculpt around the body.

KaSonnTang

Never though much about this before as I never fully have worked from a reference picture. So when I get a lot of conflicting details I didn't know what to do, or try and mash them together to make it work. I got some good feedback on choosing what to ditch or what to do add (mainly shoes details and belt) has been a great help for me going forward on blocking out the armour pieces.

KaSonnTang

This week's progress

KaSonnTang

After struggling with the shoes, today I've gotten a lot farther with making the clothes, redoing the shoulder which will get scaled right tomorrow, wrist straps, gourd and armour.

KaSonnTang

Finishing my low poly stage of this character, so I did a quick posed version to see any major differences between the two so I could change them before going forward.

KaSonnTang

Was satisfied with all my blockout and started with the clothes fold

KaSonnTang

Changed the fold on the arms, legs, vest with better reference. Moved the sleeves further up to better match the reference. Changed face a little.

KaSonnTang

Haven't had as much time to work these pass 2 days, but am finished the armguard and also making the dragon head shoulder again, but more accurate to the concept but also making it work within a game setting

KaSonnTang

Continuing adding details to the blockouts

KaSonnTang

Forgot to before leaving for christmas break, but have been working on the hair and finished the jade belt buckle

KaSonnTang

Continued on the hair, finished the back belt jade piece, shoes, shoulder chest armor, armguards, crown, gourd, flaps

KaSonnTang

Have been going onto overdrive to try and finish the sculpt asap. While I was polishing and putting the finishing touch, got a lot of feedback around the belt buckle and the dragon shoulder needing work, so changed those. Also hard to interpret how the knots on the ornaments worked, so had to find some life reference and changed the design on those to the chinese flower knot. Missing fixing the face and wanting to pose the 1 arm holding the sword as the folds are very different if I would do it later.

zetheros

are you sculpting in orthographic mode? All of your screenshots are in ortho. Don't forget to change to perspective mode, vice versa.

The shoes look a bit big. Good luck!

KaSonnTang

I did work a bit in perspective mode as well but when you mention it, I was 100% not enough. Will keep that in mind for the next sculpt!

KaSonnTang

With the little time left I had to go into overdrive and finished the retop, test bakes and unwrapping uv. Still missing sorting the uv's and hardening edges that are needed. But with the bake set up I can quickly go onto the next step once sorting is done.

KaSonnTang

Haven't been able to work too much on my project due to moving to another city. But have set up the base diffuse of the character and also painted the skin and head

KaSonnTang

With a lot of things happening with moving and getting ready for my internship, this was what I was able to do before the hand in. Will of course continue on this while working and get it to a satisfactory level, especially want to get better at painting the metal and jade. Going to continue this thread until it is done, hope anyone who is following will drop their feedback!

KaSonnTang

Forgot to continue on this post. But got it done for The Rookies 2024. 
Breakdown: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/04yXlG

I learned so much from this project, and also got a lot of good feedback that I will bring to my next piece