Zbrush

I've been playing with Zbrush all weekend. Here are the best results. I also re-sculpted the Bird Queen model that I was working on in Mudbox now that I've got the hang of Zbrush. The results are very different as you can see in the comparison image. It seems like Zbrush has better pressure sensitivity so sculpting in that software is more akin to digital painting where in Mudbox I'm always aware that I'm working on a 3D mesh which likely accounts for the stiffness. A note of interest: I spent twice as long working on the Mudbox version accomplished much less in that time. Hopefully I'll have time to get Buster the spaceman into Zbrush before I finish this project.

Also attached is the new concept art for the Bird Queen. I changed it around so that there would be more sculpted detail than in the original.

One last note: the female bust is based on a somewhat iconic Richard Avedon photo of Jacqueline de Ribes.

Buster (Just about done)

Here are some beauty shots of Buster. There are a few little things with the normal map that I want to clean up and some small details in his face and body, but this is pretty close to the finished vision. My goal was to combine the diffuse, spec, and bump maps in a way that somewhat "realistically" simulates many different kinds of materials.

More textures for Buster.

Been working on his suit and jetpack. Having a lot of fun with bump & spec maps (plus dialing in the blinn settings).

Buster's Colors (A Start)

Heres the first shots of Buster painted up. I've painted his face and hair, the body and jetpack are up next. Also tested out the normal map transfer for his body... a lot of artifacts are showing up that I have to figure out.

Buster's Hands

Did some work on his hands. Still need to tighten the design up, his fingers are losing a lost of volume from all the sculpting.

Successful Normal Map transfer

Here's my progress on Buster. Spent a few hours on hardening the angles in his hair and on his body. Also tried exporting a Normal Map to a low-poly mesh and am pretty happy with how the results are reading in Maya. There are a few artifacts I have to work out, but otherwise it looks much higher-poly than it is.

Buster Updates

Got some feedback on my model and incorporated some edits on the anatomy as well as a sharpening up of many features to make it more geometric.